Building A Synth On A Breadboard

June 21, 2013 by Brian Benchoff 12 Comments

synth

Building an analog synth is a challenge, but with the [Tymkrs] protosynth, it’s easier than ever. It’s a 25-key keyboard attached to a stack of solderless breadboards to make analog synth prototyping a snap.

Earlier, [Tymkrs] acquired a whole bunch of solderless breadboards and decided to put them to use by making a component-level modular synth. The earlier incarnation tied each key on the keyboard to a few wires behind the breadboard and tied them in to a shift register so they could be read with a Propeller dev board loaded up with a Commodore SID emulator. The new version keeps the very clean through-the-back keyboard connector, but this time the [Tymkrs] are adding a few more components that add a sequencer setup and a rotary encoder.

The eventual goal for this really cool breadboard synth is to explore the world of Moogs, Arps, and other analog synths easily on a breadbaord. The [Tymkrs] have already put together a breadboard-compatible low pass and high pass filter. While there’s still a lot of work to be done to make an analog synth a reality, the [Tymkrs] are off to a great start.

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We Should Build Mandolins And Violas

June 20, 2013 by Brian Benchoff 6 Comments

Lutherie is the art of turning strips of maple and spruce into beautiful stringed instruments like the violin, cello, viola, as well as guitars, mandolins, and banjos. Just about anyone can make an electric guitar on a bandsaw, but the skill and precision of building acoustic instruments is something to stand in awe of.

[Helen Michetschläger] builds violins, violas, and cellos in her hometown of Manchester, each one a work of art. Hardly any of her tools would seem out of place in the workshop of [Stradivarius]; everything is made by hand. The scroll on the neck is carved by hand, the inlaid purfling on the edges of the top and back are cut with a knife, not a router, and even the finish – one of [Helen]’s specialties – is applied with a light touch.

Violins are fine, but for the dulcet tones we enjoy, you’ll need the most beautiful instrument ever created, the mandolin. [Tom Ellis] has been making mandolins for over 40 years. After working in the shop of another accomplished luthier, he struck out on his own to build mandolins.

[Tom] does the tuning and setup on all his mandolins, but there is a bit more machinery involved in the creation of his pieces; quite a bit of the routine stuff (bridges, for example) are milled on a CNC, but each instrument still has a hand-built touch.

There’s much more to the luthier’s art than can be presented in a pair of 6-minute videos, so if you have something else that showcases some of the larger, more difficult instruments such as an archtop guitar or a double bass, send them in. We’ll put them up.

Guitarduino Show And Tell

June 14, 2013 by Mike Szczys 13 Comments

guitarduino-show-and-tell

[Igor Stolarsky] plays in a band called 3’s & Sevens. We’d say he is the Guitarist but since he’s playing this hacked axe we probably should call him the band’s Guitarduinist. Scroll down and listen to the quick demo clip of what he can do with the hardware add-ons, then check out his video explanation of the hardware.

There are several added inputs attached to the guitar itself. The most obvious is the set of colored buttons which are a shield riding on the Arduino board itself. This attaches to his computer via a USB cable where it is controlling his MaxMSP patches. They’re out of the way and act as something of a sample looper which he can then play along with. But look at the guitar body under his strumming hand and you’ll also see a few grey patches. These, along with one long strip on the back of the neck, are pressure sensors which he actuates while playing. The result is a level of seamless integration we don’t remember seeing before. Now he just needs to move the prototype to a wireless system and he’ll be set.

If you don’t have the skills to shred like [Igor] perhaps an automatic chording device will give you a leg up.

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Hand Crafting A Tuba

June 4, 2013 by Caleb Kraft 4 Comments

Brass, beaten and molded can be a thing of beauty. Watch as this craftsman puts together a very nice looking tuba. The tools of the trade in this case are somewhat automated, with that mechanical hammer, but it looks like much of this is still done by hand.

MSP430 Touchscreen Piano

May 5, 2013 by Mike Szczys 9 Comments

msp430-touchscreen-piano

[Rohit Gupta] wrote in to share this touchscreen piano project he built around the TI Launchpad. It provided a way for him to explore using a resistive digitizer found on a lot of mobile devices. These are simply stuck to the top of LCD screens and replacements are inexpensive, but salvaging one from old hardware is an option as well.

The first thing he did was to test the four outputs of the digitizer with his multimeter. Logging the changing resistance will help make sure you’re reading the correct wires and are able to zero in the settings before you start coding. [Rohit] uses the ADC on the MSP430 chip to read from the screen. He went with the algorithm from one of TI’s app notes to convert the readings in to X and Y coordinates.

He separated the screen into seven columns, each generating a different tone. Touching higher or lower on that column will alter the pitch of the note produced. You can hear an example of this in the demo after the jump.

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MIDI Out For A Korg CX-3 Organ

April 27, 2013 by Mike Szczys 5 Comments

midi-out-for-a-vintage-korg-cx-3-organ

[Michael] loves this old organ of his, but recently he wondered if it would be possible to add MIDI out without altering its original functionality. With a bit of research and more than a bit of hard work he accomplished his goal.

The nice thing about working on a quality piece of hardware like this is the resources you can find regarding how they work (which we bet is tailored for how to repair them when they break). [Michael] found a website with plenty of info on the circuit boards and how they work. From this he was able to locate a few chips which stream serial data regarding which keys have been pressed. Bingo!

Once he located the three signals he was after he built a board to translate them to the MIDI protocol. His circuit is based around an ATtiny2313. It is supported by a liner voltage regulator circuit as well as a buffer chip which converts the incoming signals to the 5V levels needed. His home etched board is clean and well mounted, and the success of the project can be heard in the clip after the jump.

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Automatic Tubular Bells Given A MIDI Interface Too

April 22, 2013 by Mike Szczys 18 Comments

automatic-tubular-bells

We’ve got to say it… these tubular bells sound awful! They don’t really have a tight pitch center so they sound really out of tune to us. But we think that’s the failing of the instrument itself and not the work which [Tolaemon] did to automate the instrument.

There are three main parts to his project. The first, which is shown above, adds a hammer for each bell. The hammers are hinged, with one side being pulled by a solenoid in order to strike the bell. The second part of the hack also uses solenoids, dampening the bell’s ability to ring by pressing a felt pad up against the bottom of the tube. The final portion of the project brings it all home by adding MIDI control to the hardware.

The clip after the break gives a good overview of the different features including some preprogrammed playback as well as direct control of the instrument using an electric keyboard. This reminds us of that scratch-built solenoid xylophone.

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