Whilst locked in a fierce battle with a misbehaving VCA which refuses to cooperate with my attempts to give it a release control once prompeted with a pulse wave, I had an idea for a separate, more simple synthesiser than my initial plans.

Containing several oscillators outputting to a stereo summing amp via VCAs, each VCA clocked by a different square wave oscillator, (seeing any similarities here…?) I aim to create a variety of alarm-like noises. Then by adding a stereo spring reverb inside the unit, with send pots for each oscillator (post VCA) and also several LPFs, I will have generated a burglary simulator: the sound of being inside some large unwelcoming complex that has detected your presence within it as anomalous. Users can perform with it by bringing alarms closer and further away with the reverb, creating a virtual space that can only be accessed via the ears. I find this concept very interesting, as it can then be performed in a variety of ways. An alarm could sound very faintly from deep inside the complex, lots of filtering, lots of reverb, and then another could sound, closer, louder, less filtered. This could continue, and the alarms could shift and move in ways that makes the space seem non-euclidean

This varies from my original concept simply by the addition of a spring reverb+VCFs and the simplification of the VCAs, but seems to transform the concept entirely, making it a lot more ‘sound arts’ in the process. The only thing needed now, is to buy a spring reverb. Perhaps when payday hits……

The manner in which I am building circuits is slightly sideways: I don’t have a comprehensive electrical engineering background, and instead have been slowly filling that knowledge in through youtube, dusty archaeic 2000s forums (some more up-to-date forums too) and books (although not too many of those really. Haven’t got round to it much, although the ones I have read have bore a lot of fruit). This results, 99% of the time, in circuits that are poorly designed and lacking isolation from eachother. I.e, they operate in myserious ways. This results in two things, detailed over the next two paragraphs.

The first is that electronics and the process of making things work is mystical and magical to me. I find explanations of things online, circuit diagrams here and there, little tidbits of knowledge, but it never seems like a solid grasp of the concepts is really attainable because as soon as it feels like things are starting to be in any way predictable, I’ll wire something up and it will do something wildly left-field that I simply cannot account for. This initially seems like it would be a real turn-off for the budding synth builder, but instead it ignites this feeling inside of me that I’m tampering with some otherworldly forces, that I’m trying to turn lead into gold, that there are wizards out there who just ‘get’ these circuits and could point out the flaws in my designs in a heartbeat. Electronics seems only half grounded in logic and reason, and partly grounded in some alchemy-style half-science of bubbling potions and smoking, crackling resistors. Of course this is some playful pretend mindset that I sometimes adopt, and most of the time when something unexpected happens (especially when I am expecting something to happen and then nothing happens) it is unfathomably frustrating. But when things suddenly go my way after hours of trial and error and writing everything down, and the electrons all wiggle just correctly it feels as though some god has reached down and touched my forehead, that I have been chosen for just a couple of minutes to have this bundle of wires and components infront of me finally work in some capacity.

The second occurance, one more practically grounded and with far less conceptual, lofty daydreamings is that connecting circuits in such an amateurish manner results in strange cross-modulation. The lack of buffering, of proper power supply regulation and probably numerous other conventions of audio electronics to which I am blissfully ignorant results in certain parts of the circuit affecting others in unexpected manners. Think of the lowpass gate, which aims (in some use-cases) to mimic the natural decay of acoustically generated audio which decays in both volume and frequency response at the same time. Some of my circuits seem to do similar things; my VCA seems to not just alter the amplitude of the signal but also slightly nudges the waveform somewhat, and also the fequency (but only when a certain capacitor is connected, from BJT base to VCC-). This has its uses, in my opinion, becuase it pulls some of the decisions out of the hands of the user and forces some ‘life’ into the circuits. They seem to behave with a mind of their own, pulsating and organically altering other ‘modules’ within the synth as parameters are altered.

The aforemetioned monday session went ahead and I was spurred on by the enthusiastic woodworking specialist, Gregor. The process was incredibly satisfying, and having the assistance of a woodworking pro lent some really cool tidbits of knowledge and wisdom regarding how to make things neat and tidy, as well as structurally sound. I ended up managing to complete most of the enclosure apart from the faceplate, which works perfectly for me as I’m still deciding exactly what the faceplate will contain. Two or three oscillators? Filters or not? Etc. These decisions are based on two things; time and funds. Troubleshooting larger, more complex circuits will take more time and will likely slow me down more than necessary, but will yield a more satisfying and playable end result. This, after all, is the reason I’m designing such a synthesiser/drum machine. Secondly, regarding funds: pots and switches seem like cheap items (~£1.50 each) but buying 10 or 20 or 30 of them soon adds up, and I’m starting to require an awful lot of them. This project has handily aligned with the cost of living crisis, and I’m slightly struggling to fund my voracious desire to test more and more circuits.

I understand that my project is based on unconventional control methodologies and thus shouldn’t really contain too many knobs and switches, but I feel as though I require a ‘control’ synth to compare the changes in interaction with. Writing this, I’m starting to have thoughts about experiments regarding different synthesiser practitioners (likely course-mates) interacting with two different synthesisers on two different occasions which have wildly contrasting control methodologies, but idential internal circuitry. Recordings of these sessions can then be compared and contrasted to yield some degree of understanding about how performance alters with different control types.

Enclosures are impotant when designing equipment. I would like my equipment to be beautiful as well as functionally curious, and that means sitting down somewhere and figuring out what I want things to look like.

A visit to the 3D workshop in LCC after class last week has lead to me being inducted into it, and I have now booked a session for next week monday. There is scrap wood there that I can use – offcuts from other people’s projects – and that appeals to me as I feel a strong sense of distress from the wastefulness that is apparent in modern living (which I firmly take part in, unfortunately). Between now and then I need a fully realised and measured/labelled diagram that shows all of the pieces of wood needed to make….. something?

I’m unsure what I’m building right now. I would like to just get familiar with wood as a medium, and design an enclosure for some of the demo circuits I’ll be making (mentioned in prev. blog post) to work up to my drum machine. I’m certainly set on the idea of wood; it seems like a relatively easy medium to work with and I enjoy the organic connotations that it brings to instruments.

I’m inspired heavilty by two companies when thinking about not only enclosures but also audio design philosophies; Ciat Lonbarde and Dewanotron. The former presents circuits in organic shapes made almost entirely of wood, doesn’t believe in labelling controls and wants each synthesiser to be a learned playing experience, similar to an acoustic instrument. He also has interesting design philosophies that I will look at in more detail within a later blog post.

The latter, and I quote, wants to make synthesisers that look “like grandfather clocks” which appeals to me greatly. Their instruments look straight out of a 1950s inventor’s garage, very quaint, beautiful works of wood with lovely large knobs and spacious, cleanly designed layouts. They also seem very scientific, reminiscent of test equipment in some ways, but without the bakelite and chrome.

Circuitry and electronics is the main focus of my third year at uni; university is a vehicle to hone my skills regarding the fabrication of audio hardware. In the past I have run into difficulties completing projects due to trying to learn too much at once. I think I would succeed better if I set manageable goals for myself, and also was dedicated to finishing just the next step of each project, rather than being so focused on the overall image.

My current overarching goal is to make a polyphonic drum machine. The most basic signal flow to fabricate such a device is as follows: oscillator into VCA controlled by an LFO, and then a summing amp for however many channels are required. I will make each of these circuits one after the other, working out any kinks and testing to see that each circuit works with all of the preceding modules before commencing with the next. Then, once there exists working prototypes of each module that comprises a channel, I will work on creating 4 of each of them total, neatening all of the topologies and making my wiring more efficient and easier to troubleshoot should something (or rather when something) blows up.

Just a couple of days ago, maybe a couple days after the first lecture back at uni, I finished making a drone machine. This is a purely proof of concept board that happens to kill two birds with one stone. A mono summing amp and two oscillators, combined accordingly. Some component values need fine-tuning, and I also think I may need to buffer the outputs of my oscillators before they are summed, but the concept holds true. I have some transistors coming in the mail, and those will be used to configure my VCA once they arrive. If I’m twiddling my thumbs, I may try and dabble with some filters as it they would be nice to have onboard. Alternatively, a noise oscillator might be useful; and I assume not too difficult.