My first synthesiser (from hereon unimaginately referred to as synth 1), looking back, is a bit of a mess. Five separate (and tiny) stripboards, bad grounding practises, bad power distribution, poor VCA design, limited sonic potential. It really is a miracle that it all came together and works (albeit in a very haphazard manner).

The current synth that I’m working on (from hereon referred to as synth 2) is going to be a rehashed and greatly updated version of synth 1, refining both the functional properties of the synth and also much of the technical mishaps that occured in synth 1. The first and most notable issue is grounding/power. In synth 2, these fixes will manifest in the form of reduced VCO bleed and removal of the erratic power behaviour (presumably induced by the dodgy virtual ground circuitry – ‘fixing’ this erratic behaviour in synth 1 is accomplished by reducing and then reapplying the supply voltage, which I assume drains the power caps. I am still unsure why that fixes the issue, but I know that by altering the design of this part of the circuit, the issue disappears).

The second series of alterations will be functional, altering the patchable blocks of circuitry. The addition of slope generators (perhaps replacing the square wave LFOs…?) will offer much improved sonic potential, especially as they can double up as variable pulse-width square LFO’s, accessed by a different output socket.

Attenuators seem like a much needed addition, which should allow for some of the subtlety that was largely impossible in synth 1. I am unsure whether these will be placed on each output (less likely) or as patchable sections of the instrument (more likely).

A noise oscillator or two will also be present – these seem very useful for modulation and a variety of creative applications. However, having a noise oscillator does start to raise the question of filters, as noise oscillators have a tendency to be rather 1 dimensional without any tone shaping possibilities.

VCAs – although I know that the VCAs from synth 1 are very primitive, they do have some unique charm to them. One thing that I feel is missing from their function in synth 1 is output sockets for each VCA, rather than them being hard patched directly to the main out.

The bane of my existence so far has always been grounding. Why do my oscillators sound all throughout my circuits, even in places they do not belong? The click of LFOs and the drone of audio frequency oscillators permeates every aspect of my work, bleeding into amps, PSUs, noise generators. “Star grounding will fix all of your issues” they say on the forums – how am I supposed to star ground on stripboard? “Isolate your digital and analogue grounds” they say, “buffer your virtual ground”, but nothing seems to work. Frustration is the dominant emotion that I feel at the moment. My best efforts to solve these issues are met with failure, time and time again.

They do say that it takes many failures to achieve success, but my failures are things that others have failed at before, and (obviously, due to the ubiquity of analogue synths with significantly less bleed than my own) overcome – it is just that the secrets of their success elude me.

My noise oscillator works very well, except when plugged into the rest of my synthesiser. Both of them running at the same time, from the same 9v supply, results in total circuit failure of the synth. Writing this out, it now occurs to me that perhaps I am exceeding the current draw of my PSU, and I could test this with another 9v supply. Somehow, my gut tells me that something more complex is occuring, as a result of the exact design of my noise oscillator.

More experiments to be made.

Last week I went on a day trip to the Musical Museum in Brentford, on reccomendation from my tutor Gareth. Full of bizzare clockwork musical instruments, it was eye-opening with regards to my own mechanical dreams. Firstly, it made me realise that the sky is the limit in this field, but that much of the (reachable) limit has been achieved at least 100 years ago – to be creating interesting work in the field I should be working to combine the electronic and the mechanical in new and exciting ways; both acoustic and electronic sound sources, aiming for interaction between acoustic sound and raw voltages. Mechanical LFO, perhaps, using a similar method seen below to generate some sort of cyclical motion?? [Bellows, too. See later blog posts]

There is a gothic sensibility to these instruments that I would like to reflect in my works. The dark stained wood, creaking, humming, whirring, clicking and visible mechanisms drew me in and enthralled me with childlike wonder. This is a characteristic that modern technologies lack as the mechanisms through which they achieve complex ideas are obscured – this proffering of the knowledge of how exactly devices work is key to my sensibilities, I feel.

Further blog posts will try and demonstrate methods that I can use to incorporate mechanical ideas into my synths.

Working within such an established field as audio electronics means that being original is tough, however, I am coming to terms with the idea that originality is not the purpose of any artistic venture, and it likely does not exist. I am just the latest in a long lineage of creatives who are manipulating voltages for musical means, and I should be working to enjoy and the create purposeful objects. Speaking to Gareth on this subject, he mentioned that having ideas that have ‘been done before’ are a good sign, and the creative should merely continue to work on the idea trusting that by extending beyond what others have done, a different outcome will be reached.

The conversation arose when I was talking about an idea for a speaker cabinet I had, containing numerous different cones of different sizes (and thus different frequency responses), with one (or two?) input(s) and volume controls for each cone. Using the natural filtering of the cones instead of an EQ might create some interesting tonalities, and the cabinet can then be stereo miced for recording.

As it turns out, a similar idea has already been put into motion: Luigi Rossolo’s Intonarumori were experimental noise-making devices that rely on the same principle of physical objects filtering the same sound in different ways. The below image is delightful, and encourages me to be more physical with my prototyping, making objects rather than just circuits

My idea is somehwat different in execution, despite being similar in principle, and neatly demonstrates the notion that to innovate, you must first copy.