Circuitbenders Forum

Circuitbenders Forum => Circuitbending discussion => DIY Synths => Topic started by: Boomchikawawa on October 22, 2012, 11:58:12 PM

Title: 555 based DIY keyboard synth?
Post by: Boomchikawawa on October 22, 2012, 11:58:12 PM

Hi guys, I really want a synth dedicated for 8-bit gameboy/atari squarewave sounds. I'm thinking of gutting a 2-octave keyboard of eveything but it's keys and speaker. Then, make an Atari punk console for each single key (25 in total) and then in parallel to the speaker/line out?

Does this sound reasonable or nuts? Is there any problems I might be faced with?

Cheers guys  8)

Title: Re: 555 based DIY keyboard synth?
Post by: Gordonjcp on October 23, 2012, 01:18:39 PM

That would be impossible to tune, but fun ;-)

How about gutting a cheap crappy keyboard and wiring the key matrix to an Arduino, then running some code on that to generate your nasty noises?  You could even MIDI it.

Title: Re: 555 based DIY keyboard synth?
Post by: Boomchikawawa on October 23, 2012, 11:08:32 PM

I had a look at the Arduino stuff a while ago, I don't really want to get into programming and whatnot.

I was thinking of solving the tuning by giving each of the timers a fine-tune pot, so each 555 is dedicated to one frequency. I would tune it with my chromatic guitar tuner. Feasible?

Title: Re: 555 based DIY keyboard synth?
Post by: Gordonjcp on October 24, 2012, 06:28:04 PM

Feasable-ish.  It won't be very stable and will wander around all over the place.

VCO design and construction is hard.  That's why there aren't many analogue synths these days.

Title: Re: 555 based DIY keyboard synth?
Post by: wax+wire on May 01, 2013, 06:51:08 AM

Isn't square wave a setting on some cheap casios (clarinet sounds are similar to a square wave if i remember correctly)

is it possible to build a simple digital distortion...