Reddit reviews Make: Analog Synthesizers: Make Electronic Sounds the Synth-DIY Way

Hey! I can relate exactly to where your'e coming from. I, some years ago, decided I wanted to get into building synths. I ended up getting a job at a pedal company and have spent more time learning to build and repair pedals than synths. I don't work there anymore, but it gave me a lot of perspective into the field as we also made euro-rack modules.

First up: I don't want to scare you off from this, but just want to give you a realistic perspective so that you go into this knowing what you are getting into. Making synths is hard and it's expensive. As far as electronic projects go, making a synthesizer is up there on the list. I've repaired powerplant turbine controller circuitboards that were simpler than some of the synths I've owned. This isn't to say, "don't do it!" but, expect to learn a lot of fundamental and intermediate stuff before you ever have something like a fully-featured synth that you built in your hands.

It's also expensive. A cheap synth prototype is going to cost a couple hundred bucks, easy, while a more fully-featured prototype could cost into the thousands to produce, and that's just to build one working prototype. If you want to make a run of products you're going to need money up front, and not a small amount. So, just be prepared for that inevitability.

One final note is that my perspective is broad (digital and analog) but is rooted in analog electronics because that's where I started. This isn't the only path you can take to get to where you want to go but honestly in my opinion, even if you're going to go mostly digital later, you need to understand analog.

If you have never messed with electronics much before I highly recommend the Make: Electronics book. I'm a hands-on person and this was the most effective book I found that let me study electronics fundamentals the way I wanted to; by making stuff! No matter which direction you go on (digital, analog, hybrid, DSP, SID, etc) you're going to want to know how to pick the right resistor, or how to pop an LED into a circuit, and this book will teach you that.

Solid follow-up books from there are Make: More Electronics, Practical Electronics for Inventors, How To Diagnose and Fix Everything Electronic, and The Art of Electronics. All of these books are good books that touch on different concepts you will find useful, so I encourage you to look through them and decide for yourself which of these interests you.

Around this same time, I'd encourage you to start getting into kits. Honestly, before you build anything synth, I'm going to recommend you build some pedals. Effects pedals are fun and rewarding to build without being too hard. Start with a distortion circuit and work your way up from there. Once you can build a delay pedal without freaking out, move on to euro-rack kits, or other synth kits. While you're building these kits, don't just build them, play with the circuits! Try swapping components where you think you can, or adding features. One of my first kits was a distortion pedal with a single knob, but by the time I was done tweaking on it it had five knobs and two toggle switches!

Once you're feeling somewhat comfortable with electronics, then you can dive into the holy grail of analog synth design: Make: Analog Synthesizers this amazing book was written by the brilliant Ray Wilson who recently passed away. His life's goal was to bring the art of building analog synths into the hands of anyone who wanted to learn, and there is no better place to receive his great wisdom than this book. You should also check out his website Music From Outer Space along the way, but the book covers so much more than his website.

If you make through most or all of those resources you are going to be well-equipped to take on a career in synth-building! I'm personally still on that last step (trying to find the time to tackle Make: Analog Synthesizers) but hope within the next year or two to get that under my belt and start diving in deep myself. It's been a fun journey of learning and discovery and I wouldn't trade the skills I've gained in electronics for much.

Hope this helps, good luck!

Basic theory: http://www.indiana.edu/~emusic/etext/toc.shtml, and http://electronotes.netfirms.com/free.htm (e.g. see "Theory and Practice of Musical Sound Synthesis")

Ray Wilson's book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Ray-Wilson/dp/1449345220

LM13700 datasheet (has circuit example for VCO, VCFs, VCA, Sample and Hold, PWM, multiplier): http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/lm13700.pdf

The LM13700 is a $1 chip which can be used to implement most of the basic synthesizer modules.

https://hackaday.com/tag/lm13700/

http://musicfromouterspace.com/analogsynth_new/DUALVCA/DLLVCA001.html

http://musicfromouterspace.com/analogsynth_new/STATEVARVCFFEB2006/STATEVARVCFFEB2006.html

http://www.djerickson.com/synth/

"The kits I build use a lot of the same parts over and over, so having a stock of the basics is good. You can probably build this stock up for about $100:

DIP ICs, a few of each: LM13700, TL072, TL074, LM324"

This is a great book which goes in depth with the tools and approach needed, along with the main circuits in every modular setup/ synth. It comes from this site which has tons and tons of circuits. They are not really beginner stuff but filled with inspiration and is great to go back to once you have some experience and components to use.

Book: https://www.amazon.com/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Ray-Wilson/dp/1449345220/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367955744&sr=8-1&keywords=make+analog+synthesizers

Site: http://musicfromouterspace.com/

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Here is a good blog to read through and watch the videos for some basic circuitry. Some really interesting stuff here! There are 12 posts on different things. He is quite knowledgeable indeed...

https://hackaday.com/2015/02/04/logic-noise-sweet-sweet-oscillator-sounds/

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And if you really want to learn about electronics in depth (or any other field) check out https://www.khanacademy.org/ which offers lessons for free.

I've enjoyed this one as a start. Interested to see any other suggestions you get: https://www.amazon.com/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Electronic-Synth-DIY/dp/1449345220

Here are 2 that have been useful to me...

https://www.amazon.com/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Electronic-Synth-DIY/dp/1449345220/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=make+synthesizer&qid=1569440610&s=gateway&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Handmade-Electronic-Music-Hardware-Hacking/dp/0415998735/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=make+synthesizer&qid=1569440643&s=gateway&sr=8-6

and by speaking of mfos, you really should get his book... it was so helpful to me... I learned a lot by doing his stuff from the book and reading all the explanations...
http://www.amazon.com/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Ray-Wilson/dp/1449345220

Make publishes a book called Analog Synthesizers if you want a head start.

There's a few books you can check out (I stumbled onto most of these in my local community college library, and yes, some of these are really expensive). I can suggest more if you like


http://www.amazon.com/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Ray-Wilson/dp/1449345220/

http://www.amazon.com/Handmade-Electronic-Music-Hardware-Hacking/dp/0415998735/

http://www.amazon.com/Theory-Technique-Electronic-Music/dp/9812700773/

https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Sound-Press-Andy-Farnell/dp/0262014416

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and some subs: /r/diySynth, /r/SynthDiy, /r/modular

theres the book from Make as well https://www.amazon.co.uk/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Ray-Wilson/dp/1449345220

That page only has info on adding the resonance pot that was removed for the delay.

Ray Wilson's MAKE book is here. His site, Music From Outer Space is also a good resource.

Just passing on the recommendation I got here a long time ago, which is: [Ray Wilson's Make: Analog Synthesizers] (https://www.amazon.com/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Electronic-Synth-DIY/dp/1449345220) A really chill / good read but also really good to have nearby as technical reference.

Adding to this, his book Make: Analog Synthesizers is a great resource for beginners.

Make: Analog Synthesizers is a great introduction. It even details an example project, the Noise Toaster. But I think its strongest section might be the appendix, which is a good reference for various utility circuits you need in an analog synth, especially the LM13700 OTA, which you can use to build VCOs, VCFs, and VCAs.

The only glaring omission in the Make book is the lack of voltage-controlled exponential current source circuits that drive the OTA's current bias inputs. You can find more about those by digging through the textbook Musical Applications of Microprocessors (beware, much of the content regarding embedded systems is a bit outdated, but there is a surprising amount of analog material in there) and this Electronotes newsletter. In fact, this collection of Electronotes newsletters is a gold mine in itself.

Happy tinkering.

Sure, you can basically go as simple or as complex as you'd like. The most basic "synth" You could make would probably be a tone generator based on the 555 timer, something like the Atari Punk Console. Music From Outer Space is a good resource for more involved synth projects and the book Make: Analog Synthesizers is a pretty popular resource (you can find pdf versions online). Finally, r/synthDIY has some good resources too.

For more information about this build, here's an imgur album I did showing the build process

To try and answer all the questions in this thread:

• The faceplates and PCBs were sourced from the MFOS site, while the components and hardware were sourced from various locations such as mouser and taydaelectronics.
  
• This project completely consumed my attention, and I slammed it out in just under two months (from the time I ordered the parts). That was every spare night and weekend I could manage.
  
• Having been my first venture into an electronics project, I made many purchasing mistakes, which I learned valuable lessons from. All in all this project cost me around $900~.
  
• This was not easy, and I had some much appreciated consulting help from electronics engineering friends to get me through a couple of obstacles. Also, I read this book cover-to-cover before picking up a soldering iron, which I believe was paramount to my success (Ray Wilson's beginner guide to DIY synths).

Do you have any background knowledge in electronics? Because I would seriously start there.

I realize you are an adult, but Make: Electronics (Learning by Discovery) was a really great book for me (an adult). It gives you a good foundations in electronics and has fun projects as well.

Make: Analog Synthesizers was particularly fun for me.

Any interest in either of those books? They're both great starting points.

You could start with this book: https://www.amazon.com/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Electronic-Synth-DIY/dp/1449345220

It's written by Ray Wilson, who is the guy behind Music From Outer Space, where you will find tons of synths and module circuit, parts, pcb.

The book explains all the wizardry behind the Noise Toaster, and guide you through the build.

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Or you can start with eurorack, there is tons of DIY modules, you can have complete kit, so you "just" need to solder the parts, or you can buy a pcb and source the parts yourself. For eurorack, you will find "through hole" modules, aka classic and "big" components, or SMD, which are tiny component, usually made to be soldered by robots. You might want to avoid SMD as a first build if you don't have a lot of soldering experience (and tools).

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https://www.amazon.com/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Ray-Wilson/dp/1449345220/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367955744&sr=8-1&keywords=make+analog+synthesizers

I did not build my own synth, but I really enjoyed reading this book about how to do it. There's a lot to it.

Have you looked at Ray Wilson's book?

i forgot, ray has a book took. its really great. it has info on synths, some info about ray, about synth diy, and a very detailed build of the noise toaster. also the appendices have great info on common chips and common op amp circuits:

http://www.amazon.com/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Ray-Wilson/dp/1449345220

he also did a MAKE video lecture on TL0x op amps you should watch once you know a bit more about op amps and circuits (due to lingo).

This looks like a pretty good book!

https://www.amazon.com/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Electronic-Synth-DIY/dp/1449345220