Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
Chris have done it again… “Gwion of Holy Island Audio builds awesome stuff and, included in the package if you purchased the debut release from Gwion’s band, Smothering, is a DIY PCB for a three oscillator drone synth called the Cannibal Pride. This is that synth, and it sounds KILLER – keep in mind that, … Read more
Had a couple questions about stompbox use with line level, so I drew up this. This allows you to drop the line level signal down to instrument level, send it out to whichever stompboxes you want to use, then back and amplified back up to line level. Schematic and discussion here. Made two versions, one … Read more
This is the Rene Schmitz version of the MS-20 Filter, which is used in the later models. I didn’t include the CV control inputs, as I have no plans on using CV. KORG MS-20 FILTER – VERO LAYOUT KORG MS-20 FILTER – BUILD REPORT This is a very particular sound, and while it doesn’t have a lot … Read more
Came across this Instructable the other day and thought it would be a good addition to the library. Would be a good first step into the synth world and apparently plays nice with guitar pedals. Already built it myself and it works great, and fits nicely in a 1590G.
For Fuzz Friday, here’s a really cool design from Parasit Studio: The 8-Bitar is a minimalistic octave down pedal with a 8-bit sound (glitchy and gated square wave fuzz). It’s small enough to fit inside a 1590A without any special parts.The design goal with this pedal was to achieve the core octave tone from the … Read more
Interesting sounding 8-Bit fuzz, that’s not typically my type of pedal that I thought will get some love. Schematic is posted over at DIYSB. From the source: The Pixel is one of the earliest SHOE designs. It began as an oscillating fuzz and, after intentionally adding elements haphazardly and then adjusting the circuit so the … Read more
For Fuzz Friday, here’s another wild and wacky one from DBA: The Robot is a low fidelity 8 bit pitch transposer with absolutely no feelings what-so-ever. It is completely synthetic and transforms any input into a spuree of resynthesized robot jargon. Originals need a dedicated power supply as the HT8950 chip runs off 2.4-4 volts … Read more
Switching it up this week and doing a Filter Friday. This one could be used for both synth and guitar/bass. It’s a cool filter effect based around the LM13600/13700.
I thought I’d close out Synth week with a fuzz designed specifically for synths. (Fuzz Friday waits for no man!) This one is pretty straight forward and I don’t have much to say about it. Schematic can be found here. I added a pull down resistor to the input in case some one builds it … Read more
Here’s a synth circuit from Paul in the Lab (schematic and sound samples can be found over there). I’ve laid it out for board mounted pots with the board vertically in the enclosure. See the drilling template in the library for a visual. Here’s what Paul had to say about it: This is a project based … Read more