6 ms·

Erica Synths DIY Prototyping Breadboard

117 points by glitcher 2y ago

byyoung3 2y ago
honestly breadboards with a power supply built in is genius. Usb hub would be good too
- pbronez 2y ago
  There’s a kickstarter going for a fancy breadboard that adds a USB power supply. It also has some programmable routing features. I’m watching it but haven’t backed yet. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sandwizz/the-sandwizz-breadboard-concept https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sandwizz/the-sandwizz-b...
  - duskwuff 2y ago
    That looks more like it's trying to do some sort of fancy software-controlled "breadboard" with internal routing. Neat concept, but it's going to be fairly expensive and fragile. I'm also concerned by the lack of discussion of parasitics.
  - daghamm 2y ago
    That looks interesting, but what kind of bandwidth can you get out of this?
- stiiv 2y ago
  fwiw Global Specialties has been making "protoboards" like this for decades. They're pretty expensive, though.
- adw 2y ago
  https://reverb.com/item/66376148-copppersound-diy-mini-breadboard https://reverb.com/item/66376148-copppersound-diy-mini-bread... is popular in the DIY guitar effects world
kalupa 2y ago
for when your synth isn't modular enough
proee 2y ago
I’m surprised electronic breadboards have not changed for over 50 years. Nothing worse than spending an hour debugging a circuit only to find the breadboard connection is bad. Lots of students in digital logic class can attest to this.
- DominoTree 2y ago
  FWIW, they cost a bit more than the generics, but I've always had good luck with the BusBoard breadboards in particular
- cjk2 2y ago
  They're bloody awful and should be taken outside and shot. Even the expensive 3M ones. First they are unreliable and wear out. Secondly they melt when you inevitably screw up. Thirdly there isn't a ground plane so it's basically a nice board of little capacitors and inductors to argue with. For the last 35 years both professionally and as a hobbyist I've just soldered stuff to bits of copper clad board. On one-off items like test rigs etc, these are then screwed to the inside of the lid of a Hammond box. Also see AN47-26 "breadboarding techniques" https://www.analog.com/media/en/technical-documentation/application-notes/an47fa.pdf https://www.analog.com/media/en/technical-documentation/appl... (check Appendix F in particular)
- m463 2y ago
  You got me curious, and I wondered what alternatives could be. I found this interesting stack overflow answer: https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/3206/best-solderless-breadboard https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/3206/best-so... unfortunately the question was closed: Closed. This question is opinion-based. It is not currently accepting answers. Annoying that stack overflow specifically shuts this stuff down. Shutting down discussion makes it seem like a self-serving answer mill instead of a community.
  - proee 2y ago
    This is a nice idea from that discussion, using machined header pins. https://makezine.com/article/technology/if-breadboards-break-thy-brain-buil/ https://makezine.com/article/technology/if-breadboards-break...
friggeri 2y ago
Moritz Klein is the reason I got into synths, his YouTube videos[0] are a really accessible intro. I’m super excited for this, we need more accessible prototyping platforms/tools. I ended up going down that rabbit hole myself a few months ago and built this[1] but it would be a pain to commercialize. [0] https://youtube.com/@moritzklein0 https://youtube.com/@moritzklein0 [1] https://old.reddit.com/r/synthdiy/comments/14roaib/synth_breadboarding_lab/ https://old.reddit.com/r/synthdiy/comments/14roaib/synth_bre...
elric 2y ago
Moritz Klein, the designer of this project, is a genius when it comes to analog circuitry. He's been making simple DIY synth kits (with Erica Synths) for a good while now. They're all amazing. They come with manuals that are much more enlightening than most electronics textbooks. They're fun to build. And they sound pretty great.
- djmips 2y ago
  I love his videos, he takes a very empirical approach to design and explanation of analog synths and it's very nice to follow along since I don't have the background in analog electronics. Super fun!
joemi 2y ago
Moritz Klein is a pretty great explainer of DIY electronics for synths. All his work with Erica Synths, including this breadboard, is such a welcome (and needed) addition, especially since the videos and manuals are all loaded with info and available to everyone, whether they've bought a DIY module from Erica or not. Props to both Moritz and Erica Synths for doing it like this. As to this breadboard, there have been a few synth- (or even modular synth-) focused breadboards created over the years (such as the one Bastl/Casper released a few years back), but this seems like a particularly well-designed one. I quite like the modular interfacing section (with its adapter PCBs) near to bottom -- that's a nice way to handle adding more controls easily/modularly.
chaosprint 2y ago
I have every Moritz Klein module and highly recommend it
tempoponet 2y ago
Bastl had a similar product called the OMSYNTH. They demoed a eurorack upgrade several years ago but never released it.
mastazi 2y ago
I have another Erica Synths product, the Pico System III, that accepts "voice cards". With the synth, you receive some blank voice cards which are effectively prototyping boards that you can use to create your own sound path by soldering components onto them. An example can be seen from 2:55 in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Rw9dGsLlY0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Rw9dGsLlY0
- alfiedotwtf 2y ago
  I’ve always wanted to pick one up. Does it have that Moog girth? Also wanting a DB-01… that thing is filthy!!
  - mastazi 2y ago
    It's more of a West Coast synth so it doesn't sound much like a Moog; I like that it has a "modern" approach (not just a clone of old West Coast synths like Buchla/Serge). I also like that it's really packed with features: two oscillators, two cycling slopes/envelopes, two low pass gates, a bucket brigade delay, a modulation source with noise, three mixers... all in a compact case and for a very reasonable price. It does have some shortcomings though (see below). The waveshaper sounds good but it's a bit limited (it just continuously shapes from one waveform to another, but it's not a proper wavefolder, i.e. it does not "fold" the wave creating those crazy harmonics). However you can overcome this limitation because you can always use the analog FM for adding more harmonics, this is linear FM, not exponential, so it's easy to keep it in tune and as a result it's very flexible, it sounds great (don't expect the sound of digital FM like a DX7 though, this is the typical 60s/70s analog FM sound). The envelope is quite bad and it's the main shortcoming of this synth. Of course being a West Coast synth I didn't expect full ADSR, but my issue is that it doesn't have a way to switch from ASR to AD mode, in other words you you can't turn off sustain so the only way to make plucky sounds is to use short gates; this is a big limitation (some hardware doesn't have a way to force the gate length) and I dislike that very much. On the other hand, one thing I like about the envelopes is that they can be switched to cycling so they can be used as LFOs which is in line with the fact that this is a West Coast-inspired synth. The low pass gates are amazing, definitely my favourite part of the synth, they can be used as VCAs or as proper low pass gates, but also they have resonance unlike the classic ones from Buchla/Serge. I love how flexible they are and how much sonic palette they offer. TL;DR it's a really good synth except for the envelopes, would be a great pairing together with a good West Coast slope/envelope module like Make Noise Maths or Befaco Rampage. PS sorry for the wall of text.
bootbloopers 2y ago
Addac systems has had a similar product for a while: https://www.addacsystem.com/en/products/modules/addac200-series/addac210 https://www.addacsystem.com/en/products/modules/addac200-ser...
SeanLuke 2y ago
I'm pretty unimpressed: this is stupid expensive for rather little. Tangible Waves's AE Modular format is particularly easy for hobbyists to develop on: it's strictly 0-5V, with simple power requirements, etc., and it's very cheap. For a number of years Tangible Waves has sold the BRAEDBOARD module, which is more or less the same thing as Erica Synths's product, but costs $30. And Tangible Waves goes further: they sell a PCB prototyping module kit for $20, called DIY, to take your design one step further. https://www.tangiblewaves.com/store/p92/BRAEDBOARD.html https://www.tangiblewaves.com/store/p92/BRAEDBOARD.html https://www.tangiblewaves.com/store/p91/DIY_kit.html https://www.tangiblewaves.com/store/p91/DIY_kit.html
- mtts 2y ago
  While Tangible Waves' BRAEDBOARD is cheaper, the advantage of this thing is that it's compatible with Eurorack, which someone who is interested in learning how to prototype modules is likely to already have a lot of. But yeah, it's expensive.
- i_am_proteus 2y ago
  The Erica unit has power supply, an oscillator, an amplifier, a gate, a headphone amplifier wired to a jack, the full gamut of eurorack voltages, pots and switches wired and ready to go. The product you're comparing it to is lovely and cheap and probably what I would buy, but the Erica device is much better for an electronics beginner-- it has a much lower barrier to get from tinkering to making the beeps and the boops.
  - SeanLuke 2y ago
    Point taken, but you can put together 2 ae vcas, a vco, power supply and headphone amp plus this module for less than 2/3 the cost of this thing. And they're optional. It's still much too expensive imho.
alfiedotwtf 2y ago
Holy cow this thing is magical! Here is it emulating a TR-909 snare! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hULEn2_4Unw https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hULEn2_4Unw
- defrost 2y ago
  and here's a trio of actual wood block snare drums: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DwR5jqNtto https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DwR5jqNtto (just for comparison).
squarefoot 2y ago
Looks like a great way to teach electronics applied to music and synthesizer working in general; probably also a good tool for schools. It's too expensive though, which places it in a niche where DIYers wanting to build their synth then actually play it would probably get a TSynth or a Momentum. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCA2L7CeWSE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCA2L7CeWSE

117 points by glitcher 2y ago

byyoung3 2y ago

honestly breadboards with a power supply built in is genius. Usb hub would be good too

pbronez 2y ago
There’s a kickstarter going for a fancy breadboard that adds a USB power supply. It also has some programmable routing features. I’m watching it but haven’t backed yet. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sandwizz/the-sandwizz-breadboard-concept https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sandwizz/the-sandwizz-b...
- duskwuff 2y ago
  That looks more like it's trying to do some sort of fancy software-controlled "breadboard" with internal routing. Neat concept, but it's going to be fairly expensive and fragile. I'm also concerned by the lack of discussion of parasitics.
- daghamm 2y ago
  That looks interesting, but what kind of bandwidth can you get out of this?
stiiv 2y ago
fwiw Global Specialties has been making "protoboards" like this for decades. They're pretty expensive, though.
adw 2y ago
https://reverb.com/item/66376148-copppersound-diy-mini-breadboard https://reverb.com/item/66376148-copppersound-diy-mini-bread... is popular in the DIY guitar effects world

kalupa 2y ago

for when your synth isn't modular enough

proee 2y ago

I’m surprised electronic breadboards have not changed for over 50 years. Nothing worse than spending an hour debugging a circuit only to find the breadboard connection is bad. Lots of students in digital logic class can attest to this.

DominoTree 2y ago
FWIW, they cost a bit more than the generics, but I've always had good luck with the BusBoard breadboards in particular
cjk2 2y ago
They're bloody awful and should be taken outside and shot. Even the expensive 3M ones. First they are unreliable and wear out. Secondly they melt when you inevitably screw up. Thirdly there isn't a ground plane so it's basically a nice board of little capacitors and inductors to argue with. For the last 35 years both professionally and as a hobbyist I've just soldered stuff to bits of copper clad board. On one-off items like test rigs etc, these are then screwed to the inside of the lid of a Hammond box. Also see AN47-26 "breadboarding techniques" https://www.analog.com/media/en/technical-documentation/application-notes/an47fa.pdf https://www.analog.com/media/en/technical-documentation/appl... (check Appendix F in particular)
m463 2y ago
You got me curious, and I wondered what alternatives could be. I found this interesting stack overflow answer: https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/3206/best-solderless-breadboard https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/3206/best-so... unfortunately the question was closed: Closed. This question is opinion-based. It is not currently accepting answers. Annoying that stack overflow specifically shuts this stuff down. Shutting down discussion makes it seem like a self-serving answer mill instead of a community.
- proee 2y ago
  This is a nice idea from that discussion, using machined header pins. https://makezine.com/article/technology/if-breadboards-break-thy-brain-buil/ https://makezine.com/article/technology/if-breadboards-break...

friggeri 2y ago

Moritz Klein is the reason I got into synths, his YouTube videos[0] are a really accessible intro. I’m super excited for this, we need more accessible prototyping platforms/tools. I ended up going down that rabbit hole myself a few months ago and built this[1] but it would be a pain to commercialize. [0] https://youtube.com/@moritzklein0 https://youtube.com/@moritzklein0 [1] https://old.reddit.com/r/synthdiy/comments/14roaib/synth_breadboarding_lab/ https://old.reddit.com/r/synthdiy/comments/14roaib/synth_bre...

elric 2y ago

Moritz Klein, the designer of this project, is a genius when it comes to analog circuitry. He's been making simple DIY synth kits (with Erica Synths) for a good while now. They're all amazing. They come with manuals that are much more enlightening than most electronics textbooks. They're fun to build. And they sound pretty great.

djmips 2y ago
I love his videos, he takes a very empirical approach to design and explanation of analog synths and it's very nice to follow along since I don't have the background in analog electronics. Super fun!

joemi 2y ago

Moritz Klein is a pretty great explainer of DIY electronics for synths. All his work with Erica Synths, including this breadboard, is such a welcome (and needed) addition, especially since the videos and manuals are all loaded with info and available to everyone, whether they've bought a DIY module from Erica or not. Props to both Moritz and Erica Synths for doing it like this. As to this breadboard, there have been a few synth- (or even modular synth-) focused breadboards created over the years (such as the one Bastl/Casper released a few years back), but this seems like a particularly well-designed one. I quite like the modular interfacing section (with its adapter PCBs) near to bottom -- that's a nice way to handle adding more controls easily/modularly.

chaosprint 2y ago

I have every Moritz Klein module and highly recommend it

tempoponet 2y ago

Bastl had a similar product called the OMSYNTH. They demoed a eurorack upgrade several years ago but never released it.

mastazi 2y ago

I have another Erica Synths product, the Pico System III, that accepts "voice cards". With the synth, you receive some blank voice cards which are effectively prototyping boards that you can use to create your own sound path by soldering components onto them. An example can be seen from 2:55 in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Rw9dGsLlY0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Rw9dGsLlY0

alfiedotwtf 2y ago
I’ve always wanted to pick one up. Does it have that Moog girth? Also wanting a DB-01… that thing is filthy!!
- mastazi 2y ago
  It's more of a West Coast synth so it doesn't sound much like a Moog; I like that it has a "modern" approach (not just a clone of old West Coast synths like Buchla/Serge). I also like that it's really packed with features: two oscillators, two cycling slopes/envelopes, two low pass gates, a bucket brigade delay, a modulation source with noise, three mixers... all in a compact case and for a very reasonable price. It does have some shortcomings though (see below). The waveshaper sounds good but it's a bit limited (it just continuously shapes from one waveform to another, but it's not a proper wavefolder, i.e. it does not "fold" the wave creating those crazy harmonics). However you can overcome this limitation because you can always use the analog FM for adding more harmonics, this is linear FM, not exponential, so it's easy to keep it in tune and as a result it's very flexible, it sounds great (don't expect the sound of digital FM like a DX7 though, this is the typical 60s/70s analog FM sound). The envelope is quite bad and it's the main shortcoming of this synth. Of course being a West Coast synth I didn't expect full ADSR, but my issue is that it doesn't have a way to switch from ASR to AD mode, in other words you you can't turn off sustain so the only way to make plucky sounds is to use short gates; this is a big limitation (some hardware doesn't have a way to force the gate length) and I dislike that very much. On the other hand, one thing I like about the envelopes is that they can be switched to cycling so they can be used as LFOs which is in line with the fact that this is a West Coast-inspired synth. The low pass gates are amazing, definitely my favourite part of the synth, they can be used as VCAs or as proper low pass gates, but also they have resonance unlike the classic ones from Buchla/Serge. I love how flexible they are and how much sonic palette they offer. TL;DR it's a really good synth except for the envelopes, would be a great pairing together with a good West Coast slope/envelope module like Make Noise Maths or Befaco Rampage. PS sorry for the wall of text.

bootbloopers 2y ago

Addac systems has had a similar product for a while: https://www.addacsystem.com/en/products/modules/addac200-series/addac210 https://www.addacsystem.com/en/products/modules/addac200-ser...

SeanLuke 2y ago

I'm pretty unimpressed: this is stupid expensive for rather little. Tangible Waves's AE Modular format is particularly easy for hobbyists to develop on: it's strictly 0-5V, with simple power requirements, etc., and it's very cheap. For a number of years Tangible Waves has sold the BRAEDBOARD module, which is more or less the same thing as Erica Synths's product, but costs $30. And Tangible Waves goes further: they sell a PCB prototyping module kit for $20, called DIY, to take your design one step further. https://www.tangiblewaves.com/store/p92/BRAEDBOARD.html https://www.tangiblewaves.com/store/p92/BRAEDBOARD.html https://www.tangiblewaves.com/store/p91/DIY_kit.html https://www.tangiblewaves.com/store/p91/DIY_kit.html

mtts 2y ago
While Tangible Waves' BRAEDBOARD is cheaper, the advantage of this thing is that it's compatible with Eurorack, which someone who is interested in learning how to prototype modules is likely to already have a lot of. But yeah, it's expensive.
i_am_proteus 2y ago
The Erica unit has power supply, an oscillator, an amplifier, a gate, a headphone amplifier wired to a jack, the full gamut of eurorack voltages, pots and switches wired and ready to go. The product you're comparing it to is lovely and cheap and probably what I would buy, but the Erica device is much better for an electronics beginner-- it has a much lower barrier to get from tinkering to making the beeps and the boops.
- SeanLuke 2y ago
  Point taken, but you can put together 2 ae vcas, a vco, power supply and headphone amp plus this module for less than 2/3 the cost of this thing. And they're optional. It's still much too expensive imho.

alfiedotwtf 2y ago

Holy cow this thing is magical! Here is it emulating a TR-909 snare! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hULEn2_4Unw https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hULEn2_4Unw

defrost 2y ago
and here's a trio of actual wood block snare drums: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DwR5jqNtto https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DwR5jqNtto (just for comparison).

squarefoot 2y ago

Looks like a great way to teach electronics applied to music and synthesizer working in general; probably also a good tool for schools. It's too expensive though, which places it in a niche where DIYers wanting to build their synth then actually play it would probably get a TSynth or a Momentum. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCA2L7CeWSE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCA2L7CeWSE