Anybody else got a Shruthi-1 ? (Scroll down for some audio demos !)
I finally got hold of a Shurthi-1 Kit a few weeks ago, a nice little synth by Olivier Gillet from France.
I didn't have the pleasure to build a sammichSID, but the two share a certain look (the Shruthi design is obviously inspired by the sammich).
read all about it here: http://mutable-instruments.net
The Kit that you can order for 150 EUR + shipping includes all the parts, PCBs and acrylic case.
The whole thing is very well designed and the building instructions on the website are outstandingly well done, absolutely noob-friendly.
Building the thing was a real joy, and even more fun is using this little synth!
It's very cleverly done, with a simple but easy to learn menu navigation and some very remarkable features for small Atmel based synth (incl. 12-slot mod-matrix)
Sound-wise, it's basically an 8-bit wavetable synth with an analog filter.
You can choose between diffrent filter boards, the Kit comes with a filter designed by Olivier using available parts (called SMR-4).
Other filter boards are based on CEM or SSM chip, though you'll have to find those old chips yourself.
The SMR-4 filter sounds really good, and being based on a small Atmel PIC and using 8 bit waves, this thing does incredibly good sounds.
The next batch of Kits is in preparation, so if if you have the chance, try to grab on of these.
It's a great DIY synth, maybe some future Midibox projects can also get some inspirations from this!
I'll do some audio and video demos soon. Here's some pictures from building the synth (took about 5 hours):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23516000@N04/sets/72157625962940266/with/5410824077/