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What is your BEST DIY synth? (open DIY project)


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While the TTSH was available in my view was hands down the best DIY synth but was discontinued a few months ago. You may be able to find someone selling the PCB/Panel set but expect to pay a heavy price for it. It was expensive when it was available but now when I have seen it come up for sale it's REALLY expensive. 

Old Crow's crOw-BX looks good but I haven't built one so can't comment beyond that.

The MIDIbox SID is really good and not too tricky to build, sounds good and different to most stuff that's commercially available.

Mutable Instruments stuff is all very good, they no longer produce/sell DIY products but all of their products are open source so all the files are available to get PCBs made.

Most of the really good DIY stuff now is in the Eurorack format. I ended up going down the eurorack route just because I built everything else I was interested in that wasn't eurorack. 

The best resource online for DIY synth projects is the Music Tech DIY sub forum on Muff Wigglers, check that out if you haven't already. 

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Of course, for me the MB6582, have been a SIDhead for the last 30+ years, people don't change :).
Also, the MBSID has a very complex synthesis/modulation engine, which is a big plus, you still discover new things after all the years :).

Many greets,
Peter
 

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  • 2 months later...

Sorry to bump this thread, but @Rowan, did you see they're doing another run of the TTSH? I was just cruising through some of the MB forums I rarely visit and saw you mention it, figured I'd give you a shout out if you missed it during the first two runs. I know I was kicking myself for not jumping on when I had the chance; I'm not gonna let another opportunity go by.

 

just so I'm not completely derailing this thread, I'm gonna put down the MB SID as my favorite DIY synth. I personally have a sammichSID that I managed to snag in a trade as an unbuilt kit about a year after the kits stopped being made. Phew! Best (music) decision I've ever made. I'm about to start working on an MB-6582 though, which I've listed after basically since I found out about them. Took me a couple years to get comfortable enough with MIDIbox and DIY in general to understand what goes into building an MB-6582—the sammichSID was my first DIY project and I never would have gotten through it without the detailed build guide—and then another couple years for board availability and funds to finally line up.

 

Why is it my favorite? Well, for one, I really appreciate that it's a completely original project. Stuff like the x0xb0x and TTSH is awesome, and I don't want to dismiss the amount of work that goes into reverse engineering an analog synth like that, but there's something really romantic about knowing that the the MB SID was basically designed from the ground up by one guy working in his spare time. It's really inspiring, isn't it? Like TK just sat down one day and thought "Why doesn't my dream SID synthesizer exist?" so he opened up his laptop, got out his soldering iron, and a few years later, he unleashes the definitive SID synthesizer on the world.

 

Which leads me to my second reason: it's a goddam badass synth. I feel like a lot of DIY project synths end up somewhat feature limited or even incomplete. Meanwhile, the MB SID implementation puts most *commercial* synths to shame. Even just the "Lead" engine is crazy powerful, between the multi-stage envelopes, mod matrix and trigger maps. And then you tell me that there's a 303 emulator mode, a drum machine mode, and a poly/multitimbral mode? *And then* you tell me that not only can I stack two SIDs for stereo, but I can then stack four of those stereo SIDs and operate them all independently or as part of a "super-poly" mode?

 

It sounds hyperbolic, but when I read interviews with Bob Yannes and he talks about how he originally envisioned that the SID chip would be sold to synth manufacturers as a building block for their designs, similar to CEM/SSM chips, I can't help but think that the MB SID must be pretty close to what he had in mind (probably without the VCA/envelope glitches though, lol, but that's just what makes a SID a SID).

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@jaytee. Yes, I've seen the thread on Muffs and registered my interest. I already have a TTSH that I built about a year ago, it's by  far the best SDIY project I've done to date and is now my most used instrument. I'm going to build another one if the run happens and I have the funds available at the time as its a VERY expensive project to source all the parts for. It cost me well of £1000 at the time and I expect it would now be closer to £1300 due to the weak £ Vs $.

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I really hope to build one. I've wanted a 2600 ever since I found out it was R2D2's voice, lol. Hopefully I can at least get a PCB and panel, I don't mind waiting to slowly collect parts if it means I can spread the cost out over a year or so. I did the same thing with SID chips, and I'm finally starting my MB-6582... I'm a patient man.

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