The MoleculeSynth: low-cost, modular music synthesizer at Portland Mini Maker Faire

MoleculeSynth at Portland Mini Maker Faire 2012

I met Travis Feldman of Portland, OR at his Portland Mini Maker Faire booth last September. He was displaying and demonstrating his DIY modular music synthesizer, the MoleculeSynth. I meant to immediately blog about it here as part of a series about the Faire, but just didn't get to it... here it is, a bit late, but better than never.

The Molecule consists of hexagonal circuit blocks ("elements") that can be interconnected like Legos by the user to create a custom musical instrument. Individual blocks implement elementary synthesizer signal-generation, signal-processing, and controller functions, such as voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs), voltage-controlled amplifiers (VCAs), low-frequency oscillators (LFOs), MIDI interface, touch control, and so on.

Travis had a successful Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the MoleculeSynth back in September. He was looking for $15K, and garnered well over twice that.

You can see the available Molecule elements here. One that I don't see there, but was told would be available, was a breadboard that allows the real DIY aficionado to make his or her own custom block in a compatible format.

The MoleculeSynth looks like a great low-cost way to learn about and experiment with the technical details of music synthesis circuitry, both analog and digital types. It could also be a great introduction to electronics for aspiring makers or engineers of any age.

"Death By Audio" Guitar Effects Pedals

Death By Audio "Robot" Pedal

I was googling around the web for guitar stompbox stuff and found Death By Audio. Sound effects way over the top, with names like "Total Sonic Annihilation"... for a sound example, here's one at Killer Rock and Roll.

Some reported remarks from performance venue owners:

"I've only had to wear earplugs twice in my life, and both of them were tonight." 

"I am going to kill you..."

Death By Audio claims some big name bands as customers... Arcade Fire, Cambria, Nine Inch Nails...

Could be a good source of pedals for dubstep...

Meeblip Open Hardware Synthesizer

Meeblip Low-Cost, Open Hardware Synth

The Meeblip is an open hardware, open source monophonic music synthesizer with a MIDI interface.  It's ready to use as is, or, since it's an open, community-based technology initiative, you can hack it to suit yourself.  

The Meeblip is available in several configurations: a "quick build" kit with complete enclosure and an assembled printed circuit board for $149.95; a "build-it-yourself" kit for with enclosure but unassembled circuit board for $129.95; and a "micro" version for the experienced hacker, pictured below, which is a circuit board with MIDI interface but without the manual controls... think of the micro version as more of a software development board. It costs only $39.95.

Meeblip Micro Hacker's Kit

The Meeblip is open source hardware, so you are free to make your own version of the Meeblip and to sell them. You are also free to buy Meeblip kits, assemble and test them, then put them up for sale as finished units to buyers who don't want to go to the trouble of building the kit themselves. You are also free, of course, to modify the software, to add new features and functions to it.

The Meeblip hardware is based on the Atmel ATmega32 micro, so if you already have Arduino experience, you'll be up to speed on hacking and programming Meeblip to a great extent. 

To learn more about the Meeblip community, go to the Meeblip forum pages here at Noisepages.com. 

To find out more about the Open Source Hardware (OSHW) movement, check out their wiki.

The Korg Kaossilator

The daughter and I popped into the Beaverton Guitar Center store the other day just so I could go poke around in the synthesizer showroom. I spent twenty minutes or so playing around with one of these Korg Kaossilators... what a blast. Even a quasi-musician like me can make music with one of these babies. And only 129 bucks... that's a lot of high-tech, gadget-y fun for relatively few dollars. It's amazing what you can do with modern semiconductor technology, eh.

I have a birthday coming up soon... maybe somebody in the family is looking for gift ideas for dear old Dad...?