Advice to a novice DIYer soon to be in London

kickofighto · Joined: May 17, 2012 Posts: 4 Location: Ireland

Don't see a beginners questions sub-forum here so bear with me mods/please redirect appropriately.

I wan't to start a modular synth project for the first time this summer.
Initial desires are to build, MFOS VCO (or two), VCF, VCA, and maybe an envelope generator and one of ray's lag thingys.

Some questions to the community then,
How well do people get on with using oscilloscope software for testing their circuits? I have an audio interface capable of 96khz recording with decent AD converters.

Has anyone got a good method and circuits for midiCC to CV conversion, (the intention is for this to come from a computer, possibly via my audio interface) I'm considering forking for a PAIA FracRak. I'm dubious about how necessary this is though, I'm also considering sending automation/modulation in the form of audio from my interface and amplifying it somehow (volta style).

I'll be moving to london at the end of the summer to start a PhD, would anyone like to buddy up/ are there any DIY modular collectives, clubs, meetups etc.. I have a lack of more expensive/heavy equiptment, etching facilities, press drills etc.. and was wondering if people group together to share experience and tools (...I'm a great cook! and a good carpenter.). I'm also more likely to do this stuff if other people around me are doing it too.

I don't know london, and any advice on good contacts for parts, distributors, insider secrets etc.. are more than welcome.

Another thing I would love to do is build that cool PAIA ribbon controller!

blue hell

JingleJoe · Posted: Fri May 18, 2012 1:54 am Post subject:

My advice for any beginner is: start simple, don't try and build big complex things like that if you can't solder yet, first get your head around how simple RC filters and oscillators work, transistor switches and amplifiers and things, then work your way up. You'll learn a lot of important things starting at the basics.
I tried to jump in at the deep end and build this complex sequencer with 555 timers but eventually I found some logic ICs which could do it much easier Rolling Eyes

so thats in my pile of unfinished stuff now.

Uncle Krunkus · Posted: Fri May 18, 2012 2:32 am Post subject:

I'd say you should invest in a breadboard and jumpers. Even though you'll get most satisfying results from other peoples designs first up, it's great for your knowledge base to play with parts whenever you have a lull in building.
The soundcard based oscilloscope will work fine, as most scope work on DIY Synths is about looking at an audio waveform (20Kmax) to see if it's the right shape, and will only sometimes go ultrasonic when dealing with sample type modules.
Buy a basic electronics book to read up on theory. (Depending on how much you already, have under your hat. Wink

) It's still good to brush up on stuff. It'll help heaps with troubleshooting.
And the last thing I have to add, is you should know that there will be troubles. Laughing

If something works perfectly straight off the bat, then that's great, but there will be a fault, somewhere, sometime,.... Cool

That's okay. In fact it's one of the most rewarding parts of DIY electronics. Embrace it as a chance to learn something you didn't know before. Take note of faults as they occur, get together a thought system to track them down. Does that make sense?
If I come up with any other gems of wisdom, I'll add them later! Laughing

kickofighto · Joined: May 17, 2012 Posts: 4 Location: Ireland

Thanks for the replies and welcome guys!
I tend to find breadboarding just about OK, I have no desire to make thinks on stripboard though, I think I'll go straight to PCB at that stage (though it looks like a pricy endeavour, I find them much easier to read, I tend to go crosseyed looking at veroboard. I'm good at soldering.
I'm a molecular biologist, so I'm no stranger to procedural troubleshooting!!
I think I'd like to dip in by seeing if I can make my own variation of the MFOS WSG.
A question to UK/EU residents in particular; Where's good to get components?
I've been looking on ebay, but I think I'd prefer a couple of one-stop shops with good prices. I'm not going to have time to shop around or the money to pay different delivery charges to different suppliers all the time.
I started off in Maplin, but they have astronomically high prices and not the best selection in shop.

JingleJoe · Posted: Fri May 18, 2012 5:22 am Post subject:

wmonk · Posted: Fri May 18, 2012 12:54 pm Post subject:

A little advice from someone who didn't like experimenting to start with (now I do, but to get there I had to go over an imaginary hill).
A few great projects to start with are the MFOS Weird Sound Generator and the MFOS SoundLab minisynth. A bit depending on what you can spend at once and what kind of sounds you're after. I started with the minisynth and slowly built myself an ever expanding modular.
For components, I personally really like MusikDing (www.musikding.de), they have a lot of music / guitar / synth related components. For resistors and most capacitors Rapid (www.rapidonline.com) is great. If you want to buy a lot at once, Mouser (www.mouser.com) is the way to go, they have a lot and not as expensive as all other suppliers.
Then there are the Asian suppliers. It'll take a little longer for the package to arrive, but they're dirt cheap. There is Futurlec (www.futurlec.com) and Tayda (www.taydaelectronics.com). Futurlec, Tayda and Rapid have cheap but good potentiometers.

Good luck!
Woody

telbonic · Joined: Jan 08, 2010 Posts: 39 Location: uk

I find http://bitsbox.co.uk/ really useful. Ordered from them many times without issues.

tombola · Posted: Sun May 20, 2012 3:46 pm Post subject:

wmonk · Posted: Sun May 20, 2012 5:04 pm Post subject:

thebot · Posted: Sun May 20, 2012 11:30 pm Post subject:

Clack · Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 1:12 am Post subject:

If you want help or just to meet people who do music electronics you should come to music hackspace its in Hoxton http://musichackspace.org people bring stuff they have problems with along.

There are weekly talks too sometimes hardware sometimes software, i'm involved in the group making open eurorack modules

telbonic · Joined: Jan 08, 2010 Posts: 39 Location: uk

kickofighto · Joined: May 17, 2012 Posts: 4 Location: Ireland

Delighted with the responses, guys! Thanks! It's great to find a thriving forum. One thing I'm finding is that there's actually far more to choose from PCB wise/DIY wise than I thought. Bitsbox looks great for ... bits!
Thanks for the heads up Clack. Hopefully that thing'll still be running when I turn up. I might try to find a similar thing in Dublin in the meantime but I expect more circuit bending and arduino type stuff.