Next year I’m taking the creative coding diploma and my goal for the end of the year is to have a fully functional hardware synth.
I want it to be a mix between analog and digital, the sound sources being digital and sound processors analog.
My idea is to make a portable SDR radio ‘Elektor SDRShield’ , which would be connected to an Arduino, and the Arduino also being my interface to make a granular synth in Pure Data. So the radio sounds are granulated without the use of a computer.
I found some great resources online for granular patches in Pd, one of them made by Richard Devine, where he replicated the code of a Morphagene. The idea is to modify these patches to my liking, instead of starting from strach. This allowing me to spend more time building the electronic circuits.
I would like to have something similar to the RES EQ by Serge, where I have multiple bands of resonating filters, have a spring reverb and maybe some distortion. I’m interested my tube amps, but since I’m new to soldering maybe I’ll leave that to a future project since it can be dangerous.
The idea is not to use sequencers but instead using contact mics and touch sensitive pads to control the parameters. Also having many sliders. I’ve found some good resources to build these in a cheap way
There is also this amazing DIY module called ‘sloths’, which creates random/chaotic modulations, I’ve found a way to build it myself and maybe incorporate it into the synth