As a standard tone control for the synthesizer, a blow controller is included in the DIY kit.
This blow controller is made with a piezo-element, this allows the user to vary the oscillator frequencies by playing the controller similar to playing a digeridoo.
We chose to do it this way for multiple reasons. First of all, a tone interfacing like this will make the user experience much more intuitive for people familiar with traditional music instruments. Secondary reason is that we want the users to fully benefit from the open-source DIY concept of the synthesizer. By introducing a blow controller instead of more traditional methods like rotary buttons or keyboards, we encourage the builder to use his creativity and hopefully inspire him to think outside the box.
By constructing and using the edusynth, one can broaden his view on many domains. This can range from a quick course on soldering to the knowledge of synthesizing sounds in the spectral domain. Something as complex as a synthesizer can be studied on various levels. For one person, it can be satisfactory to just construct the synthesizer and discover the possibilities just by playing the instrument. While other people really want to get an in depth knowledge of the science of synthesizing sounds. Understanding the use of every single component in the circuit, the effects of modulation in the frequency domain, …
The educational pleasures the edusynth can deliver are seemingly endless!
The world anno 2013 is flooded with electronics, and in the near future it will only increase. Whether you like it or not, the presence of electronics in our daily lives is undeniable. That’s why we think a basic electronics knowledge becomes increasingly more important. From this point of view, the idea to develop an educational DIY electronics project was born.
The challenge was to find something, people would really find interesting. Something they really want to build and own. Since the both of us are fond of electronic music, the edusynth concept was something we really believed in. A synthesizer has an average difficulty to build, and can appeal to both the starting electronics student as to someone with already a firm basic knowledge.
As a thesis subject for our master “Intelligent Electronics”, Alex Motteux and myself, Frederik De Greef, have chosen to create a Do-It-Yourself synthesizer package with an educational focus. The goal of the project is to make the user familiar with electronics and sound synthesis throughout the building process.
In order to achieve this we are developing a general synthesizer with basic functionality, but with alternative interfacing methods. Forget the image of keyboards and lots of buttons, instead think of more intuitive ways to create sound. For example blowing on a horn, or using the slider of a slide trombone.