Ahh, synthesizers, the modern marvels of music creation. Loved or hated, but never ignored. What makes them tick? I’m on a journey to find out, building an analog synthesizer from scratch.

I’ve always been incredibly fascinated by synthesizers. Growing up in the 80s and early 90s, the first golden age of the synth, I used to play air synth when others played air guitar. My interest however, goes deeper than playing. I always wanted to know what made a synth do what it does, so what better way to find out than building one myself?

I started with very basic electronics years ago. I built my first midi controller in 2004, around the same time I started collecting synthesizers. I built a TB-303 and a TR-909 clone, and got into making modular synth modules, etching my own circuit boards and hand soldering everything. All the time though, I had a greater goal in mind. I wanted to build a full size, polyphonic keyboard synthesizer.




But what is a synthesizer?

A synthesizer is a general term describing a device that makes sound. It may be a physical instrument or it could be completely virtual, running as software on a computer. It can have an attached keyboard or it can be controlled by other means. It can make sounds tuned to a specific musical scale or just abstract sounds and noises. And finally, it may be digital, using some sort of computer or microcontroller to generate sound, it may be analog and use the flow of electricity through electronic components, or it can be a mix of digital and analog.



Building the beast

Every sub genre of synth has its dedicated following, and as with all fields where people are passionate about what they do, there is a lot of friendly fighting between the supporters of each type. Coming from an engineering background, I tend to think that whatever gets the job done without sacrificing the essentials is a good choice.

There are many directions to take a project like this, so I started with a list of requirements. When finished, my synth:

Plays notes, it can be used for playing melodies and chords. None of that droning nonsense

Is polyphonic, it can play multiple notes at the same time, because chords

Is multi-timbral, meaning that the same instrument can generate multiple different sounds at the same time

Has a keyboard and an extensive physical user interface where most of the functions are directly available, essentially “one knob - one function”.

Is computer controlled but generates the sounds using analog electronics, because nothing beats the sound of electrons flowing through a transistor.

Is physical, because where’s the fun in software, right? Right.

Is professionally built and looks smashing!

…and sounds great too. Let’s not forget that.



Now, those are some ambitious requirements. I’ll try to break them down a bit to show what is actually going on.

Analog circuits

At the heart of the synth sits the analog voice cards. I use electronic components - resistors, capacitors, op amps, transistors etc - to shape an electrical current into sound. In general, everything that touches the sound wave, from its source - oscillators that generate a pitched sound wave - through mixers and filters that shape the wave and remove or accentuate frequencies - is analog. I either design these circuits myself, or copy them from old synthesizer service manuals. I’ve spent countless hours studying the theory behind the circuits to be able to modify them.

Each voice card is capable of generating a single note at any time, so to get polyphony multiple voice cards are needed. I aim for 16 notes of polyphony, meaning every circuit has to be repeated 16 times.



My process of designing circuits usually begins with simulating the circuit in LT Spice, a free electronics simulator. I then breadboard the simulated circuit to see how it performs in real life, before entering the schematics into Eagle PCB*, a schematics capture and circuit board layout tool where I also design the circuit board. Finally, the circuit boards are produced and populated with parts by JLCPCB in China.

* I use Eagle as it was the only simple option available when I started designing circuits. Today I would have chosen to learn KiCad instead.





Control circuits

While the sound generating circuitry is analog, it needs something to control it. To be feasible, a polyphonic synthesizer uses digital control, and the easiest way to do this is to use microcontrollers.

When I started playing around with microcontrollers there was no Arduino, not a lot of available libraries to help out, and the microcontrollers were slow and 8 bit, running at 16MHz. Luckily the world has caught up, and now we can use the Teensy 4.x controllers and the full Arduino suite of tools and libraries. The Teensy is 32 bit, runs at 600MHz and can reach an effective throughput of around 1GHz.



In my system, I use one Teensy per voice card. It is responsible for generating 64 control voltages with a 12kHz refresh rate, and does this using a four channel 16 bit DAC that is time-multiplexed through 64 sample-and-hold circuits. The voltages control things like oscillator pitch, amplifier volumes, filter cutoff frequency and resonance and all kinds of modulation. Envelopes and LFOs are digitally generated, which to some analog purists is a death sin, but it simply opens up so many possibilities that I found it the only sane option.

I have not found the ultimate tools for doing microcontroller development yet. At the moment I do most of the coding in IntelliJ, simply because that’s the IDE that I know best, though it sucks as a C/C++ editor. I do compilation through the Teensyduino editor as it has a serial monitor where I can get feedback from the microcontroller. I know there are better options out there but I have not prioritized learning them yet.

UI

The synth needs a way for the user to control it, and one of the main motivations for making my own synth in the first place was to have a very hands-on interface. I have physical knobs and buttons for almost all functions, so no menu diving is needed to find controls.

As a synth needs to be able to store and recall various sounds - patches - we quickly run into a major issue with the UI. We need the knobs to reflect whatever setting that parameter currently has. If we use normal potentiometers, these will not be at the correct position when a patch is loaded. To solve this, I’m using a ring of LEDs around the potentiometer indicating its current position, and endless potentiometers that do not have defined start and stop positions.



Getting a physical UI right is a hard task. At the same time the UI is the most expensive part of a synthesizer, so proper prototyping is essential. I’ve solved this by making a working UI as a web app. I use React-controlled SVGs for the front panel as that lets me use precise units, meaning what you see on screen is what you get on the panel. The web app communicates with the microcontrollers through WebMIDI.

Changing the layout of the web app is of course much simpler than rearranging a physical UI. It is however essential to make physical prototypes along the way to get a feel of the spacing and size of things. I’m lucky enough to have access to an Epilog laser cutter at the Bekk workshop, so I cut test panels from MDF. Also, playing around with different potentiometers and buttons to get the feel of everything juuust right is a lot of fun!



Physical design is mostly done in Fusion 360, and the final production will be partially on the Bekk CNC machine and partially using online services such as eMachineShop and Front Panel Designer/Schaeffer-AG

GUI

While the one knob - one function principle works great for most things, there are some that benefit from having a screen. I have included a high res 9 inch multitouch screen at the center of the UI. This lets us see the envelope shape, do advanced LFO and arpeggiator settings, route modulation in a modulation matrix, and of course do any kind of configuration as well as patch storage operations.



The GUI is a React app with a node backend, currently running on a Raspberry PI and communicating with the Teensy microcontrollers over SPI.

An added benefit of having the UI prototype as a web app is that I can develop the UI and the GUI at the same time, in the same app. The GUI on the synth then becomes a subset of the prototype app.

State of this madness

Where am I at right now? I have completed almost all research, and made physical circuit boards for most functions. Five new boards are sent to production this week, and I have everything hooked up on a huge breadboard.



Before I design the final voice card I need to verify my architecture with people that actually play synths to see if my ideas make sense in the real world. Once that’s finished, I’ll start assembling multiple voice cards into a polyphonic synth, still with a virtual UI. Only then will I commit to the final layout and start producing the physical control surfaces.

My passion project

I’ve come to realize that my project is so huge that I will probably only do this once, which means I need to do it properly. It will take a long time to complete, and from the start I’ve talked about it as my ten year project. I’m now in my eight year and still going strong - and I’ve learned so much and had so much fun along the way!

To me, that is the essence of everything. The process and journey in itself is what’s important. The dream of building something great is inspiring, but without partial goals and small successes along the way it would be impossible to stay motivated.

So, will I manage to finish this within my original 10 year time frame? Probably not, especially not the control surfaces, and I’m a bit more stressed out by this than I’d like to admit. I will however definitely have a working, playable, polyphonic, multitimbral, analog-digital hybrid instrument, and that’s awesome!




PS: I love talking synth, especially hardware, so feel free to contact me. I have a blog documenting everything I do at http://atosynth.blogspot.com, and while it is written mostly to document things for myself it may be of some interest to other very nerdy people out there too!

Hobby project: Synthesizer

God ledelse er noe av det vanskeligste som finnes. De fleste har opplevd mer dårlig ledelse enn god ledelse, og man kan starte å lure på om det er så vanskelig å være en god leder at det bare må bli sånn. Men egentlig kreves det bare to ting av deg for å bli en god leder!

1. Selvrefleksjon over eget lederskap

Som leder er det din jobb å gi tilbakemeldinger til andre, både positive og negative. Når noen gjør noe bra må du hjelpe dem med å se hvorfor de lyktes, og hva de kan gjøre for å fortsette å utvikle seg i riktig retning. Og når noen gjør noe de ikke burde gjort, så må du på samme måte klare å veilede dem til å forstå hva som gikk galt, hvorfor det ikke tjener målet, og hvilke endringer de trenger å iverksette.

Men som leder har man ofte ikke den samme muligheten til å få tilbakemeldinger. Dine egne ledere jobber ofte lenger unna deg, enn den avstanden du har til dem du leder. Og de du leder vil fort bli usikre på hvor tydelige tilbakemeldinger det er trygt å gi til deg, all den tid du som leder ofte har makt over både arbeidsoppgavene og lønnen deres.

Derfor må man bruke mye tid på å utforske sitt eget lederskap. Det er opp til deg som leder å ha et reflektert forhold til hvordan du går frem i relasjonene med de rundt deg, undersøke hvordan du oppleves, og skaffe deg forståelse for din effekt som leder. Det er krevende, men helt nødvendig. Som leder kan du ikke forvente å få servert en ferdig evaluering av arbeidet ditt på sølvfat. Du må jobbe hardt, være åpen for tilbakemeldinger og kritikk, ha en interesse for å forbedre deg, og bruke tid på både selvrefleksjon og læring hvis du skal lykkes.

Dessverre kan du ikke bare dra på et ledelseskurs, eller et refleksjonsseminar. Du må hele tiden øve opp din egen selvinnsikt ved å reflektere over deg selv og din egen adferd. Sett av tid i hverdagen din til å tenke over relasjonene dine til de du jobber med, hva du sier og gjør på jobb, og hvilken effekt det har på de du ønsker å lede. Oppnår du faktisk det du ønsker når du forsøker å lede? Hva kunne du gjort annerledes for å i større grad hjulpet de du leder med å nå sine mål?

2. Evnen til å gjøre deg selv relevant for de du leder

Selv om du er en god leder som klarer å ta godt vare på de du skal lede, en som kan gi klar og tydelig veiledning og som er genrelt godt likt, så hjelper det lite hvis ingen har noen grunn til å komme til deg. Den tradisjonelle sjefen som styrer den minste oppgave med jernhånd er for lengst borte fra moderne organisasjoner. Nå er lederne tilretteleggere, mentorer og sparringspartnere.

Men hvis ingen kommer til deg for å få den tilretteleggingen, hvis ingen vil sparre med deg, da kan du jo egentlig ikke utøve så mye lederskap. Derfor må du sørge for at du er relevant for de du skal lede. Du må kunne tilby noe som gjør at de ønsker å involvere deg i sitt arbeid. Da får du også invitasjonen til å komme inn med ledelsen din, og kan langt mer effektivt lede arbeidet.

Å være relevant krever både at du forstår fagfeltet og oppgavene til de du leder, slik at du har troverdighet på det faglige, og at du har perspektiver eller kunnskap som andre trenger, så du kan bistå med både den faglige og personlige utviklingen til de rundt deg. Du må også ta ansvar for å vise folk at du er en person som de vil få utbytte av å sparre med. Det krever nysgjerrighet om det er snakk om et fagfelt som er ulikt ditt eget, evnen til å sette arbeid i en større kontekst, og at du kjenner både organisasjon, fag og folk som andre ikke har like god innsikt i.

Heldigvis ligger det i lederrollen gode muligheter til dette. Du har ofte mye mer kontroll over egen tid, kan delegere vekk oppgaver som ikke hjelper deg nå dette målet, og blir gjerne invitert inn i andre team og grupperinger hvor du kan lære ting som vil være veldig verdifullt å gi videre til de du leder.

Så hva gjør jeg nå?

Les mer om ledelse! Det finnes hauger av gode bøker som forteller mye om hva som kan gjøre deg til en bedre leder. Her vil jeg anbefale Radical Candor av Kim Scott som gir klar og tydelig veiledning til de tingene mange gjør feil som leder, og hva man må gjøre dersom man skal komme på rett spor.

Diskuter ledelse med andre ledere! Snakk med dem om de utfordringene du opplever, sett deg inn i de situasjonene de opplever, og diskuter hva dere kunne gjort bedre. Diskusjon er et kraftig verktøy for å trigge refleksjon, og kan hjelpe deg til å se ditt eget lederskap fra et nytt perspektiv.

Vær nysgjerrig og skaff deg bred innsikt! Ved å forstå organisasjonen, heve blikket, og sette deg inn i andres fagfelt og utfordringer vil du få et perspektiv på problemstillingene som resten av organisasjonen ikke har.

Og helt til slutt: Husk at det ligger i ordet “Leder” at det er en som går foran og som andre følger. Du blir ikke en leder av å få tittelen. Du blir først en leder når noen velger å følge etter deg. Frem til da er du bare en sjef.

En god leder trenger bare to egenskaper

How often do you think about storytelling while at work? Working on creating digital products, it might be more important than you realise.

What is story telling?

In prehistoric times, before the advent of writing systems, storytelling was the primary means of communicating values, culture, and history within tribes and societies, especially for educating new generations. This was crucial for helping newcomers understand their identity and place in society.

Elders typically narrated these stories, often imbued with moral lessons. For example, tales of mystical animals punishing misbehaving children were common so that children would behave accordingly. Children were also encouraged to participate in storytelling to ensure they grasped the moral lessons.

Today, storytelling is used in politics, marketing, and numerous other fields. Ronald Reagan, known for his storytelling prowess, often narrated life in the Soviet Union to emphasise the superiority of the American system. Similarly, Steve Jobs’ way of introducing and talking about Apple products revolutionised product presentations, influencing countless firms to do the same.

Science explains why storytelling is so effective. When a story is told, multiple brain areas activate, including those involved in language processing and those that would be active if the listener were experiencing the events. This phenomenon, known as neural coupling, creates a shared contextual understanding. Furthermore, the release of dopamine and oxytocin during storytelling generates happiness and emotional engagement in the story.

Why is story telling important at work?

In the professional realm, I define storytelling as the art of painting a picture. It’s about crafting narratives using analogies, providing context, or employing examples that resonate with your audience. The goal is to paint a vivid picture to ensure your listener fully grasps your message, whether it’s to highlight the value of a product or feature, to help key stakeholders understand a decision informed by your insights, or to use user stories to elucidate a product you’re developing.

Let’s illustrate how you can use story telling for work with an example inspired by a this TED talk. 

Introducing “Pain Island,” a dreary place where it perpetually rains, grass refuses to grow, and the sun is a stranger.

Contrast this with “Paradise Island,” where the ocean sparkles with crystal blue clarity, the sun beams with relentless warmth, and joy is the common language among its inhabitants.

We want to get from Pain Island to Pleasure Island. And to do so, we use a ship. In this narrative, a simple button that you have created in your digital product acts as the ship transporting you from the gloom of Sad Island to the bliss of Paradise Island.

Imagine you’ve created this metaphorical button and you are about to showcase its value to your stakeholders. You could plainly tell your stakeholders about its functions, but they might dismiss it with a thought, “Isn’t that what a button is supposed to do?”

Instead, use the storytelling approach mentioned above. Start by talking about the process before. How many emails and excel sheets that needed to be filled out. How much time that was spent on writing the same stuff in different sheets. And then, you introduce the button, this new and shiny button that replaces all of that manual labour. Then, your stakeholders might realise how important the button you have created really is.

You might ask yourselves: “How can I become a great story teller at work?” There are numerous ways to tell stories, and each method could probably fill a chapter in a book. However, some general advice would be to:

Strive for simplicity in your explanations for better understanding

Understand the context of your product

Always consider your audience

I hope this article has successfully painted a picture of why storytelling is an invaluable tool in the workplace. Thank you for reading!

10-Dec

Today's posts

Hobby project: Synthesizer

En god leder trenger bare to egenskaper

Everything Can Be Understood Through a Good Story