Music and Synth DIY

Links

Components in the UK

Bitsbox

– UK based. Good for through hole components, subminiature switches etc. Quick delivery.

Thonk

A go-to for Eurorack parts, PCBs and kits. Volume discounts on Alpha pots and Thonkiconn jacks.

RS Components

– UK based. Next day delivery, well stocked but some items only available in bulk (ie. 3000 items)

Mouser

You know about Mouser. Free, suprisingly quick, shipping on orders over £32.

Ali Express

Got 30-60 days to wait? Good, cheap passives, crap shoot with ICs, some of which are fakes. Watch out for orders over £15 (I think – might be £18) as you’ll probably end up paying customs charges, if customs don’t lose your package first.

TC electronic components

Forgotten two 220nf 0603 capacitors in the Mouser order you’ve waited a week for? These people might be able to help you out. 2 day delivery IME.

DIY Eurorack PCBS

Frequency Central

Through hole boards and kits. Good build guides and straightforward projects mainly on skiff-friendly boards. I’ve built quite a few FC things, including all my power supplies for four and a half and a +/- 12v bench supply to test modules.

Pusherman

Mainly SMD PCBs and kits. ST modular, Antumbra, Jak Plugg, Mutable Instruments clones & adaptations like Monsoon etc, Performer sequencer, Micro and through hole version of Ornament & Crime, etc.

Kassutronics

Some great beginner level 0805 SMD boards, cheap enough so it won’t matter if you stuff the first one up. Start with the Dual VCA or Attenuverting Mixer. Decent through-hole 3340 VCO and an excellent SMD quantiser as well. Very good build guides and documentation, plus a few schematics on the blog with great explanations.

Amazing Synth

Mutable-Instruments-Clone PCB specialists. Great quality boards and Mouser carts.

David Haillant

Excellent Eurorack strip boards and power supply PCBs.

Forest Caver’s website and Github

Well known to most people who’ve built a Marbles/Marbles clone, I would imagine, thanks to his calibration tool & instructions. Some almost superhuman synth DIY work on the site, and his Github has Gerbers for a complete Eurorack synth voice, a Benjolin, lots of other stuff like the MI Links-like Minx buffered mult.

Schematics

Electric Druid

Fantastic range of PIC based Synth DIY chips, plus reissues like Alfa’s CEM reissues,

Check out their TapLFO, ENVGEN ADSR, MIDICLK and ONE SHOT chips. Datasheets all contain example schematics, up to and including complete Eurorack modules with CVs for parameters. Props to Tom Wiltshire.

MFOS

The late, great Ray Wilson. If you’re just getting into Synth DIY, buy his book, Make Analog Synthesizers – even if you don’t intend to build the project it’s written around.

And if you want to get your head around op-amps, try this – certainly helped the penny to drop for me.

Electro-notes

An incredible resource.

Look mum no computer

Unique take on synth-DIY, music and Furby organs.

AI synthesis

Eurorack schematics and PCB/Panels

Facebook groups

Eurorack DIY

Synth DIY for non-engineers

Vintage synth repair and mods

Pusherman’s Eurorack Noobs

Synth DIY

TO BE CONTINUED…