Casper Electronics DIY synth building. Part 1: Oscillators

[@gforsythe1]

This. This is the video I've been hunting for ages as a DIYer. Visual, auditory, intuitive but detailed. Perfect bridge between understanding the guts and just populating a board.

[@bubagoo]

+Glenn Forsythe . Awesome. Thanks. Video 2 coming soon(ish) ;)

[@simoncardie9371]

How have I missed this? I've been looking up DIY VCO's for ages, yet this never popped up??? It's brilliant, but I'm also 8 years late. Never mind. The technique's the same, but this is so brilliantly explained. Thank you!!!

[@paul2734]

Just the right amount of show and tell, refreshingly instructional and entertaining, thank you.

[@bubagoo]

Thanks!

[@AntonBurnsRed]

This could be some of the most educational content on electronics I've ever seen! Love the format, love the depth of knowledge, love the show and tell.

[@emildegerth]

The lfo with the led and light sensitive resistor was a really nice visual. Helped me understand it

[@sameeruddinads]

Probably the best entry point tutorial for all synth DIY noobs !! thank you for this . :)

[@bubagoo]

thanks so much. good to hear

[@Zer0Spinn]

4 years later this comment still stands.

[@shaheemvocals]

I really respect the passion you have...Even I wanted to make something just like this but I dont have proper knowledge...

[@rbaleksandar]

I giggled every time you said "Ok, let me bring my keyboard" and you slapped that piece of paper with pencil drawn keys on screen. :D Great video. Thanks for sharing.

[@makeitgreat5542]

dude wtf .... ive been waiting for someone creative enough to help me understand electronics at a waveform sound level. i never connected the dots. been wanting to build my own guitar pedals. ans now i want to build a synth sampler with some who knows weirdness..... thanks keep it up

[@James-zj7zm]

Don't you dare ever stop making these videos. This is amazing.

[@sound.workshop]

Thank you for making this video. The oscillator sync trick to make the subharmonic series is great. I’m going to use that in this duduk inspired synth im working on

[@kuro758]

hands down one of the best videos I've ever seen

[@websurfer5772]

~ 4:00 - I got thrown off because it sounds like you're saying "microfarads" (μF) but you're writing (nF) which are nanofarads. I really appreciate you making this video for us. Thank you.

[@hrnekbezucha]

Can't wait for following parts. Yesterday I finished my first oscilator from 4093 and I'm really excited about the whole DIY analog synth thing. Thank you for explaining everything this well, I've learnt so much from this video.

[@RaccoonEatingCacti]

Thank you, These videos really kept me going when I was having a hard time getting things to work. These tutorials helped me understand the logic chips necessary to build a 16 step voltage sequencer; something I thought would always remain unobtainable! Most recently I've been having fun modelling hihats using the CD40106. Four closely tuned Square waves at a relatively high frequency does a good job. Drum machine here I come!

[@bubagoo]

Raccoon Eating Cacti awesome. Glad to hear these videos have helped you keep going with electronics :D

[@ecarrasco2635]

you reminded me why I love electronics so much, thanks for exploring these musical systems with all of us in such a great way!

[@phoenixdk]

This made my day! Incredibly useful, comprehensive enough, and still very simple to follow. Thanks for explaining in some detail how the hex schmitt circuit works, it's amazing!

[@lukecurran5572]

Best explanation of oscillator sync I’ve heard. Super helpful. Im trying to build my own synth it’s been a dream of mine for a while. You are going to help me make it happen!

[@felixcat4346]

I'm definitely going to part 2 now. Jimmy Hendrix and Walter/Wendy Carlos would love this, not to mention Yorgy Legetti. Thanks.

[@lalanotlistening]

+Joseph Nicholas It's just Wendy. Don't be a jerk.

[@SourceRE]

25 Years in synthesis and I think today I finally understand HOW the VCO is oscillating and WHY that produces sound. Theres always something more to learn underneath. Thanks Peter!

[@robthomas8680]

Absolutely BEST online DIY synth experiments!! great explanation, details with extensive materials lists and resources! You and Look-Mum . . . . ;) Rock!!

[@Zxios]

I have been looking for exactly this type of video for a month or so now. I have wanted to build my own analog synths that take MIDI input and send audio back to my DAW and this is a perfect start. Thanks!

[@hulqen]

Great tutorial! Don't miss the crazy melon-synth-sequencer mayhem at the end!

[@SpeccyMan]

It's a melon-atron ;-)

[@coulrophobia7018]

the best laymen explanation about how an oscillator works...i finnally managed to actually get what the components are doeing...tnx :)

[@markwieland4299]

this is the best rescourse I have found on synth building so far! great mix of theory and practical. thanks for the info!

[@OmBotCult]

Just got my OMSynth Mini lab version 3.2. I'm in love! So super cool! Thanks Pete!

[@bubagoo]

OmBotCult woohoo! Have fun ;)

[@bordongates221]

This is awesome! I built this, and the sequencer is next- I have all the parts! I am a high school physics teacher, and my students are going to make Atari Punks consoles, then maybe this.

[@bubagoo]

huzzah! thats super cool. I wish i was building weird sound circuits in high school :D Feel free to drop me a line if you have questions or suggestions

[@bordongates221]

@@bubagoo Cool, you replied!!!! Most youtube folks seem to ignore the comments, that's cool that you acknowledged my comment, thanks! I actually found a cool kit and bought 24 of them for my students, at around $4 each. Tech Will Save Us DIY Synth kit, which has everything except the battery- even the speaker! It uses a 556, and one of the circuits is basically the Atari Punk. Ive been building variations of the 40106 synth that you show in your video. There are so many little variations I can do with LDRs and pots, I still have not made it past that. One day I will get to the sequencer and sampler- I have all the parts, but I am still really engaged by building the 40106 oscillator over and over again.

[@teazer999999]

Great demo and explanations. The step oscillator you describe at 17:00 was first described (as far as I know) as "Sound Synthesizer" in Engineer's Notebook: Integrated Circuit Applications (1980) by Forrest Mims III, implemented with a 556 (a dual 555). I like your design with a hex inverter better because you can make 3 with one chip and less discretes (caps and resistors).

[@tstikeman]

Thank you for taking the time to share these series! please keep them coming !!! super helpful for newbies getting into circuitry. Love the format as well

[@bubagoo]

Hey all. The OMSynth is now for sale with kits for all of the videos! Woohoo! noise.kitchen/product-category/bastl/omsynth/

[@pesto12601]

PRICEY!

[@nicinish]

Great video, exactly what I was looking for. Thank you. I think I might be your 15,000th subscriber. Watched the video, saw that you had 14.9K, Subscribed, reloaded, 15K. Congrats!

[@hakonsoreide]

Brilliant tutorial on synth DIY. I don't know much about electronics, but the tiny bit I do know was enough to follow this quite easily, and I do feel inspired to try making my own synth one day as the basic workings of one is so easy.

[@Kajahzao]

very simple, intuitive and sounds mind blowing kkkk... very hard to find nice beginners material on diy synths, thank you!, im anxious waiting for more !

[@bubagoo]

+Kajahzao thanks!

[@mrfeenix1]

wow ... Blown away so glad i found you been looking for this basic explanation. Really looking forward to more of these .Hope you plan to do more fantastic stuff .. Thanks!!

[@MetaMicroLabs]

Dude. It's like you broke into my lab while I was sleeping and shot the video I was putting together. Great job. I'm using a 74HC14 hex-schmitt since I have several on hand for building MIDI-Out and MIDI-Thu circuits. I'll go back to making my lowpass filter build video and met up with you on the flip side. Cheers!

[@bubagoo]

+Meta Micro Ha! looking forward to seeing your video! Everyones got a different approach and there's always more to learn :) Would LOVE to see a simple LPF vid. Filters are almost obligatory for these square wave oscillators.

[@CircuitSideshow]

Love this series, please keep it up! Can't wait for the next episode. Just started looking for simple approach to building something like a Baby 10.

[@dealerbinq]

great instructional video! perfect balance between theory and demonstrations. looking forward to part two

[@carmencru510]

Super, continuez ! Explications simples avec un petit schéma pour bien comprendre... S'il n'y avait que des tutoriels comme le votre, KZbin serait un paradis (Ça fait des jours que je cherche et les bons contenus sont noyés aux milieu des divertissements Bull shit populaires)

[@bubagoo]

Merci ;)

[@nickygrillet786]

I'm very late to the party, but thank you so much for that! This is immensely interesting and instructive!

[@ineffable_potentiality_01]

I am so excited, my woman just bought me a mini lab!

[@JadanDuffin127]

really wish I could get this DIY kit, it looks so fun! Please bring it back!

[@KiR_3d]

Hi! I've folowed this video for about 7:30 then I've started to experimenting (already did seen this all but not sure I remember all) It was a surprise: - if I change a resistance of one Schmitt trigger (1-2) then 2nd (3-4) is kind of syncing to the 1st. I've made a simple mixer with one resistor (from pin 2) then it meets the triangle wave from pin 3 and these are mixing with a cool "notchy" wave. - if pin 3 goes to the "meeting point" through a resistor then the wave is completely other! It makes FM on the square wave. Very interesting sound also! I've replaced the R for 2nd schm.osc. to a LDR - it's gives cool performance :) It sounds like RM! One important detail: I have a powerful bycicle headlight for this and... the character of the modulation also depends on it's force! I don't know why... maybe because this headlight gives a "blinking light" (controlled by PWM?), not constant.

[@CBMnebulah]

Cheers! That's a very nice video. Really looking forward to see the upcoming parts!

[@aditya23052]

Loved this one please make more of this kind of informational videos would really appreciate it :D

[@Otm_Shank]

This guy is a friggin genius.

[@Quimeracromaticosa]

Crystal clear man!! Thank you for your generosity and your effort 🙏

[@SABRENOSE]

Man I wish this happened when you were still in Troy! You've really streamlined your modules in the last few years.

[@rofilmmedia2]

Great stuff!! Exactly what I was looking for. Looking forward to the next part. Wonderful work. Thank you! Rolf

[@magnanimousrecords1630]

Been following your work for a while now - our dronelabs get a lot of use to this day. keep it up!

[@PaulTheSkeptic]

Strobe lights with light sensors are cool.

[@bauhnguefyische667]

Play that funky watermelon white boy! Play that watermelon right! Great Vid, helped make a lot of sense of what you were doing. The erasable pen! Love that, gets the point across much better than some over animated cartoon. What have I got myself into now?

[@mtyas]

Great work, I suddenly understand so much more. Thanks a lot

[@Jay-q3o4w]

Damn, this is just the best guide I found. I have a question, how can you be so cool?

[@lewisgregory6282]

this is a fantistic resource very accessable too keep it up sir!

[@rubbaclaymo2822]

i started liking this channel at the cost of liking pulse waves

[@bubagoo]

rubba claymo pulse waves are so easy to make. And just add a passive filter and you’ve got smoother waves. ;)

[@willynebula6193]

It's 3:30 in the morning and i find your channel now! Why KZbin why!!!

[@saulocisneros]

Two Forty A M here!

[@j0ckm0n]

Thank you for all of these tutorials I'm learning so much.

[@Mr.M1STER]

The OMSynth is very expensive. It would be an interesting little project for people to make their own amplifier and speaker circuit. Get a few pots too in order to build and test these oscillators. Great video though, very clear and easy to follow.

[@edwardfletcher7790]

This sort of video is incredibly helpful !

[@TijsHam]

This is perfect! Will share through STEIM accounts next week!

[@YanickFM]

This is the exact kind of thing I've been looking for

[@musictreeproductions5994]

This is exactly what I've been looking for! Thank you! 🙏🙏🙏

[@vivalanovus]

Awesome video. Just bought m'self a nova drone. Casper rules!

[@novadrone8885]

Woo woooo. Enjoy the drone ;)

[@DECIMA1]

Very well done video. Informative and entertaining 👌

[@seangarland]

Great video! I'm very interested in beginning to make DIY synths, so I've now subscribed to your channel.

[@ninhingazanan]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge! Appreciated.

[@kurtcircuit]

hi thks 4 you r contibution, help a lot when i started with diy synth!!

[@graphene1487]

Thank you for the lesson. Really great stuff here.

[@VintageMusicGearTV]

Awesome have made some of your circuits they are great!

[@ThaDrones]

Awesome content, very instructionnal and still entertaining though... Great performance at the end! :D

[@moviathan]

i was completely mind fucked when you changed the frequency with just the motion of light. awesome.

[@geoffreyhoffman2739]

Extremely helpful for beginners!

[@dusanvukasovic2525]

It's great to make DIY synth as a standalone device. It's not a product or a brand or a price tag anymore, cool. But if I try imagine the simplest way to get a sound of an analogue oscillator and filter, I end up with an idea of a device with just four CV inputs: pitch, amp, filter cutoff and resonance amt. So I set a DAW to send those values to some, say Arduino, usb interface, that will work as 4 midi cc-to-voltage converters, and that's all. All kinds of LFO -ing, ADSRs, keytracking, velocity scaling, etc. I do from within DAW.

[@shinyless]

Thanks a lot for this amazing tutorial ! It's working like a charm :)

[@Biosynth]

Whouah! so pedagogic. really cool vid. Greetings from France :)

[@lalanotlistening]

This is a fantastic lesson. Thank you!

[@rickyhong8]

Thank you! Learn so much here!

[@TheBambivalentina]

Thanks man, please keep making this videos

[@atsevenam6748]

really good stuff my friend

[@camillobenso3202]

"created with newbie in mind is an ironic statement" i supppose.....lost myself at 0:35great video aniway :-)

[@bubagoo]

bummer. cant win em all i suppose. cheers ;)

[@funkytransport]

great videos man.. 10/10 !

[@isaacwarne7758]

Quality. Thank you very much

[@CircularMirror7]

Thanks for explaining this.

[@arachnohack9050]

This vid helped me so much, thanks man

[@bubagoo]

ArachnoHack thats great! Cheers ;) and happy building

[@BooktownBoy]

Brilliant video.

[@morphman86]

A tip I'm sure you already figured out, in the almost 4 years since this went up: If you put the IC's with the feet pointing up on the glass table, people with headphones won't scream every time you nudge it :D

[@bubagoo]

then i wont get to make people scream! ..but yes... if i were to go back and do it all again i would probably do that differently ;D

[@morphman86]

@@bubagoo add a mic, and use it as an incidental instrument. "The lamentation of the audience"

[@Loundre3]

Thanks for showing how to properly use an schmitt trigger oscillator. Beside the CD40106, you could try also using an CD74HC14.

[@planker]

Outstanding!

[@electromatik2000]

Odličan video! Hvala!

[@analogueheavenrecordingstu2984]

Fantastic video thanks so much

[@danjeans2024]

Hi Casper, thank you for the detailed and inspiring tutorials. One question, since the om synth seems to be no longer available. Is it possible to carry out these tutorials without it and could you give me some advice on what I might need? Many thanks, Dan

[@josephmillett5740]

I'm a scholar in some true bass tune killer soundboy!

[@insideTheMirror_]

thank you Casper!

[@bubagoo]

you're welcome!

[@DaveOnBoard-e6u]

Amazing video

[@zut25]

I had never seen someone explain these concepts so well. I remember watching videos like these back in high school. do you know who made the fun with seamoss videos. that channel seemed to have disappeared from youtube, man this made me want to get into electronics all over again. thanks for that. :)

[@bubagoo]

Alexis Zaragoza thanks so much. I don’t know who made those videos. Haven’t seen them actually.

[@bethmehl2767]

bless you for this

[@pyrhockz]

Thank you!

[@FireFarter72]

Much respect!

[@sircliff323]

that chip is super easy, guessing this what's in the ae modular because the triangles in that are quiet

[@googlecontrolfreakjetfuel6914]

You wizard you! Now I owe ya!