DIY Synth #37 -- GranulArduino -- A simple granular synth using an Arduino Nano

[@wylepeyote]

Tasty wee project. I have built a couple of arduino based desktop granular synths and was going to build the next one in euro rack format. This is a tidy implementation.

[@telegraph_hill]

nice! great technique to save time with front panel design. awesome.

[@benjiaomodular]

Thanks! My laziness finds it's way, i guess. 😂

[@sandrainthesky1011]

Very old school love it!

[@benjiaomodular]

Thank you! ☺

[@dillipphunbar7924]

Impressive. I bought a nano to do something similar (sampler), but I haven't a clue where to start except follow other people's projects. You are obviously far more accomplished and the result sounds really good.

[@benjiaomodular]

Thanks! I'm sure you can do it! I was about a year into learning electronics when I made this video. :D

[@stevesmachineempire]

Nice wiring job.

[@benjiaomodular]

Thank you very much! 😊

[@NotesAndVolts]

Amazing!

[@benjiaomodular]

Heyyy thanks for doing your videos! Your stuff helped me a lot when I was getting started with synthdiy. 🙏

[@sparkmusic734]

This sounds really good! Hope to see more of these in the future! Great video

[@benjiaomodular]

Thank you very much! 🙏

[@channelite]

cool jam! I really enjoyed it.

[@benjiaomodular]

Thank you very much! 😊

[@LockStoppageSandwich]

Looks and sounds superb 👍GREAT job

[@benjiaomodular]

Thanks! ☺️

[@i_never_asked_for_an_alias]

Lovely. It's like the first words from a newborn. ;-)

[@benjiaomodular]

Haha! Thanks man. It sure does, doesn't it.

[@i_never_asked_for_an_alias]

@@benjiaomodularI was more metaphorically speaking, but yeah. 😉

[@benjiaomodular]

It works both ways! Haha

[@garaughty]

Seriously brilliant work on this Benjie !

[@benjiaomodular]

Thanks, Marti!

[@SpectrumDIY]

That turned out really nice dude!

[@benjiaomodular]

Thanks! 🙏

[@SpectrumDIY]

@@benjiaomodular synth tour soon? 😁😁

[@benjiaomodular]

@@SpectrumDIY I'm afraid it might take a while. I just took down the big synth. 😅 instagram.com/p/CbvBrelIDac/

[@SpectrumDIY]

@@benjiaomodular OMG 😳😳😱

[@benjiaomodular]

@@SpectrumDIY haha! Not quitting though, just reorganizing. 😅

[@Sarahbuildsstepsequencers]

Great work! Sounds great!

[@benjiaomodular]

Thanks, Sarah!

[@jonkruth4157]

woow ..very very cool

[@benjiaomodular]

Thank you so much!

[@draconianrhythms]

Bravo .. this is awesome 👏

[@benjiaomodular]

Thank you! 😊

[@TheScreamingFrog916]

Thanks for your contribution to the Granular Synth community 🎶🌎☮❤ I don't have the skills, but would be great if someone could turn this into a PCB file with gerber files, so we could send out to have PCB made. Maybe do a batch purchase. Best wishes for your continued success 🔥

[@benjiaomodular]

Hey, thanks for reaching out! Maybe not for this exact circuit, but I do have plans to design a better granular synth pcb in the future. 😊

[@runescaper1333]

Astig! buti nakita ko tong channel mo 🙌

[@benjiaomodular]

Maraming salamat! 🙏😊

[@5rockbolt]

wow!!! nice sound. Are you by any chance going to make the code and schematics available, please? I really would like to build one for myself. Thank you and VERY WELL DONE!!!!! :)

[@benjiaomodular]

Thanks! Everything's on my website: benjiaomodular.com/post/2022-03-31-granularduino/. It does have a sweet spot though. Some settings don't sound that great. 😅

[@johnp3541]

amazing m8!

[@benjiaomodular]

Thanks, John P!

[@thenetware1]

Excelente adaptação. Já construi tres unidades baseadas em notes and volts e fiquei feliz em encontrar a sua versão CV. É possível não utilizar o ADC e ter algum bom resultado? No Brasil é dificil encontrar esse componente e a exportação fica ridículamente cara por causa do frete e impostos. Agradeço se puder me ajudar com essa questão. Boa sorte e sucesso.

[@benjiaomodular]

Thank you! I'm glad you like it. I have not tried it without the ADC, but HAGIWO's Arduino projects (note.com/solder_state/n/n88317851a4c7) don't use them either, so it will probably work. Let me know if it does!

[@thenetware1]

@@benjiaomodular Obrigado pelo feedback, assim que eu finalizar poto o resutado aqui. Saudações do Brasil

[@benjiaomodular]

@@thenetware1 No problem! Good luck. Cheers from the Philippines. 👋

[@dtharmo]

Great job for a nice toy ! Just a simple silly question, the leds you added are directly from pins 2, 4, 9 & 12 through resistors ?

[@benjiaomodular]

Oops. Sorry, missed that on the schematics. Yes, 3mm leds direct to the arduino pins with 10k resistors to ground. Thanks for the compliment. 😊

[@pauls0131]

Hi Benji, First off, let me say thank you for posting your builds online, and especially for offering the files and BOM’s as well. Very generous! Wanted to ask about the soundtrack of the video you made for the GranulArduino. Was this all recorded from the GranulArduino? And if so, how did you process it? Clearly reverb, but anything else? It sounds great! And you are using a sequencer? It wasn’t clear to me how the two oscillators interact, the timbre of the sound does vary (and sounds great) but I can’t really tell if there are two separate voices or if one voice modulates the other? Anyway, I am teaching myself building electronic stuff as well, and this looks like a great project with a very rewarding result! Am very interested in your idea of a sample playback device, have you developed this idea any more?

[@benjiaomodular]

You're welcome! Always happy to share everything I do as open-source. It's been a while since i recorded this, so I'll do my best to recall what i used. I'm pretty sure the Delay is from a delay pedal that I made which would later become my MiniDelay module: benjiaomodular.com/post/2022-09-11-mini-delay/. The reverb was probably my Boss RV-6. The sequencer I used is the Korg SQ-1, you should be able to see it in action at 6:36. I believe it's just two waves that are sampled and blended together really fast. You can read more about it in the reference that I used: code.google.com/archive/p/tinkerit/wikis/Auduino.wiki. I'm also pretty new to this so forgive my ignorance. 😅 A much better sampler is still on the list but unfortunately, I haven't gotten to it yet! But it will probably involve a Daisy Seed. Apologies for the very late reply. If you're interested, I run a Discord server with other SynthDIY friends. You can catch me there, or ask from help from other DIYers in case i miss it again. discord.gg/3BCqysyJdQ

[@benjiaomodular]

@CycloidalHeadache heh. i try! thanks man

[@andrewdok3595]

interesting device but I really cant understand such sound

[@artekworkshop9243]

Is it possible to play it alone without any other modular staf?

[@benjiaomodular]

Yup! Since it's a sound source, you can play with it on its own. It's nice if you have effects pedals too, like reverb or delay

[@frankyfanclub]

wow

[@benjiaomodular]

Hey, thanks! 😊

[@_vespertine]

Can i use this code without the cv inputs, with the original auduino hardware plus the extra pots?

[@23Gears]

This seems like a fantastic project Benjie, but I'm not sure I understand what a granular module does in a modular synth setup. Does it use a sampled sound and take grains from that, or is it sampling grains from a VCO as input? What is actually happening "under the hood"? What I do know, is that I would like to make one 😆

[@benjiaomodular]

Thanks, Stephen! This one actually uses two built in triangle waves that are chopped up and mixed. I can't take any credit for it though. I got the code from the Auduino project: - code.google.com/archive/p/tinkerit/wikis/Auduino.wiki - code.google.com/archive/p/tinkerit/downloads I would love to make a more advanced version later, where you can load sample files (wav/mp3) -- as you've described. Good luck with your build!

[@MaxUgly]

I want to take waveforms from data, like a big spreadsheet of some data unrelated to audio but it naturally oscillates over some point. Make that point zero, stretch it horizontally to make it make sound and play it back... Any idea how to make this happen? I have been trying to learn some python and PCM stuff and am decent at Excel, just can't seem to put it all together. Kinda rage quit a few months ago...

[@benjiaomodular]

That's interesting. Have you checked out this project? I haven't tried it, but you should be able to drop in your data as a replacement for the screen input. diyelectromusic.wordpress.com/2021/08/09/arduino-touchscreen-pwm-sound-output/ You'll probably have to scale your dataset. Set a min and max and then stretch the values to a standard range (eg. 0-1023).

[@MaxUgly]

@@benjiaomodular Thank you sir! Looking into it now. One of my favorite artists is Hot Sugar. He goes around and records all kinds of crazy sounds including the "silence" of a room and processes it into a coherent instrument. He recently even made a jam from the first interplanetary audio from the Perseverance Mars rover. He calls it "associative music" That is my inspiration for this. I also really appreciate what you are doing with these unique circuits. The emotion from a unique instrument can be so much stronger than something familiar.

[@benjiaomodular]

@MaxUgly no problem. I hope you get it to work. And thanks for the nice words. 😊 Associative music, that's a very good way to call it! If you're interested, I do have a data-driven module too. I used earthquake data from NOAA to produce rhythmic patterns: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mZ-kcoGiqbF2htU. It's also Arduino-based and I also shared the Jupyter notebook (Python scripts) I used to prepare the data.

[@MaxUgly]

@@benjiaomodular Super interested!! Thank you! I have to go into work for four hours and then I am going to check that out and tinker with the tool. Thank you so much.

[@benjiaomodular]

@@MaxUgly happy to help. Have a nice day!

[@RodolfoEscobarS]

The project is fantastic but it is too frustrating not to be able to understand how it works to put it into action. Is there a tutorial or some basic reference? I apologize. Thank you.

[@benjiaomodular]

Thanks! Not exactly a tutorial, but I have my docs on my website: benjiaomodular.com/post/2022-03-31-granularduino/ You can also follow Notes and Volts' simpler version: www.notesandvolts.com/2014/07/build-auduino-granular-synth-part-1.html

[@artificium_]

it is digital?

[@benjiaomodular]

Yup, it's arduino-based