Your half-baked WIP ideas progress

DIY STUFF
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We’ve got full threads for the big projects people are working on, a big big thread to show what you’ve just built, but no thread to simply dump half-baked ideas you might never act upon. We need to change that!

As a big proponent of the “ADHD Rota” personal time management system, and being much more interested in designing stuff than in ending up with a working and coherent machine, I always have a dozen or three WIPs in the oven.

So let’s share what we’ve got cooking. Feel free to both post yours, and discuss ideas by others. Vaporware only! Early WIPs that may or may not ever happen!

I’ll start by dumping my own plans from my stash of text files:

(Working) Name Description Status Feasibility
Touring Mädchen My digital take on the MTM Turing Machine (misnomer), aware of theory. Unapologetically anchored in 4/4 12TET but you can hack the firmware. Software Prototypes in various environments (e.g. bespokesynth python) Very feasible. Have all the skills practiced except for one possible feature (chord oscillator). Simple BOM (Little more than a STM32, DAC, I/O, and a screen)
Fight Stick Arcade controls sequencer that mimics a fighting game. Joystick and 6 buttons. Could also connect existing fightstick. Makes for cool performances. NOT oriented on finger drumming like a MIDI fighter. Pass up on this one if you can’t perform a QCF or DP on demand. Strong focus on sequences with 303esque slides. Theory aware. Concept Expensive BOM. Gonna need some authentic Sanwa parts so it doesn’t feel horrible to use. Software aspect is simple but a lot of work, could be prototyped with USB controls.
Performance Delay A delay that encourages you to use it as a live instrument the way I do in my music. Flushing buffers, changing timings, feedback, ducking, things like that. Concept Hard. Lots to learn to make it happen. Will try to make a simpler PT2399 based thing first.
Soapstone A wifi-enabled module that shares its full state with every single other Soapstone module in the world. You can only change one parameter every few seconds. You can also use a phone app to change parameters (invite the audience to participate). It emits CV and gate sequences you interpret as you wish. Basically, the next evolution of Arcane - I wanted to do it in software before I quit the environment I used. Concept Hard. I would have to commit to server maintenance, and usage would be naturally spiky (streamers inviting their audience to join in). It’s not happening on a non-commercial budget.
Darius Physical version of my software sequencer. A non-negligible amount of people told me they want one, and would pay what it takes. Software version exists Super expensive if remade as-is. There would be like 80 potentiometers on it, including pots with a mechanical rotation stop. In Eurorack form factor, it’d be too cramped to add knobs to the shafts. Needs to be reimagined completely without being a digital experience.
Clock sync sampling quadrature LFO Very generic but I want it to have good performance controls, clock sync, and input sampling on the beat. Concept Very feasible but generic module, though the sampling part sets it apart.
Lunetta Hybrid CMOS synth that uses a compact SMD layout and exposes a lot of well-protected CMOS pins as pin headers. Make it so any exposed pin can handle -12V~+12V. If possible, no pots, or almost none: dupont patching only. Use as modular-in-a-modular, desktop synth, or core of a banana jack box. Concept I started out with CMOS stuff and want to revisit it now that I have learned more.
E-waste A repeatable process to turn most old androids into something useful in a synth. Cradle, USB OTG connector, software stack. Requires root and CFW and custom software to turn it into a proper stupid appliance. Unrealistic idea Very hard - unless I happen to find a provider selling like 50 shrink wrapped of the same obsolete & popular phone for a pittance so I could do a small run.
Theory-aware quantizer Not a remake of QQQQ but similar and better. Maps incoming voltage better to obtain musical results. Knows theory so you don’t have to. Equidistant mode spreads out the octave to make each note equal probability, or favor the octave and fifth. Concept. Very feasible.
Theory Bus Not a module, an actual bus. Well not an actual bus truck, but a way to share info about scales and chords across a system. Would like to at least have info about: current scale/key/mode, current chord (can be out of scale), inversion, suggested voicing per part, suggested quantization scheme (chordal / scalar / linear / equidistant) per part. A bit like what I attempted in software but better with digital signals. Concept Need to explore further. For it to be useful, I need to offer at least 2 designs that can sync that way and document/open the protocol.
Performance mixer A mono audio mixer. Each channel has its own VCA (normalled to full volume) then attenuator. Each channel has DJ style filter (single potentiometer with detent, crossfades two filters or controls a SVF). There’s two sends: send 1 is post-fader, send 2 is pre-fader and needs a VCA input (normalled to silent) and can be triggered with a button. Concept, working on a simpler version. Ambitious, but very feasible. Simpler version has only 1 send, no filter or VCAs, and a VU-meter showing peaks powered by an ATTiny.
E.PIANO 1 Hack of the Minidexed that bundles a CV<>MIDI. Module concept hard to explain. CV<>MIDI code worth porting to standalone later. WIP, prototype works Feasible, but I wanna use fewer module boards. Replace the two DAC and the buck converter module with my own circuit.
Emozzi🐶 Experiment / breakout board for Mozzi on Arduino Nano. Can run many HAGIWO sketches as-is. WIP, prototype works Feasible. Wanna redo the concept from scratch. Need to make use of all my 5 boards before I decide what to improve.
Basic stuff Classic circuits done my way, nothing groundbreaking. Plans Very feasible. Good way to build up skills & build up my own machine. Need to make a lot more of these than the fancy projects.
Personal modular site Gotta put something on the URL I’ve been printing on my boards. WIP Got a few pages done. Need to learn Astro better to make the structure simpler.
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Took a 5 month work/parenting/mental health break but I’ve been starting back in on modules again. This one’s been ruminating for a while as I sit in on the precipice of ordering another wave of VCOs (either 1222s or Hero/Sidekick PCBs):

(Working) Name Description Status Feasibility
Chordized Backplane Not very clever really, just build out the Barton Chordizer ( BMC52. Chordizer ) but between the 1221/1222s or the Hero/Sidekick links Concept Reasonably feasible I believe given Barton PCBs, just relocate the 4 expected front outputs to the appropriate 4 ribbon cables behind the module.
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(BTW nobody feel obligated to follow the same table layout or the format, I just copy-pasted the way I format things in my own docs to think about them lol)

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Cool, I have a backlog as long as my arm of stuff I need to finish.

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I’ve been wanting to do a combination quantizer and arpeggiator module, where you set the key and then it plays out notes of a chord in key based on the tonic, clockable but with a free tempo too, but also you can just do one play through (like the strum feature on the keystep). Maybe with a probabilistic component to add in 7ths and 9ths or something. So set to key of C you’d put in pitch cv for a C and it’s send pitch out and gate for the notes C E G played sequentially.

I’d thought about doing a simple drum machine that you sequence with two knobs per drum, one that sets the rhythm interval and one that offsets the beat - so you could set the snare to play half beat intervals with the first then turn the second knob to control where they land, maybe shifting by semiquavers left or right? Hopefully that makes sense. Again probably with a probability knob.

I’ve bought a teensy to try and learn some digital bits so hoping that would help.

Want to do a combination karplus strong and FM synth with a mostly fixed envelope (user control over just delay length, maybe attack control of the second oscillator), a dedicated plucked string style synth, but with an LFO that’s amplitude is controlled by an envelope generator doing a sort of timbre modulation. So you could, for example, fade in and out a bit of vibrato like you might on a guitar. Maybe also have the LFO speed tied to an envelope too somehow? So the speed would ramp up and down as volume would.

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Regarding your performance delay… I built a modified echo dream 2 years ago that has a button which reduces the delay time by a fixed amount, but it interacts with the delay time knob.

If you tune it right, you can set it to be really musical - when the button is pressed, anything already in the delay drops in pitch. Similarly, anything played into the delay with the button depressed increases in pitch when it’s released.

You can set it so that it drops a fifth and raises a fifth for example. Must be some maths behind it… I guess a pitch shifting delay isn’t that unique. But I really love it. Actually it has a bunch of mods including momentary punch in/punch out. It’s a great base for a delay project.

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A terrible bad idea shoved to the bottom of my todo-list i posted elsewhere online and people seem to like. How would you go about designing it?

DIY synth module i don’t have the skills yet to design but someone ought to: storage emtpier.

Do you have like 200 loose transistors you’ll never get assed to sort, but feel guilty throwing 3 euros worth of components away? Here’s an effect module designed to use up 50 mystery resistors, 30 capacitors, 20 diodes, and 15 transistors. Use literally whatever you have in stock randomly and it will be designed to probably make horrible noises. Your build will be entirely unique and impossible to reproduce.

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