Two Grand Ideas... IMHO

sompost · Joined: Aug 17, 2010 Posts: 58 Location: Switzerland

Below are some of the ideas (two, actually...) that I deliberated over for quite some time. Instead of discarding them into the black hole of discarded projects, I thought I share them with you, and invite you to discuss.

The 1uH ("one micro Henry") Analog Synth

This is a one-board monophonic MIDI-controlled analog synth based on some of Thomas Henry's famous designs:

VCO-555 (two, or one and a separate VCO1)
VCA1
VCF1
ADSR (the one with the blinky lights Wink

)
LFO

That's it! Well, perhaps we could add a TH ADR to control the VCA separately, but in the spirit of Mr Henry's designs (simplicity) that would be it.

The board would contain a small Arduino-compatible micro controller for MIDI control (notes, mostly). The pots could perhaps be integrated right on the PCB for a true one-board experience...

The Thomas Henry Analog Toolbox

In my spare time, I dabble (ineptly) in the recreation of vintage digital synths and often wish I had a simple analog "back end" that allowed me to feed in some analog signal at one end, and that took care of the filtering, ADSRing, and amplifying at the other. Ahm.. did I say polyphonically? Well, I have now...

The system would consist of a simple analog back-end made from TH components (VCF, ADSR VCA), all signals voltage controlled. These boards (1 to many) would plug into a base board that accepts audio signals at one end, mixes and outputs all processed signals at the other, provides power, and buffers all control signals for consumption by the boards. You can then plug in a control board with lots'o'pots to act as voltage dividers for the signals, or something more sophisticated, say a digital board with patch storage or whatever.

If you had this thing, your only worry would be how to create analog signals and the toolbox would do the rest. What a beautiful world that would be!

Incidentally, this toolbox could be the basis of a 8uH polyphonic synthesizer, but let's not rush ahead.

I contemplated for some time building these synths, but perhaps somebody more able can do this faster -- and certainly better. Also, if Mr Henry grants somebody the licence to have them manufactured professionally, I'm certain many here would happily buy one, especially if a buck or ten would go to Mr Henry as a thank you for all his amazing work.

Whaddaya think?

Discuss in three, two, one, ...

Ralph