A dual buffered multiplier and a dual guitar pedal interface.
The multiplier is built from the Eddy Bergman design.
The pedal interface was inspired by the AI Synthesis module, but modified to have two independent channels, and a bypass switch to allow for quick switching between clean signal and pedal affected signal.
Hey all.
I've been building guitar pedals for a while now, and dipping my toes into diysynth.
So far I've built out some basic 'utility' modules like the Barton BMC004 VC/Clock Divider, 8 Step baby 8 based sequencer, Fonitronik VCO Maximus, and the Barton BMC054 Stereo out.
I plan to also build the ToilModular Continuum 4 oscillator Drone module and either buy the PCB/panel or build a veroboard layout for the AI Synthesis A1006 guitar pedal module.
The case I built is an 84hp 6u, so I have some space.
Any suggestions for other projects to look at that would fit a drone/dark ambient sound that I want to explore?
I'm setting myself a limit to only building analog circuits. So, not messing with midi or programming/firmware.
Partly cause I don't want to learn all of that right now, and partly cause I want to see how far analog circuits can get me.
I got a behringer swing keyboard only to use the 1v/Oct. CV out.
With the pedals I build, when I build out the pedal IO module, I'll have on hand a ton of different distortion/delay/reverb/modulation possibilities.
But, always open to suggestions for other things to look at to build.
If it helps, I really like stuff like Author&Punisher/Allesandro Cortini/Sunn O))) and the like. So, that's where I want to explore musically.
I felt some motivation today to try out a one day build.
Everything started with intending it to be a 24 hour challenge, but it ended up being just 6.5 hours.
I've built the Thorpy Fallout Cloud before as a build for a friend, and always intended to build one for myself because it's such a damn nice Big Muff variant.
This is the layout I used:
https://dirtboxlayouts.blogspot.com/2020/08/thorpy-fx-fallout-cloud.html?m=1
So, how did I do it?
I started at about 4pm
Well, obviously, the stripboard build was pretty straightforward.
I got that knocked out in just over an hour.
Taking 5 minute breaks here and there while doing the board, I took a bare 1590BB, and primed it with some TropicalGlitz DTM Epoxy primer.
I love that stuff, it cures so damn quickly. Within just 30 minutes, it's ready to be sanded back and the color coat applied.
The color coat is also from Tropicalglitz, their Deco Dive metallic blue.
Once again, this stuff cures insanely quickly.
Three coats took less than 30 minutes to apply.
Two coats of SprayMax 1K clear coat followed, and quick dried with a propane blowtorch on a low flame, and a stint in the toaster over set at 150*f for about 15 minutes.
During that time, I jumped on Inkscape and designed the label from scratch, and printed out on Sunnyscopa film free waterslide paper.
I'm loving that stuff, though it does have a learning curve.
For best results, I've found, that light coats of clear on the enclosure is a must before applying.
A quick wipe down with 99% alcohol to remove any surface contamination, and then a very light coat of the Sunnyscopa W1+ glue.
Warm water to soak the label, and a quick pat dry on the film side with a paper towel (ya dont want excess water to dilute the glue)
Apply, squeegee, and a 15 minutes bake in a 175*f oven.
After 15 minutes, turn off the oven, crack open the door, and let sit for another 15-20 minutes to fully dry.
Then, after taking it out, and letting cool for 10-20 minutes, peel away the film very carefully.
Some more 99% alcohol to remove any remaining glue residue.
Once done, I drilled the enclosure using the drill guide I built in to the label design, and another two heavy coats of the clear, torch quick drying, and back in the toaster oven at 150-160*f for about 20 minutes.
I had all of that completed by about 8:30-8:45pm
Another hour and half of wiring, and by 10:15-10:30, and many crossed fingers that it worked, I was playing through it.
It really is an amazing circuit. I highly recommend it.
Absolutely would not have been able to get this done that quickly had it not been for the paint/primer choice and the film free waterslide. Absolute game changers for speed.
Expensive though, but worth it.
Next time I do it, I'll be better at taking progress photos and videos. Might do a time lapse.
A guy I met at my local synthesizer club meetup asked me to build him some pedals, all matching purple.
So, of course I had to oblige.
Ritual Pre-Amp ( PedalPCB Mofeta/EAE Model FeT)
Lightbringer (PedalPCB Spirit Box/EQD Ghost Echo)
Fragments (PedalPCB Captain Bit/EQD Bit Commander)
Conflagration (AionFX Quadratron/Lovetone Doppelganger)
Angry Pixies (AionFX Neutrotron/Lovetone Ring Stinger)
I used the Tropical Glitz Berry Blast metallic paint in a spray can.
It's expensive, but it's damn good paint.
He now wants me to customize the faceplate of his Amp, and he'll be getting one of his guitars repainted in the same paint.
I'm building the "A REALLY GOOD AS3340 VCO DESIGN" from Eddy Bergman (https://www.eddybergman.com/2020/01/synthesizer-build-part-18-really-good.html#google\_vignette)
After building the board, confirming all things are where they are suppose to be, that I get appropriate voltages and grounds where I should with the chips removed, I then moved on to to populating the chips and testing with my oscilloscope before adding all the offboard parts (jacks, pots, switch, etc).
I get a good strong sawtooth waveform at the leg of the large 470n capacitor there in the bottom right of the board, but that is the only waveform I can find.
I do not get a square wave at the output of the board location, nor do I have a strong pulse out signal from Pin 4 of the 3340 (which feeds into the TL074 and should give square from pin 7 of the TL074.
I also do not get a triangle waveform where I should be getting one on the board, nor do i see one from Pin 11 of the 3340.
Is this normal expected behavior, or what?
My only thought could be that perhaps the 3340 (or the rest of the circuit) needs some input signal (CV?) to produce those waveforms, or perhaps some critical part of the offboard components and wiring is what will finally give those waveforms to where I would expect to see them.
And, if so, then I guess the sawtooth wave form is just a thing that doesn't rely on offboard wiring/components for the chip to produce.
Just trying to cross all my bases in testing along the way before committing the time and effort to finalize the offboard wiring.
I removed the case, and found some awesome old components and tubes.
I plugged it in, and the power tube (next to the large transformer) arced really badly and the transformer stsrted to let out the magic smoke.
I'm gonna let it sit for about a week, and then carefully make sure that the old capacitors are fully discharged, then harvest some components.
There's some great old switches, and I'm sure I can find a use for the resistors at least
I'll find a use for the enclosure as well, sooner or later.
Might turn it into a diy synth of some type.
I need a check on my wiring, and a question answered.
I'm building the Eddy Bergman Baby8 sequencer project, and I'm just starting the offboard wiring.
https://www.eddybergman.com/2022/04/8-step-sequencer-v2.html#google_vignette
I wanted to implement the option for channel mute switches, as talked about in the page after the "ALTERNATIVE SCHEMATIC and LAYOUT (version 3):" section.
I starting with step one, I have wired up the step 1 pot pin 2 with a diode going to the pin 1 of a SPDT On/On switch, pin two of the SPDT switch then goes to pin 2 of the step 2 pot, and carried on that pattern down to the step 8 pot and switch.
Unless I'm fundamentally misunderstanding something in the provided layout, it looks like Pin 2 of the step 8 SPDT would then go to the CV In position of the veroboard layout.
But, it occurs to me that maybe none of that seems to work electrically.
My thinking is that if all of the SPDT switches are not in the Mute position, then all 8 steps should be on and working.
But, lets say I mute the #5 switch, it seems like that would also turn off steps 4, 3, 2 and 1 because the circuit 'chain' above the #5 switch has been broken by that #5 switch.
I hope that makes sense in how I described my logic here.
Looking at the schematic, It seems like I should maybe connect each Pin 2 of the switches to each other.
Is that correct?
Any help is welcome
Just got done with building the Barton BMC004 unit.
The spaghetti is a real pain, but it worked first go and gave all the blinkenlights..
I'll be redoing the faceplate, as I kinda rushed it and got some wrinkles, bubbles and discoloration...
In all, the build took me about 7 hours of soldering and assembly (plus a couple for the faceplate when I redo it)
I wanted to post here showing a fair few photos so that maybe someone else who might build this can see.. apparently, there's just not any good gut shots of the completed unit online (until now)
If you build it, make sure to source the correct linear 100k pots for the onboard potentimeters... Unlike the offboard pots, the onboard pots are 12mm body. 16mm pots will not work here.
I was only able to find them on mouser in the value needed at the time I purchased (late June 2026)
Jameco has/had a listing for them, but backordered.
Here's a link to the correct pots:
Finished this one up last night for a friend.
Found the layout on dirtbox:
https://dirtboxlayouts.blogspot.com/2020/08/thorpy-fx-fallout-cloud.html?m=1
This thing is just wild, an absolute monster of a big muff variant with so much sustain it could damn near be called a reverb pedal.
Breaking out the tone control into a two band bass/treble control gives a ton of options.
And holy hell, it's slams the bass when its turned up.
It'll blast a cabinet into next week if ya dial it all the way up.
It would sound incredible on a big bass cab. Like, Sunn O))) levels .
The veroboard build was straightforward enough.
I took the suggestion in the comments from the dirtbox layout page and changed the Q2 emitter resistor from 150R to 91R.
I've been interested in the Parasit Studio Quantum Defrakulator synth project for a while, and finally pulled the trigger on buying a board to build it.
Its a really cool 3 oscillator drone synth, with a 3-4 step sequencer, filter and glide. The filter and glide can also be controlled via CV.
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Its a fun build, and really ignited my path into building a diy eurorack synth project.
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The PedalPCB Leprechaun is another really cool build that gives the Razzle Dazzle.
It goes from pretty mellow modulation to pretty awesome extremes.
A really rewarding build that I've spent a ton of time playing with.
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Both are finished in my usual way of self etching primer, spray paint, homemade waterslide decals, and 1k clear coat.
The leprechaun's clear coat is the Duplicolor 1k Pearl which has a nice scattering of flake that catches all the colors of the rainbow.
I'm going to start on building a diy all analog eurorack project.
I don't want to get into Arduino or digital as a challenge to myself (even though learning Arduino would be a sperate challenge)
I have a couple of questions.
When/if you build modules with veroboard/stripboard with off board jacks and pots, what's your preferred method of fixing the boards to the faceplate so they're not just flopping around inside the case?
I've seen standoffs with screws going through the faceplate, but I don't know if I'd want to have screws like that visible.
I've looked at quick set epoxy to fix the standoffs or small L brackets to the back of the faceplate as an option.
I cant imagine any issues with that approach.
Second question.
I plan to build two VCOs from plans on Eddy Bergman's site.
I do not yet have a cv output keyboard controller, nor oscilloscope, so I'm looking at alternate methods of tuning the VCOs for 1v/octave.
My current plan is to build a simple resistor ladder circuit (with fine trim pots to dial in voltage exactly) to produce voltage in 1v increments and a chromatic guitar tuner.
Any pitfalls with that approach I should look out for?
Thanks
I’m beginning on a DIY eurorack synth journey, after having build guitar pedals for the last 5 months.
Before buying kits/pcbs for specific modules, I figured the best thing to do first is figure out the case size, and power supply solution I want to use.
Knowing full well that it’ll be too large for me at first, I’ve decided to build a 6u 84hp case. Figured that I will want room to grow.
I’ve found this power supply project from Polykit, and I think it’s the one I want to go for.
https://polykit.rocks/eurorack-power-supply-psu-dual-power-12v-5v-synth-diy-modular/
I’ve emailed this question to the contact email on the website, but I figured I’d ask here too since i haven't yer recieved a reply from them.
In the project variations section on the website, it states "There are buck converter replacements for the 78xx regulators which can deliver up to 3A and are much more efficient. I have good results using those with a 12V AC/AC 5A wall wart adapter"
For the L7812 regulator called for in the BOM, I believe that the MIC29300-12WT would be a suitable replacement.
for the L7805 regulator called for in the BOM, I believe that the MIC29310-5.0WT would be a suitable replacement.
Both of these also have the same pin-outs and TO-220-3 package as the ones called for in the BOM.
As for the L7912 regulator that provides -12v, I could not find what I believe to be a suitable replacement.
If I make the other replacements, is this a unit I should look to replace as well? If so, do you have a suggestion for what to replace it with.
I want to upgrade these parts to hopefully be able to run a 2000-2500mA wall wart power brick (rather than the 1000mA suggested) and to give the entire unit plenty of headspace for future (maybe more power hungry) modules I might want to build in that 6U case.
I’d also be building the eurorack bus-board project from Polykit.
Also, should I use these replacements, and use a higher mA wall wart, I’d also ‘upgrading’ the rest of the on-board components (such as using 50v rated caps rather than the 35v specified in the BOM, for instance, and using 1/2w resistors rather than 1/4w, etc.)
I know it’s probably overkill, but I figure it can’t hurt.
So, yeah, that’s the questions.
Any input ya’ll might have is welcome, or is there potentially another DIY powersupply solution you might point me towards?
The phone microphone compressed the shit out of the sound, I promise it sounded better with my ears.
I'm slowly moving towards building more synth units, planning what I want to do first (Euro rack case, obviously) but I wanted to explore some of the diyguitarpedals I've built do with the 3 drone box I built a couple weeks ago and showed here...
It's getting me even more excited to move into a dit modular synth situation.
As an aside, every pedal on the board, and the pedal board itself, I built as DIY projects.
I'm considering building a 6u case 84hp, with a copy of the pedal board at the bottom so that I can more easily organize and use pedals in the synth chain. I want to build something larger than what I 'need' for room to grow and explore more things
Got this big guy done yesterday.
Its such a mellow, chilled out pedal in every way. A nice phaser(ish) thing that's just a joy to noodle around with.
The build was complicated, and challenging, but very worth it.
As always, the enclosure is finished in my makeshift home spray booth with normal Rusto enamel spray paint over a self etching primer, homemade waterslide decals, and clear coated with several coats of SprayMax 1K clear.
A few days ago, another member here posted about 'upgrading' their audio probe situation.
https://www.reddit.com/r/diypedals/s/SlEhhtR6lH
I've had this plastic project box for a while, with nothing to do with it, and a set of cheap multimeter probes.
All I had to do was get some probe sockets off Amazon and I finally have something that isn't janky as hell.
My 'old' probe was literally built with a large sewing needle, a bic pen, some heat shrink, and an alligator clip with a jack... It was terrible to use, but it got me through several troubleshooting sessions.
Pretty much the title.
I have an HL-2300D connected to my Windows 11 machine.
I updated the printer driver with the Brother utility.
I use the printer mostly to print label designs for guitar pedals I build, so accurate scaling is pretty high priority for me.
When trying to print graphics (either from PDF or Inkscape .SVG) the prints come out approximately 1% smaller than true size.
For instance, if trying to print a box that is designed as exactly 4.5 inches by 5.5inches, the print comes out at maybe 1/32 on each axis of an inch smaller than true 4.5x5.5.
I'm printing on US 8.5/11 paper, but also switch to manual tray feeding of A4 size waterslide transfer decal paper
If I print at 101% scale, the print comes out very very close to true. If I could select 100.75% scale, then it would be almost perfect.
I have tried every permutation of selecting all the scaling options (off, default, fit to printable area, fit to paper) along with the three dpi settings I have available (300, 600, and 1200).
Kind of at my wits end with it, just needing some help/direction on what else to try.
When I built the pedalboard, I thought to myself "Yeah, 24" by 14" is gonna be plenty!"
I've kinda run out of room, and now I'm considering building a 5 foot long pedalboard just for the laughs.
From top to bottom, left to right.
"Death to the Heretics" PedalPCB Superheterodyne Receiver (EQD Data Corrupter)
"Angry Pixies" AionFX Neurotron (Lovetone Ring Stinger)
"Spectre" AionFX Spectron (Lovetone Meatball)
"Destruction" PedalPCB Chaos Machine (EQD Interstellar Orbiter)
"LABYRINTH" my own custom design RATish pedal.
5 loop switcher
"Fragments" PedalPCB Captain Bit (EQD Bit Commander)
"Big Muff" AionFX Corvus (EHX Op-Amp Big Muff)
"Despair" PedalPCB Master Fuzz (Ace Tone FM-2)
"Armageddon" PedalPCB Parenthesis (EQD LifePedal)
"Apocalypse" PedaclPCB Germanium II (Cornish G-2)
"Lightbringer" PedalPCB Spirit Box (EQD Ghost Echo)
"Ritual" PedalPCB Mofeta Pre-Amp (EAE Model feT)
After a few months of consuming every bit of information I possibly can, researching the circuit and it's modding, many many many hours on the breadboard and learning KiCad from scratch, I finally have Svartur Pedal 's first batch of prototype boards making their way into an actual production run.
I wanted to make what I thought of as my version of the perfect RAT for doom metal... Something that brought out the deep, the warm, the thick..
Therefore, Labyrinth was born.
With a selectable low pass filter to switch between a bright and dark tone, and a 4 way clipping stage selector inspired by the EQD LifePedal, along with a few other tweaks to certain values.
I'm really proud of the work I've put into this project.
I'll be constructing 10 of these prototype pedals and distributing them amongst some people I know who play in the Atlanta metal scene and other friends for feedback... What they like, what they don't, and will iterate on the idea further.
I've been building guitar pedals for a few months, but wanted to dip my toes into the diy synth pool while I wait for some PCBs to arrive.
I found this layout/circuit from an old post on Paul In The Lab:
https://paulinthelab.blogspot.com/2012/10/devils-triangle-drone-synth-stripboard.html?m=1
Its pretty fun, and won't be my last diysynth build. I'm now researching for projects to build out a small eurorack situation.
I can say, however, passing this thing through some of my diy guitar pedals has been a fun time
In the demo video, the pedal board is 100% DIY, including the board itself. The only thing I didn't build is the power supply, tuner, and cable (though I will be making my own custom length cables soonish)
Demo video.
Got done with these two things in the past week.
"Destruction" is the PedalPCB Chaos Machine (EQD Interstellar Orbiter) and "Despair" is the PedalPCB Master Fuzz (Ace Tone FM-2)
The Master Fuzz went together very quickly. It was a 1 day build that I knocked out today.
As for the enclosure, it's just bare aluminum that I've hit with some sandpaper and a ScotchBrite pad, with a homemade waterslide decal and a few coats of SprayMax 1K gloss clear. Finished out with some aluminum black knobs.
The germanium diode set I chose for it is a matched pair of 1N34A at .287 forward voltage.
This thing is SUPER fuzzy. I love it.
Somehow, in all the builds I have done this far, I haven't built a proper fuzz pedal.
Yes, I did build the Black Ash clone from PedalPCB a few months ago, but honestly I never really liked it. So I'm not counting that one, haha!
Destruction gave me fits, but only because of my own borderline stupidity.. the build went super smooth, but I somehow didn't realize that I used the wrong IC (JRCLM386) when the build docs clearly say JRC4558...
once I got that worked out, this thing came to life in glorious ways.
The enclosure is finished in metallic copper spray paint, with a homemade waterslide label, and finished with several coats of SprayMax 1K gloss clear.
