Dumpster Synthsizer
Turning a broken piano into a modular synthesizer
Here is a thoroughly embarrassing video of me in high school talking about my synthesizer and playing prog rock:
This journey began when I pulled these keys out of a dumpster behind the cafeteria at my high school. I convinced a friend to help me carry them up a hill so we could hide them in an empty closet. Several days later it ended up on my desk at home:
My organ and piano teacher was very excited about the project and immediately brought over some ancient books on electronic music. He helped me with the woodworking to build a case to house 64 keys:
Meanwhile, I was also working on the electronics. I modified the keys so that they would make contact with a resistor chain when they were depressed. I used this reed switch design to turn this action into a control voltage. All of the other modules were based on the open source YuSynth modular synth.
This was my first experience with electronics of any sort and might have been too ambitious. I originally designed the synth to have 3 VCOS, 2 ADSRs, 2 LFOs, 2 VCFs (one Moog-style filter and one EMS-style diode ladder filter) and 1 VCA. In the end only half of them worked, but it still very exciting when they did.
Although the piano did work as a controller it wasn't actually that great. The wood was old and warped which made the keys stick and the magnetic action felt very unnatural. So I eventually took all of the modules and built a portable case for them:
I purchased an Akai Max49 CV controller with the money I received from family for graduation. Here is a rare video of the two in action:
I also used the synth in my tube hack.
My organ and piano teacher was very excited about the project and immediately brought over some ancient books on electronic music. He helped me with the woodworking to build a case to house 64 keys:
Meanwhile, I was also working on the electronics. I modified the keys so that they would make contact with a resistor chain when they were depressed. I used this reed switch design to turn this action into a control voltage. All of the other modules were based on the open source YuSynth modular synth.
This was my first experience with electronics of any sort and might have been too ambitious. I originally designed the synth to have 3 VCOS, 2 ADSRs, 2 LFOs, 2 VCFs (one Moog-style filter and one EMS-style diode ladder filter) and 1 VCA. In the end only half of them worked, but it still very exciting when they did.
Although the piano did work as a controller it wasn't actually that great. The wood was old and warped which made the keys stick and the magnetic action felt very unnatural. So I eventually took all of the modules and built a portable case for them:
I purchased an Akai Max49 CV controller with the money I received from family for graduation. Here is a rare video of the two in action:
I also used the synth in my tube hack.