These videos are so great; they're explained so clearly. And as someone with an EE degree who was also a rave DJ in the 90s, this one in particular was incredibly well suited to my interests. 😉
@NotJustBikes #NotJustSynths, guitar culture has made music listening inherently unpleasant and cost inefficient, and we would all be much better off appreciating the nuances of classic analog filters than lusting after a $4000 "fake vintage" Strat. (PS i love your work, this is a joke for fun)
Not only an absolute wizard of analog music, a talented lecturer and clever editor. Props to you again Moritz, superb video as always. Cheers from Brazil!!
After going to college for electrical engineering, I've transitioned to only software/firmware professionally. Videos like this scratch the itch I didn't know I still had for hardware beeps and boops. Keep up the great work.
My first time ever leaving a comment on RU-vid in my 23 years of living. This is absolutely amazing content and I am so thankful for you putting it on youtube for us. THANK YOU.
Hm, the main point of CMOS was that you can make things like NAND gates that only use power during signal transitions allowing you to use more gates for digital circuits with the same amount of power. That said, using a voltage controlled FET instead of a current controlled PNP or NPN transistor might be useful sometimes for analog circuits. JFETs might be easier to use than the MOSFETs used in CMOS since they are usually a bit less sensitive to electrostatic discharge.
I have seen devices that use the logic gates in CMOS ICs as analog amplifiers! I even tested an AM radio built entirely around 4 NAND gate chip that worked great.
I cannot stress how much your videos are such great learning tools. I built the kick my own way on proto board for my little DIY modular system and it is showcased in my last demo videos on my channel. Thank you again.
I just randomly ran into this when I got the wild hair to look into synth architecture while I’m in search for inspiration for a new project. I’m amazed how much of this I followed, and while I pat myself on the back, its REALLY a testament to the unbelievable quality and the top-tier combination of the explanation, the carefully curated simplicity of the project itself, and your visual elements and style. Unbelievable, I’m so happy to have run into this AND somehow I found good RU-vid content that’s 2 weeks old instead of 9 years. Thanks so much, I can’t wait to watch all of our videos
As a person who loves music but knows nothing of electronics, this was soo helpful. It helped me understand what capacitors and transistors do in circuits by relating it to music, incredible!
I started building DIY synth modules a year ago and I’m not sure I would have without your videos. Most of the modules I’m building are combination of knowledge gathered from you, the audiophool and lantertronics. Anyway I’ll name one of my modules MK-something because that’s the least I can do.
Really cool stuff. I find half of those old synth schematics impenetrable with their tricks and shortcuts, great to see you tackle one, and make such great showing of it. I’d like to see a longer series, where you pick a machine, and pick apart a different section of it each episode. Maybe with the goal of recreating one faithfully, or making an improved one, or just for education. Hope you keep at the 606, those noise circuits are fun. Personally I’m fond of circuits with strange components in them. If you see any audio circuits using H11F analogue optocouplers, UJTs, or mixer ICs, please make a showcase of that. Unbuffered CMOS logic is neat to see, but I’ve seen it often enough that I don’t consider it particularly rare. PLLs in audio on the other hand…
I have designed built my own guitar effects for years, self taught. Your videos are (for me anyway...) at the sweet spot of instructive and intuitive without all the mathematical baggage where I can guess what might come next, or intuitively know why we need to make something in the way you describe. Fantastic!!!!
I think I understand roughly 0.1% of that but it was fascinating to hear such a clear explanation. I will never achieve anywhere near this level of knowledge and I have renewed admiration for electronics engineers everywhere. Thanks for sharing.
These videos are fantastic means for understanding passive components, semiconductors, integrated circuits and practical circuit design. These would have been much more educational material in EE core courses than what was taught back in 1986.
Yoooo these are so cool. I've created a huge stockpile of components over the years. I just never got interested in project ideas. Audio never even crossed my mind, even though I grew up in the late 80s and early 90s.
Awesome video as always! If you're exploring more analog drum circuits, I think a great set to look into next are cymbal circuits, as those seem to have a bunch of unusual circuitry to achieve their sounds
As an electronics engineering student and a music producer, I see this channel as an absolute win. I instantly subscribed and I can't wait to try each of these circuits myself. Thank you for sharing this!
This is my favorite of these videos by a fair bit. So much detail, all really nicely explained,with a satisfying final result. This whole series has me itching to build a synth, even though I have less musical talent than the average goldfish. To quote Marge Simpson, "I just think they're neat!"
Built mine from scratch this weekend following the steps you did in the video to hear each stage of creating and then shaping the sound. Thanks for all your effort putting this together! (Now, on to a VCO, then a sequencer.)
Loved this video, I'm a telecommunications engineering student and it felt like a new way of understanding electronics other than just analyzing circuits.
I recently built Eric Archers 808-kick adaption on protoboard and was researching ways to put more CV inputs in the circuit: Thank you very much for the insight, very helpful!
I am fascinated by analog synthesis via interface design and this is way deeper than what I previously knew so it’s amazing for bedtime listening. Feel like I m back in the Audio Engineering class again.
I am surprised and amazed at the same time. Such a great lesson. I haven't seen anything as informative and clear yet I was wondering how drum machine is made and didn't find anything smart enough to read or watch to understand how this thing works in reality. High grade engineers use moonspeak and exclude vast information that would made it clear. Hobbyists show mumbojumbo as they don't have pure knowledge or do not know to explain as well as they dont wanna share what they learnt trying to sell some pcb boards they ordered in china. This video is a gem. Again thank you so much Moritz for your efforts
I have no idea how to read these electrical circuit schematics, but the way you break down every step is amazing - these videos should be stored in the human heritage archives :') I will stick to vcv rack for now :D
I came to your series because I'm interested in modular. I'm new to electronics....only finished technician's school a couple of years ago. I'm so appreciating the way you dive down into how the sub-circuits interact and how a single component can be used to create different outcomes. My job deals with troubleshooting and repairing analog audio circuits. Naturally, there's no such thing as a theory of operation available, and schematics are few and far between. Your DIY synth series is making me a better technician....thank you!!!
Amount of work that you've put into this video is... "impressive" is like saying nothing. Absolutely brilliant. The anomations, the focus on the detail, the whole narration, guiding by the hand... This is the best electronics series not only on youtube, but I'd be pretty sure that anywhere. Universities could teach stuff this way, but (obviously) they hardly ever do it like so. I wish you long, good, wealthy happy life (so you can teach us more ;) ) :D
😊 The way you visualise and explain this hard to understand stuff is nothing short of miracle. I really do love everything about this video. Gold!!!!❤️
Remarkable !!! It's always fun to see how those simple tricks solve complex issues in a efficient way. To try different "flavors" in the overdrive section is fun to use different diodes (red/green leds) or make it asymmetrical, with 1 diode in one direction and 2 in series in the opposite way
Stellar circuit. As always, really appreciate the step by step explanation of how you chose to construct the circuit. It's great to learn how to apply some of these sub-circuits like the bridged-T oscillator. As far as suggestions, I would be really interested to see how you approach using this kick as a starting point for making a hi-hat circuit. (which I would assume involves adding a noise source and maybe refining the envelope shaping). Thanks again for sharing, really look forward to more!
Hi bro, thanks for make this videos, I’m a EDM producer and electronic student, and it’s very wonderful see how both things work together. (And I’m practice my English at same time jaja)
This is really great! Had an old Sequential Circuits synth and played around with some old Moogs in the 80s into the 90s before everything was sampled and emulated and they were just marvelous devices. The classic percussion is a revelation, thanks!
Absolutely amazing video as always! A quick suggestion for a future video, maybe do something with BBD's? There are not a lot of beginner-friendly resources on them. BBD based chorus/phasers are some of the most iconic effects from the 80s (especially the chorus on the Juno line of analog synths), so a DIY version of that would be very cool!
Damn it. I don’t need another hobby! I’ve resisted the pull to head down the DIY synth rabbit hole for years, but this drum circuit is just too cool to ignore. I’m hooked; you win. :-)
you are incredibly intelligent. its extremely clear to see, and these videos are awesome, they answer questions that almost certainly wouldn't get answered otherwise, the way i see it is that although there are plenty of smart people around the world, the people who came up with the most fundamental inventions and devices, those who made discoveries that changed the world or created entire companies, those people usually don't share their secrets to the open web for all to see, that knowledge is kept away to keep a companies' inventions to themselves so that they can continue to make awesome products (and charge accordingly for them) like its not just some passing thought that creates these instruments, they are often well packed up secrets, blueprints, closed source and its understandable. i mean just these kicks, that was 40 minutes of intricate explanation , imagine what goes into things like the MPC or like the polybrute, hell maybe you have a good idea, the point is: we all appreciate that you share it with all of us, thats super open source of you and very badass. you deserve positive recognition for your contributions, they mean more than just a simple video or a simple DIY project, they sprout the seeds of tomorrow's ideas that maybe wouldn't have taken off if not for some extremely important piece of information that you just happened to donate to us, you never know what might end up being the missing link between interesting ideas and revolutionary new engineering anyway..uh..in short.. thanks, good show, yes
Absolutely awesome Man.. Ive been tinkering with the 606 and boss dr circuits for years ... I beg you.. Please do one on the simple vcas/evn and noise that made up the majority of the circuits like the snare and hats of those early machines..Id love to understand the vcas and simple evn gens/ filters that Roland designed for those drum machines.. With that knowledge we could easily build any drum sound from that era... The best thing is, once you grasp the bread and butter circuits implemented in those drum machines, I can see the same circuit bits used in most of the sounds..
I hear that it's actually not that tough, at least if you have time for experimentation. All the cymbals (crash, ride, hat), if I remember right, are white noise from a Zener diode or an abused B-E junction, run through a bandpass filter and the same envelope control that you see in this video. The snare is simply a cymbal and a tom striking at the same time.
@@ke9tv Nah thats not correct.. The snare is a tom with a pitch env and white noise running through a highpass filter... The hats and cymbal are very complex in nature with many small sub circuits.. six square osc all running at different frequencys and then sent down 2 different filter paths, a high pass and a bandpass section.. These are then sent to the hats and cymbal which also have complex evnelopes and vcas to control the closed open sections of the hats and the high low sections of the cymbals to make them believable sounding..
@@petrokemikal Yeah, I oversimplified. The snare and the toms definitely use transistor-derived white noise (Q35 on the main board), as well as the hex-Schmitt-trigger noise. Each time I revisit the schematic, I see weirder complexities in it. $DEITY alone knows how Kakehashi--san came up with some of these things!
That was pretty impressive, I've been soldering modules together for years, and never had much of a clue, I still don't really, much, but that was a lot of fun following the trail.
I spend alot of my free time making kicks snares, and trying to approximately model hihat and other cymbal noises in a subtractive synthesizer, so seein these as actual analog circuits will be highly interesting.
19:46 The waveform jumping around looks as goofy as the kick sounds right here, and I mean that in the best possible way! I like Ween, Primus and Igorrr lol ✌💗🤘
That's an amazing video as always. This drum voice sounds cooler than my rd-6 ! You made me start building my own synthethiser, and I learned a lot from you. Hope you will do the other instrument types, this will be a lot of things to learn !
Great explanations! A fair deal of the thinking about designing it went over my head since I'm still pretty new to analog. Amazing how simple that little distortion circuit is, yet how much it adds to the final sound.
Omg I love love music and am a freshman majoring in EE and this is so interesting, thank you for this sacred knowledge and thank you RDJ for inspiring me
Thank you so much for this video. My passion for bass guitar and the amplifiers that go with it is what spawned my interest in electrical engineering. I was disappointed through my time at university that we discussed the mathematics and physics of these components instead of the implementation of design. Your use of schematics and animation made it easy to follow what was happening. Looking forward to your next videos.
@@MoritzKlein0yes I will share it... most of the circuit is the same as yours but im trying to make it work on just a 5V supply. I use two 10K resistors to give a mid point ground so effectively creating +/-2.5 V rails. Im using Microchip MCP2021 op-amps as they work at 5V. I previously built a synth circuit as part of a larger computer project running on just 5V so I know it can be done.
Iv'e been working on the circuit at with 5V supply (+/-2.5V) and experimenting with different resistor values but some parts do not work very well.. so iv'e decided to go back to +/-12V supply and replace the op-amps with TL084 and build it the same as yours.
Dude, this is impress!!! I mean any Osc in digital VST (virtual instrument) in DAW (like FL studio, Sonar, Cubase...). It have basicly immitation the old analog instrument. Technicaly, this video explain every process of soundwave making, analog circuit but it work the same on VST(simulation). Dude, it improve my knowledge for sure. It's like i trace back why they name those like that, and how it work in digital simulation instrument.
Excellent video thanks you so much ! Maybe an idea for a video: how to design your first module/machine: where to learn, common things, tips and tricks…
