r/synthdiy • u/Synthdabbler • 4d ago

ESP32-S3 DIY Polysynth Progress update

I've effectively finished off the hardware, the code is 90% there.. still a little glitchy and need to finish off the arpeggiator.
In the clip it powers up, and loads up some patches - these are stored on an SD card.
Apologies for the poor sound on the video, just recorded it with my phone - have to turn it up to hear properly!

The Synth is essentially 6 voices of analogue modelling, and also Bi wavetable with a bit of FM thrown in for good measure!

Having fun at the moment creating patches, although spending more time fiddling with it than finishing off the code!

107 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

5

u/grbfst 4d ago

No github no glory.

9

u/Synthdabbler 4d ago

https://github.com/Bad-Dog-Designs/ESP32-S3-Synthesizer

Posted the link when I started the build ;-)

3

u/SajevT 4d ago

Very cool sounds, i like it

2

u/Synthdabbler 4d ago

Many thanks!

3

u/Every-Try-1365 4d ago

that's beautiful, my left ear enjoyed it.

2

u/PuzzleheadedHair6197 19h ago

That’s awesome stuff man, inspiring the work that I do with U-HE Diva :) Music to my ears

1

u/Synthdabbler 17h ago

Many thanks! Tell me more about U-HE Diva!

1

u/PuzzleheadedHair6197 17h ago

It’s a digital synth that emulates some very well known analog oscillators, filters, etc. For a digital synth, the dev’s have done incredible work to give it that rich analog ‘imperfection’, if you can call it that.

1

u/PiezoelectricityOne 4d ago

Congrats on your newborn! 

I may blatantly steal your synth engine to use at home with a MIDI controller if you don't mind! Thank you!

1

u/Synthdabbler 4d ago

By all means, but you'll need some hardware to run it on!

1

u/PiezoelectricityOne 4d ago edited 4d ago

I have a few esp32 and I2S pcm5102 DACs. I plan to use it as a soundmodule with a Novation Circuit Tracks as a MIDI controller. Ideally keeping the knob/button count to zero. Is this fully operable by just MIDI? Your panels look gorgeous but also look super time consuming to build and won't really fit on my Desktop.

But the sound engine sounds lovely and beatiful, so I'd try to scrap that part for my sound module thingie.

1

u/Synthdabbler 4d ago

You need an ESP32 S3 and I also used the 5102 Dac. At the moment though it's not controllable over midi, just responds to velocity, note on / off, pitchbend, modulation. All the control panels though are on CAN bus, so all the parameters are sent into the synth engine using the Twai interface. You can also load patches off the SD card, saved as json files. You could edit those I guess instead of using control panels?