Analog Synth Kit Part 1

March 9, 2009 · by Eric Sorenson

After spending so much time working with software, I’ve recently had the opportunity to test my skills on building hardware. One of my birthday gifts this year was a build-it-yourself analog synthesizer kit. Analog synthesizers were very popular before digital synths took over in the 1980s. The Moog was one of the most popular analog synths. If you’ve heard any pop music from the 1970s you’ve probably listened to one.

Before this project, my experience with a soldering iron only involved desperate attempts at salvaging out of production headphones. I’d never worked with a PCB (printed circuit board) before. As usual, Google was a great help in finding basic tutorials. After orienting the dozens of resistors, chips and switches on the board, I had to solder about 100 connections that were only about a millimeter away from one other. This process gave me a much greater sense of just how sensitive the guts of my laptop are; almost any mistake will short a circuit and make the entire device unusable.

Working with hardware definitely requires much more planning than software. There were several times I wanted to punch an Apple-z to undo what I’d just done. As a software guy, I’m used to trying to create something useful in several different ways, then integrating the best ideas from each into a final design. Once wires are cut, that’s not always an option.

Next, I’ll need to mount my components in an enclosure. I hope I’m as good with a drill as I am with a soldering iron…

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