Erica Synths mki x es.EDU Noise S&H

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Whether you use it for self-sequencing, for adding a dash of randomness to your filter movements, or for rough analog bitcrushing, a sample & hold-circuit can often be the secret sauce that takes your patch from decent to distinctive. That’s why we came up with this super simple JFET-based implementation – and then upgraded it with a couple of extra features like an internal clock generator or a dedicated slew output. Of course, we’ll need an interesting input to sample – which is why you’ll often find sample & hold modules with an integrated noise generator. So we’ll do the same! But instead of just one noise color, we’ll throw in two extra: pink and blue in addition to the standard white noise.

They – Erica Synths and Moritz Klein – have developed a series of educational DIY kits under the brand name mki x es.EDU with one specific goal in mind: to teach people with little-to-no prior experience how to design analog synthesizer circuits from scratch. What you’ll find in the box is not simply meant to be soldered together and then disappear in your rack. Instead, they want to take you through the circuit design process step by step, explaining every choice they’ve made and how it impacts the finished module.

In total, they have developed 9 kits to build a fully-featured modular monosynth: a sequencer, a VCO, a wavefolder, a noise/S&H module, a mixer, a VCF, an Envelope generator, a dual VCA, and an output stereo mixer with a headphone amplifier. Additionally, an affordable eurorack case with a DIY PSU will also be available. While these kits are easy to build, we did not compromise on design and functionality. They will launch one kit every 4-6 weeks. For each kit, there is an extensive user manual (40+ pages; can be downloaded separately) that will dive deep into not only the electronics behind each circuit but also the fundamental principles of sound synthesis. They hope that the mki x es.EDU project will inspire future engineers and will contribute to the ever-growing diversity of electronic music technology.