Like, subscribe and get notified about upcoming videos! The main board schematics and PCB layout are publicly available on GitHub: github.com/polykit/polykit-x-mainboard There is also the second part on the controls available! th-cam.com/video/PgTKbzN74_U/w-d-xo.html
Just stumbled across this while looking for my next project, having built a Soundlab Ultimate, a CB55 and a T-Synth. This is definitely it! Thank you so much for sharing!!!!!
This is very exciting. It a marvel that anyone has the ability to put the joy of sharing the gifts of their talent and hard earned skills over personal gain. I have personally been depressed at the lack of financial accessibility to quality music gear these days. Built equipment has become prohibitively expensive. I have been looking at developing my long dormant skills in Electronics design. This looks like the way to go - get quality music gear while expanding the skill set.
wow - what a cerebral undertaking! . This reminds me I still have a Black Corp poly synth kit - KIJIMI I need to assmble .. (all components have been acquired).
Awesome, thanks for being an inspiration, making a digitally controlled analog synth seems very interesting, i might try to make a simpler one someday!
Hi, I like your project. I'm thinking of using your cards to build a full size synthesizer resembling the Juno 106. I checked out your github, but did not see files for the components in this video, nor the software for the atmel chip. Is this still in early development?
Just checking in on the progress of the X8 Main Board. How are you doing, excited to purchase one of those. I got the two boards working, now just awaiting for the main board. Will you be posting the source code, so one can made some mods for custom applications?
Great to see you making headway on this again! Those first sounds are glorious! Are you planning on making this rackable in a deep case like a Doepfer A-100G6?
You are a brave soul for taking this on! Using the VCOs of the OB-Xa/OB-8, but the filter/vca chips of the Matrix gives this a unique sound among polys--not just a clone or anything. I wonder if you plan on doing any pole-mixing filter modes with the AS3372 (as with the Matrix/Xpander), or if you find that is unnecessary. Great work--it is wonderful to see you bring your ideas to life!
Thank you! It has a pole-mixing filter like the Oberheim Xpander/Matrix-12 but with only 8 different filter responses. See my video on the voice card for more details: th-cam.com/video/quJYekSshpI/w-d-xo.html
Sorry but seriously new to applied oscilloscope exercises. My old analog scope made by BK Precision had a user manual with great suggestions and instructions - like how to fix old CRT tvs and HiFi stereos. But no crystals. Should I just hook up the probe to either of the two pins from the crystal?
Hallo Jan, ich gehe mal aufgrund verschiedener Anzeichen davon aus, daß du Deutscher bist, ich also mal zur Abwechslung auch in meiner Muttersprache schreiben kann. (translated to english below) Ich bin auf deinen Kanal aufmerksam geworden, da ich ein glücklicher Besitzer eines in die Jahre gekommenen Polysix bin. Meiner hatte bisher gut funktioniert, aber nun muss ich mich um die typischen Poti-Probleme kümmern. Das ist ja ein absolut irres Projekt, was du da aus dem Boden stampfst. Du erfüllst dir quasi einen Teil meiner Jugendträume, die schon ein paar Dekaden alt sind..., als Teenager hatte ich (noch vor Polysix-Geburt) mit ersten Klangschaltungen der ganz einfachen Art herumgelötet. Natürlich in KEINSTER Weise mit deinem Projekt vergleichbar, aber vielleicht hast du auch mal ähnlich angefangen 😉, aber bist drangeblieben!! Bei mir hat es mich zum Elektrotechnikstudium geführt.. Ich habe es vllt übersehen: den verlinkten Unterlagen (Respekt für die viele Doku, ohne schon alles gelesen zu haben) entnehme ich einen Oscillator je Voice, richtig? Wenn alles ATMEGA-controlliert ist, wie soll es mit der Parameterspeicherung aussehen? Kann (bzw. wird) evtl. später per Software über den USB-Port auch ein VST-Interface realisiert werden? LG, Torsten english (by goole translater): Hi Jan, based on various signs I'm assuming that you're German, so I can write in my mother tongue for a change. I became aware of your channel because I am a happy owner of an aging Polysix. Mine had worked fine so far, but now I have to take care of the typical poti problems. That's an absolutely insane project that you're pounding out of the ground. You're sort of fulfilling part of my childhood dreams, which are already a few decades old..., as a teenager (before the Polysix release) I soldered around with the first very simple sound circuits. Of course it is NOT comparable to your project in ANY way, but maybe you started out in a similar way 😉 but stuck with it!! It led me to study electrical engineering. I may have overlooked it: I take it from the linked documents (respect for the many documentation, without having read everything) one oscillator per voice, right? If everything is ATMEGA controlled, what about parameter storage? Can (or will) a VST interface be implemented later via software via the USB port? Kind regards, Torsten
Hi Torsten, ja, du hast das richtig gesehen, die Voice Card hat jeweils einen Oszillator und Ein- und Ausgänge am Atmega gehen über ADC bzw. DAC. D.h. alle Einstellungen können als Patches gespeichert werden. Ein USB-Midi Interface ist aktuell nicht vorgesehen, das kann der Atmega so auch erstmal nicht, da muss man sich mit einem Midi-Converter aushelfen. Ich komme leider mit der Software gerade nicht so wirklich weiter, vielleicht muss ich noch ein paar Änderungen am Mainboard machen, aber ich bleibe auf jeden Fall dran! Danke für dein Interesse und schöne Grüße, Jan English: Hello Torsten, yes, you are right, each voice card has one oscillator and inputs and outputs on the Atmega are via ADC or DAC. That means all settings can be saved as patches. An USB MIDI interface is currently not planned, the Atmega cannot do that anyway, so you have to help yourself with a MIDI converter. Unfortunately there is no real progress on the software side, I think I need to make some changes to the mainboard, but I'll definitely stay on it! Thanks for your interest and best regards, Jan
@@polykit Hallo Jan, danke für die Antwort. Generell möchte ich dir gerne Hilfe im Bereich Programming anbieten. Konkret mit Atmega habe ich ich zwar noch keine Erfahrung. Aber dennoch kann ich auf ein langes Programmierleben zurückblicken, angefangen mit Maschinensprache am VC20, später Diplomarbeit mit 8051. Danach VB, VBA, Pascal, PB und andere. Will sagen, grundsätzliches Verständnis ist da. Und wenn ich mal hier und da wo es klemmt einfach nur einen Anschubser liefern kann, wäre das bestimmt hilfreich. Umfangreicher gehts erst nächstes Jahr, sofern überhaupt Bedarf und Interesse besteht. Derzeit arbeite ich ja gerade meinen Polysix auf, erst mal komplett neue Potis rein. Und dann schaue ich, ob man die MG Sektion aufbohren und für VCO, VCF und VCA getrennt erweitern könnte. Mal sehen.... LG Torsten
Very interesting project!!. Congratulations!!. If i understood well you are using a regular unipolar 8dac, but you could arrange it to have bipolar output voltages...¿Is that right?.
Hi from Hellas. I like your channel and subscribe to it. Since i 've start using arduino, I was wondering if it's possible to interface a sound blaster like AWE32 or similar to build a midi synth. Of course we can use both arduino or other microcontrolers as well to combine them. I think that this approach can give even more interesting sounds. Thanking in advance.
I usually buy my stuff from Reichelt here in Germany, synth related ICs from Electricdruid. What I can't get there I purchase from Digikey/eBay/Aliexpress. Cheers!
Im gonna guess your defenition of polyphonic here is not that you can actually play chords with it and have 8 voices per note, but rather just a 8 voice monophonic synth, ie it can only play one note at a time with all 8 voices active, and that chords would be split up to use 1-8 voices per note, depending on number of keys pressed. Or does it use multiplexing so that the each voice card can do 3 or more notes simultanously by rapidly sequencing between the notes in a chord fast enough that it sounds like the synth has 8 voices per keyboard key ?
Thank you! No, not really, I work in software engineering. I have some experience with electronics but It's basically all self-taught knowledge. I started tinkering with DIY synth stuff in the pandemic.
@@polykit that’s really inspirational. I’m also a former software engineer, this gives me hope that I may be able to learn electronics well enough myself one day. What resources would you recommend for me to teach myself? Are there any books, web sites, or TH-camrs that you found really useful?
For the basics I don't know. I usually look it up when I need it. For synth related stuff the books by Thomas Henry are great. I also learned a lot from Music From Outer Space and Yves Usson's website. On TH-cam Moritz Klein has great synth related tutorials. But there is many more.
Like, subscribe and get notified about upcoming videos!
The main board schematics and PCB layout are publicly available on GitHub: github.com/polykit/polykit-x-mainboard
There is also the second part on the controls available! th-cam.com/video/PgTKbzN74_U/w-d-xo.html
Just stumbled across this while looking for my next project, having built a Soundlab Ultimate, a CB55 and a T-Synth. This is definitely it! Thank you so much for sharing!!!!!
Cool, thanks!
This is very exciting. It a marvel that anyone has the ability to put the joy of sharing the gifts of their talent and hard earned skills over personal gain. I have personally been depressed at the lack of financial accessibility to quality music gear these days. Built equipment has become prohibitively expensive. I have been looking at developing my long dormant skills in Electronics design. This looks like the way to go - get quality music gear while expanding the skill set.
Thanks a lot for your kind words. I very much appreciate it.
so it's a 8 voise analog synth? @@polykit
Looking forward to the next one!
Cool, thanks 😊
Man this is amazing! Thank you for sharing this with the world!
wow - what a cerebral undertaking! .
This reminds me I still have a Black Corp poly synth kit - KIJIMI I need to assmble .. (all components have been acquired).
Let’s go! Anticipated episode
Thank you!
Awesome, thanks for being an inspiration, making a digitally controlled analog synth seems very interesting, i might try to make a simpler one someday!
Great, thanks a lot. Go for it!
Hi, I like your project. I'm thinking of using your cards to build a full size synthesizer resembling the Juno 106. I checked out your github, but did not see files for the components in this video, nor the software for the atmel chip. Is this still in early development?
Currently there is only the voice card on my Gtihub, main board and software is still in development,.
Great work. Looks super promising.
Nice, thanks a lot!
Now, this is exciting. 🤩
Cool, thanks a lot!
Just checking in on the progress of the X8 Main Board. How are you doing, excited to purchase one of those. I got the two boards working, now just awaiting for the main board. Will you be posting the source code, so one can made some mods for custom applications?
Glad to hear that everything is working! I'm confident that I'm going to publish the mainboard layout and also the software quite soon on my Github.
Yes dude! Awesome!
Brilliant work! Thanks
Thanks for the feedback, cheers!
Amazing project, thank you for sharing in such detail!
Thanks a lot, my pleasure!
Great to see you making headway on this again! Those first sounds are glorious!
Are you planning on making this rackable in a deep case like a Doepfer A-100G6?
Thanks a lot! I thought more of a stand-alone device, maybe an acrylic case to see all the insides.
Oooh I’d rack this in my doepfer case in a heartbeat!!
You are a brave soul for taking this on! Using the VCOs of the OB-Xa/OB-8, but the filter/vca chips of the Matrix gives this a unique sound among polys--not just a clone or anything. I wonder if you plan on doing any pole-mixing filter modes with the AS3372 (as with the Matrix/Xpander), or if you find that is unnecessary. Great work--it is wonderful to see you bring your ideas to life!
Thank you! It has a pole-mixing filter like the Oberheim Xpander/Matrix-12 but with only 8 different filter responses. See my video on the voice card for more details: th-cam.com/video/quJYekSshpI/w-d-xo.html
Awesome, great work! Thank you for sharing.
Thanks, you're most welcome!
AMAZING!!!! Thanky uo for putting this up!
Nice, thank you!
Really awesome stuff!
Thanks 🙏
5:20 Ooo Lord!!! 😮😮👏👏👏
Yeah, the first tunes out of it!
Sorry but seriously new to applied oscilloscope exercises. My old analog scope made by BK Precision had a user manual with great suggestions and instructions - like how to fix old CRT tvs and HiFi stereos. But no crystals. Should I just hook up the probe to either of the two pins from the crystal?
awesome job, can share the squematic for the dac please? i cant found that on github
Thanks! Stay tuned, I'm going to publish the mainboard schematics and layout quite soon on my Github.
Hallo Jan, ich gehe mal aufgrund verschiedener Anzeichen davon aus, daß du Deutscher bist, ich also mal zur Abwechslung auch in meiner Muttersprache schreiben kann.
(translated to english below)
Ich bin auf deinen Kanal aufmerksam geworden, da ich ein glücklicher Besitzer eines in die Jahre gekommenen Polysix bin. Meiner hatte bisher gut funktioniert, aber nun muss ich mich um die typischen Poti-Probleme kümmern.
Das ist ja ein absolut irres Projekt, was du da aus dem Boden stampfst.
Du erfüllst dir quasi einen Teil meiner Jugendträume, die schon ein paar Dekaden alt sind..., als Teenager hatte ich (noch vor Polysix-Geburt) mit ersten Klangschaltungen der ganz einfachen Art herumgelötet. Natürlich in KEINSTER Weise mit deinem Projekt vergleichbar, aber vielleicht hast du auch mal ähnlich angefangen 😉, aber bist drangeblieben!!
Bei mir hat es mich zum Elektrotechnikstudium geführt..
Ich habe es vllt übersehen: den verlinkten Unterlagen (Respekt für die viele Doku, ohne schon alles gelesen zu haben) entnehme ich einen Oscillator je Voice, richtig?
Wenn alles ATMEGA-controlliert ist, wie soll es mit der Parameterspeicherung aussehen? Kann (bzw. wird) evtl. später per Software über den USB-Port auch ein VST-Interface realisiert werden?
LG, Torsten
english (by goole translater):
Hi Jan, based on various signs I'm assuming that you're German, so I can write in my mother tongue for a change.
I became aware of your channel because I am a happy owner of an aging Polysix. Mine had worked fine so far, but now I have to take care of the typical poti problems.
That's an absolutely insane project that you're pounding out of the ground.
You're sort of fulfilling part of my childhood dreams, which are already a few decades old..., as a teenager (before the Polysix release) I soldered around with the first very simple sound circuits. Of course it is NOT comparable to your project in ANY way, but maybe you started out in a similar way 😉 but stuck with it!!
It led me to study electrical engineering.
I may have overlooked it: I take it from the linked documents (respect for the many documentation, without having read everything) one oscillator per voice, right?
If everything is ATMEGA controlled, what about parameter storage? Can (or will) a VST interface be implemented later via software via the USB port?
Kind regards, Torsten
Hi Torsten, ja, du hast das richtig gesehen, die Voice Card hat jeweils einen Oszillator und Ein- und Ausgänge am Atmega gehen über ADC bzw. DAC. D.h. alle Einstellungen können als Patches gespeichert werden. Ein USB-Midi Interface ist aktuell nicht vorgesehen, das kann der Atmega so auch erstmal nicht, da muss man sich mit einem Midi-Converter aushelfen. Ich komme leider mit der Software gerade nicht so wirklich weiter, vielleicht muss ich noch ein paar Änderungen am Mainboard machen, aber ich bleibe auf jeden Fall dran! Danke für dein Interesse und schöne Grüße, Jan
English:
Hello Torsten, yes, you are right, each voice card has one oscillator and inputs and outputs on the Atmega are via ADC or DAC. That means all settings can be saved as patches. An USB MIDI interface is currently not planned, the Atmega cannot do that anyway, so you have to help yourself with a MIDI converter. Unfortunately there is no real progress on the software side, I think I need to make some changes to the mainboard, but I'll definitely stay on it! Thanks for your interest and best regards, Jan
@@polykit Hallo Jan, danke für die Antwort.
Generell möchte ich dir gerne Hilfe im Bereich Programming anbieten. Konkret mit Atmega habe ich ich zwar noch keine Erfahrung. Aber dennoch kann ich auf ein langes Programmierleben zurückblicken, angefangen mit Maschinensprache am VC20, später Diplomarbeit mit 8051. Danach VB, VBA, Pascal, PB und andere.
Will sagen, grundsätzliches Verständnis ist da.
Und wenn ich mal hier und da wo es klemmt einfach nur einen Anschubser liefern kann, wäre das bestimmt hilfreich. Umfangreicher gehts erst nächstes Jahr, sofern überhaupt Bedarf und Interesse besteht.
Derzeit arbeite ich ja gerade meinen Polysix auf, erst mal komplett neue Potis rein. Und dann schaue ich, ob man die MG Sektion aufbohren und für VCO, VCF und VCA getrennt erweitern könnte. Mal sehen....
LG Torsten
Very nice work!
Thanks a lot!
@@polykit Will you upload the schematics to github? I like this project very much.
Sure, it will be on my GitHub when somewhat working. Cheers!
Nice content. I'd like to see more insight about the pcb layout design part.
Keep it up!
Thank you!
Looks awesome 👌
Thank you 👍
Very interesting project!!. Congratulations!!. If i understood well you are using a regular unipolar 8dac, but you could arrange it to have bipolar output voltages...¿Is that right?.
Exactly, see TI datasheet www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/dac80508.pdf chapter 9.2 for an example.
Hi from Hellas. I like your channel and subscribe to it. Since i 've start using arduino, I was wondering if it's possible to interface a sound blaster like AWE32 or similar to build a midi synth. Of course we can use both arduino or other microcontrolers as well to combine them. I think that this approach can give even more interesting sounds. Thanking in advance.
Thanks, where do you purchase components ?
I usually buy my stuff from Reichelt here in Germany, synth related ICs from Electricdruid. What I can't get there I purchase from Digikey/eBay/Aliexpress. Cheers!
goood job!
Cool, thanks 😊
Will you release the pcbs and software ?
Yes, of course. It will be on my Github when it is somewhat releasable.
@@polykit Looking forward to making a build of this!
awesome🤩
Thanks 🙏
Hi im just wondering how far have you come along with the main board? Would that ever get released on git hub and to buy for the pcb?
I just released it on my Github: github.com/polykit/polykit-x-mainboard
Happy soldering!1!!
Im gonna guess your defenition of polyphonic here is not that you can actually play chords with it and have 8 voices per note, but rather just a 8 voice monophonic synth, ie it can only play one note at a time with all 8 voices active, and that chords would be split up to use 1-8 voices per note, depending on number of keys pressed.
Or does it use multiplexing so that the each voice card can do 3 or more notes simultanously by rapidly sequencing between the notes in a chord fast enough that it sounds like the synth has 8 voices per keyboard key ?
This is so cool, and so professionally done. Do you have former professional experience doing this kind of work?
Thank you! No, not really, I work in software engineering. I have some experience with electronics but It's basically all self-taught knowledge. I started tinkering with DIY synth stuff in the pandemic.
@@polykit that’s really inspirational. I’m also a former software engineer, this gives me hope that I may be able to learn electronics well enough myself one day.
What resources would you recommend for me to teach myself? Are there any books, web sites, or TH-camrs that you found really useful?
For the basics I don't know. I usually look it up when I need it. For synth related stuff the books by Thomas Henry are great. I also learned a lot from Music From Outer Space and Yves Usson's website. On TH-cam Moritz Klein has great synth related tutorials. But there is many more.
nice
Thanks!
Why?????do you have any proof that this obsession is usefull co;pared to cheap vst3 or ios plugins?
Because I can. I like analog stuff and I like to build stuff. If you just want to make music buy a computer.