I was too fascinated by the different thumb nail lengths to concentrate much on the video.
I trained as a classical guitarist, so I maintain some longer nails on my right hand :)
Show HN: I built a synth for my daughter
91–100 of 216 posts
Re: Show HN: I built a synth for my daughter
#92This is great, i’d kickstart it, my 5 year old would love it.
Re: Show HN: I built a synth for my daughter
#93What I love about this is how physical it is. So yeah, there's some board running DSP. but the design is amazing. It really relates to some recent posts also in HN about many objects loosing their physical UX. from an age of having buttons and tactical interfaces, everything became more touch based / app based which indeed cut price and allows easier updating. but also lacks some romance which is exactly what this de…
Reminded me of a BlipBlox…
Re: Show HN: I built a synth for my daughter
#94Dad of the year <3
Re: Show HN: I built a synth for my daughter
#95> A 3D-printed enclosure is fine for a prototype, but a real product likely needs injection-molded parts, which require expensive tooling. For kid-friendly toys, yes. But for older users not necessarily: https://teenage.engineering/products/po
How are these, are they worth the money? I have seen these before, but thought they might be crappy "jokes". However, if they are decent, I would love to play around with them.
I have a friend that writes lots of music on the PO-33. They are fun, definitely toyish, but you can get good results:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBo8Rd7HxdU <- a friend that creates a lot of music on small "affordable" pieces of gear.
Re: Show HN: I built a synth for my daughter
#96I'm not a kid. I still want it !
Re: Show HN: I built a synth for my daughter
#97Great finish. I was busy designing and soldering the prototype synthesizer during the summer, but I had to put it on hold because my baby was born in September.
I had the same problem back then: injection molding is quite expensive to start. But you could consider a more creative approach: using a PCB directly as the panel, such as a TE's Pocket Operator. Korg also has this solution for some educational products. Alternatively, you could use 3D printing; there are many inexpensive services in China. CNC doesn't have the mold-making issue, but it's more expensive and doesn't seem suitable for children.
Another interesting point: after my child was born, I didn't have much time for my sound work. But recently, I was surprised to find that I spend most of my time playing white noise on Glicol (http://glicol.org/) and it works great for my kid.
``` o: noise 42 >> lpf ~mod 1 >> mul ~mod3
~mod: sin ~mod2 >> mul 200 >> add 1000
~mod2: sin 0.1 >> mul 0.04 >> add 0.1
~mod3: sin 0.04 >> mul 0.3 >> add 0.8 ```
Good luck with kickstarter!
Re: Show HN: I built a synth for my daughter
#98If I have zero experience designing PCBs but wanted to do a similarly (non)-complex one, how much of a tall order would that be? In my completely made-up mental model, I'm guessing I just take the parts I've already breadboarded, look them up in some sidebar, and drag and drop them around, snapping to nice clean spacing, and then connect all the various pins together and have it automatically organize things? We're n…
For another data point: last week I ordered my first PCBs from JLCBCB. 2 fully assembled (parts already soldered) and 3 bare. $40 for the boards themselves, $40 for shipping, and $20 for US Tariffs, for total $100. Should take a week to arrive, shipping's cheaper if your willing to wait a month.
Re help: I asked for some help on libera ##electronics. I think there are larger communities on reddit that would also take a pass over designs.
My impression is that for straightforward circuits (not very high frequency or high power) you can get away with almost anything as far as layout goes. You punch in some generous setting for spacing of traces etc in the CAD software and it does some basic validation. (Are all the parts connected, not too close?).
I used KiCAD. It works well, though for assembly EasyEDA is probably lower friction. I had to dig around to find the right footprints for certain parts.
Re: Show HN: I built a synth for my daughter
#99Wow! Looks great and very inspiring. Great idea to make separate components that can be connected - something like a drum machine, sequencer, maybe even a chord synthesizer? It can be constrained such that you are always diatonic, you could have a mode knob too. Jamming with other people can be a life changing experience, and to do that as a child would be a great privilege to have.
Im not sure youre aware of this but look up modular synthesizers. This is how electronic music was made starting in the 60s/70s
Re: Show HN: I built a synth for my daughter
#100> A 3D-printed enclosure is fine for a prototype, but a real product likely needs injection-molded parts, which require expensive tooling. For kid-friendly toys, yes. But for older users not necessarily: https://teenage.engineering/products/po
How are these, are they worth the money? I have seen these before, but thought they might be crappy "jokes". However, if they are decent, I would love to play around with them.
[context: I have eBay’d a couple of Pocket Operators because I was curious and the price was low enough I knew I could at least break even reselling on Reverb even after fees and shipping…This is how I rationalize my gas.]
Maybe buy one and if it is not for you be ok reselling it at a loss…framing it as renting an instrument helps me.
The Pocket Operators are musical and inexpensive for musical instruments.
Like any musical instrument practice hours are how you get amazing results and whether the instrument gels with you is the biggest influence of whether you put in the hours.
For me, the Pocket Operators haven’t gelled…I just don’t enjoy them enough to put in the time. But other people find them great and I can see why (not-for-me != bad).