instructables

Moog Style Synth

by lonesoulsurfer

First and foremost, I have to give a massive shout out oscillators give this synth a total of three oscillators.
to Pete McBennett who designed this awesome
circuit. When I came across it on YouTube I couldn't The only addition that I included was an additional
believe the sound that he managed to get out of a circuit with a couple of vactrols (LED and LDR facing
handful of components. The synth has a MASSIVE each other, covered by heatshrink. check this ible on
sound and really growls with heavy bass through a how to make one. This function turns the synth into
good speaker. an arpeggiator type synth and is a tonne of fun to
play.
The synth is a pulse width modulated oscillator,
routed through a light-controlled resonant low pass Ok that's enough babbling, time to watch the video
lter. The "growling" oscillator tonality is supplied via and see this bad boy in action. If you like what you see
a PWM and a awesome high-resonance low pass lter. and want to make your own, then unfortunately you'll
have to keep reading.
The light-control aspect which is controlled through 2
Light dependent resistors (LDR), gives amazing Hackaday have also reviewed this build so if you want
musical expression. The heart of the circuit is 5 op to check that out just click the link
amps (LM358) and also a 2 Hex inverter drone synths
via a CD40106 IC. The 2 two adjustable drone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYtZRjsq8O8

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Step 1: Parts Moog Synth Circuit

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Here's the parts list. It's a bit of a big one. The case is l. 47K X 3
from an old calculator which I gutted. You will need to
design your own case and I have suggested one to use m. 22K X 4
below.
n. 470K
1. Resistors make sure that they are 1%. You will notice
that there are some weird values for the top 10 o. 82K X 3
resistors. These values are so the synth is in tune. I
couldn’t manage to nd the exact ones so used the p. 390K
closest values. You can also buy them in bulk on eBay
and get most if not all of the values needed q. 120K

a. 10K X 4 r. 33K

b. 4.5K 2. Capacitors

c. 8.2K a. 0.15uf (150nf ) - eBay

d. 7.5K X 2 b. 2.2uf- eBay

e. 3.4K c. 4.7uf X 4- eBay

f. 6.2K d. .001uf (1nf ) X 2- eBay.

g. 5.6K e. 0.1uf (100nf ) X 2- eBay

h. 5K 3. IC’s

i. 2.2K a. CD40106- eBay

j. 38K b. Lm358 X 5- eBay

k. 100K X 11 4. Pots

a. 50K - eBay

b. 100K X 3- eBay

5. LDR’s X 2- eBay

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Step 2: Arpeggiator Circuit Parts and Others

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Pa rt s : You can just a 9v battery to power the circuits or do
what I did and use a mobile phone battery and a
Arpe g g ia t o r Circuit charging/voltage regulator.

1. 555 Timer - eBay Check out this instructable on how to use a mobile
phone battery to power the circuits
2. 10K pot - eBay
O t he r Pa rt s
3. 1M duel pot - eBay
1. SPDT switches X 3 - eBay
4. 100R resistor - eBay. Buy them in assorted lots
2. Momentary switches X 10 - eBay
5. 1K resistor X 2
3. Pot knobs X 7 - eBay
6. 470R resistor
4. A whole lot of wire. I like to use ribbon wire
8. Transistor BC547 - eBay
5. Case. Mine is an old calculator. Use whatever you
9. Vactol X 2. (LDR and LED inside a piece of heat think would be cool
shrink). You can make your own easily - just check out
this instructable 6. Acrylic sheets - eBay

10. Prototype Board - eBay 7. Audio Output Jack - 3.5mm and 6.35mm - eBay

Po w e r

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Step 3: The "Moog" Circuit Schematic

This is the schematic that you will need to build. It's Make sure you breadboard it rst so you can test and
the main circuit and is the one created by Pete understand how it all goes together.
McBennett. I didn't do any changes to this schematic
as it doesn't need any changes. However, go craz y I did add another circuit so I could control the LDR's
with it and try some modi cations to see what you can with ashing LED's through a couple of vacrols. This
get out of it. circuit is in the next step and is optional to add.

Moog Style Synth: Page 6

 Download
https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FOO/AJYS/K24YGFHH/FOOAJYSK24YGFHH.pdf
…

Step 4: Vactrol Circuit for Arpeggiator Sound Effect

This circuit creates an arpeggiator e ect using some you get some cool, rhythmic sound e ects.
vactols (this this 'ible on how to make ta vactol, also
known as a opticoupler). It gives the synth another The second schematic shows how I connected this
sound e ect which is fun to play around with. circuit up to the main one. I used a DPDT switch to be
However, it isn't necessary to add this circuit if you able to turn on and o the arpeggiator e ect.
don't want to. Hopefully it isn't too confusing on how I connected
the 2 circuits together, it took me ages for some
NOTE: I forgot to add the capacitor from p[in 2 on the reason to work out the best way to connect them via
555 timer initially. I have updated the schematic and it the switch. There's probably a better way so
now incluides it. experiment and see how you go. I have also included
the fritzing les so you can mess about with them f
The rst schematic shows the circuit which has 2 you want to.
vactrols and is essentially a ashing LED circuit. The
LED's pulse which the LDR's in the vactrol detect and

Download
https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FZF/H3U0/K24YG64A/FZFH3U0K24YG64A.unknown
…

Moog Style Synth: Page 7

Step 5: Breadboard

I can't stress more to breadboard these circuits before pretty much left it as is. Once you have the "moog"
you even think about soldering. The main "moog" circuit working, you can then add the arpeggiator
circuit is quite complex and may take a couple of tries circuit and have a play around with that.
before you get it right.
If you are happy with how it sounds, next it's time to
Keep at it though as I can guarantee that the circuit is solder all those components together - gulp!
correct and works amazingly. There are a bunch of
mods that you could do to the actual circuit but I

Step 6: The "Moog" Synth Circuit - Part 1

I was going to do a step by step guide on how to put of my electronic projects and they are great
the circuit together but it would be too tedious (and
boring for you). So instead I've taken a few images of 2. Start with the U1 & U2 op-amp section and add all
putting the circuit together and will go through the of the components as per the schematic.
steps just in a general fashion.
3. I always like to double check the connections before
St e ps : I move onto the next op-amp. It's easier to work out if
you have forgotten to connect something when you
1. First, you need to make sure that your prototype have just added the parts.
board is going to be big enough. It;s a big circuit and
will take up a fair bit of room. I've added a link in the 4.
parts section to the one that I used. I use these n most

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Step 7: The "Moog" Synth Circuit - Part 2

St e ps : around the op-amp in order to connect these. You

could go across the top of it but it makes it hard to
1. Next I added U2 op-amp and started to connect the remove the op-amp if it is faulty.
components as per the schematic.
3. The other thing you may note is, it's very similar
2. It's interesting to note that there are a couple of layout to the rst one.
resistors that need to be connected to di erent legs
on the op-amp. You can see in the images that I went

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Step 8: The "Moog" Synth Circuit - Part 3

St e ps : b. You also need to connect pin 7 from U2 to pin 6 on

U3 with a 100K resisitor.
1. Next up is to add op-amp U3.
3. Again, it's a good time to check over all your
2. A couple things to note are the following. connections and ensure everything is in the right spot
and nothing is missing.
a. You need to connect pin 7 from U1 to pin 2 on U3.

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Step 9: The "Moog" Synth Circuit - Part 4

St e ps :

1. Time to add op-amps 4 and 5.

2. Remember to try and keep everything pretty tight on the prototype board. There's still one more IC to add to
complete the schematic.

3. You'll also notice that the LDR's are connected to U4 and U5. You'll need to add some wires a little later to these
connections and a few others.

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Step 10: The "Moog" Synth Circuit - Part 5

Onto the nal stretch now (at least for the Moog circuit!)

St e ps :

1. Add the 40106 IC

2. Add all of the components and make the connections

3. It got a little tight towards the end as you can see but I managed to add the components on the prototype board

4. Time to add the wires so you can connect the circuit to all the controls

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Step 11: The "Moog" Synth Circuit - Part 6

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There's a whole lot of wires that you now need to add. to the moog prototype board but I ran out of room

St e ps : 3. I use ribbon computer wire for most of my projects

as I can get it for free at my local e-waste centre.
1. Follow the schematic and start to add the necessary
wires. I always try and connect longer wires then 4. At this stage you can test the circuit if you want to.
needed, better for them to be too long then too short. You will need to add all of the controls like the
Plus once you place the circuit into the case you can potentiometers etc and power it up. I did this to
trim to length. ensure the circuit worked and amazingly it did rst
go! Usually I forget something or solder something in
2. There are extra wires added so I can connect the the wrong spot.
arpeggiator circuit as well. It would have been nice to
have had room to add the arpeggiator circuit as well

Step 12: Making the Arpeggiator Circuit

As I have already mentioned, this circuit is really just a make one which can be found here.
simple LED asher, made from a 555 timer.
4. The circuit will need to be wired up to a switch later
St e ps : on so that's why there is 2 wires connected to one of
the LDR legs on each vactrol. You need to be able to
1. Add the 555timer to the prototype board turn o the LDR's on the moog circuit when you want
to use the arpeggitor and vice versa. This is done with
2. Use the schematic and start to connect the rest of a DPDT switch. I also found it necessary to turn o
the components power to the arpeggiator when the moog was on as
you can here a slight ticking if they are on at the same
3. You will need to also make a couple of vactrols. time.
They're simple to make and you only need some heat-
shrink, white LED and a LDR. I did an 'ible on how to

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Moog Style Synth: Page 15
Step 13: Making the Case From an Old Calculator

I found this old calculator at a junk shop. It must of 1. First I had to pull the calculator apart.
been used in a mechanics shop as it was full of oil and
lthy. As it no longerb worked I thought I'd repurpose 2. Once I had it apart and had all of the insides out of
it and give it another life. You could also use a small it, I next gave it a long soak and cleaned it up best I
keyboard or just build your own enclusre out of a could,
cigar box or something just as cool. I'll go thrugh the
next steps and tell you want I had to do in order to 3. I was thinking about using the original key pad as
make this into the synth. the keys in the synth but decided against this.

St e ps :

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Step 14: Modifying the Calculator Case

As I needed space for all of the switches and pots, I led down the cuts to make them smooth and ush.
decided to remove some pieces of plastic on the front
of the case and replace this section with some 2. Next, I removed the section that showed the
coloured acrylic. numbers. This was recessed so it was a little tricker to
remove. I used a dremel and some wire cutters to
St e ps : remove most of the plastic. I then led and sanded
the edges as smooth as I could get them. I wanted the
1. First I removed the 2 pieces of plastic strip that nish to look like the plastic had never been there.
separated the calculator keys. I cut them away and

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Step 15: On/Off Switch

I'm not too sure why I didn't use the original switch, I the original switch hole. I used some les to do this.
think I wanted a red though for a couple reasons, rst,
it is the colour of the acrylic I used and second, I had a 2. Once the hole was large enough i pushed the
red one lying around. switch into place.

St e ps : 3. I had to add some hot glue around the switch on

the inside to keep it in place as it was a little loose.
1. In order to t the switch into place, I had to enlarge

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Step 16: Micro USB Adapter

Next thing I did was to add a micro USB adapter for 2. To hold the USB adapter in place I added a small
charging the battery. piece of acrylic and glued it down along with the USB
adpater. Be careful when using superglue or any glue
St e ps : on something like this as you don't want to get any
inside the USB.
1. I made a small, retanglar hole in the back of the
case, just large enough for the micro USB to poke
through

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Step 17: LDR's and a Couple of Audio Inputs

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The synths moog sound is controlled with a couple of 1. First, I found a good spot on the calculator to add
LDR's. These needed to be placed close together in the LDR's.
order to be able to easily cover them with your hand. I
went with an extrnal speaker/amp on this build. 2. Next, I drilled 4 small holes for the LDR legs to go
Initially I was going to include a LM386 op-amp but I through and glued them into place.4
didn't like the sound that it generated. I found that a
good portable speaker or guitar amp works best and 3. I wanted to be able to play this either througha
gives you awesome, deep bass sounds. 3.5mm or 6mm jack so I added tho input sockets. I
drilled a couple holes into the back and secured them
St e ps : into place.

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Step 18: Adding Some Acrylic Sheets to Fill-up All Those Holes I Made

In order to be able to add the buttons, switches and momentary switches, a couple other pots and some
pots into the calculator, I added some red acrylic switches.
pieces. It doesn't look red in the images as it is
protected by a paper covering. This is how I added it 3. In order to hold the bottom section into place I
to the body of the calculator. utilized the some of the mounting holes already in
the calculator case. I measured and drilled holes into
St e ps : the acrylic and after a little adjustment I managed to
secure the bottom section into the calculator quite
1. First, I measured the 2 gaping holes I made in the well. I later added some washes and screws to really
body of the calculator to work out the dimensions I secure it.
had to cut the acrylic.
4. The top section I went with some epoxy glue (not
2. Next I carefully cut the acrylic pieces, one for the preferable but it does the job). However, before I
top section which I will be adding 4 pots later on and glued it into place I needed to add the pots rst.
one for the bottom section which will house the

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Step 19: Adding Some Pots (and a Couple of Switches)

This step will show where I added the pots. As with pots into place
most of these types of projects, I made a change at
the 11th hour so you might notice some changes later. 3. The SPDT switch in the top right hand is to be ale to
The reason for the change is a modi ed the circuit so I turn o the oscillator o if you want to.
could add a way to control the synth with only one
pot. This pot by-passes the momentary switches and 4. I then added the 2 pots to control the arpeggiator.
allows you to play it without them. The one in the top section is for the modulation and
the other is for speed. I later moved these both
St e ps : together and located them on the left on the
calculator.
1. I went with adding the 4 main pots into the top
panel. These are the pots that control the 40106 IC 5. The 2 switches you can see do the following; turn o
oscillators (2 on the right) and the tuning and PWM the power to the arpeggiator and the other allows
from the synth. you to turn either the synth or arpeggiator on or o .

2. I measured and drilled the holes and secured the

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Moog Style Synth: Page 24
Step 20: Adding the Momentary Switches and Resistors

I added the momentary switches near the end of the place and secured them tightly’
build as it took some time to nd the ones I wanted to
use. I’m still not 100% happy with the ones I ended up 4. Now I had to add the resistors. This is pretty straight
with but they were the best ones out of all I tested. forward however, I did manage to wire this the wrong
You want them to have low resistance when pushed way the rst time. You need to make sure that SW10
down and all the ones I brought were either too big or on the schematic is actually the rst switch out of the
had high resistance. 10.

St e ps : 5. Solder the resistors in series between each of the

switches legs. The other leg on the switches need to
1. First, I measured where I needed to drill the 10 be connected as well. I used resistor legs to connect
holes for the switches. all of these together.

2. I carefully drilled the holes (didn’t want to crack the 6. Laslty, I connected pin 1 from U1A IC to the last
acrylic) and removed the protective covering on the switch and connected leg 6 from U1A to a 38.3K
acrylic resistor and connected this to the rst switch.

3. I next added each of the momentary switches into

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Step 21: Adding the Battery and Charging/Voltage Meter Module

The synth will need 9v power supply. You could use a use double-sided tape to secure parts into place.
9v battery but I prefer to use a rechargeable one.
There is a great little module that you can get in eBay 3. You then need to connect both the circuits (the
that have a charger and voltage regulator build into moog circuit and the arpeggiator circuit) to the
one. This means you can use Li-Po or Li-Ion batteries module. Add a couple of wires to ground on each
to run the synth. I like to use old mobile batteries and circuit if you haven’t already and solder these to the
have done an Instructable on how to do this which output solder points on the module.
can be found here.
4. I found that you need to isolate the arpeggiator
St e ps : circuit when the moog synth is playing or you will
hear a slight “tapping” sound. To do this, I added a
1. Connect the module input solder points to the separate on/o switch for the power on the
battery terminals. arpeggiator circuit and coonected both on/o
switches to the module.
2. Secure the battery in place inside the case. I like to

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Step 22: Connecting All Those Wires

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It’s now time to connect all of the wires to their sure you trim to the minimum size the wire can be.
respective part.
4. Keep on working through each of the wires and
St e ps : solder them to their respective part.

1. If you haven't already, secure the 2 circuits into the 5. You may have noticed on some of the images that I
base of the case. didn’t put the momentary switches in until last. The
reason being I couldn’t nd the right ones. I brought
2. Place the top of the case side by side with the base. quite a few di erent types and in the end I had to
This will ensure that when you cut and solder all of compromise due to the size of the calculator and ease
the wires, you will be able to open the top up and lay of use.
it at next to the base.
6. Once you have everything wired-up, it’s time to give
3. Start by placing a wire close to the part that it it a test run.
needs to be soldered to, then trim, and solder it. Wire
seems to take up more room then you expect so make

Step 23: So What Next?

Moog Style Synth: Page 28

Now that you have nished your synth, it’s time to see play with the pots for speed and modulation.
what she can do.
I also added a pot that bypasses the momentary
First, plug-in a speaker to the audio output. switches (keys) so you can play the synth with just one
pot and the LDR’s. That’s a lot of fun to do and you
It’s quite simple to play the synth – you just need to can also play the arpeggiator with the one pot as well.
turn it on, cover the LDR’s and start to push the
momentary switches. You can tune the keys with the I also used my Echo and Reverb box (make your own
master tune pot and use the PWM pot to nd that here) and played the synth through that as well. You
sweet spot. get some great depth of sound when you hook it up
to the synth. I de nitely recommend that you also
Now ick on the 2 drone oscillators. You can use the make one of these as it takes the synth to another
two pots to tune this as well and get them to play in sonic level.
sync. Play around with the LDR’s and keys and see
what sounds you can get out of it Experiment and see what sounds you can get out of
your synth.
To play the arpeggiator, just turn it on and start to

Hallo Guys,
It took me hours to check the arppegiator. After all I looked into the pictures provided in the
instructable and found a 100micro Farad just where had expected it .
So is there any specific reason to use those Vactrols instead of an off-the-shelf optoisolator?

Nope. You can use off-the-shelf vactrols.

Nice! Did you used linear or logarhytmic potis?

Moog Style Synth: Page 29

I used linear pots in this build. Would be interesting to see if a log pot would give you better control
of the sound.
Nice work! I really like the addition of the arpeggiator. Fits perfectly with the Moog-like sound.

I ran across that Pete McBennett schematic as well when I was trying to build my first analog
synth...what a great circuit. I don't totally understand everything he's doing in there, but it's fun and
relatively easy to mess around with. In mine I ended up just using his LDR piece behind two RC
Relaxation Oscillators that I cooked up. But now you've got me wanting to revisit it and add in your
arpeggiator at the very least.

Thanks for posting this!

Same - I'm pretty amazed how he managed to get such an awesome sound out of a handful of op-
amps!
You should give the echo and reverb box a go as well - really gives some great dimension to the
oscillators.
Excellent work! The case is eye-catching, but your fastidious circuit-layout and soldering
instructions are exemplary! (Oh and of course I love the sound too.)
Thanks very much! It was a tight fit to get all those components onto one board.

Very fun result and huge work amount. From the very beginning of analog synthesis, one of the
main issue was the oscillator stability. Frequency was linked to so many parameters that it was
almost impossible to play more than a few minutes without recalibrating. Some ears are able to
recognize a few Hertz shifting in a musical note. A lot of solutions had been tried, components
reacting opposite to temperature, or auto-calibration within the phase locked loop of a digital
oscillator (this one worked fine). Anyway, its fun to play with analog sounds.

Regarding the Vactrol, opto Leds are connected the wrong way, a 1Mo pot cannot drive enough
current for the Led, if it works, that's on the very beginning of the coarse and it acts more like a
trigger (due to forward voltage of the Led) than a linear controller, I'm surprised it works, happily
there's a resistor in series to avoid the pot burning. In place you need a current amplifier.
Nicely done! I like how simple the components list is. I was expecting some very exotic ICs, but
was surprised its some op amps and hex inverters. I'm almost tempted to breadboard this, but I am
not sure I want to descend into Synth Land. I get lost there for a long time. :)
Cheers! It’s pretty amazing the sound that a few op-amps can produce! The circuit is genius.
Def a deep rabbit hole once you get started making synth circuits. Hugely rewarding though.

Moog Style Synth: Page 30