Dalek Synth - Powered by Teensy 4.1

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I modified a toy Dalek I was given (its original function was broken) to become a bespoke synth. Here is a demo of it, version 1.

The internals include a Teensy microcontroller and Audio card.

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Mate!!! That’s lovely!
Always love seeing your stuff here.

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Thank you. Glad you liked it. There was a bit of faffing about to get it going…

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I bet!
Is the Teensy actually oscillating or is it controlling external synth.

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They only thing not coming from the Dalek (Teensy) is a bit of reverb from Logic Pro. Although I could add reverb internally.
Teensy is great for synths. A fabulous design tool makes the first bit easy.
https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/gui/

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Wow! That’s very very cool.
Maybe I should pick on up.
Maybe this one?
Do I need (or do you recommend) the audio board?

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A Teensy 4.0 is fine for the same task, it just has less pins exposed than a 4.1, so before you start consider how many controls you need. I have used a 4.0 for a synth but I would rather use a 4.1 to get the extra pins.
You need to audio board as well to get great sounds.

I have just scratched the surface with this set up, for example I have a microphone input in the back and an SD card in the Teensy so I can add sampling at some stage. You need to use the 4.1 if you want to add an SD card.

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Ah! That feels super important.
Sounds like heaps of fun. :slight_smile:

Congratz on the Darlek. Really spectacular :confetti_ball:

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The sound cards have an SD slot, but Paul S. who runs the company says it’s better to use the one on the Teensy 4.1. I have used it to save data and it works well.

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Hmmm… tempting. I do love me some small form factor.
Does Paul say why one is better than the other? Just easier?

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Can’t remember why, I think it’s faster and more reliable, but don’t quote me.

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Really cool project John!!!

It’s great seeing new life given to a broken toy. Such a fitting use too :slight_smile:

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Thanks Aaron. It’s better than wasting the plastic! it is also nice to play and muck about with.

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New jam video, now with Polyrhythms

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Hey John,

This is just flat-out awesome, looks wickedly fun to play as well! Have a project that needs some sound generation and was figuring out the best way to do that, will take a look at the teensy route now.

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Thanks Jaryd. I find the Teensy the best for this sort of thing.

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Here is a demo of version 3, with more polyrhythms. Okay, so it is probably Poly-meters rather than PolyRhythms. All the three main sequences have different length patterns which you can see evolving on the OLED screen. I even did some manual “sequencing” on the buttons, if you could call it that.

The jam Includes an arm Malfunction, Davros would not be happy!

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