mki x es.EDU VCF (kit)

mki x es.EDU VCF (kit)

Who doesn’t love a good resonant low pass VCF? It’s arguably the beating heart of any subtractive synth – adding character, dynamics, and a good deal of retro-futuristic oddness to your patches. That’s why a diode ladder VCF that sticks to super basic and widely available components was created. On top of that, the architecture is as approachable as possible by avoiding the tricky diff-pair setup classic ladder filters rely on.

If you’re new to DIY synthesizer building, you might’ve run into this issue: you just set up your first VCO on a breadboard, spent a good while troubleshooting the stubborn thing – and then you realize you have nothing to actually control it with. OR if you already have a decent modular setup, but still haven't found a simple, hands-on sequencer - here’s a compact, yet versatile 5 step sequencer with adjustable sequence length, per step gate status, and output range! It works both from an internal and external clock and has reset input for more complex sequences if several sequencers are chained up. It works also as a waveshaper when clocked at the audio rate.

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, you are wanted to be taken 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, they did not compromise on design and functionality. They will launch one kit every 4-6 weeks. Each kit comes with an extensive user manual (40+ pages PDF-Download) 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.