FEATURE
MacBook, I even went as far as reviving an
old laptop as an Ubuntu machine so I would
have free rein over what I did with Python.
After a couple weeks of being lost in my
own personal Python hell, I shoved
everything aside and started over again. My
original goal was to build a synthesizer, not a
box of raccoon sounds, and I had gotten
very off-track. I started looking around online
for someone who had already built a
synthesizer using Mozzi, and I found a nice
Instructable from user Dorahan, who built an
Arduino synthesizer with five
potentiometers for controlling pitch, vibrato
intensity, vibrato rate, and the range ofadjustment for vibrato intensity and rate. I
liked what I heard from the short video he
included in his Instructable, so I downloaded
the sketch and started gathering parts.THE AESTHETIC
Since I knew for sure that I wanted the
synth to feature a skull, I let that drive
some of my decisions about the design.
Drawing from the cabinet of curiosities
aesthetic, I went in search of a wooden
enclosure. A really excellent source of
small, wooden project boxes is cigar shops.
Despite our living in a modern era where
nearly everything comes encased in plastic
blister packs, cigars still often come in
wooden boxes of surprisingly high quality.
It used to be that you could get these
boxes from a cigar shop for free, but now
the shops usually charge a few bucks
apiece. Still, even at $5 a box, they’re a lot
cheaper than metal project enclosures, and
they add some old-school DIY electronics
classiness (think Apple I prototypes).How I Made: Rackety Raccoon Synthesizer
Left
The speaker mountRight
Potentiometers
in position
ready to make
some noiseMozzi
The Mozzi library is designed to let you
create sound on Arduino boards that
don’t have digital-to-analogue converters
(DACs). These can’t play true audio, but can
approximate it using clever trickery and a
digital output pin. It requires minimal circuity,
and you can get up and running quickly with
just a board, a pair of headphones, and a
way of connecting the two. Find out more at
sensorium.github.io/Mozzi