Curious about building your own hardware synthesizer but aren't sure where to begin? Here's a great place to start. Joshua Casper takes you though a simple DIY project with noisy results.  

What You Need

The Process

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Joshua Casper is an accomplished live performer, DJ, producer, and music educator. His specialties are centered in and around Ableton Live and Native Instruments. His educational material has been featured on Ableton.com and Maxforlive.com as well as a myriad of large music production websites. His music has been featured on Dubstep.ne... Read More

Discussion

Timothy
Hi!
Can I also use the NE555P Instead of the NE555N ?
Thanks..
Joshua Casper
Yes, I believe that they are interchangeable for most things, if not all applications.

It seems that they just have different manufacturers.

Here are the datasheets for both if you are interested in going further down the road ...

http://datasheet.octopart.com/NE555N-STMicroelectronics-datasheet-503160.pdf

http://datasheet.octopart.com/NE555P-Texas-Instruments-datasheet-148786.pdf
numbersys
Can't get it right... check this plz https://imgur.com/bqRoi7J
Mike T
Thanks for the well-written tutorial!
I was able to complete it with no electronics knowledge. I'm gonna add a 'killswitch' to mine to vary the note lengths!

QUESTION...does anyone know what kind of wave this produces? Sounds like square to me, but I don't have a great ear for that.
Joshua Casper
Thanks for the kind words.The 555 Time IC typically producers a square wave. So, you are correct in your assumption. However, you can smooth it out a bit quite easily if you do a bit of searching online .

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