Some Photos And Sounds Of My Homemade DIY 'Hive Synthesiser'

…The Hive Synthesiser, which creates sounds from honey, or how I built my own basic modular synthesiser for £17 quid…

Full Hive Synthesiser by Bioni Samp, inspired by bee frequencies and the resistance of honey…

…The Hive Synthesiser, which creates sounds from honey, or how I built my own basic modular synthesiser for £17 quid…

Bioni Samp’s guide to building a synth as cheap as possible…

This synthsiser is all about Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Intro

Even though I agree it’s good to support the grass roots industry of synth module makers. But again, only if you can afford it. Also Modular synth jams are usually all guys, trying to make the loudest (and most expensive), acid squiggle sound. Unfortunately for me, I feel, it’s all becoming a bit of a cliche, resource hungry (how sustainable are all these elegant components?), rich persons hobby and nothing much to do with making music, which brings me back to why I have always wanted to own a modular synth… To make my own electronic experimental synthsiser music with it, live and on recordings.

About 10 years ago, after visiting a eurorack modular synthesiser shop and being told that the kind of synth I was after would set me back £2,350 (without a case). I thought f**k dat I’ll build my own. I’m not rich enough to afford those prices for a modular synth. In the end it took a long time. But I learnt loads of interesting stuff as I went along and now have a deeper understanding of electronics / synthesis, which informs my creative music making, because I built a basic modular synth myself from the beginning.

It also got me thinking… lots of people worldwide, would be interested in a very very cheap modular synth too. A modular synth made from mainly re-cycled and shared or disused parts. An basic affordable modular synth for the poor people of this world so they would not have to work for 20 years to own. So I began to build my own modular synth, slowly.

What follows here is a basic guide or short course in how to build your own modular synth very cheaply.

More info...

https://bionisamp.wordpress.com/research-projects/the-hive-synthesiser-which-creates-sounds-from-honey-or-how-i-built-my-own-basic-modular-synthesiser-for-17-quid/