Teensynth

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Ayal

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Hi,

New to the forum and new to Teensy boards, a pleasure...

I'm looking to make a rather simplistic synth (1-2 osc, arpeggiator, amp-envelope, filters, and a few effects).
Looking for a nice "How-to"/tutorial to at least figure out the hardware components and the first steps.

Q's I have so far:
1. Must I use the Audio adaptor in order to do any work with audio (synth, sample sequencer, etc).
2. what board should I use (3.2, 3.6)? It's a rather simple synth. if 3.6 - how do I know how to put on the audio adaptor?
3. would teensy's audio library allow me to play polyphonic notes and play 2 osc's simultaneously?


Sorry for the low-res question.

Any help/reference would be great.
 
The audio library can do everything you need. It can also work with the audio adapter shield, but it's not mandatory. If 12bit resolution @44.1kS/s is enough for you, you might go away with the internal ADCs and DAC(s) of the Teensy 3.x.

The Teensy 3.2 has only one DAC, giving you one single line output (onto which the audio lib might send multiple signals through a virtual mixer, though), the Teensy 3.5 and 3.6 have 2 DACs giving you 2 independent line outputs, if needed.

I'd start the project with a Teensy 3.2 which should be able to handle your needs. If you run into issues afterwards, ordering a Teensy 3.6 and migrate your code is a task of 5 minutes.
 
in terms of a nice easy to follow tutorial, this guy did a nice video series that helped me a lot when I first got started with the audio library:
http://www.notesandvolts.com/2018/05/teensy-synth-part-1.html

Hi,

New to the forum and new to Teensy boards, a pleasure...

I'm looking to make a rather simplistic synth (1-2 osc, arpeggiator, amp-envelope, filters, and a few effects).
Looking for a nice "How-to"/tutorial to at least figure out the hardware components and the first steps.

Q's I have so far:
1. Must I use the Audio adaptor in order to do any work with audio (synth, sample sequencer, etc).
2. what board should I use (3.2, 3.6)? It's a rather simple synth. if 3.6 - how do I know how to put on the audio adaptor?
3. would teensy's audio library allow me to play polyphonic notes and play 2 osc's simultaneously?


Sorry for the low-res question.

Any help/reference would be great.
 
Please will the teensy 4.0 also work, seeing as it has no dacs

Dacs aren't an issue for this project, The Teensy Synth series on YouTube uses a Teensy 3.2 and Teensy Audio Shield (which is an external I2S DAC).
For MIDI, it supports both USB MIDI device (Teensy 4 can't do that yet) and 5-pin DIN MIDI (on serial, Teensy 4 CAN do this).
The circuitry added to support knobs controlling the synth uses a few digital outputs and an analog input - no problem for Teensy 4.

So, yes - you can build the synth in that series using Teensy 4 and the Audio Shield for Teensy 4. BUT, you won't get USB MIDI device support yet, and USB Host MIDI, done correctly, takes a bit more hardware.

Though that series is done with a Teensy 3.2, Teensy 3.6 is a bit better as it directly supports a USB Host port - allowing you to plug typical USB MIDI keyboard (like Arturia Keystep, Minilab) into the USB A port.

Using either a Teensy 4, or Teensy 3.6 is easy, if you know what you're doing. The simplest way to duplicate the synth in the videos is to use a Teensy 3.2, and do without USB Host.
 
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