Mechanical Enclosure and Note Control
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The enclosure was modeled off of traditional 1970s synthesizer enclosures, but spun with a modern twist. The features are softer, more rounded, and feature no metal. It is made of CNC routed birch plywood and laser-cut acrylic. The hope was to create something that did not look particularly like a PoE project. The result is elegant-looking and functional, but could definitely improve in assembly quality in a future iteration; there were issues with plywood splitting. The enclosure features shelving for mounting of circuits and ample room for addition of more circuitry in future iterations. A magnetic latch serves to create the impression of a completely closed device while still allowing access to internal circuitry for repair. Acrylic on the back, sides, and front serve to allow the user to see the guts inside and add a feeling that is at once elegant, and gives a nod to the complexity of synthesized sound.
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Tuning Forks.The tuning fork and accompanying switch and knobs were designed to set the volume of either the synthesizer as a whole or individual overtones created by secondary and tertiary VCOs. An on-off-on switch selects whether the volume of VCO 2, nothing, or VCO 3 is updated. The pitch of the VCO in question is selected via a potentiometer knob. Then, the relative volume of this pitch is chosen by how hard the tuning fork is struck by the user. This was intended to provide instant, haptic, intuitive feedback to the user in a way that knobs cannot do
Comparing this simulation to the frequency of our real-life tuning fork allowed us to back calculate the elastic modulus of our aluminum to determine how long our tuning fork should be to produce our desired frequency.
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knobs
Mechanical - Electrical ControlMoving the attached sliders up and down controls the ADSR envelope and thus that shape of our output sound.
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Enclosure Inside
Some learnings from constructing this enclosure:
- Do not drill into the side of plywood - Wood glue is not as effective as L brackets for T joints - Do not press fit pivot rods into plywood |
CAD - Render of Mechanical System
