Which brands provide schematics?

[respito]

Hi,

I'm new to the mod DIY scene, but not to electronics, having built a number of Heathkit kits way back when. It seems as if most mod kits don't come with schematics, however, which I think greatly detracts from their attractiveness.

Does anyone have a list or recommendations for which brands or companies sell good mod kits that do include schematics, or for which schematics are available?

[noisecarpet]

Nonlinearcircuits have all the schematics for their modules online - often with handy annotations about which parts to tweak if you want to get creative. They're also great designs and usually use easy to find parts.

[KSS]

Welcome to ModWiggler, respito!

Quite a few makers do provide schematics and others will provide them when asked. It's easier to define who doesn't typically provide schematics. Serge and their affiliates, like R*S.

mskala's northcoastsynthesis.com offers have excellent manuals including schematics. And yes, NLC is good.

If you can share more about your choices for module format and module types, it might help to get you a useful list. Otherwise you might get a list of makers and modules in formats that don't relate to what you're after. CLee in 4U banana is one example of a maker providing details but not generally aimed at Eurorrack size modules.
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I'd typically think 'mod' is an additon, update or modification to an existing synth or product. Module is the more common term for the project you'd add mods to.

[what gives?]

Off the top of my head:

mutable instruments - schematics but no diy kits
barton musical circuits - schematics and diy kits
Patrick Dowling, mxmxmx, and Tim Churches (ornament & crime) - schematics and all the diy info you need

[ixtern]

Befaco,
Kassutronic.
Zlob (when asked),
Synthrotek (when asked).

[pokeyasd]

Oakley Sounds after item purchase.

[wren4777]

Look Mum No Computer also.

[B4rbarossa]

+1 for Northcoast synthesis, I learned a lot from mskala's documentation and blogposts.

Music Thing Modular and Feedback Modules provide schematics.

Bastl provides schematics for their older modules/instruments.

Erica Synths provides schematics for the new EDU range and their old DIY modules.

[respito]

Thanks for all the good info from everyone in this thread!

Welcome to ModWiggler, respito!

Quite a few makers do provide schematics and others will provide them when asked. It's easier to define who doesn't typically provide schematics. Serge and their affiliates, like R*S.

mskala's northcoastsynthesis.com offers have excellent manuals including schematics. And yes, NLC is good.

If you can share more about your choices for module format and module types, it might help to get you a useful list. Otherwise you might get a list of makers and modules in formats that don't relate to what you're after. CLee in 4U banana is one example of a maker providing details but not generally aimed at Eurorrack size modules.

The idea is to use Euro modules incl Erica sample drum to build up a relatively simple starter self-contained system, giving my son the joy of creating electronic music and myself the joy of building kits and teaching him some basic electronics. And get more use out of my oscilloscope and stuff.

The exact choice of which kind of modules to use, I leave to him, but he tells me to list the following:

Oscillator (we have an XVCO2 already), VCF, VCA, string reverb, sequencer (seq-64) power supply, and output module. Most of these modules we more or less decided for Befaco, largely because of price, documentation, and freight (we're in Sweden and Befaco ships from Spain).

I'd typically think 'mod' is an additon, update or modification to an existing synth or product. Module is the more common term for the project you'd add mods to.

Thanks. I'll try to use the right terms.

[soup]

northcoastsynthesis.com offers have excellent manuals including schematics

Cosine. The north coast synthesis documentation is really fantastic.

[KSS]

MW member Abe loves synths' AI Synthesis brand is aimed at beginner DIY and Eurorack.

MFOS is not going to make the smallest modules but a standalone SEQ might be a nice addition and Synthcube sells PCBs. Ray wrote excellent circuit descriptions for learning. I only wish he didn;t try quite so hard to cram his schematics into small spaces. I end up removing a lot of the extras -like the dots and numbers o for each resistor. But the learning and support is there.

Synthcube have quite a few SDIY projects -from many designers- and many are Eurorack and do provide schematics. RYO is one of Synthcibe's designers with some nice modules. Weston is another.

[RISC]

Dreadbox used to provide schematics for their DIY-kits, sadly they didn't for the newer ones.

[brer_rabbit]

For learning Kicad and seeing layout I've really liked downloading & reviewing Winterbloom stuff. Open source with Kicad schematics available from their github.

https://github.com/wntrblm

[fitzgreyve]

I always include full schematics in my build docs.

[devinw1]

Me too.

[Morphology]

Synthrotek (when asked).

Synthrotek said they couldn't when I asked for the schematic for the MST Vactrol LPF (said I'd happily sign an NDA, I just wanted to find out why the thing didn't work), they said George Mattson wouldn't permit it.

Ended up having to work out the schematic for myself so that I could fault-find it.

What Synthrotek *did* offer to do was fault find it if I returned it to them and, once I'd worked out what was wrong, they shipped me replacements for the faulty parts FOC.

So, no issues with Synthrotek, I just won't buy an MST kit again.

Morph.

[FetidEye]

I offer schematics too

[burdickjp]

For learning Kicad and seeing layout I've really liked downloading & reviewing Winterbloom stuff. Open source with Kicad schematics available from their github.

https://github.com/wntrblm

I forgot Winterbloom was open source. Their modules are absolutely lovely.

[AdiScrapcode]

I offer schematics and code for my stuff

[kallikak]

Synthrotek (when asked).

Synthrotek said they couldn't when I asked for the schematic for the MST Vactrol LPF (said I'd happily sign an NDA, I just wanted to find out why the thing didn't work), they said George Mattson wouldn't permit it.

Ended up having to work out the schematic for myself so that I could fault-find it.

What Synthrotek *did* offer to do was fault find it if I returned it to them and, once I'd worked out what was wrong, they shipped me replacements for the faulty parts FOC.

So, no issues with Synthrotek, I just won't buy an MST kit again.

Morph.

I think it's ridiculous to sell kits without schematics...

[CLee]

Synthrotek (when asked).

Synthrotek said they couldn't when I asked for the schematic for the MST Vactrol LPF (said I'd happily sign an NDA, I just wanted to find out why the thing didn't work), they said George Mattson wouldn't permit it.

Ended up having to work out the schematic for myself so that I could fault-find it.

What Synthrotek *did* offer to do was fault find it if I returned it to them and, once I'd worked out what was wrong, they shipped me replacements for the faulty parts FOC.

So, no issues with Synthrotek, I just won't buy an MST kit again.

Morph.

I think it's ridiculous to sell kits without schematics...

Yes, it is

Makes it hard to debug. Folks don’t learn anything. People can’t judge the circuit they’re buying

[stepvhen]

Slightly Nasty too, I don't think they have been mentioned. But +1 again for North Coast, Kassutronics, NLC, Barton Musical Circuits, Winterbloom, all fantastic. I've learned most of what I know now from their documents, and lectures from Aaron Lantermann on youtube. Also the blog posts from Winterbloom and North Coast. You can also get a lot out of Yusynth, and CGS modules, but kits are more difficult to get.

[ixtern]

Synthrotek sent me their Verb module schematic when it stopped working and I fixed the issue with Verb.
But they may have other modules with no permission to provide schematic.
In general I'm also trying to avoid sellers not providing schematics.
I wonder if such practise is because the manufacturers want to hide their new designs or hide the fact that their designs are based on other ones.

BTW. RYO provides schematics (I have their Altered States VCF), Skull Circuits also (Oscillator One VCO).

[tarandfeathers]

I don't consider myself a "brand" but there are projects with full documentation for several Buchla format "update" modules here:

https://github.com/dunningtonaudio

[n0ahg]

Weston Precision Audio, schematics and circuit breakdown in the build manual!