1/8/2026 - Research!!!

I've always thought hardware to make music was pretty cool! I listen to lots of electronic music and this was specifically inspired by the modular synthesiser tracks by Aphex Twin and Autechre (and at some point Deadmau5 🫩 BUT I AM PAST THAT I PROMISE)

If you're not familar, a modular Synthesiser looks like this:

Mine won't look as cool but you get the picture.

I've been doing the research on and off rather than in one continuous stream. In the research phase I was mainly learning about how the work under the hood and good starting components to begin with! YouTube has been the greatest helper with how the components work and this has been the greatest helper when it comes to figuring out DIY. I've also been looking at old resources like CGS and Eddy Bergman to figure more out especially on the DIY end :D

So I'm going to be making :

1. Voltage-Controlled Oscillator
2. Low-Frequency Oscillator
3. Voltage-Controlled Amplifier
4. Voltage-Controlled Filter
5. Envelope Generator

Obviously just to start since there's lots more I can add here.

I'm going to have a 12V Eurorack setup probably!

I played around with these in VCV Rack to get a taste of how they work!

1/10/2026 - Square VCO

So I started building the VCO which is like the main part since it varies all the voltage.
I used this tutorial for the main stuff but tweaked it as you can see mostly because I didn't want to have as many THT parts and prefer SMD where possible :D It also involved lots of figuring out what does what since the docs aren't the MOSSST descriptive so I obviously messed up lots but I think I (MIGHT) have figured it out. Like one of the potentiometers is put as a var resistor symbol while the rest are potentiometers simply bc of the lack of the last connection.

ALSO AMERICAN SYMBOLS ARE SO CONFUSING WHAT.

This is what the Schematic looks like

In the future I might add more wave functions but square is a pretty good start!

This is what the routing looks like:

Up next is the VCA!

1/18/2026 - VCA PT 1

A VCA is an amplifier!!
I'm gonna seperate this into 2 parts, schematics then PCB. I used this and this. I can't lie it's been a little hard for this one lol but I think the schematics took far less time bc im now used to what I need to know. I also switched out parts for stuff JLC can assemble for me as much as i can but there are some parts that JCL just cant so I gotta do ts myself.

Schematics thus far!

1/19/2026 - VCA DONE!!

So i just finished my VCA...
Let me start by saying HOLY ROUTING NIGHTMARE OH MY GOD. I have spent a sold 3 hours just trying to arrange the parts then route ts. This is what it looks like thus far! I have about 3 errors from DRC but im gonna assume those errors cant hurt me. I used the GND tutorial from the devboard which simplified my work so much more :))

I've been doing this for almost 4 days now so I am so glad I am done...up to the next thingamabob!

1/30/2026 - Guitar Input

Hi hi! So I worked on this guitar input. Idk if i'll be able to finish up everything else before Blueprint ends :heavysob: I just have so much to work on arggggg so I think for now I'll submit these. I also just realised I never put my stuff on Github and I will be hunted for sport by reviewers soon </3

I got help from this

This was probably the easiest part so I finished it up within like 3 hours. I ALSO HAD NO ERRORS. NOTICE HOW LOCKED IN I AM???

Le schematic

Le PCB