The AVR Synth is a project designed by Jarek Ziembicki and produced by Elby Designs. It's a 2 DCO digital monosynth with filter, EG and VCA. The project was originally created just to see if it was possible to have a full digital synth on a simple microprocessor. Jarek used the AT90S8535, and it worked well. Elby Designs received permission to create a run of boards, but switched to the ATMEGA16, since the AT90S8535 is no longer in production.

So far, I have not had the time to begin on my AVR Synth. It's actually a very simple project with only a few dozen resistors / caps / diodes and a couple of ICs an oscillator and some IDC headers. The only reason I haven't started is that I'm lacking many of the pots and switches. Hopefully I'll be able to afford the missing parts on my next order and get it running.

Be sure to check out The Elby Designs Website and Jarek's homepage for more details.

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The kit is shown below. It contains a PCB with pre-installed socket and ATMEGA16 chip, an instruction manual and a support CD-ROM. I was pleasantly suprised by the contents of the CD... there are many goodies in there not related to the AVR Synth. The printed manual is a bit brief, but there is enough extra info on Elby's website and CD to construct the project fairly easily.

Here's a photo of the PCB. It's a very well-made board: Thick fiberglass, double sided, through plated holes, nice silkscreen. This is going to be a nice board to stuff. I like the snazzy silk screen for the IDC connectors...