Erica Synths EDU DIY VCO Kit

The mki x es.EDU VCO is the first educational DIY kit in this series. It is an analog sawtooth-core oscillator with a reasonably accurate volt/octave tracking, made from just a handful of basic components. It features sawtooth and pulse outputs as well as 1V/oct, FM, and PWM inputs. We – Erica Synths and Moritz Klein – have developed a series of educational DIY kits under the brand name mki x es.EDU with one specific goal in mind: to teach people with little-to-no prior experience how to design analog synthesizer circuits from scratch. What you’ll find in the box is not simply meant to be soldered together and then disappear in your rack. Instead, we want to take you through the circuit design process step by step, explaining every choice we’ve made and how it impacts the finished module.

In total, we have developed 9 kits to build a fully-featured modular monosynth: a sequencer, a VCO, a wavefolder, a noise/S&H module, a mixer, a VCF, an Envelope generator, a dual VCA, and an output stereo mixer with a headphone amplifier. Additionally, an affordable eurorack case with a DIY PSU will also be available. While these kits are easy to build, we did not compromise on design and functionality. We will launch one kit every 4-6 weeks. For each kit, there is an extensive user manual (40+ pages; can be downloaded separately) that will dive deep into not only the electronics behind each circuit but also the fundamental principles of sound synthesis. We hope that the mki x es.EDU project will inspire future engineers and will contribute to the ever-growing diversity of electronic music technology.

Key Features:

• Analog sawtooth-core oscillator designed for stable and reliable performance.
• Reasonably accurate volt/octave tracking for melodic sequencing and playability.
• Dual simultaneous waveform outputs featuring both Sawtooth and Pulse waves.
• Dedicated 1V/oct input for precise pitch control from external sequencers or keyboards.
• Frequency Modulation (FM) input for creating complex vibrato and harmonically rich timbres.
• Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) input to dynamically reshape the pulse wave over time.
• Educational DIY kit developed with Moritz Klein to teach circuit design from the ground up.
• Comprehensive 40+ page manual included that explains the physics and electronics of the circuit.
• Beginner-friendly through-hole construction designed to be built on a breadboard before soldering.
• Compact 10HP Eurorack module format with a shallow 25mm mounting depth.
• Minimal power consumption drawing only 7mA from both the +12V and -12V rails.