First post. Yay! A little about me

Hi, I'm Analog Monster.  I'm a 25 year old audio engineering and electronics student based in Cambridge, UK.  Music is the most important thing in my life, whether its listening to it, making it or making electronic instruments.

My fascination with synths led me to the murky world of DIY electronics.  I started out circuit bending kids toys - there is something amazing about coaxing something musical out of a supposedly non musical device.  As I gained confidence (and stopped breaking things I was modifying) I moved on to modifying drum machines - adding ROM switches to allow custom samples and intentionally corrupting data lines to create glitchy, distorted samples.

I started to build kits for electronic instruments - Atari Punk Console, Casper Electronics Drone Lab V2, Meeblip, Mutable Instruments Shruthi1 and many others.  Most of these projects are created by a bloke in a shed in his spare time for pennies, not massive companies with an equally massive budget and an R and D department.  I was inspired - if those guys can do it, why cant I?

So in September 2011 I took the plunge and bought a chinese import 3 axis CNC milling machine, taught myself Cadsoft Eagle and started designing and etching my own PCBs.   Now these PCBs are not professional quality, when I have a final design ready I will have them made at a proper fab house.  But having a milling machine has allowed me to do rapid prototyping, and I have gained invaluable skills I use on a daily basis.

I dont have anything I'm willing to show yet, but I am working on a semi modular analog synthesizer for my final university project.  It will be a fully analog signal path, using only thru-hole "still in production" components and single sided boards for easy home manufacture, and best of all I will make all the designs open source.  Although I am a university student, I have learnt far more from studying other people's projects and I certainly wouldnt be at the point I am now without the openness of others.  I think it is important to share knowledge and so I will follow their lead and make schematics and board layouts available for everybody for free.  Of course, if you wish you will be able to purchase complete kits from me also.

Once I have finished university I will go into this full time.  I have my first 2 products at 1st prototype stage and many other ideas that need some trials on breadboard before I decide if they are worth developing into products.  I will put some sound and video demos up in the next few weeks - so watch this space!