It’s amazing how such cool sounds can be made using the minimal amount of hardware. The Nebulophone, an Arduino based synthesizer made by Bleep Labs, takes full advantage of this fact. The microcontroller at the heart of this board is the ATMEGA328p used in several Arduino board and is more than capable of synthesizing audio. With the addition of a few op-amps, resistors, and switches, you get a fun synth that can make a huge range of crazy sounds using an aligator clip to complete a circuit with the “keys” on the circuit board. The source code and hardware schematics are all provided so you can chop and change things to add in any features you want, if you’re so inclined.
This synth comes in kit form so some assembly and soldering is required. Thankfully, Bleep Labs have done an amazing job on documenting the build instructions for the kit. They include descriptions of each component, plenty of pictures, and even have short videos included showing you how to solder in case you’ve never tried it or are a little rusty! Big thumbs up to Bleep Labs for making the whole thing open source and making great documentation. Check out a video of the Nebulophone in action below:
