A synth project

Having had a couple of months break from synths I decided to pick up an old project (early 2025) and start work on it.

This is user interface for the rather excellent XVA1 (or XFM2) from Futur3 Sounds so there is nothing of mine sound engine wise in there, so this is a step to getting back into making my own synths.

We have a 480×272 TFT with touch screen, 11 OLED displays, 6 rotary encoders, 16 buttons (with LEDs) and a pot for volume (not fitted above).

The touch screen is working as are all the OLEDs and buttons. Also the rotary encoders are working.

On the back is a teensy 4.1 driving all the displays and front panel. There’s also the CMOD-A7 FPGA and Adafruit DAC. Additionally there is audio outs (1/4″ and SPDIF) and finally a USB-C PD power input to power the whole thing.

Next steps are to make a simple MIDI note player so I can sit on the sofa near my partner and my dog and work on it.

I’m still feeling very lost as to what I want to do with my life, I’d love to make synths for a living, but in all honesty it’s really unlikely to happen and I’m struggling with accepting that.