Sound Lab Ultimate Synthesizer Panels by elkayem

Last crawled date: 2 years, 12 months ago

This project contains the front panels for the Music From Outer Space "Sound Lab ULTIMATE" and "ULTIMATE EXPANDER"
The Sound Lab ULTIMATE is an analog electronic music synthesizer in the same spirit as a Moog synthesizer (e.g., the Minimoog), and the ULTIMATE EXPANDER turns the Ultimate into a full featured modular synthesizer. Ray Wilson, the designer of both of these electronic modules, describes the Sound Lab ULTIMATE as "simply put, one of the coolest things you will ever build with your own two hands". Head over to his web site at http://musicfromouterspace.com for the complete schematics, parts list, instructions, and links where you can purchase the PCBs.
I combined both ULTIMATE and ULTIMATE EXPANDER into the same box. The auxiliary panels combine both modules together (tp_left, tp_mid, and tp_right). I've also included separate auxiliary panels (ult_aux_panel and ult_ex_aux_panel) if you prefer to build these to modules in separate boxes (as Ray originally conceived).
I added an additional MIDI to CV feature in the case, so I could easily plug in my MIDI keyboard and play. The MIDI panel is labelled tp_left, and the electronics can be found at https://github.com/elkayem/midi2cv. You don't need to use this panel or electronics, but it is there if you want it.
The front panel includes raised text, and so must be printed with two colors. Most slicers include a "pause at height" plugin, which will move the hot end out of the way and allow you to switch filaments. The panels are 3mm thick, and the letters are 0.45mm thick. I printed with 0.15mm layer thickness, allowing the letters to be printed in three layers. Add the command to pause after you finish printing the 3mm layer, so you can change the filament color. (One tip: If you find that your printer is disabling the stepper motors after pausing, you may need to insert M84 S0 at the start of the G-Code. I did.)
The panel design is included in a SketchUp file. This file also includes dimensions for the case. I built the case out of 1" poplar panels from Home Depot (actually 0.75" thick), which are reasonably priced.