Like something out of a (nerdy) magician’s library, Build Your Own Modular is a physical, ring-bound book that transforms into a complete Eurorack modular system. It’s both a printed instructional document and the thing you’re building — all in one.
Ben from Clacktronics writes to let us know about his creation. It’s pretty ingenious, both as a feat of synthesizer engineering and bookbinding. The object comes as a marbled ring binder produced by boutique UK house Wanewright Bookbinding. Inside is a real book with chapters explaining modular synthesis and how to assemble the system. But then the chapter tabs themselves are circuit boards. Pull those out of the binding, add electronics components (the full bill of materials can be added to the purchase), and you’ll have a working Eurorack system. Use it on its own, or patch it with other modules and gear.
It’s also not expensive for a complete DIY system; the book runs £228 (excl. VAT), plus £45.00 for the BOM if you bought all the add-on parts, and £12.49 for a 12V power supply (though that one you may have). That’s about $360 all in before shipping, which makes this the most affordable DIY Eurorack kit I think I’ve seen yet; that’s about the price of one premium module.
You can buy these from Thonk and ship them in the UK and worldwide. But they’ve also released the project as (vaguely) open-source hardware, meaning if you already have some gear and just want to try DIYing one of the modules on offer, you can. (There’s no explicit license; they just ask not to use it non-commercially, which suggests they should just add a CC-BY-NA license since that’s what they’ve written there!)
https://github.com/clacktronics/EuroClack_BYOM_Modules
And there’s a tidy little selection of modules, too:
- PSU
- Custom programmable microcontroller (Raspberry Pi Pico)
- Two VCOs
- Mixer
- Attenuverters (adjust or invert CV)
- State variable filter
- Dual VCA (doubles as a mixer)
- LFO
- Envelope generator
- Two passive mults
- Two enclosures
- Two 8HP blanks
Adding that RasPi Pico also means you get more than just vanilla patching. There are some advantages to our cheap embedded age..
Come to think of it, if you were intrigued by the Music Thing Workshop System but don’t have the scratch, the open design for that programmable RasPi module would be a quick way to get up and running for a few bucks just to tinker around and see what you can do. Since it does run on the same architecture, you’d be able to share the code with the same system, just remapping to Music Thing’s control and I/O layout. That could mean folks with this could interact with the community of people working on the Workshop System as I wrote about yesterday. I guess I should, uh, also start a Discord, huh?
All that said, what a beautiful edition. It’s great that it’ll live on as open-source hardware, but – this is a gorgeous limited run. And it’s lovely seeing digital, analog, and bookbinding technique come together.
Plus, I think you’ll get so much more joy and musical potential out of this beautiful handmade object than you would with cheap, throwaway clone gear that’s likely to collect dust and costs roughly the same. I mean, if I were to have an opinion about such things, but for some reason, I suddenly want to sip on this big glass of tea.
Clacktronics Build Your Own Modular
This is available from Thonk – and available and shipping now (you might have spotted the pre-announcement back in the spring):
https://www.thonk.co.uk/shop/byom
I am not an affiliate and don’t have one but, hey, if someone wants to buy me one or something, I wouldn’t say no!