{"id":212,"date":"2024-07-11T12:10:35","date_gmt":"2024-07-11T17:10:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sandlinsplace.net\/?p=212"},"modified":"2026-03-13T16:18:55","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T21:18:55","slug":"adding-a-little-music-minidexed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandlinsplace.net\/?p=212","title":{"rendered":"Adding a little Music: MiniDexed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I started a new project to make a MiniDexed<\/a> synth. The little synth recreates, to a large degree, the famed Yamaha DX 7<\/a> Synth (minus the keyboard and “front panel”). The MiniDexed uses a Raspberry Pi <\/a>as the base, with a couple of knobs and a simple text display.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"photo
My MiniDexed Synth so far – prototype stage<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I’ve ordered a project box to put the MiniDexed into which will take a while to arrive, they’re currently made when they’re ordered and then shipped, from Europe. I’m repurposing a PiSound<\/a> case to make my project. The MiniDexed project has a “print-your-own” case available, but I don’t have a 3D printer so my choice was the PiSound case. The page for the project has a section showing their case design<\/a>. That same page shows the wiring diagram I used to make the prototype.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve tested the setup, and it does play music and emulates DX-7 voices nicely. I had to use a MIDI keyboard to control the synth and play some notes. In my picture above, you can see the simple 2 line by 16 character display, the rather well hidden two knobs – A continuous encoder to scroll through menus and select options, and a contrast potentiometer, and of course the Raspberry Pi 4. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will be using connector headers to make the wiring harness so that the parts can be installed in sections so I can open the project case as needed. One 16 pin header for the display which connects to a 2×20 pin header to connect to the Raspberry Pi GPIO pins. That 2×20 pin header will also connect a five pin header to the continuous encoder, and a 2 pin connector for the contrast potentiometer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once completed, the MiniDexed will operate as eight sound engines, each capable of 16 simultaneous notes, much like a Yamaha TX 816 Rack module<\/a>. The TX 816 put 8 DX-7 Sound Engines in a rack mountable cage. That’s 128 notes at a time via the 8 sound engines (they can be all the same voice, or 8 different, or a mix between, at 16 notes from each sound engine). All controlled by MIDI messages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ll be sure to post updates as I complete them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I started a new project to make a MiniDexed synth. The little synth recreates, to a large degree, the famed Yamaha DX 7 Synth (minus the keyboard and “front panel”). The MiniDexed uses a Raspberry Pi as the base, with a couple of knobs and a simple text display. I’ve ordered a project box to … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Adding a little Music: MiniDexed”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[35,38,34,53,21,54,31,36,62,52],"class_list":["post-212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-making-music","tag-electronics","tag-kit-build","tag-midi","tag-minidexed","tag-music","tag-music-synthesizer","tag-raspberry-pi-4","tag-synthesizer","tag-vintage","tag-yamaha-dx-7"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandlinsplace.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandlinsplace.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandlinsplace.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandlinsplace.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandlinsplace.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=212"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sandlinsplace.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":305,"href":"https:\/\/sandlinsplace.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions\/305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandlinsplace.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandlinsplace.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandlinsplace.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}