Kastle 1.5 - DIY

It has unique digital lo-fi sound and it can be melodic as well as very noisy and drony, soft or harsh. It is designed to be fun on its own but it is most powerful when combined with other modular gear.

Kastle is an open source DIY project which runs on two Attiny 85 chips that can be reprogrammed with an Arduino (google: “programming Attiny 85 with Arduino”). One chip is dedicated to sound generation while the other handles modulation. Several firmwares for the Attiny chips are available.

The Synth version combines complex oscillator and LFO with stepped waveform generator.

The oscillator section has 3 sound parameters pitch, timbre and waveshape – all under voltage control and with 3 different synthesis modes. It has a main output and a square wave output. Both can be used independently or combined. The 3 synthesis modes are phase distortion, phase modulation (also known as FM) and track & hold modulation. Each mode utilizes two oscillators. The Pitch controls the main oscillator, the Timbre sets the pitch of the modulating oscillator and the waveshape depends on the synthesis mode. The waveshape also controls the pulse width of the square wave output from the main oscillator.

The voltage controllable LFO has a triangle and square output and a reset input. The stepped waveform generator is inspired by the Rungler circuit by Rob Hordijk. It can produce 8 different voltages either in random order or in 8 or 16 step looping patterns depending on how the BIT IN is patched.

FEATURES

• complex oscillator
• 3 synthesis modes on the main output: phase modulation, noise mode, track & hold modulation
• 3 more modes on the secondary OSC output: phase distortion, tonal noise mode, formant synthesis
• PITCH control with offset and CV input with attenuator
• TIMBRE control with offset and CV input with attenuator
• WAVESHAPE control with offset and CV input
• voltage controllable LFO with triangle and square outputs and reset input
• stepped voltage generator with random, 8 step and 16 step loop mode
• 2 I/O CV ports that can be routed to any patch point
• the main output can drive headphones
• 3x AA battery operation or USB power selectable by a switch
• open source
• possibility of exchanging different LFO and OSC chips
• durable black & silver PCB enclosure
  

TECHNICAL DETAILS

• dimensions: 70 x 60 x 50 mm
• powered by 3x AA battery or Micro USB

WHAT’S IN THE BOX

• Kastle synth DIY kit
• 10 patch cables
• user manual
• sticker
• for environmental reasons we are excluding the batteries in the package

DOWNLOADS

See the product page for instructions/downloadable content.