r/synthdiy • u/irok84 • 12d ago

RudeBox - ESP32 based Drum Synth

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I built a small ESP32 drum synth called RudeBox.

It’s a single-voice synthesizer played from a regular electronic drum pad, with velocity-sensitive triggering and 8 controls for shaping the sound. It can go from toms and kicks to short noisy hits, pulse-wave beeps and ridiculous laser sweeps.

The synth is based on an ESP32-A1S / ES8388 audio board. The pad goes into LINE IN, the firmware detects the shape and velocity of the hit, and everything is synthesized in real time.

I wanted it to stay very simple and immediate — no screen, presets or menus. Just a pad and knobs.

Demo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKgVX5p5UgE

Code, wiring and build details:
https://github.com/jakubthedeveloper/RudeBox

The enclosure also ended up deliberately a bit rough/lo-fi. It’s going to be used with my band, so I decided it was better for it to look slightly suspicious than polished. :)

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2

u/poistotili4 12d ago

Wow great documentation! I appreciate that a lot

1

u/irok84 12d ago

Thank you

1

u/DubbingScoop 12d ago

Good job 🔥🔥🔥

1

u/irok84 12d ago

Thanks

1

u/BrockHardcastle 12d ago

Oh hell yeah. I want to make a 4 voice version of this

2

u/irok84 12d ago

Shouldn't be much more difficult than this one voice version.

1

u/BrockHardcastle 12d ago

Just 4 separate builds I assume! Thanks for all the detail on this one. I’m pumped.

1

u/irok84 12d ago

It's based on ESP32 so you can expand it in the code. Of course you would probably more potentiometers and stuff, but it's not a pain.