TubeOhm Jeannie is a new Teensy-based 8-voice polyphonic digital Synthesizer with tons of features, it’s now available as a DIY project.
Last May, just before summer, I reported about Jeannie, a new DIY digital polyphonic Synthesizer from the developer Rolf Degen. Known to some for his De-Generator which I have already presented here.
Rolf wrote to me today the good news that Jeannie is now available from the TubeOhm website.
Jeannie DIY Synthesizer
Jeannie is an 8-voice polyphonic DIY Synthesizer with 2 oscillators (sync, FM…), multimode filter, waveshaper, 2 envelopes, 2 LFOs, and a step sequencer. It consists of a DIY motherboard with a Teensy 4.1 (816 MHz), an optional DSP extension board for the effects, a housing, and a power supply (12V min 1A).
The core of the sound engine uses two oscillators per voice with 945 different waveforms to explore. There are not a few and you get more parameters to dive deeper into them. Pitch, pitch envelope, glide, detune, level, PW amount, PWM, and oscillator mix… Jeannie also offers an up to 8x unison mode giving you up to 16 oscillators on a single voice. Impressive for such a compact synth.
Then both oscillators move into a multimode state variable (Chamberlin) filter with 12dB/octave and adjustable resonance. LP, HPs, and BP filters are available for selection. It gets exciting behind the filters as you can find here a rich multi-type waveshaper (XOR ring mod, XMOD, MOD, FM…). A slightly different signal path as you normally know it from synths. This design decision has the result that the waveshaper works as a shaper for the waves and as a distortion effect.
On the modulation side, you have two classic ADSR envelopes and two multi-wave LFOs. For melodic content, you can activate a polyphonic sequencer with up to 4 voices.
Effects
Jeannie comes with a digital FX that runs at an adjustable clock rate between 10 and 60 kHz. So clean or dirty effects, your choice. You can choose between different effects including chorus, flanger, reverb. echo. If you want more, you can upgrade the engine via an additional board containing a DSP. It gives you 14 new effects that are programmable and storable. Including a distortion, tonator, chorus with two and five stages, gate, X- delay, and more.
Backside
On the backside, you have a 12V DC power supply input, a power switch, a stereo output, MIDI In/Out with Thru functionality, and a USB connection for firmware updates. Internally, you can find a micro-SD card on which you can store up to 2048 patches. That should be enough space for the next years.
The synth is operated with the main encoder, four parameter controllers, a volume knob, and some function buttons. In addition, there is a colored LCD display and handy lights that give you the status of the functions (MIDI, FX…)
A very exciting project that is now ready. For such a compact synth, Jeannie offers a lot of functionality. And a lot that goes beyond the standard. See the waveshapers or the many waveforms. And the most important thing: it sounds great and versatile. Looks like an amazing DIY project for the cold days.
TubeOhm Jeannie is available now as a DIY project. The PCB is available in two versions: for experienced users without pre-soldered SMD parts for 63,90€, with for 92,30€. The full Jeannie 3 kit with all pre-soldered PCBs and parts is available for 294€. A power supply and a SD card is not included.
More information here: TubeOhm
Hey,
Nice project that I have been following on ElectroTecnique’s facebook group.
It could be nice to perhaps mention the original project from http://electrotechnique.cc/ thanks to which Jeannie exist also 🙂
yes 🙂 I also covered this project