Electronics for Music Synthesis
When: MWF 12:05-12:55 - Where: Van Leer C240

Office: Van Leer 276
Phone: 404-385-2548 (but it's better to try reaching me through e-mail)
E-mail: lanterma@ece.gatech.edu (by far the best way to reach me; please include "EMS" somewhere in the subject of class-related e-mail so I can find it quickly)
Course website: users.ece.gatech.edu/~lanterma/ems11
Prerequisites: ECE3040 and ECE3041 (with concurrency allowed, i.e. you can be taking ECE3041 this semester and be OK). Basically, I need some familiarity with op amps, diodes, and transistors, and I need to make sure that you have had some experience using a scope by the time you will to use one in EMS. (Oscilloscopes are introduced pretty early in ECE3041, which is what makes the "concurrency" part OK)
Website for previous offering: EMS (Spring 2010) - will help give you a feel for what the class is like

(Note: I often abbreviate the class title as "EMS." This usage of "EMS" should not be confused with "EMS" as in Electronic Music Studios, the makers of many classic synthesizers such as the Synthis.)

Aaron's SDIY Pages

Homeworks

Lectures

Dear readers from outside the class: If you find these lectures useful, please consider making a small donation (maybe $25 or thereabouts, although any amount is appreciated) to the Georgia Tech Foundation earmarked to go towards my synthesizer research; the funds will go towards parts and equipment for student projects. Here are instructions on how to donate.

Since this is a lecture/lab class, I will only lecture for 2/3 of the class periods, and that lecturing will be "front loaded," i.e. I will lecture for the first 2/3 of the class, and the last 1/3 of the class you will be just working on your final projects, with me dropping by the lab to help out as much as I can.

If you look at the lectures from the Spring 2010 version of the course, you will get a pretty good idea of what we will cover in the future.

References

We will draw material from numerous sources: book, articles, patents, and particularly schematics and descriptions posted on websites. Think of google as the main class text. Here's some good ones:

Grading

Final letter grades will be based on a series of written homeworks, a few simple, enjoyable lab assignments, two in-class quizzes, and the quality of a final project in which you will design and build a module for a modular synthesizer. The final project will permit (and encourage) you to make extensive use of various existing schematics you might find on the web, in textbooks, or elsewhere. Details about the final project will be posted at a later date.

The homeworks are intended to be instructive and enlightening, and in particular get you looking at schematics of real synthesizers that have been in production, and not "textbook" problems. I try to avoid giving anything resembling "busywork."

The labs will be brief (less than an hour), fun, and not have lengthy 3041/3042 style reporting requirements. We will not do many of these; probably just two, or three at the most. They will be intended to help you get your "feet wet," so you will have some more hand-on hardware experience before jumping into the final project. (Previous versions of the class just had the final project without any earlier labs. One of the most common suggestions I received from students was to put in some small lab components earlier in the semester so students would feel more confident going into the final project.)

The first quiz will be given about 1/3 through the class, and the second will be given about 2/3 of the way through the class. Both will be closed book. The first quiz will focus on basic facts about circuits and electronic facts that a designer needs to have "at their fingertips," without having to stop and look up, in order facilitate a smooth creative workflow. I will provide extremely detailed information about what I will ask on that quiz. The second quiz will probe what kind of intuition you have developed concerning the class material; the questions will be more qualitative in nature (for instance: if the value of resistor X is increased, will the frequency of this oscillator go up or down?), in the sense that they will not require tedious calculations with precise numeric results. Each quiz will be weighted like a homework assignment. (I used to do only one quiz, but, curiously enough, students told me I should give more quizzes!) There will be no usual written final exam given during final exam week.

I consider the final project to be the most important thing in the class; hence, your course grade will max out at whatever your project grade is, e.g., if you do B work on the homeworks, etc., but turn in an A project, you might get an A for the class, or you might get a B; but if you do A work on everything else but turn in B level project, your grade won't be an A.

This is a small class, and I will work with you very closely in helping you with your final project. By the end of the semester, I will have a pretty accurate feel for what concepts you understand and what concepts you don't.