DIY Eurorack Module Resources

Long before I ever got into Eurorack, or even music for that matter, electronics were a big interest of mine. I'd love taking things apart, looking at the weird circuit boards, and trying to understand what was going on. 

Fast forward many years to learning about Eurorack and all its various modules that can perform pretty much anything. It was only a matter of time before I became curious about how these modules worked; what was going on behind the face plate. After a bit of searching, I found the crazy, but fascinating world that is DIY Euroracking. 

Making DIY Eurorack modules is something that is relatively easy, designing them is a whole different story. With a bit of soldering know-how, you can make some pretty cool things.

My goal here is to consolidate all the information and resources I've acquired about DIY eurorack module-making, with the goal of helping beginners or interested people wanting to give it a try. I'm doing this because, to my knowledge, I don't think anyone has put something together like this. 

So hopefully the information below is helpful. I'll keep updating it as I find new resources:

DIY EURORACK RESOURCES

1) Look Mum No Computer 

Look Mum No Computer is a Youtube channel run by Sam Battle that focuses on DIY synthbuilding and music making. Sam is a creative genius and builds some crazy musical contraptions that sound awesome. He also has a collection of modular synth builds that he has created. What's cool about Sam's designs is that he posts the circuit board layout/bill of materials to his website, but also has a Youtube video about each module he designs. I personally think this is great because you can see what a particular module does/sounds like, before deciding to build it. Also, almost all of Sam's designs are stripboard layouts, which makes building them that much easier, and there is a nice forum on his website to ask questions. Sam himself is also pretty friendly and always answered my emails when I had module questions

I should point out though that Sam's modules are not in the typical Eurorack 128.5mm format (since he prefers larger modules), so a bit of front panel layout/design is required, which I personally find to be pretty fun; you can lay things out how you want. So far I've built the multi-channel mixer, 1V/oct oscillator, envelope generator and low-pass filter. Here is a list of Sam's module designs. 

2) Niklas Ronnberg

Niklas Ronnberg's DIY synth page is another great website I've found with a massive collection of various Eurorack-sized modules. His designs are also in stripboard format and some have instructions and audio samples to go along with them. 

A downside however is that Niklas doesn't provide an explicit bill of materials for his builds, although all the required components can be deduced from the stripboard and schematic layouts (see image). He is also friendly and responds to questions about his builds and required materials. So far I've built the dual VCA and distortion unit. 

3) Mouser Electronics
Mouser Electronics is a website that sells pretty much every single electrical component you'll ever need for these DIY builds. It's a pretty user-friendly website and what I like in particular is the filtering system they use for the a search query; you can filter down search results in super detail to get the exact component you want/need.

Mouser also has a really cool shipping policy (for Canada at least). For about $20 of shipping or free for orders over $100, you'll get next-day/two-day shipping on your orders; perfect if you are like me and want to get right into building ASAP.

Updated: 03/03/2020

So that's what I've come up with so far. As I said before, I plan to populate this list as I come across more resources. If you have any resources, post them in the comments below and I'll add them to the list. It would be great to see more people getting into this sub-hobby!


Happy patching friends,


-Uncle Peter

A Dual VCA schematic by Niklas Ronnberg