Designing a DIY synth arpeggiator with logic gates: Part 1

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A detailed look at how to build a scaled CV arpeggiator with a multiplying digital-to-analog converter and a few logic gates. It can be used with any volt/octave analog synthesizer. In this first part, I'm laying out the basics of digital to analog conversion.

If you want to follow along and can't find the TLC7524, the AD7524 is a good replacement that might be easier to find.


Here's a rough bill of materials:

1x TLC7524/AD7524
1x TL074 (TL072 would also suffice I guess)
1x 4040 Binary Counter
4x LED
4x 2k Resistor (exact value doesn't matter as long as it's not too low, just to protect the LEDs)
2x Audio sockets (big or small, doesn't matter, up to preference)

For the voltage divider:
2x 100k Resistor
1x 27k Resistor
1x 10k precision trim pot
(I know these values differ from what I have in the video, but I guess picking higher resistor values wastes less current)

Any questions – feel free to ask them in the comments. I'm happy to help.