Hack Me Electronics has announced that that the Rockit synthesizer – a DIY 8-bit synthesizer project – is ready for launch:

The PCBs have arrived. I built Rockit #1 and it worked the first time I powered it up. It just doesn’t get any better than that!

I’m getting ready with shipping materials (not sure why none of that occurred to me before now!). Look out for a notice from Kickstarter because I’ll need to get people’s address.

I don’t want everyone to get too excited to fast because I’ve got a lot of work to do to get it to you. I’m going to mix in all three versions into my schedule, shipping some bare bones, some kits, and some assembled units as I go.

The software for version 1.0 is pretty much a wrap. There will be future versions with upgrades and updates, but like my friend says, “At some point in a design, somebody’s gotta shoot the engineer.” Well, that time has come. Time to put on my manufacturing hat and let these beasts out in the world. Cheers again and thanks for all the support.

The Rockit synth is a DIY synth designed to be “a source of gnarly full-blown synth sounds and, for hackers and electronics enthusiasts, Rockit will be an engaging electronics project and a platform for synth exploration.”

Pricing for the Rockit 8-bit Synth ranges from $25 for a barebones kit to $200 for an assembled synth.

Details are available at the projects’ Kickstarter site.

Specs:

• Fully Open Source Hardware and Well-Commented C Software Design
• Digital Analog Hybrid Circuitry
• 2 Digital Oscillators with 16 waveshapes, updateable to more
• 2 Low Frequency Modulation Oscillators with 10 destinations
• Innovative Digitally-Controlled Analog Filter with Low-Pass, Band-Pass, and High-Pass with Envelope Control and External Audio Input
• Analog Voltage-Controlled Amplifier with Envelope Control
• Drone/Loop Mode for Playing by Itself
• 19 Knobs to Twiddle and 8 Switches
• Full MIDI Input and Output
• Sound Patch Save and Recall