My friend/roommate Jesse and I have been building various modular synthesizer modules for what seems like a year or more now but we have yet to house any of our projects. We’ve built some VCOs, VCAs, filters, these things called Lopass Gates, but housing has been a real pain.

Recently I got a new job and now have access to a laser cutter. It is a lot of fun to play with and is proving to be very nice for making panels for our modules. So far I’ve only created a couple of prototypes, to make sure that my measurements are all correct.

Our friend Alex Langeburg designed us some graphics and has helped us with some design considerations. I’m using inkscape for the layout.

My first prototype used some translucent pink/orange acrylic, I painted it flat black and then etched the paint off and cut it with the laser. I really like the color but I don’t think it’ll work well with the rest of the colors I have for jacks, knobs, cabling and what not.

Pink orange proto

So I’ve settled on clear:

Synth panel proto Panel rear view

I think it will look really nice when it is back lit, though the pots cover the graphics, so we’ll have to figure out some edge lighting as well. Eventually I hope to house my project in a suitcase, or something reasonably mobile.