I’ve been interested in learning to build my own music equipment and tinkering with obsolete equipment to fix or make something new out of. I decided to start learning how to solder by buying a cheap function generator online. The instructions to build it were translated poorly from another language so I found it challenging to work out if a component had to be soldered in a certain direction due to its polarity. Furthermore, it was unclear what value ohms each resistor was as the coloured bands used to tell them apart weren’t clear at all. I don’t have a multimeter or oscilloscope so wasn’t able to tell if the function generator worked. All the connections appeared to be strong. Casing for the PCB was supplied but because I soldered on some of the components wonky, it wasn’t able to fit in the casing.

Because of my interest in modular I thought I’d buy DIY module kits next. I bought a passive mult (used to split one signal into multiple copies) and a mixer module as my eurorack setup has multiple sound sources of which I don’t have enough inputs on my interface for . The passive multiple was easy to make because there isn’t as many components involved. I found there was more space for error when soldering the parts on due to a better designed PCB board.

I made the mixer module last, I found this very challenging to make. There was a larger amount of components I had to work with, many of which I had heard of them. The PCB board itself was the smallest I’ve worked with, the spacing between soldering holes made soldering fiddly and left a smaller room for error. If I used too much solder or accidentally moved my hand I could have linked two components together which weren’t meant to be soldered together. Learning from the function generator, I made sure all components were straight and flush against the PCB so the aluminium panel could fit on perfectly.