Build Your Own DIY Synthesizer — with Corazón de Robota

Corazón de Robota (Constanza Piña Pardo) is a Chilean sound artist, instrument builder and performer whose practice lives at the intersection of DIY electronics, circuit design and experimental sound. She builds her own instruments from scratch — and over three days, she’ll show you how to build yours.
This is not a workshop about using synthesizers. It’s a workshop about building one — soldering iron in hand, circuit by circuit, until the instrument you walk out with is entirely your own.

Day 1 — Circuits & Sound

Electronics Fundamentals & Oscillators

Understanding sound as an electrical signal — and how the simplest circuits generate it.

• Introduction to DIY electronics: components, tools and safe soldering practice
• Reading a circuit diagram (schematic)
• Basic oscillator circuits — how a simple loop becomes a tone
• Resistors, capacitors and transistors as sound-shaping tools
• Building and testing your first sound-generating circuit
• Circuit bending as a creative, experimental practice

Assembly, Modulation & Control

Turning circuits into a playable instrument — adding control, expression and character.

• Soldering the full synth board, step by step
• Adding potentiometers, switches and control interfaces
• Basic modulation — LFOs and simple envelope shaping
• Housing and physical design — making the instrument playable and personal
• Troubleshooting: reading your circuit when something doesn’t work

Finding Your Instrument’s Voice

Finishing your build and learning to perform with it — an instrument is only complete once it’s played.

• Final assembly and sound-testing your finished synth
• Exploring the instrument’s sonic range and idiosyncrasies
• Basic performance techniques for handmade electronic instruments
• Group listening session — hearing what everyone built
• Where to go next: expanding and modifying your instrument at home

Your results

• A fully built, working DIY synthesizer — yours to keep
• Practical soldering and circuit-building skills you can apply to future builds
• An understanding of how sound circuits actually work, not just how to use them
• Basic performance experience with your own handmade instrument
• Confidence to keep building, modifying and experimenting on your own