Elektor Formant

An Elektor Formant seen from the front.

An Elektor Formant seen from the rear with the back panel off.

The Elektor Formant analog modular synthesizer designed by C. Chapman was published in 1977/78 as a series of articles in the European magazine Elektor. The articles were later compiled into a book and a year later there was another book, (not in English) with additions and extensions by M. Aigner.

Description

The Formant uses the 1V/octave control voltage standard.

Front panels

The front panels are 6U to match up with the size of the double Eurocard (200 mm x 160 mm) VCO PCB, the other PCBs are single Eurocard (100 mm x 160 mm). This was already a standard PCB format for Elektor projects.

Book 1

Part 1 - Formant description and construction

• Chapter 1 - Introduction
• Chapter 2 - Keyboard and keyboard interface
• Chapter 3 - Keyboard construction and power supply
• Chapter 4 - VCO
• Chapter 5 - Construction of the VCO
• Chapter 6 - 12 dB VCF
• Chapter 7 - 24 dB VCF
• Chapter 8 - Resonance Filter Module
• Chapter 9 - ADSR
• Chapter 10 - VCA
• Chapter 11 - LFOs and Noise module
• Chapter 12 - COM

Part 2 - Playing the Formant

• Introduction
• Chapter 1 - Extending the Formant
• Chapter 2 - Control settings of individual modules
  • VCOs
  • VCFs and RFM
  • VCA
  • ADSR envlope shapers
  • LFOs
  • Noise module
  • COM
• Chapter 3 - Control settings for the simulation of different instruments

Book 2

Chapter 1 - Additions for the keyboard

• Touch controller
• Рortamento on/off switch
• Pitch detector
• Digital keyboard controller

Chapter 2 - Extensions to existing Formant modules

• VCF extension
• Triangle/sine converter for Formant LFOs
• Digital Noise Generator (DNG)
• Coloured Noise Circuit (CNC)
• Stand-by-switch and headphone output for the Formant-COM

Chapter 3 - Adaptation of various Elektor circuits to the Formant

• Resonant filter module
• Ring modulator
• Phase shifter
• Elektor Kriminizer - European/American police siren
• Digital reverb - Totally obsolete

Chapter 4 - Power supply and distribution panels

• Power supply
• Front panel proposals with mains power switch
• Panel for keyboard output voltage and keyboard gate signal
• Multiple-jacks modules

Chapter 5 - New Formant modules

• ADSR-controller
• VC-LFOs
• LF-VCO
• Digital Noise (DNG)
• Envelope Follower (ENV.-F.)
• Sample and Hold (S & H)
• Waveform-Processor (WР)
• Mixer
• A440 standard (440 Hz tuning)

Apendices

• A - Patch diagram templates
• B - The natural tone series
• C - 256 step sequencer
• D - Stabilized +9V power supply
• E - FET op-amps for the Formant
• F - IC and transistor pinouts

Table of relevant magazine articles

Issue	Month	Year	Article name	Author	Page	Key components	Comments	Corrections
025	May	1977	Formant – the Elektor Music Synthesiser (1)	C. Chapman	5-14		Introduction to synthesizers and basic operation of Formant
026	Jun	1977	Formant – the Elektor Music Synthesiser (2)	C. Chapman	6-14		Kbd and kbd interface
029	Sep	1977	Formant – the Elektor Music Synthesiser (3)	C. Chapman	9-42	723	Kbd resistance divider, kbd case and description of PSU and module case	Mar 78, 3-07
030	Oct	1977	Formant – the Elektor Music Synthesiser (4)	C. Chapman	10-40	μA726	Discussing VCO and waveforms	Jan 78, 1-31
031	Nov	1977	Formant – the Elektor Music Synthesiser (5)	C. Chapman	11-41	μA726	Construction and adjustment of VCO	Jan 78, 1-31
032	Dec	1977	Formant – the Elektor Music Synthesiser (6)	C. Chapman	12-27	CA3080, CA3080A, CA3084	VCF	Feb 78, 2-16
033	Jan	1978	Formant – the Elektor Music Synthesiser (7)	C. Chapman	1-34	CA3080, CA3084	ADSR
034	Feb	1978	Formant – the Elektor Music Synthesiser (8)	C. Chapman	2-10		Dual VCA
035	Mar	1978	Formant – the Elektor Music Synthesiser (9)	C. Chapman	3-26		LFO and noise source
036	Apr	1978	Formant – the Elektor Music Synthesiser (10)	C. Chapman	4-33	4136	Control and output module, wiring diagram, expansion possibilities
036	Apr	1978	Vocoders (1)	C. Chapman	4-27
037	May	1978	Vocoders (2)	C. Chapman	5-21
041	Sep	1978	24dB VCF	C. Chapman	9-43	CA3080, CA3080A	24 dB HP/LP VCF
042	Oct	1978	Resonance Filter Unit	Not Given	10-12		Resonance filter
046	Feb	1979	Formant – An invitation for our readers	Not Given	2-39		Requesting reader contributions
047	Mar	1979	Ring Modulator and envelope follower	Not Given	3-14	LM1496N
054	Oct	1979	Programmable Sequencer	C. Voss	10-38
058	Feb	1980	FET Opamps in the Formant	Not Given	2-09		Upgrading the FET buffers to FET op-amp buffers
063/064	Jul/Aug	1980	Legato gate interface for Formant	M. Bertuch	7-15
063/064	Jul/Aug	1980	Sample and hold for synthesisers	J. Binder	7-43
089	Sep	1982	Synthesised Sound Animation	Not Given	9-52
102	Oct	1983	Music quantisizer	Not Given	10-30	ZN427, ZN426	hex code	Dec 83,11-41

See also

• Elektor SDIY articles index

Further reading

• Formant-Pro - Modulares Sound-System MSS 2000 by Hans-Joachim Helmstedt, Elektor-Verlag, 2000, ISBN 3895760994 - "don't buy, cheap-quick-and-dirty approach"

External links

• Scans of Elektor at Archive.org
• Scans of Elektor at World Radio History
• Elektor Formant and Next Generation Formant by Harald Antes, VocLog
• Scans of French Formant books 1 & 2, YuSynth
• Elektor Formant Music Synthesiser book 1, Archive.org
• Elektor Formant Music Synthesiser book 2, Archive.org, in German
• Elektor Formant synthesiser, synthforbreakfast.nl
• Synthesizers & Modules > Elektor Formant files at Cloned Analog Gear - archived
• Posts tagged Formant at Matrixsynth
• Formant synthesiser built by Rick Jansen