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I'm new here with a dream

Gazelle

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Joined
Feb 20, 2024
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3
Location
In the air, tonight
Hi I'm Gazelle and unfortunately I live in England. I've loved pinball all my life but rarely got the opportunity to see machines in person. I'm planning on changing that by building my own miniature machine from scratch, and combining it with my love of music by turning it into a synthesiser module.

I'm starting from square one, having to teach myself everything about design and electronics (and pinball), I'll appreciate any useful advice and resources to help me on my way! And of course I'll keep you updated on my progress, however slow it ends up being!
 
Welcome.
Where are you based, there are a lot of playable pinballs in England.
 
I'm in Southampton! I did see a thread of someone else from here talking about a place in Salisbury, I might have a look into that one!
Special when lit just down the road from me. I have a machine at home also. Welcome to come along and hook up one Friday evening
 
I took that comment to mean that it was hard to play pinball in bars etc.
 
It is quite easy to trigger from a pinball to a synth module.

You just need to assign the switches properly into a switch to midi module.

Or even a switch to wav module.....

I would be putting all the switches to trigger onto a pentatonic scale of notes so nothing will be 'out of key'.

Have a look at things like this:

 
Hi I'm Gazelle and unfortunately I live in England. I've loved pinball all my life but rarely got the opportunity to see machines in person. I'm planning on changing that by building my own miniature machine from scratch, and combining it with my love of music by turning it into a synthesiser module.
The biggest hurdle with making a miniature machine is you will have to remake every part, rather than use off-the-shelf products
Every part is made for a 1 1/16 inch ball
 
It is quite easy to trigger from a pinball to a synth module.

You just need to assign the switches properly into a switch to midi module.

Or even a switch to wav module.....

I would be putting all the switches to trigger onto a pentatonic scale of notes so nothing will be 'out of key'.

Have a look at things like this:


My idea was actually (hopefully) even simpler than that! I just want a simple CV output that I can plug into anything on my modular synthesiser, and some CV inputs as well so the ball can be launched by a module too.

The biggest hurdle with making a miniature machine is you will have to remake every part, rather than use off-the-shelf products
Every part is made for a 1 1/16 inch ball

I know I'll have to make a lot from scratch, but I'm hoping I can get away with using some full size parts, since I'm not making a fully featured game out of it, rather an electromechanical plaything that evokes the spirit of pinball. it's pretty much just gonna be 3 pop bumpers and 2 flippers, and the size I'm thinking of currently (35.6cm by 16.5cm) will probably/maybe be fine.
 
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