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Introduction to Audio Electronics

A hands-on course where you learn audio electronics from first principles and build a Vactrol-based VCA.

Beginner6 lessons

This is an introductory, hands-on audio electronics course created by Bread Modular.

In this course, we are going to build a Vactrol-based VCA as shown below:

Vactrol-based VCA schematic

By the end of the course, you will understand everything in the above diagram and why each part is placed the way it is.

We are going to learn audio electronics from first principles, so you will be able to come up with your own original designs. Rather than relying on pure math models, we use approximations and experiments to find the best-sounding design.

💡 This course is meant to be used with the Bread Modular Lab Kit. But you can learn the concepts and use them with your own electronics lab setup too.

Start the course →

Lessons

  1. 1

    Getting to Know the Lab Kit

    Get some audio out, use the built-in oscilloscope, make an LFO and learn how the breadboard works.

  2. 2

    Voltage Dividers

    Learn about resistors, voltage dividers, impedance, the loading effect and the 10X rule.

  3. 3

    OpAmps

    Use opamps as voltage buffers and inverting amplifiers, fix our oscilloscope probe and add gain & distortion.

  4. 4

    Lighting Up an LED

    Learn about LED polarity, limit current with a resistor and drive an LED with a pulse.

  5. 5

    Using Vactrols

    Identify and wire up a Vactrol, a voltage-controlled resistor, and shape its response.

  6. 6

    Building the VCA

    Put everything together and build a Vactrol-based VCA.