Every year in the Duttapukur Village on the outskirts of Kolkata, Synth aficionado Varun Desai opens the doors to his farmhouse for a weekend of spirited synth, electronic music, and sound design nerdery. The event, called Synthfarm, is now in its 8th year and has become a vibrant platform for knowledge sharing within the Indian synth community.
Introduction to Synth Building – The Poca Synth
Animal Factory Amplification has been a part of Synthfarm since its 2017 edition. Championing the DIY spirit of the synth community, AFA introduced the PocaSynth kit as a learning tool for synth building and circuit bending. The PocaSynth is a variation of the classic "Atari Punk Console" circuit by self-taught arch-DIY electronics legend Forrest M. Mims III.
One of the key issues to making DIY sessions enjoyable, particularly for first-timers, is hearing the circuit come to life. To tackle this, Animal Factory designed the board to be easy to assemble and solder for a beginner with the help of a video.
Since its introduction in 2017, the PocaSynth has almost always seen a 100% build success rate, despite most kits being built by people soldering for the first time.
The PocaFamily Grows
Building upon the success of the PocaSynth, the PocaSeek, a 5-step sequencer was introduced in 2022. This year the PocaFamily grew further with the introduction of the PocaLFO and the PocaFilter as well as a new enclosure system. Synth building workshops went on almost continuously with most participants opting to build multiple modules. Each Poca kit was designed with education in mind and has been made available on GitHub as an open-source project. With the expansion of the PocaFamily, we aim to make a complete system of easy to build yet musically engaging “modules” available to hobbyists.
Free download – Open Source PocaFamily Files
Spreading the Gospel of Sonic Sorcery
In addition to overseeing the synth building workshops, the AFA team also conducted various lectures and Q&A sessions including "The Physics of Sound" by Aditya Nandwana, "Introduction to Microcontrollers" by Aaron Pereira, and "Basics of Electronics" by Santaji Shirke. Our friends over at Erica Synths were kind enough to lend us one of their excellent Bullfrog educational synthesizers, which proved to be an ideal teaching tool for Aditya's "Introduction to Modular Synthesis" class.
AFA Eurorack Modules at Synthfarm
No Synthfarm is complete without the nightly jam sessions – a playground for sonic exploration with a smorgasbord of vintage and modern gear. Participants enjoyed some hands-on time with our wild distortion modules: The Pit Viper, the Baron Samedi, and the Godeater. The unhinged Bonesaw Filter, versatile Tannhäuser Gates Stereo Mixer, and the omnipotent Orobas Tube VCA also made appearances - filling the night air with AFA's revered aural alchemy.
Where to Buy – Retailers Around the World
Keeping up With the Pocas
AFA would like to thank Varun for organizing these magical gatherings of synth wizardry each year and for allowing us the opportunity to interact with and give back to the community. We returned to Bombay brimming with ideas to take the PocaFamily further as an educational tool and are looking forward to introducing more DIY goodness for the next Synthfarm. Make sure to subscribe to our mailing list below and follow us and Synthfarm on social media to stay updated on the ever-expanding PocaFamily saga.
Addendum: Foodfarm and Animal Farm.
We would be criminally remiss if we didn't mention how good the farm-fresh food is thanks to Zareen's culinary magic.
Last but not least, we had a few furry friends who were all absolutely adorable :3
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