Nice!

Watch first reveal of the HDD Synth Prototype MKII running on YouTube

This video shows it running in the test harness ISA slot I created, to make it easier (and safer!) to test outside of a PC. It uses an ISA slot connector I bought off eBay wired up with a USB C decoy board to provide +5V power

I'm still working on refining the software with the full feature set I want to demonstrate, so I'll post again once that's more developed

Wow, that looks and sounds amazing!!
I really love the volume control.
Can't wait to buy it someday 😀

I built something similar myself, but simpler, without an amplifier. In general, my version is powered by 5V (e.g., from a Molex connector). I considered adding a small amplifier, but it was too loud. But basically, it also plays the sound of the platters spinning up during startup, and the seeking sound of the heads when the activity LED is on. Interesting approach to mount it on an ISA card. Good luck!

elmo7x wrote on 2026-01-28, 19:44:

I built something similar myself, but simpler, without an amplifier. In general, my version is powered by 5V (e.g., from a Molex connector). I considered adding a small amplifier, but it was too loud. But basically, it also plays the sound of the platters spinning up during startup, and the seeking sound of the heads when the activity LED is on. Interesting approach to mount it on an ISA card. Good luck!

That's awesome, have you got any videos of it in action? Sounds like a very nice and small device

My thinking for the ISA card was to make it easy to draw power, but also meant it was easy to install as the card itself is quite large with the speaker attached

I've been having some fun this afternoon creating a jingle for the HDD Synth in the style of the Winamp jingle. So purposely a little cheesy 😀 the plan is that the first time you install the card in a PC it'll play this jingle before starting up in normal operation

https://youtu.be/CiWEeovqQ18