I'm making my first synth (software) design, and it's heavily inspired by the Vermona Perfourmer, a synth I had to sell during college because I simply couldn't afford to keep it. It's still the piece of gear I regret selling the most.
Concept:
Carousel is a five-voice round-robin polyphonic synthesizer built around a simple idea: a circle. Its five voices sit like seats on a carousel, and every note you play is assigned to a different one - in sequence, random, or all at once.
Each voice is a complete synth with its own oscillator, filter, and envelopes. Differences in tuning and timbre drift across the stereo field, creating a sound that is organic and quietly imperfect - like an old carousel left in the sun.
Carousel is designed to be simple. No LFOs, no presets, no complex synthesis - just pure play. A childhood that exists only in memory.
Disclaimer: I did get help from Claude with the coding. The idea for this design had been in my head for a long time, but my coding skills were sooo limited (in fact, I had virtually none). As more of a visual/UI design hobbyist than a programmer, I was finally able to bring this idea to life.