Building a Dub Siren (Part 2)

In Part II of "Building a Dub Siren", we move from history into hands-on design. I walk through three versions of the dub siren built during this project: an NJD-style breadboard clone, a modified custom circuit with continuous controls, and a final printed circuit board designed for workshop builds.

Along the way, we explore how different ways of controlling the instrument change the way it feels to play, how moving away from presets opens up new musical possibilities, and how design choices in layout and circuitry affect sound, usability, and repeatability.

This episode also documents two workshops where participants built and played their own dub sirens, developed with support from the Voxel Lab and the Morningside Academy for Design, with guidance from Philip Tan and guest speaker Wayne Marshall.

What happens when you take a legendary reggae sound effect, crack it open, and rebuild it from scratch? Join us as we explore the history, circuits, and culture of the dub siren—one of the most playful noisemakers in music.

Discover the history and sound of the dub siren—an iconic DIY synth from Jamaican sound system culture. In this first episode, we trace its journey from reggae and dub to UK jungle and rave, demo two classic circuit designs, and run early oscillator + filter tests on the oscilloscope.

This project is part of MIT’s Playful Audio initiative, blending music history, analog electronics, and hands‑on experimentation.
   • What is Playful Audio?  

Watch Part 1:    • Building a Dub Siren (Part 1)  

Build resources, schematics, and PCB files:
https://github.com/MITGameLab/dub-siren

#DubSiren #SoundSystemCulture #DIYsynth #AnalogAudio #MIT #OpenSourceHardware