This page contains a list of parts that i use in most of my designs. A lot of other designs use the same parts, too, so you can expect them to be quite universal. This list is non-exhaustive and you may run into some particular designs that call for some particular part outside of this list, but i strive to keep my designs conservative in respect of what parts they involve. Highlighted components are especially common, so it makes sense to order some additional quantity of those. Almost all of these parts are safe to source from aliexpress without fear of faulty parts or duds. NB: the existence of this list does not imply that you should run and buy all of this at once now or fail as a SDIYer - especially if you are a beginner, buy just enough parts for a simple project that you selected. However, time proved these parts to be the most useful and common.
This list covers the stuff needed to make a board for your module and attach all the controls to it. The faceplate tools and materials are not included here - refer to my panel guide as one possible solution.
I recommend buying these in bulk as bags of 100. Highlighted ones are especially common, so maybe get two bags of those. Or three, perhaps. "r" is for ohms, "K" is for kiloohms, "M" is megaohms.
These are the lil yellow blobs. In general, you want to buy an "all nominals ceramic capacitor" kind of a thing because cap values are harder to homogenise than those of resistors. Still, some are especially common. "p" is picofarads, "n" is nanofarads. With picofarads, you combine 330p to get 165p (series) and 660p (parallel), substituting 220p and 680p in most cases.
Same deal as with ceramic caps - for true universality, buy a bag of common value caps. But on most circuits you're gonna have power decoupling electrolytes and stuff, so here goes - 'u' stands for microfarads. Note: for a linear PSU, you will need a few big ones - 2200u or so - something to keep in mind.
The stuff that makes your synth go. Diodes, transistors (two weird diodes in epoxy), ICs (more transistors in funnier epoxy), and so on. This list excludes logic chips, that are listed later on as a separate category.
Many designs these days prefer microcontrollers, but CMOS logic chips deserve so much love - i use them in half of my designs. Here are the essentials!
This is the expensive stuff - switches, knobs, jacks, you name it. The form factor depends on your preferences, as do the connectors - i prefer big pots and bananas, but stick with small green pots and 3.5mm jacks for my SFP series. This selection implies Eurorack compatibility. This list does not include board standoffs, which are very specific to each case - although i recommend 18mm and 30mm.
Some uncategorized, but necessary stuff. You will need this for every single module.