In case I missed anything....

[Mikko Helin]

>     * Modifying PC serial ports to work at MIDI rates
This is what I've been planning to do, too, to get some
more MIDI OUT ports. This is a quite simple mod (actually
I made this kind of MIDI interface when I got my first
synth): a crystal change from 1.8432 MHz to 2 MHz (or from
18.432 to 20 MHz). MIDI OUT can be constructed with
a 1N4148 diode + 480 ohms resistor from pin 2 (data out) 
of DB25 RS-232 connector to pin 4 of 5 pin DIN MIDI OUT 
connector and form pin 7 (ground) to pin 5 of MIDI OUT.
Direction of diode is from pin 2 to resistor to MIDI OUT.
One problem is to find a such an old serial card, as never 
ones use some SMC Super IO chips or like, another to
find working MIDI drivers for Windows.

>     Also - I want to find out if anybody has a high-performance discreet 
>     VCA design. I'd like to know if there is a design that uses 
>     easy-to-get parts, and would be something that a modular synthesizer 
>     power-user would welcome into his system. You know, wide dynamic 
>     range, ultra-low noise specs, things like that. Any help there?
National Semiconductor AN-299 presents such a desing, they used LM394
dual transistors (2 of them) and LF412s (3). They called it ULTRA-LOW
FEEDTHROUGH VOLTAGE-CONTROLLED AMPLIFIER, they got the feedthrough to
be less than -80dB. You find schematics on my site at 
http://www.uta.fi/~helin/sch/an299vca.gif.

-mh