PAIA & kits - ametuer

[matt wilson]

At 06:40 AM 11/4/98 -0800, you wrote:

>I would advise anyone interested in getting into synth-DIY to start with a
>Fatman; it's not too expensive, and very easy to build.

i would disagree, from a purely subjective POV. i found the fatman to be
a very difficult undertaking as my first DIY project: i didn't have the
skills to:
1. solder well enough
2. allocate my time efficiently
3. UNDERSTAND what i was doing
 
etc. because i'd never done anything like it before.

i'd recommend a simple function generator kit, like the one available
from datak (.com, i think...) or blacet's micro lfo. these are both
small pcbs, with no more that 15 components, and will run off 9 volt
batteries, and will give you easy indications whether you built them
correctly. no midi to muck with, just very simple analog boards. the
fg is about $8 and john's kit is about $12. the fatman will run upwards
of $75 or so. you can build and operate the fg in about 30 minutes
and have it up and making tones. add a simple jack and resistor and you've
got a control voltage input. build the lfo, feed it into the cv input
and you're modulating your first diy modular synth. very satisfying,
i'd think....

again, this is just my take on the issue. after building two oscillators,
anderton's dual filter, two blacet lfos, paia midi-cv and fatman, novamod
101, and other stuff, i consider myself intermediate. i just wish i had
saved the fatman for later so i didn't have to muck with it for so long,
building and troubleshooting. 

good luck. 


Matt Wilson, Odyssey Studios
               on the web: www.wenet.net/~sebsi23
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