Open letter to Mr. Doepfer (was: Re: Curtis CEM3340 Search)

[jhaible]

Dear Mr. Doepfer,

I just learned about your web page where you call for defective
synths that contain CEM3340 chips.

What a desperate move !

You're not making friends with this.
Owners of classic synth such as the OB-8 and many others that
use CEM oscillators have *no* choice but getting the original
chips to salvage their defective synths.
*You* *have* a choice when you're offering your new products
today. You can have a new run of CEM3340 made if you really
think you need it, or you can build a VCO module of similar
performance using standard components. It's not that difficult -
I know a handful of people who have done it sucessfully.

It's hard to understand why you're taking such measures as talking
people into selling their synths just to rip out their Curtis chips.
Actually, it's not that hard to understand it on the
background of your possible bussines situation -
I guess you don't expect to sell as many VCO modules for
another run of new 3340's, and still you want to sell as many of your
readily designed 3340 based modules as possible.
BUT many people who love analogue synthesizers, myself included,
are questioning this for *ethical* reasons.

With the number of some rare chips naturally decreasing over time,
people already start to salvage chips to get two properly running
OX-Xa's from 3 defective ones, for instance. This is reason enough for
me not to use such chips in the future anymore. I did, when there were
plenty of them, but not now anymore. I also advice many people who
visit my web pages and ask for advice not to use them for diy projects
but spare them for those who really need them. And as you can imagine,
it is quite tempting for newbies to just use a chip which contains most
of what you need for a decent VCO !

My suggestion is this - design a new VCO module, or find somebody
who will do it for you. I'm sure we have a few persons on our
mailing list (that's where I learned about your 3340 hunt) that would be
able and willing to do this for a decent payment.

This is sent as an open letter to the synth-diy mailing list (and someone
please pass it on to Analogue Heaven, too - I'm not subscribed from this
computer)

Regards,

JH.