Killing the list ? (was: Re: New Wiard Module: Borg "Assimilator" Filters)

[jhaible]

> Regrettably, this is what is killing this list. I'm doing commercial work,
> Juergen is doing designs for Paul and others, people are afraid
> to talk about their ideas because they might lose money.

I hope it doesn't come to that.

Speaking for myself, I would not sacrifice the fun of synth diy for money.
I had the chance to get a full time job in the music electronics industry
more than once, but decided against it. Sharing circuits with MAM or
TBS or Synthtech is fun, and getting some "reward" is part of the fun.
If I were to make "big extra money" in my spare time, I'd probably spend
my time with the stock market, as most of my colleagues do nowadays.
But being the synth addict I am, the fun factor is important to me.
Sharing circuit ideas freely on synth-diy is part of it. There are certain
exceptions, for myself, and most likely for you, when details of certain
products to come are involved. That's why I said I won't inquire further
on the Borg filter - I respect that. There was no irony or bad feelings
in my answer.

Now speaking of the list, there are other things going on as well.
In a way, the list has "grown old", that is typical effects occur, like
new people asking the same questions (nothing bad about that), and
the percentage of topics which are interesting for us "oldtimers"
is smaller than it used to be.

I keep answering emails about technical questions as good as I can,
both on the list and in private mail. Sometimes it can be frustrating
(question #1 is What is the resistor value across the diode in the
Wasp filter?), but more often I really enjoy it, especially when
I learn to see things from a different point of view in this
correspondence. There's still a lot to learn, and a lot of secrets
to unveil from the history of synth building. I enjoy these discussions
and these questions a lot. By coincidence, some of the most
challenging questions come from people who build commercial
stuff, so there often is a "double reward". (;->)

I don't see the list so negative. I admire Martin's work on convolution
reverb, for instance. I just can't add anything of value, because
it's slightly over my head, so you won't hear me talk about it much.
But I'm sure he will come with a great thing in the end, and until
then my silence is an expecting one. (Hope you don't mind the mention,
Martin.)


> However, Electronotes was very much like this also, people
> could talk about underlying theory without giving away the
> implementation. After all a Sallen-Key filter is just a filter.

Yes. I remember a funny mail by Dave Rossum of SSM chips
and Emu fame. He contributed an "Auxiliary VCO" to EN, but
he made clear that the performance of this was way below the
Emu VCO modules they were selling at the same time.

Funny, but not bad at all, as everybody involved did profit from
that.

JH.