Were the Good Old Days all that good?

[Michael Moncur]

on 06:55 PM 4/11/00 , Paul Schreiber wrote:

>But, if I was just starting out, not interested in *design*, but interested
>in *building* a working synth, then
>now is a great time. Compared to say, 1980-1996. Back then, ZIP! And, I
>believe you LEARN MORE studying
>a WORKING circuit, than beating your head against a wall tring to find a 50K
>reverse log pot.

I agree entirely!  I wanted desperately to build a working synth in 1985. 
Between my being a poor high-school student and the lack of convenient 
PCBs/kits/etc, I never even got started. I just ended up buying cheap 
digital synths. That's why I'm rediscovering the idea now and loving it.

As much as many of the DIY die-hards hate it, I think MIDI is one thing 
that makes things easier for me. Back in '85 I was trying to figure out how 
to build an entire keyboard from scratch. Now with an $80 PaIa MIDI 
interface I can use my digital synth to control everything analog... And I 
don't have to worry about analog sequencers, although I might make one for fun.

I am ending up learning a bit of design and theory too, and I hope to learn 
more. Right now my "design" is just a matter of taking the VCO from this 
and the VCA from that and combining them, or taking a particular VCF and 
changing parts here and there to see how the sound changes. But I'm 
learning, and it's way more fun than dealing entirely with "from the ground 
up" theory.


--
michael moncur   mgm at starlingtech.com   http://www.starlingtech.com/
"Nothing is said that has not been said before."    -- Terence (185-159 B.C.)