[sdiy] first synth?

[Mitchell Hudson]

    I agree, speaking as a rank amatuer, I have built all of the 9700
series and most of the Blacet kits and I found these pretty straight
forward and well documented. I thought the Blacet kits were a little easier
to build because the front panels are are easier to put together (Tip:
you'll find that making panels and wiring controls can be the most time
consuming part of the whole proccess). The Paia modules have more going on
on the front panels and everything is closer together (Tip: The
instructions are very well written follow them closely when wiring the
pots, jacks and switches; don't give in to the urge to solder something
before it's time!).

    I have not tried any of the MOTM modules, they look very good, I
started with the Blacet and Paia kits and all of these are based around
1/8" jacks. The MOTM stuff is all 1/4"; also the Paia and Blacet kits use a
Fracrack standard panel size (all panels are 3 units high) so it makes them
naturally fit together. The MOTM modules are 5 units high so it's hard to
put one of them into my system.

    I found a great second step after building a few kits was to get some
PCBs which are offered by list members from time to time and build these.
Tom G and Ken Stone frequently offer these. Starting from a PCB is a little
more challenging then working from a kit, you'll need to order the parts
yourself and design and produce your own panels etc. Also you have to put a
litttle more into the project because you need to make decisions about how
it will be put together. The end result is also a little more custom.

--M


patchell wrote:

>     There are several I could suggest.  At the low end, the Paia 9700s
> (http://www.paia.com) seems like a good choice.  The kit seems pretty
> nice (I am still working on mine...just not enough time to do everything
> these days).  And if you think the 9700 is a bit too much, the fatman is
> even simpler.  At the high end, there are the MOTM modules, and while I
> am far too cheap to buy any, I don't think you will find higher quality
> (http://www.synthtech.com/).  And, while they don't make synth kits,
> http://www.blacet.com/ make some really nice modules.
>
>     There are others as well.  TomG (and there is quite a thread about
> him today), makes some very nice boards you can populate yourself, or
> get the parts from him.  These are another option as well.
>
>     And if you live in .....Naw...I won't get that one started again :-)
>
> Stephen Harrison wrote:
>
> >    hi. i've been reading the list for about a month now, although i
> > dont think i've posted yet. anyway, i was wondering if anyone could
> > suggest a good first synth to build for someone who has a bit of
> > experiece in electronics. i've built power supplies, a couple of
> > distortion boxes for guitar, done some pic programming etc. before so
> > i'm not an absolute beginner, but i'm new to synth building.
> >
> > thanks
> > stephen
>
> --
>  -Jim
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> * Visit:http://www.silcom.com/~patchell/
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> *I'm sure glad Merry Christmas comes just once a year
> * -Yogi Yorgensen
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