[sdiy] Polyphonic issue revisited.

[James Patchell]

Building a polyphonic DIY synth is a big job....but not imposible.  I built 
a 4 voice one some 25 years ago...I used a Polymorphic 88 computer the 
keyboard controller...but, that is another story....

Your biggest engineering challenge is going to be the hardware.  20 years 
ago, Curtis Electro Music and Solid State Music had chip sets to build 
synthesizers...these greatly reduced the parts counts when building a 
poly.  Those don't, for practical purposes, exist any longer, you we are 
stuck with building our synths out of discrete components, so to speak.

Another problem that you will have to solve is temperature stability of the 
oscillators. Not exactly an easy job.  But it may force you to make a hard 
choice between linear and exponential oscillators...(linear  and expo 
oscillators both have their own unique problems to solve).

It is a big job....one that so far, I have not had the guts to re-tackle 
again...although, I am getting close... :-)

At 08:12 AM 12/12/2003 -0500, Tim Johnson wrote:
>Hi hate to bring this issue up again but I have been wondering about the 
>possibility of building a poly synth. Just a couple of notes 8 or 10  you 
>know. (Just kidding ==8-O).
>Are any gurus familiar with the Korg Poly6? (I loved that board.) I worked 
>on one a while back (I have a schematic for interested parties to peruse) 
>and noticed that every time a key is played the led on the circuit board 
>jumped from one of the 6 oscillators to the next.
>... relatively feasable for a DIY or should I just buy one? Heaven forbid.
>
>(Donning rain gear for the tomatoes.)
>
>Jim
>
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         -Jim
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