[sdiy] another newbie

[synth at charlielamm.com]

Bob: Welcome, I have been all around the Internet for
many years, and synth-diy is by far my favorite group; people are
enthusiastic and helpful, there are no flames, and an incredibly high
level of talent in many diverse areas.

Here are some good sites, IMO, to start with (in no order, hope no one is
offended if I left them out!:

http://www.paia.com/  Good kits, well tested, with good docs.  Good place
to start, check out the "fatman" as a possible first all in one kit.

http://www.musicfromouterspace.com/ Ray Wilson's DIY.  Somebody said, and
it's true, there are either 3 of him, or he doesn't sleep or eat, ever.
Anyway, lots of great stuff there, lots of schematics to study and
prototype, and lots of reading to do.

http://home1.gte.net/res0658s/fatman/ Scott Gravenhorst fatman site.
Mods for the fatman, that you can study and apply to lots of other things
as well.  Tons of neat circuit bits and ideas.

http://home.swipnet.se/cfmd/synths/friends/stopp/ The ASM-1 homepage.  A
lot of synth DIY roads lead to the ASM-1.  It's a complete modular synth
in one package.  Even if you don't build a whole ASM-1 there's a lot of
simple and good sounding module designs to study and build, along with
excellent explanations about how things work.

http://www.cgs.synth.net Ken Stone's CGS site.  Some of the designs are a
bit more advanced, but, Ken has some incredible circuits and lots of PCB's
for sale, has a great user forum of his own, is very helpful, and sells
PCBs of many useful buildingblock type things, like his $3 mixing board,
which can find their way into any DIY synth, IMO.

http://www.ele4music.com/kits.html.  Ele 4 music site.  This is an
asterisk recommendation; after some hair pulling and sobbing, I really
do like the kits I have bought here, but, the kits and docs often have
mistakes in them, and you have to hack them sometimes to get them to work
(although the prices are great IMO, in spite of the booboos.) However, I
do find myself studying the designs on this site quite a bit.  Not for the
beginner, get going on these after you have a few other projects under
your belt, but bookmark the site anyway.

Also, do google searches on all the regulars you see over and over in
synth-diy, they almost all have sites, and they all have cool stuff on
them.  If a link is busted, try chopping off the last item in the link and
seeing if it works, sometimes just the page has been moved but the site is
still up.  And bookmark the sites you get off this group, there are a lot
of links in the threads here.

BTW, as a bonus, here is a non-synth site that I refer to all the time
when I am struggling with electronics stuff (for me, thats often!), and
IMO one of the greatest science web sites on earth:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electronic/etroncon.html#c1
Note that this site goes on and on and on forever....go home and then go
down into the site again...amazing!

Have fun!!

--CL

















On Thu, 22 Jan 2004, bob smith wrote:

> hello all, i hope this mailing list is still active...
> i have been producing electronic music on japanese
> roland/yamaha products for the past 8 years, all
> romplers.  as i was browsing the local bookstore i
> found a book called 'vintage synthesizers'.  im sure
> you are all familiar with it.  WOW!! ... so within the
> past weeks i discovered the whole underground modular
> movement, and now the diy community.  i am totally
> amazed, yet kind of discouraged as it seems the diy
> scene peaked in the 90's.  hopefully this place is
> still active.
>
> i have about 3 years educational/lab experience in
> basic electronics that i picked up in a vocational
> school about 10 years ago.  from there ended up
> getting into telecommunications, and have been using
> computers since.  so now i find myself back to the
> soldering iron, and picking up some basic books on
> electronics to brush up before i start any projects.
> I am going to start with building a diverse number of
> kits and integrating them into one case (some of those
> fatman mods really inspired me), specifically the paia
> kits.  this may take a year or two, in no rush.  from
> there branching off into a MOTM/oakley project.  i am
> definately a newbie, so try to take it easy on me.
>
> dont worry i wont flood the place with posts (this may
> be my only one for quite a while), i am trying to
> compile books, test equipment, etc.  i do ask however
> if anyone has links for any texts/schematics/info
> relating to diy in anyway, please let me know.  I
> unfortunately am finding too often dead links.
> hopefully someone is compiling a database of some
> sort.  thank you all for your contributions, and
> help... now i will sit back in the corner and be a
> sponge, hopefully being able to contribute one day.
>
> zenkigen
>
>
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