[sdiy] hello, I'm back.

[john mahoney]

Welcome back, Brad. (popsicko, LOL!)

A common answer to "What synth should I build?" is the PAiA FatMan, but its
linear VCOs make it somewhat incompatible with most other analog synths. It
does have MIDI, though, is cheap, and there are some modifications available
online. Scott Gravenhorst is our resident FatMan expert.

Some of us (me, Rude66, others...) are building Ray Wilson's Sound Lab
Mini-Synth. This has "expo" oscillators, thus it's easier to interface with
other gear. No MIDI, so you'd want to build a MIDI-to-CV converter, too. I'm
not done with mine, so I can't comment personally. Rude66 is almost
finished -- in fact, he was just telling me about a cardboard front panel
mockup he was using. (Sorry, Ruud, I had to say it! :-) So maybe he'll post
some impressions within a day or 2.

Ray sells very nice PC boards, but you are on your own for parts. Go to
www.musicfromouterspace.com for more info. Note, the SLMS does not have
temperature compensation in the VCOs, so I have no idea what the tuning
stability will be like. I think you can add tempcos, though.

I hope this adds to your confusion -- I mean, I hope this helps!
--
john


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brad Apodaca" <popsicko at hotmail.com>
To: <synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl>
Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2004 9:53 PM
Subject: [sdiy] hello, I'm back.


> Well after a bit a kit mishap, lack of time, and financial difficulties,
I'm
> back! Whoo Hoo! Ready to get going and get learning. I ordered a PAIA  kit
> from the Craig Anderton book, should be here in a few days. I figure I'll
> put that together on a breadboard first, to test my signal flow chops, and
> then try it for real. I'll probably make a couple of FX with increasing
> difficulty before moving on to bigger and better things. Here it comes,
> you've seen it before, deep down you feared it cuz' you know soo much it's
> hard not to answer. What synth should I build? Ahhhhhh! Nooooo! The
dreaded
> newbie question. I've been listening to a bunch of late 70's early 80's
> stuff, mainly Kraftwerk, Mute records and Numan. My goal is pretty simple,
I
> think. I want  to make an entire song using one synth. Drums, leads, bass,
> you name it. I want MIDI so i can hook it up the computer. A couple of
> filter types, maybe some ringmod. Not too many bell and whistles though. I
> want to be forced to be creative, if that makes sense, by having some
> limitations. Any suggestions, so I can start saving up? A kit would be
cool,
> but I would be willing to find the parts too. I don't have the "mad
skillz"
> to make PCB yet.
> Thanks
> Brad
>