[sdiy] Radfio Shack

[Blandon Ray]

> Guilty.  Not that I've got anything against digital control, hybrids, and digital sound synthesis.  I don't much care for menus, I'm a knob and patch cord kinda guy, but digital design doesn't exclude that kind of stuff (take a gander at the Buchla 200e).
> 
> At the end of the day, I do this for enjoyment, to blow off steam, and I've wanted a synth since I was in the third grade (literally).  There is nothing to me more gratifying than to sit down, as Scott G. says, and whip up a filter or a VCO in little time and then actually play with it.  I have no knots in my neck when I'm done like I do when I'm coding stuff at work.
> 
> Besides - I'm really down to only needing hardware.  I don't fear parts drying up - I've got enough parts to build the synth of my dreams.   I suspect that may apply to many a person on this list.  Time is the rare commodity I need now, and it is just as finite as the number of CA3080's out there.
> 
> I'm "not stuck in the past", nor do I believe anyone who actually does proclaim the superiority of analog is "stuck in the past".  That term to me implies that the vintage of a synth design invalidates it as a viable musical instrument in today's world.   That simply is not the case.  There is certainly always room for new things using digital techniques.  I'll just leave that for the people who enjoy that kind of stuff.


To explore this, I think you just have to look at the reasons for
building your own stuff: I guess people do it mostly because (1) what
they want doesn't exist elsewhere, (2) what they want is not
affordable or cost-effective to buy, as in the case of "vintage"
items, or (3) sheer enjoyment of the activity itself.

In the case of 1 and 2, the propensity toward analog is obvious:
either you're trying to replicate or emulate something vintage for
less money, or you are after something that doesn't sound like every
brand new Roland/Korg toy you can buy at Guitar Center (or the
European equivalent, I don't know what). If you want hundreds of
voices of polyphony and onboard effects and so on, it's easier just to
buy it, but I'm sure most of us on here are iconoclasts in our own
way, and we want to make sounds that are our own, or do things in a
way that is rarely done in the mainstream anymore, because it's just
more interesting to us.

And for 3, digital/microcontroller technology is just as fulfilling as
analog, unless (like me) you just enjoy the hands-on aspects, and you
want a hobby that gets you AWAY from the computer screen for a while.
:)

But needless to say, there are a lot of corners of the intersection
between analog and digital that haven't yet been explored fully...

Blandon