[sdiy] Professional magazine for EMI manuf. ?

[David J. Hughes]

Richard,

on 6/1/05 3:53 PM, Richard Wentk at richard at skydancer.com wrote:

> I always thought it was rather cheesy with Mr Mike 'Home Organ Solo'
> Beecher at the helm. Their DIY projects always seemed a bit plinky plonky.

Some of them were, others such as the Spectrum Synthesiser, were not. The
SynDrum got me hooked on percussive synths, the SynWave on weird noises.
Let's not forget those interviews with Tangerine Dream, Jean Michel Jarre,
Warren Cann (Ultravox), Hans Zimmer et al, everyone of them heavily into
DiYing stuff.
  
> In comparison ETI was always the Gold Standard for synth DIY. I used to
> have every copy from around '76 to '83, and they were a treasure trove of
> ideas and techniques.

ETI had a few good musical projects such as the ETI PolySynth designed by
Tim Orr but the content was too diverse because it was a general interest
electronics magazine. What got me seriously pigged off with ETI was the
number of errata which appeared, usually a couple of months later. Stuff
just didn't work as expected.

> It's hard to imagine something like it working today. None of the music
> tech mags in the UK have stellar sales. SOS is probably doing best, and I
> can't see Future closing FM or CM. The others are definitely struggling.

Who's talking about stellar sales? We're only talking about a music mag for
DiY folk...
  
> The problem is it's a much more diverse market, and you not only have most
> of the angles covered by the big three, but there are also webzines to
> compete with. 

Err, say what? Which big three?

> Paper always has a long lead time in comparison, so most of
> the time you're literally printing last month's news.

True. But some of us are still using article printed in 1976 to build our
ASM-2 synths. 
 
> Meanwhile DIY isn't a huge interest, and a lot of what interest there is
> has moved into the VST plug-in area. (Where there's a *huge* amount of
> activity - far more than for hardware DIY.)

Maybe so but I was talking about a mag for hardware people.

> I think it might be viable as a more formal web fanzine version of this
> list, where people wrote up their latest project in more detail than they
> usually do. But it would only work as a free fanzine run with minimal
> overheads. 

OK, that would be a good starting point.

A subscription service might include PCB designs in Orcad or Proteus format
for example, software packages d/l'd from the net, software packages for
blowing into micros or whatever. The possibilities are endless.

David

-- 
Infection Music Limited.                     http://www.infectionmusic.co.uk

This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended
for the addressee only. If you are not the addressee you may not copy,
forward, disclose or otherwise use it, or any part of it, in any form
whatsoever. If you have received this e-mail in error please notify the
sender and ensure that all copies of this e-mail and any files transmitted
with it are deleted. Any views or opinions represented in this e-mail are
solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of
Infection Music. Although this e-mail and its attachments have been scanned
for the presence of computer viruses, Infection Music will not be liable for
any losses as a result of any viruses being passed on.