[sdiy] Good Things About PAiA (was: PAIA for Appreciation of Heathkits?)

[R. D. Davis]

Quothe Dave Manley, from writings of Mon, Sep 11, 2006 at 10:27:44PM -0700:
> Just as a reminder here are the 1972 prices of the 2720 series modules:
[...] 
> Total packaged cost for the whole deal $139.
[...]
> The booklet itself reminds me of why Paia was so great.  In ten or so 
> pages you got the following: a history of electronic music, briefly 
> covering the Martinot, Ondioline, Theremin, RCA Mark I & II synthesizers 
> and onward to R.A. Moog and the importance of control voltages, an 
[...]

While I don't have that booklet, I do have one from several years
later, along with a cassette tape... I just found the booklet, but not
sure where the tape is at this moment.  The booklet from PAiA is
entitled "Understanding Demo Cassette 1" and has a photograph of an
extremely cool looking synth setup with two keyboards.  The booklet
seems to focus on the 27xx, 47xx and 87xx series of PAiA equipment,
showing flowcharts, lists of equipment used and waveforms, along with
explanations, for the patches used to make the sounds.

The "B" side of the tape is "The Computer Interfaced Synthesizer
Demo," which is several pages about the 4700C interfaced to EBKA
Industries' 6502 uP based Familiarizer, which was said to be
compatible with an upcoming PAiA product, the 8700
computer/controller.

For $325 (shipped freight collect), one got:

(1) 8782 encoded keyboard
(1) 4761 wing cabinet containing:
       4710 balanced modulator/VCA
       4720 VCO
       4730 VCF
       4740 envelope generator
       4712 reverb
       2720-5 control oscillator/noise source
       4770 Watt Blocks 
       8780 equally tempered digital to analog converter

There's also a mention of a quarterly PAiA user's group magazine named
"Polyphony," back issues of which are still available.

I can see how beneficial PAiA was to SDIY and getting people started
in DIY music synthesis, and how, in those pre-internet days, PAiA
enabled people interested in SDIY to communicate with one another
about the sounds they created, how they modified equipment, etc. 

Although I was a little critical of the Theremax kit, due to
expectations based on Heathkits, I have to mention that when someone
calls PAiA, a live human being answers the telephone and is very
pleasant and helpful.  While a few things were missing from my
Theremax kit, after a telephone call, they're shipping the missing
parts out to me today, along with some information including a better
modification to the Theremax than the one shown on their web site; the
modification info. being sent differs from that shown on the web site
in that it doesn't have the result of limiting the LF response.

I was told that the reason the Theremax cases are so expensive is
because so few people order them.  

> One of these days I'll have to dig my old 2720 modules out of the box 
> they've been in for 20+ years and see how bad they really were ;-)

Of course, think of the fun that you can have modifying them to make
them perform as you want them to.  :-)

-- 
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