[sdiy] making 2 or 3 dollars an hour on synth building?

[Richard Wentk]

On 2 Dec 2008, at 15:22, Dan Snazelle wrote:

>
> harry
>
> very good points.
>
> there is a lot to be said for the education from the project...of  
> course. i know my way around electronics a lot more than i did last  
> march.  it is a bit odd because the original design was supposed to  
> be a small desktop box with only a handful of functions. i would  
> have NEVER agreed to something so big back then as i would have  
> been too intimidated. BUT THEN it somehow morphed (without my  
> knowledge ;) ) into a gigantic...60 or 70 control machine with  
> multiple outs, ins, footswitches, etc.

Feature creep is a known problem. Feature creep in software is  
difficult and time consuming. Feature creep in hardware can be a  
disaster.

> so it really forced me to digest a ton of stuff.

A useful rule is that you can't charge for learning time. You can  
charge for R&D, but not for getting up to speed on basic knowledge.

It's always good if you can break that rule, but that doesn't often  
happen.

> and there is of course the advantage gained of now having some  
> great working knowledge of how to get a system tracking well to a  
> guitar. and i learned a lot from mistakes as well.

Guitar tracking is one of the harder projects anyway. I wouldn't  
think of attempting it unless someone was waving a big pile of money  
at me - and probably not even then.

> so i think next time (if there is a next time) i will build  
> something smaller. there might even be an interest in taking the  
> tracking and freak sections of the ark and making a little box out  
> of those for people who already have all the other synth functions.

There's no way to make a *lot* of money from synth building. You'll  
never do better than squeaking by. Considering the limited market and  
the fact that hardware always costs at least ten times as much  
software just for the components - for a project of any reasonable  
size - your basic costs will always be a hurdle.

Richard