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

[Nate Reeves]

funny subject for a SDIY list....

i cant even get a part from a synth  or a service manual without  
someone trying to charge me somethingfor it

my advice would be a day job and this on the side, unless your neve  
and a total prick......

cheers,

nate

On Dec 2, 2008, at 11:17 AM, Richard Wentk wrote:

>
> 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
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