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

[Ian Fritz]

At 09:21 AM 12/2/2008, Tom Wiltshire wrote:
>This is only possible for large
>volumes using highly sophisticated technolgy (robotic pick-and-place
>machines for surface mount boards). If someone told you you could get
>a similarly sophisticated 'cello for similar money, you'd laugh at them.

Yes, agreed.  Actually that's my point.  A good cello cannot be mass 
produced.  That's why they cost so much.  A good synth *can* be mass produced.

>I occasionally wonder if there would be room at the top for some
>exquisite, hand-made synths, to compete with the finest instruments
>of other types. I'm not talking about your average rompler in a black
>plastic box, but a craftsman-made, really beautiful instrument. That
>sort of thing is *not* something that a software alternative could
>replace. That's like saying that you don't need a stradivarius
>becuase you can get a sample disk of one.

Your vision may be a pretty box with fancy wood, etc., but it wouldn't work 
any better than the mass produced plastic boxes.  People do not want Strads 
because they look pretty but because they have an especially beautiful 
sound, responsive control, etc.  A sawtooth is a sawtooth no mater what 
kind of box it comes out of.

Ian