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

[Roy J. Tellason]

On Tuesday 02 December 2008 12:36:39 pm Ian Fritz wrote:
> 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.

Up to a point,  maybe,  but overall I disagree...

> >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.

There are guitar buyers that speak of Fender (or other brands) "pre-CBS",  and 
similarly there's Moog "pre-Norlin" and so forth.  And the quality of the 
build on the later stuff just ain't the same.


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Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
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