[sdiy] EMS SYNTHI 100

[Richard Wentk]

On 24 Feb 2009, at 00:52, Tom Wiltshire wrote:
> I must admit I nearly split my tea when I read the price. But then  
> I got thinking;
>
> Would anyone here offer to build one for less?

I'll build you a polyphonic software one in an evening or two.

> However, if you consider what a modern equivalent would cost, you  
> get a different idea. 12 Oscs, 8 Filters, 3 Envelopes, 10 Amps,  
> plus a dozen or so other modules is about 45 modules - £1000 a  
> module. That's a lot for a synth with traditional seventies tuning!

Indeed. And no one sane pays £1000 a module for any modular module  
today - except possibly for the 960 clones some of the Moog knock off  
people are selling, where the sanity is questionable.

There's nothing magical or special about the electronics in a Synthi  
100 - the circuitry is actually kind of cheap.

If I had the space and the cash to waste, I might consider it anyway,  
just because. But the buyer is going to be paying for a historical  
museum piece, not a musically essential synthesizer. Or even a  
particularly useful one.

I'd rather use Reaktor or Max/MSP, because sonically and creatively  
they eat the galaxy a Synthi 100 lives in for lunch without even  
noticing it's there. Today's IRCAM software does even more, and costs  
a hundredth as much.

Richard