[sdiy] DIY Polysynths

[Colin f]

> It seems to me that the pinnacle of ambition (and, optionally,  
> success) in the Synth DIY world is to build a polysynth. There are  
> only a few people in the world who seem to have done this. I've  
> managed to find these below. Can anyone add anyone else to this list?

I think there are two main reasons why more people dont have a go.
First is that, relatively speaking, a manufactured monosynth is a lot more
expensive than a manufactured polysynth.
An off-the-shelf 6 voice analogue poly doesn't cost 6 times as much as an
off-the-shelf monosynth with a roughly equal voice architecture.
But building 6 DIY voice boards will cost you 6 times the cost of a single
DIY voice board, plus there is the extra effort for the common circuitry to
drive them all as one.
If the cost of original hardware is a significant motivating factor behind
DIYing, that motivation is higher for a mono- than a poly-synth.
Which brings me to the second reason.
Only a subset of synth DIYers seem to be interested in processor-based
control of their synths, which is pretty much essential for the dynamic
allocation of multiple voice cards in a polysynth.
I've been working on a processor-based control system for an old analogue
poly, which has reached the point where I could knock up a set of cloned
voice cards to put my own together:
http://www.sequentix.com/gx1/
16 voice cards will take a while to solder tho'.

Cheers,
Colin f