[sdiy] Minimoog clone, was: Wasp clone, was: SDIY UK 2010 pics and vid

[Tim Parkhurst]

On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 8:20 AM, cheater cheater <cheater00 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Which makes me wonder, why aren't there Minimoog clone PCB layouts
> like that around?
> The thing's simple as a hammer! And currently it's possibly one of the
> current holy grails of cloning. Just look at the parallel topic :)
>
> Maybe if someone pays off Kevin Lightner good he'd flatbed-scan some
> kickass version of the mini. You know there are umpteen revisions, but
> he's sure the one to know which one has The Sound.
>
> Cheers,
> D.
>

I've spoken to Kevin about this in the past. He told me that he hears
(with some amusement) of someone starting a Mini clone project at
least once a month. Notice that none of these have ever made it to see
the light of day (or at least as far as I know). I think you
underestimate the time required to properly recreate the PCBs in a
Mini. Also, once you have that PCB, now you've got to come up with a
panel, panel controls, wiring and some sort of case. There's a TON of
point to point wiring in a Mini, so that doesn't help things either.
The Mini is one of the most well-documented synths out there, but I
really think it's one of those things that SEEM simple on the
surface... and then as you dig into it, you start to realize the 1,001
little details involved in building a complete synth. The pot shafts
are too long, the panel overlay is too thick, the washers have the
wrong ID and don't fit over the jacks, you can't find the right wood
screws, the mod pot is offset 1/16" from the original and now the mod
wheel hits the bracket, etc, etc, etc, ETC, AARRGH ARRGH DAMMIT DAMMIT
DAMMIT!! (the Red Mist descends and you have to go have a beer and
cool down...)

;)

I'm not saying that it couldn't be done. I just think it would be
fairly time consuming and to tell you the truth, with the time and
money required to do a proper Minimoog clone, you could just buy a
real Mini for the same (or less). All statements above are IMHO of
course.


Tim (not that I've ever had a Red Mist epsiode and nearly chucked a
project out the nearest window) Servo
-- 
"Sire, the church of God is an anvil that has worn out many hammers."
- H.L. Hastings