[sdiy] SynthDIY vs guitarDIY?

[rsdio at audiobanshee.com]

I also got my start making guitar pedals; because I couldn't afford to buy them. Electronic Projects for Musicians was a special order from my local book store, and I have the original cover from Guitar Player Book - not the glossy new one from Amsco. I had the pleasure of meeting Craig Anderton in the nineties when he visited Seattle to talk in front of a bunch of electronics nerds calling themselves the Northwest Cyberartists.

In addition to Electronic Projects, PAiA articles and a Polyphony magazine subscription kept my interest piqued with various synth module circuits. Those resources were great for both sound design basics (e.g. how to synthesize percussion with a modular) and circuits. I have to admit that my first ADSR build was DoA, probably a victim of CMOS static discharge death. Everything since then has worked.

Before long, I had advanced to turning my Apple II clone into a digital delay with 4-bit sampling and 8-bit DAC. By the time I got to college, I had an 8-bit ADC and software that worked like an oscilloscope, and was designing a 4-voice digital sampling card for the Apple II bus.

Anderton's book is great, because it covers a wide spectrum from teaching basic soldering skills to building modules like the parametric EQ that would work equally well for guitar or synth. Decades later, I'm still using the Bipolar AC Adaptor from that book to provide power for synth module designs.

Brian


On Sep 4, 2016, at 3:25 PM, Michael E Caloroso <mec.forumreader at gmail.com> wrote:
> That should read Craig ANDERTON, d at mn autocorrect.
> 
> MC 
> 
> On Sun, Sep 4, 2016 at 6:23 PM, Michael E Caloroso <mec.forumreader at gmail.com> wrote:
>> One of my first DIY projects was an EQ circuit out of a guitar magazine, which I installed in my bass guitar.  Then I got a copy of the Craig Anderson Electronic Projects book and built some keyboard accessories from there.  It progressed to a PAiA 47xx modular which I gigged with for three years from 1981 to 1984 until I discovered my first Moog.  From there it was primarily modifications and maintenance of gear, with the goal of making them more reliable for gigging.  I still have that first Moog (Source) and piles of other analogs I bought back then.
>> 
>> MC
>> 
>> On Sun, Sep 4, 2016 at 12:01 PM, Jarno Verhoeven at ziggo.nl <jarno.verhoeven at ziggo.nl> wrote:
>>> I am originally a bassplayer, I started DIY electronics with high end audio, but soon realised most of these projects are way too complex, and often rely on esoteric/ unobtainium components. I then started building effects pedals, talk about other end of the spectrum, but I never really used them as lugging around an effects board on top of my 100 kilos of bass amp seemed superfluous, especially for the odd song.
>>> That's when I realised building "audio Lego" (ie. modular synths) is way more interesting :-)
>>> 
>>> > Op 4 september 2016 om 17:20 schreef Magnus Danielson <magnus at rubidium.dyndns.org>:
>>> > I've seen people over the years start out with stomp-boxes to then 
>>> > continue with synth modules as they feel they have mastered the 
>>> > soldering iron enough to take on larger projects.
>>> > 
>>> > Cheers,
>>> > Magnus