[sdiy] PAiA Gnome Repair

[Benjamin Tremblay]

I think I’m gonna head over to synthCube and pick up some Syntaxis modules to stuff into that Gnome.
My brother bought the kit in 1978 because he wanted to make classic 1970s synthesizer sounds. When he powered it up he thought it was broken because it sounded so dorky. And there it sat for a long time.
It has 2 envelope generators, but hardly no use for them. 
So maybe I put a sample and hold on the control strip and put in a decent VCF? 
Or replace the strip with a new control panel area for some knobs… No that’s not going to work.
I still think a single thin (and not very steady) VCO with some faint white noise is not a decent sound source. Ever hear the recording of Sputnik?  That’s pretty much what the Gnome’s VCO sounds like.
Need more oscillators to mess up the sound. The SN76477N would be great. 
Then there would be enough grinding gears to feed into a good VCF.

Realistically there’s not much I can do but replace the VCF, and maybe the VCO. But it’s sooo cute!
My brain hurts.


> On Aug 4, 2022, at 6:11 PM, monika park <cfo at synthcube.com> wrote:
> 
> I really couldn’t afford Paia or Heathkits… I tried to breadboard an SN76477 voice with radio shack bits and when that didn’t work I started tearing apart my dads Corvair to salvage the engine for a plywood hovercraft project out of a TAB book my mom gave me. 
> 
> That said I still think there’s a place for the Paia’s of the world and every other level and flavor of diy friendly stuff…. I’d argue the great majority of every technological advancement today has some pre-cursor seed of an enthusiastic DIYer trying out an entry level kit on a basement bench, kitchen table or back porch 
> Chris 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
>> On Aug 4, 2022, at 5:48 PM, Michael E Caloroso via Synth-diy <synth-diy at synth-diy.org> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> PAiA products are beginner level products.
>> 
>> While I was in college I built a modular out of 47xx kits.  For a student they were great, and for a weekend warrior I was one of the few players in town gigging with a synthesizer.  I designed a few modifications on that thing.  It was a great learning experience for an EE student.
>> 
>> Would I buy one today?  No.  F-ing.  Way.
>> 
>> PAiA products are not destined for long life.  None of my PAiA modules exist because one by one they stopped working.  Due to priorities they landed dead last on the workbench to-do list.  They finally got discarded after floodwaters hit my rental house.
>> 
>> Buying used PAiA gear is a real crapshoot as almost all of them were built from kits.  You have no way of knowing the quality of the assembled kit because the skill of the assembler is unknown.
>> 
>> MC
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