[sdiy] Polysynths: 8 voice or 16 voice?

[Tom Wiltshire]

If you consider the actual cost of the voices as part of the cost of the entire synth, that more-or-less gives you your answer.

The hardware cost of a synth is a *big* percentage of the final build price - the case, the interface, the keyboard, knobs, switches, etc etc. That's entirely the same between 8 and 16 voice. I'm not talking about the *final price* - that has transport and dealer mark-up and all sorts added on. I'm talking about the price to actually build the instrument, the price at the factory door.

Then there's the development cost. That's the same too. Adding more voices once you've done the voice design is basically zero-cost, beyond the cost of the actual parts on the board. Writing software that can handle plugging in an extra eight voices is basic, so there's no cost there.

In general, I think the extra that companies charge for the 16-voice version over the 8-voice version is far more than is justified by the actual extra costs of a 16-voice instrument. Whether that's because they priced the 8-voice version extremely competitively to give them a way in to a lower tier of the market, or whether they're simply increasing their mark-up on a "luxury" product, I dunno. But I don't see any technical reason why the two prices should be as far apart as they mostly seem to be.

HTH
Tom

> On 26 Jul 2026, at 19:57, cheater cheater via Synth-diy <synth-diy at synth-diy.org> wrote:
> 
> Let's say you're making/buying a polysynth. You can make it 8 or 16
> voice. It's equally practical to do 8 or 16, it's not larger or
> bulkier, the 16 voice costs 25% more, it doesn't do multitimbrality,
> so there's only one sound coming out of it at any time. What do you
> choose, and why?
> 
> What markup would 16 voice have to be over 8 voice where you'll say
> it's not worth it anymore? Ranging between 0% and 100%.
> 
> Thanks!
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