having always had an interest in music but lacking the mastery of any musical instruments, naturally I turned to electronic music production as my outlet. As I began to learn more about the hardware and software available I naturally began to yearn for the warm tones of a meaty analog synth. Playing with software versions of the likes of the Korg MS-20 tantalised me, but using a mouse to turn a knob on a screen is a poor substitute for actually turning a knob that physically controls a current flow, and mapping various midi controllers to the task left me cold.
Clearly I had to obtain an analog synthesizer of my very own. A quick flick through ebay brought tears to my eyes:
Moog Little Phatty - £900
Korg MS-20 - £1,200
ARP Odyssey - £2,400
So much for owning one of the classics! But all was not lost! I had heard of people building their own analog gear, even component-for component recreations of some of the big names. "Surely it can't be that hard" I thought, "and it HAS to be cheaper than buying one!"
And so here I am, armed with a breadboard and a GCSE level component pack from Maplin,wandering of into the confusing and esoteric world that is DIY analog synth building...
