____twoism

I wish a company made easily available synthesizer ICs (chips). Like oscillators and filters etc.
So anyone could easily and inexpensively build the synth of their dreams. All you'd need is a little electronics knowledge.

It would be like building a modular synth, except it would have chips as modules.
VCOs, VCFs etc. Even a MIDI converter chip.

That would be loads of fun, and you'd only be limited by your wallet and electronics knowledge. And you would save money because you're assembling and designing the synth yourself.

Picking out chips would make me feel like a kid in a candy store. I honestly can't see why there isn't a manufacturer that distributes chips like that. You can only buy Curtis chips (the ones in Sequential Circuits and Dave Smith synths) in runs of 1000.

I had a dream of being an eccentric millionaire or lottery winner. I used the money to do almost exactly what you described!

If the ICs were available then I'm pretty sure people would build and share their synth designs. You could model them in software to test the logic. Maybe even get the same software to prototype PCB designs.

Of course, if you re-manufactured existing Curtis designs then you could help a lot of people keep their classic analog synths working too. I'd start with the CEM 3320 (LP filter), 3340 (dual oscillator) and 3360 (envelope) chips, although I may be biased by wanting to fix a mate's Jupiter 6.

Have you ever heard the album Chorus by Erasure? I don't think there exists an album that fits my idea of the way analog synths should be utilized more perfectly. Pure 100% analog, triggered by CV only. Give it a listen sometime. Their album "I Say I Say I Say" is good like that too.

Here's a prime example:

100% analog.

Finally got SysEx Librarian to talk to the Blofeld. Thanks for the tip.

Downloaded the free Easter sound bank from the Waldorf site and some of the sounds in there blow the factory patches out of the water. A couple of them I still can't figure out how they got the sound, but they are proving to be a great template for making some more of my own patches.

I've only heard some of the '90s Erasure stuff quite recently. At the time I foolishly disregarded a lot of Erasure's output for being a bit lightweight and pop. I love the pure analog nature of it now.