I LOVE DSI.

[Paul Maddox]

Guys,

 Thanks for the input, I'll answer some of the questions ;-

> But I would hate menu-editing on such a synth.

won't be a menu, think MFB Synth LITE II style synth (so, that answers
the dsktop question)
(MFB synthlite II -
http://www.mfberlin.de/Produkte/Musikelektronik/SyLITE_II/sylite_ii.html)

>What price range are we talking about (to know what the 20% represent) ?

Estimation (I don't have a full BOM yet) of around £300 for non memory
and £400 with memory, I'm hoping to get this down further by getting
them mass produced in somewhere like Croatia or china.

> Would it be possible to have MS-20 semi modular units ?

Sorry no, it would push the cost up higher due to the requirement for
multiple ADCs.

>it would hurt sales a lot if the thing doesn't have patch memory.
>  So many people (the Virus buying crowd) will be ticked off.

I ask myself if I care about the 'preset kiddies', but I get your point.

>when I played Jay's MonoWave I always got the filter to explode on me... very small range
> where the filter knob was 'useful' to me... perhaps this requires some attention?

It does indeed, got a demo of the problem? sounds like a duff pot or
broken wire. Are we talking about the Resonance control? there was an
issue with a couple of the early ones where a pin wasn't grounded.

> For 20% extra, definitely go for patch memory. For 50%, probably not.

Probably more likely to be around 30%

> I'd say start small an simple and scale up from there.  Worked brilliantly for DSI.

The original evolver had no knobs/switches but did have patch memory.
Personally I'd rather have knobs and switches.

>I am sure the members of the bar could help you make 50 ~100 patches for it in short order.

hehe, thanks, that'd be good, personally I'd ship it with maybe two
patches in memory and let people make their own sounds for it.

Thanks for the input, the general concensus seems to be "it's not that
important but would be nice", Let's see what I can do, it'll take me a
month or three to knock up the schematic and layout the PCB. Build
will take less than a week, though the case build might take longer.
With any luck and a prevailing wind I should have a prototype ready by March.

Paul