North Coast Synthesis Ltd.

Once you have a clear idea of what commercial module you're trying to build, the design concept as described in the first part of this article series, you face the task of turning that concept into a design as such: an electronic circuit with all the details specified so that it can be manufactured on a commercial basis, with all the necessary side items like the layout of a printed circuit board, information on where to get all the parts, physical shapes of things like panels, and so on. This kind of design work is critically important to the success of the product, but it also demands a lot of technological skill, so it's often the stage where it makes sense to bring in a consultant to help. READ MORE

There's a pretty natural progression in the modular synthesizer hobby (the addiction, if you prefer). People start out buying commercial modules; maybe they go through a few rounds of selling off modules that they find just aren't quite right; eventually, they come to the idea of wanting to build their own modules with exactly the features they want; and although doing DIY just for oneself is a viable hobby too, many hobbyists want to take the next step, of going pro and building and selling their own commercial modules. READ MORE

In the first part of this three-part series on DACs and bit counts, I described what it means to have a certain number of bits in terms of voltage accuracy and signal to noise ratio. Then in the second part I described some ways that DACs are built, basically out of resistors and switches. There are a lot of details along the way, but the big picture in both articles is that you can't really have a DAC with more than about 16 bits. Past that point, the cost of actually building it increases rapidly and the possible benefit drops away. For control voltage generation, the level of absolute voltage accuracy is often closer to 12 bits. READ MORE