Re: Paia Electronic Kits etc.

[Mountain Man <mtman@cloud9.net>]

I'm just finishing up a 9700 modular, and I highly recommend the Paia
kits.  You don't have to be an "expert", the directions are quite good,
although basic soldering/assembly skills are needed.  I'd recommend
starting with a simpler kit to get experience - I've heard good things
about the fatman, as well as the Anderton projects.  One of the great
things about Paia is their tech support - they'll help you with assembly
or trouble-shooting as needed.

 I'd also recommend getting a *good* soldering iron (I bought the Weller
temperature-controlled soldering station), as well as reasonable quality
tools.  For test equipment, you can get by with a decent multi-meter,
but I'm finding an oscilloscope extremely useful for testing the 9700.
You might also want to join the synth-diy mail list
(synth-diy@node12b53.a2000.nl), where there are lots of helpful folks,
and you can start adding to your electronics knowledge.

Have fun and good luck,
Elby


>Hey Everyone,
> I recently started checking out Paia's stuff (www.paia.com) they have
> electronic kits to biuld lots of differnet electronic music equipment
> (modular synth, synth, effects).  A couple of questions have come into

> my
> mind.
> 1) How difficult are these things to put together.  I plan on building

> some
> effects and a modular synthesizer from paia.  I have very little
> experience.
> Will this be impossible for me?
> 2) Are there places where I can get these kits for cheaper than paia?
> I jsut
> started looking and haven't been really successful.  Paia appears to
> offer
> teh cheapest modular synth kit and their effects kits seem pretty
> cheap too.
> Thanks a lot every one!
> -pascalABIDOR