
Electronic Kits and Synths
Electronics: Kits and Synths
Minimoog VCF
A word of thanks to Paul in Cape Town for this great link: Minimoog VCF – interesting that one can bounce around the internet and miss some gems.
The patent 3475623
Voltage controlled filters, although covered only on a surface level is daunting at design level but is an area in which Robert Moog excelled. Of course we couldn’t write this paragraph without including Moog’s patent 3475623 – 3974461 (David Luce: Inventor)
Patent 3475623 is a very important part of electronic music, then and now – covering VCFs and termed or rather more commonly known as the Ladder Filter. An excellent article can be found on the Sage Audio website, The Importance of Patent 3475623 (A Celebration of Robert Moog’s Influence on Modern Recording).
Sound on Sound: The ladder filter
Moving on to our own home front I am pleased to see that Yebo Electronics in Cape Town is now selling a Class D amplifier 20Hz ~ 20kHz 100W+100W. Sold as KIT63S for about R600.00.

Fatman Kit – PAIA
A remarkable synthesiser which is also affordable.

PAIA is world renowned for some amazing kits: The above, Fatman Kit retails for about 200$. 9308K US version, KP international 220V, 9308FP, rack mount chassis about 35$ and 9308C, Case, 53$. Also Vocoders and tube preamplifiers. The more expensive synthesiser kits, the 9700, sell for about 600$. Description: P9700S Series Analog Synthesizer Modules
The Maplin ETI4600 Synthesiser
Now here’s an interesting one.
Trevor Marshall
An Australian design, was it a rival to the American Moog products? The 4600 was designed by Barry Wilkinson and Trevor Marshall (Australian electronics engineer and scientist) for “Electronics Today International” in the 70s. An important criteria for Trevor Marshall was to make his work accessible to those that could not afford the high end synths of the day and sadly, in so doing he didn’t make any financial gain out of the project. His genius and passion will always be remembered by ETI readers of the time. (and not unfortunately his dealings in the medical profession, he was after all an electrical engineering graduate).
Complete construction details can be found on the ETI4600synthesiser.org website. Although an exciting build for any awe struck electronics enthusiast it also came at quite a price. I do believe in South Africa, at the time, the pricing was set to about R10 000.00 for the 4600.
There are numerous articles on the 3800~5600, one being at Future Software.
With all the technological advances in electronic music, effects, computers and VST there is still a staggering amount of musicians, DIYers and professional audio manufacturers sticking to the rules of analogue. Of course here we should always credit the pioneers, Moog and Marshall for their incredible work.
The ETI 4600 – Voltage controlled synth
