[sdiy] Mighty MARF and VCO

[Peter Grenader]

I actually spoke to Don himself on this very topic, about this very module
(MARF) a few months back.  His comments on it echoed Paul's about the
unreliability of the CMOS technology at the time running on +15 volts being
the culprit for what he said was the inability of the MARF to remain
operational past two weeks of constant use.

So I guess they crapped out a lot.

Now, he said there are less than 25 out there.  This was not due to it being
discontinued due to the technical problems, but more that 25 being all he
sold, as they were price prohibitive to the nines.

OK, so i went there and asked him if he would ever consider, in his wildest
dreams, re-releasing it and he felt to do so with the same circuit would
suicide, that the same problems would undoubtedly rear their ugly head and
that if he did it again, it would be micro-p based with about a tenth of the
components required the first time.

- Peter


Grant Richter wrote:

>> Added many MARF photos (it's a mind-bogglin' thing)
> 
> Wait until you see the logic diagram, it's like an FPGA in Chinese.
> 
>> But there is NO WAY
>> I'm applying power to 350+ 30yr old CMOS ICs.
> 
> What's the big deal? I do it every day.
> 
> Buchla modules were as deluxe as they could make them in the day. They were
> VERY expensive when new (that 32 step MARF would have been $5K in 1975
> dollars). That is why so few were made. Moog 900 modules were a bargain by
> comparison.
> 
> Don's stated goal was to make the "Stradivarius" of electronic instruments,
> I know he did his best to make them as reliable and repairable as possible.
> Although module MTBF is famously low due to insane design complexity and
> unreliable parts.
> 
> Just like all of us, heh? No one would work as hard as we do, just to make a
> poor instrument.
> 
> 
>