Wiardgroup

Hi All

--- In wiardgroup@yahoogroups.com, "mritenburg" <mritenburg@...> wrote:
>
> I just saw this on another site and was curious if it was an authorized module.  I guess this answers my question.
> 
> 
   ...and it opens even more questions...

   in the interest of gamboling like a spring lamb through a minefield...
   i think this forum might be a fine place to discuss which roses that 'by any name would smell as sweet' as a Wiard. 

   Take the wogglebug circuit...

   please (!)

   It's free! 
   There's a link to it from this forum. Grant put the schematics for a "wogglebug #3" circuit into the public domain shortly after designing it. The core circuit is (IMHO) brilliant and startlingly original..something that's pretty darn rare now that most audio designs are mainly 'recycled'. i questioned the Prof's sanity (openly and loudly) when he did this but he is (and, was, even then) a hardbitten veteran in the analog modular (mine)field and he is wise in it's ways. He recognized early-on that a fundamentally novel design would titillate the internet rumor mill, and the knock-off artists would set on it like lawyers on a school-bus crash. So rather than try to hide it in a block of epoxy*, he just let it go for free to see what progeny it spawned. i built one right away in 2001 and have modded it heavily and constantly since.  The circuit in the 300-series dual-Wbug shares a lot of genetic material with that published "Wbug#3" core design but, ultimately, it is Grant's singular set of refinements to the original idea. 

So the question of what constitutes an 'authorized module' is not clear and i feel certain that it's going to get MUCH less clear in the future.

But, if the question centers on the very limited definition of propriety; that is: whether Makenoise (or any other maker) is poaching on Grant's turf the answer is: "absolutely not". In the legal sense Makenoise's gadget is about as authorized as a Wbug#3 can get, because:

- Grant put the #3 schematic in the public domain himself.

- He intended it as an 'experimenters starter batch' for DIY enthusiasts

- for the the Wbug#3 design, Makenoise (nor anyone else) is under no obligation to Wiard whatsoever. In fact, Makenoise, extended a significant courtesy to Grant in freely offering to pay him a (nominal) royalty in exchange for acknowledging the Wiard origins of the design on the front panel. Save for that, however, the device itself is built and sold by Makenoise. The Wiard connection is only the core schematic that Grant published in 2001.

Other folks have laid-out and produced runs of PCB's based on the Wbug#3 circuit. i've had my hands on a couple of them and they all added their own twists and tweaks to them. Makenoise has done the same.... and so did Grant, when he moved on to the circuit under the engraved blue hood on the 300-series Wbug.

Grants acceptance of Makenoise's courtesy is not a conflation of their divergent versions of the original design. i just think the Professor is justifiably proud that the seed he planted in an obscure corner of the web has sent-out runners and sprouted fruit in so many and varied places.

It seems that his far-sighted decision not to hoard that fertile design was a good one after all. i'm glad he didn't let me talk him out of it.

(my #3 has a woggleness meter with a photo of an actual woggle bug on it!)
;'>
-doc

* if this reference doesn't ring a bell, go find any one who repaired synths in the 70's and ask them about it