Wiardgroup

I just heard that John Simonton passed away.

For those of you who don't know that name, think of PAiA.
More info here: 

 http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2005/11/john-paia-simonton-rip.html

Thanks Mike,
     i got the news from Dave Vosh last night.
i'm distraught that I never told John face-to-face how much i am in
his debt. i had a vague plan to detour through Ok. City on my next
trip to Austin. i figured i had plenty of time...... and i shouldn't
wonder that many of us are in the same boat. 
     John's designs and enterprise got sneered at a lot and there was
no justice in that. i confess to a measure of my own guilt in this.
          i'll go out on a limb and say that at LEAST 75% of the
DIYErs in the Western Hemisphere have got at least one little Paia
gadget in their lineage. i'll go further and say that 90% of that
number might have given up if not for some instance of tangible
assistance, encouragement, or at least a clever hint from the
extraordinarily thorough documentation written by Scott Lee or John
himself.
     John put synth DIY on the map in America. Paia's policy and
atttiude toward customer service are still unsurpassed by any synth
maker IMHO.
      and i'm sorry to go all up-close & personal on y'all.... but i
just hate to lose a guy like John because he epitomizes my personal
archetype of an American-style hero ...
(!)
(go ahead.... check my glove compartment officer...and i'll touch my
nose with alternating index fingers for ya ALL night if you want ...
'cause i'm sober as a judge!)
...tht's right... i said: hero

John was one of those crazy, brave, fiscally foolhardy, brilliant
basement bombers who just decided that- shirt buttons would WORK on
that keyboard, by golly!!!! an' we got a whole box of 'em in the garage.

capacitive touch pads???????
we don' need no steenkin' touch pads!!!!!!

Go look up the word 'entrepreneur' in the dictionary and you should
find his picture.
It's in there again under "autodidact'
and probably under 'enthusiast' too!

John loved syths and he just couldn't fathom how anybody could fail to
  swoon at the siren call of these marvelous gizmos and what makes him
a hero to me is that in response to his enthusiasm, he rolled up his
sleeves in a garage in TULSA (f#*king) OKLAHOMA!!!! and figured out
ways that he could get them into the hands of kids with only
allowances and grass-cutting money.
In tandem to this effort, he had the moral backbone (and enlightened
self-interest) to face the fact that he would have to hold their hands
(all two thousand of them) every damn time they soldered a diode in
backwards. As a side effect he seeded a vast field with homegrown
engineers, field techs and solder jockeys.
now THAT'S  coporate citizenship.

i have a shrine in my psyche for folks who decline to whine about
their empty wallets, get their asses down to the public library, sweep
out a corner of the garage and BUILD something.
be it an airplane with a vw-bug engine, (my neighbor, Mr Westlund)
a huge ouvre of homemade classical music, (Frank Zappa)
or a little box that woops and fizzes with a control voltage (Bob Moog)

The celestial synth Pantheon is filling up a little fast, this year,
for my taste. We still need these folks down here. Perhaps more than ever.

John told me on the phone once (and this was when Paia was not exactly
at the peak of it's financial success) that he still considered
himself a really lucky guy because he got to do what he loved for a job.

We all got a bit of benefit from what John loved.



sorry for the length
and ...
Rest in peace, honor, and gratitude, John Paia Simonton.

-doc



















he is the REAL definition

Wiard would next exist at all with out John Simonton starting me on "the path".

A long time ago I put up a page about the PAIAs of my youth.

http://www.musicsynthesizer.com/PAIA/paia.html

The Diety Bless you Mr. Simonton. Rest In Peace.