Ciat Lonbarde, a company run by Peter Blasser, is a prominent synthesiser manufacturor operating in the realms of experimental electronics. His circuits are reasonably avante garde, with systems and topologies being named in an abstract artistic manner that does not necessarily conform to the typical VCA, VCF, VCO & VCF standard. This unconventional naming system is derived from creating circuits that operate outside of these norms; electronic circuits do not tend to behave in a manner that is so linear as to just be a VCA VCF etc, but they instead have a life of their own, with nonlinear performance and non-singular function being oft-arrived upon characteristics. Tugging and squishing circuits to behave linearly in a fashion that aligns to the common modes of synthesis is a game of slow, methodical precision that enforces circuits to adhere to our expectations via many extra modifications. If, instead, we look at basic circuit topolgies as the most fundamental expression of electronic musicality, we encounter surprising outcomes that contradict the regimented uniformality of commercially produced synthesisers.

Ciat Lonbarde charges (reasonably) large sums of money for their instruments, the cheapest sitting at ~£500 and the most expensive for ~£2000. I think that £1.5k for an electronic instrument is relatively steep, especially if it costs sub £200 to manufacture. In a similar vein, guitars and other instruments have large markups, but I somehow do not think that those are overpriced. Perhaps I shoudl re-evaluate the aspect of the ‘silicon luthier’ in making electronic musical instruments, and maybe I should aspire to charge more for my own instruments.

I was initially thinking of a price around £200-300 for my first run of instruments.