Rest In Peace, John Simonton

[DiyFreaque]

It saddens me to say that word has arrived on the Synth DIY that John Simonton of PAiA passed away sometime last week after a battle with cancer. 

My prayers are with him and his family.

Scott

[Tim Escobedo]

Sad news indeed about a man who got many of us started. 

[12afael]

very sad news.
rest in peace john

[puretube]

R.I.P.

[Mark Hammer]

I'd like to think that somewhere, John and Bob Moog and Harald Bode are having a beer and ribbing each other about filters and patching schemes.

John's commitment and contribution to the DIY community is unassailable.  A great many of us started out with PAiA projects, either in kit form or from articles published in Radio Electronics.  I bought my first PAiA project - a Phlanger - around 1977 or so.   He was generous and considerate with his knowledge, and clearly committed to providing fair value for the dollar as if it was his moral obligation.  I don't know who wrote them in recent years, but PAiA construction manuals were always like master sessions with a "sensei".  His support for guys like Craig Anderton, Thomas Henry, and Jules Ryckebusch was evident and deeply appreciated.  I'm sure he wasn't the only person affiliated with PAiA to have such an approach, but I'm confident it was his leadership that attracted and retained others with a similar mindset.

Take a look at the PAiA page on building a ribbon controller ( http://www.paia.com/LabNotes/index.htm ) for a sense of the man through his work.  John ends it with "Comments? Questions? See a mistake? I want to know. Send email to me, John Simonton."

He will be missed.  I'm wondering what will happen to PAiA without him.

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

Definitely an 'original' designer! and, extraordinarily helpful. Inspiration & guide to many. One of a kind & will be sorely missed.

[toneman]

I'll miss him also.

RIP John.
and Mr Lennon also.


Tone

[amz-fx]

Very sad news. He will be missed. 

He bought the first magazine article that I ever sold, way back in the early 1980s for his electronic music magazine, which was a big encouragement to a beginning writer and electronic music fan (me!). 

Over the years I built and enjoyed numerous kits that I bought from Paia.  He did lots of innovative and inspiring designs and was a pioneer in many ways for the DiY hobby.

-Jack

[Vsat]

Sorry to hear about this, another one of the analog-sizer greats has departed.  Thankfully, JS left behind a large volume of writings, probably more than the rest of the guys put together. Bought my first SAD1024 from him back around '77, also Pratt-Read keyboard and top octave generator, all of which saw much use. This man was an inspiration to many, and probably the neatest kit-supplier of them all.
Mike

[Peter Snow]

Yes, John Simonton's passing is very sad.

PAiA was responsible for rekindling my enthusiasm for electronics after many years in the wilderness.

Many years ago I had some friendly email exchanges with John and in one of them I casually asked if any of the old PAiA schematics would ever be available on the PAiA web site, particularly the Gnome (yes, this was back in the early days of the internet).  He FAX'd me the schematic the same day.  He was a man of great integrity.

Peter

[Dave_B]

I'm wondering what will happen to PAiA without him.

I just had a brief email exchange with Scott Lee a few weeks ago.  I assume the current Paia was basically those two and someone to answer the phone (John's wife?).  My first guess would be that Scott would run it, though I think he leaned more to the engineering side and less to the writing.  It would be really sad for a lot of us to see Paia go.  I hope they can keep it running in some capacity. 

Regarding John's passing, like many of us, he made a significant impact on my formative years.  While searching for other things earlier this week, I came across his classic compilation "Friendly Stories About Computers and Synthesizers."  I never ended up building any of that stuff, but he really had an entertaining way of writing.  Reading through it (and the old Polyphony mags) really took me back to a fun time in my life.

[Mark Hammer]

They posted a nice obituary on the PAiA site today ( http://www.paia.com/ ).  Worth reading.  John was 62.

[WGTP]

I still have my Gnome and Oz, not sure where the phlanger ended up.  Being near OKC, I should have taken more advantage of being close to PAIA, but I was more into Rocking than Sodering. 

[troubledtom]

hero's always die. that is phucked , but a part of life/death.
                RIP
                      - TOM POLLOCK