Building a synth for the first time

I would like to build an analog synth next trimester as my senior project.

HOWEVER,

I've gotta know before I do.

Please,if you know of any helpful circuit diagrams, tutorials, personal experience and good part vendors, I would be so grateful. I'm completely a noob. I'm familiar with max and jitter, arduino programing, and simple circuits (breadboard style) but I recognize it's all elementary fun. I definitely would rather build my synth from scratch rather than use the arduino, but I'm open to any and all advice.

http://www.uni-bonn.de/~uzs159/vco4069.html

^Pretty simple VCO circuit.

Also, you should probably buy extra parts. If you build things like I build things, things will melt.

do you have to design it yourself? or can you built from a kit as long as you prove that you know what bit does what?

this is probably the best known kitset synth

http://www.paia.com/fatman.asp

if that's too much like cheating, join the analogue heaven mailing list and ask the same question. there's a lot of people on there who have published schematics, done pcb runs, etc

if you want to make it a serious, nice-sounding synth, you are in for a hell of a lot of work.

if you are willing to cheap out, use a 555 instead of a real oscillator and such, you could manage it without tearing out your hair.

edit: yeah, paia fatman could work. but from scratch, that's too much for a first go in one trimester

edit II: paia fatman cheaps out and uses a 555 instead of a real oscillator too!

Thanks everyone!

I'm sure I'll need more advice once I get into it.

Electro Music DIY Forums

Ken Stone's Site

Music From Outer Space

Links all shamelessly stolen from Tom Bugs' website, as I couldn't remember any URLs. There's a few more up there too, such as good places to buy parts and so on.