How it all started

I'm Mike, chief designer at the Workshop, and owner of Artisan Electronic Music and Artisan Retro Games.

I've been building synthesizers and playing video games on the Atari 2600 since I was 14...that was almost 5 decades ago now.

​My very first electronic music instrument was built for 7th grade Music Class. While most kids brought in "bull-roarers" or "Cigar box Guitars", I brought in a 1.5 octave "Electronic Organ" using cross-modulation JFET oscillators as the core. Of course, I didn't know what cross modulation meant back then, but hacking around in my dad's basement workshop, I stumbled upon something that sounded cool.
I was hooked.

​In 1976 my friend and I bought all the PAIA DIY manuals.
We could not even afford to buy the kits. So we laid out
our own PCB and etched them, stuffing them with parts
ordered from Jameco and Digikey. which resulted in this...