Ray Wilson

Ray Wilson had been interested in analog synthesizers since 1968 when he first heard Switched On Bach.

Education and how he got started
First employed at a steel mill he bought sold and traded analog synthesizers, mainly Korgs, Mini-Moogs, and a variety of the patchable semi-modular Rolands. There he also went through an electronic repairman apprenticeship program. Supplementing the classroom training with breadboard experimentation, a Heathkit microprocessor trainer kit, and a great deal of reading and maths. Learning enough to spend the next fifteen years in the medical electronics industry.

Together with a friend in the 1970s through into the early 1980s he sold electronics kits under the name Waveform Processing, advertised in Radio-Electronics magazine. While keeping on researching, breadboarding and developing monophonic and polyphonic synths. Coming across the Curtis Electromusic Specialties ICs designed by Doug R. Curtis.

Then doing electronic design at Intec Systems and Siemens Pacesetter, his focus shifted to designing electronic test equipment and writing software. Until in 1994, he moved from California to Aurora, Colorado where his work became solely software development. The desire to work with electronics brought him back to synth-DIY, starting a website called Ray-Land to publish the circuits and PCB layouts that he was coming up with.

Developing and publishing a simple, battery-powered mini-synthesizer called the Sound Lab Mini-Synth for which he started selling the PCBs leading to the birth of his brand Music From Outer Space (MFOS). The MFOS website is respected by synth-DIYers the world over.