Favorite designs

[Tony Clark]

> I want to clarify my meaning when I distinguished between
> chip vs discrete designs as I wasn't very precise (or
> even accurate).  By 'discrete' I did not mean to exclude
> ICs in general, but only the special purpose kinds such
> as the CEMs and SSMs.

   Normally this is how the rest of us differentiate between the two 
kinds of circuits.  Most synth circuits don't go completely discrete, 
i.e. nothing but transistors/caps/resistors.  But in spite of the scads 
of good op-amps and integrated circuits, there are times in which 
transistors and the like are just plain easier to use.

> Wow, this thread has been unbelievably good.  But I'd
> like to make a humble request on behalf of us who are
> less informed.  When a reference is made the CEM family
> chips, it's usually pretty obvious.  But allusions to some
> other designs can be kind of abstract.  I think it would
> be extremely helpful to us novices, and perhaps also to
> those of you with more experience, to reference specific
> available schematics to the degree that they exemplify
> or characterize particular design criteria.  This would
> server to make the discussion more concrete for we the
> lowly (slowly?).

   Well if you want a good set of complete schematics to get an idea of 
what some of us are talking about (at least on the discrete side), check 
out the Elektor Formant schematics.  They are available at the following 
URL:

   http://www.ultranet.com/~mute/synths.html

> I'm sure this is a FAQ: how available are the SSM chips?

   They aren't.  SSM is now owned by Analog Devices.  They discontinued 
all of the synth chips but have retained some VCA and microphone pre-amp 
circuits as well as some audio switching circuits.

   Tony

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I can't drive (my Moog) 55!
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Tony Clark -- clark at andrews.edu 
http://www.andrews.edu/~clark
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