analog storage sequencers

[brad sanders]

><< Hey, y'know what? This might be a PERFECT application of those ISD
>"analog EEPROMs" we were talking about the other day. >>
>
>Refresh my memory, please.  Are you talking about those little
>"voice-recorder-on-a-chip" modules that they sell at Radio Shack?  If so, the
>mind boggles...
>
>Mike B.


Yeppers. These are also the heart of those talking birthday cards. I
think radio shack also sells a $20 pocket size "voice memo" recorder -
maybe take one of these and stick it in a panel with buttons and
jacks...

For some reason this idea just walloped me upside the head when I read
Dave's query. Because of the low sample rate and the grunge they're
really not useful for something like a DCO - but I think they might be
great in a sequencer application. 

The neat part is these things don't really do "quantizing;" the charge
in the cell doesn't have quaranteed accuracy to less than 1% or so -
but it's not going to be fixed increments. So, you might not have
perfect tracking - but you'd have no drift, and you'd have a very
"natural" and "analog" characteristic that was repeatable hundreds of
times, even over years of storage. If you needed more accuracy you
could perhaps just double the input signal and divide by two on the
output (this is really not a problem since the voltage needs to be
scaled anyway; they have a max input of something like 1V).

I may still have one-a these somewhere out in th' shop. I think it's
time to play.