Tom G.'s site down - anyone know why?

[jorgen.bergfors at idg.se]

Well, I suppose he got some of us a bit suspicious by hyping his circuits a bit 
too much. Like saying "WOW it's nice" about the sinewave output on the Maxx 
VCO-4A. The sinewave converter employed is the same as in the Formant. It is 
widely known that this circuit give a fairly crude approximation if a sine 
wave. Several better circuits exist.
Also that he omits temperature compensation without mentioning it (like in the 
VCF-5A) raises some skepticism. There also are some bad design practices, like 
in the BRM-1A where pin 13 on the CA3046 is not at the lowest potential, which 
the National Semiconductor datasheet points out is important for proper 
operation. I don't doubt that he has actually bulit the circuits and that they 
do work, but things like that raise questions.
I think if he had said up front that these are simple circuits suitable for 
beginners and less critical applications, but have some limitations, he would 
have got more understanding and support.
I'm thinking of building his VCO-4A as an VCLFO, by changing the timing cap. In 
that case the lack of temperature compensation and crude sine wave is not a 
problem. But on the other hand, I might as well adapt the VCO from the ASM-1 
for LFO use instead. If I omit the tempco (which I don't think is needed in an 
LFO) it is about as simple to build. Then of course I have to add triangle and 
sine converters, but I have already cloned those from the Moog 921.
 
/Jorgen





PC:moxie at idonex.se on 98-08-05 12.17.46
To:  costello at seanet.com @ SMTP 
cc:  synth-diy at mailhost.bpa.nl @ SMTP  (bcc: Jorgen Bergfors/IDGSE)
Subject: Re: Tom G.'s site down - anyone know why? 

Yes, Iwas a bit worried yesterday...But I can get to it today *Whee!*.

For a while, I thought my Maxx dream had gone down the drain because
of some silly flamer or something...Is there anybody out there who has
built any Maxx modules, or who has any particular opinions about them?
I'm leaning heavily towards building the Maxx, starting something like
the next week, so...Anyone got any last-minute advice for me?

Why Maxx? Well...Not as expensive as the MOTM (Which I would go for,
where I not a skint student), not V/Hz, not old components (Like old
PAIA stuff), somewhat more serious feeling than the Penfold
stuff...Any options I've missed for the poor DIYer? :-)
/Moxie (Happy to see EFM up)