tube synthsizer

[Tom May]

Martin Czech <martin.czech at intermetall.de> writes:

> I can understand that tube circuits may sound different in "linear"
> circuits like filters and amps, especially when overdriven, but why
> should a tube sawtooth oscillator saw sound different from a
> semiconductor sawtooth oscillator.

The VCO that I prototyped following one of Eric's designs was not a
linear sawtooth, it was an upwards decaying exponential that was reset
at a variable voltage.  So you got loud pulse-like waves at low
frequencies and quieter more sawtooth-shaped waves at higher
frequencies.  Of course, you could build a similar circuit with
silicon.  I also built a more "standard" circuit that used a triode as
a VC current source with reset at a fixed voltage and sure it sounds
like a sawtooth.  But I'm not super-discriminating.

fTom.