From cold war to flame war (was: Re: Time to chime re: tube synth

[Rene Schmitz]

At 07:43 27.10.99 -0500, Bill Layer wrote:
>Hey hey all,
>
>I've been following the LATEST tube synth thread, and it strikes me as 
>being quite a great deal like the last several. Pro arguments from the open 
>minded, derision from the silicon-entrenched and NOBODY building one save 
>myself and one other brave soul who actually built prototypes.

At least I messed arround with tube amps! But not tube based synth circuits.
I'm sure there are others which have a little experience in vacuum tubes.
The only circuit that I really considered trying was the pentode based VCA,
but it has a little, flaw: The CV gets coupled to the output. There must be
something in the archives about it. And there are of course ways arround it. 

>Funny that in a world of "linear, stable and robust" 
>transistors, the simple 6080W vacuum voltage regulator was still being 
>produced in 1987, some 40 years after the advent of silicon devices. The 
>machine of capitalism has much more to do with the fact that we subsist on 
>doped silicon, than the actual properties of the devices themselves.

I think the fact that you can still buy tubes has to do with their ruggedness 
with respect to radiation, i.e. the military has had an interest in
electronic 
devices which would still work during and (can that be) after a 
nuclear war. Now that the cold war is over, they find its way to people who
build HiFi or Guitar amps with them. Some 15 years ago tubes were
practically out, and it was mainly the guitarists which used them in
civil/consumer applications and High-End had not yet really hit the
consumer market. This demand would have been too low to make the production
feesible. But there are/were (?!) applications like power RF amplifiers
where tubes are/were dominating. 
Funny, if you look close at field-emmision displays, its actually a little
triode made out of silicon. Best of both worlds. 

A final remark here: Why useing 1950s technologies, when you could perhaps
build a synth entirely *without* active devices, using 1890s technologies.
I.e. electromechanical oscillators, motordriven pots, motordriven choke
cores, relays and so on. A few years ago I saw some demonstration of the
original stuff that Heinrich Hertz (yes that Mr. 1/sec) used here in Bonn
to study the electromagnetic field. That was fun. Spark gap inductors to
make high voltages, coils, capacitors, his detector for the field was a
spark gap with a parabolic antenna. He had made a huge prism out of (IIRC)
tar to see if the waves get refracted. All that without amplifiers. And all
handcrafted! 

Ok, my proposal can't be taken serious, but it shows how silly a tube vs.
transistor discussion is. Lets rather discuss circuits.

Bye
 René





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