intersil VCO chips and 'synth-level' circuits...

[Nick Zuccaro]

has anybody here used the intersil icl8038 as a VCO? i stumbled
upon it and it's looking like a pretty nice cheap-n-dirty
soultion for chip-level modular units. newark has them for about
$4/per, and they only need a few external resistors and opamps,
depending on the application. the .pdf datasheet can be found
here:

http://www.intersil.com/data/FN/FN2/FN2864/FN2864.pdf

just checking to see if anybody's used these, i'm planning on
grabbing a few to see how they work out. 


another quick question, i'm relatively new to synth modules, i'm
planning on integrating some modules with the rest of the gear
i've got, which is at line level, mic level and guitar/bass
level, so i'm assuming i'll need some kind of level 'adapter' in
order to use all of these together. would it be better to use a
synth level->line level converter to use everything at line
level <studio standard> to take advantage of passive
attenuation, or to convert the line level stuff i've got to
synth level, which is +/- 2.5v? i'm trying to familiarize myself
with working with synths, which i haven't really worked with
before. seems like you can treat these circuits like low-speed
digital, so most of the analog low-level design/layout rules 
aren't as critical. is this a correct assumption? anyway, just
hoping to start some interesting discussion...l8r...Nick


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