Electronotes and Synth-DIY CD

[terry michaels]

Message text written by Haible Juergen
>o Terry did really invent the topology of this saw VCO, and Moog,
Buchla and Serge got it from EN ?? This is not a rhetorical question,
and in no way a flame, it's really historic interest. (And I'd love to
give Terry the credit when I'm discussing this VCO that almost everybody
used.)<

Hi Juergen:

My recollection is I did invent at least part of this circuit, invention
defined as creating a new circuit topology, in contrast to copying an
existing circuit but changing part values.  The CCO core was mine, as best
as I recall, as its been around 27 years since I did the design.  I had
designed and built several different VCO's previously, mostly with terrible
performance.  Eventually I arrived at using an integrator, reset as fast as
possible with a FET.  The basic elements of this design, such as the
integrator and threshold detector, were probably found in the January 1972
edition of "Linear Applications"  by National Semiconductor, and some other
books I was using at the time.  I put these elements together into an
oscillator that worked surprisingly well.  On the other hand, the
exponential conversion section was mostly borrowed from somewhere, probably
the Minimoog, although Linear Applications also had a detailed analysis and
design examples of exponential and log convertors, which certainly was
helpful.

I will look through my archived files in the next few days and try to
confirm this information.  It is possible I am remembering this
incorrectly, and the CCO circuit was borrowed from somewhere, but I'm
almost certain it wasn't.

Some people have wondered about the name Terry Mikulic, as found in EN. 
That is my family name, which I changed to Michaels when I started a
business around 20 years ago.  

Terry Michaels