ICL 8038 (Anyone used them?)

[patchell]

    The 8038 is ok for anything that does not require precise pitch.  While I do
not remember right off the top of my head what the tuning linearity is, it is
not quite good enough.  However, they do make good LFO's and such.

    For VCO's that will be used as pitch sources, the so called ASM-1 VCO
(wasn't this circuit desinged by Terry?, .....memory fading.......) is much more
precise than any of the IC VCO's (except for the ones made for music, like the
CEM3340 and the SSM2030?, heck forgot the SSM vco number, but niether are made
any longer, so it doesn't matter).  While these "descrete" VCO's will take up
more realastate, it is not all that bad.  Plus, this VCO is a lot easier to
connect an exponential converter to than the 8038.

    Of course, these are only my opinions.

Nils Pipenbrinck wrote:

> Hi there.. My first post on this list... I haven't ever built a synth
> myself.. But hey.. Everyone has to start someday :)
>
> I played around with various circuits in the last month and now I want to
> start doing something usefull: A vco to play with. I own a hand full of the
> ICL 8038 signal generators... Just wonder if they are worth anything for
> diy-synth things..
>
> The datasheed claims that the chip can be made temperature stable to a
> minimum of 250 ppm/°C. Is this ok for a synth VCO? I don't have any
> experiences in that area.. maybe 250 is acceptable.. maybe it'll sound
> awfull detuned at one octave or two..
>
> There's one thing that I like on the chip: In normal operation it runs quite
> hot after a few seconds (even without any load attached to the outputs).. I
> think this makes it even more independant from ambient temperature.
>
> I might be completely wrong, and this chip is a total pice of junk... don't
> know.. What's your oppinion on them?
>
> btw..datasheet is here:
> http://www.intersil.com/data/fn/fn2/fn2864/FN2864.pdf
>
> A nice day to everyone,
>       Nils Pipenbrinck

--
 -Jim
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