[sdiy] 1V/OCT

[Scott Gravenhorst]

Guillaume Fairfield <gfairfield at rogers.com> wrote:
>Hello all,
>
>I'm also new to this whole synth building business and am trying to 
>build my first vco. I think I have a plan but I'm unsure of to the whole 
>1V/OCT thing.
>What's the standard? Is it that +1V gives an octave higher or lower? 

Yes, +1 volt of _difference_ (such as from 1.2v to 2.2v) raises pitch one
octave.  -1v, lowers by one octave (such as from 5.35v to 4.35v).

>And what's the middle frequency? 

This is arbitrary.  There's a master tune control that sets this.  You
would tune your oscillator to another instrument or tuning meter this way.
 Then it stays in tune for all the other notes on the keyboard.

>In other words what frequency represents 
>0V? Maybe I'm missing something but that's the biggest piece of the 
>puzzle left, apart from all the math.
>
>Thank you for this list...I think I'm gonna learn alot here.
>
>guillaume
>
>

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