[sdiy] modular synthesizers - another what passes for epiphany in my world

[Ian Fritz]

>
>On 4/23/06, Anthony Bisset 
><<mailto:abisset at dspaudio.com>abisset at dspaudio.com> wrote:
>greetings again,
>
>i realized that vco's and filters should be more modular in nature.  has
>anyone designed "musically useful" modules that can be combined to create
>filters or vco's?  i'd rather be rolling my own with patch cables than at
>the bench.  anyone have some design suggestions?  i know, stability *could
>be a big problem, but what are some designs that would get around that,
>and what would be the best way to effectively break a vco or filter into
>sub modules that could be combined to create said things or of course, try
>things that aren't really practical on a breadboard?

Cool idea.  Basically you are proposing an instrument that is more based on 
lower level analog computation than on standard synth modules.

My new chaos generator is based on this approach.  It is built of  five 
identical modules.  Each module consists of two circuit blocks: (1) a 
damped integrator with voltage controlled rate and damping and (2) a 
particular nonlinear circuit.

When connected in a loop the system can produce 2nd order hyperchaos, or, 
with the phase around the loop inverted, a fifth order (10 phase) 
oscillator. Lower order generators can also be patched up, and 
additional  cross couplings are available.  I'm sure there will be other 
applications to filters and waveshapers.

There will be more on this later.

   Ian