[sdiy] Oscillator tracking

[Ian Fritz]

At 05:42 PM 2/2/2007, Jay wrote:
>When someone says "this oscillator can track 6 octaves", does that mean 3 
>octaves up or down from the key you tune in or 6 octaves up or down? Or 
>what? :-)

Good question!  Really, that "someone" should specify the range.  But 
remember, you can change the frequency range for a given current range by 
changing the cap value.  So maybe they should specify both the current 
range and the frequency range.  :-)

In practice, 6 octaves starting at 100Hz would be a pretty fair 
oscillator.  Below 100Hz, tracking isn't too critical, because a moderate 
mistracking won't give you very many beats.  And fundamental frequencies 
above 6 kHz aren't all that useful.

Of course, you also have to ask what "track 6 octaves" really means.  In 
other words, what is the maximum error over that range?

So the original statement is really pretty vague, IMO.

   Ian