[sdiy] Hello, and some questions

[BrightBoy]

For books I would recommend the timely classic by Hal Chamberlin
"Musical Applications of Microprocessors"

Don't let the name fool you as I covers analogue, digital and
analog/digital hybrid synthesis:

http://www.mindspring.com/~jdec/book/MAM.jpg

It's long out-of-print but fortunately I have mint, unread,
new-old-stock, 2nd edition copies still available for sale 
($50+shipping)

Contact me privately if you're interested.

Jeff

-----Original Message-----
>From: John Ames <commodorejohn at gmail.com>
>Sent: May 1, 2013 9:10 PM
>To: synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
>Subject: [sdiy] Hello, and some questions
>
>Hi, all! I'm a vintage-computer hobbyist who's been looking at getting
>into homebrew synthesis for a while now after getting a Minimoog VST
>(wish I could afford the real deal!) and especially after acquiring an
>Oberheim polyphonic and getting to play around with real analog
>synthesis. However, I'm a lot less experienced with low-level
>electronics than I am with computing on a hardware-architectural level
>(beyond basic solder-monkey ability,) so a lot of this is pretty new
>territory for me, and this seems like a good place to turn to with
>some questions:
>
>For starters, that low-level electronics thing. Can someone recommend
>me a good getting-started guide to the subject? A reference with a
>focus on audio circuits would be nice, but anything that can give me a
>solid footing would be great. I don't expect that I'll get good
>results if I just start slapping parts together at random :D
>
>Also, some questions about VCOs: I know they have a reputation for
>tuning instability, but I've gathered that it's better now than it
>used to be. Is that just thanks to higher-tolerance parts being
>available at lower costs now, or are newer designs more stable? (Are
>fancy newer parts like tantalum or polymer capacitors any good for
>audio?) What are some good starter designs? I can easily figure out
>how to do a pulse-wave oscillator given a simple sawtooth oscillator,
>but how about a triangle or sine-wave?
>
>Thanks!
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