[sdiy] "Timer Controlled VCO" (TCVCO) ?

[Olivier Gillet]

> recently I stumbled upon this in an interview [1] and wanted to find out how this would be implemented in detail.
> But apparently it's a term Stefan Schmidt just coined back then? Searching the Net isn't very helpful, alas.

>From what he says afterwards, this looks like a plain DCO
(http://www.electricdruid.net/?page=info.junodcos) - with the
difference that each oscillator has its own time-base.

> It's a DCO variant, he stated … but what?
> The term itself suggests some 'dualism' (timer controlled - voltage controlled … ),
> so it's probably not too precisely formulated anyway?

The "-VCO" bit is confusing indeed. Maybe he wants to emphasize on the
fact that unlike common DCO implementation (and like independent VCOs
with no board-level coupling), each oscillator has its own time-base.

Maybe he wants to emphasize on the possibility of aliasing-free
waveform generation. People frequently mistake (fixed-rate) DSP
oscillators and DCO. "DCO" sends the "harsh, aliasing" signal to some
readers.

Or maybe it is actually voltage-controlled internally ; that is to say
each TCVCO is implemented by an independent microcontroller which
reads a voltage with its ADC, and outputs the reset pulse (as opposed
to a digital communication between the master processor and the TCVCO
processors, which would be more reliable...)

Navigating between technical accuracy and cloudy connotations is
tricky. A digital Eurorack oscillator with a V/Oct input could
legitimately be called a VCO; but when people read VCO they
immediately think of drift and "fat" sawtooths.