[sdiy] Unique sounding modules that can't have voltage control?

[Mike Bryant]

The VCS-3 and all the other EMS products were created when far less was known about how circuits behaved.  We didn't have SPICE or other simulators, and the components varied wildly in performance.  Resistors might have been 1% if you could afford them, but that was only at 25 degC.  As for transistors, the gain could be 20 for one, then 200 for the next.

The EMS products used an n by n patchboard so you were also limited in what could be VCed, unlike when using patchcords.  Look at Emerson's rig - that would have needed a patchboard doubling the size of the Beast.

By the time we moved to VCing everything, you've got better components that do what they say on the tin, and also simulators so you can work out how far things will move out of spec before you even solder up the prototype.  And you've got complex circuits all on a single IC which inherently all work the same.

But of course this variation did give some useful happenings.  The famous synth sequence in DSOM depended on Roger's Waters Synthi-A operating slightly differently to Gilmore's VCS-3.  One story is that Gilmore then bought a Synthi-A and still couldn't replicate the sequence, though whether that is true or not I've no idea.

________________________________
From: cheater cheater <cheater00social at gmail.com>
Sent: 08 February 2024 07:15
To: Mike Bryant <mbryant at futurehorizons.com>
Cc: synth-diy <synth-diy at synth-diy.org>
Subject: Re: [sdiy] Unique sounding modules that can't have voltage control?

On Thu, Feb 8, 2024 at 5:48 AM Mike Bryant <mbryant at futurehorizons.com> wrote:
>
> C'mon, take this a little seriously please :)
>
>
> If you've used any EMS product you'll know that a lot of parameters aren't voltage controlled, even on the Synthi-100.  The ring modulator, noise source, some of the filter parameters, the oscillator shapes and lots else.  The patch panels would be huge to do so.
>
> Yes there are modern derivatives which do similar, but they never seem to sound the same.

OK, that makes good sense! What do you think is the reason they start
sounding differently when VC is implemented?

Thanks!

> ________________________________
> From: cheater cheater <cheater00social at gmail.com>
> Sent: 07 February 2024 21:36
> To: Mike Bryant <mbryant at futurehorizons.com>
> Cc: synth-diy <synth-diy at synth-diy.org>
> Subject: Re: [sdiy] Unique sounding modules that can't have voltage control?
>
> That's not a module, and besides, there are modules that replicate its
> sound and have full voltage control.
>
> Filter is here: https://www.analoguesystems.co.uk/index.php/as-modules/rs500e
>
> And I can't imagine the VCO not being possible to control via
> voltages. Same with modulation.
>
> C'mon, take this a little seriously please :)
>
> On Wed, Feb 7, 2024 at 10:09 PM Mike Bryant <mbryant at futurehorizons.com> wrote:
> >
> > VCS-3 :-)
> > ________________________________
> > From: Synth-diy <synth-diy-bounces at synth-diy.org> on behalf of cheater cheater via Synth-diy <synth-diy at synth-diy.org>
> > Sent: 07 February 2024 18:17
> > To: synth-diy <synth-diy at synth-diy.org>
> > Subject: [sdiy] Unique sounding modules that can't have voltage control?
> >
> > Hi all,
> > I'm looking for synth modules or circuits which have parameters that
> > cannot be voltage controlled - and which have a unique sound that
> > similar circuits compatible with voltage control cannot recreate.
> >
> > Thanks!
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