The Modular Synthesizer
The idea to build a synth hit me pretty soon after I got my ARP AXXE in 1993. I even dedicated my school special science project to try to create sound, but it never got off the drawing board. There simply wasn't enough information around at the time, but now the internet has changed all that. Out there, there is everything one needs to know. It’s just a question of getting all the right components and getting them together in a nice way.
The concepts:
VCO - The Voltage Controlled Oscillator creates triangle and pulse waveforms with adjustable pulse width, controlled by linear or exponential voltages.
VCF - The Voltage Controlled Filter shapes and cuts select frequencies of the signal. In a state variable filter three types are available: Low-pass, Band-pass and High-pass. These can in turn be combined to other types of response. Controlled by linear or exponential voltages.
VCA - The Voltage Controlled Amplifier explains itself. A voltage controls the amount of amplification.
EG - The Envelope Generator creates a voltage that is variable with time. The traditional standard is of ADSR-type. The letters represent Attack time, Decay time, Sustain level and Release time.
LFO - The Low Frequency Oscillator also explains itself. It does the same basic stuff as the VCO, but at lower frequencies to create sweeping voltages.
S&H - The Sample & Hold Unit can do many things but is primarily used to create random voltages at a set speed. An input signal is measured every time a clock pulse is received, and held until the next clock pulse arrives.
It might look like this one day...
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