[sdiy] Wow! Milton as VC Harmonic Generator

[Cynthia Webster]

Howdy all!

Someone wrote-in asking what the upper frequency limit of a
Milton 16x4 Voltage Controlled Sequencer is when driven up into audio range

I just hooked one of the Miltons up here to try it out and it's exciting
as a sort of quad VC harmonic Oscillator!

Asking Peter about the upper limit of his creation, instead of a reading
from his frequency counter, he said, "I don't know, but it's up there!"

I can see Peter's point, as the limit in upper frequency is not in Milton...

Instead, it is in the upper limit of the oscillator that is clocking it,
the impression that I get is that The Milton can keep right on going up!
(if so however, the dogs in the neighborhood might have a howl over this!)

I used a Modcan 01A Oscillator and with it tuned to it's upper limit
(inaudibly high pitch) Milton gets right up there into the upper limits
of a pianos highest keys.

Turning all 16 of the knobs to the lowest, the audio output of the Sequencer
is most mellow sounding.  As you turn up the knobs, real spiky harmonics
can be generated resulting in ever more harmonic content that ultimately
gets somewhat raspy sounding, (really wild waveforms on the scope).

This all gets very interesting when an LFO is presented to the Voltage
Control input on the Sequencer, as then the harmonic content is under
voltage control... .

Turning the clocking VCO's PWM to it's extreme results in a sudden stop
to the entire sequence, as if Milty stops responding to the clock, if it's
pulse width is set too far to the right.

I experimented with using the LFO on the oscillator's PWM input,
and this was interesting in making the audio output of the Milton
pick-off or accentuate different harmonics along it's row of 16 LEDS.
It is fun to actually see it in the LEDs, as well as to hear it.

Turning up the PWM CV input attenuator resulted in the LFO stopping Milton
and starting it, with a patterned modulation of it freezing at different
positions of the sequence, etc.  (3, 8, 11, 16, 3, 8, 11, 16, 3, 8, 11, 16,)

Lots of fun!

I'd like to try a patch like this feeding each row's output
into a different audio channel of a quadraphonic setup.

Thanks I'm glad that question was asked!

Happy Bleeping!

Cynthia