[sdiy] why +/- 15V

[René Schmitz]

Hi David, Jürgen, Nils et al.,

> Given that we're talking about the early '60s,
> I think that control signals with levels that low
> would have picked up too much noise, making
> VCOs unstable.  I'm guessing Bob Moog went with

I doubt that a little, because in the filters and VCAs the signals are
brought to low levels for the differential pairs (think ladder filter or
VCA). So that wouldn't have gained anything.

> the 1V/octave standard because it worked with
> the supply voltages that were commonly used in
> those days (generally higher than most electronics
> use now) and it was fairly easy to measure with
> a decent analog voltmeter and/or scope.

Analog computing used +-150V (tubes) and later +-15V.
To me it seems to be a mere tradition.
Maybe we'll see a +-1.5V age, who knows...

Cheers,
  René

-- 
uzs159 at uni-bonn.de
http://www.uni-bonn.de/~uzs159