Dotcomformat

Hello Dana,
Quite delayed this time due to the concert I just did last weekend:
http://www.notam02.no/~terjewi/synthesizer/concerts/20040919/20040919.html
(The s.com/moog is featured in the second sound clip).
It was quite a lot a labour to do the concert (not to mention all the 
heavy items to lift multiple times...), but it is very well rewarding 
to do concerts.

>I noticed you have both the dotcom and Moog oscillators.
>I'm eternally asking people this, so bear with me:

Yes, people always ask me about this. It´s OK.

>How do the Moog and dotcom oscillators compare?

The dotcom is extremely good in my opinion; stable, accurate tuning 
and scaling, very good sound, very good PWM sound (a must for me), 
range on the pots that I like (also important for me), and just the 
right amount of control inputs.

The moog (remember that this is a 1969 #901 standalone VCO) is 
horribly out of scale and tuning, even though I have done whatever I 
can to make it scale. On the best days (the moog VCO is certainly 
temperemental!) I can get the moog to scale almost perfectly over a 4 
+ 1/2 octave range. The moog is missing some very important controls 
(attentuators in the input, PWM [it does have manual PW]  etc.) but 
this is easily solved by the use of other modules.

One very important factor; the dotcom VCO have a very hot output 
signal compared to the moog. Even though I balance this by the use of 
a dotcom mixer (Q112) and the "variable output" pots on the moog VCO, 
I still get a feeling that the sound level from the two VCOs are 
different. So please bear this in mind later on, as I haven´t tried 
to do any test studio comparisons.

>I'm looking for a harsher, richer sound in an oscillator, and
>remember the Moog sounding more that way.
>Of course, I only played a real Moog once about 32 years ago, so
>I'd be curious to hear your comparison.

Pardon me saying this, but it could be your memory playing a trick on 
you. Some 25+ years ago I bought my first brand new synth - a 
multimoog. I choose this after having testet many other synths on the 
market at the time. I did want a minimoog, but couldn´t afford one 
(at the time it was approx. twice the price tag on a mini compared to 
a multi here in Norway). And I thought the multimoog was the fattest, 
best sounding machine ever. Compared to my friends who had other 
small synths, I was the King of the street with my multimoog. Well, 
having a last aquired a minimoog (fully restored, with "old" VCO 
cards), I do have to admit that the minimogg is way fatter and 
fullersounding than my multimoog. I still like the multimoog, and it 
sure does have it uses (many sounds the mini can´t do), but they are 
very much different sounding synths.

So, the dotcom and moog #901 VCOs in comparison? This is probably 
heresy, but I actually prefer the dotcom. To me it is fullersounding 
and richer. So, does the moog VCO have "harsher, richer sound", as 
you ask? Well, to me "harsher" and "richer" is two opposite 
descriptions. Maybe my best description of the moog VCO is that it is 
more "direct", without saying that the dotcom is by no means fluffy. 
The moog does have a slightly different sound on the sawtooth, maybe 
with a slightly more attitude than the dotcom.

As others have pointed out; many of these differences dissapear once 
you combine many VCOs, and start using filters and the lot.

Last disclamer; please remember that I only have one - 1 - dotcom 
VCO, and one - 1 - moog #901 VCO. Things might have been very 
different is I had a full bank of either of them (anyone have a spare 
moog IIIP for sale for a reasonably price  ;-).

I do admit that moog sound great, but the dotcom sounds equally great 
in my ears.

-- 
tw.  :)