MOTM

> >Now, one of the more experienced modular guys will have to speak to which
> >of the available waveforms makes the best sync source.
>
> Where the hell is Bradley (Mr. Emu soft sync man) when you need
> him

Vacationing at home all this week not answering email and playing with my
new 320s, that's where!

Hard sync imposes the frequency of a "master" VCO onto a "slave" VCO by
forcing the slave to reset at the master's frequency. The well known
characteristic hard sync sound is achieved by listening to the slave output,
and tuning it much higher than the master. The master sets the basic pitch,
but the frequency of the slave determines the biting overtones present.
Sweeping the pitch of the slave also with an EG gives you that sound you
hear in the Cars' "I Love the Nightlife Baby".

Soft sync is a much more gentle means of drawing the pitch of 2 or more VCOs
together so that they don't beat in frequency, without fundamentally
altering their sound. Just makes them play in perfect tune. There is no
master - slave relationship.

The 300s are set up like this: patch all VCOs to be synced together at their
sync jacks. If you set all sync switches to soft, you get soft sync. If you
switch one VCO to hard, it becomes a master and you get hard sync. If you
switch every VCO to hard, you don't get any sync because none of them are
"listening" to each other.

BTW, I had one of those small proud moments when I opened my "Art of
Electronics" book yesterday and discovered the identical circuit for a flash
ADC that I had come up with independently a few weeks ago. Not terribly
impressive maybe, but it's nice to know that a few brain cells remain from
when I was a practicing EE 9 years ago.

Moe