Convention Paper
Analog Circuits for Sound Animation
AES Convention 67 · Paper 1692 · October 1980
Abstract
One important practice of analog music synthesis is the achievement of a harmonically rich and dynamically changing sound, the so-called "fat sound." This sound is inherently more interesting to the ear than standard periodic waveforms, and as a consequence, use of an animated sound instead of a periodic waveform enhances any final result, often quite dramatically. A standard practice is to achieve animation through the use of several voltage-controlled oscillators in parallel, with small tuning errors resulting in a rich, slow beating effect. This method is very expensive however. This paper is concerned with the devices which use less hardware, and which produce effects similar to those achieved with parallel oscillators. In addition, new types of animation are discussed.
