No problem, Peter, it's just that you're off to the left of my actual
main point about Buchla and Serge stuff as a source of inspiration,
which is that some of the stuff is really nicely done and would be great
to use.

As for the prices, they're so lunatic they beggar belief. And yes,
Doepfer's prices are in their way probably cause for as much excitement
as Buchla's and Serge's innovations.

I'd be surprised, though, if a peruse of the Serge module catalog didn't
give you occasional moments of piqued interest. Someone was recently
talking about quadrature LFOs. Serge has that. Or the TKS. Or the
divide by n comparator. Etc., etc., etc.

The point is, setting price aside -- which in the real world you can't
do -- there's a lot there that I'd like in my Doepfer and would really
enhance it. Much more so than a A440 oscillator, for instance.

But your vactrol ideas are lustworthy.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: petergrenader [mailto: petergrenader@... ]
> Sent: Tuesday, July 23, 2002 4:25 PM
> To: Doepfer_a100@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: 1 Re: All for a new VCO!
>
>
> --- In Doepfer_a100@y..., "unknown freak" <ospengler@r...>
> wrote:
> > I definitely agree that places to look for inspirations for
> expansions
> > to the line would include Buchla and Serge.
>
> I agree...I would love to see vactrol based instruments and
> something along the lines of the Mult Arbitrary Function
> Generator. That would be insane (in a good way). Biut
> Buchlinizing the Doepfer line would constitute the re-design of
> most of his modules. Indeed, ouside of the Source of
> Uncertainty and excellent Frequency Shifter - three items which
> qualify Buchla would have to be the +/- processing at all
> VC's at the input, the use of vactrols for processing VCs internally
> which gave the instrument it's distinct sound and the infamous
> VC input for sequencer direction.
>
> No small task, but i remain hopeful!
>
> As for Serge, nice instruments, but terribly overpriced and
> overrated. Mort Subotnick brought Serge Tcherepnin from NYU
> to Cal Arts for the expressed reason to design an affordable
> instrument in kit form in which composition students could
> purchase on their limited budgets and work out of their home on.
> It was in this light that these circuits were designed, many of
> which are still available today. The second generation stuff (TBK
> and NTO among them) were a different story, these were
> brought to market after Serge started his own enterprize and
> were a direct result of his work on TONTO.
>
> I still can't help but chuckle (laugh, actually) at the prices Sound
> Transform Systems toutes for these 30 year old 1st generation,
> single sided, none-solderamasked, non plated-through hole
> circuits. It's oustanding (for him).
>
> This is what I love about Doepfer so much - this modules are
> functional and quite reasonably priced. The net effect is a great
> value which allows more instruments into the hands of more
> people, which is only good for the art. I hope he keeps in this
> going in this direction..
>
> but a vactrol-based 2 pole low pass filter would never hurt!
>
> OK, lemme have it.
>
> P