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Frequency modulation (analog).

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xles:
Long time viewer, first time poster.

First, a little background: I somewhat recently decided that I'd like to get into analogue circuit design, and also audio. I pondered for a while; what would let me learn this, and get me a nice toy out of it. Then it dawned on me, a modular synthesizer.
Now, this circuit was originally something I wanted for something completely different, but figured that I'd might as well weave it in there and make a module for it.

Coming from a purely digital background, working mostly with micros, analogue circuits are strange and mysterious to me. Most of them seem to me operated by means of love and Gummi Magic. But after searching the web for a while, reading up on modular synthesis design, I came across an annoyingly simple way for frequency modulation; Feed the source to be modulated to the input of a VCO (It still annoys me that I didn't see this sooner).

However, this didn't help me in my search for what I needed, because what I need is this: A way to modulate one wave onto another, that is to say, I need to be able to externally provide both the source and carrier waveforms. And since most (all I've seen anyway) VCO designs are self-oscillating, I'm once again back to square one.

So... Does anyone have any experience in analogue circuit design and know what the hell I'm on about?

Cheers.

Edit: By the looks of the front page, this is topic #1000, go me! ^^

NiHaoMike:
The most common way is to use a PLL.

xles:

--- Quote from: NiHaoMike on August 14, 2010, 01:17:43 am ---The most common way is to use a PLL.

--- End quote ---
Oh?
Care to elaborate? Assuming of course that PLL is indeed what I think it is; A phase locked loop...

NiHaoMike:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PLL

DJPhil:
You're going to probably find an avalanche of info online, but I can suggest a good resource to begin.

The Computer Music Tutorial - Curtis Roads

It's a bit dated, but it's comparable to The Art of Electronics for electronic music. It's monstrously huge. If you don't want to buy it you can probably find it in a library (a university is your best bet). If you manage to eat the whole thing it'll take you from the point in history where electricity entered music all the way to digital synthesis, covering a great deal of analog on the way. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

I know that doesn't speak to your specific question, but I hope that helps. :)

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