Monday 26 September 2011

VCO 2 4 Free

This came to me recently along with some Doepfer modules... "it doesn't work, any good to you?" - well, yeah, I said! It's an interesting one, the VCO2 from Analogue Solutions... apparently discontinued... it's a dual VCO with some nice features - portamento on both oscillators, sync and cross mod, osc 1 has a wide range that allows it to function as an LFO, and independent or linked CV pitch control.
So, onto the lab bench to find out what's what...
...it didn't work, no surprises there, but two hours & several new parts later it burst into life... highly likely it had been 'plugged in the wrong way round'.
It sounds nice & raw, similar to Rogue or Prodigy VCOs. Oscillator 1 has saw, tri & square waves ... oscillator 2 has saw and variable pulse waves and can be synced and cross-modulated with osc 1 creating some really dynamic sounds. It's fairly stable and the tracking is not bad... what you'd expect from a 3046 based VCO I guess.

Prod Mods

A nice Moog Prodigy in for a service & minor surgery - it's one of the later models with interface jacks on the back panel... these make it quite a flexible machine. The user wanted the S-trig converted to a standard positive going gate signal, so a 1/4" jack socket replaced the Cinch Jones connector and a small circuit added inside... no cosmetic alterations and completely reversible if needed.
A 'silent' VCO was brought back to life with a CA3046 transplant, and after a general clean and calibration the Prod sounds great.