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Audio Synthesis via Vacuum Tubes
Eric Barbour
Owner, METASONIX, Redwood City, California USA
email: synth@metasonix.com
Building the All Tube VCO
Now we come to the heart of the alltube synthesizer. And this is one part which enjoys some past history. Please indulge a bit of ranting from me, as this is
a most important and muchneglected subject.
The VCO presented here is a direct derivative of the original oscillator invented by Friedrich Trautwein in 1932. And it perfectly demonstrates why I'm so
cynical about the music world: the MixturTrautonium oscillator was a true VCO, invented at a time when even the Theremin was a new and radical concept.
All this shows the academic and popular musical scene at its worst, for if Trautwein had received some encouragement, he and his collaborator Oskar Sala
might have persisted with development. And they might have invented the voltagecontrolled synthesizer, at a time when Bob Moog and Don Buchla were
still sucking on their pacifiers!
History might have been very different, if only the average musician were not so stuck in relentlessly rigid thinking. The term "synthesizer" might have
appeared, 30 years before it actually did. (Instead, a few instruments were built by Telefunken; Sala did some movie soundtracks; a few composers wrote a
few pieces for the MixturTrautonium; and it was basically ignored outside Germany.) Are things so very different today? Even though vacuum tubes are
enjoying a considerable surge of popularity in the recording studio, with the electric guitar, and in the home of the audiophile........the electronic keyboardist
continues to march grimly forward, hopelessly wedded to whatever the latest digital technology is. This closed mindset seems amazingly like 1932 to me,
only distorted in a funhouse mirror. DSP chips have replaced flutes and trumpets.
The VCO is simply a relaxation oscillator built around a "thyratron" tube. This device is not a vacuum tube, but contains a tenuous mixture of xenon and
other gases. It's an onoff device, having only two operating states. "Thyros" is Greek for "door", so it's a "door tube"; either open or closed. The thyratron
dates from the early days of tube technology, and was usually used for simple control functions. The small thyratron used here is the 2D21/5727, originally
intended for use in switching small relays on. It is very sensitive, and much of the electronic world we know today originated from the electronic control
systems made possible by thyratrons. (Indeed, today's SCR or triac is a "thyristor", simply a semiconductor copy of the thyratron. Larger thyratrons were
made for controlling AC motors and other loads.)
The 2D21 is very roughly similar in construction to any vacuum amplifier tube. Some details have been changed, since you want the gas to ionize only at the
right time. The grids are designed to shield the anode from the hot cathode, until the right set of voltages is seen. The cathode uses different materials from
vacuum tubes, since the gas ions can damage a regular oxidecoated cathode. And various wiring connections are coated with hightemperature cement, so
that only the anode sees ionization current. There are triode thyratrons and tetrode thyratrons (and even a few pentode thyratrons). The extra grids in the
tetrode and pentode serve to further shield the anode from the grid potential. So, the "shield grid" further increases the sensitivity of the tube.
To make a thyratron oscillate, simply connect its cathode and control grid(s) to ground; apply a positive voltage greater than 70v to the anode via a resistor;
and connect a capacitor from anode to cathode. Presto, a relaxation oscillator, producing a sawtoothshaped waveform. The frequency is dependent on the
RC time constant of the capacitor and resistor, and on the ionization voltage of the thyratron (about 70 volts). It varies from tube to tube, due to
manufacturing tolerances.
To control the frequency means either changing the R, the C, or varying the grid or anode voltages. It's easiest for us to make a VCO by varying the
sensitive grids of our 2D21, so we will drive it with a cathode follower made from half of a 12AT7. This is just a DC amplifier with a voltage gain very close to
+1, and a low output impedance. The circuit shown allows a pitch variation of a little over 2 octaves, by varying the input voltage from 0 volts to about 810
volts (it varies with the individual thyratron). Note that the AMPLITUDE of the sawtooth decreases as you increase the voltage, and thus the pitch. It's not
such a problem over an effective 2 octaves. (Besides, the MixturTrautonium behaved in the same way, and it was good enough for Sala.)
Also note that the pitchversusCV characteristic is not linear, nor does it follow the muchworshipped voltperoctave response. It is roughly a squareroot
curve, which varies from tube to tube. This necessitates controlling the VCO with a keyboard or controller having individual potentiometers for each key or
pitch desired, to allow tuning the controller to get equal tempering from the thyratron. This is tedious, but it needs to be done only when a new 2D21 is
installed. The tubes are remarkably stable for thousands of hours. Or, one could use a ribbon controller with the VCO, just like the MixturTrautonium. In a
later article we'll show a simple controller that you can build for your tube synth. A major side benefit of this schemeyou can easily tune your instrument for
microtonal, just, linear, or any other kind of scale within the range of the VCO.
Most of you won't believe this, but our thyratron VCO is VASTLY more temperaturestable than ANY solidstate oscillator. No other circuit shows just how
temperaturesensitive all semiconductors are. Hit the tube with a heat gunthe pitch will drift a few Hertz. Pump Freon onto it from a can of freeze spray,
until it's coated with FROSTthe pitch will drift a few Hertz. Try that with any solidstate VCO, and it will stop working altogether, even if it is carefully
temperaturecompensated! Like it or not, tubes DO have some advantages.
If you plan to build more than one VCO, and want to make
them all track, there are only two basic ways of doing it. One is to use thyratrons which are matched to each other over their operating CV range. This is
easily done with a VCO and a frequency countertake pitch measurements at 0v, 4v and 8v input. Then match tubes which show similar measurements.
(Figure 2 shows why. This is the actual triggerpoint plot of grid voltage versus plate voltage, takes from the original General Electric 5727 data sheet from
1956. Note that GE only guaranteed the tubes would be between the two curves shown, not on a specific curve.)
The other way is to hardsync them. This circuit is optional, and works very well. One VCO would act as the master, its output signal would drive the sync
inputs of the others. It is a very hard sync indeedyou will need strong modulation CVs to force them out of sync.
Our output signal has to be isolated from the next stage, this is done by the 220k resistor and coupling capacitor. This leads to a "drive" volume control, then
to an amplifier stage using the other half of the 12AT7. At low settings, the drive signal remains a sawtooth at the output. Turn up the drive and you get a
progressively cleaner rectangular wave. The output signal is HOTmore than 100v pp. Suggest you use it with other tubed processing stages; or divide it
down 10to1 before going to solidstate circuits, to prevent damaging them.
The third tube in our simple VCO is really necessary. It is another lost technologythe gasdischarge regulator tube. This predecessor of the zener diode
makes an excellent shunt regulator, a necessity with the thyratron relaxation oscillator (its pitch is very sensitive to variations in the plate voltage supply).
Don't believe people who claim that gas regulators are unstable or noisymany excellent instruments used nothing but, and they performed the job well. Gas
tubes of this type routinely last 500010000 hours or more. (We could use zeners instead, but the OB2 is stable, reliable, and (unlike zeners) immune to
temperature fluctuations.)
That's the basics of the VCO. If you are just beginning to experiment with these circuits, build your VCOs just as shown. There are MANY tubes that you
could use in these circuitsan octalbase OC3 could be used instead of the OB2; or you could provide a +180v plate supply and use highervoltage OA2 or
OD3 regulators, to get 150v on the thyratron. There is another thyratron that works in this circuit with no modifications, the smaller 5696. Its pitch range is
much higher, and it sems to be less "fat" sounding than the 2D21/5727.
Many thyratrons were made, from the larger octalbase 2050 and 884 to huge industrial ones with water cooling jackets. Any of them can be used as VCOs,
although the tetrode tubes seem to be more sensitive than the triode types. (There are coldcathode gas thyratrons, such as the OA5 and the 5823. They
can be made to work, but I recommend against them, as they are MUCH less stable, more prone to drift with temperature, and possessing shorter lifetime
than hotcathode types.) And the 12AT7 triodes are not the only types that can do the jobs shown. I'll leave that for the more sophisticated homebrewers.
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03/02/2018 Audio Synthesis via Vacuum Tubes
Schematics
About the Author
Eric Barbour holds a BSEE degree from Northern Arizona University. He has been a regular contributor with GLASS AUDIO magazine since 1991, staff
editor of VACUUM TUBE VALLEY magazine since its founding in 1995, and has written articles for many other music and audiophile publications.
© 1997 Eric Barbour, All Rights Reserved
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Disclaimer
A note to readers: this circuitry is intended for the more advanced builder. Because high voltages are used, a shock hazard exists. We do NOT
recommend that the novice DIY musician try to construct this synthesizer. Some experience with tube electronics is highly recommended.
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