I need to write a paper on the impact a control system has made in society and the first thing that came to mind was the impact the Moog synthesizer has made in music.
Since this is a controls engineering course I believe that the impact of electronic signal generators or rather electronic oscillators is a good topic and not just for music purposes.
But, I would still like to emphasis the impact audio oscillators, and in particular Moog’s oscillators have made (I know the original Mini’s were prized for there less than stable oscillators but that’s not the point).
So, does anyone know of any good resources for this paper and in particular were I can find good info on Moog’s designs?
I would like to know what type of oscillator circuits Uncle Bob used over the years in his designs.
Thats a terrible assignment. Why would they make you do that? Don’t your profs think your time could be better spent actually working with control systems? Pointless!
Moog’s oscillators were the traditional charged cap design, but you need to do some research on the exponential conversion that were the raison d’etre for the voltage control system. There’s that word - “control”. Moog’s early designs weren’t stable until ARP improved the temperature compensation in the expo generator. Two good studies right there. Don Tillman’s site has a wealth of info, patents, and links on this stuff. That should get you started. Also if you can find Hal Chamberlin’s Musical applications of microprocessors that will be a good resource.
Does your course sylllabus describe controls in a generic sense?
Some curricula refer to IC (Instrumentation and Controls) within an industrial applied context. If this is the case, your prof may be asking for a paper based on industrial control systems, i.e. closed loop control systems, motor speed ctrl systems (single phase, three phase drive sys, etc.), feedback systems and servomechanisms, etc. and the devices that comprise these systems, like diacs, triacs, scr’s, crystal-controlled osc, etc.
If this is the context within which the course is defined, I’m not sure that
audio applications for oscillators would be most appropriate, although the
topic makes for an interesting paper.
The focus of this controls course is the developement of state-space equations for mechanical, electrical, ect. systems and the analysis and design of these systems through the use of matrix algebra. They are all generally closed loop control systems.
The paper is a time waster IMHO but my prof seems to want us to write about something that we feel changed modern society or was clever in its design (he mentioned the water flow control system in a toilet). As such it isn’t as much an engineering paper as it is a history paper!
As for synth’s, i was thinking of the C in VCO or VCF which, as MC pointed out, is more about the exponential conversion in the circuit. I’ll look into expo generators and i have the Hal Chamberlin book so i should be able to muster up enough info to use audio synth’s as a topic.
BTW, the due date has been extended but the my prof wants us to write about a second subject related to control systems. Any ideas other than toilets?
You could come up with some really advanced and interesting topics. What I did for my BSc paper was to apply genetic algorithms (or more properly evolutionary algorithms) in electronic music composition. This is actually control over music composition but GA have been applied to sound design as well. If you think this is interesting I can provide some additional info - but bear in my mind that some of this stuff is really deep and I don’t know how much time you have.