The Analogue Computer as a Voltage-Controlled Synthesiser
This is an incremental review for researchers in electronic music and analogue computing.
The paper re-examines analogue computers in electronic music, comparing them to voltage-controlled synthesizers and discussing their potential future applications.
This paper re-appraises the role of analogue computers within electronic and computer music and provides some pointers to future areas of research. It begins by introducing the idea of analogue computing and placing in the context of sound and music applications. This is followed by a brief examination of the classic constituents of an analogue computer, contrasting these with the typical modular voltage-controlled synthesiser. Two examples are presented, leading to a discussion on some parallels between these two technologies. This is followed by an examination of the current state-of-the-art in analogue computation and its prospects for applications in computer and electronic music.