That's why I wrote analog audio path. There's hardly a single synth today (exception for modular) that doesn't have some sort of digital control, even the new MS20 and ARP Odyssey have digital control by definition since they have a USB/MIDI interface (Digital Interface).Shy wrote:Everything that controls the waveform generators (so-called "oscillators") and filters in that "analog signal path" is digital, including the digital signals which are the main thing that determines how the oscillating analog waveforms look/sound at all, and the digital low frequency oscillator waveforms, and the digital envelope waveforms, and other digital signals. The "oscillators" are digital, meaning the oscillation process itself is calculated digitally, converted using DAC and goes to a waveform generator, which creates an analog waveform based on the digitally-generated and converted oscillator signal it receives. That's basically what the "DCO" is. So it's no surprise that functionally and audibly, with stuff other than basic unmodulated waveforms, synths with DCOs and synths with VCOs can differ greatly. When someone has no idea why his synth that uses DCOs sounds way different than a synth with VCOs that has a similar architecture, it's because they don't realize just how vastly different they really are.eXode wrote:So a synth like the Prophet 08 has an all analog audio path
Regarding DCO's I think you're just making it more complicated than it needs to be.
To quote wikipedia: "A DCO can be considered as a VCO that is synchronised to an external frequency reference."
Which basically means:
DCO = Rock solid, clinical tuning, in general insensitive to temperature shift, etc.
VCO = Drifting/fluctuating tuning, can be subtle or horrible, in general sensitive to changes in temperature, etc.
General consensus seem to be that VCO sound more alive, warm, fat, organic, etc. DCO sound more cold, clinical, etc.

