tone wheel or electronics ?

[John Fisher <John.Fisher@m.cc.utah.edu>]

        Several people on this list have encouraged (begged) Dave (I am
assuming AMELS) to build an updated B3, vote me in !  When ponduring such
a product a while ago and what technology could be brought to the task 
the following should be considered:

        On the down side of things, tone wheel generation  does
not produce an even tempered scale.  THE NEAT THING SOUND WISE is that 
every note is absolutly phase locked - ZERO beat frequencys -VERY important
and even more so when played through a leslie on fast speed. I used several
keyboards when designing the PRO-3 and all except my BELOVED A100 or any 
othr tone wheel intrument had varying amouts of beat, especially 
noticeable on upper fifth and thirds. I remember someone on this list 
 commenting about this on the XB-2 rencently.

        How to solve the problem in future designs ?
        Tone wheel generators are fairly pure sine wave sources locked 
solidly in sync. Can this be done digitally - hard to divide a number by 
5 or 3 ect. and not have a remainder (beat) Maybe someone can solve this
prevelent and irritating charateristic of modern keyboards when producing
hammond sounds.

        Sine waves, Hummm - Phase locked sine wave oscillators ------
seems do-able, light weight, maintenace free, add the key click -----


        John Fisher MS