Distortion, clickety tones, or sync-esque metallic timbre, experimental module from doepfer.
A PLL consists of three parts: voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), phase comparator (PC), and low-pass filter (LPF). All parts are normally connected to form a closed-loop frequency-feedback system.
This is how a PLL works: The output of the internal VCO (linear CV control, rectangle output) is compared with an external signal (e.g. the rectangle output of a A-110 VCO) in the so-called phase comparator (PC). The output of the phase comparator is a digital signal (low/high/tristate) that indicates if the frequency resp. phase difference of the two input signals is negative, zero or positive. The output of the phase comparator is processed by a low pass filter (LPF) to generate a smooth voltage that is used to control the frequency of the internal VCO. The 3 units VCO, PC and LPF form a feedback loop that works like this: The control voltage (output of the LPF) increases as long as the external frequency is higher than the frequency of the internal VCO und stops increasing when both frequencies become identical. The control voltage decreases as long as the external frequency is lower than the frequency of the internal VCO und stops decreasing when both frequencies become identical.
Applications:
frequency multiplication,
special sound effects,
generation of clock signals for graphic VCO (high speed VCO, e.g. for A-155 as graphic VCO),
clocked audio delays or switched-capacitor filter
Width: 8 HP
Depth: 40 mm
Power requirement: +40 mA (+ 12V) / -0 mA (-12V)