Jürgen Haible designed his triple VCO set known as the “Living VCOs” with the goal to combine the untamed bass range power of early EMS and Moog VCOs with modern features and decent tracking. He found that “untamed” Beating in the bass range and controlled beating in higher octaves is not possible with standard exponential 1V/Oct oscillators. A good part of that special sound of early Moog and EMS oscillators is not because of any “randomness”, “unstability”, “instability” or “noisyness”, as so often is said. A good deal of their behavior is because of that, but it is not the whole story. There are also some very deterministic factors in these old circuits which have been implemented in form of three “linear detune” potentiometers on the Living VCOs.

The R*S edition of the Living VCOs comprises a number of additions and modifications compared to the original Haible board:

Due to the added features, part count and density are very high on this board - this is not a project suitable for beginners. Any information given here is preliminary and subject to change - please compare against Jürgen's original documentation and do not simply rely on the files here.