For timing capacitors, low tolerance e.g. 1%, are usually recommended for precision/stability of the VCO core. You'll often see polyester or polypropylene box capacitors used for timing capacitors, WIMA, are a popular brand and these are used in the Instruo/DivKid ochd I think (I haven't studied the PCB in great detail, I just noticed the familiar red box capacitors when plugging in the power and expander ribbons!).if I remember correctly- is quite specific about the type of timing capacitor you should use (if you want the tuning to be precise).
Equally you can build a stable enough VCO with 1% tolerance C0G SMD ceramic caps too, Andrew Nonlinear Circuits uses these in most of his designs, including the Plague of Demons VCO (there's a provision for box or SMD cap actually) and in his eurorack port of Ian Fritz's Hypster, for example.
I'd be very surprised if enough people or anyone even, could reliably discern the difference between PE/PP box and MLCC caps used in the same circuit. Lesser quality components that can't hold 1% it would be noticeable, but 1% caps with different dielectric materials, no way (except for one person who has spent their entire life listening to and who only frequents forums and doesn't actually produce or listen to music
)Statistics: Posted by PieBerger — Wed Nov 13, 2024 10:19 am