Fluctuating Random Voltages, but not Buchla

[elmegil]

So .... it seems to me that all the implementations of fluctuating random voltages I've looked at (at least with a brief search) are based on the Buchla FRV in the 266. Everybody mentions vactrols.

Yeah, Vactrols are cool, but they're also generally spendy and/or inconsistent, and I want to try to achieve similar results without them.

One thought that occurs (and I could test this with modules I already own, but that isn't practical at this very moment and I want to solicit feedback) would be ...

Use a standard white noise source into a sample & hold into a slew to smooth it out a bit, and use that (or duplicates) to control rise/fall or with two independent rise/fall of a voltage controlled slope. And maybe slew that output a bit too.

I've looked at/troubleshot Buchla FRVs in Roman's SOU clone, but mostly it's been a matter of figure out what's totally not functional, which is a different analysis than figuring out how it works. A cursory examination of the circuit to determine the source of the randomness was not very fruitful. Obviously it's clocked by the 555, which is rate controlled by the inputs and one vactrol, but the actual random part isn't clear to me how it achieves randomness.

I'm mostly curious about opinions on how similar what I describe with the VCS under random control might get compared to the Buchla FRVs...

Anyone?

[Grumble]