ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Digitally controlled oscillator

Imagine you are playing with a toy car, and you have a remote control that lets you make it go faster or slower. A digitally controlled oscillator works in a similar way. It's like a tiny machine that creates a sound or a signal, and you can use a computer or another electronic device to control how fast or slow that sound or signal goes.

Whenever you hear music or sound effects coming from your computer or phone, there's a good chance that a digitally controlled oscillator helped to create those sounds. It's like a mini-musical instrument that can create all kinds of different tones and rhythms, depending on how you program it.

Instead of using physical knobs or switches to adjust the sound, as you might with an old-fashioned instrument, the digitally controlled oscillator uses a set of instructions that are stored in a computer chip. By changing those instructions, you can create different sounds and control how they change over time.

Overall, a digitally controlled oscillator is a powerful tool that helps musicians, engineers, and other tech-savvy people to create all kinds of cool sounds and signals. By using computer programming and other advanced techniques, it's possible to create complex soundscapes and music that would have been impossible just a few decades ago.