Complex Oscillators

[Joseph]

Yes, the Verbos has a dusty richness in the low mids, and bandlimited highs. It is more immediately musical (the interface too), and the wavefolder is all sweet-spot.

The only annoyances are the unipolar modulator (a trade off for the AM tremolo if I remember right) and that you can’t sync the oscillators externally.

I find the Furthrrrr is a good compromise between functionality and sound (has a lower shelf than Verbos rather than low mids but still bandlimited highs). As mritenburg at Muffs said, sounds similar to 259 [with a faster non-vactrol modulation response], whereas the Verbos sounds a lot like the CO in the Easel.

The CS-L is very full mids and hifi. I think better for sound design.
If I were comparing them to microphones, I’d say the CS-L is like a Sanken and the Verbos is like a KM-54, FG is like an 84.

[Hovercraft]

My Brenso arrived today—beautiful module! Good design and playability, plus the sound palette is fantastic. Super flexible with a lot of deep level osc circuits broken out for patching and playing. The voicing is clear and rich—sits somewhere nice between brighter Cs-L tone, and the fuzzier vintage tones of the Sputnik and Verbos. Super wide range of timbres-very easy to dial in.

[mdtz]

it’s hard to imagine a brighter cs-l!

[Whinger]

I’ve been VERY tempted by the Brenso, and am looking forward to the handful of videos that will make their way to YouTube. My heart says yes, my wallet says no way.

[mdtz]

thinking about swapping a cs-l for a verbos co. has anyone else made this jump, or auditioned it? i love the cs-l and how capable it is, especially in its small footprint, but the wavefolding gets so brash so quickly. and, i don’t love that the wavefolder has a vca in front of it. i’ll miss the ring mod and the space, but… the sound of the verbos co is so attractive.

this is in a drone rack.

[909one]

I don’t regret the switch one bit. The Verbos just sounds so great. I think the tones you get with the AM mod are pretty ring mod-like that I don’t foresee missing that, however ring mods are cheap and small so it wouldn’t take much to add back if needed. And fwiw I did quick scope of the raw waveforms between the two and actually they are pretty similar, it’s the wavefolding circuit that is so different. When you throw in the odd even harmonics and the other knob (it’s slipped my memory right now) the variance in useable tone is actually quite large with Verbos. I feel like there were about two zones I stuck with on the CS-l but with the Verbos there are no bad areas, and I’m constantly finding subtle variations. I also like patching the sine from main osc into the fm of the modulation osc, you can get some subtle fm happening which doesn’t pitch shift until about halfway up the dial.

[909one]

All I have in terms of filters is a Mutable Ripples. It sounds great through it, with the basic wave shapes, I don’t typically put the wave shaping section through it though as it seems counterintuitive because you are are adding harmonics with the wave shaper. All outputs sound great through the Optomix though!

[jlmitch5]

if you have max for live, plox is a really incredible (free!) complex oscillator. pairs great with the jo.Floating oscilloscope.

[gretchen]

Any other recommendations for traditional complex oscillators in software?

[ceedotgeedot]

Aalto is basically a Music Easel complete with complex oscillator.

On the free side, I’d just put one together out of modules in VCV Rack.

[hermbot]

The Reaktor Blocks version of the DPO is very, very good.

I will also second Aalto, brilliant plugin.

[naxuu]

There’s a bit on another forum about whether that Reaktor module is a direct take on the DPO:

Just wanted to chime in here as someone who worked on the DWG - it’s really not intended at all as a clone of the DPO. The shape knob is the only place it takes its cues directly from MakeNoise, the rest is closer in spirit to a 259. The actual wavefolder itself is a different topology to the one used by Buchla or MakeNoise - it’s probably closer to Serge or a Toppo TWF than anything else. The 2 osc + folder complex oscillator archetype is one that’s been done many times by many different manufacturers now. With the DWG, we wanted to try and bring together the best bits of all these designs, rather than clone one in particular.

If someone were to look for a direct clone of DPO, this VCV Rack module might do the trick.

[hermbot]

If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck…

In any case, it sounds great. One DWG is the only sound source in this track I made a while back:

[gretchen]

@ceedotgeedot

On the free side, I’d just put one together out of modules in VCV Rack.

I actually tried this but couldn’t find any standard modules with linear fm, which seems pretty important to the traditional complex oscillator sound. Or at least the Music Easel / 258 / 259 sounds, as far as I can tell?

That’s kind of what I meant by “traditional” — I’m pretty interested in exploring like what people find deep about complex oscillators and their parameters, not just wiring things up and making sounds.

(I looked in the vcvrack module library and it was pretty hard to search or even tell which modules were worth trying out unfortunately).

@naxuu

If someone were to look for a direct clone of DPO, this VCV Rack module might do the trick.

This does seem really useful though! Thanks!

Aalto seems really nice too, thanks! I’ll play around with the demo.

[mateo]

I use a combination of Mutable Instruments modules as complex oscillator (tides + plaits + warps), I’m sure the VCV Rack versions are up to the task!

[xidnpnlss]

Also in Reaktor is CloudLab

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/reaktor-community/reaktor-user-library/entry/show/11077/

Amazing user contribution inspired by Buchla 200.

[Gexex]

recently fixed an ADDAC703 mixer beside my Cs-L and it’s proving to be a perfect companion (no doubt it would accompany most COs with multiple outs nicely). the + & - outs provide subtly different forms of saturation and thicken the sound with interesting coloration. feeding back the hp output of a multi-mode filter into the mix, at the right level, confers a lovely brittleness.

I haven’t really found a use for the feedback / gate control yet - something to explore later!

[jasonw22]

@gretchen

I actually tried this but couldn’t find any standard modules with linear fm

Bog Audio FM-OP is pretty great.

Sound-Design with FM Synthesis in VCV Rack

[Starthief]

I just got a Shapeshifter today. My general impression after a short while is that there are absolutely more impressive wavetable VCOs, and there are TZFM VCOs with more clarity and depth. But Shapeshifter synergizes them, plus the combo modes, tilt, etc. into something else. It can do digital harshness for sure, but it can do it in a sort of thick and gorgeous and full way, not just noisy and glitchy. It can also do pretty and subtle. I really have only scratched the surface so far, but I think I’m going to get along with it really well but I probably wouldn’t recommend it to someone looking for the more traditional complex oscillator experience.

I speculated that it might replace my beloved Hertz Donut mk2 and/or E352. It’s going to take some time to decide that though. It has its own, different flavor from those two. Granted, most of what I do with E352 is using wavetables as sort of a secondary axis with FM/PM, Cloud mode etc. being the more dominant factor. I will probably unrack them but wait a while to see if I miss them

[EqualTemperament]

I really like Shapeshifter. It’s sonic pallet is pretty much limitless, although it doesn’t give up its secrets without spending some significant time with it. I don’t even tend to think of it as a complex VCO, even though it is one and I think it says that on the panel. I’ve found it enlightening to spend a day thinking of it as a filter, and then another as an FX processor, and then as an LFO, and then as a sequencer, etc.

I agree, if you are just looking for a wavetable VCO, the included tables are going to seem restrictive - and they seem nigh on impossible to replace for a mere mortal. The power of it is all the little +1s built into it, though. Kind of a 1+1+1=5 scenario. You can definitely go from harsh and glitchy to lush and beautiful with it. Be interested to hear how you get on.