#41

Ah yes, I had to get mine hooked up to my mixer and a good pair of headphones instead of the portable speaker I’ve been using, but I’m noticing that on mine as well. A slight buzzing from the wavefolder output with the faders all the way down.

#42

Interesting question whether Trident is a “complex oscillator”. Safe to say it’s not a typical one.

#43

The just-announced Joranalogue Generate 3 seems like it might be an ideal primary oscillator. I’m intrigued by the shaping possibilities as well as all the thru-zero modulation inputs… this could distract me from wanting a DPO. More demos are needed! :slight_smile:

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#44

Yeah that thing looks incredible. And Joranalogue is on point with quality, everything he designs is extremely precise and physically solid. I could see myself putting together a full Joranalogue system in the future.

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#45

If you can hold up a flash card and squint a little and think it’s a Buchla 259, it probably fits in the category of “complex oscillator”. Is there a wavefolder, a modulation bus, high and low frequency ranges, etc.

Something like the Trident or the Living Oscillator fits into “oscillators that can be complex because there are a lot of them in one panel” are interesting, but I don’t see them in the same spirit of the original.

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#46

No question that Trident isn’t much like the Buchla 259, although it aspires to a comparable purpose. The counter-argument might be that what makes a complex oscillator is less a checklist of features of a particular architecture (Don’s), and more the general strategy of using mutually modulating oscillators in a convenient, controllable, and animatable configuration in order to produce interesting waveforms.

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#47

Yeah, that makes sense. I like a good definitional argument as much as the next person, but this certainly isn’t one I feel super passionate about. But I do have a soft spot for the 259, the DPO, the Furrrrthrrrrrrrrrr, and so on. I just think they’re really neat.

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#48

I’ve often debated with myself about whether something like Orgone Accumulator or Loquelic Iteritas should count as a complex oscillator, even though they’re not really 259-like.

Some people simply take the words at face value and refer to, say, Xaoc Odessa as a “complex oscillator” because it is an oscillator that is complex… it’s kind of a pet peeve but I see where they’re coming from.

And then others say “complex oscillator” has been used incorrectly, since the 259 is a “complex waveform generator” and the 208r has just the primary/carrier labeled as “complex oscillator”…

(But I stand by using “additive synthesis” only for combining partials, not for FM or distortion-based synthesis methods.)

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#49

Could be mistaken, but I thought I read Don Buchla’s description of a complex oscillator was just an oscillator that produced complex waveforms (e.g., other than sine, triangle, square, etc). A Buchla 259-like complex oscillator is a subtype–although they trace back to one of the original complex osc modules. The intrinsic nature of modular that blurs the line between modulation and sound generation, makes orthodox definitions kind of silly.

#50

orig Tides is a big keeper for me for these reasons, tho it is currently hanging out on reserve.

I did have a really wild if brief adventure with Tides and Mangroves I’m hoping to revisit.

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#51

Seems like the upcoming Endorphin.es Godspeed+ is going to be a pretty great choice too as a “separate pieces” complex oscillator – it’s the Strong Zero Core and wavefolder from Furthrrrr Generator in just 6HP. It has self-FM normalled to a knob and sounds pretty gnarly and growly even without a separate modulation source.

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#52

Wow! with the Rubicon2, Generate 3 and the Godspeed+ it looks like there’s a plethora of tzfm pieces to make your own complex oscillator with super accurate pitch tracking.

Edit: I’ve also updated the ER-301 patch I’ve been working on to include a wave shapable Modulator and a wave fold section. I’ve also corrected how the ring and amp mod section was working. complex osc 010.unit (73.3 KB)

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#53

It seems like most (not all) complex oscs only give you the option to sync the modulation oscillator to the primary. I’ve been playing around with some patches on my Dixie/Lifeforms combo, and I’m actually liking the sound of syncing the primary to the modulator. It’s a lot more stable and produces a lot of nice bowed string sounds.

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#54

Seems like another reason in favor of the symmetrical approach of designs like the Cs-L. But it’s not exactly symmetrical, is it? Seems you can soft-sync B to A or hard-sync A to B. I wonder if that is a limitation?

#55

Yeah I don’t know how big of a difference that would make since I’ve never actually owned an oscillator with soft sync and can’t say how differently it behaves. But I suppose if all other parts of the oscillators are symmetrical, you’d just have to decide which flavor of sync you want and go from there.

#56

Hmm, you might have to patch it yourself but the only ones I know of where the carrier has no sync input are the Verbos and Double Helix.

It seems more common that either the carrier has a sync input and the modulator a switch to sync to the carrier, or both have sync inputs…

#57

I don’t have an osc with soft sync either and found this video informative (even just to hear the difference in timbre): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx0Y6RThqR8.

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#58

Dual JF//Mangrove//Meng Qi DPLPG combo
Modulated by 3 sisters and Cold Mac does the trick for me.
Before this I tried just about all the alternatives and I think DPO was my fave and actually the Atlantis gets you into some premo fm country.

#59

If it helps any, this is a very quick grab of a test of the variable sync of a Synthi clone oscillator.

I don’t think there are many oscillators that have variable sync like this, which is a shame as it can throw up a lot of interesting sweet spots

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#60

If anybody has questions about the Hexinverter Mindphaser feel free to ask, I think I know it quite well by now!

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