#22

One thing I’d like to chime in with is that even by themselves and with very little modulation, the outputs sound great. Listen to the final out, or the bottommost output with the funny stairsteppy waveform. Wiggle the knobs. Doesn’t need to be more complex than that. (EDIT: My point here was that even if the Cs-L offers a ton of options, very simple patching can yield great results with this thing – don’t let the versatility daze you.)

Of course, that possibly doesn’t help at all :smiley: What I enjoy doing is patching envelopes to various destinations. Kicking the wavefolders, or the modulation index, with a quick envelope to give a sound an attack phase is very nice. Also explore the button combos, they give you a lot of results that at least I don’t really understand as of yet, but they sound great.

Things I’ve yet to fully explore are at least the various sync options, plus I’d like to dig deep in the ring modulation/AM section. The latter can give very nice, fragile tones.

#23
  • The wave folders respond well to linear decay envelopes, producing a plucky sound. They’re exponential, so if you want smooth swells, I recommend using logarithmic envelopes.
  • I really recommend just playing with the possible routings and controlling the VCA with different LFOs or envelopes, and seeing what you like. It can get to some really aggressive places really quickly.
  • Try self-parching! All the modulation points should handle audio rate signals.
  • It’s good to remember that the top oscillator is a saw core, and the bottom oscillator is a triangle core, so they are going to respond slightly differently to modulation.
4 Likes
#24

Thanks - I appreciate the input. I’ll try to keep it simple. I agree, the staggering options with this thing tend to make me try to build something complex right out of the gate. I will try it out with simplicity in mind. I’m good at turning something simple into something overly complex :slight_smile:

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#25

I hear you, that is my entire mindset 95% of the time :slight_smile:

#26

Just took delivery of mine, and thanks to all here for making getting started less confusing than it might otherwise have been!
I have one quick question / observation - neither of my wavefolders resolve to silence with the slider at minimum. The bleed on the sawtooth is very noticeable, on the triangle it’s more subtle, like an Optomix, or similar.
I have a note into Jason to see if this is normal. I hope not, because the pluck sound sending an envelope to the wavefolder is lovely and woody, and different to DPO…

#27

Correct me if I’m wrong, I don’t have a Cs-L but normally a wavefolder at zero should output the base waveform, not silence, except on the DPO.

#28

Cs-L is similar to DPO. The base waveform is when the fader is at 50% (I think).

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#29

It depends on the wavefolder. A lot of them are silent at minimum, because it’s basically a VCA in front of a folding circuit. The ones that are passthrough at minimum are set up that way as a convenience I think, crossfading from dry to wet at the low end of the setting.

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#30

I just won one of these in an auction, pristine and practically half price! Couldn’t believe my luck and had to jump on it. Such a delicious module, and my first complex osc experience. Love it to bits already.

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#31

Manual up for Cs-L (and many other Instruo modules).

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#32

Going to be picking this beauty in a couple of weeks. Can’t wait already!

#33

Have to say, this manual has really helped me understand the module with all the possibilities it holds. There are some moments to be had where you’re just shaking your head at the sound that comes out of this thing.

Instagram doesn’t do it favors, but here’s a small clip – tried to keep it subtle, as there’s a lot of great subtle stuff in addition to the in-your-face.

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#34

I just got one of those, I love it!
It’s super rich sounding, pushes the tone that extra 2% over the top for me. Its really a joy to play. I’m also really happy to have a complex VCO now, its my first one and I wish I ggot one sooner. It encourges you to do things I wouldn’t have done before because its pre-routed. Its a super deep module and there’s really nothing I don’t like about it so far, except for the aesthetics. I wish it was a little plainer but not a big deal. I’d buy a grayscale panel for it if it existed.

1 Like
#35

Right on the fence about getting one and would looooove hearing more demos of some of the gentler sides of it. I’ve gone through seemingly most videos and there are a few that highlight it but most videos seem to have this fizzy quality that I’m not sure I’m super fond of

#36

Not sure if this is the sort of thing you’d want to hear or if this is too gentle, but a recent example:

The first voice is Cs-L with different sequences sent to each oscillator, AM, with the final output of osc A modulating osc B’s sine. Sequence courtesy of Orca’s Heart.

I have a few gentler sounds with a bit more character, but this was the first I could find.

3 Likes
#37

Definitely the kind of stuff I’m after. I know you don’t necessarily need to max out the FM and wave folder but that seems to be most of what I’m hearing on most demos so definitely appreciated!

As somewhat of a side note, is it me or does this module spit out a lot of high end in general?

#38

I think people generally do a disservice to complex oscillators in reviews because in everything I’ve seen from the DPO to the Verbos to this, the reviewers tend to spend way too much time in the extreme settings zone with crazy FM and everything going. It’s like those bluez wankers playing distorted solos during the whole guitar review , it’s hard to get an idea of what the thing actually sounds like. I can say with spending some extended time with the module that you can get some really mellow tones with it as well. There’s a few great things about this VCO that stand above the rest for me:

-Having two cores, and triangle and a saw, is really a brilliant idea. There are some subtle harmonics present in a sine wave created from the saw core that seem to be filtered out of the triangle core which are very nice to have when you want the sine wave to pop through the mix. Also I’ve noticed that the wavefolder is a little gentler on the triangle section. Which brings up the next point…
-Two wavefolders, this is so nice. I don’t think there’s another CO I’ve seen with two of these.
-The tuning is really stable, best I’ve encounter for an analog VCO thus far.
-The fm is really usable for me in a harmonic way to at least half way up the linear dial. Much more than other VCO’s I have used in which those tend to lose the fundamental of the note much more quickly.
-Built in ring mod
-Having the ability to let both cores track off of one v/o input with the flick of a button is so nice. This means you can keep an fm patch in tune while playing up the scale. It keeps the relationship of the tuning together, so if you tune one VCO a fifth up from the other it will maintain that relationship as you play. It’s really great to have that built in.

I’ve never owned a Buchla but from listening to a lot of Buchla based stuff lately, the CS-L sounds really close to the 200, at least from recordings.

I’ve previously owned a Pittsburgh Primary Osc, a Sputnik Oscillator and an STO, and I think the CS-L falls somewhere in the middle of all those. The Pittsburgh was a pretty gnarly in the high end while the Sputnik was pretty cleanish and warm and the STO had a nice upper mid range presence. The CS-L does have a high end presence, but there’s a clarity that does not make it grating to the ears like the Pittsburgh. I find myself reaching for the more harmonically complex waves more than I would normally because I only own one filter and usually I don’t like something like a raw square wave because it almost hurts my ears, with the CS-L it doesn’t seem to do that.

I highly recommend this, as you can tell I’m pretty stoked so far. Maybe I’ll make a quick demo of the non extreme settings if I have time.

6 Likes
#39

All very good information that is very appreciated! If you have the time that would be amazing. I’m into aggressive sounds but I just don’t want to worry about needing to filter out super harsh high end that I’ve heard in some of the demos I’ve seen, especially since I don’t really have room for more filtering if I go that route.

#40

I was just listening to it again and tried to do a quick demo, I’m at home ‘working’ today. Lol.
Its uploading now… will post when its done. One thing I realized when doing this, it is an aggressive sounding vco, not gonna lie. There is some hair around the edges. Not any more than the demos I’ve heard of a DPO though. The DPO always sounds a little thin to me, the CS-L does not. This also doesn’t sound harsh in the highs. Its not warm and fuzzy like a Verbos though.
I don’t know, these are all descriptive terms that not mean much to you. Listen for yourself.

#41

Demo, here you go.

4 Likes