waxcide's Activity

The SYN2B is a wide-ranging and high stability / purity Quadrature Sine-wave Voltage Controlled Oscillator module. It's main features are: • 10-turn tuning dial covering a 10 octave range • Osc or LFO rates • 1V/Oct input (0.1% summing resistors) + variable depth FM input switchable between Exp(onential) DC-coupled or Lin(ear) AC-coupled • accurate tracking (less than 0.1% error) over 8 octaves + temperature compensation • four bipolar (-5 to +5 V) outputs at 0/90/180/270 degree phases with bipolar LEDs The module is set up such that one rotation of the tuning dial raises the pitch by 1 octave (ie. Doubles the frequency) with the zero point of each rotation (see scale on the dial) giving tuning to approximately A (ie. 440Hz etc.) in VCO mode.

Via the tuning dial, ranges are about 13.75Hz to 14.08kHz in Osc mode and 0.014Hz to 14Hz in LFO mode. But ranges extend well beyond what is set by the tuning dial – approximately 1V above theupper range and at least 5 octaves below the low range (thus, by applying a -5V DC signal you could get the LFO mode to cycle around 30 minutes!).

Typical tuned Osc FM operation can be achieved with the pair of SYN2Bs – both receive the same 1V/Oct signal and then one is used to FM the other in Linear mode. Note that detuning can occur on the FM'd VCO when the modulation is dialed above about 1 o'clock – the input could have been attenuated to prevent this, but it was felt that the possibilities of the stronger modulation settings should be kept.

You can also achieve richer waveform timbres by Self-FM – patch an output back to the FM CV input and adjust Linear FM depth to suit. Using different phase outputs as the self-FM signal will give different end results – ramp waves or parabolas.

A quasi noise source can be achieved by cross-modulating the two modules – set both to Osc mode, connect an output from each module to the FM CV input of the other module and set the FM to Exp with the dial turned up full. Experiment with different rates on each Osc then try turning down the FM depth to bring back in pitch effects.

Note that in LFO mode it can take a long time for oscillations to get going when the system is first switched on – this is the nature of the circuit as the oscillations basically reinforce themselves to build up to full amplitude. The simplest way to get oscillations going is to apply a +10V signal to the 1V/Oct input until you can see that the LEDs are showing oscillation. Once you have got the oscillations going you can freely switch between LFO and Osc modes without having to repeat this step.

There are three trimmers on the back of the module for fine-tuning but these have been accurately adjusted at testing and should only be adjusted when you are sure that they should be. – tuning offset can be used to shift the base range of the tuning dial (eg. It is currently set so that each 0 rotation point gives an A in Osc mode, but you could adjust it so that C is the zero point) – V/Oct Scale adjusts for accurate tracking but please ensure that your source (eg. External keyboard or Midi-to-CV) is accurately tuned before adjusting this – Hi-Freq Trim is also used for accurate tracking as the Exponential Converter section will detune at high frequencies. An Allen Key is also supplied with each module in case adjustment of the tuning dial is required.

The Wavefolder is a powerful processor which adds overtones to input waveforms. Typical operation would begin with a simple waveform input – for example, input a sine-wave and as you increase the Folds dial the waveform folds back on itself to produce overtone frequencies. But the folding effect can also be used to process more complex input signals - think of it as a unique distortion device.

The PRC5 can be better understood with reference to the Block diagram. At the top there are two signal inputs plus an Offset control - the main input is un-attenuated, while there is a secondary input with level control. I consider the un-attenuated input to be the 'main' input because the module is set up to expect typical +/-5V bipolar signals. Both inputs are DC coupled and this is notable both for the fact that LFO waveforms can be processed and that applying DC offsets can really alter the resulting waves. A DC offset can either be applied with the Offset dial (centre equals zero offset) or I will typically apply an LFO to the 2nd input and use the level control to dial in a little of this - the result sounds somewhat similar to pulse-width modulation. (eg. Try this with DC generated from the CTL2 Joystick)

The input summer is followed by an internal VCA (linear response) which feeds the central Folder circuit. The VCA goes from zero output with the Folds dial fully counter-clockwise and with the first little turning of the Folds dial (or external CV) the response is exactly like a regular VCA. But the interest comes when the output reaches +/-5V boundary points (roughly 9 or 10 o'clock on the dial) - once pushed beyond these points, the waveform direction reverses (folds). Further amplification results in the folded waveform again reaching the boundary points, but this time going in the opposite direction - again going beyond this point results in another reversal of direction. There are a total of four folds possible - indicated by the four bi-colour LED indicators (which actually achieve the folding behaviour). Beyond the fourth fold the waveform peaks begin to flatten out. There are two CV inputs to modulate the Folds amount - the top one (FCV1) is unattenuated while the lower one (FCV2) has a level control.

The action of applying a DC offset basically pushes the waveform in one direction so that it bumps into one of the +/-5V boundaries earlier than the other. Modulating this offset achieves interesting tonal shifts. All inputs respond from DC up to high frequencies - interesting effects can be achieved i) mixing two audio signals at the two inputs & ii) modulating the Folds level with an audio rate signal.

There are two outputs, both of which give output signals ranging from -5V to +5V. The Neg output is simply an inverted copy of the Pos output. It should be noted that input waveforms should be anything except for squarewaves - these make no sense to the Wavefolder!