S310 VCO

Product Description

 

(This module is included in the System B)

 

The S310 VCO is a voltage controlled oscillator with typical features found in hardware modular VCOs plus a few additional tricks under it’s belt. It has a manual range of about 12 octaves (13 positions), yet with CV it can even go beyond that. The oscillator tracks 0.1V/Oct*. Octave can be changed using both the octave knob and a Trigger CV input. Positive triggers increase the octave setting while negatives decrease it. The tune knob has a range of 1 octave. Four wave forms are available as outputs simultaneously, Saw, Triangle, Sin and Square. The module features exponential FM (Frequency Modulation). PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) of Square, Triangle and Sin. The pulse width can go upto the narrowest possible width to create a pure pulse given the DAWs sampling rate (or oversampling), but not narrower to avoid complete silence.

 

Sync is also available with two modes, Hard and Bend**. You feed the Sync input with the output of another “master” oscillator . The slave oscillator will follow the pitch of the master while having it’s own pitch produce an edgy type of timbre that is very well known in analog style sync. Notice that the cleanest results can be achieved when the master has a sine or triangle waveform, but still, any other waveform can be used.

 

There is a half wave rectifier dedicated to the Sin wave (RA knob/CV). The purpose of the rectifier is to add harmonics to fatten the sin wave. The RA knob/CV also has a second purpose which changes the shape of the Sync when using Bend mode.

 

Technical Details:

The oscillator has 2 cores. A saw and a square. The triangle and Sin are derived from the square core, which means that they will always remain in phase. The Saw core has a different phase. The S310 internally optimizes CPU by switching OFF the cores of outputs that are not connected with cables. This means that every time you connect/disconnect the outputs, the related core will have a different phase. This has the advantage of giving different flavors every time, when you mix the outputs together. Similar to what happens in hardware when you have two oscillators placed on two different racks/cases with different PSUs. However, If you like to sync the two cores to keep them in phase, you can send a trigger/clock to “sync in” patch point. Then leave the cables of the outputs always connected.

The sin wave is NOT pure, similar to what you would see in an analog VCO. If you like a pure sin wave try the S302 VCO.

 

*0.1V/Oct is analogous to 1V/Oct which is the method of choice for tuning in Eurorack. We obviously choose this for ease of interconnectivity.

**Bend is a new sync method developed at SoloStuff