They're local to me, I was in the launch party for this and the pony VCF last week and came out thinking I'll go to them with a couple ideas of pre built systems.
Awesome video. This is similar to what I do with my bank of 5 Dixies, so even though probably not going to buy this, will use some patch ideas. 😎 The killer here is they all stay in tune haha.
Nice use of 5 Dixies! I bought 4 of those mk1s as they were only 4HP and the Dixie Controller module years back. I loved them as a bank of LFOs of massive blends of 4 oscillators. As you say this in totally stable tune is nice. Using sync between the Dixies would help get them locked in though.
Hard Sync! Wow. I can patch up something in the neighbourhood of this, but that's a lot of killer functionality in one small package. Fantastic work from Befaco. And great patches showing it off, as usual! Also, little dancing people on the edges and in the Data screen just never get old.
HARD SYNC! Also... I wish they'd allowed this to go deeper into LFO territory, or provided an input to the frequency multiplier. Opens up a whole bunch of uses beyond the (already interesting) oscillator tones.
hard sink!!!! damn dude, i love a good square wave, and this thing is the king of squares, i love it.. and dude, those arps at 19:10, holy heck, that sounds so freakin good!
That first patch really demonstrates the utility of this voice. My case is maxed out already, but if i had room id look at using this as my main analobg voice.
you couldn't add tuning controls as they are frequency doublers from the original source analogue oscillator. Not separate oscillators. But I agree, tilting octaves slightly out of tune would lead to some cool things. I don't know about any expander plans though.
As always: a perfect review ! There is not all harmonics (like the Verbos harmonic oscillator for example). Are you feeling some limitation by having only 2nd, 4st etc. harmonics, and not the 3rt, 5, 7... ? Or is there enough possibilities to forget them ?
Hello, thank you! I really like having the octaves only it feels like it always musically fits and works both as overtones on top of one of them I might consider and root (others maybe considered sub octaves) but also then when taking out different octaves and articulating them as if they're totally separate layers. I would like a fifth, so third harmonic octave+fifth for example but I don't really miss the 5th harmonic and 7th harmonic where you get that not quite in tune (to typical western intonation anyway) sort of third an flat seven thing happening. I tend to like a bit of those mixed in with digital additive synths where there's lots of harmonics and overtones to play with for creating new and different sounding waves. Bit of a long ramble of a reply ... hope that's useful in some way!
@@DivKid Thanks a lot for this looong and very useful explanation. The fact that each harmonic is not a pure sine also may changes the way to think about the construction of the timbre. This is not the same price, but it should be useful to compare to the ATOV DHO... I must admit that I'm a bit obsessed by additive synthesis, espacially when harmonics are not in tune (so, partials instead of harmonics. Like bells). But it's another subject...
Yeah you're right the fact each octave isn't a harmonic a sine as you say) totally changes the approach. The comparison to the ATOV DHO is apt as that's octave based. But it's triangles and a dual oscillator and has TZFM and a folder. Plus the normal wave shape outs on the expander (that comes with it). There's a lot to go at with that module.
there's two DHO videos now, basically filmed that much with the DHO I had to break it up. It's an impressive unit. Just a different approach and area of the market from the Octaves VCO.
Thank you for the video. :) It is a very interesting VCO. Did you talk to the people at Befaco about this OSC having square waves exclusively and not also saw, triangle ?
I did speak about something along those lines, but what's the question you're asking? "Why" is it only square waves? I imagine they'd say as that was the design. Inspired by divide down, octave options on organs and things.
Diego hacked a little connection point off the back of the PCB for the demo case with the live event we did. This was so he could sync the scope (DATA) to the triangle core easily. It was then a nice thing to patch back into the PWM of the unit and tune it down so you listen to and work with the higher octaves while using the triangle base frequency as the modulator.
Hi Randy, does adding octaves of squares add of subtract, they add. But I presume you mean additive synthesis which I would lean to what I think is your angle here that additive synthesis isn't purely doing things that add harmonics (i.e. folding, FM, mixing etc) but specifically sine waves through VCAs tuned to the harmonic series modulated to create existing common waves, or new waves/tones. In that regard, absolutely it's not an additive oscillator. However what Befaco said, and I said/quoted was that it's an "analog take", take as in influenced by, on those principles. Which I think is entirely fair. Happy to discuss, I enjoy the conversation, thanks!
@@DivKid, thanks for the reply. I realize I risk being "that guy" (or "girl" or some other descriptor, pronoun, etc.) but I'm not even sure there's such a thing as an additive oscillator. I think this is more of a west coast thing, performing something similar to wavefolding but cooler, because you can pick the "harmonics" that are generated. You are correct that additive synthesis refers specifically to adding sine waves together, usually according to the harmonic overtone series, to generate complex waveforms. Harmonics are sine waves. The VCO you're reviewing is almost like a pulse version of a supersaw VCO. In the interests of full disclosure, additive synthesis is something I've been wanting to do with my modular for a long time but it's a bit complicated, so I'm helping another Eurorack manufacturer design a VCO that simplifies things (a bit).
Hello again, not too much "that" person at all. I'm familiar with additive synthesis from various bits of software and sound design work prior to making modular videos. The only thing that sort of does it properly in Eurorack to my knowledge/memory is the XAOC devices Odessa. It's digital and has lots of harmonics and typical controls to bend, tilt, stretch them etc. For analogue there's the Verbos Harmonic Oscillator, which from talking to Mark the designer some time ago is using folding to work up through the harmonics and tapping point off, or chaining those processes in series etc. Additive really is a synthesis type and not just an oscillator. Much like DX based FM (phase modulation) is really a whole synthesis method as each operator is an oscillator, VCA and envelope controlling it. It's interesting to look at this as a west coast style thing, pulses I think most would associate as an east coast thing. Though I get the reference to stacking them up with how this works. Interesting. I can't say I agree this is like a square version of a super saw, super pulses do exist (the implementation in the Acid Rain Technology Chainsaw is very nice, that blends between saw/pulse too). I don't make that connection here though for 2 reasons, first these are spread in octaves and aren't centred around one note and second there's no actual detune to create the unison sound, they're perfectly in sync. But again, I kind of get where you're coming from. It's interesting to think through and talk about, thanks for doing so. Curious what will come of your work with a designer on bringing additive synthesis ideas into the format. All the best with it.
Yeah absolutely, perfect thing to sit and chat through long form in person. Maybe our paths will cross at some point, if they do say hello and bring up additive synthesis! :) All the best.
Not a bad thing to image, I bought a second voltage block I liked it that much. Though I haven't used one for a while. I tend to get loads of modulation out of the Eloquencer at the minute.
