16 tracks, nuthin' but Zeroscillator (no noise!)

Bob Borries · Post by **Bob Borries** » Sun Mar 06, 2011 11:05 pm

Every time I come across the Zero-thru-osc on youtube I'm never impressed, until now, your song is amazing! Now I'm considering this.

I'm having trouble understanding how FM works, using a regular Q106, if you try to feed it a high freq pitch mod that's attenuated by a ADSR, it goes way out of tune.

Is that what the advantage of an Zero Osc? Does it let you frequency modulate it without it loosing pitch?

Scot Solida · Post by **Scot Solida** » Sun Mar 06, 2011 11:26 pm

Thanks!

Tuning can still be tricky and I retuned many times during the making of this track. From what I gather (and I hope someone will correct me if I am wrong), the main advantage is that most oscillators will stop working below 0 Hz... this won't, producing (I think) a reversed image of the waveform.

pugix · Post by **pugix** » Mon Mar 07, 2011 10:27 am

Bob Borries wrote:Every time I come across the Zero-thru-osc on youtube I'm never impressed, until now, your song is amazing! Now I'm considering this.

I'm having trouble understanding how FM works, using a regular Q106, if you try to feed it a high freq pitch mod that's attenuated by a ADSR, it goes way out of tune.

Is that what the advantage of an Zero Osc? Does it let you frequency modulate it without it loosing pitch?

Are you using the Linear Frequency input on your Q106? A linear modulation will retain the pitch, since the original frequency will remain centered (assuming that the modulating signal is symmetrical around zero, i.e. has any DC component removed). With exponential FM the center gets pushed around and is less musical.

Curtischip · Post by **Curtischip** » Mon Mar 07, 2011 10:44 am

Nice tune!

and great demo of ZO, recently when I saw the price hike of the ZO 'I thought about the multiple other models I could get for the price of one ZO, but after hearing your demo I can hear what all the fuss is about, great sonic powa and capabilities... all

the ZO

Scot Solida · Post by **Scot Solida** » Mon Mar 07, 2011 11:08 am

Thanks Curtischip!

a100user · Post by **a100user** » Mon Mar 07, 2011 11:34 am

Excellent job

Scot Solida · Post by **Scot Solida** » Mon Mar 07, 2011 11:46 am

Thank you!

emdot_ambient · Post by **emdot_ambient** » Mon Mar 07, 2011 5:34 pm

The sound demos on Cynthia's page impressed the hell out of me...the module's expensive as all get out, but it seems to be almost a synth in and of itself...as well demonstrated here. I mean, all that with no filtering, just modulation? Awesome!

Played on a ribbon controller no less. Great stuff, Scot!

Scot Solida · Post by **Scot Solida** » Mon Mar 07, 2011 5:44 pm

Thanks! That's right, no filtering at all. Only modulation. I didn't play the whole thing on the ribbon controller... some was sequenced, some was played from the Dotcom keyboard... but six tracks were played (and modulated) from the ribbon controller.

pugix · Post by **pugix** » Mon Mar 07, 2011 6:02 pm

I just noticed that Bernie Hutchins has put some free downloads from Electronotes. For DIY people interested in a through-zero VCO design, it's here.

http://electronotes.netfirms.com/EN129.pdf

The free download page is:

http://electronotes.netfirms.com/free.htm

infradead · Post by **infradead** » Mon Mar 07, 2011 6:21 pm

wow.

that was a great tune.

Scot Solida · Post by **Scot Solida** » Mon Mar 07, 2011 7:41 pm

Thanks infradead!

synthguru · Post by **synthguru** » Mon Mar 07, 2011 10:28 pm

Scot,

That was sweet!

At first listen, it made me think of what Kraftwerk may sound like if they recorded something today, but at second listen, I realized...nah...it is better than that.

Cheers my friend

Zon

Scot Solida · Post by **Scot Solida** » Tue Mar 08, 2011 7:07 am

Thanks Zon! That means a lot coming from a modular master like you...

(and it's good to hear from you!)

patchdub · Post by **patchdub** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 8:17 pm

great track! now that makes me really want one of these!

Scot Solida · Post by **Scot Solida** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 9:58 pm

Thanks patchdub!

MOD WIGGLER

MOD WIGGLER

16 tracks, nuthin' but Zeroscillator (no noise!)