Behringer frequency shifter

Squinky · June 20, 2023, 4:43am

Wow, hard to believe this thing is all analog at this price. There are a lot of expensive components in one of those things.

David · June 20, 2023, 7:10am

those must not be expensive now

gc3 · June 20, 2023, 7:16am

Yeah, hard to believe they can make and calibrate the Dome filter sufficiently precisely at that price point. Yikes.

If anyone wants a bulletproof and more interesting Eurorack frequency shifter, I can’t recommend Doc -~~Squinky~~Sketchy’s Freak Shift enough (find him on Mod Wiggler and ask him about it). It has no internal oscillator but can accept either two external modulator oscillators (typically in quadrature, if you want the traditional effect, but messing with that is lots of fun) OR a single external modulator oscillator that it runs through a second Dome filter to generate quadrature.

The price is higher than this but extremely reasonable for what it is. Only thing is that it’s incredibly deep (77mm)–a lot of modern cases won’t accommodate it without standoffs. I have mine in a budget Doepfer.

Jens.Peter.Nielsen · June 20, 2023, 7:22am

Doc Sketchy

gc3 · June 20, 2023, 9:00am

haha yep Doc Sketchy–must’ve been looking right at @Squinky’s name when I wrote it

David · June 20, 2023, 12:47pm

how a pitch shifter work? how it shift the pitch? it is a kind of granular o delay thing?

Squinky · June 20, 2023, 1:30pm

You probably thought of me because my “Booty Shifter” was the first frequency shifter for VCV, starting with VCV 0.6. A year or two later Surge made one that is really good. Mine is still somewhat popular, and is kind of a copy of the Moog/Bode.

Here’s the manual for the version that’s currently in the VCV library:

github.com

kockie69/SquinkyVCV-main/blob/master/docs/shifter.md

# Booty Shifter frequency shifter <a name="shifter"></a>

**Booty Shifter** is a stereo frequency shifter inspired by the Moog/Bode frequency shifter module.

![booty shifter image](./booty-shifter.png)

The name "Booty Shifter" is a nod to the classic analog module, as well as to a black cat named Booty.

Booty Shifter will take audio (stereo) input and shift the frequencies up or down. This is not like a pitch shift where harmonics will remain in tune; it is an absolute frequency shift in Hz, so in general **harmonics will go way out of tune.** It is similar to a ring-modulator, but less extreme and more versatile.

When the original module was released long ago it cost around $1000. More recent Eurorack frequency shifters are still very expensive, because the frequency shifter requires a large number of components, and must be carefully calibrated.

## Getting good sounds from Booty Shifter

Feed in music and shift the frequency a good amount.

Feed in **speech or radio** and shift it.

Feed the CV from a **sequencer** to sequence the mayhem.

This file has been truncated. show original

Squinky · June 20, 2023, 1:34pm

No, of course it isn’t granular - there was no such thing back when the original devices came out (in the 60’s?).

Frequency shifter is somewhat like a ring modulator, but instead of being a “dual sideband AM” (like a ring modulator) it’s a “single sideband modulator”. It’s typically made with basically two ring modulators and a very complex linear filter network. The filter and the second modulator work together to cancel out one of the two sidebands of the first ring modulator.

The filter is complex, and needs to be pretty accurate or it won’t work. That’s why the original was so expensive and difficult to calibrate.

Wikipedia article on SSB is pretty good, if a bit technical. The method the describe as the “Hartley Modulator” is what Moog and I use. I suspect the Surge uses something different - it measures super accurate.

main.tenant · June 20, 2023, 3:16pm

That Behringer version looks a steal at the reputed $149 street price. I love what pitch shifters do to drums.

Squinky · June 20, 2023, 7:30pm

They are indeed very nice on drums. I even mention that in my manual (above):

“Shift drums up or down a little bit to re-tune them without the usual pitch-shifting artifacts.”

gc3 · June 20, 2023, 11:13pm

That’s exactly why! I’m a big fan of Booty Shifter.

+1 for FS drums.

I don’t know why this list seems to be just in a weird Surge-derived Rust crate, but there’s a nice list of suggested uses here:

https://lib.rs/crates/surgefx-freqshift

Nik · July 8, 2023, 6:52am

Having just referred to the Behringer Bode Shifter in another thread I then found this thread.

I too have Doc Sketchy’s wonderful Freak Shift (but will pick up the 1630 too). Behringer must have a pretty dense SMD board for this in order for it to go in their case given the depth of the through hole Freakshift. The other analog frequency shifter, the A-126-2, is a (physically) deep module too.

PaulPiko · July 8, 2023, 7:05am

From Behringer Bode Frequency Shifter 1630, Eurorack-Modul - AMAZONA.de

Nik · July 8, 2023, 8:08am

Yep, pretty dense!

For comparison, here is the A-126-2 (THT): Test: Doepfer Frequency Shifter A-126-2 Eurorack - AMAZONA.de

And my Freak Shift (THT):

LarsBjerregaard · July 8, 2023, 11:41am

Dear lord, that is one DEEP module. Surprised you can fit it anywhare.

Nik · July 8, 2023, 1:05pm

David says ‘You’ll need a Doepfer case for it’.

Squinky · July 8, 2023, 3:13pm

For a long time Surge has had a dedicated Frequency Shifter VCV module in the library. It works really well. Now that Surge modules are revamped with a decent UI, I don’t know where the freq shifter ended up. @baconpaul ?

Ahornberg · July 8, 2023, 6:40pm

The old modules are still there, but they are hidden in the module browser. Go to plugins/SurgeRack/plugin.json and set hidden to false on the SurgeFreqShift module and enjoy it.

gc3 · July 8, 2023, 7:13pm

But here’s the new one (is that what you were asking?):

gc3 · July 8, 2023, 7:14pm

Indeed! A-100 LC3 highly recommended in particular. Great budget(-ish) case and PSU, with the trafo outside the case, and as deep as you’ll ever need for anything.