WavsynModular grew out of a desire to combine my love of electronic music and my skills with computers. Current modules are PLEATS, a wave folder, and STRANGE, a chaotic CV generator.
Soon to be released is TRIP, a sequencer with variable rhythms and number of bars in a pattern.
I am also looking at Nuclear Instrument Modules, but replicating those is far off.
About me
My name is Erich Izdepski. My background includes being a nuclear engineer, software engineer and architect, and now a college professor teaching introductory computer classes to IT students. Writing modules is a blast. I have been an electronic musician since the 80’s. I also repair vintage synthesizers and computers for fun.
SMITTY, my VCO has just been submitted to the VCVRACK project so should be available soon. This makes 4 very diverse and capable modules now: STRANGE, TRIP, PLEATS, and SMITTY.
SMITTY is a dual-output VCO that sounds great in stereo. It is based on a sine wave oscillator created by Gordon and Smith. It produces a sine output and a quadrature output (half a sample period off of 90-degrees apart). My version can alias on purpose, sound like FM, generate noise, and also has unpredictable hysteresis.
I don’t quite understand the manual. It says “ALIASING – When modulating the SHAPE parameter with a high frequency input (> 10 Hz) with SHAPE turned up high (> 1.5 or so), SMITTY will produce aliasing. I made this for people who like aliasing. If you don’t, just don’t use it. It is a feature, not a bug, and totally by design. At less extreme values it creates nice sounds, some sample & hold effects, and even some FM-like tones.”
Is that always true, or is the aliasing on if you use the alias CV? Or is the CV that says “aliasing” actually the shape CV?
If the shape is not modulated, does it generate no aliasing?
It is not always on. The aliasing just happens some of the time, with the high values mentioned. The point is it can cause aliasing with the high values. I wanted it to be clear but guess it isn’t. When an input is connected the shape knob becomes an “amount knob” controlling the amount of the modulating CV input used to change the waveform. That I need to update in the manual.
If the shape is not modulated, it will not alias, but will change the tone.
The key difference is only the CV in can cause aliasing. Using the knob alone will not. I will be putting out a demo once the module is in the library. Thanks for your interest.