North Coast Synthesis Ltd.

First audio from the Middle Path VCO

This is the first real test of the MSK 013 Middle Path VCO prototype. MIDI sequences into the V/oct inputs of both oscillators, and recording output directly from the sin and cos outputs of the wave shaper (using them as the two stereo channels).

I want to emphasize that this is the raw oscillator output. There's no external modulation or processing. I wiggle the controls during the recording to get some different tones out of it, but all the sound you hear in this recording is coming from the VCO alone. Usually, someone using this module to make music would run the oscillator outputs through filters, VCAs, and so on to shape the tone further and add articulation between the notes. For this demo I'm trying to show the range of spectral and modulation effects for the oscillator by itself; demoing it in a more complicated patch would raise questions of which parts are the oscillator and which are the other modules in the patch. But it does play well with my other modules - the Fixed Sine Bank and Octave Switch in particular - and I'll demo some of those patches another time.

This was recorded with a brand new prototype and I hadn't done the V/oct calibration yet, so the tracking may be a little bit off. It actually sounds not far off in the recording, but with proper adjustment it should be more accurate. Subsequent to recording this, I also found a problem in the sine shaper where a pad had lifted from the board, causing a transistor to disconnect. As a result, the distortion in this recording is a little dirtier than it ought to be. In some parts of the recording it's meant to be quite dirty anyway, but the cleaner parts ought to be a little cleaner, and they are, in my subsequent tests with the problem fixed.