A harsh & funky take on an additive oscillator // Octaves VCO from Befaco
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- Опубліковано 5 лип 2024
- Here we have what Befaco say is "a harsh and funky take on an additive oscillator" as it has individual harmonics or partials and VCAs to modulate them. However the idea of harmonics here is replaced with 6 octaves of square waves. It's an analog design with a triangle core oscillator that through frequency doublers give 6 octaves to work with, each turned into squares that respond to PWM. An onboard mixer allows for blending these squares, you can break out into new tones with self patching, or make multi-layered wide frequency spanning voices from the individual outs.
Octaves VCO website, manual etc // www.befaco.org/octaves-vco/
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*TIMING INDEX // CHAPTERS*
00:00 Hello & patch previews
01:10 Feature run down
02:44 Raw sound demo
03:43 Polymetric percussive octave riffs! (my favourite thing)
06:05 Self patched additive synth style sounds
08:13 Huge stereo drones
10:11 PWM at audiorate - tearing additive octaves
11:51 Exploring sync tones + upper octave overtones
13:42 Sub octaves, not just higher octaves
16:01 Noisy FM percussion
18:09 Randomised additives - modulating octave blends per note
19:24 Alarms, pacman & phone chirps - Octaves VCO as a modulator
*THIS VIDEO IS SPONSORED BY BEFACO* they have funded the creation of this demo video, any questions just ask.
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Me: I do not need another VCO.
Also me: I kinda need this VCO.
Life as a modular enthusiast, summed up in two sentences.
haha Pat!
Befaco is killing it. They're one of those companies where I would love a full case of their modules.
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.
It all integrates together fantastically.
@@Lcrymlgyi have a great befaco system designed in modulargrid. At one point that was gonna be my first project.
They're just missing some kind of quantizer IMO
thanks for joining us Lcrmlgy appreciate it :)
the multiple outputs & the fact that everything is so tightly synced make me feel like this could actually be really cool for oscillographics
little bit of a shame you can't make it go slower with negative volt/oct tho
You'd want some filters to round off the squares for graphics stuff on a scope. But yeah octaves work well for making shapes :)
Forget the Nick Batt PWM memes, if the oscillator has a PWM input, Ben will modulate it at audio rate. Rip that pulse apart, my dude.
haha yeah that's a definite soft spot
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.
haha thanks, I do sometimes question when I go on a gif search ... is this just stupid? But it amuses me, nice to know it does you too.
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.
OOOOOF! That massive stereo drone sound. Wow!
that was the first thing I did with the module, really liked it.
Hard Sync! Great demo. Such clever patches.
thank you, appreciate it.
I love Befaco, this VCO sounds awesome!
Indeed it does! :)
excellent review , you're approach is excellent thanks for that
thanks, appreciate that.
Hard sync! Looks great. Very little there I'd want to change, which is rare for me. I dig it
ah nice, thanks!
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!
Thank you! King of Squares haha I like that.
Digging this thing. Great patching!
thanks maaaaaayyyyte!
HARD SYNC! wow love the creative uses you showcase here.
thank you, appreciate that.
As always, great and musical patches!
The only “synthfluencer” that can let me GAS over modules I don’t need or want.
"synthfluencer" haha!
Thanks for nice comment, I'm definitely all about trying to find musical and interesting patches and use cases.
This sounds feckin' lovely. Great demo too.
thank you
Love the demo here 10:34
Ay, some nice wonk!
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.
Thanks, it comes alive when those octaves are animated. Either internally mixed of patched out for filtering/modulation etc.
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.
Yeah I'd have liked to get it much lower then use it almost like a sequencer with blends of different stepping signals.
Awesome! 😮👍
Thanks! 😁
this thing honestly sounds incredible; great work!
Thanks, I had a lot of fun with it.
Are there any expanders for this planned? A way to cv control individual detune and a tilt/skew would be wonderful. Perfect pair with Fumana too.
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.
2:54 😂 classic
haha yeah I try to not do them all the time, but couldn't help myself :)
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.
@@DivKid Oh ! a waveshape on the ATOV DHO ? i'm missing this feature ( Ishould see your review again !)
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.
18 minutes in gets groovy af
Would pair so beautifully with Step 8
Oh yeah
Hard Sync
Thank you, yeah that would be a nice pairing. Or a Befaco Muxlicer (to keep it in the family).
@@DivKid Real Estate Issues lol
Or Else I would add More Befaco to my amazing Noise Plethora
"real estate issues" haha sums up Euro!
Love the sneaky Nick! lol
Please help me. I can't find it. Send help.
haha BattMan
Pair that module with a clock divider you could get a wild rhythm generator right? Combos of bursts and holds
you could clock divide down lower octaves into sub audio from one of the outputs yeah.
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.
I'm working on the VCV version, and plan to expose the triangle core as a little Easter egg. Something more for wavefolders to chew on... 😊
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.
@@EwanHemingway Yes!! Please let the VCV version go down to LFO rates too.... or add a little expander for an input to the frequency multipliers?
Something about the Befaco design language really speaks to me... or maybe i'm just on too much Hard Sync.
too much hard sync before bedtime and you won't sleep well
Befaco also lets unworthy software peasants like me enjoy the goodness, with Rack releases!
Absolutely worthy! Make the most of what you can in any format you can or like to.
I like that these things are in VCV too :)
Hard sync 😂
thanks! :)
Hard Sync
thanks Michael
It's not actually an additive oscillator.
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.
@@DivKid Too bad you're not closer to Toronto, Canada. This would be an interesting discussion, over drinks of course!
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.
Seeing the funk with a voltage block would be sweet. I imagine everything new module modulated with a VB haha
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.