It’s (they’re) not new, the oscillators are part of the existing voice circuit building blocks, they’re just being used(configured) in a different way now, creating a new ‘machine’ type - the bottom row of 3 voices / 4 tracks contains the most flexible/sophisticated voice circuits - that’s why the DVCO appears here and why it can’t appear elsewhere
Whether other voices can eventually be given new (simpler) general synthesis machines is another matter, seems unlikely imho, but time will tell
Alright but what I don’t understand is how many oscillators (physical?) are in the AR. The manual say 1 sound generator.
I’m currently quite struck by the Dual VCO engine’s percussive potential. I’ve been enjoying resampling the “body” of snare drums from Dual VCO in (FM?) mode onto a pad and layering it with the noise engine, getting almost physical modelling type sounds similar to my Nord Drum 2.
This new engine plus the ability to sample has really opened it up for me and made it a much more complete sound design platform.
EDIT: Oooh sample the noise, add it to a DVCO sine/tri FM track, and turn the volume of the sample down, then apply velocity mod to it’s volume. Add synth machine decay to taste depending on how much ring you like with your toms!
Very expressive toms! Sysex & sample attached. (same sample for both sounds)
DVCO_NZ_TOM_HI.syx (207 Bytes)
DVCO_NZ_TOM_MED.syx (207 Bytes)
NOISE BURST.wav (57 KBytes)
The “sound generators” differ between the tracks. They have different numbers of oscillators that can be configured in different ways to make the various “machines”.
You can read more in section 8.2 of the manual “Machines”.
The various configurations are described in Appendix D.
This system is derived from how old analog drum machine sounds were made: for example, look on the internet to see how different numbers of oscillators were used for the different drum sounds in the old Roland TR-808.
I understand! Thank you very much!
Can anyone with both Rytm and Monologue comment on how the DVCO compares to Monologue?
On the face of it, there are a lot of similarities.
Single LFO, motion record (p-locks), two osc, snappy/percussive envelope.
DVCO as a synth gains extra filter envelope, multi-mode filter, some FX, sample layer as 3rd osc/noise, and a deeper sequencer with all the trimmings.
Monologue gains wave shaping, keys, and a great knobby interface.
Thinking I could maybe let Monologue go if I have a Rytm again.
I don’t have a monologue, but a lot of my friends do, and I’ve played with a few of them.
If I had a monologue, it would be for sale now just because of this update.
what am i missing? i cannot get a pleasing sound out of this dvco. tips? tricks? can’t wait to get the digitione for BASS
I dont know, I found about 80 pleasing sounds just leaving everything at default and scrolling through the configs ¯_(ツ)_/¯
go slow, my guy.
experiment.
start with a blank DVCO synthesis page.
vary the oscillator configurations and note the basic sound characteristics that each configuration makes.
find one that is pleasing to you and dive in.
change the decay time of each oscillator, as well as their respective tune/detune parameters.
consider the levels of the two oscillators and attenuate or boost using balance. in combination with the decay of each oscillator you can get some nice over articulated or soft transients from one of the oscillators.
the filter is extremely important to coax a good sound out of it imo. slap a pk filter on it with some resonance.
edit:the BEND parameter i believe is what you’re looking for; +values for a more stabby attack. this in conjunction with a pk filter with a low freq cutoff value and a generous amount resonance and overdrive should get you an m-80 in a tub.
try some overdrive.
note/save any sort of settings you have.
repeat the process detailed above.
come back to your saved patches and tweak them some more.
Some things I found when playing with them.
#protips!
All great tips.
I found this machine to take to overdrive the most of the others.
I found myself more often using slight detune. The default is at some crazy number. My favorite parameter is BAL. Assign it to any of the ARs modulation sources to get nice movement. A slight BND is nice too.
I never use Peak filter. I should try that out.
3 (or 4) voices!
While the VCO’s are nothing short of amazing I would still always want at least one dedicated synth lying around. As you said, keys + knobby goes a long way.
Maybe it’s because they are enclosed in an elektron box but I find them best for tight sequenced bass lines. Higher pitch material I don’t think is their strong point but some wave shapes are ok. Not to mention they physically can not do pads.
Overall the VCO’s are very limited, but in a really pleasing and creative way. However if you like to get down into knitty gritty patch creation you are gonna miss a dedicated synth.
I’ve been doing a lot with pads 3 & 4 using say a deep, growly patch on pad 3 and a more resonant/squelchy patch on pad 4, and then taking advantage of how those two voices cut each other off. Long notes with the deep patch, then have it cut off by short stabs of the squelchy one. Throw some reverb on the deep one & some ping-pong delay on the squelchy one… plock the hell out of any sequence I make (bend is fun for that)… then sit back and marvel at how the ensuing madness was all created with one voice on a drum machine.
I really like the DVCO machine. Lots of possibilities.
The balance param and the envs are very important when using FM config.
Ring mod is very nice too, you can get a nice square wave OSC using ring mod.
Its really a bass machine though , i cant get “in tune” high pitched sounds specially when using SAW wave. I’ve tried to calibrate it a few time but i’Ve always got tuning problem.
I really love the DVCO, I’m getting amazing sounds out of it quite quickly. Extremely beefy. But you know what? The issue I’m getting with it is not the DVCO itself, but the filter. With this new machine the characteristics of the filter became much more evident and I could understand and hear it much better. And I found that this filter really like to scream, much more then I thought. A little touch and you are into acid territory. I’m finding a bit hard to get to a more creamy (I know, that word…) filter quality, even in the setting I assume is a 2 pole. So far the best approach to me is to keep the resonance down and a bit of overdrive.
From the manual… perhaps you’re using the “1-pole” to get the mildest result?
