200e

I posted this on MuffWiggler:

I have a massive half hour playing with a ZOe under my belt, and though it has some issues (and what gear doesn't?) all I can say is "wow." Buzzy, analog, and raw in the right ways.

First, let's get the issues out of the way:
- The power connector should be polarized. If you use the "solder blob on pin seven method," this is a very easy fix. You could also cut a piece of a credit card to act as a polarizer. It absolutely shouldn't have been necessary to do this, though.
- Vari-sync sounds glitchier that I had expected, when sweeping the ZOe for hard sync sounds.
- It's too bad that it only fits in two slots of a 201e-18. If there was ever a module calling out for a surface-mount redesign, this is it. I bet it could go from five boards to three.
- Related to above, it resorts to unconventional construction techniques to get it to fit at all. I agree with Josh H. Malekko that it is not _too_ bad though, given the constraints.

Now for the good stuff:
- Mmm… very yummy linear FM.
- Mmm… juicy PWM.
- Mmm… smooth morphing.
- Using an adaptor cable or a MM mult, driving the Time Reversal jack with an audio rate oscillator gives a smooth hard sync sort of sound. This pretty much nullifies my complaint about Vari-sync sounding glitchy, above.
- Overall it sounds really good.

I haven't tried any pitch tracking yet, and while I don't care too much about that anyway for this oscillator, the wisdom from people who have a ZO in other formats is that it's good for a few octaves, which is good enough for me.

Even though it's been a long saga, I think the results are well worth it. For any fence-sitters out there, I think it's time to get off the fence.

Here's an audio example: http://soundcloud.com/cbm/zoe-test-01 No filter or Low Pass Gates involved. Patch used the ZOe, two mod oscillators (from 258v), one fluctuating random section of 266e, and a bunch of Eardrill stuff.

- C

Chris Muir                    | "There are many futures and only one status quo.
cbm@well.com             |  This is why conservatives mostly agree,
http://www.xfade.com |  and radicals always argue." - Brian Eno