Ensemble Oscillator
4ms Company & Matthias Puech
User Manual 1.0 – January 10, 2020
When does the superposition of tones produced by well-coordinated instruments become a single voice with a complex
timbre subtly evolving over time? What are the boundaries between a rich timbre and a musically harmonic chord? From
traditional overtone singing techniques and Gregorian chants to Spectral Music, Helmholtz’ resonators to modern-day
Fourier theory, or classical counterpoint to Xenakis’ massive polyphonic clusters, the rich spectrum lying on the limit of these
perceptual illusions has been a constant source of fascination, scientific study and artistic inspiration.
Combining additive, FM, phase-distortion and wavefolding synthesis techniques in new unorthodox ways, the
Ensemble
Oscillator
allows you to explore this sonic boundary and exploit it musically. The eurorack-format module is a unified
polyphonic voice of sixteen complex oscillators sharing the same sine-based waveforms. The oscillators take their
frequency relationships from a selected scale, crossfading smoothly from one note to the next. The
Ensemble Oscillator
easily creates a wide variety of sounds ranging from aggregates of pure sine waves to pulsar synthesis or pristine harmonic
tones and lush wide chords to rich dirty drones and rumbling glitches. Custom scales can quickly be “learned” and saved
using a CV keyboard or by manually entering notes with the controls.
The Ensemble Oscillator was designed by Matthias Puech and 4ms Company.
Crossfading
Stereo Mode
Freeze Mode
# Oscillators
Shift
1
16
8
Crossfading
Stereo Mode
Freeze Mode
# Oscillators
Shift
Cross FM
Scale
Root
Spread
Twist
Warp
Pitch
Twist
Warp
Detune
Cross FM
Pitch
Freeze
Learn
Add Note
Fine Tune
Spread
Scale
Balance
ENSEMBLE OSCILLATOR
Free
Oct.
12TET
Down
All
Up
Fold
Cheb
Segment
Ramp
Pulsar
Crush
1V/oct
1V/oct
10
2
1
9
3
8
4
7
5
6
Out B
Out A
Learn
Balance
Freeze
Root
Delete Note
