4ms Company Matthias Puech Ensemble Oscillator User Manual Download

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Learn button

The

Learn

button is used to create and save custom scales. Pressing this button enters Learn mode,

indicated by the button turning red. If you enter Learn mode by accident, just press the button again to

exit with no changes.
Learn mode allows you to create a new scale and save it into one of the 30 scale slots. Custom scales

can be recalled even after you power the module down.
See Tutorial 2: Create Your Own Scale with Learn Mode (page 9), and the Learn Mode section (page

14) for details.

Learn jack

The

Learn

jack is used in Learn mode to input notes in a scale. A CV/Gate keyboard or sequencer can

be patched into the

Pitch

and

Learn

jacks. Each time the

Learn

jack receives a trigger or gate, the

Pitch

jack will be read and used to create a new note in the scale. See Tutorial 2: Create Your Own

Scale with Learn Mode (page 9), and the Learn Mode section (page 14) for more details on using this

jack.
Outside of Learn mode, the

Learn

jack is not used (any gates received by this jack are ignored).

Freeze button and jack

The

Freeze

feature allows you to “freeze” a subset of oscillators while the remaining oscillators behave

normally. A frozen oscillator will not respond to changes in its frequency via the

Pitch

Root

Spread

Scale

Detune

knobs or jacks. However, frozen oscillators will still respond to waveform and mixing/

panning changes via the

Twist

Warp

Cross FM

, and

Balance

knobs and jacks. The

Stereo Mode

and

# Oscillators

shift functions allow you to adjust the panning and the enabled/disabled state of

frozen oscillators.
When the

Freeze

button is pressed or a trigger is detected on the

Freeze

jack, certain oscillators will

freeze at whichever frequency they happen to be at that moment. The

Freeze

button will turn blue to

indicate that some oscillators are frozen. Pressing the button again or firing a trigger into the jack will

unfreeze the oscillators and the button will turn back to its normal yellow color.
The subset of oscillators which get frozen is determined by the

Freeze Mode

shift function. There are

three options: freeze only the lowest (root) oscillator, freeze the bottom subset of oscillators (e.g. 1–8 if

16 oscillators are enabled), or freeze the odd-numbered oscillators. See the Freeze Mode section (page

16) for a complete discussion.

The

Freeze

button is also used to access the

Shift

features.

Holding down this button while turning one

of the knobs that has a

Shift

feature (

# Oscillators

Crossfading

Stereo Mode

Freeze Mode

) will

modify the shift parameter instead of the main parameter. See the Shift Features section (page 15).

Page of

Learn

Freeze

Shift

Freeze

Delete Note

Learn

Summary of Contents for Matthias Puech Ensemble Oscillator

Page 1: ...rack 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...

Page 2: ... own scales manually or with a CV Gate keyboard Three Twist phase distortion effects Three Warp wave distortion effects Three algorithms of Cross FM for modulating the oscillators with each other Mono or stereo output with selectable panning algorithm Freeze button and jack to freeze the frequency of some of the oscillators with selectable algorithm Two 1V oct inputs Pitch non quantized and Root q...

Page 3: ...2 Create your own Scale in Learn Mode using a keyboard 10 Detailed Concepts and Usage 11 Scale Groups 13 Learn Mode Advanced Concepts 14 Shift Features 15 Crossfading 16 Oscillators 16 Freeze Mode 16 Stereo Mode 17 Firmware and Calibration 17 Upgrading Firmware audio bootloader 17 Calibrating 1V oct jacks 18 Button RGB color balance adjustments 18 Factory Reset 18 Electrical and Mechanical Specifi...

Page 4: ...B jacks To use the module in mono just patch into the Out A jack both outputs will be summed into it Scales The currently selected scale determines which pitches the oscillators are allowed to take A scale can be thought of as a series of notes In the Ensemble Oscillator the notes can be spaced by any amount not necessarily just by half steps whole steps etc like in western music scales Also the r...

Page 5: ...te These are used in Learn mode See Tutorial 2 Create Your Own Scale with Learn Mode page 9 and the Learn Mode section page 14 Shift Functions There are several advanced features that won t need to be adjusted often but can make important and subtle changes to the module s behavior Take a look at the faceplate and notice that the word Shift highlighted in gold is written underneath the Freeze butt...

Page 6: ...knob switch and jack The Scale knob selects the scale to which the oscillators are quantized See the Scales and Oscillators section page 11 for details about how scales are used There are 30 pre programmed scales on the Ensemble Oscillator arranged in three groups of ten scales each You can also program your own scales see Learn Mode page 14 The Scale knob has ten positions each one selects a scal...

Page 7: ...epending on the position of the Twist switch Ramp morphs the phase to an increasingly steep sawtooth and beyond Pulsar compresses the phase of the sine wave to create narrow pulses Crush bit crushes the oscillator phase The Twist jack responds to voltages from 5V to 5V Negative voltages reduce the amount of effect and positive voltages increase the amount of effect with respect to the knob positio...

Page 8: ...e Pitch Root Spread Scale or Detune knobs or jacks However frozen oscillators will still respond to waveform and mixing panning changes via the Twist Warp Cross FM and Balance knobs and jacks The Stereo Mode and Oscillators shift functions allow you to adjust the panning and the enabled disabled state of frozen oscillators When the Freeze button is pressed or a trigger is detected on the Freeze ja...

Page 9: ...programmed a scale It s saved in the group and slot the Scale knob and switch point to You can recall it even after you power down 13 Let s listen to the notes of the scale Notice that the Freeze button is flashing see inset below Turn the Root knob up and or down until the Freeze button flashes green Now you can slowly turn Root to play the notes of the scale in order 14 Listen to how the notes s...

Page 10: ...ce for a brief moment The Learn button will flash white each time a note is added 7 Add more notes if you wish maximum of 16 8 When you re done tap the Learn button It ll flash green to indicate your scale saved 9 That s it You ve programmed a scale It s saved in the group and slot the Scale knob and switch point to You can recall your scale even after you power down 10 Listen to the notes of your...

Page 11: ...jack With Spread all the way down the oscillators are all tuned to the same pitch As Spread is turned up the space between the oscillators is widened Quantization When an oscillator is tuned between two allowed notes which is most of the time instead of snapping to the closest note like a normal quantizer would do the oscillator produces two pitches one tuned to each of the nearest allowed notes T...

Page 12: ...age of 12 19 Scale Result Oscillators Scale Result Oscillators Spread Spread Root Scale Result Oscillators Spread Root Root Turning Spread up Turning Root up Pitch Pitch Pitch Scale Result Oscillators Spread Root Turning Pitch up Pitch 8 shown Approx note Frequency 1 0 0 H z 2 0 0 H z 4 0 0 H z 8 0 0 H z 1 6 k H z 3 2 k H z Frequency 1 0 0 H z 2 0 0 H z 4 0 0 H z 8 0 0 H z 1 6 k H z 3 2 k H z Freq...

Page 13: ... own scale in the Octave group and the highest note you enter is not exactly a whole number of octaves above the lowest note then the module will automatically insert an extra interval at the end to complete the octave This means that whenever the sequence of intervals repeats with a scale in the Octave group the pitches will always be one or more octaves higher 12TET group factory scales Interval...

Page 14: ...Learn mode The other jacks and knobs work as normal Twist and Warp modify the waveshape and the Root jack offsets notes as they re entered Be aware if you have CV patched into the Scale jack because it effects where the scale is saved Coarse Tuning As described in the tutorial you can fine tune the last note you entered by holding down Learn and turning Fine Tune You can also coarsely tune the las...

Page 15: ...lat E1 bit more flat F 1 bit more flat C 2 even flatter Eb2 etc It s no longer practical to represent the allowed notes using the western system of notation Restoring a Factory Scale If you want to restore a scale to the factory default set the Scale knob and switch to the scale you wish to restore Then press and hold the Learn button for four seconds The button will flash blue and the factory sca...

Page 16: ...g between notes more seamless The highest setting knob at fully clockwise applies maximum Crossfading The two nearest allowed frequencies are always played crossfading normally based on proximity This setting makes it difficult to dial in just one note but it offers maximum smoothness when adjusting Root or Spread Oscillators The Ensemble Oscillator can potentially use 16 oscillators to produce so...

Page 17: ...imate blue and white 8 If the buttons turn red while the file is playing there was an error a Stop the file and rewind to the beginning b Check the cable is plugged in tightly c Tap the Learn button It will go back to flashing green d Play the file again from the beginning 9 If the file loads successfully the Ensemble Oscillator will do an animation of a rainbow of colors on both buttons 10 Power ...

Page 18: ...asy 1 Power off the module 2 Flip all four switches to the center position 3 Turn all knobs to center 4 Hold down the Freeze button and power up the module The two buttons will turn white or a hue close to white 5 Use the knobs to adjust the red green and blue balance of each button The center position makes no color adjustment left of center reduces the amount of a color right of center boosts th...

Page 19: ...tputs Frequency range 0Hz DC 20kHz Typical amplitude 10Vpp Maximum amplitude 18 5Vpp 1V oct inputs Root and Pitch Voltage range 2V to 6V 8 octave range Factory calibrated to 1 00V oct Per jack user calibration allows from 0 7V oct to 1 3V oct CV inputs other than 1V oct Voltage range 5V to 5V Gate inputs Trigger threshold 2 5V User memory non volatile Scale slots 30 Shift feature settings 1V oct c...

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