Rubicon
2
Manual
When the Rubicon
2
SQUISH switch
is in the up position, the Squish circuit is engaged, and the
WARP circuit’s peak-to-peak output voltage is wavefolded and reduced to typical 10V p-p levels.
You can alter the sonic characteristic of the Squish circuit by using the trimpot on the back of the
Rubicon. For specific and detailed information about the
SQUISH
circuitry, see
Warp Controls
,
earlier in the manual.
Understanding Sync
Sync is a situation in which the periodicity of one oscillator (the master) governs that of another
(the slave). In other words, when two oscillators are synchronized, the pitch of the master
oscillator forces the slave oscillator to cycle at some whole number multiplier of that pitch.
Different timbres are produced when the slave oscillator runs at a different pitch than the master
oscillator. In order to synchronize to the master oscillator, the slave oscillator must restart its
wavecycle every time the master oscillator reaches some pre-determined point in its cycle. This
causes abrupt changes to the slave oscillator’s waveform, which results in a harmonically rich
sound. Further harmonic complexity is achieved by modulating the pitch of the slave oscillator,
which causes its harmonic structure to constantly change since each cycle resets at a different
location. This alters the slave oscillator’s harmonic complexity over time, while it continues to
slave to some multiple of the master oscillator’s pitch.
There are various ways to define precisely when and how the slave oscillator should reset itself,
and as you might expect, each results in a different timbre. Rubicon
2
supports two such
synchronization options when employed as the slave oscillator.
●
HARD SYNC - This is the traditional VCO sync method. It resets the Rubicon
2
each time
the external master oscillator (patched into the SYNC IN jack) crosses zero in the
positive direction.
●
FLIP SYNC – This is a form of soft sync common with triangle core oscillators and
provides a different sync timbre than HARD sync. Instead of the Rubicon
2
waveform
resetting when the SYNC IN waveform crosses zero, it reverses the direction of its
triangle core wave. Waveforms with sharp edges (like square or sawtooth) work best
with FLIP sync.
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