I already have a patch called PLLish. This one is different enough (and built from the ground up) that I didn’t really feel it was a version 2. More fuzzy, square-wave-y, synthy goodness, with a few different approaches involved to produce gnarly sounds.

THE VIDEO LIES: I’ve already made some changes between shooting/uploading the video and uploading the patch. Namely, goodbye duty cycle (didn’t do much), hello vibrato! And hello patch gain control on the front page (it was starred before, but now it’s just there, ready to be turned down).

Note: This patch works best with firmware 1.09. It is perfectly usable with previous firmwares, but firmware 1.09 has the improvements to the pitch detector introduced with 1.08 and also allows for lower oscillator frequencies–be careful with this!

Maybe yeah, just as a general warning: this patch can produce very low and very high pitched notes at loud volumes.

The patch uses a bit crusher fuzz, with two, separate and controllable oscillators. A multiplier, whose pitch can be above or below the input, and a divider whose pitch is generally below the input (although this depends on settings). Create chords, glitches, weirdo fun.

The patch is mono, using the left input and left output.

A special thanks to my patrons on Patreon for their support: Rob Flax, Stepan Grammatik, brockstar, Mats Unnerholm, D Sing, Will Scott, drew batchelor, Miguel, Steve Bragg, Joab Eastley, Tomi Kokki, Mitch Lantz, Ben Norland, Daniel Morris, Roman Jakobej, Mark Crosbie, Steve Codling, Timothy Cleary, and Soren Made!

If you would like to support my work on ZOIA, please visit patreon.com/chmjacques

Controls:

Footswitches:

Left — turns on/off the fuzz voice (light will bright/dim)

Middle — turns on/off the multiplier voice (light will bright/dim)

Right — turns on/off the divider voice (light will bright/dim)

Front page:

Working from bottom to top:

Directly above each on/off indicator for voices (see footswitches), there is a LEVEL control for mixing the voices.

Gain (white control, next to fuzz level) — sets the overall gain for the patch, +/- 20 dB. I have no idea why you would want to turn the gain UP, but there it is.

That’s where controls for the fuzz end. The divider (magenta) and multiplier (red) voices share a number of controls:

Tracking — this determines how well the oscillator tracks, based on input volume; as you increase it, lower volume inputs will produce glitches and irregularities in tracking; above a certain level, it won’t track anything at all (highly interactive with the “slew” control)

Slew — glide/portamento, etc. (actually uses a CV filter instead of a slew limiter, but the results are similar)

“Pitch” — determines the interval above (multiplier) or below (divider) input signal; there are eight different settings for each voice, generally falling along octaves and fifths, etc. (this liberally copped from the Shumann and Data Corrupter tables, so, be astonished as I reveal these values):

** Multiplier: Unity, +1 octave, +1 octave and fifth, +2 octaves, +2 octaves and major 3rd, +2 octaves and fifth, +2 octaves and minor 7th, +3 octaves

** Divider: -1 octave, -1 octave and fifth, -2 octaves, -2 octaves and major third, -2 octave and fifth, -2 octaves and minor 7th, -3 octaves, -3 octaves and major 2nd

Additionally, each voice has an additional parameter that affects tracking:

— “Multiplier octave” (UI button): red = unity, yellow = -1 octave, aqua = -2 octaves

— “Pitch srce” (divider, pushbutton): off = from pitch detector, on = from multiplier’s pitch; the “slew” control for the divider oscillator comes AFTER the pitch source select, meaning if the multiplier is slewed, so will the divider; the divider’s slew to ADD to any existing slew on the multiplier, too

Type — for multiplier: off = XOR’d against the fuzz voice; one = OR’d against an out-of-phase version of itself; for divider: off = XOR’d against out-of-phase version of itself; on = AND’d against an out-of-phase version of itself

There is a vibrato control (white controls above multiplier controls), which modulates the frequency of the multiplier using a sine wave LFO:

On (pushbutton) — turns vibrato off and on

Vibrato depth — the vibrato range is quite wide (+/- 1 octave), so very subtle amounts will produce traditional vibrato, whereas less subtle amounts will produce… less subtle outcomes

Vibrato rate — controls the rate of the vibrato

Pixel — shows the vibrato rate

There is also an LFO (yellow controls at top), which modulates the “Pitch”/interval of the multiplier, across the interval table, from unity to whatever the current setting of the multiplier pitch is

On (pushbutton) — turns the LFO on

Rate — sets the rate of the LFO

Waveform (UI button) — red = triangle, yellow = square, aqua = random; this will flash in time with the waveform rate

–Note: Since the divider can be set to track from the multiplier’s pitch, this LFO can also affect the divider voice when the “Pitch srce” is set to its “on” position

–Note: The LFO comes before the slew of the oscillator, which allows you to smooth the output.

The multiplier can be an FM source for the divider (green controls at top):

On (pushbutton) — turns FM on/off

FM amount — amount of multiplier fed into divider’s FM input

FM env slew — sets the slew for the envelope used to open and close the VCA between the multiplier and the divider’s FM input

Finally, there are two output controls that affect all voices:

Threshold (aqua — located above the fuzz level control) — sets the threshold for the noise gate; lower thresholds = longer sustain; higher thresholds = more staccato, gated sounds

And there is an envelope-controlled filter (blue controls):

On (pushbutton, next to threshold) turns the envelope control on

Filter freq — sets the frequency of the filter; the more open the filter is the gnarlier/nastier this patch sounds (in a good way, I think)

Resonance — sets the resonance for the filter; it’s not a full-range control, but it should get you into some whistly territory if you want (at high settings this can increase the gain a decent amount… everything in this patch can increase the gain a significant amount; it is not a polite patch)

Env amount — bipolar control; +positive values = upward envelope, -negative values = downward envelope

Env slew — determines the slew of the envelope (how quickly or slowly it closes)