This is an attempt to faithfully emulate the Future Sound Systems OSC2 Recombination Engine in VCV Rack using free modules.
What a sonic playground! The system has an incredible range of sounds that can be very quickly dialed in. Definitely watch DivKid’s video for an introduction to the many things the physical module can do: https://youtu.be/Vy23uZSsdLY. And believe me, that just scratches the surface!
From what I can tell, the emulator does a good job reproducing the capabilities – nearly all the features are implemented. Plus there are a few extra controls thrown in. The text modules describe the layout, and list the known differences.
One thing I discovered not mentioned in the video is to fully open both pos and neg sines so there is no switching, both tuned to the same frequency, turn sync lock on, tune the scissor down until the pos and negative sines cancel out, and then vary the pulse width, which offsets the sync points so they no longer cancel. The sines perform an interesting rotation as you sweep the PW. Don’t change any frequencies and then try the DNA triangles, and then try the DNA ramps. Very interesting effect to watch on a scope.
I haven’t even started pairing the emulator with filters or envelopes or effects. I’ve just had fun exploring the endless range of raw sounds.
The patch uses a relatively small set of plugins – all free:
23volts
Bogaudio
Count Modula
Instruo
Stoermelder PackOne
Submarine
VCV
Vult Modules Free
I would love to hear about your experience if you try this emulator. Also I would love to hear from someone that has also used the actual FSS OSC2 and tell me how they compare.
There are a few points I’m not too sure about that perhaps should be changed in the emulator:
1) I think the PW Skew is accurate for the wide portion – the positive (or negative) wavelength lengthens proportionally such that at fully open, the wavelength is doubled compared to the 50% duty cycle. But I’m not sure about the narrowed slice. I shorten the frequency, but I’m not sure it is enough. I don’t know what the formula should be.
2) I’m not sure about the sync point for the DNA triangles. The sines always start at 0. The Pos ramp starts at 5v, and the Neg ramp starts at 0. Both those make sense to me. But the triangles start in the middle at 2.5 (or -2.5) volts. I’m wondering if the triangle sync points should be shifted so they start at 0.
One limitation of the emulator is the Bogaudio VCO PW duty cycle cannot go from 0% to 100%. It is limited to a range of 3% to 97%.
