Bread and Butter Analog Oscillators in 2020

[muleskinner]

For 'bread and butter' Doepfer A-111-3 provides fantastic sound and all the functional basics in minimal HP at a great price.

[suthnear]

Spectrum is definitely a good choice but studio electronics oscillation is also an excellent contender

[studio460]

Tiptop Z3000 is still a nice workhorse oscillator. Checks all the boxes in albiedamned's post too, minus the octave switch.

I happened to want a simple, straight-up analog-VCO (the only other traditional oscillators I own are digital: a Plaits and a Braids-clone) to feed my limaflo motomouth formant-filter, and stumbled onto your post. A few seconds later, I found a Z3000 Mk.2 on eBay for $150 and grabbed it! I love the frequency-display! Serves multiple purposes: tuning, reference, etc. Love the old-school, mad-scientist aesthetic, too. This is perfect! Thanks!

[iainduncan]

Have you checked out the AJH oscillators? I just got some and haven't plugged them in yet, but in listening to online shoot outs, I was really impressed. I like vanilla oscillators, so have ordered those, Dixies II+, and Doepfer precision A-111-3s.

[mixxalot]

Verbos Foundation Oscillator would be awesome for a bread and butter analog oscillator. i only have three analog oscillators and the rest are digital.

[studio460]

The AJH and Verbos seem really cool, but very expensive! I think I'll just hunt for a second Z3000.

[NeolithicElectrophones]

If you can spare the space, Fonitronik's euro layout of Thomas Henry's VCO maximus is a massive sounding analog oscillator with very useful outs and a wonderful submix.
Another killer osc is the NLC- A Plague of Demons. Even without any FM input, it tracks nicely and has a quite lively sound to it's multiple useful outputs. Also Thru zero!
Timo Rozendal's 8hp cem3340 osc is another great bread and butter for any setup, plus it's blue, a highly underutilized FR4 color IMO.

[Brian2020]

+1 on Angle Grinder. Freakin' love that module.

Maybe take a look at Circuit Slices dual parallel vco. Triangle core, tracks 8-9 octaves. I often use osc2 as an LFO. Solid, well-built, and no problems in the 9-10 months I've owned it. Nothing fancy, just a solid dual vco.
[/quote]

Circuit Slices has great modules, especially at their low costs. Very pleased with the build quality and features. I really should pick up the Dual VCO. Looking forward to seeing more designs from them in the future.

[versipellis]

Hello everyone, hope all is well with you guys.

I'm wanting to buy an analog oscillator and at the moment the Malekko Richter 2 is top of my list. I was considering the AJH MiniMod but after a recent thread about troubles with them I was turned off.

So what are your favorite analog oscillators that you guys are turning to these days?

Can I ask what issues you heard about the minimod?

[Gringo Starr]

Hello everyone, hope all is well with you guys.

I'm wanting to buy an analog oscillator and at the moment the Malekko Richter 2 is top of my list. I was considering the AJH MiniMod but after a recent thread about troubles with them I was turned off.

So what are your favorite analog oscillators that you guys are turning to these days?

Can I ask what issues you heard about the minimod?

I don’t remember to be honest. There was a thread going around about an issue some people were having with their oscillators around the time I posted this. I should probably change my OP since this thread seems to have gotten some traction. I don’t want to spread negativity about a company based on other people’s experiences. That was careless of me.

[iainduncan]

I did read that they are finicky about power supplies (which I think it says on the site too), and Allan told me over email that there have been some issues with the Doepfer power supplies compared to other higher end ones, but I haven't read anything else bad about them. I wonder if that was it. He said I would be fine with TipTop uZeus. We will see!

[studioutopia]

+1 for the Pittsburgh Lifeforms Primary Oscillator.

Honorable mentions for me would be the Dixie as well as Instruo’s Ts-L and Tona.

Shouldn’t that disting shirt have a _______ where the “oscillator” is?

I've had the Pittsburgh - sold it when I bought Frap Tools Brenso - which is like comparing a new Dodge Charger to a Ferrari Italia... however...
The shaping sliders and CV inputs on the Pittsburgh for Timbre and Blade - when combined - give you two different waveshaping dimensions and get you really close to the evolving, shape-changing capabilities of Complex Oscillators at 2-4x the price and size. Also - Attenuverters! It is a great VCO.

Dixie2+ is what I consider to be the gold standard for a "bread and butter" analog VCO - pure/stable, no-frills, no manual required, and manufactured perfectly. Looks like a textbook on an oscilloscope. Octave switch is fantastic.... and in True "modular" nature - add a Rubicon2 and a Bifold over time, and you have one of the most versatile and powerful Complex Oscillators available.

I have the Tš-L - and it is the best value in 6HP. Sounds like class. Wavefolder is awesome. My only complaint - it has no saw.... really though... a non-issue. It's the lower half of the Cš-L.

[sagetone]

The AJH and Verbos seem really cool, but very expensive! I think I'll just hunt for a second Z3000.

@studio460, if you are in the market for a Z3000, I have one that I am selling. Just let me know. You can PM if you'd like.

[studio460]

Yes, thank you! PM sent.

[deke]

For what its worth, I have had a Studio Electronics Oscillation for some time, but added a Dixie II Plus today. Wow. I guess I expected more of the same, but I am super happy and surprised with the tone and character of the Dixie. It is very different than the Oscillation, Sine vs Sine, or any other wave form. Musical adjectives always make me gag, so I won't even try. I'm not saying I like one over the other, but well, maybe I do. The Dixie is a super nice surprise. I think this would be a great oscillator for any system and certainly one to start with.

[studio460]

Tiptop Z3000 is still a nice workhorse oscillator. Checks all the boxes in albiedamned's post too, minus the octave switch.

I happened to want a simple, straight-up analog-VCO (the only other oscillators I own are digital: a Plaits, twin Braids-clones, and a Klavis Twin Waves) to feed my limaflo motomouth formant-filter, and stumbled onto your post. A few seconds later, I found a Z3000 Mk.2 on eBay for $150 and grabbed it! I love the frequency-display! Serves multiple purposes: tuning, reference, etc. Love the old-school, mad-scientist aesthetic, too. This is perfect! Thanks!

I just picked up a third Tiptop Z3000! All three appear to work perfectly (thanks again, sagetone!). The last one was mint! Really love these things—the frequency display is very helpful. Here's my three Tiptop VC-Oscillators, proudly installed in my rack amid a brand-new, three-input 2hp Unity summing-mixer, perfect for combining all three VCOs:

[Yodhan]

For simple bread and butter, I have to say I love my Noise Reap Bermuda. Very solid and not too pricey. Getting harder to find. Would happily buy a couple more. Aside from my Braids, most of tastes go to more simple oscillators. Wouldn’t mind a Plaits or two though.

[yaongi~]

I wanted some basic small analogue oscillators.

In the end I got three 3340 electro-smith oscillators (https://www.electro-smith.com/modular/3 ... ll-diy-kit) DIY for $99 each (available assembled as well). Cheap and capable, with all standard outputs (incl sine), hard and soft sync, in 6hp.

I searched hard to find those, I couldn't find something that hit the same sweet spot without being much more expensive.

On the other end of the scale I love my schippmann omega phi. Amazing oscillator. Not exactly bread and butter though.

[iainduncan]

How you do find the Electro-smith stuff? I was just looking at those and considering some.

[drxcm]

Big fan of the WMD spectrum. Just got a couple a few months ago.

Was tossing up many of the options in this thread but the Spectrum won the race.

[Raindeer]

For 'bread and butter' Doepfer A-111-3 provides fantastic sound and all the functional basics in minimal HP at a great price.

Agree this is true bread and butter and is my main sound source in the little rack I’m traveling with. Cheap, 4hp and has FM and hard sync.

[yaongi~]

How you do find the Electro-smith stuff? I was just looking at those and considering some.

I'm not an electrical engineer but the oscillators seem well built. I like the panels as well. Still coming to terms with how cem3340 sync works but I'm happy with the modules.

[closedLoop]

I'm not an electrical engineer but the oscillators seem well built. I like the panels as well. Still coming to terms with how cem3340 sync works but I'm happy with the modules.

Do the hard and soft sync seem different than other oscillators?

I've found hard sync to be relatively universal across the oscillators that I've tried, but soft sync seems to have some variation across oscillators.

[yaongi~]

Do the hard and soft sync seem different than other oscillators?

I've found hard sync to be relatively universal across the oscillators that I've tried, but soft sync seems to have some variation across oscillators.

I've been experimenting with an oscilloscope, but I could have read the manual.

Description of hard sync matches my experiments: it responds to a falling edge.

Soft sync works well using a ramp (falling edge). On the falling edge it reverses if the triangle wave is falling, but doesn't if the triangle wave is rising.

So using a ramp with falling edge for audio rate soft or hard sync works well.

Contrary to the manual I didn't find a saw (rising edge) to induce smooth behaviour.

I like to sync oscillators with triggers when doing frequency or phase modulation, so for hard sync I need to invert the trigger.

[Saladolar]

What would be the best choice for two bread and butter vcos ?
The same pair or two different oscillators ?

Would one dixie and one ona be a good idea ?