Erica Synths - Graphic VCO **In Depth Eurorack Demo**

Published on Jun 20, 2018 DivKidVideo

"TIMING INDEX / LINKS BELOW - Here's my in depth run down of the Erica Synths Graphic VCO. It's a eurorack module that packs in a nice interface for controlling wavetables, on board waveform drawing and design, tuneable and shapeable sub generator and output, loads of onboard FX including FM, Ring Modulation, Phase Distortion, Bitcrush / Downsample, Distortion, Wave Folding and Wave Wrapping. There's loads to go at so check out the timing description below and skip around to see the bits of the video you'd like to check out.

TIMING INDEX

00:00 Hello and preview of what's to come

01:23 Verbal feature walk through and look through the settings and menus.

05:58 A selection of patches not from elsewhere in the video. Aiming to fly through a selection of the potential sounds this is capable of.

07:31 AB mode. Crossfading between two waves and waveform morphing. Also looking at some of the available wave banks.

09:14 Wavetable mode. Looking at and morphing through the default wavetable banks.

12:01 Matrix mode. Creating an XY 2 dimensional space to modulate through and operate wavetables.

14:28 AB Wave Design mode. DRAWING WAVEFORMS! Using the on board wave editors to clear, draw new waves, create new waves and also looking at the harmonics editor which is the spectral mode. That view may be familiar to anyone who has used an additive synth before, editing harmonic partials to adjust the waveform. This also looks at loading and saving waves.

19:09 Settings screen. A quick look through what we can set up in the settings including display settings, oscilloscope settings, smooth or discrete waveform morphing (stepped or smooth), key/scale quantizer for the 1v/oct input, external scope to show us the inputs and monitor signals coming into the module, on board tuner / calibration tool and more.

20:46 FX MODES - First looking at what the FX mode is and the oscillator set up we'll be using.

21:17 FX MODE - FM - Looking at Frequency Modulation with the on board modulation oscillator and using the FX inputs to modulate FM index (depth) and ratio (tuning). This looks at FMing a sine wave and also wavetables.

25:34 FX MODE - Ring Modulation - Using the on board modulation oscillator to ring modulate the wavetables.

27:07 FX MODE - Phase Distortion - looking at manual and low level phase shifting through to audio rate phase distortion synthesis, again over wavetables which gets really fun.

28:40 FX MODE - Wave Folding - DC / manual fold depths as well as LFO fold modulation through to audio rate fold modulation. Which gives some great overtones without getting out of hand.

30:19 FX MODE - Wave Wrapping - comparison to wave folding to start with then modulation over the wrap settings from manual to audio rate.

32:53 FX MODE - Bitcrush / Downsampler - also a less pronounced effect than the others at times this changes the whole behaviour and feel of the output making it feel like a more lo-fi digital oscillator. It works really well over slowing modulating waves.

34:40 FX MODE - Distortion - exploring clipping both simple and more complex waves and using clipping as an extra dimension of sound manipulation over the wavetables.

36:52 Sub Generator - looking at output 2 with variable tuning from 0 to -24 semitones, using the 'cent' detune for unison / dual oscillator detune like sounds, mixing in the main output, syncing the sub oscillator and changing from copying the main output waveform through to static waves. We also look at a few basic intervals to create chord tones when mixing the outputs.

41:04 Sub Generator BONUS - patching the sub output and main output to sound like two totally independent musical lines. This is one of my favourite ways to use and patch up sequences and riffs on a modular system.

43:24 Final features / settings / snapshots and more! - Looking at the final few things including snapshots, randomising the whole unit and more.

46:05 Kick drum / percussion synthesis - patching up a kick drum / bass line hybrid sound. You can apply these techniques to other modules too."