BLUE ZTVCO DRY DEMO & Surrounding Controversy

YouTube Uploaded by bluelantern320 on Jan 3, 2012

Update 10/4/2013: I heard from Ian Fritz and the controversy is over. Blue Lantern no longer offers the ZTVCO. That said, BL posts will resume.

This one, which seems to be a reoccurring theme with Blue Lantern, comes with a good dose of controversy. You might recall from a few years ago BL got into a bit of heat selling MIDIBox SIDs on eBay. MIDIBox explicitly forbids the commercial resale of MIDIBox SIDs. Blue Lantern stopped and went into producing affordable eurorack based modules and systems.

This latest controversy surrounds the source of design for the new BLUE ZTVCO. You might recall from the comments in this previous post, the design of that prototype module appeared to be a copy of Ian Fritz's Teezer (TZFM Saw VCO debuted Sep'08) design. Ian Fritz's modules are available via The Bride Chamber and Elby Designs.

In short:

1. Is the BLUE ZTVCO based on Ian Fritz's design?
2. If so, to what extent?
3. If so, is it legal?
4. If so, is it fair and does it matter?

The answer to 1 and 2 will not be known until someone gets a hand on the ZTVCO and reverse engineers it. I asked BL if he would be willing to provide the schematics to put the issue to rest and he replied no. He said people can reverse engineer it when it it's available and he is sure someone will. The answer to 3 is quite possibly so. There is currently a good thread on the subject on the electro-music.com forum here. The answer to 4 depends on you. My personal opinion is that it is not fair and it definitely does matter. Whether legal or not, I view it as stealing. These designs do not come out of thin air. They take time and talent and sometimes years to produce. You will see some insight on this in regards to Ian's Teezer design from him directly below. When someone makes their designs available, credit should be given.

The following is a response from Blue Lantern in regards to the claims made against him. The most important thing to read out of his points below is "3. This is not a clone, this vco is a beast in it's own cage."

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YuSynth Wavefolder and Ian Fritz 5pulser demo

Published on Aug 8, 2015 vinnui

Update: some pics on vinnui's blog here.

"This is a short demo of the 2 waveshapers, controlled by 2 LFOs. Arp by Arturia Minibrute. All sounds are coming from the DIY modular.

Demo patch:

- VCO 1 is going into Yusynth/J.H Wavefolder, controlled by an LFO.
- VCO 2 is going into Ian Fritz 5pulser waveshaper, controlled by another LFO
- The two signals are mixed, and going into the Yusynth ARP4072 VCF (mostly open), and then into a YuSynth VCA.
- Minibrute CV output are going into VCOs, gate into YuSynth ADSR

YuSynth Wavefolder: http://yusynth.net/Modular/EN/WAVEFOL...
Ian Fritz 5pulser: http://home.comcast.net/~ijfritz/sy_c...

My DIY synthesizer blog: http://vinnui.blogspot.com/"

Drums with DIY modular synth

Published on Feb 28, 2014

"I'm using 2 VCAs, 4 LFOs (2 YuSynth VCLFOs), a noise source, and a ringmod, to create rhythmic sounds."

Yusynth Modular First Flight

YouTube Uploaded by GoldenCardiganCult on Mar 13, 2012

"This is a quick video of the maiden voyage of my DIY modular synth.

Most of the modules are Yusynth designs, but it also includes a few Paia, CGS and Ian Fritz designs.

The patch is fairly straight foward. The two randomized sequences are generated by Reaktor (via a Paia MIDI2CV). A Kurzweil Mangler is adding a small amount of Delay.

About 2:05 you will hear the second VCO frequency modulated by an Ian Fritz Chaos module.

A big thanks to all of the DIY synth community, but especially the Yusynth designer Yves Usson. His designs are brilliant and sound unbelievably good! Hopefully this video does them justice.

Thanks for watching!"

Some additional info:

"The modules are:

Yusynth
2 x VCOs
2 x Filters (Steiner and EMS)
VCA
Mixer
Balanced Modulator
Random (S&H and Noise)
LFO
ADSR

Paia MIDI2CV and Triple VCA
CGS Joystick and MFOS buffered multiples (Voltage Distribution II schematic)
Ian Fritz Chaos (ChaQuo without the quadrature LFO)"

Catgirl/CGS & Ian Fritz/Elby Systems Serge Systems

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via the following listings:

SERGE Black Swamp by Loudest Noise

SERGE Ian Fritz - DoubleDeka Ultrasonic VCO

SERGE Ian Fritz /Uglysound

SERGE CATGIRL - Sequencer

SERGE CATGIRL Synth

SERGE CATGIRL Synth

SERGE Clouds/Buchla/VCO Panel

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In doubt

YouTube via attorks | August 24, 2010

"Made this improvisation last evening. I was in doubt whether to share this video with you because I think the 'magic level' of the music is not that high. But maybe you think otherwise so here it is for you to judge. Row 1 of the Synthesizers.com Q960 sequencer drives the Synthesizers.com Modular. The Q963 trigger bus is used to mute individual steps for row 1. Row 2 drives the self-made Modular which 2 VCO's are set to an interval in the beginning of the video. Row 3 drives the Ian Fritz Teezer Through-Zero VCO which in its turn provides a triangle waveform to the Ian Fritz 5Pulser and a sawtooth waveform to the Blacet MiniWave. The outputs of the 5Pulser and the MiniWave are fed to the Resonant LoPass Gate which is modulated by the Ian Fritz All-In EG. The Roland XP-80 is used for the Mellotron strings sound. The Waldorf Q Keyboard is programmed with 4 different instruments. The solo's are performed on the Clavia Nord Lead 1 with some different voices.
You can see/hear/download the full 22 minute video and music from my website soon."

Ben Tick

YouTube Published on Apr 28, 2012 by davidryle

"Ken Stone's superb Bi-N-Tic oscillator/filter from a kit build by the Bridechamber. Not just any old filter mind you. I used an SSL/Ian Fritz Double Dekka VCO and an Oakley vco with some sequencers and envelopes to play with this demo. The only filter is the BiNTic. Plenty of external excitations from the DDVCO "A channel" and some exponential FM from an EG modified "B channel" of the Double Dekka.
The Oakley vco is sending a triangle waveform through an Ian Fritz 5 Pulser which is modulated by an Ian Fritz ChaQuO chaos generator & quadrature oscillator. It then goes to the input of the BiNTic.
Octave switching on the Double Dekka is with an STG Soundlabs voltage mini store.
The sequencers (Q119 and Q960) are timed with the SSL Tap Tempo LFO. It's multiplier is modified with one channel of the Q960 for the staggered steps.
The Oakley vco has an LFO modulation (linear FM) from an Oakley VCADSR and MultiMix. The release timing of the envelope is voltage controlled by a row of the Q960."

Arp 2600 with Wavolver II waveshaper module by Ian Fritz

video by O.Z. Hall

"This is a demo of the Ian Fritz Wavolver II waveshaper driven by the triangle output of VCO2 on the ARP 2600.
Ian Fritz has a great basic video on this module. [3rd video here from 2011]

I hope you enjoy this video!"

Modular Synth - Patch in Progress 34

Published on Jul 11, 2016 isvisible / isinvisible

"My Ian Fritz panels (Serge) playing very nicely with my Eurorack set-up.

The AFG is clocking the Pithoprakta, which in turn is triggering everything else.
Elements - Bass
Rings - Processing audio from the Radio Music
AFG - low clicky audio processed by the ADDAC Fixed Filter Bank, which has each frequency being modulated by various Ian Fritz designed modules (Chaotica, ChaQuo and Jerkster)
Serge Modular (Ian Fritz - Chaos Theory and Timbre Tantrum panels) - Plinky plonky piano sounds, warbles and atmosphere.

Cheers"

This one make me think of what John Carpenter might sound like exploring modular. Very Carpenter-esque. Love it.

One Day Left on Group Buy for Ian Fritz 4U Panels and New PCBs - Walls of Voodoo!

via Paul Appliancide on The MATRIXSYNTH Lounge, via Uglysound Electronics

"One more day left on the group buy for Ian Fritz 4U panels and new PCBs. New PCBs are dual 2 Quadrant/4 Quadrant multiplier (switchable between VCA & ring mod), 4U/5U friendly LED slider board for the DoubleDeka graphic VCO, 4U/5U friendly versions of Chaotica, 4x4 and Wavolver II PCBs!"  On Muff's here.

And a Wall of Voodoo video below for these "walls of Fritz voodoo", also from Paul in the same Lounge post. Confused me too. Even more confusing is the Roland V-Synth at 1:24! They were ahead of their time. Minimoog and Prophet-5 as well.


Wall of Voodoo - Tomorrow (live) Uploaded on Feb 20, 2007 Michael Zole·7 videos

"Wall of Voodoo performing "Tomorrow" on The Tube in 1983."

Ian Fritz 5Pulser Waveshaper

YouTube via attorks. via the Bridechamber Fritz 5Pulser page.
"A short demonstration of the Ian Fritz 5Pulser Waveshaper. Bought it as a full kit from the Bride Chamber (www.bridechamber.com). Building it was fairly simple and took about 4 hours."

Blue TZ VCO Source Confirmed?

Update: Bluelantern has worked things out with Ian Fritz and is no longer banned on the site. This is no longer an issue, however this post will remain for synth history.

Original post:

For the time being Bluelantern's items will no longer be featured on this site. This is a follow-up to the BLUE ZTVCO DRY DEMO & Surrounding Controversy post.

via Ian Fritz on Muffs:

"Here is an illustration of the Blue Lantern Blue VCO, with inked-in sections indicating the correspondence of this circuit to the Teezer Thru-Zero VCO. For the VCO core and sync sections, the two circuits are virtually identical. The only notable difference is the trivial substitution of an LM13700 OTA, along with substitution of low-performance op amps. Otherwise, circuit topology and component values are exactly identical, even down to and including the number and values of all bypass capacitors.

As discussed before, the +/- 5V supplies were taken from Rene's TZ VCO. They consist of three-terminal power supply regulators, rather than the precision reference components of the Teezer. Otherwise, the multiple power supply voltages are derived exactly as in the Teezer. The waveshapers -- external to the core -- are a different design.

Hope this helps clarify matters regarding the Blue Lantern "design". I hate to be still beating on this, but we are still hearing negative comments from the skeptics.

Ian"

via Adam Vavrick on The MATRIXSYNTH Lounge

Bluelantern is banned on Muffs. I will see if he has any response to this.
For the time being Bluelantern's items will no longer be featured on this site.

Ian Fritz Teezer Demos

Published on Apr 8, 2018 Ian Fritz

"Showing more clips using the Teezer thru-zero FM VCO module."

STG LFO Sync Test

Published on Nov 15, 2019 davidryle

"Suit and Tie Guy Envelope Generator in LFO A mode. This thing loops in SYNC mode with the other sync bus modules to give a wonderfully musical performance tool for rhythm and phrasing.

I used an Ian Fritz DDUVCO and Synthetic Soundlabs VCO throughan Ian Fritz 5 Pulser for the sound sources. An STG Soundlabs Post Lawsuit Filter was used on the SSL vco and a synthesizers.com Q150 ladder filter was used for the DDUVCO part.

A pair of Lexicon dual delays (MX200) added some tape delay DSP effects to the final signal.

The entire STG Soundlabs module suite can be bought from stgsoundlabs.com Check it out!"

Serge - Ian Fritz 'Chaos Theory' & 'Timbre Tantrum' Panels

Published on Jun 22, 2016 isvisible / isinvisible

"Still exploring and finding out how to use my Ian Fritz panels.
Loads of fun. Especially with the Bugbrand DRM1+X drum synth.

All sounds (apart from the Drums, which are heard on their own at the beginning) created by the Serge panels. With just some delay and reverb added to a couple of the voices.

None Serge modules used:
Mutable Instruments - Grids
Iron Ether - Pithoprakta
Doepfer - A-160-5 Ratchet Control
Electro Music - Klee
Modcan - Dual Delay
Intellijel - Springray"

The reunion

YouTube via attorks | August 17, 2010

"Last Friday I got some new Synthesizers.com modules for my 50th birthday which are used in this video: A Q171 quantizer bank, a Q963 trigger bus, a Q128 switch and a Q109 envelope generator. The Q960 sequencers drives 2 voices on row 1 and 3 using the Q171 quantizer bank the quantize the CV's. Row 1 drives the Synthesizers.com Modular. Row 3 drives the Ian Fritz Teezer Through-Zero VCO which is connected to the Buchla 282c clone Resonant LoPass Gate which is modulated by an Ian Fritz All-In EG. The 8 individual steps of the Q960 are switch on and off with the Q963 trigger bus. In the refrain of the track I switch the scale switch of the Q171 from scale to triad to change the pitch of some steps. The strings are performed on the Roland XP-80 with a CS imitation. The solo is performed on the Clavia Nord Lead 1 and some additional notes are played on the Waldorf Q Keyboard."

SSL Double-Deka VCO

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.
via this auction

"Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) for MU format modular synthesizer.

This module is one of just a few dozen out there, made in small batches by boutique MU Modular manufacturer SSL. Based on the Ian Fritz design, this module provide two 10-step waveforms to be defined which may be selected from via voltage controlled mix knob or discreet output.

In low frequency mode it can even be used to generate rhythmic pulses.

Below is a copy/past of the SSL product page which describes this product in detail...

'Innovator and designer extraordinaire Ian Fritz has teamed up with Synthetic Sound Labs to bring you one of the most useful and flexible VCOs on the market - the SSL 1130 Double Deka VCO.

The Double Deka is a stable, wide range 1V/Octave VCO with incredible sonic versatility. Imagine "drawing" a 10 stage waveform using lighted front panel sliders. Now imagine two of these separate waveforms, each with a precisely stepped 6 octave range control that can also be externally voltage controlled. In addition, using a built in knob or external control voltage, you can cross-fade between the two waveforms. Add to this, two unique new types of sync, a funky digital ring modulator (DRM) type input, plus separate linear and exponential FM inputs, and you begin to see (and hear) the possibilities.

This unique VCO consists of an ultrasonic oscillator core followed by a parallel pair of waveform generators. Each waveform generator consists of a voltage controlled multi-octave divider, followed by circuitry to generate a 10-step waveform using a set of 10 slider potentiometers. Also included are a novel synchronization circuit with two different operating modes and a built-in "digital ring modulator" (DRM) for producing a wide variety of synchronized and anharmonic sounds. The oscillator core is highly stable (better than 20 ppm/K ) and features wide-range, accurate tracking (better than 0.05% over fifteen octaves). The variable waveform generator provides fine control over an enormous range of available timbres. The high frequency output of the "core" oscillator is provided for use in driving other frequency dividers.

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Serge Modular Synth - Ian Fritz 'Chaos Theory' & 'Timbre Tantrum' Panels - #2

Published on Jul 9, 2016 isvisible / isinvisible

"Playing with the two Serge format modular synth panels by Ian Fritz, 'The Timbre Tantrum' on the left and the 'Chaos Theory' on the right.

The only other things used apart from the two panels were:
Doepfer A-156 - for quantizing the S&H outputs of the Dual TGTSH.

Bandive Accessit Stereo Spring Reverb - for adding spring reverb to one of the Teezer TZFM VCO's. (the plinky plonky piano one).

Roland DEP-3 - for adding reverb to one of the Teezer TZFM VCO's.

Ibanez AD-202 - for adding delay to bank A of the DoubleDeka Ultrasonic VCO.

Cheers."

The Hypster Demos by Ian Fritz

Published on Jan 20, 2018 Ian Fritz

"The Hypster hyperchaos generator in each of four modes, controlling various patches with slow modulation of Gain parameter."

Uglysound Electronics Captain Ian Fritz BISTROMATH

via Paul Appliancide on The MATRIXSYNTH Lounge

"Just finished this module. Ian Fritz Threeler, ChaQuO and Jerkster behind a 32hp panel."

By Uglysound Electronics, a new service by Appliancide that offers panels for DIY projects, custom builds & more.

Note this is the first Uglysound Electronics. You can find previous posts featuring Appliancide here.

Ascent and Decline

Published on Nov 10, 2016 Richard Galbraith

"Another performance using Mutable Instruments Rings in Easter Egg mode (the high organ sound), along with Synthesizers.com Q106 oscillators, an SSL/Ian Fritz Doubledeka oscillator, and a FSFX/Ian Fritz Teezer oscillator. Filters are the Synthesizers.com Q150 and Q107, and the MOTM 480. Reverbs are Valhalla."