I Agree with you John, the sound samples are pretty tame.
We did those samples several years ago and we too have learned much
about how to use the mighty Zeroscillators ourselves in the meantime :)
One of the best features of the Zeroscillator when doing its FM thing
is that it sounds like a ~real~ big sheet of metal being beaten and ringing,
or chimes, or woodblocks, or bells...
Almost as an afterthought in the design, I added the Through-Zero on/off
Switch and boy am I glad that I did, because there are hundreds of times when
listening to a patch one might say, "ok, what would this patch sound like if
I didn't use a through-zero oscillator?", and after flipping the switch...
you cannot help but crack a big smile and say, "wow, I'm glad I got this!"
because there is a big difference.
When realizing analog linear FM patches without through-zero technology
they tend to have a pitch shift on each note and a klangorous or cartoony
special-effectsy type sound, (think of Isao Tomita's "Golliwogs Cakewalk"
which I feel is delightful for one piece on the album, but if all of the notes
were that goofy all the time, then the ear would rapidly tire of it).
Not so with the ZO, and we haven't even discussed the vocal qualities of
modulating the Time Reversal input, etc.
The difference is that with the Through-Zero Switch on, that characterization
of a sound, becomes more sonically pure, (meaning a cleaner overall mix
of your piece) and the notes are more musical, and sound more realistic by far.
Someday I must do a demonstration video on this.
There are plenty of things that the Zeroscillator brings to the Serge table,
plus Sawtooth Animators and Low Pass Gates!
BTW, with the Sawtooth Animator you can patch an LFO output back into the
VCO, PCO, or NTO that is modulating it and create an interesting feedback loop.
The patch sort of works its way up to a tizzy and the stabilizes. When you pull
that patch cord making the loop, the whole thing goes through all of the wild
gyrations winding back down and that would be lots of fun to interact those loops
into submodule circuit sections of the Serge.
There are close to (500) Zeroscillators out there in (33) countries, there is definitely
something cool and different about using them, I think you definitely might enjoy one too!
Here are some sources of more sound sample which may be helpful
http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/search/label/Cynthia
http://vimeo.com/2723697
Best Wishes!
Cynthia
http://www.cyndustries.com/
--- In SergeModular@yahoogroups.com, John P <johnp299792@...> wrote:
>
> Does anyone here have hands-on experience with the ZO? While the idea
> sounds interesting, none of the demos have done anything for me.
>
--- In SergeModular@yahoogroups.com, John P <johnp299792@...> wrote:
>
> Does anyone here have hands-on experience with the ZO? While the idea
> sounds interesting, none of the demos have done anything for me.
>