4ms Company Matthias Puech Ensemble Oscillator User Manual - Page 4
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Getting Started
Plugging in your Ensemble Oscillator
1. Power off your Eurorack system.
2. Connect the free end of the included power cable to a 16-pin Eurorack power header on
your power supply distribution system. The red stripe should match the white line or -12V
marking on the power distribution board. The other end of the power cable is a 10-pin
connector which should already be connected to the Ensemble Oscillator with the red
stripe on the power cable orientated towards the bottom of the module.
3. Using the included screws, securely attach the Ensemble Oscillator to the rails of your
case.
4. Power on your Eurorack system.
Note: The Ensemble Oscillator is reverse-polarity protected, but incorrectly
connecting any module can damage any other module on the power bus.
Basic Concepts
Oscillators and Frequency
The Ensemble Oscillator has sixteen oscillators. The pitch of each oscillator is quantized to the current scale. Root and
Spread adjust the frequencies before quantization to the scale; Pitch and Detune adjust the frequencies after quantization.
If an oscillator's frequency before quantization is in between two notes of the current scale, then both notes will be heard.
The volume of each note will depend on how close it is to the oscillator's frequency before quantization, i.e. we crossfade
between notes instead of jumping from one to the next. Once this process of quantization and blending of notes is done, the
post-quantization frequency controls are applied (Pitch and Detune).
The waveshape of each oscillator is a sine wave by default. Twist and Warp modify the waveshape using a variety of
algorithms, resulting in rich harmonics and complex timbres. Cross FM applies frequency modulation (FM) to the oscillators.
The switches next to these three knobs select the algorithm used.
The oscillators output in stereo to the Out A and Out B jacks. To use the module in mono, just patch into the Out A jack;
both outputs will be summed into it.
Scales
The currently selected scale determines which pitches the oscillators are allowed to take. A scale can be thought of as a
series of notes. In the Ensemble Oscillator, the notes can be spaced by any amount, not necessarily just by half-steps,
whole-steps, etc. like in western music scales. Also, the range of each scale can be any amount, not necessarily just an
octave like most traditional scales.
Sometimes when using the Ensemble Oscillator, it's useful to think of a scale as a series of harmonics rather than a series
of notes. The difference is purely perceptual: when many notes are played at the same time you perceive a chord, but when
many harmonics are played at once, you perceive a rich waveform. If you're not familiar with the concept of a harmonic, or
that any waveform can be created by adding sine waves together, the Scales and Oscillators section (page 11) has more
details.
Regardless of whether you think of scales as notes or as harmonics, the notes of the currently selected scale are repeated
across the entire range of human hearing to determine a "grid" of allowed pitches. This grid is what's used to quantize the
oscillators. Root and Spread move the oscillators around the grid, Pitch moves the entire grid, and Detune bends the lines
of the grid. See the diagram (page 12) for a visualization.
There are 30 scales in the Ensemble Oscillator, arranged into three groups of 10 each. The Scale switch selects the
group, and the Scale knob and jack select the scale within the group. Each group has different properties regarding
quantization and how the scale is repeated across the range of human hearing. See Scale Groups (page 13) for details.
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