The ACL Variable Sync VCO is a precise, excellent sounding VCO, providing five simultaneous waveforms, a VC variable-sync feature, deep linear FM and more, and all with precise tracking and low temperature drift. There are any number of treasured components in our modular system, and it’s a thankless task to rank them, but anything that generates audio deserves a place at the head table. Out of respect for this honoured status, we’ve tried to do some particularly cool things with our Variable Sync VCO, and push it to some uncommon extremes.
First thing’s first though: These oscillators sound great, with exactly the kind of classic raw vintage synthesiser tone you’d wish for. The sound is derived from one ramp core oscillator, with several waveshaper subcircuits, allowing saw, inverted saw, triangle, sine, and rectangle. And since we only like randomness and unexpected results on our terms, exclusively at times of our choosing, consistent tuning is the name of the game.
There’s more to life than tone and tuning accuracy, so additionally, when synced to another VCO, the degree of synchronisation (i.e. soft-sync, hard-sync) can be set manually by knob, or by an external CV. In other words, this lets you morph between soft- to hard-sync. Which is pretty nice. There are many fun results to be had here. For example, you can modulate the Sync Threshold to create a variety of effects, such as ‘pulse trains’ or crazily stuttered waves, for a weird, bizarre, and wonderful world of sci-fi sound. Used in conjunction with frequency modulation, this can introduce fascinating harmonics to otherwise harmonic-free sine waves.
Width 16 HP
Current Draw:
- 40 mA +12V
- 35 mA -12V
- 0 mA 5V
Installation depth:
- 22 mm deep
More information – ACL
