VILFO

[No Longer In Production]
Schematic available below under Creative Commons License

Voltage Influenced Low Frequency Oscillator

The Pittsburgh Modular Voltage Influenced LFO is unique in the modular world. It is a strange, triangle based LFO that lives in an 8hp euro panel. The module offers two outputs, a triangle wave, and a variable waveform that shifts from a triangle to something that is almost not completely a square wave. The VILFO also includes a unique voltage influence circuit. The influence works differently than standard control voltage inputs, it allows the incoming CV to mingle with the LFO waveforms in interesting ways, creating unique modulations and patterns.

The Voltage Influence Circuit

A typical Voltage controlled oscillator works by using a CV input to directly control the oscillation frequency. The more voltage sent to the CV input, the higher the frequency of the oscillator. The lower the voltage, the lower the frequency of the oscillator. Voltage Influence works by using the CV input to attenuate the frequency of the oscillator while at the same time injecting some of the voltage from ICV Input to the feedback loop of the oscillator. Results can vary from subtle to chaotic. Subtle results can be similar to tremolo, shuffle, or soft reset while more extreme settings produce glitchy, rhythmic, chaotic fluctuations in the frequency of the VILFO. At the most extreme the VILFO can be stopped using Voltage Influence.

Response to the VILFO

“I am floored by this unit. I get a lovely quirky, off-kilter vibe from it somehow. And the waveform sounds so damned musical, really odd.” -wetterberg via MuffWiggler.com

“holy crap this does some spooky shit at times…” -wetterberg via MuffWiggler.com

“I have two already. This is my fav LFO! The Influence input is so cool to use, better than both a separate CV and Reset input. I create synced modulations from it by sending variable sequencer CV steps to that input. It resets whenever the value reaches the threshold level. Better than the normal Resets on other LFO’s which always need hard pulses and can be jerky when restarting the waveform; the VILFO seems aways musical and suprising.” -REwire via MuffWiggler.com

“This is one of the best modules i’ve gotten in a while. Extremely pleasurable results. Thanks for making it.” -qu.one via MuffWiggler.com

VILFO Specs

  • Controls: Large Frequency Knob Slow/Fast Frequency Range Switch Influence Control Voltage Attenuator Variable Waveform Shift / Variable Control Voltage Attenuator

  • Outputs: Triangle Wave Variable wave

  • CV Inputs: Influence Control Voltage Input (ICV) Variable Control Voltage Input (VCV)

  • Frequency Range: Several Minutes to audible mid bass range

  • Size: 8hp

  • Depth: (Rev1 -53mm) (Rev2 - 20mm)

  • Power Usage: 20m

VILFO manual available in .pdf format by clicking on the image below.