Owned Blofeld, Machinedrum, Roland sh-09 can listen and tweak all day long. All sold to get blofeld keyboard, machinedrum mkII uw+, and roland sh-09 to BSII (playing live, and need patch memory, lightweight)

I got the MS20 mini after the BS2, and I probably should've got it first. BS2 still is great though.

hmm yah.. well each to their own. I've never played an SH-09, but i did play a blofeld, and it's sound didn't excite me very much.. i thought it sounded cold and uninspiring..

The BS2 is underrated. I think it sounds great and has an amazing feature set. Especially considering how readily you can find it for under $400.

The BS2 sounds very powerful, very analog, just forget the post-filter distortion. The novation's own analog filter sounds really good, imo better than the acid. The pre-filter drive works really well together with the sub osc. The only problem I can find is the lacking keytrack, and probably the fact that you cannot assign both lfo's to osc pitch, only one. The BS2 is amazing, especially considering its price.

This synth is freakin awesome. Deserves more love.

Has anyone mucked around with feeding the Output into the Input sort of like a feedback loop, and then dialing in the external level?
Wondering if this could create some cool lofi/grunge sounds or if it will just be nasty sounding....

Hi,

This is my first post. And my first bit of hardware, gotta say I freakig love it.

I've got a question though, please bear with me as I've never owned a bit of analogue kit before.

If I go to the init patch, then just add a little FM, turn down the cutoff to about half way, and add a little resonace, then play an arp, the sound morphs, even though I have no lfo or env modulation applied anywhere. This seems kinda weird to me? Or is this to do with the inherent 'imperfection' of analogue FM I think I heard about? If so does this apply even to analogues with DCOs?

Just tried it on my BS2, and don't really hear any morphing going on. Maybe you can post a sample so we can hear what exactly is happening on yours?

In fact, I don't even need any FM. Just having both oscs running and I get some morphing, it's just a lot more pronounced with FM on. It's like the oscs are very slightly out of tune and beating against each other even though I have no modulation applied, tuning all set to 0, etc

https://soundcloud.com/tetrahedron-3/test

Is my BSII faulty???

lol.. nope.. that's the beauty of analog synths.. the sounds live and breathe. Mine does the same thing, and so will any other analog when you use more than 1 osc.

with FM the effect is really pronounced: https://soundcloud.com/tetrahedron-3/test-with-fm

I thought DCOs, even analogue, did not drift or lose tuning or anything.

It happens with mine too, I am not finding this "beauty analog". It happens only with an ARP, with latch I can`t hear it. So something weird with OSC pitch tracking on BSII? I am not sure, but some weird filter tracking things happens with my BSII when I used external MIDI.

actually it happens if you play a riff manually also...

Yep, with mine too. This made me sad. That should not happens, it is not VCO. I will write to novation (would you mind I will show them your sample on SC?).

go ahead. let us know what happens.

This has been discussed - the filter keytracking for the classic filter is permanently set at 100%, so the higher you go up on the keyboard the brighter the sound (higher the cutoff) will be. Probably more pronounced with more resonance, and less pronounced with the 12db filter. If you're running an arp over 4 octaves, the top notes will have a much different timbre than the lower notes. The acid filter has 50% tracking.

Oh hmm after to listening to the sample that is weird, if you don't have any modulation on.

That definitely isn't oscillator going out of tune, it sounds like an LFO controlled filter cutoff.

It sounds like the oscillators are not in perfect sync by default. Try engaging the osc sync and see if it sounds more stable. It might be intentional oscillator drift to simulate slightly unstable VCOs.

OK here are 2 examples of other analog synths. Both have the same phenomenon going on when 2 oscs are almost in tune, but drifting ever so slightly. It's a slightly flangy/chorusy effect which most people find desirable.

First the Moog LP, then Alesis Andromeda

Maybe those are faulty too

That's the thing about analogue oscillators, they never quite get perfectly in tune, which is one reason they sound like they do. The Andromeda is digitally tuned, but still goes way off sometimes.

But where analogue fails, digital delivers. You can have 100% tuned oscillators over the entire keyboard with digital oscillators.

There's a reason to use both.

this effect has nothing random about it. it's like a slow, regular modulation of the timbre, like a slow lfo is ever so slightly modulating the pitch of one of the oscs.

i tried engaging sync, it made no difference.

as long as i don't have a faulty BSII i don't mind. i just wanted to check. i didn't expect the effect to be so pronounced and regular.

See what it sounds like with just 1 osc, and also with the subosc turned down all the way. If you're still getting artifacts, then you may have something going on. If not, what you're hearing is the result of 2 oscs interacting with eachother.

one osc is fine.

the weird thing is, if i just hold one note with 2 oscs or with fm or something, i don't get this morphing. it only happens if i'm playing a sequance, either by the arp or manually.

Right.. well i'm getting the same effect here, so at least you know that your BS2 isn't faulty.. they all do it. The oscs in the BS2 are free running (like most analog synths), which means that the duty cycles of the BS2 aren't being reset when you trigger a new note (unlike a sample). This is what creates the 'morphing' effect.

On the Moog Sub Phatty, they've implemented a function where you can reset the oscs back to zero upon every new note trigger. This results in a more punchy and predictable result for every note. This can come in handy when you need a tight bassline, but to my mind it kindof defeats the purpose of analog synths.. i like freerunning oscs

alright well thanks for the help appreciate it!

Free running indeed. When I run it through some heavy distortion pedal I can still hear the last note I played when the key is released, just a very quiet sound over the regular noise. Somehow it's "leaking" through the VCA or something like that. Same with the Minibrute.

Oscillators never shut up.

Why we hearing it only when note changes? Not when you hold one note.

Not sure.. probably because the note isn't being set to the exact same interval it was before you played the new note, but i'm just guessing.