ST-Modular Oberhausen, DIY Complex Oscillator With Lots Of Shaping Options

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ST-Modular Oberhausen is a new DIY complex oscillator for Eurorack consisting of 2 main and 2 modulation oscillators that are in a deep shaping relationship.

Stefan Tretau from ST-Modular has presented a lot of exciting DIY modules in the last few weeks. If you want to build your modular system from scratch, want to solder the modules yourself, etc., it is currently difficult to get past the DIY projects from Stefan. This morning I reported about three new little helpers, including a mono to stereo converter.

This evening, he has published the last module in his ST-Modular release week. The biggest and most interesting release he held up to the end. Oberhausen is a new analog complex oscillator. It’s a real beauty.

ST-Modular Oberhausen

ST-Modular Oberhausen

Oberhausen is a CEM3340 based dual voltage-controlled analog oscillator that is capable of creating a wide range of timbres. The core uses two principle and modulation oscillators. The principal oscillators offer five different oscillators (tri, saw, pulse with PWM, noise) each with a dedicated volume slider, and an output jack. However, the fifth waveform is different in each oscillator. OSC1 has a sub (sawtooth-based) and OSC2 a pure analog sine wave.

You can sum OSC1 and OSC2 and blend them either manually with the larger knob in the middle or via CV. The gold/yellow out socket outputs the result of this blending. Each sum is also supplied at the OSC1 and OSC2 output jacks separately. Then, you have tone functionality on OSC 1 with which you can accentuate either the low or high frequencies of all OSC1 waveforms.

Oscillator 2 has a Buchla inspired timbre generator available via the timbre knob or via CV with attenuator. Plus OSC sync and overload which is a feedback distortion with clipping LED for all OSC 2 waveforms. Both sound generators also have either exponential or linear FM. A massive amount of sound shaping functions in the principal oscillators alone.

ST-Modular Oberhausen

Modulation Oscillators

The principle generator functions do not turn Oberhausen into a complex module on their own. That is what the two modulation oscillators do. It has an FM modulation OSC and a mod oscillator. The first (tri/square) only modulates OSC2’s frequency adjustable via the FM rate knob. Exponential or linear FM are availab. An LED indicates if FM modulation is active taking any FM VCA modulation into account

The mod osc is an LFO (tri/square) that internally controls the blend CV, OSC2 timbre CV, and OSC1 PWM CV (which is normalized to OSC2 PWM CV). The rate can be adjusted with the mod knob and the final depth via the destination CV attenuators.

Oberhausen has two 4-channel mixers and a blend mixer onboard with which you can mix the oscillators together.

Stefan, at first glance this looks like your masterpiece. The module looks very tempting and offers a lot of functions. In places it reminds me of classic complex oscillators, in others, it breaks new ground. The built-in mixer makes working with various waveforms and shapers much easier. The interface is also very intuitive designed.

ST-Modular Oberhausen is a pure DIY project. Prices for PCB, components … please check with the official dealers. Hope we will also see finished Oberhausen units in shops.

More information here: ST-Modular 

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