Wave Salad - E2 - Instruо̄ Cš-L

Hello again!
This is Episode 2 of Wave Salad, my sound design series. In this episode I'll be covering the Instruo Cš-L Complex Analog Oscillator. What a beautiful module!
I'll take you through reviewing the basics of the different kinds of analog FM, AM, Sync and Wavefolding, techniques to utilize them in a musical and sound design paradigm, as well as showing the character of its analog oscillators.
And then, some FM gut-feeling secret sauce you'll love to learn.
I'll also be answering any questions you have in the comments about the module and sound design in general, whether hardware or DAW-based!
Hope you enjoy!
Consider donating to my Patreon, promise it'll get pretty exciting going forward: www.patreon.com/Worldwave
Check out my socials & Worldwave content on more platforms:
Official Website: www.worldwaveofficial.com
Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/theworldwave
Twitter: / worldwavemusic
Discord Community: / discord
Check out WILDSPACE: www.worldwaveofficial.com/wil...
Timestamps:
00:00 - ADAMANT
03:02 - Introduction
03:38 - Oscillators
07:26 - Character
09:03 - Sync
11:56 - Multiply
15:54 - Wavefolders
18:00 - SUPPORT WORLDWAVE!
19:11 - Internal Routing
22:01 - If you were looking for that crazy analog oscillator FM ratio madness, it's here
24:38 - FM
38:18 - The Full Package
41:54 - JAM TIME! Patch 1 - Crazy Crossmod Bass
44:13 - JAM TIME! Patch 2 - Awesome FM Lead & Spontaneous Bass
48:27 - JAM TIME! Patch 3 - Old-School Trance Moment and OUTRO!

[@adamjlipper]

I've watched a lot of videos on the CS-L to help me get the most I can from this module. This video is not only the most comprehensive and your explanations the most detailed, but it's done in a way that makes it easy to follow and digest. By far the best breakdown of this module out there. Hoping you keep posting more videos like this!

[@Worldwave]

Thank you so much! I'm glad you liked it. Yes there will be more - I have just been busy up until recently with some other creative endeavors.

[@trianglecorerocks]

Omg, how comes that this video has only 200 likes o_O It's the best explanation that I saw on the CS-L. Huge kudos 🙏

[@i_never_asked_for_an_alias]

First time i actually hear terms like "pitch-drift" caused by FM. Very interesting stuff right there.

[@usaroman]

Outstanding demo Worldwave, very inspiring and instructional 🎉

[@Worldwave]

UPDATE: Hey everyone. I haven't posted Eurorack videos in a while and that's because I've made a shift in my production to only utilizing DAW tools. At a certain stage I realized I outgrew my Eurorack tools for the purposes of making my own personal brand of sound, and I moved on from it for now. Maybe someday in the future I'll get back to it. Of course I kept all my favourite modules :) I'll make tutorials and track breakdowns for stuff that'll be coming out in the near future. Trust me, it's gonna be great :)

[@chetplease]

I love this video and I will absolutely come back to it. I understand if your endeavors have taken you "inside the box", but I've sub your channel and look forward to whatever you have to offer. but if you want to make more euro videos like this I won't complain.

[@joeymc5272]

I wish you would continue making videos because this is one of the best overviews i have seen! This just finally allowed me to make my choice on getting this over brenso for first complex osc thank you

[@Worldwave]

Hey! Yeah, me too. I've been through a bunch these past couple years, but things're way better these days, so there might be more content like this in the future!

[@joeymc5272]

@@Worldwave thank you looking forward to it

[@waveland58]

Yes, this is the best video about the Cs-L. I also learned so much about FM. I really hope you get back to making more videos in the future.

[@Worldwave]

Thank you so much! Regarding making more videos: I will, but my life (and my approach to sound) has really changed a LOT in the past 2 years (like many of us). As a result I probably won't be doing more Eurorack videos in the forseeable future.

[@isoldeisobelle552]

Excellent! Not only a comprehensive introduction to the very capable Cs-L - but, also to analogue synthesis in general. Thank you very much!

[@CinematicLaboratory]

So happy to have found your channel. I love all the technical background information and the way you visualise all the differences.

[@rainerd9890]

Excellent presentation. Thanks.

[@marekveleba]

Very nicely done. Thank you!

[@GeorgeLocke]

Awesome video, so much excellent information.

[@viiririiv]

This amazing, frankly one of the best module overview videos I'ver ever seen. Huge props, keep it up!

[@Rangotz]

holyshit, you managed to explain some FM stuff that I didn't really understand before despite using FM for years :D thank you~

[@Worldwave]

Thanks! I'm glad I could be of help.

[@mynameismynameis666]

me likes your presentation style and content. finally someone who invests more time into creating musically pleasing patches with modules, than just giving it the straight kick snare + major triad arpeggio noddling. actually these kinds of presentation have done the market more damage than good, because they make the average non-music interested consumer believe that this is what you get from it.instead of it being an extension of your technical musical knowledge. and if you know how to produce music, you wouldn't dare do such a boring presentation. and for that understanding and time investment, you have my full on Kudos!

[@PA-qd7kb]

I absolutely love this channel. This is awesome & super educational.

[@BlastPast]

This was an incredible video, thanks for taking the time to put all of this together!

[@CapriciousBlackBox]

Thanks so much for this! I’ll definitely be watching it more than once.

[@killiun55]

Absolutely fantastic thank you!

[@BoardgameBaker]

Great run through. Your knowledge is quite impressive. Keep it up!

[@NateHorn]

Brilliant video thanks for putting it together!

[@snorrevonflake]

Awesome!

[@aoutivd]

This is an incredible tutorial. Thank you so much.

[@colinbrash]

Wow this is so good! The most comprehensive and clear explanation of so many synthesis concepts, plus some great review of this module. Awesome.

[@MichaalHell]

this was a really good demo. ive had the CS-L for a while, but this really helped me understanding it more.. thank you!

[@elisebennet9565]

This is one of the most eloquent and informative videos I've ever seen. Kudos to you! What a great job explaining this.

[@Worldwave]

Thank you! lol.

[@pawnotdaw4559]

I agree. Before this I didn’t realise that I can send external audio into the csl wave folders. This is going to add so much for my sounds. Thanks

[@Worldwave]

CLARIFICATION: When I mentioned artifacts in the Character section, what I was meaning is the harmonics added *in addition* to the natural waveshape's harmonics. As you can see in 8:31 when I switch from Triangle to Saw, you can see that the natural Saw-core sawtooth wave has those odd harmonics that're naturally in the triangle wave, in addition to the even harmonics of the sawtooth. Those even harmonics exist in the triangle as well, as you can see before the switch. That's the result of the saw-core oscillator.

[@cccp942]

you are my new modular superteacher!!!

[@Fluidstructure]

Really an awesome run-thru of this beast oscillator. I liked your Odessa breakdown too, it sold me on it in fact! Have had my ear on this one since it came out.... only hesitating because I have a Brenso already, which is pretty badass as well... fun stuff, I love it

[@Worldwave]

Thanks! Glad I could be of help :)

[@alexmartin6042]

Good job there!! new here to stay among time

[@27arches]

I've had a load of bookmarks saved in order to try and get to grips with my new CS-L now my new rack is built - this vid alone gave me the ahah! moment - thankx

[@Worldwave]

I'm so happy to hear that. Enjoy!

[@Worldwave]

Hey guys! Some new insights from my experiments into sound design. If you look at about 32:38 ish when I'm moving the sync ratio, you will notice some peculiar behavior. Listen in - this should be the interaction between a sinewave and a squarewave - what are all these quick little sawlike zaps doing there? And then I show the example beforehand and say "these are artifacts from bouncing between the two points" - that's me being unaware of what was truly happening. Don't lose focus, listen in, it'd be good to teach yourself what these sound like! You see, in any form of hardsynced FM, whether the analog lin/exp + hardsync or the digital phase modulation patch, when you change the ratio in a continuous fashion, you will encounter discontinuations in the waveform! These are positions where the oscillator's cycle is hard-reset at a non-0 point, creating a straight line to 0, or in more creative terms, the thing that gives *the sawtooth waveform* its character. Yes! Hard waveform discontinuations sound sawlike! As sound designers working with complex waveforms, we can try to find many ways to avoid discontinuations while syncing or PMing (digital FM), when unwanted. The main idea is to soften the edges of the wave window by lowpassing the modulator in a PM patch, or fading out the frame in a Sync patch (can be done by ringmodding with a third oscillator, or in Vital just editing the waveshape... Vital is goode synthe 👍🏻). These methods add their own artifacts to the sound, so you kinda have to pick your poison when molding and shaping a waveform. Anyway, yes, I will continue rambling if I don't stop here. Just felt like adding some more useful knowledge. I am not the same sound designer I was when I made this video, and I won't be the same a year down the line, as natural. so it's important to me to keep things up to date. See ya, and check out my latest music on Soundcloud, Spotify, and my latest track Flowstate out now with Artlist Originals!

[@DreamingRobots]

Awesome! Thanks so much for this. Just picked one up myself. For the life of me, how do you utilize the two sync inputs (labeled 40 & 41 in the manual).

[@Worldwave]

You plug a signal with a rising edge (sawtooth, squarewave would be good choices) into it, and see how the oscillators hard or soft sync to the input signal, depending on which you use. Oscillator A (top) hard-syncs. Oscillator B (bottom) soft-syncs. To know the difference you can go to the Sync section in this video 09:03. Thank you!

[@JuanDale]

Excellent points and examples. May I ask the maker of those knobs? I was looking at Davies on Mouser but they didn't have anything like these. And what is the shaft size? You rock, thanks. 😁

[@Worldwave]

It's all D shaft, you can find these on Thonk.co.uk under Sifam knobs / caps. Follow their instructions to buy the right ones :) Thanks for watching!

[@JuanDale]

@@Worldwave Much appreciated! Keep making content! 🙂

[@JohnTrasher]

Can you explain your patch of the last jam? Its really melodic, i want to kind of replicate this please

[@Worldwave]

Which part of it do you want to know about? Glad you enjoyed!

[@corticallarvae]

No more performa?

[@Worldwave]

don't worry there's more stuff in the works for sure lol

[@domiloik]

Those knobs.... WHY?

[@Worldwave]

Which ones?

[@domiloik]

@@Worldwave the pitch ones on the Cs-l, why did you change it? Nice video BTW

[@Worldwave]

@@domiloik I changed the pitch knobs for 2 reasons. 1 is I wanted a color difference for visual clarity & to impart my color scheme onto it. Reason 2 is that the original knobs have a small top and a wide skirt. This caused me to unintentionally move the coarse pitch at times, and the smaller head made for inaccuracy in tuning it because it's not big enough for minute shifts. So a knob with 0 skirt and a bigger head solved that for me. No skirt cleared up UI space and bigger head made for more convenient tuning. For the rest of the knobs I felt that black caps were more visually pleasing to me with the Cš-L's amazing black PCB panel. Glad you enjoyed the video! More coming soon.