Last week, the modular instrument company Instruo released a new through-zero FM (TZFM) VCO, Neóni. To accompany the introduction, the inventor / musician / technologist / instructor / company owner Jason Lim created a video walkthrough to demonstrate the options and capabilities of the module.
Through-zero FM can be a somewhat challenging concept to grasp. I say that as someone who has owned a TZFM oscillator for about two years with little success getting it to sound “good” or, really, understand what it does or how it works. That all changed a bit over the past few days as I’ve watched Jason explain his module, what TZFM is and what it looks like on an oscilloscope. I often paused the video to patch up my oscillator to get similar sounds and waveshapes.
In my view, this video is a master class in TZFM for modular synthesists. Along the way, Jason provides insights into filters and envelopes, shows how to use an oscilloscope effectively, and offers lessons in hard and soft sync (two other potentially-fuzzy concepts to electronic sound synthesists).
The video is about two hours long. Go to 56:52 if you want to skip the introductory segments about the Neóni module and jump directly to his lessons and demonstrations of TZFM.
There are many places online to learn about TZFM after you’ve watched Jason’s walkthrough. One such place is the thread about the Neóni on Modwiggler, with links to other threads should you desire a deeper rabbit hole.
I may not care for all the sounds that my TZFM oscillator can make, but I am now more confident in my abilities to coax it towards the places its designer intended. And after three days of watching this one video and patching my system, I’ve reinforced the sometimes-forgotten feeling that knowing things about sound and synthesis enhances the enjoyment of making sounds, whether or not I like them.