Oscillator Sync With Non-Traditional Waveforms

If you've been making or listening to electronic music for any length of time, you're undoubtedly familiar with the sound of oscillator sync or 'hard sync'. It's the technique responsible for creating the lead in the Cars' hit "Let's Go", and Jean Michel Jarre's famous 'Laser Harp' sound, to give two famous examples.

The technique involves one oscillator restarting the cycle of a second oscillator whether it is through playing or not. By modulating the frequency of the synced oscillator (usually with an envelope or LFO), a whole range of aggressive 'ripping' synth sounds are possible.

Oscillator sync became a rare feature once synths went digital, and that's a shame, because hard syncing waveforms or samples outside the traditional saw/pulse/triangle variety of analog waveforms makes an entirely different range of metallic and plucked textures possible. The Ensoniq SQ-80 (and the ESQ-1, although it lacked some of the more interesting samples) is one of the few synths I know of that offers this capability (the Waldorf Microwave line could do it, too).

Here are 4 examples from the SQ-80. The first is a guitar-like sound created by syncing the Electric Piano waveform with the Slap Bass attack transient. The second is a digital synth bass sound created by syncing a Sawtooth wave with a Reed wave. The third is a harpsichord-like sound created by syncing the String wave with the TomTom sample. Finally, we have a metallic synth sound that is the result of syncing the Brass wave with the Noise3 wave.



Anyone know of other synths that offered this capability?