C^3 Chaos is a unique module, like the Diode Chaos, because it has never existed as a musical instrument until now. There is no other single module, to my knowledge, that can do exactly what the Triple Cap can do. The circuit(with several modifications) is based on the paper “Simple Autonomous Chaotic Circuits” by J.C. Sprott and Jessica R. Piper. As opposed to the Diode Chaos that generates control voltage this module focuses on the audio rate.
The “Emanate” potentiometer controls the coarser overall spectrum of the chaos, from lots of activity counter clock wise up to less chaos and more of a steady oscillation full clockwise. The “Width, CV ATT” potentiometer can be thought of as a fine control for the chaos/oscillator. When something is inserted into the “CV” in the voltage normalization from the width knob is broken and the potentiometer now acts as an attenuator for the incoming cv. The Triple Cap is not a traditional volt per octave exponential VCO, and has a sort of narrow frequency range to exploit the chaotic behavior.
It expects a +5v to -5v max signal in to modulate the chaos. The “IN” jack is an A.C. coupled input for audio in, although cv and audio can work for both the “CV” in jack and “IN.” The “IN” will interfere and interact with the onboard chaotic oscillator depending on the frequency of the input, which may take some experimentation. It can create ring mod ish sounds, to added harmonics, to almost bit crushed sounds depending on the “X” or “Y” output. The “X” output is a more windy noisy sinusoidal based output and the “Y” output is more squared off and aggressive, harsher sounding output.
Specifications
- Width: 2hp
- Depth: 37mm
- Power: +12V 15mA / -12V 10mA