Ian Fritz Hypster

Ian Fritz's Hypster, an electronic fourth-order hyperchaos generator: chaos on steroids, the divergences generated in more than one dimension. Four voltage-controlled integrators are connected in a ring, like an oscillating ladder filter, but each includes damping, more like Ian Fritz's 6/8 phase oscillator, and special nonlinear elements between them produce the chaotic oscillations. The rate, and the gain and damping of one of the stages, are under voltage control, giving signals from simply periodic to multiperiodic to extremely dense and complex, from about 3 kHz down to five-minute orbits. Eight outputs, X, Y, Z and U and their inverses, control many parameters at once or give several audio waveforms; U and -U clip briefly at some settings. Two switches, SQUIRRELY or CURLY and WILD or MILD, and a FINE knob; four bipolar LEDs show X, Y, Z and U.

Key features

• RATE, GAIN and DAMP knobs, each with its CV input and level knob
• FINE knob; SQUIRRELY / CURLY and WILD / MILD switches
• X, Y, Z, U and -X, -Y, -Z, -U out; four bipolar LEDs
• 12 HP; Nonlinearcircuits publishes no current draw, depth or assembled price (it sells the DIY PCB and panel), and ModularGrid lists none