Orbit 3

A chaos oscillator in 10 HP, built on an analogue double-scroll attractor. Its outputs trace the orbit of a point in three dimensions round two equilibrium points: X, Y and Z and their inverses, six phases 60 degrees apart, plus an equilibrium point output that switches between +5 V and 0 V as the orbit changes scroll. Knobs and voltage control set the frequency, the distribution of the orbits and the position of each equilibrium point, with polariser knobs on the frequency and distribution inputs; a tame/wild switch sets how readily the orbit jumps from one scroll to the other. The low range runs from a seven-minute period to 180 Hz as chaotic modulation; the audio range, from 22 Hz to 22 kHz with temperature compensation, calibrated pitch tracking and a front-panel V/OCT. trimmer, gives waveforms from near-sine to white noise. A reset input restarts the core, much like hard sync.