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.

Key features

• X, Y and Z and their inverses: six phases 60 degrees apart
• An equilibrium point output that switches between +5 V and 0 V as the orbit changes scroll
• Knobs and voltage control for 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
• Low range from a seven-minute period to 180 Hz, as chaotic modulation; audio range from 22 Hz to 22 kHz, with temperature compensation, calibrated pitch tracking and a front-panel V/OCT. trimmer, for waveforms from near-sine to white noise
• A reset input restarts the core, much like hard sync