Wiard 300-Series Modular System

Feb 1, 2002 12:00 PM, By Robert Rich

A new generation of analog modular synthesizers has quietly come of age. Such instruments update the best of vintage designs by offering modern circuitry and the advantages of computer control through MIDI-to-voltage conversion. The new modulars often reflect the maverick attitudes of their designers, who have a unique and iconoclastic vision for making music. When a synth designer's tastes run toward the experimental, the resulting designs lend themselves to experimentation. In Wiard's case, experimentation is not only encouraged but also difficult to avoid.

Click here to access files referenced in this article

Wiard's founder, Grant Richter, describes the Wiard system as a cross between the ARP 2600 and Buchla Music Easel. I think that description de-emphasizes the strangeness that separates the Wiard from other synths. Richter collects vintage gear and owns and repairs rare Buchla, ARP, and Serge modules. He wanted the Wiard synth to fill a singular niche within the panoply of analog options. He wanted to build something optimized for novelty, a sonic amusement park — in his own words, something of a Chinese puzzle box.

NOT YOUR MOM'S MODULAR

The Wiard neither looks, behaves, nor sounds quite like anything I have ever used (see Fig. 1). With its cobalt-blue panels, Celtic silk-screen designs, and rows of multicolored LEDs, it looks custom-made for a space-rock band like Hawkwind or a performance at Burning Man or the Stonehenge Free Festival. Sonically capable of traditional or bizarre analog timbres, it can also emit biting digital-hybrid tonalities reminiscent of a PPG Wave. With its slew of hidden features and uncompromising design, the Wiard is one of the most unusual, challenging, and downright quirky modular synths ever made.

The Wiard modular presents a challenge to reviewers because they simply can't become fully acquainted with it in a short period of time. Each module has an identical matrix of knobs and jacks, with few visual or ergonomic clues to guide an unfamiliar user. Input and output jacks intermingle, camouflaged among voltage controls and gates, and shorthand silkscreened legends do little to help distinguish inputs from outputs.

SWISS ARMY SYNTH

Wiard conceives each module as a multifunction unit that will perform both audio and voltage-control duties. Most modules have enough features to function as standalone tone generators. Together they form a very compact, full-featured synthesizer.

Wiard makes seven different built-to-order modules in its 300 series. By the time you read this, an eighth module, the WoggleBug, will be added. For this review, I received an early Wiard One system, which comprised six modules: the Classic VCO, Sequantizer, Envelator, Waveform City, Omni Filter, and Dual Mixolator. (Since then, Wiard has unbundled the 300-series modules and dropped the Wiard One designation.) The system included Wiard's handy rackmountable Joystick Controller ($349) with two joysticks, two momentary gate buttons, a voltmeter, and adapter jacks. I also used the Borg Filter as a standalone.

A seven-module system (with one of each module) provides four oscillators, two single VCAs, two stereo VCA/ring modulators, three multimode filters, four envelope/lag processors, a random voltage source, an eight-stage sequencer, and six four-way multiples. When you consider that the Sequantizer module can double as a waveshaping oscillator and frequency divider — or that the Envelator module can act as a dual LFO, mixer, VCA, chaotic function generator, and voltage-controllable ADSR — you begin to see the flexibility hidden within those few modules.

The modules share an identical panel layout, which makes it easier for Wiard to have the sheet metal manufactured in small quantities. Although the visual similarity between modules can make it more difficult to distinguish functions on a dark stage, it does contribute to a nice symmetrical appearance. Each module has ten knobs, two switches, a row of eight LEDs, and 20 ⅛-inch minijacks arranged in five rows and four columns. Most modules use the bottom row of four jacks as a multiple to assist with complex patching.

Six modules fit side by side in a 6U-tall rack adapter. Exposed circuit boards sit behind each front panel, with LEDs mounted on the top board and minijacks on the bottom board. The jack panel has extra solder pads at each connection, allowing users to customize their own normalized routing behind the patch points. An aluminum box houses the module's guts, and at the back of this chassis lies the power connection, a 5-pin MIDI-style DIN plug (see Fig. 2).

Large DC wall warts supply power for as many as three modules through a power-distribution truss. I don't like wall warts, especially when they pile up like sleeping hamsters behind the racks. However, they allow Wiard to economize, and they prevent the risk of exposing users to line voltages behind the modules.

DIGITAL HYBRID

Wiard provides two very different types of oscillators — the Classic VCO ($439) and Waveform City ($599), the latter of which crosses over into the digital realm. Waveform City generates digitally encoded wavetables much like the PPG Waveterm and Waldorf Microwave. You can treat the wavetables just as you would an analog VCO with control voltages, variable sync, and so on. Waveform City also contains its own envelope/lag processor and VCA, which are useful for adding expression.

Waveform City's wavetables are arranged in 16 banks with 16 waveforms each. You can sweep through the waveforms within a bank using voltage control. Wiard employs a rather complicated technique to scan through the samples within each wavetable: a sawtooth wave is sent from an analog VCO to an A/D converter, and the numerical output is used to sequence through the selected waveform. The lowest part of the sawtooth sets the pointer to the start of the wavetable, and as the voltage rises, the pointer moves through the wavetable to the end.

Using patch points to separate the analog scanning oscillator from the digital wavetables, Waveform City lets you warp the timbres. The analog VCO that Waveform City uses to scan through its wavetables provides most of the features you could want in an oscillator, including multiple waveforms and frequency modulation (FM), but it does not offer pulse-width modulation (PWM).

You can use Waveform City as a simple analog oscillator. More important, due to the fact that Wiard provides a patch point to the input that controls the wavetable pointer, you can scan the wavetables with something other than a sawtooth, thus modifying the shape of the resulting waveform. Consequently, you can modulate that digital waveshape the same way you can modulate an analog VCO.

Waveform City is one of the few wavetable oscillators that can respond to audio-frequency modulation. The results are grainy, glitchy, chaotic, and interesting. That flexibility makes Waveform City the star of the Wiard system, giving Wiard its most unique and characteristic sounds. (Owners of Synthesis Technology MOTM and Blacet systems will be pleased to know that Wiard has licensed the Mini-Wave — a diminutive version of Waveform City with MOTM- or Blacet-compatible front panels — to Blacet.)

ANALOG PURISTS

Wiard's other oscillator module, the Classic VCO, is pure analog and offers more features than any analog oscillator I have ever seen. It generates simultaneous sine, triangle, sawtooth, and pulse waves. When switched to low-frequency mode, the oscillator ranges from 0.1 to 20 Hz; in high frequency mode, it tracks well through a full ten-octave range. Variable PWM, coarse and fine frequency controls, sync, and dual FM inputs fill out the usual VCO capabilities.

Additions to the standard features include a continuous Sync control that provides a range from hard sync to no sync at all. I know of only a few other VCOs that offer soft sync, but I don't remember seeing any with continuous sync control. The Classic VCO also provides both linear and exponential FM inputs.

Like most Wiard modules, the Classic VCO provides a few features that would normally require additional modules. A built-in envelope and slew generator, normalized to a built-in VCA, provides basic attack and release functions. (As usual, you can defeat all normalized connections by plugging a patch cord in to the associated jack.) You can use the additional features to add volume expression to the synth voice without wasting a full-featured VCA elsewhere in the system. The simple envelope generator (EG) is actually a lag processor with independent upward and downward contours. If you wish, you can place an audio signal into the envelope's Gate input and use the circuit as an envelope follower.

Also lurking on the Classic VCO's front panel is a lone jack that provides a separate Random output whose wandering voltages are clocked by the VCO's frequency. That output is the closest thing to a noise source on the Wiard system, generating a pseudorandom sequence with 64 voltage levels. It resembles Buchla's 200-series Source of Uncertainty module and works best at lower frequencies, in which the output acts like a sample and hold. At audio frequencies, it sounds rather grainy. I wish Wiard provided a true noise source somewhere in the system; to its credit, though, the random output gives something different from the norm.

ENVELATOR

The Envelator ($439) does double duty as a dual LFO or EG. When I first looked at the Wiard system, I puzzled over the lack of a standard ADSR envelope. The Envelator provides two separate two-stage envelopes, which you can individually set to attack-decay (best for trigger input), attack-release (best for gate input), or cycling (for use as LFOs). Unlike those in most EGs, the envelopes grow shorter as you turn the attack and decay knobs clockwise. The inversion makes sense in Cycle mode, because a clockwise turn then increases the cycling frequency, but it's not intuitive for setting the envelope times.

Voltage-controlled attack and release times, as well as a built-in voltage-controlled mixer that combines the two envelopes with external sources, make the Envelator quite powerful. Initially I asked, “How do I get more complicated envelopes?” After a phone call to Richter, I realized I wasn't thinking flexibly. By separating the functions of a single complex envelope into two simple envelopes, the Envelator gives you the best of both. For ADSR response, simply set one envelope to AD mode and the other to AR. The Mix output then emits an ADSR envelope, and the Mix control determines the sustain level by adding either more or less of the shape's sustaining half. By adding voltage control to the different stages of the envelope, you can create intricate and expressive dynamic shapes. Those tricks take time to grasp, as do many of Wiard's more interesting features.

SEQUENTIAL CIRCUS

Wiard's Sequantizer ($439) provides eight stages of continuously adjustable voltages and can be clocked from an external source. Built-in voltage quantization makes it easier to hit equal-tempered notes with the knobs. Each stage has a corresponding gate output, and for odd time signatures, you can shorten the sequence length by means of a Reset jack. To add complexity, a Select knob and corresponding voltage input allow you to rearrange the order of the pattern. Plus and minus octave-transposer inputs accept gates for either upward or downward transpositions, and a separate voltage-transposer input can shift the sequence by other intervals. A Glide knob and corresponding voltage add portamento, and you can easily patch it to create per-stage portamento like the old Roland TR-303 has.

A Sequantizer output marked 10V is useful if you want to create microtonal sequences or if you need a greater voltage range than that available from the Sequantizer's main output. The main output emits voltages after they have passed through the lag processor and quantizer; the quantizer limits this output to 1.5V.

Typical of the Wiard modules, a few thoughtful extras allow you to use the Sequantizer for purposes other than simple arpeggios. Because it can clock at audio frequencies from an external source, you can use the Sequantizer as a frequency divider and waveshaping oscillator. When clocking through all eight steps, it creates a tone that appears to be three octaves below the clock frequency. If you shorten the recycle time, you change the division; for example, if you patch the Sequantizer to reset at step 3, it generates a periodic waveshape an octave and a fifth below the clock. By adjusting the knobs for each stage, you can change the shape of that audio waveform. (The trick works better from the 10V output because of its hotter levels.)

FILTRATION

Wiard provides two very different filter modules, the Omni Filter ($599) and the Borg Filter ($439). Both provide switching between lowpass, bandpass, and highpass modes, in addition to variable resonance and FM inputs. In other respects, however, the filters differ dramatically.

The Omni Filter offers allpass response and voltage-controllable mode switching, with inputs for four separate signals. One Mix knob controls the gain for inputs 1 and 2, and another for inputs 3 and 4. Four voltage-control inputs provide a 1V per octave input, two frequency-control inputs with associated attenuation knobs, and a linear FM input with its own attenuator. The second frequency-control knob inverts the input voltage when you turn it to the left and boosts it positively when you turn it to the right.

The Omni Filter also includes coarse and fine frequency knobs, Q (resonance) control, and an attenuator knob for the Q's voltage-control input. Mix and Phase switches blend the dry signal with the filtered signal for phase-shifting effects in Allpass mode. Voltage-controllable mode switching really sets the Omni filter apart and allows for some dramatic automated sonic mutations.

As you turn the Mode knob clockwise (or send it a voltage), you switch the filter through lowpass, bandpass, highpass, and allpass responses. Most filters that allow multiple modes provide only 12 dB-per-octave (2-pole) response, typical of a state-variable design. However, the Omni isn't a state-variable filter, and it provides a full 24 dB-per-octave cutoff.

A separate 12 dB-per-octave output taps the 2-pole response as well. Wiard achieved this response the hard way. The Omni Filter employs a discrete op-amp design with a sound similar to that of the ARP 2600 filter. The Mode knob and voltage input together control a high-frequency pulse-width-modulated switch that reconfigures the filter circuit. You can create some bizarre effects by letting the switch hang between two filter modes as it buzzingly crossfades between two responses.

Here's a quick story to illustrate what it's like to work with a company as small as Wiard. During the course of this review, I had several conversations with Richter. I told him that I thought the filter sounded a bit bland and that I didn't like the way the resonance was frequency-dependent. The filter squawked at higher frequencies and sounded a bit thin to my ears, and I couldn't get a really punchy, resonant low bass sound. He said nobody had mentioned that before, but he agreed with my complaint.

After pondering the problem, Richter called me back the same day. He came up with a tweak to the filter design that he will offer to existing customers and incorporate into future shipments. I overnighted my Omni Filter to him, and he returned it the following week, vastly improved. Richter's responsiveness left me with a great impression of Wiard's customer service.

Even with the new modifications, the Omni Filter still sounds very clean, a bit clinical, and definitely more ARP than Moog. Now the resonance tracks evenly through the frequency range, and the cutoff goes low enough to squash a subharmonic bass note.

In contrast, the Borg Filter sounds anything but clinical. Squawky by design, this thing has attitude. The Borg includes two separate filters with Mode knobs that select lowpass, bandpass, or highpass (see Fig. 3). The filters' 2-pole response gives them a characteristically buzzy sound, but you can gang them in series to create a 4-pole response. Wiard hybridized the Buchla 200-series Quad Lopass Gate and the Korg MS-20 filters to create the Borg, which employs a Sallen-Key design with Vactrol circuits at the FM inputs. The design attenuates high-frequency modulation, making it more difficult to create audio FM effects, yet it works well for slow, sweeping multiple resonances.

For built-in FM, the Borg Filter incorporates two independent VCOs with simultaneous triangle-, sawtooth-, and square-wave outputs. The oscillators normalize to the filters' FM inputs, but you can also use them as additional LFOs or tone generators.

The Borg's labeling is confusing at first. With filter-resonance knobs labeled Peak in the manner of an old Korg, filter-cutoff voltage inputs labeled Key Follow, and VCO inputs labeled 1V/Oct, the front panel is not exactly self-explanatory. Nonetheless, the Borg Filter proved to be quite useful after I became accustomed to its idiosyncrasies.

BLENDING AND BENDING

The Mixolator ($439) hides a wealth of amplitude- and timbral-shaping features, but its hermetic silk-screened labeling doesn't help decode its potential. The Mixolator is actually a dual stereo VCA, which can also work as a ring modulator, mixer, and panner. It can mix both audio and control-voltage signals.

Each half of the Mixolator provides two X inputs (added together) and one Y input. Each input has its own gain knob. The X and Y channels stay separated for stereo applications. The Z input (which has its own attenuation knob) provides the voltage for VCA gain. Another knob allows you to adjust the response to Z from linear to logarithmic. When you switch the mode from VCA to Ring Mod, an inverted copy of the X output is mixed into the signal so that only the sidebands remain from the sum of the X and Z inputs. The Mixolator provides positive and inverted phase outputs for X and Y channels, which are useful when you are mixing control voltages or when you're creating complicated feedback patches.

SONIC PLAYGROUND

In terms of novelty, the Wiard modular system succeeds in spades. Its most innovative module, Waveform City, allows it to enter the edgy world of digital tonality while maintaining the fluid maneuverability of analog control. Its multifunction envelope/slew generators encourage you to think openly and to explore the mutable possibilities of analog circuitry.

Any instrument with personality tends to guide its user into certain sonic territories. A synth's tonal strengths and weaknesses, combined with its user interface, suggest certain directions. I found myself gravitating toward brighter, more edgy timbres on the Wiard than on other analog synths. The combination of Waveform City's overtone grit and the somewhat bright-sounding Wiard filters suggests an industrial high-tech sheen more than soft organic warmth. The magic of a modular synth lies in its flexibility, so your impression could well be entirely different. I suspect that explorers in the realm of glitchy electronica, artists like Autechre or Tetsu Inoue, could find a mother lode of good noise within the Wiard's wires.

The system comes with sparse documentation that barely hints at the deep possibilities hidden within each module. Even if you are well versed in analog synthesis, you might find yourself climbing a learning cliff so steep, you'll wish you had ropes and crampons. If you can overcome the initial sense of unfamiliarity, however, you will soon begin to discover the depth and flexibility in Wiard's unusual approach.

The Wiard system would make an excellent addition to a synthesizer collector's arsenal and an impressive live-performance synth for experimentalists, technophiles, and spaceheads. I wouldn't recommend it as a synth player's only axe, and I would discourage most neophytes from considering it, given its price and difficulty. But if you're looking for something completely different — something that challenges you to retool your sound-making palette — Wiard might be the playground that keeps your electrons smiling.

---

Robert Rich refuses to plug his new CD, Bestiary, which doesn't use strange, glurpy modular-synth noises. You never read this bio. You may now wake up.

PRODUCT SUMMARY

Wiard
300-Series Modular System
modular analog synthesizer
$439-$599 per module

FEATURES	4.5
EASE OF USE	2.5
AUDIO QUALITY	4.0
VALUE	3.5

RATING PRODUCTS FROM 1 TO 5

PROS: Deep controllability. Digital/analog hybrid module. Compact size.

CONS: Dense and confusing patch panels. Poor documentation. Wall-wart power supplies. Difficult to learn.

Manufacturer

Wiard Synthesizer Company
tel. (414) 769-0791
e-mail sales@wiard.com
Web www.wiard.com

300-Series Module Specifications

Synthesis Types	analog subtractive synthesis; digital wavetable, nonlinear synthesis ([256] 8-bit waveforms/nonlinear transforms in Waveform City module)
Polyphony	1 note per oscillator module (when used with external MIDI-to-CV converter)
VCO Frequency Range	0.1-22 kHz
LFO Frequency Range	0.1-50 Hz
VCO Pitch-Tracking Accuracy	±5 cents over 8 octaves
Dynamic Range	80 dB
Gate Input Range	1.5V threshold
Audio-Signal Inputs	up to ±10V; >50 kΩ nominal impedance
Audio-Signal Outputs	±5V; <1 kΩ nominal impedance
Control Voltage I/O	1V/octave; ±10V range
MIDI Ports	none (external MIDI-to-CV required)
Patch Points	(20) ⅛" minijacks per module
Sequencer	quantized 8-stage CV (in Sequantizer)
Power Supply	±15 VDC; rearmounted 5-pin DIN connects to wall warts
Module Dimensions	2.83" (W) × 10.50" (H) × 10.50" (D)