Moog Music Forum

Is there any way of changing the LFO from a simple sine wave into, say, a sawtooth?

I know I can do this manually by drawing the cc's, but wondered if this can be achieved any other way.

Would be very useful for modulated Dubstep bass lines for instance.

Richard.

Not that I'm aware of, it's a fixed wave. Maybe someday there will be an under the hood feature with a series of choices but I have no idea if these plans exist or if they've got enough headroom in the code. That is one advantage that the Taurus III has, despite being a few years older design.

But if you can get your hands on a Multipedal, a CP-251, or if you like to use a computer, one of the Expert sleepers modules, you'll do best.
The LFO really needs to be analog and applied to the Pitch or Filter cutoff CV in order to bring the most enjoyment. Many DAWs have issues with 14 bit CC values which are required in order to avoid the stepping (unless that is the desired low-fi) effect.

I have a Multipedal (not a CP) and it's great for Midi sync'ed LFO of all of the types you mentioned including S+H, etc. but it's a bit cumbersome to use.

Another good choice is the Kenton Pro II which can be had for about $150-200 used and has a powerful (feature wise) LFO capable of:

Triangle [TR]
Sawtooth up [SU]
Sawtooth down [SD]
PulseWidth 10% [10]
PulseWidth 20% [20]
PulseWidth 30% [30]
PulseWidth 40% [40]
Square [50]
Sample + Hold [SH] (Pseudo random)

.. in addition to all sorts of clock division controls. Read pgs. 7-9 here: http://www.kentonuk.com/kmanualspdf/psolo2man.pdf

Some time in the 13 years since you asked this, Moog added this capability. In the most recent firmware (2.2+) it's available by holding the Glide button and adjusting the LFO Rate knob. You can also set it in the software editor. The values from left to right are Triangle (default), Square, Saw Down, Saw Up, Sample and Hold, and Filter EG, which follows the shape that you've configured for the Filter Envelope. I think the Sample & Hold is more like a random stepped wave rather than a true sample and hold--instead of picking one random level for each note input and holding it until the next note, it will just cycle through random values at an interval.