FREQUE II MK2

DACS FwS FREQue II Hearing is believing

The FwS FREQue II (pronounced “freak”) is a genuinely new and inspirational analogue effects processor.

The Effects:
With low frequency modulation inputs:
Simple to complex autopan effects, gating, amplitude modulation, flanging, spatialising

With mid frequency modulation inputs:
Vocoding type effects, adding tunable harmonics, both lower down to subsonic, and up to supersonic, second harmonic distortion (like valves/tubes), harmonising, retuning percussion, gating, general rich distortion, Sci-Fi voices (eg a Dalek)

With high frequency modulation inputs:
Transposition with distortion, adding glitter, air, sparkle etc when mixed back into original

With music or sounds into both inputs:
Vocoding effects, gating effects, fattening/thickening effects, spatial effects, weird transformations

Internal FM:
Frequency Modulation of modulation oscillator at all frequencies, giving effects ranging from slow pulsation to the classic FM generation of complex waveforms

External voltage control of oscillators:
Envelope follower effects, FM effects as above, randomised autopanning

Frequency shift:
Up and down shift of frequency with change in harmonic structure, with FM for sliding effects, using feedback loop to create filter type sweeps

DACS FREQue II Application Ideas

This section is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all that can be done with the FREQue II. Rather it is a list of starting points for you to begin experiments from. Using the FREQue II, producers and engineers can almost infinitely extend the voices of their existing battery of synthesisers and sound generators and create vast ranges of completely new sounds, add depth and warmth to early digital synthesisers, give drums new power, radically transform voices…

Some treatments will require mixing with the original signal and some will need to be kept separate. For example adding distortion to a continuous sound will need mixing while gating effects will not.

Tone and Music
Set Up
Feed a stable tone, or a slightly varying one, into the MOD input and the music or tune into the MUSIC input. The MOD input could be from the internal oscillator. If the MOD input is harmonically related to the key of the music the OUTPUT will tend to be harmonic e.g. the MOD input is a D and the music is in the key of D, then the output will tend to be harmonically rich. If the MOD input is not related, then the output will be rough, bell like and/or noisy depending on the frequency of the input.

Try this…
Use held chords that have a certain amount of vibrato – as the pitch of the chords varies so the harmonic content of the sound will vary
Vary the MOD frequency to generate sliding upper and lower harmonics
Use randomly generated frequencies from synthesisers on MOD input
Try varying the edge controls contrariwise i.e. turn one up as you turn the other down, to produce stereo effects
Have a go at the 1st oscillator range to produce gating effects, the 2nd range to produce tremolo effects, the 3rd range to produce heavy modulation effects while the 4th range will produce higher and higher harmonic effects

Drums
Set Up
Feed percussive sounds into the MUSIC input and tones or other sounds into the MOD input. The MUSIC input will then act as a trigger and give a gating effect, only producing OUTPUT when the MUSIC input signal is present.