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How Zing Modulation Works
TRITON's signature timbres come from synchronizing three oscillators and letting the Modulation Oscillators reshape the Carrier, a process Rossum calls Zing Modulation.
Three oscillators, three roles. The main Carrier oscillator provides its triangle, sawtooth and pulse waveforms simultaneously. Each of the two Modulation Oscillators has a single output and a waveform selector, plus a voltage-controlled Symmetry parameter that sweeps the triangle output from sawtooth to triangle to time-reversed sawtooth, bends the sawtooth with an upward or downward kink, and controls pulse width when the pulse waveform is selected.
Zing Modulation. Each Modulation Oscillator can modulate each of the Carrier outputs by an amount set with the Zing parameter. Zing Modulation is mathematically akin to ring modulation, but because the oscillators are synchronized, the aharmonic sum and difference sidetones of ring modulation transform into complex but purely harmonic overtone spectra, varying dynamically with the frequency and waveshape modulations of the Modulation Oscillators. Every change to a Modulation Oscillator's Frequency, Symmetry, Waveshape, Zing, or (on Modulation Oscillator 2) Phase affects the timbre of each of the three Carrier outputs differently.
Tracking the Carrier. When the Modulation Oscillators are set to track the Carrier, the waveshape stays constant as the Carrier frequency changes, so the overtone structure is determined by the Modulation Oscillator settings and CV modulations. If instead they do not track the Carrier, some of the overtone structure varies relative to the Carrier frequency.
"Whether you take advantage of TRITON's unique synchronous modulation capabilities, or just treat it as three superb, wide-range analog oscillators, TRITON offers a vast variety of dramatic sonic textures."