Lifeforms Double Helix Oscillator Available & Shipping Now

Lifeforms Double Helix Oscillator, a unique take on complex oscillators!

Lifeforms Double Helix Oscillator, one of the more anticipated modules announced NAMM, at least for me, began shipping last week.

I’ve looked at and tested out many complex oscillators and I couldn’t decide which would be the one to go for. That is until I heard the Lifeforms Double Helix Oscillator in person.

The Lifeforms Double Helix Oscillator is a complex oscillator that was inspired by, but not particularly based on, classic Buchla double oscillators.

Pittsburgh put a rather unique spin on the idea of a complex oscillator. The contour section incorporates a wave folder with their vactrol-less dynamic impulse low pass gate circuitry which acts and sounds like a vactrol circuit. Together there are loads of shaping capabilities in the contour section.

The Lifeforms Double Helix Oscillator’s modulation capabilities are pretty vast. It has a modulation section and a separate modulation bus.

The modulation section has an “LFO offering simultaneous sine, square, and random waveforms. A noise source is also available for audio or modulation use.”

The modulation bus has “two voltage controlled amplifiers designed to control the modulation amount inputs that can be routed to any of the Double Helix CV inputs. Each of the CV inputs can be switched to channel a, bypass, or channel b and mixed with a dedicated CV input.”

The Lifeforms Double Helix Oscillator is described as being;

Designed to be the nucleus of a synthesizer, the Double Helix Oscillator is a modular waveform generator like no other. A set of beefy, analog oscillators paired with voltage controlled shape contouring, deep modulation, and a performance ready voltage controlled modulation matrix create a dynamic, analog waveform playground.

Click the image above for the BBoyTechReport NAMM coverage of the new Lifeforms modules including the Double Helix Oscillator. I’ve also included Just Music’s Superbooth 2017 video. There is a dope demo about mid way through.