Most of our Iteritas oscillators, like many others, have an octave switch. However, the octave switch on Iteritas modules is unique in a couple of ways: it shifts two octaves per position, rather than one, and it’s CV controllable. This lets us create some unique pitch effects extremely easily, without the use of quantized CV. Let’s make some arpeggios!

The patch

This is a super simple patch: all we need is an LFO, an attenuator, and an Iteritas module with an octave switch -- Ataraxic Iteritas, Basimilus Iteritas Alter, Cursus Iteritas, and Manis Iteritas will all do the trick. For the most even up/down arpeggios a triangle LFO works best, but try out different waveforms for different patterns. Run the LFO through an attenuator and into the B/A/T CV input of an Iteritas, adjust the rate and level of the LFO to taste, and you’re off!

This sort of effect is great at low rates to create variations in a melody, or at higher rates for chiptune-inspired arpeggiated chords.. Let’s hear what this can sound like using the Pons Asinorum as a triangle LFO and Cursus Iteritas as our oscillator: 

Other ways to use CV-controlled octaves

Of course, there’s a whole lot of things we can do with CV-controlled octave switching. 

If you have a clock divider that outputs gates like Integra Solum, you can attenuate an output and patch it to B/A/T to transpose your sequence every 16 beats, for example. 

If you have a clocked random-gate source like Integra Funkitus in your system, you can use the same attenuated-gate technique to create random octave changes. This type of patch calls back to simple Source of Uncertainty patches, without the need for quantized randomization or precision adders. 

You can also use our original patch but replace the LFO with an envelope to create chirps and interesting variations as your notes play out. 

And since the parameter can’t switch to something out of tune, any CV source can be used to modulate it – patch something in and see what happens!