The Trepanator is a 14hp analog “Bent by Design” experimental instrument featuring a Dual VCO, Difference Rectifier, 3-band EQ, Sample/Track and Hold, and SVF(state variable filter) all built into one nonlinear module. Its origins trace back to a love for Rob Hordijk’s Benjolin and patching a similar pseudo chaotic feedback-based instrument from scratch using all Zlob modules.

Although not based on Hordijk’s circuit or signal flow, it uses a similar architecture of dual voltage controlled oscillators, an “interference pattern generator,” a state variable filter, and internalized cross-patched feedback. Instead of a Rungler and comparator the Trepanator uses a sample/track and hold with slew, a difference/rectifier circuit(based on NLC), and a self-oscillating 3-band EQ.  Utilizing this excessive feedback between the VCO’s, EQ, S/H, and SVF, creates a completely new instrument for discovering abstract electronic sounds. The Trepanator is a highly interactive, unpredictable, and an immediate instrument capable of a huge range of organic sounds from: snarling, plucking, bubbling, screaming, gurgling, hissing, grunting, pinging, and quacking, to machine like rhythmic loops, circuit bent broken modem sounds, no-input mixer screeching, intermittent short wave radio fizzling, and full on Harsh Noise Wall all within the touch of a fader or a small knob turn without any external audio or any control voltage in.

For more info consult the manual and signal flow chart.

RIP Rob Hordijk