Fractaos User Manual v1.5 (PDF)
Fractaos is unusually good for this because it is not just a “pretty poly oscillator” — it has:
That means you can treat it like a 4-part percussion synth, a polyrhythmic drum ensemble, or a hybrid drum+pitched fracture machine.
For hyper-complex percussion, think of Fractaos as:
Then drive those four voices from:
This is where the complexity comes from: independent voice timing + different timbres + different pitch behavior + different envelopes.
The manual gives you these drum models:
These are not samples. They are modeled one-shots with:
That means they respond musically to parameter motion, rather than just replaying fixed samples.
When you run dense irregular patterns, repeated hits can get boring fast. Fractaos avoids that because:
So even a repeating trigger pattern can become constantly shifting percussion.
Because Fractaos has 4 trig inputs and 4 pitch inputs, use four separate sequencer lanes.
Example setup:
This instantly creates a long non-repeating composite cycle.
If your modular has: - clock dividers - burst generators - Euclidean sequencers - logic modules - probability triggers - sequential switches
…Fractaos will reward all of them.
Fractaos’s MULTI mode is one of the best features for this use.
In MULTI:
So you can build a 4-piece percussion kit, where each voice is a distinct instrument patch.
Then sequence them separately by MIDI channel or trig/CV logic.
It lets you maintain: - distinct tone per voice - distinct volume per voice - stable roles in a composition - independent sequencing behavior
This is ideal for polymetric percussion architecture.
Fractaos shares ADSR settings across voices, so dial them with percussion in mind.
Even with Sustain = 0, Release still matters if the note is released before decay finishes.
So for CV/gate percussion you can get useful expressive differences from gate length.
Use: - very fast attack - short decay - low sustain - short release - curve toward exponential feel
This gives tighter transient emphasis.
On drum fractals:
Modulate or manually vary Depth between pattern sections: - short hats in busy fills - longer cymbals for phrase endings - tighter kick for dense passages - longer toms for sparse accents
If your patch can’t CV Depth directly, save several presets with different depth states and use them in MULTI or preset changes.
On drum fractals, Chaos affects:
This is one of the best controls for “alive” percussion.
Patch a stepped random CV or a slow modulation into: - F-Chaos - P-Chaos
Use attenuation carefully. Small amounts go far.
That gives you: - slight hit-to-hit change - timbral drift over bar cycles - asymmetry across repeated figures
For hyper-complex patterns, this prevents static machine-gun repetition.
This is where Fractaos gets special.
Per the manual: - Drum curves can’t be FM’d - but Morph can blend a drum with the second geometric fractal
So you can create: - percussive attack + tonal tail - snare transient + pitched body - cymbal hit + harmonic cloud - kick impact + distorted oscillator bloom
Keep Morph low to medium: - enough to add body - not so much that you lose attack
Push Morph higher on selected voices or sections so percussion becomes part-note, part-impact.
This is perfect in complex meters where you want the drums to blur into melodic rhythm.
The switches Loop and Trig are critical.
From the manual:
For percussion, the killer move is:
Set: - Loop OFF - Trig ON
Now every hit retriggers the primitive-derived motion.
Use switch targets: - Morph - Spread - Chaos
This turns each hit into a micro-event with internal motion.
This is extremely useful for making percussion feel animated and “composed” rather than static.
The primitive modulation has: - Speed = rate - Amount = depth/intensity
Since Speed goes very slow up to 12 Hz, you can use it two ways:
For long-cycle form: - very slow Speed - medium Amount
This makes the drum timbre evolve over many bars while your trigger patterns stay dense.
For micro-rhythm: - higher Speed - modest Amount
This creates: - buzzing hats - tearing snares - unstable metallic ticks - trembling kick harmonics
With one-shot trig behavior, Speed becomes almost like the internal shape speed of each transient.
Outside Drone mode, Spread introduces detune between driver and follower.
For percussion this is excellent for:
If you modulate Spread with the primitive, it can create oscillating detune that feels like animated resonances.
That’s useful for: - industrial hats - broken cymbals - tuned percussion swarms
Texture is not just a filter amount. It affects:
This is huge for percussion.
Texture is one of your main tools for moving from drum machine to alien percussion organism.
You do not have to stick to the drum algorithms.
Some geometric fractals are very percussion-friendly.
Manual says: - pseudo-random cellular automaton - dense granular spectrum - perfect for percussive sounds, basses, etc.
Use it for: - glitch hats - digital snares - granular ticks - noisy tom transients
Use it for: - click sequences - clave-like pulses - mechanical percussion
Use it for: - robotic percussion - hard-edged zaps - square-ish impact tones
Use it for: - resonant metallic strikes - unstable mid percussion
These can become unstable and irregular. Great for: - ghost percussion - broken fills - non-repeating accent voices
Try this recipe:
This often yields: - clicks - zaps - metallic taps - pseudo-snare textures - articulate glitch percussion
It’s great when you want percussive sounds that don’t read as conventional drums.
Patch: - 4 independent trigger streams into the 4 trig inputs - 4 independent pitch CV lanes into the 4 pitch inputs
Pattern lengths: - Voice 1: 8 - Voice 2: 5 - Voice 3: 7 - Voice 4: 11
Voice roles: - V1 Kick - V2 Snare - V3 HiHat - V4 Tom/Cymbal hybrid
Result: - long evolving composite rhythm - repeating only after large cycle length - excellent for techno, IDM, ritual polyrhythm, broken beat
Slightly modulate Chaos or Texture globally so each cycle mutates.
Use Fractaos voices as subgroups in different meters:
Because Fractaos has distinct voices, this works much better than forcing one mono drum voice to do everything.
This gives the sensation of interlocking percussive logic.
Use an external burst generator or ratcheting trigger sequencer.
Assign: - Cymbal or HiHat drum fractal - short Depth - medium Chaos - high Texture - primitive one-shot on Chaos or Morph
Now bursts become: - sizzling rolls - fractured hat swarms - metallic stutters
With pitch CV changing during bursts, you can create spectral rolls, not just repeated hits.
Use two voices for “main drums” and two for ghost layers.
Example: - Voice 1: Kick - Voice 2: Snare - Voice 3: low-level Rule30 or Snare ghost notes - Voice 4: subtle metallic hat/texture accents
Lower the volume of ghost voices in MULTI.
Then sequence them with: - denser patterns - lower velocities if using MIDI velocity - more randomness - shorter envelopes
This creates dense internal motion without cluttering the front layer.
In multitimbral mode, each voice can listen on its own MIDI channel.
So from a DAW, tracker, or advanced hardware sequencer: - CH1 = kick lane - CH2 = snare lane - CH3 = hat lane - CH4 = cymbal/glitch lane
This is ideal if you want: - tuplets against tuplets - deliberately irrational-feeling timing - alternating accents - probability automation - per-lane velocity programming
Since Fractaos supports MIDI velocity and aftertouch, you can add performance variation from the sequencer too.
If enabled, use velocity to emphasize: - downbeats - ghost notes - burst tails - phrase accents
Manual says aftertouch affects internal movement rather than pitch. Great for: - swelling cymbal complexity - live pressure-driven turbulence - expressive transitions in dense sequences
Optional: - add slight pitch CV accents - occasional chaos CV for dirtier strikes
Result: tight but alive low-end.
Result: snare hits with internal tearing motion and metallic fragmentation.
Drive with: - fast clock - skip/probability - bursts
Result: hyper-detailed animated hats.
Result: melodic percussive line that can lock into odd meters.
Use sparsely on a 5-, 7-, or 9-step cycle.
Result: evolving metallic punctuation that feels larger than a normal cymbal hit.
Because Fractaos supports SD-card presets, build a percussion library: - short kick - long kick - tight snare - noise snare - closed hat - open hat - metallic burst - tuned tom - glitch accent
In MULTI, assign these per voice for different sections.
This is especially useful in live sets where you want: - verse/chorus rhythm kit changes - denser breakdown kits - sparse intro drones that become percussion - reloadable structured complexity
Manual says LIVE voices in MULTI behave exactly like outside MULTI: panel controls still affect them.
This is excellent live.
Then during performance: - twist Chaos - sweep Morph - animate Texture - push Spread - alter primitive behavior
This gives you stable structure plus performable instability.
Drone mode may not sound obviously “percussion-oriented,” but it can be very useful.
In Drone mode: - all 8 oscillators play continuously - Spread can move through unison, octave spread, or predefined chords/microtunings
Patch external VCAs or gates after Fractaos and rhythmically chop the drone output.
Then Fractaos becomes a continuously evolving cluster source for: - struck chord-noise bursts - metallic stabs - tuned industrial hits - complex harmonic percussion swells
Especially effective with: - Cluster / Ensemble / Aliasing / Cymbal-like sources - chord Spread zone - odd trigger chopping patterns
This is a different but powerful route to dense rhythm.
Pair it with:
Fractaos already generates intricate spectra, but external processing can make it more mix-ready: - VCA envelope for extra snap - LPG for woody articulation - distortion for transient edge - compression for punch - EQ for kick/snare separation
So for percussion architecture: - use MULTI presets for distinct drum voices - use triggers, pitch CV, Chaos CV, Morph CV, Spread CV, Texture CV for live variation - rely on external sequencing complexity more than expecting full internal modulation of every parameter
If your goal is densely rhythmic, hyper-complex percussion, I would use Fractaos like this:
That will get you into: - polyrhythm - polymeter - glitch percussion - metallic drum complexity - animated hits - non-repeating structures
Fractaos is not just capable of percussion — it’s especially strong for percussion with internal motion, timbral instability, and hybrid drum/oscillator identities. For complicated rhythmic music, its strength is the combination of:
If you want, I can also give you: