Border Audio – Degradation Engine

The Degradation Engine works very much like a regular subtractive synth: you have a filter, an ADSR, a mixer, and a few useful effects. The distinguishing feature is the two oscillators, each with two knobs that control “loss.” These knobs switch the oscillator signal from raw to degraded, sampled from microcassette tape — so for each oscillator you can choose any point between raw analog waveform and full tape fragility.

Additionally, each oscillator has two types of degradation, with samples recorded at both full and half speed. At full speed, the sound is more brittle, at half speed, it’s warmer and rounder – and again, you can choose any point in between. And with two waveforms per oscillator, the sound quickly becomes very deep…

Features

• Two waveforms and two degradation types per oscillator
• 18 parameters for deep control, including reverb and overdrive
• Each oscillator is individually sampled, eliminating phasing issues