The only two sliders on Oddity3 that don’t have dedicated names are the blue and white sliders within the S/H Mixer module. However, underneath each slider is a switch that gives us an indication as to what’s being fed into this module. Underneath the blue slider, the switch marked VCO1 indicates Sawtooth or Squarewave.
Underneath the white slider is a switch that indicates Noise Generator (Pink or White as selected in the Noise Generator) or VCO2 Squarewave. As with similar functions on Oddity3, these switches govern what is fed into the S/H Mixer and the sliders apply the relative amount.
This is one of Oddity3’s more complex sections. Spending time experimenting with this can lead to some unexpected and inspiring sounds; from grainy through to metallic, to full-on syncopated funk grooves.
In basic technical terms, the signals from the blue and white sliders are mixed together to produce the “S/H Mixer” output. This is an audio signal which then enters the S/H module. This module samples a value from the S/H Mixer output at LFO rate, (or keyboard events if this is selected by the switch marked LFO Trig at the top and KYBD Trig at the bottom). It gives random steps, which are ‘smoothed’ by the Lag Parameter (yellow slider) acting a bit like portamento or ‘glide’. This becomes the ‘S/H’ output.
The difference between S/H and S/H Mixer is the rate of the changes. S/H is a slow modulation, whereas S/H Mixer modulates the signal at audio rate. Applied to the Oscillator Frequency, it produces analog-based FM sounds, not dissimilar to a Yamaha DX-7 operator (although the DX-7 is digital and uses Phase Modulation, not Frequency Modulation). Applied to the Filter Cutoff the result is less obvious but interesting nonetheless.