E352 Cloud Terrarium
www.synthtech.com/eurorack/e352
What is the E352?
The Synthesis Technology E352 is a dual output, wavetable VCO that replaces the older E340 Cloud
Generator and the E350 Morphing Terrarium, while adding over 30 new features.
Shipping with all 192 waves of the E350, it also allows 26 User Defined banks (a bank is a 8x8 matrix of
64 individual waves) which are easily loaded using the free WaveEdit application and a uSD card. The
WaveEdit program supports PC/Mac/Linux and has a full toolbox for importing, drawing and creating
wavetables. The uSD card needs to be FAT32 formatted, 32GB size or smaller (no speed requirement).
The card is not required for normal operation, only to load files into the E352.
The large color TFT screen is used to select the modes and parameters, using a “shallow” menu: only 1
page is below another page. The menu items are selected by rotating the encoder left or right (to go
‘back’ or ‘forward’) and then ‘clicking’ the encoder knob. SynthTech modules come with a lifetime
warranty. Support is primarily via the SynthTech Modular Group on Facebook.
Watch the tutorial video
Go to the link at the top of this sheet and watch the overview videos. This will touch on all the different
modes of the E352 and show you the ‘shallow’ menu system.
MAIN MENU
highlight the function, and the encoder knob is ‘clicked’ (like a mouse)
to go to that page. The color scheme is customizable.
The green dot in the lower right turns red (default) when the memory
is being written. Do not power off when this is active.
The Main Menu is like a table of contents. The encoder is used to
There are 8 presets to store the setting of the module. These presets
are separate from the 26 USR banks, which are loaded using the File
menu. You can only read from the uSD card, patches cannot be saved
to it. Patches and USR banks are stored internally in the E352.
Please check the link above for the latest firmware version (currently
V1.4).
Controls and Jacks
There are 3 CVs that are assigned, based on what mode you are in. Each CV (called X, Y and Z) has a
dedicated ‘offset’ or PARAMETER and an external CV in (-5V to +5V range) with a dedicated attenuator.
It is important to note, just like on all SynthTech modules, the attenuated CV is *added* to the
PARAMETER knob position. If a PARAMETER knob is at 12:00 (straight up), then a -5V to +5V
unattenuated CV input will swing that X/Y/Z value “end-to-end” or minimum to maximum. This is exactly
the same as having no CV into the jack, and turning the panel knob end-to-end.
The 2 outputs (OUT1 and OUT2) are determined by the Mode in the Settings menu. SYNC is used to hard
sync the VCO or to trigger Sample Player. SYNC resets the waveform to its lowest voltage point.
Settings
The Settings menu is where the ‘mode’ of the E352 is selected and the options for that ‘mode’ are
programmed. Each setting has a unique way the 3 Parameter CVs (PARM X, Y and Z) are used within that
mode. The Mode Help screen will show how all the CVs and Outputs are mapped.
Morphing Modes
Morphing is the smooth transition (‘blending’) from adjacent wavetables
within the Bank’s 8x8 grid. If you picture a chess board with 8 rows and 8
columns, this is how the wavetables are stored in a Bank. The ‘X direction’
is within a row. The ‘Y direction’ is within a column, and ‘Z direction’ scans
the entire bank end-to-end (from the first to the last wavetable).
Menu item Phs Interp (Phase Interpolation) can be set to Off and Glitch
can be set to 1 of 3 intensities to simulate older wavetable synths (like the
PPG) that do not smoothly morph. This also allows a specific wavetable to
be indexed, without any morphing from the adjacent wavetable.
The E352 ships with 3 Banks of wavetables that were originally in the E350
Morphing Terrarium (ROM A, ROM B, and ROM C). In addition, standard
‘analog VCO’ waves can be selected (sine, saw, etc) as well as 26 USR
banks created by the free WaveEdit application. The File menu page is used
to load in User Banks and individual wavetables.
There are 2 other Morphing modes: with a Wavefolder (Morph+WFld) and with a 0-360deg phase shift
between the outputs (Morph+Phs). See Mode Help for how the controls are mapped for these modes.
Cloud Mode
A ‘Cloud’ is 2, 4, or 8 VCOs that are detuned from each other. When a
Sawtooth is used, the old term was a ‘supersaw’ effect. The E352 can use
any waveform or wavetable for the Cloud. Each output can have a different
waveshape being ‘clouded’, but the 2 outputs share the same controls.
The 3 parameters are mapped as follows:
• X – Spreads each VCO from the ‘root’ frequency
• Y – adds filtered noise (Chaos) to the Spread amount
• Z – the bandwidth of the filtered noise
If you select ‘Morph’ for a Wave type, the Wv # (0-63) selects which
wavetable within the Bank is being ‘clouded’. Wave # 0 is the first Row (0)
at the first Column (0).
Morphing Clouds Mode
The Cloud+Morph mode adds the ability to Z Morph the Bank at the
same time the Cloud algorithm detunes the VCO cluster.
The 3 parameters are mapped as follows:
• X – Spread
• Y – Chaos, which is now the filtered noise amount + BW combined
• Z – Morph the wavetable Bank ‘start-to-finish’
This setting can have very dramatic effects, especially using slow LFOs
into Spread and Morph CVs.
For all Morph modes, the Freq Range is as follows:
• High: 10Hz to 10KHz
• Mid: 0.1Hz to 165Hz
• Low: 1 cycle in 13min to 0.1Hz
2-Operator FM Mode
The 2-op FM uses a Carrier Wave (originally a Sine) that is FM modulated
at audio rates by the Modulation Wave (also a Sine in the original
implementation). The E352 allows either Sines or wavetables to be used
for a much wider variety of sounds.
Since there are 2 outputs, the Mode will output the FM-modulated result
on OUT 1, and the selected Carrier Wave on OUT 2.
The 3 parameters are mapped as follows:
• X: FM Index (‘depth’) 0 – 314%
• Y: quantized frequency Ratio of Modulator to Carrier (1/8 to 8)
• Z: Morphing if ‘Morph’ is the selected Mod Wave/Car Wave
A typical patch is to envelope FM Index to get “percussive” drums and
mallet sounds.
Noise
Each output can be 1 of 8 types of noise. The noise can be low-pass filtered by a 4-pole ladder filter with
resonance. The noise selection table is quantized (no morphing between types).
Each noise type has different harmonic content as follows:
• White: full bandwidth noise
• Pink: slightly filtered noise
• Clocked: ‘digital noise’ used in old gaming consoles
• Crackle: narrow pulses spaced infrequently
The 3 parameters are mapped as follows:
• X: noise type for OUT1
• Y: noise type for OUT2
• Z: if a filtered noise, the resonance
The COARSE/FINE and 1V/Oct controls the cutoff frequency of the filter (10Hz to 10.3KHz).
Detuning Mode
This is a new mode, added at V1.3 of the firmware.
The signal at OUT2 is detuned from the signal at OUT1 by either a fixed
amount from a table or ‘smoothly’ by a variable CV.
Each output can have its own wavetable or standard shape, and can be Z
Morphed. The outputs have the same frequency range.
Smooth Mode: continuously variable detuning, from Wide (+-2.5 octaves)
to Narrow (+-1.25 octaves)
Fixed Intervals: the outputs are in fixed “musical ratios”:
th-5th
• 4
-Octaves
• 12 Tone steps
• Harmonics (1
st-8th
)
The last selection is Unison + Phase shifter. The 2 outputs are no longer
detuned, but there is a variable 0-360deg phase shift by applying a CV.
Mix the 2 outputs together when using this mode for best effect.
Sample Player Mode
This is a new mode, added at V1.3 of the firmware.
The Sample Player treats the loaded Bank as 1 giant sample playback
file. The file must be created by WaveEdit (if not using a ROM Bank) and
then loaded to the uSD card using Save Bank. This will write the correct
file size (33KB and WAV format) the E352 can read.
Using the File menu, you can select a Bank from the uSD card and load
into a USR Bank. The uSD card can be removed once data is loaded into
USR banks.
The sample can be either Looped (On) or 1-shot (Off), trigged by a rising
SYNC signal. The SYNC can be a Gate, Trigger, LFO, Envelope or any
other signal. A valid SYNC is a voltage rising through 0.65V.
Playback of the sample file is controlled as follows:
• X: Starting point for the sample played via OUT1
• Y: Starting point for the sample played via OUT2
• Z: length (0-100% of the file) that Start 1 plays
The 2 Start pointers are independent of each other, but both play the same length (number of samples).
This allows, for example, 1 sample file to have 2 different samples (each 50% of the total length). Setting
Start 1 at ‘0’ and Start 2 at halfway and the Length at 50%, will play the 2 samples at once each
loop/SYNC trigger. You can also overlap the Start pointers (Start 2 can be ‘first’).
However, the Length is governed by Start 1 as follows:
• If Start 1’s playback length hits the end of the sample file, this will reset the Start 1 pointer back to
the beginning. If there are more samples to be played in the Start 2 section, they will not be heard.
• If the section of the sample file using Start 2 is shorter than the Length, the OUT2 signal will be 0V
until Start 1 section is finished playing. The Start 1 section will always play for the set Length.
Waves/Lissajous/Visual Display/Eye Candy
Waves – not to be confused with a ‘real-time oscilloscope’, this display shows the data in the
corresponding wavetable of each output (or tabular data for Noise and Sample Player). The display will not
reflect FM or frequency changes. The ‘Expanded’ view shows more vertical detail. In the lower-left corner,
there will be a H/M/L shown for High/Mid/Low frequency range. A long encoder press jumps back to the
Settings page.
Lissajous figure – sometimes called a ‘X-Y Plot’, this is a real-time display of the OUT1 data plotted on
the X axis (left-to-right) and OUT2 data plotted on the Y axis (up/down). Due to the screen resolution, the
figure may not be continuous but seen as a series of individual dots. The OUT1 and OUT2 wavetables need
to be different, either in phase or in waveshape, otherwise only a diagonal line appears.
Visual Displays – this is a graphic visualization of the 3 CV inputs plotted as various grids (Morph
modes) or the real-time spectra when in FM mode. A long encoder press jumps back to the Settings
page.
Eye Candy – like the ‘color organs’ of the ‘70s, this maps the 3 CV inputs into different
displays/patterns/shapes. There are several to choose from. No telling what you may find here. A long
encoder press jumps back to the Settings page.
File Menu
A FAT32-formatted uSD card must be inserted into the holder (label ‘up’) before you can access data from
the File menu page. The display will show the file names in MSDOS 8.3 format. Longer names can be
used, but will not be displayed in their entirety. There are 2 types of files shown: .BIN (binary files,
usually firmware updates) and .WAV (Microsoft WAVE format). The E352 can load in only 2 specific WAV
files (best created using WaveEdit):
1) a single wavetable of 256 words
2) a bank of 64 wavetables
The firmware checks the length of the WAV file and then decides during a LOAD operation which type will
be loaded. You can then select the USR bank (A-Z) or which position in a user bank (1-64). Writing/saving
to the uSD card is not supported. A long encoder press jumps to the ‘Exit’ option (you don’t have to scroll
all the way to end of the file directory to exit after loading).
Frequency Page
The top display shows the frequency of OUT1, based on a single-cycle
wave or wavetable. Note that wavetables can have multiple zerocrossings and hence a higher frequency than displayed (for example, the
first row of ROMA sine harmonics).
At lower frequencies (L range) the display shows the period of the
output.
The Quantizer has 3 controls:
Quantize: turns the 12-steps/oct quantizer on/off.
Offset: -103 to +102 cents offset from the main output, only when the
Quantizer is On. This is a ‘super-fine tuning’ mode so you can dial in the
pitch once quanzized.
FM Quantize: the quantizer can also be optionally applied to the FM In
CV.
FM Calibration: when in Linear FM mode, there will be an offset in pitch from EXPO mode. If this is
annoying, select ‘Go’ and the E352 will quickly run an internal calibration to reduce this offset (it may not
be able to 100% cancel it out). Be sure there no CV plugged into the FM In jack when running the
calibration routine.
Colors
The E352 allows various text, backgrounds, and other elements to be reprogrammed from factory
defaults. There is no ‘error checking’ for having foreground and background colors the same value. The
colors are selected by mixing the RGB amounts, and the result is shown in a preview window.
Patches
There are 8 patch memories in the E352. The patches are saved in internal FLASH, not on the uSD card.
You cannot load a patch from the uSD card into the E352.
Saving – this stores all of the menu settings, from every menu page, into internal memory. The positions
of the panel controls are NOT saved. Patch memory cannot be ‘write protected’ and writing is immediate
(no ‘Are you sure?’ message will appear).
Loading - the current ‘state’ of the E352 is replaced by the data in the patch memory location. This
operation is fast (less than 200ms) but not instantaneous. The only mechanism to load a patch is with the
encoder selection: there is no “load patch using a CV” function.
Mode Help
This screen has 2 parts:
1 – the current VCO Mode is shown, and the mapping of the 3 CV parameters (X/Y/Z), the 1V/Oct input,
and what the 2 outputs are, well…..outputting.
2 – the lower-left corner ‘WaveTbls’ (Wave Tables) will display the filename associated with the 26 USR
wave banks.
Importing Using WaveEdit (USR Banks)
The Bank file used in Sample Player does not have a ‘sample rate’ associated with it like a standard
sampler The file length is fixed at 16K 16bit words + the WAV header. This will be reported (based on the
OS) as either 32KB or 33KB length. Although many samplers/DAWs/libraries are WAV format, they are a
variable length with a specific sample rate. This is why WaveEdit is used to properly format the files.
WaveEdit runs on Windows, Mac and Linux and is available at www.synthtech.com/waveedit
Step 1: Load the sample WAV file into the edit buffer using the Browse… tab. Note in this example, the file
size is much larger than 33KB. WaveEdit resamples the file in order to fit the desired length.
Step 2: Normalized the sample for maximum dynamic range (click Normalize tab)
Step 3: Note the 2 preview panes are “edit buffers”. In order to actually save the final sample file, click
the Import tab at the very bottom left corner. Then you can Save Bank As… to your computer/uSD card.
Note that the file system in the E352 uses the old MSDOS 8.3 file naming format. Longer file names will
be displayed in a truncated version. Flute1.wav is valid, but Flute_Sample_1.wav will have a truncated
name.
When you click the Import tab, the screen shows the Bank data, and then use Save Bank As...
Power Requirement: +12V @ 65ma, -12V @24ma.
Size: 26HP width, 0.85in (21.6mm) deep.
Version 1.4 – April 22, 2019
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