I’ve made various approximations of the wogglebug over the years but I never really understood what it actually was, and the makenoise labels didn’t help either. Recently though hermod started demystifying the Wogglebug and think I can take a pass at it, even though alterations the design will be inevitable since there is no normaling in Audulus 3.
wogglebug prototype 2.audulus (85.6 KB)
Ok, so there is no awards for authenticity, but I’m pretty pleased with progress so far.
I ended up scrapping the first PLL design and not using the zero crossing node. Instead I scaled up the amplitude of the signal in the feedback loop to extend the range it could push the frequencies. This makes the pitch tracking much worse but also sounded a lot more like the wogglebug I have in my case.
I’m not sure if it makes sense to implement influence, as I am pretty sure that breaks internal normalization. This is the least fudged version I could manage.
Oops, I just realized I wog rate should probably be wog time but oh well, that’s something to fix tomorrow.
@robertsyrett it looks great to me! I just downloaded and look forward to playing with this. I have a (what I may be mistaken in thinking) similar concept in my Microvolt in the Random Complexity slider section of the Random generator (which is not a true random, as it is made from a shift register, which, as the voltage increases, provides a larger chance of introducing a new value into the random steps) in the Modulations section of the synth.
Tbh, I have been scratching my head for a while trying to figure out what kind of things a Wogglebug module can be used for, as there seems to be a very fine line between “same same same” predictable, and “whoa! I was not expecting that at all!” wildly unpredictable. The Microvolt’s tolerance for that seems to be about 50-55% slider.
I haven’t really figured out a good use for that part of the synth, other than for chance gates, so it sits largely untouched 90% of the time in the patchable hardware section of my studio (desk) in the pic below. I typically end up giving full preference to the Morph-able LFO that is on the other side of the crossfader between random and the LFO.
Perhaps I am just not being creative enough, and need to explore new possibilities for it? I think the module you have built here will give me a better idea of what I can use the random to modulate while still feeling like I can predict what sounds my work will produce. I don’t know why, but I seem to work better and have more creative thoughts when I am working with an oscilloscope in the mix, so this module should help quite a bit! 
The shift register is a little different take on stepped randoms, it’s more like the Turing machine. If you wanted to try something new I would recommend running the stepped voltage through the disting’s quantizer mode for some melodic looping. Then again the disting also has a quantized shift register mode to do the whole process internally, which is even easier.
The wogglebug is more or less pure chaos in terms of outputs. I mostly use it for the stepped and smooth randoms as well as the additional clock. Occasionally I try to use the audio outs, but I admit they are very distinctive and untameable by design.
I think the wogglebug is still remarkable as a concept though. It’s been through at least 4 iterations, and is the rare attempt to paint the portrait of a fictional character in the form of a module. I believe the idea was to venerate the PLL, to magnify its eccentricities, and to give it a colorful garment like the character of the wogglebug.
BTW is you ever owned a woggle bug, and by downloading my patch you definitely do, you are a member of the order of the wogglebug for life. Welcome.
WOW!!! I had no idea about where the Wogglebug name came from. I already thought MN was the most interesting and innovative module maker, and this just further solidified my opinions.
It’s interesting how times change from one century to the next; I never in my life would have believed someone if they told me that using a pun was regarded as a highly offensive act ~100 years ago!
Can you imagine if things were still like that? Stand up comedy could not exist if people still took umbrage with others simply using wit and knowledge to crack wise about current events and such. What a boring world that would be!
And just two centuries before that, any normal person was highly at risk of being burned at the stake or drowned while bound to a chair, if someone accused them of being a witch.
How strange the world used to be. Sorry about the tangential thought patterns, but that is the thought process chain reaction that Wiki article started 
Lastly, that patch is dope, and I am proud to be a member! 
