Knobula Poly Cinematic User manual

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Thank you for purchasing the Knobula Poly
Cinematic polyphonic synthesiser."
Here at Knobula we set out to provide
smart modules that deliver great sounds
without degree level complexity, so you can
concentrate on the clever stuffof patching
it all into your rack of dreams."
This manual will help you to understand
how to get the most out this powerful unit.

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Attack
Controls the attack portion of the envelope"
Decay | Sustain
This knob controls the Decay portion of the sound until the pointer is
past the half way point where the decay becomes infinite. At this point
the Sustain mode kicks in and will instead control the Sustain level.
Further turning of the control will lower the sustain level. The decay
rate in this instance is now controlled by the Release knob."
Release
This knob controls the release portion of the envelope after a key is
released. When in Sustain mode (see above) it also controls the initial
decay rate to the sustain level."
Trigger
Pressing this button will play the last note or chord that was played, If a
midi keyboard was connected."
If the unit is factory fresh, or factory reset, it will play a single note that
can be played monophonically over CV Gate."
Holding down shift and pressing Trigger will save all the chords into
persistent memory so they can be recalled after a power cycle.
Envelope Section
The envelope section controls both the amplifier and filter to
modulate the volume and filter cutoff(using the Env Depth).

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Frequency
Controls the cut offfrequency of the filter."
Env Depth
This knob controls the cut offfrequency over time using the envelope
generator."
Low|Notch|High
This switch selects which filter mode to use. Low is a lowpass filter
which attenuates frequencies above the cutofffrequency, this is the
standard go-to type for most sounds. Notch removes frequencies at
the cut offfrequency and has a nasal, phaser like quality ideal for
thicker retro string sounds, and High is a highpass filter that cuts
frequencies below the cut offfrequency, good for thinner glassier type
sounds."
Resonance
The Resonance knob controls the feedback through the filter and
accentuates the sound at the cut offfrequency, making sounds more
squelchy. Use carefully as it can self-oscillate at higher settings."
Filter Section
Each Poly cinematic voice contains a 12db/octave
multimode resonant filter with 3 different modes.

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Detune
This big knob controls the tuning of each selected oscillator type."
Turning the knob to zero will produce a unison tuning of all oscillators,
as you rotate the knob the tuning is mapped to musically blend
different frequencies both up and down, with a central oscillator always
playing the root note. At some point the frequencies break away into a
discordant mush and regroup at a 5th above and below, continue
turning and again the flock of frequencies continue to spread apart and
regroup into an octave above and sub octave. It's the most powerful
knob in your rack, use it responsibly."
Pitch
This knob controls the root note of the unit, turning it will change the
frequency in discrete chromatic steps up or down up 1 octave. Holding
down Shift will fine tune in cents."
Wave
This switch selects between 3 different oscillator types:"
Wave - Supersaw, a 7 oscillator monster that can produce rich trance
leads or super smooth pads depending on your detune setting and the
mode switch. Mode I is classic full on 7 oscillator mayhem, Modes II
and III are different blends of the 6 side oscillators, III being the most
subtle, mostly featuring the centre oscillator with detuning less audible."
Oscillators
There are 3 wave types in the Poly Cinematic, featuring
between 3 and 7 oscillators per voice. Much thought has
gone into controlling these different groups of oscillators
using minimal controls in an intuitive musical way but
without sacrificing any significant functionality.

Wave - Square
Square is a triple wave-shaped square wave oscillator array featuring 3
configurations of 3 oscillators to help you control the harmonic content.
Its good for percussive piano sounds , distorted guitar and ring
modulated cymbal effects. There are 3 configurations selected by the
Mode switch: mode I is 3 oscillators operating in parallel through a
distorted wave shaper, keeping things moving but gnarly. Mode II is
one oscillator with two side oscillators synched to it, a static sound
that can have harmonics added by twisting the detune control. Mode III
is a hybrid between synced and free running oscillators, again forced
through a wave-shaper to accentuate the harmonics."
Wave - Tonewheel
Tonewheel is a blend of pure sine waves in 3 different classic drawbar
combinations. Furthermore the tonewheels are a threesome that can
be in unison or detuned 5ths or octaves apart. See where this is going
yet? It's an organ on top of an organ on top of another organ. A simple
tweak of the detune control at unison sounds like a Leslie speaker
speeding up and slowing down, a further tweak introduces 2 2/3'
drawbars and further still 8 foot and 2 foot drawbars. And in-between?
Uncharted sonic territory."
Tip: If you want a click on your organ sound, turn the Decay|Sustain
control past 12 o'clock and set Release to 0. Add a bit of EnvDepth to
the filter.
Mode
Mode affects each wave type in different ways, see note above on how
it applies to each wave type
Shift
Shift is used to access alternative functions on Poly Cinematic, of
which there are deliberately very few. In the oscillator section it controls
fine tuning in combination with the Pitch knob.

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Setting The Midi Channel
To set a midi channel hold down Shift and turn the resonance knob. Midi channels are mapped to
the knob as follows: Knob set at zero - omni mode (all midi channels received) as you turn the
knob channels 1 through 16 can be selected. If you are troubleshooting your midi connection,
best to set it to omni mode (factory default) until you here something playing, then tune into the "
unique midi channel using Shift and Resonance knob."
FX - Reverb
No pad sound is complete without being soaked overnight in a 24bit stereo reverb. Just one knob
offers more reverb and increasing decay times the more you turn it, it's that simple."
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Chord Memory and CV Patching
The chord memory is the most powerful feature of Poly Cinematic as it represents the missing link
between Midi and CV/Gate. Without connecting Midi, a factory fresh (see Factory Reset) Poly
Cinematic will play a single note when you either press the Trigger button or send a gate signal to
Trigger in, it will continue to play until you release the button or the gate signal drops (technically
not a trigger I suppose). If you connect via Midi and play it, the chord memory will continuously
keep the last note/chord you played in memory and assign it to the button, unless the gate/trigger
is being pressed. So beware of erasing over the last wonder chord you played, but read on and
find out how you can store more chords. Connect CV to the Osc Freq input and you can play your
chord or single note or 8 note octave stack using a CV sequencer or keyboard, so you could think
of your Poly Cinematic like a regular monophonic oscillator module with midi addressable chords."
Connect a CV into the Chord Select input and you can choose different memory slots to record
chords into, 8 in total. It can be quite tricky to mangage but once you get it, its a fun
compositional tool that just keeps on giving. If you like what you've programmed into the chord
memory, and you've remembered not to play any Midi over them, you can save them to persistent
memory by holding down Shift and Trigger together and despite what happens later, your chord
set will return when you power cycle the unit."
Factory Reset
To return the unit to its original factory settings: While powering up the unit, hold down Shift for 2
seconds. The chord memories will be reset to factory chords/notes, Fine Tune is reset and the
midi channel will be set to Omni (all channels)"