Knobula Poly Cinematic User manual

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User Manual"
Thank you for purchasing the Knobula Poly Cinematic polyphonic
synthesiser."
Poly Cinematic is a powerful 56 oscillator synthesiser that features full 8
voice polyphony in a 12hp Eurorack format. "
It is designed to be simple to use, with a dedicated control for each
parameter, giving you immediate access to all the knobs that really
matter in a world of smooth pads and punchy stabs. Reading through
this manual will help you understand how we fitted so much functionality
into such a small space and how you can get the most out of it.

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Attack
Controls The time taken for the note to build up to peak volume when a
key is pressed."
Decay | Sustain
Controls the time taken for the envelope level to decrease to zero whilst
the key is pressed. Rotate past the half way point and the decay
becomes infinite (Sustain) and further turning of the control will lower the
sustain level."
Release
This knob controls The 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 replay the last note or chord that was played into
the midi input. This button will also illuminate whenever a note is being
triggered. Poly Cinematic detects whenever a note or group of notes are
all finally released and then stores these notes, together with velocity
information, into the current chord memory slot. there are 8 chord
memory slots that can be accessed by setting the position of the
modulation wheel (midi) or by setting a voltage at the Chord Select input."
If the unit is factory fresh, or it has just been factory reset, it will still play
a single note even if there is no midi attached so that it 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 cut-off(using the Env Depth).

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Frequency
Controls the cut-offfrequency of the filter."
Env Depth
The amount by which the envelope generator controls the cut-off
frequency."
Low|Notch|High
This switch selects which filter mode to use. Low is a lowpass filter
which attenuates frequencies above the cut-offfrequency, 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."
Key Follow
This adjusts the cut-offfrequency using the pitch of the note. At the off
position the filter cut-offfrequency is always the same no matter which
note is playing, half increases the frequency of the filter with 50% of the
pitch value and full tracks the filter frequency precisely against pitch, so
higher pitched sounds are brighter and fully resonant sounds can be
'played' as a tune.
Filter Section
Each Poly cinematic voice contains a 12db/octave multimode
resonant filter.

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Detune
This big knob controls the tuning of each selected oscillator type. It is
mapped out so that it will fine tune at the important areas like unison, 5th
and octave, but it will coarsely tune in-between those values for more
dissonant sounds."
Turning the knob to zero will produce a unison tuning of all oscillators,
and as you rotate the knob the detuning will 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 the centre
frequency, continue turning and again the flock of frequencies continue
to spread apart and then regroup into an octave and sub octave mixture.
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. There is a
dead area in the centre of the knob where the tuning is fixed, to prevent
accidental tuning errors."
Holding down Shift will fine tune in cents."
Wave
This switch selects between 3 different oscillator types:"
Wave 1 - Super Saw, a free running 7 oscillator 'super-saw' or 'hyper
saw' that can produce rich trance leads or super smooth string pads
depending on your detune setting and the mode switch. Mode Iis mostly
a single oscillator playing the root note with side oscillators providing a
subtle chorus, also when set to Unison it acts as a single sawtooth
oscillator. Mode II is more intense with louder side oscillators and Mode
III is with all 7 oscillators set to full, at the same volume level as each
other. "
Tip: when set to unison in Mode II or III the phases of the oscillators are
frozen in place, so random timbres can be grabbed and locked by
twisting the detune control into unison from a detuned setting.
Oscillator Section
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.

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Wave 2 - Square
Square is based on a three oscillator design with three wave shape
variations selected by the mode switch. Unlike the super saw which is
free-running the square is phase locked to the start of the note which
allows more percussive tones to be created for punchier sounds. The
detuning operates in a similar way and unison will produce a static non-
phasing wave. Mode I is a pure square wave, Mode II is a 33% pulse
wave and Mode III is a pulse wave heavily overdriven to produce even
greater harmonic overtones and thicker detune artefacts."
Wave 3 - Tonewheel Organ
Tonewheel Organ is a blend of pure sine waves in 3 different classic
drawbar combinations. Furthermore the tonewheels are rigged as three
oscillators that can be in unison or detuned 5ths or octaves apart. So it's
kind of 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" and 2" drawbars. And in-between?
Uncharted sonic territory."
Tip: If you want a key click on your organ sound, turn the Decay|Sustain
control past 12 o'clock and set Release to 0. Add a bit of EnvDepth and
resonance to the filter.
Mode
Switches between Mode I, Mode II and Mode III. The effect depends on
the oscillator wave selected above."
Shift
Shift is used to access alternative functions on Poly Cinematic, of which
there are deliberately very few, such is our strict policy against hidden
functions and confusing interfaces. In the oscillator section it controls
fine tuning in combination with the Pitch knob. Holding down shift and
turning Pitch will fine tune +-50 cents and will store that in permanent
memory. Poly Cinematic is otherwise set to a very accurate concert
pitch."
The midi channel can also be set by holding Shift
and Resonance, values range from Omni (all
channels) through from 1 to 16."
Shift and Trigger can be used to permanently save
the 8 chord memories."

Output Section
FX - Reverb
No pad sound is complete without being soaked overnight in a 24bit
stereo reverb. Just one knob controls both the amount of reverb and the
decay time of the reverb. Small values introduce a light room effect,
increasing to a hall all the way to a large cathedral mixed in equally with
the original sound."
External Input Jacks
Midi In
TRS Type-A midi input. Use the lead supplied to connect to a midi
keyboard or any other chord generating device that uses midi."
Trigger
Gate input with same functionality as the Trigger button."
Filt Freq
CV control of the filter cut-offfrequency."
Chord Select
CV control to select one of the 8 chords stored in memory. The voltage at
this input denotes which chord memory will be used to save to or play
from the module."
V/Oct
1 volt per octave CV control of the unit. This affects the pitch of all 8 voices
at once and can be connected to an LFO or a generator of note pitches
such as an analogue CV sequencer."
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General
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
manage 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."
Selecting Chords
Chord memories can be accessed using modulation shell settings (midi) or
a voltage signal in the Chord Select jack (CV). This applies to both
playback and recording through midi."
Adaptive Micro-tuning
Unlike almost every other digital synth ever, Poly Cinematic features
adaptive micro-tuning. What does this mean? Well it means that the notes
played on the Poly Cinematic are not always perfectly in tune, unlike with
the Equal Temperament. Instead Poly Cinematic listens to notes already
being played and sometimes flattens the pitch slightly by about 3 cents. Its
untraceable because it only happens on chords and not on single notes,
its also adaptable so it doesn't matter what key you are playing in and it
sounds so natural and warm we left it switched on forever because without
it... well it just doesn't sound as natural and warm."
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."
Factory Reset
To return the unit to its original factory settings: While powering up the
unit, hold down Shift for 1 second. The Trigger button will flash twice and
the chord memories will be reset to factory chords/notes, Fine Tune is
reset to concert pitch and the midi channel will be set to Omni (all
channels)."
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Midi System Exclusive
Poly Cinematic can receive sysex messages over midi to allow chords to
be programmed to the memory slots without the need for a keyboard and
without audibly playing back the notes."
Stereo
Poly Cinematic has a stereo output because it has a 24bit stereo reverb
built in. The unit can still be used in a mono signal chain using either the
Left or Right output alone."
Installation
Poly Cinematic requires a -12v/+12v eurorack power source and draws
80mA. When the unit is powered up correctly the Trigger button will glow
slightly."
Trouble Shooting
If there is no sound at the outputs:"
•Disconnect all cv and gate inputs."
•Check there is power going to the unit, the Trigger button should be
dimly lit when the unit is correctly powered up."
•Press the Trigger button to test for a sound, the button should light up
brightly when a note is sounded."
•Check that the filter isn't blocking the sound, set to Notch mode."
•Check the envelope Attack isn't too long or the Decay isn't too short."
•Check for sound with a simple set of 3.5mm headphones to rule out
other output chain issues. "
•If none of the above work, Perform a factory reset (see above) and press
the Trigger button again."
Support
Support can be found on our website at https://www.knobula.com/forum."
Or email [email protected]."
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