Modor NF-1 User manual

MODOR DIGITAL POLYPHONIC SYNTHESIZER
USER MANUAL

Contents
1 Getting Started . . . 1
1.1 Connections and settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Menunavigation ............................ 2
1.3 Loadingpatches............................. 3
1.4 Savingpatches ............................. 3
1.5 Patchinitialisation ........................... 4
2 Overview 5
2.1 Structureofapatch........................... 5
2.2 Frontpaneloverview .......................... 6
3 Oscillator section 9
3.1 Usingtheoscillators .......................... 9
3.2 Oscillator waveforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.2.1 Sawtooth PWM oscillator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.2.2 Square PWM oscillator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.2.3 Triangle PWM oscillator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.2.4 Syncoscillator ......................... 12
3.2.5 Additive harmonics oscillator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.2.6 Sonar noise oscillator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.2.7 Wind noise oscillator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.2.8 Arcade noise oscillator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.2.9 Sine FM oscillator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.2.10 Sine feedback FM oscillator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.3 Whitenoise ............................... 16
3.4 Ringmodulator ............................. 17
4 Filter section 18
4.1 LP/HP/BP/BSfilter........................... 18
4.2 Formantfilter .............................. 20
4.3 Filterconfiguration ........................... 22
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5 Amplifier section 23
6 Effects section 24
6.1 Chorus/Flanger effect unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
6.2 Delayeffectunit............................. 26
7 Modulation section 28
7.1 LFOs .................................. 28
7.2 Sample&Hold.............................. 29
7.3 Envelopes................................ 30
7.4 ModulationMatrix ........................... 31
7.5 PitchModulation ............................ 33
7.6 Amplitude Modulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
7.7 Other popular modulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
8 Menu Reference 37
8.1 Load................................... 37
8.2 Save................................... 38
8.3 Name .................................. 38
8.4 InitPatch ................................ 38
8.5 Parameter ................................ 39
8.6 SystemSettings............................. 39
8.7 FormantFrequencies .......................... 40
8.8 Tonescale ................................ 40
8.9 SysexDump............................... 41
8.10Menuoverview ............................. 43
9 MIDI Implementation 44
9.1 Midi implementation chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
9.2 Midicontrollerlist ........................... 46
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1
Getting Started . . .
1.1 Connections and settings
Before you can start playing the Modor NF-1 a few connections have to be made.
This chapter is written to help you make the very first connections and some system
settings so that you can immediately start playing your instrument. By following these
instructions, you will have your Modor synth up and running in a few minutes time.
Audio Connections Connect the Modor NF-1 to an external amplifier or mixing de-
vice with an audio cable set via the Left and Right jack connectors on the backside of
the instrument. These are two mono 6mm jack sockets. The external amplifier or mix-
ing device should be switched off before making this connection, and only be switched
on after the connection has been made to prevent damage to the equipment.
Don’t mistake the left- and right-audio connectors for the sustain- and volume pedal
connectors next to it. These don’t output audio signals, but bear a weak electrical
tension that might damage your audio equipment in some cases.
Midi Connection To play the instrument, it should also be connected to an external
keyboard or (computer) sequencer via a midi connection. Connect the midi-out output
of this external midi source to the midi-in connector on the backside of the Modor
NF-1.
Power Connection Finally, the Modor NF-1 has to receive power via the power con-
nector. Connect the adaptor, and turn the volume knob (POW/VOL) on the upper left
corner of the front panel counterclockwise to get the instrument running. Theoretically,
any 9V DC-adaptor with 5W power (600mA) will be sufficient, but there are many DC-
adaptors around providing unstable or even plain wrong electrical tensions. Only use
the DC-adaptor delivered with the Modor NF-1 or refer to a specialised electronics
dealer. Damage to the instrument caused by using a wrong adaptor is excluded from
warranty.
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1.2. MENU NAVIGATION CHAPTER 1. GETTING STARTED . . .
Setting Midi Channel Finally the instrument has to be set to the right midi channel
such that the channel numbers of the external midi keyboard and the Modor NF-1
match with each other. Look up in the midi source device on which channel the midi
data for the Modor is being transmitted, so that we can set the same channel on both
devices.
You can find the Midi channel setting in the System Settings menu. Quickly push
the MENU button 6 times to access the System Settings menu (see §1.2 below for
more info on menu navigation). Next, select the system parameter ”Midi Channel” by
turning the SELECT data encoder, and set the correct MIDI receive channel with the
VALUE control [1-16]. Next press MENU again or press NO/DEST to leave the menu.
1.2 Menu navigation
The menu of the Modor NF-1 exists out of 9 menu items. When the MENU button is
hit you enter the menu, and the first menu item is shown on the upper display line. A
black dot starts running from right to left over the display. By pressing MENU again
before the dot reaches the left side of the screen, the next menu item is selected. If you
stop hitting MENU, after about 1 sec the black dot reaches the left side of the display,
and you enter the indicated menu. Following menus can be entered:
1. LOAD: Load a patch from internal memory
2. SAVE: Save a patch into the internal memory
3. NAME: Give your patch a name
4. PATCH INIT: Initialise the patch
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1.3. LOADING PATCHES CHAPTER 1. GETTING STARTED . . .
5. PARAMETER: To adapt a few sound parameters that have no dedicated knob on
the front panel
6. SYSTEM SETTINGS: To set some global system parameters
7. TONESCALE: Change the tuning of a patch with quarter tones up or down
8. FRMFRQ: Set the formant frequencies of the formant filter
9. MIDI DUMP: Dump a single patch or the complete patch memory using Midi
Sysex messages
Next, after entering a certain menu, data can be selected and altered using the SE-
LECT encoder and VALUE control. Sometimes you need to validate your choice by
pressing the MENU button again, or you might need to approve or cancel your choice
by using SRC/YES or DEST/NO. While in the menu, on any moment you can press
DEST/NO to cancel and leave the menu.
1.3 Loading patches
Hit the MENU button 1 time and wait 2 seconds to enter the LOAD menu. You should
see the following screen: On the first line you see ”LOAD” to indicate you are in
the LOAD menu, on the second line you see the active patchbank and -number and
patchname (of course, possibly with another patchnumber and patchname as in the
example below).
You can now scan through all the available patches in the Modor’s memory using
the SELECT and VALUE controls and YES/SRC-button. Press MENU again to select
and load a chosen patch, and confirm your choice with SRC/YES.
You can push DEST/NO at any time to cancel the load operation and return to the
patch you were using before. This way you can listen to the patches in the memory
without loosing your actual work, and compare your active patch to any patch in the
Modor NF-1’s memory.
1.4 Saving patches
Saving patches goes identically to loading: press the MENU button twice within one
second to enter the SAVE menu. Select a slot in the memory using the SELECT and
VALUE controls and YES/SRC-button. This slot will be overwritten with the actual
patch and patchname if you now hit MENU again and confirm with SRC/YES.
When you play the keyboard during the save operation, you can hear the patch in
the Modor NF-1’s memory that’s about to be overwritten. This way you can check
which memory position can be overwritten before actually doing it.
Hitting DEST/NO at any time cancels the save operation and exits the menu of the
Modor NF-1.
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1.5. PATCH INITIALISATION CHAPTER 1. GETTING STARTED . . .
1.5 Patch initialisation
A last thing we explain in this ”Getting Started ...”-chapter is how to reinitialise the
actual patch. If you want to start building up a new patch completely from scratch, this
might be helpful. Quickly hit the MENU button four times to select the INITIALISE-
menu and wait one second to select it (the black dot reaches the left side of the screen).
You now just get two options: Initialise or Cancel, make your choice with SRC/YES
or DEST/NO.
After initialisation, you have a patch consisting of a sawtooth wave on OSC1, the
other oscillators have their volumes at zero. The lowpass filter is fully opened and has
no resonance, and the amplifier envelope just has a gate-function. No effects are added
to the init sound.
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2
Overview
2.1 Structure of a patch
In this part, we consider how to create or adapt a patch. A ’patch’ might also be called
a ’sound’ or an ’instrument’, a patch is defined by a series of parameter settings that
determine on how the sound is generated, processed and transformed by the different
sections of the synthesizer. When you push a key on the keyboard, a sound is gener-
ated by the Oscillator section, filtered by the Filter section, amplified by the Amplifier
section and finally somehow altered by the Effects section. That is the general basic
structure of many so-called ’subtractive’ synthesizers, among which the Modor NF-1.
There is also a fifth section, the Modulation section. In this section a number of modu-
lation signals is produced which can be used to alter or ’modulate’ the sound creation
parameters in the oscillator, filter, amplifier and effect sections. Each of these parts of
the synthesizer is further explained in the next chapters.
Oscillators Filters Amplifier Effects
Modulation
The Modor synth contains:
•Oscillator section, chapter 3
–3 oscillators with 10 waveforms
–a white noise source
–a ring modulator combining oscillators 2 & 3
•Filter section, chapter 4
–a classic LP/HP/BP/BS-filter with output drive
–a formant filter creating voice-like sounds
•Amplifier section, chapter 5
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2.2. FRONTPANEL OVERVIEW CHAPTER 2. OVERVIEW
–an amplifier with volume and pan settings (in PARAMETER menu) and
input drive
•Effects section, chapter 6
–a combfilter effects unit, creating chorus and flanger effects
–a delay effects unit
•Modulation section, chapter 7
–3 low frequency oscillators (LFO’s)
–4 envelope generators
–a random sample-and-hold (or noise) modulator and a lowpass-filtered ver-
sion of this
–velocity, aftertouch, expression pedal, ... and a number of other modulation
signals
–a modulation matrix with 7 freely assignable modulation ”wires” to route
any source to any destination
2.2 Frontpanel overview
You can find 43 rotary knobs and 20 pushbuttons on the frontpanel of the Modor NF-1,
grouped in the sections described above. Each of these sections get further detailing in
the next chapters.
In a short overview, following controls are found:
•Oscillator section, chapter 3
–OSC1, OSC2 and OSC3 selection buttons to select which oscillator is being
edited
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