Modor OS014 User manual

MODOR DIGITAL POLYPHONIC SYNTHESIZER
USER MANUAL - v5 for OS014

Contents
1 Getting Started . . . 1
1.1 Warning................................. 1
1.2 Connections and settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.3 Menunavigation ............................ 3
1.4 Loadingpatches............................. 3
1.5 Savingpatches ............................. 4
1.6 Playingmonophonic .......................... 4
1.7 SafetyMode............................... 5
1.8 Patchinitialisation ........................... 5
1.9 Autosave ................................ 6
1.10 Inspect actual parameter values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2 Overview 7
2.1 Structureofapatch........................... 7
2.2 Frontpaneloverview .......................... 8
3 Oscillator section 11
3.1 Using the oscillators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.2 Oscillator waveforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.2.1 Sawtooth PWM oscillator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.2.2 Square PWM oscillator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.2.3 Triangle PWM oscillator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.2.4 Syncoscillator ......................... 14
3.2.5 Additive harmonics oscillator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.2.6 Sonar noise oscillator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.2.7 Wind noise oscillator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.2.8 Arcade noise oscillator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.2.9 Sine FM oscillator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.2.10 Sine feedback FM oscillator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.3 Whitenoise ............................... 19
3.4 Ringmodulator ............................. 19
iii

4 Filter section 20
4.1 LP/HP/BP/BSfilter........................... 20
4.2 Formantfilter .............................. 22
4.3 Filterconfiguration ........................... 24
4.4 Formant filter Midi CC’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
5 Amplifier section 26
6 Effects section 27
6.1 Chorus/Flanger effect unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
6.2 Delayeffectunit............................. 29
7 Modulation section 31
7.1 LFOs .................................. 31
7.2 Sample&Hold.............................. 32
7.3 Envelopes................................ 33
7.4 ModulationMatrix ........................... 36
7.5 PitchModulation ............................ 37
7.6 Amplitude Modulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
7.7 Other popular modulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
8 Tempo synchronisation 41
9 Microtonal scales 43
9.1 Modor scale - quarter tones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
9.2 JustIntonation.............................. 44
9.3 EqualTemperament........................... 45
9.4 HarmonicRow ............................. 45
9.5 Wilson Hexanies and Dekanies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
9.6 One Note Off-scale ET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
9.7 User scales - Saving user scales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
10 Menu Reference 48
10.1Load................................... 48
10.2Save................................... 49
10.3Name .................................. 49
10.4InitPatch ................................ 49
10.5Parameter ................................ 50
10.6SystemSettings............................. 51
10.7 Formant Frequencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
10.8Tonescale ................................ 53
10.9ChordMemory ............................. 54
10.10SysexDump............................... 54
10.11Menuoverview ............................. 57
11 MIDI Implementation 58
11.1 Midi implementation chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
11.2Midicontrollerlist ........................... 60
iv

1
Getting Started . . .
1.1 Warning
Disclaimer This instrument can produce loud noises that can damage your ears and
speakers. Modor Music can never be held responsible for any damage, neither tempo-
rary or permanent, to your equipment, your ears, or the ears of other people around you
including the audience on public or private shows and/or broadcasts.
In practice Pay special attention to the extreme settings of the feedback parameters
in the Chorus/Flanger and Delay effect sections. These can result in sudden loud noise
bursts. Get accustomed to the results produced by it while playing on a low volume,
before you get surprised by it’s effect when playing out loud or during a live gig.
1.2 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.
On devices with serial number 170000 or higher, you can also connect headphones
to the left audio connector with a 6mm TRS-connector.
1

1.2. CONNECTIONS AND SETTINGS CHAPTER 1. GETTING STARTED . . .
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. On devices with serial number 170000 or higher, there’s also a Midi-over-USB
connector.
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 clockwise to get the instrument running. Theoretically, any
center-positive 9V DC-adaptor with 9W power (1000mA) will be sufficient, but there
are many DC-adaptors around providing unstable or even plain wrong electrical ten-
sions. 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 ex-
cluded from any warranty regulation.
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. 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 §1.3 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.
2

1.3. MENU NAVIGATION CHAPTER 1. GETTING STARTED . . .
1.3 Menu navigation
The menu of the Modor NF-1 exists out of 10 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
5. PARAMETER: To adapt a few parameters that have no dedicated frontpanel
knob
6. SYSTEM SETTINGS: To set some global system parameters
7. TONESCALE: A number of microtonal options
8. FRMFRQ: Set the formant frequencies of the formant filter
9. CHORD MEMORY: Set up chord memory to play chords with a single key
10. MIDI DUMP: Dump a single patch, a patch bank 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. A full item-by-item reference of the complete
menu can be found in chapter 10.
1.4 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. You can also fast forward through the patch banks
using the MENU button. Confirm your choice with SRC/YES.
3

1.5. SAVING PATCHES CHAPTER 1. GETTING STARTED . . .
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.
Remark: If the ”Load Preview” option in the SYSTEM SETTINGS-menu is OFF,
you won’t hear the patches in memory until you actually load them.
1.5 Saving patches
Saving patches goes identically to loading: now 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. This slot will be overwritten with the actual patch and patchname
if you now hit SRC/YES to confirm.
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.
1.6 Playing monophonic
A patch can be set to polyphonic, monophonic or mono-legato modes. This setting is
saved with the patch and restored when a patch is loaded.
Polyphonic You can play up to 8 notes simultaneously. When playing more than 8
notes, the notes that are already in release are dropped first to make room for a
new note, than the oldest playing note.
Monophonic Only one note can be played, the last played note always has priority.
When a note is released, and the previous note is still being pressed, this note is
retriggered.
Mono-Legato Same as normal monophonic, but now the envelopes continue instead
of being retriggered when playing legato notes. Also Portamento only works on
legato notes.
Poly/mono/legato modes are set in the PARAMETER-menu. Use the menu button
to go to this menu, and use the SELECT-encoder to select the Mono/Poly option. Set
the desired playing mode using the VALUE-control.
4

1.7. SAFETY MODE CHAPTER 1. GETTING STARTED . . .
1.7 Safety Mode
When loading a preset from the NF-1’s memory, the frontpanel control knobs are in
a position that doesn’t correspond to their actual sound parameters. When you turn a
knob on the frontpanel, the sound suddenly changes to the value of the frontpanel knob,
and this change can be very abrupt!
No problem as long as you aren’t touching these control knobs, or if you are on your
own, experimenting with the NF-1 in your home studio. But of course, this can be very
annoying in certain cases, for example when playing live. When accidentaly touching
one of the frontpanel controls, the sound can suddenly change very drastically. That
might give the Modor NF-1 a very unreliable or unstable ’feeling’ on stage or while
jamming in the studio! Imagine what happens when accidentaly turning the coarse
TUNE control, making the NF-1 suddenly go completely out of tune!
Therefore, a safety mode has been installed in OS004 and following OS versions.
When this Safety Mode is activated, the sound parameters do not change when turning
a frontpanel knob, until you are passing their actual value. This setting can be found
in the SYSTEM SETTINGS menu. Activate the menu by pressing MENU 6x, and use
the SELECT-encoder to select this setting. Change it using the VALUE-control.
When Safety Mode is activated and you turn a knob on the frontpanel, a ’<’ or ’>’
is displayed when the parameter change is blocked, which indicates at what side you’ll
find it’s actual value. This safety block is released when you turn the knob passing the
actual value, and the ’<’ or ’>’ dissapears. So, if you want a parameter to change, you
need to ’go get it’ at it’s actual setting and turn it up or down to a new value. This way
sudden changes of the sound are prevented.
1.8 Patch initialisation
How to reinitialise the actual patch? If you want to start building up a new patch com-
pletely from scratch, this might be helpful. Quickly hit the MENU button four times to
select the PATCH INIT-menu and wait one second to select it (the black dot reaches the
left side of the screen). You now get three options when turning the SELECT-encoder:
• Initialise
• Frontpanel
• Autosave
Select one of these, and confirm with SRC/YES (or cancel with DEST/NO).
5

1.9. AUTOSAVE CHAPTER 1. GETTING STARTED . . .
When you choose Initialise, you get a very clean and simple ’Init’ 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.
When you choose ’Frontpanel’, all the parameters are set according to their front-
panel control. All non-continuous parameters (such as waveform, filter type, lfo wave,
...) remain unchanged during a Frontpanel Init. Furthermore, only the parameters of the
oscillators and envelopes that are active (have burning led inside their selection switch)
are set to the frontpanel positions. For example if OSC1 is active and OSC2 and OSC3
are inactive, the parameters MOD, MOD LFO, MOD ENV, TUNE and FINETUNE are
only set to their knob positions in OSC1. Those of OSC2 and OSC3 remain unchanged.
1.9 Autosave
Sometimes it may happen that you loose your work, due to a sudden power cut, ac-
cidentally loading a patch, ... In that case you can reload the Autosave-data in the
PATCH INIT-menu. When you don’t touch the NF-1 for about 1 minute, all data are
automatically saved. This is indicated by a small A -in the upper left corner of the
screen. If you want to reload the autosave data, get into the PATCH INIT-menu (4x
MENU button) and select ’Autosave’ with the SELECT encoder. Press SRC/YES to
load these data.
1.10 Inspect actual parameter values
Sometimes you’ll want to know the actual value of a parameter, without changing
it. For example to investigate how a certain patch is built or how a certain sound is
produced. If you turn a control while keeping the DEST/NO-button pressed down, the
value of this control will be shown on the screen. If you turn the control in the OSC-
or ENV-section the values for all 3 oscillators / all 4 envelopes are shown.
6

2
Overview
2.1 Structure of 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 generated 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 modulation 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
–an amplifier with volume and pan settings (in PARAMETER menu) and
input drive
7

2.2. FRONTPANEL OVERVIEW CHAPTER 2. OVERVIEW
• 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
–WAVEFORM selection button, to set the selected oscillator’s waveform
8

2.2. FRONTPANEL OVERVIEW CHAPTER 2. OVERVIEW
–FM CARRIER and FM MODULATOR buttons, to select harmonics of the
ADD, FM and FBFM waveforms. These buttons have no function if the
selected oscillators have other waveforms than ADD, FM or FBFM.
–MOD control, to modificate the sound of the oscillator [0,127]. The effect
is depending on the active waveform. For example, it sets the pulse width
for the pulse wave.
–LFO control to set the amount of modulation of the MOD parameter by
LFO1 [-64,+63]. If no OSC is selected with the OSC1, OSC2 and OSC3
selection buttons, this control sets the amount of pitch modulation by an
LFO source.
–ENV control to set the amount of modulation of the MOD parameter by
the envelopes [-64,+63]. This is ENV1 for OSC1 MOD, ENV2 for OSC2
MOD and ENV3 for OSC3 MOD. If no OSC is selected with the OSC1,
OSC2 and OSC3 selection buttons, this control sets the amount of pitch
modulation by ENV1.
–TUNE and FINE controls to set the pitch of the selected oscillators. TUNE
sets the pitch in half tone steps [-32,+31], FINE ranges a half tone up or
down [-64,+63].
–OSC1, OSC2 and OSC3 oscillator volume controls to set the volume of
each oscillator [0,127].
–NOISE control to set the volume of white noise [0,127].
–RING control to set the volume of an additional ringmodulator acting on
oscillators 2&3 [0,127].
• Filter section, chapter 4
–Switchable LP/HP/BP/BS-filter
*TYPE button to select between hipass, lowpass, bandpass or notch
(bandstop) filters.
*CUTOFF control to set the filter’s cutoff frequency [0,127].
*LFO, ENV and KEYB controls to set the amount of modulation of the
cutoff frequency by LFO2, ENV2 and the keyboard position [-64,+63].
A setting of +32 of the KEYB control makes the filter frequency follow
the pitch 1:1.
*RES control to set the ”resonance” or ”filter quality” of the filter [0,127].
–FORMANT filter
*ROUTE button to choose between a parallel or serial configuration of
the LP/HP/BP/BS-filter and the formant filter
*VOWEL button to select 3 sets of formant frequencies (vowels)
*FORMANT control to morph between the 3 chosen vowels [0,127].
*LFO and ENV controls to set the amount of modulation of the formant
morph by LFO2 and ENV3 [-64,+63].
*MIX control to mix the formant filtered signal with other signals [0,127].
• Amplifier section, chapter 5
–DRIVE control to set the amount of distortion of the signal [0,127].
–the volume and pan controls are hidden in the parameter menu.
• Effects section, chapter 6
–Comb filter effect unit, to mix the signal with a slightly delayed version of
9

2.2. FRONTPANEL OVERVIEW CHAPTER 2. OVERVIEW
itself (up to a few milliseconds). To make chorus, flanger and a number of
other effects.
*MIX control to mix between the dry signal and the altered signal
[0,127].
*SPEED control to set the delay modulation speed [0,127]
*DELAY control to set the delay modulation range [0,127]
*DEPTH control to set the delay modulation depth [0,127]
*FEEDBACK control to set the amount of feedback [-64,+63]
–a delay effects unit, to mix the signal with a delayed version of itself (up to
750 milliseconds) to create echo effects.
*MIX control to mix between the dry signal and the delayed signal
[0,127]
*TIME control to set the delay time [0,127]
*FEEDBACK control to set the feedback amount [0,127]
*FILTER control to activate a lowpassfilter on the delayed signal [0,127]
*SYNC button to syncronise the delays with a MIDI clock fed to the
Modor synth by an external sequencer.
• Modulation section, chapter 7
–GLIDE control to set the portamento time
–The envelope subsection, containing 4 3-stage envelopes. By setting T2=0
and L1=L2=127 this turns into a classic ADSR-envelope.
*ENV1, ENV2, ENV3 and ENV4 selection buttons to select the en-
velopes to edit.
*T1, T2, T3 and T4 time controls [0,127].
*L1, L2 and L3 level controls [0,127].
–The LFO subsection, containing 3 LFO’s and a random sample-and-hold
modulator. LFO3’s amplitude is set by the modwheel.
*SYNC button to syncronise LFO2 with a MIDI clock fed to the Modor
synth by an external sequencer.
*WAV1 and WAV2 buttons to set the waveforms of LFO1&2.
*LFO1, LFO2 and LFO3 speed controls [0,127].
*S&H random sample-and-hold speed control [0,127].
• Menu, chapter 10
–MENU button to enter the menu and select a submenu.
–SRC/YES button to set the modulation wire sources (§7.4) or to choose
”Yes” in certain menu’s.
–DEST/NO button to set the modulatione wire destinations (§7.4), to cancel
or to choose ”No” in certain menu’s.
–SELECT encoder and VALUE control to set the menu parameters, select a
patch to load, ...
10

3
Oscillator section
3.1 Using the oscillators
The oscillators are the sources of the sound in a synth. There are three identical fully
independent oscillators in the Modor synth, oscillators 1, 2 & 3. Every oscillator has a
”modification” parameter (MOD), a pitch (TUNE and FINE) and 2 modulation controls
to set an amount of low frequency oscillator and/or an envelope modulation (LFO and
ENV). Further every oscillator has it’s harmonics settings for the ADD, FM and FBFM
waveforms.
Selecting an oscillator: In the oscillator section on the frontpanel we find six push-
buttons and ten rotary knobs. Three of the pushbuttons are used to select which oscil-
lator is being edited (OSC1, OSC2 and OSC3). The accompanying leds show which
oscillators (1,2 and/or 3) are selected, several oscillators can be selected at the same
time. If now any setting in the oscillator section is changed by turning a rotary button
are pushing waveform, this parameter is changed identically for all the selected oscil-
lators. If for example, oscillators 1 and 3 are selected, and the ’coarse pitch’ knob is
set to +12, oscillator 1 and 3 are pitched up 12 semitones, while oscillator 2 stays at it’s
original pitch.
11

3.1. USING THE OSCILLATORS CHAPTER 3. OSCILLATOR SECTION
You can select multiple oscillators simultaneously by pushing their selection but-
tons together.
Remark that these selection pushbuttons are not enabling or disabling the oscilla-
tors! This might be a little confusing when using the NF-1 for the first time. To enable
or disable an oscillator, just set its volume with the OSCILLATOR MIX controls.
Pitch modulation: When none of the three oscillators is selected (the leds in the
OSC1, OSC2 and OSC3 buttons are off) the LFO and ENV controls double up as pitch
modulation controls. By turning these controls an amount of LFO and ENV modulation
of the pitch is possible. ENV1 is the pitch envelope, the LFO source can be chosen in
the PARAMETER-menu (§10) between LS&H, S&H, LFO2 and LFO1.
Selecting a waveform: The first choice to make is the waveform of an oscillator.
There are 10 possible waveforms, treated in the following paragraphs. Every wave-
forms has a MOD (modify) parameter changing the oscillator’s output in a certain way,
for example the pulsewidth modulation on the Square PWM wave or the modulation
depth for FM waveforms.
Sawtooth PWM Pulse width modulation
Square PWM Pulse width modulation
Triangle PWM Pulse width modulation
Sync OSC Pitch of osc synced to base freq
Additive harmonics Harmonic separation
Sonar noise Filter Resonance
Wind noise Hipass filter
Arcade noise Hipass filter
Sinus FM FM amount
Sinus Feedback FM FM amount
This MOD-parameter can be modulated by LFO1 and/or an Envelope (ENV1,
ENV2 and ENV3) using the rotary buttons MOD LFO and MOD ENV.
LFO1 →MOD OSC1, OSC2 en OSC3
ENV1 →MOD OSC1
ENV2 →MOD OSC2
ENV3 →MOD OSC3
The pitch of every oscillator can be adjusted independently using TUNE for semi-
tone steps, and FINE for finer subdivisions in the semitones.
Oscillator mix Each of the three oscillators, the white noise source and the ring
modulator have their own level control in the OSCILLATOR MIX. By turning the
volume up, you enable a sound source. The accompanying led wil be lit if the volume
is set to a value bigger than zero.
12

3.2. OSCILLATOR WAVEFORMS CHAPTER 3. OSCILLATOR SECTION
3.2 Oscillator waveforms
3.2.1 Sawtooth PWM oscillator
The sawtooth oscillator generates a sawtooth wave with a pulse width modulation as
in the figure below. With the modification parameter MOD at zero this gives a regular
sawtooth waveform, turning up MOD creates ”holes” in the sawtooth that sound a bit
like the classic PWM on a square waveform.
3.2.2 Square PWM oscillator
The square oscillator generates a classic ”square” or ”pulse” waveform in which the
MOD parameter determines the duty cycle of the pulse. The sound of this waveform
gets more and more ”thin” with increasing MOD-parameter.
3.2.3 Triangle PWM oscillator
The triangle oscillator creates a classic triangle waveform, from whom the width of the
two halves of the waveform can be changed, as in the figure below. With higher MOD
setting, more and more overtones are added to the sound of the triangle wave.
13

3.2. OSCILLATOR WAVEFORMS CHAPTER 3. OSCILLATOR SECTION
3.2.4 Sync oscillator
This oscillator creates a synced square wave with a decaying amplitude as shown in the
figures below. This sounds very much like a synced waveform found on many other
subtractive (virtual) analog synthesizers.
3.2.5 Additive harmonics oscillator
The additive harmonics waveform creates harmonic sine waves with frequencies in
multiples of the base frequency f. The modification parameter (MOD) determines the
distance N between consecutive sinewaves in multiples of f, N can be varied from 1 to
16.
N=1 :f, 2f, 3f, 4f, . . . (sawtooth)
N=2 :f, 3f, 5f, 7f, . . . (square wave)
N=3 :f, 4f, 7f, 10f, . . .
N=4 :f, 5f, 9f, 13f, . . .
and so on . . .
f
123456789f 123456789f 123456789
14

3.2. OSCILLATOR WAVEFORMS CHAPTER 3. OSCILLATOR SECTION
For N=1, we have a sound carrying all the harmonic overtones of f, which creates
a sawtooth wave, and for N=2 we have only the odd harmonics, which creates a square
wave. The only difference is that the number of harmonics that can be created in real-
time is limited. On the lower part of the keyboard we hear that the ”additive sawtooth”
sounds more dull than the ”real sawtooth” of the SAW PWM oscillator.
The additive harmonics oscillator still has another parameter: The FM-carrier pa-
rameter can be used to make the harmonic series start with another harmonic than f.
Use the FM CARRIER button and the SELECT encoder to set another start harmonic.
For example:
S=2 en N=3 : 2f, 5f, 8f, 11f, . . .
S=3 en N=1 : 3f, 4f, 5f, 6f, . . . (a sawtooth with missing lower 2 harmonics)
S=3 en N=2 : 3f, 5f, 7f, 9f, . . .
f
123456789f 123456789f 123456789
3.2.6 Sonar noise oscillator
This oscillator creates white noise filtered by a resonant bandpass-filter. The modi-
fication parameter controls the resonance of this filter. With MOD at zero, you get
bandpass filtered noise, the filter frequency depending on the played note’s pitch. With
increasing MOD, the sound gets more and more tonal, filtering out more and more
noise frequencies around the central peak frequency while enhancing frequencies close
to the peak. At maximum resonance this goes up to an almost pure sine wave of self-
oscillation. A sound that resembles that of a U-boat sonar.
f
f
3.2.7 Wind noise oscillator
The Wind noise oscillator creates a tonal noise. A source of white noise is being filtered
to pronounce the note’s main frequency and it’s harmonics, creating a sound with noisy
harmonics, sounding not unlike a blow on a bottle or a panflute.
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3.2. OSCILLATOR WAVEFORMS CHAPTER 3. OSCILLATOR SECTION
The modification parameter controls a 1-pole hipass filter. With MOD at zero, all
the noisy peak harmonics come through, increasing MOD gradually diminishes the
sometimes disturbing lower parts of this.
The wind noise oscillator sounds particularly well on higher notes, where it can
give the sounds of other oscillators a special bright character in a mix.
f
f
3.2.8 Arcade noise oscillator
This oscillator creates a type of hard noise with a certain tonal character. This type of
noise is remodelled after the noise creation algorithms present in early arcade video
game machines. It creates waves that look like pulses with randomly varying pulse
length.
In the age of early arcade video games the computer processors didn’t have the ca-
pacity to create digital sounds themselves. Instead, computer game consoles had ded-
icated sound/music chips under the hood, able of creating simple basic waveforms to
play melodies, and a rude noise generator for sound effects and ”percussion”. Some of
these chips had the ability to create this typical arcade noise, which had a ”frequency”
to simulate some kind of ”filtered noise”.
It might sound a bit unusual and unusable on its own in a synthesizer, but this
waveform can be used together with other oscillators to produce a noisy, tearing kind
of sound. The MOD-parameter controls a 1-pole hipass filter like on the wind noise
oscillator, eliminating the sometimes annoying lower noise frequencies.
3.2.9 Sine FM oscillator
The sine FM oscillator creates a sine waveform called ”the carrier”, whose frequency
is being modulated by another sine waveform, ”the modulator”. You don’t hear the
modulator itself, but you hear its effect upon the carrier. The MOD-parameter in this
oscillator is the amount of this frequency modulation. With MOD set to zero (and no
modulation of MOD) you will hear a pure sine wave. When turning up the MOD-
control, you hear the sound changing, becoming more and more ”rich” with increasing
MOD. More and more harmonic overtones are added to the basic sine wave.
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