Pulsar Modular 900 Series User manual

Pulsar 900 Series Modular Synthesizer
Owner’s Manual
First Edition, 21/04/16
Introduction
Congratulations! You have purchased a powerful tool for synthesizer
performance and composition. The Pulsar 900 Series Modular Synthesizer is
the result of painstaking analysis and emulation of classic, large format
(MU), synthesizer modules. !
!
Great care has been taken to make sure that both sound and operation is
as close as possible to actual hardware. Some minor differences are
intentional for better ease of use. Most of the modules are modeled on
modern updates, while some are original designs.
License
When first installed, the P900 will run in demo mode until a valid
license has been activated. In demo mode, the license activation dialog
will display each time the plug-in UI is opened, and intermittent noise
bursts will appear after a few minutes of use.

User Interface
The P900 features a hardware accelerated, high resolution, user interface
that allows arbitrary panning and zooming within the confines of the
virtual rack, while interacting with controls. It is rendered at a high
frame rate to ensure immediate feedback and smooth operation.
Navigation
Track pad two finger gesture, used for panning.
Track pad pinch gesture, used for zooming.
Right click + mouse move, used for panning.
Command key + mouse move, used for zooming.
Controls
Right click + mouse move, linear mapping used for control knobs.
Right click (right or left) used for toggle switches.
Cable connections

Right click and drag, used for patch points.
Right click white/input connector, used for disconnecting patch points.
!
Note: Outputs can have any number of connections. Inputs can only have
one connection.
Menus
View/Reset - Restores the original rack view.
View/Zoom Lock - Disables zooming capabilities, so that the rack is
always aligned the the window.
Rack Size - Configures the size of the virtual rack.
Antialiasing - Controls oversampling. The default is 2X which is fine for
most situations. Some audio rate modulation, certain filter
configurations and ring modulation may benefit from more aggressive
oversampling. The antialiasing setting applies only to synthesizer
modules. The effects modules do not benefit from oversampling and are
therefore excluded.
Show/Hide Patch Coords - Controls patch cord visibility. The colored
plugs are still displayed which helps to show connections.
Show/Hide Patch Notes - Controls the visibility of the patch
documentation window. The support rich text and may include images as
well. If enabled, the window can still be closed and will only reappear
when the next patch is loaded.
Clear Patch - Removed all rack connections.
Clear Rack - Removes all installed modules.
License - Displays the license management dialog.
Rack configuration
Double click, used enter slot editing mode.
Double click, used to install the currently visible module.
Once in editing mode you can either use:
Track pad two finger gesture, to scroll up/down in the module library.
Right click + mouse move, to scroll up/down in the module library.
Right click menu, to directly install from a list of modules.
Right click menu, to eject the module in the current slot.
Right click menu, to cancel the editing operation.
View Menu (Logic Pro)
This menu is part of the AU spec and may be implemented in different ways
depending on the host. The P900 supports alternative window size
configurations through this menu, to show either a single row, or two
rows of modules.
Modules
The P900 includes a variety of different modules. However, because of CPU
processing limitations and also due to the limitations of the v2
AudioUnit parameter spec, it has a fixed set of modules available as
indicated below.
The P900 will only process the audio and control paths that are actually
connected. Unused modules or unused module inputs/outputs in the rack do
not incur any processing overhead. In addition, it is tolerant of
connection loops and will simply detect and ignore them."

!
BLANK PANEL
Blank panels are automatically installed in each free
slot, when a rack is cleared, and when modules are
ejected.

930: MIDI/CV CONVERTER (1X)
The MIDI/CV module is where all MIDI events from the
host DAW get converted into (virtual) CV/Gate
voltages and injected into the modular engine, which
runs at the host sample rate or some multiple thereof
when oversampled. Smoothing filters are used where
needed to avoid audible steps when generating high
resolution control voltages from (course) MIDI data.
In addition to the 6 outputs, the MIDI/CV module has
a few other functions as well. It stores MIDI
programs (patches) and displays relevant MIDI CC
events (pitch bend, modulation, velocity and pressure
events) as they are received.
This is also where you configure which type of voice
allocation to use for the current patch. Mono and
Legato both use a single voice where the former will
emit gate signals that can be used to re-trigger
envelopes for each new key press when a key is held.
Both modes use last note priority.
The P900 also supports fully polyphonic
configurations in either 4-voice or 8-voice mode.
There’s quite a structure under the hood to make this
possible in a free form modular environment. In order
to mimic the behavior of classic polyphonic
synthesizers, certain modules must run in a ‘global
space’ such that they are perfectly in sync for each
voice. Currently, this applies to the 924 LFO and the
928 S&H modules. What this does is to make it
possible to program the kinds of modulations that
exist on classic polyphonic synthesizers, where LFOs
and some other shared functions are global in nature
and are located on the motherboard instead of in each
voice card. Secondly, it simply sounds better for
most uses.!
!
However, since the 921-B oscillator also can function
as an LFO, it is still possible to get non-
synchronized, per-voice modulation.
!
I/O Specification
PITCH
Keyboard CV
1V/Oct
GATE
Keyboard Gate
5V
BEND CV
Pitch Bend
-6V to 6V
MODULATION CV
Mod Wheel
-6V to 6V
VELOCITY CV
Key Velocity
-6V to 6V
PRESSURE CV
Channel Aftertouch
-6V to 6V

921-A: OSCILLATOR DRIVER (1X)
As with hardware modules, the 921-A oscillator driver
has a hidden internal connection to each 921-B
oscillator. It contains an exponential converter that
controls the base pitch and also the pulse width of
all connected oscillators.
The semitone/octave switch sets the scale used for
the frequency control, either +- 6 semitones or +- 12
octaves.
I/O Specification
FREQUENCY
Controls oscillator pitch
1V/Oct
WIDTH
Controls pulse width
-6V to 6V

921-B: OSCILLATOR (4X)
The 921-B oscillator’s frequency control allows
modifying the base pitch by +- 12 semitones.
The range switch modifies the base pitch in 1 octave
steps, except for the LO setting which disconnects
from the driver and uses a base pitch of 1 Herz.
I/O Specification
SYNCH IN.
Oscillator hard sync
A/C
A.C. MODULATE
For A/C pitch modulation
A/C
Will block D/C.
D.C. MODULATE
For D/C pitch modulation
D/C
SINE
Sine wave
Audio
TRIANGULAR
Triangle Wave
Audio
SAWTOOTH
Sawtooth Wave
Audio
RECTANGULAR
Pulse Wave
Audio
PW set by driver.

CP10: MIXER (3X)
The CP10 is a “clean” mixer. It
will not clip or saturate and has a
gain of 6 dB. It can be used to mix
either A/C or D/C signals.
I/O Specification
OUTPUTS
A/C or D/C
Inverting output
preferred for filter.
INPUTS
A/C or D/C

904 A/B/C/D/E: FILTER (2X)
The 904 filter module comes in 5
different flavors:
904-A: Transistor Ladder Low Pass
904-D: Diode Ladder Low Pass
904-E: OTA Low Pass
904-F: State Variable Multimode
904-G: Sallen Key Low Pass
The frequency range switch controls
the range of the fixed control
voltage according to:
1: 1Hz to 5kHz
2: 4Hz to 20kHz
3: 16Hz to 80kHz (limited by SR)
I/O Specification
SIGNAL INPUT
Audio In
Audio
SIGNAL OUTPUT
Audio Out
Audio
CONTROL INPUTS
Filter Cutoff CV
-6V to 6V
Inputs are summed.
NOTCH
Notch filter output
Audio
904-F only.
BANDPASS
Bandpass filter output
Audio
904-F only.
HIGHPASS
Highpass filter output
Audio
904-F only.

911: ENVELOPE GENERATOR (3X)
The 911 envelope generator has a general shape
matching the analog equivalent, however the Pulsar
version has modified timings with an attack rate
closer to that of the Minimoog (which the author
happens to like better). Some hard pluck sounds
included in the factory presets could not be done
without it.
Note that the 911 controls are laid out differently
from the typical ADSR. Here you have from top to
bottom: Attack, Decay, Release, Sustain
I/O Specification
TRIG IN
Gate signal
5V
OUT
Envelope signal
0 to 6V