Operation Manual

20 Parameters
A modulation can be viewed as the variation of a parameter around its current value controlled
by a modulation signal. The different modulation controls act as gain knobs which multiply the
modulation signal by a certain factor. The amount of modulation is adjusted by click-holding on
a modulation dot and and moving the mouse (or the finger on a track pad) either upwards and
downwards or leftwards and rightwards. The amount of modulation is indicated by colored rings
or lines that appear around or along the parameter control, the length of the ring or line being
proportional to the amount of gain applied to the modulation signal.
Note that the colored rings (or line in the case of the Balance control) appear in a bold and light
shade. A bold segment indicates a variation of the parameter when the value of the modulation
signal is positive while a light shade indicates the direction of the change when the modulation
signal is negative. In the case of the MIDI pitch modulation, the zero position is the middle C of
a keyboard (C4, MIDI note 60). The light segment represents the range down to one octave below
middle C, and the bold segment represents the range up to one octave above middle C. In the case
of the MIDI velocity modulation, the zero position corresponds to a MIDI velocity value of 64.
Values from 63 to 0 will therefore follow a light colored segment while the values from 65 to 127
will follow bold segments.
4.1.5 Synchronisation
The rate of the LFO module and certain output effects can be synchronized to the clock of the
host sequencer. To do so, simply turn On the Sync switch. Sync values are adjusted with the Rate
knob and range from 1/8 of a quarter note (a thirty-second note) to 16 quarter notes (4 whole notes)
where the duration of the whole note is determined by the host sequencer clock. The effect can
also be synced to a triplet (t) or dotted note (d).
4.2 General Notions of Acoustics
4.2.1 Normal Modes
Exciting an object such as the skin of a drum by hitting it with a mallet results in a complex vibra-
tional motion. It is this vibration of the object that will create pressure waves in the surrounding
air which will propagate to our ears as sound waves.
Mathematically, a complex vibrational motion can be decomposed into elementary motion pat-
terns called the normal modes of the object. Under a normal mode, all the parts of the structure
move in phase and at the same frequency in a sinusoidal motion. In other words, this complex
motion results from the fact that objects naturally oscillate at many different frequencies at once,
each frequency being related to a normal mode of vibration. These frequencies are called partials;
the lowest partial is called the fundamental and the higher ones are referred to as overtones. When
relating to music, the fundamental corresponds to the note played and the overtones are called
harmonics as in most musical instruments their frequency is a multiple integer (or almost) of the
fundamental.