User Manual

CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 390
offers an option to toggle Normalize on or off. When enabled, the oscillator's overall output
level is maintained as you draw additional harmonics. When disabled, additional harmonics
add additional level. Note that the volume can become extremely loud if Normalize is off.
You can export your waveform in .ams format to the Library/Samples/Waveforms folder via
an option in the (PC) /
Ctrl
(Mac) context menu. Ams les can be imported back
into Operator by dragging them from the Browser onto one of the oscillator's display areas.
Ams les can also be loaded into Simpler or Sampler.
Hint: Both the built-in and user waveforms can be copied and pasted from one oscillator to
another using the (PC) /
Ctrl
(Mac) context menu.
More Oscillator Parameters
The frequency of an oscillator can be adjusted in the shell with its Coarse and Fine controls.
An oscillator's frequency usually follows that of played notes, but for some sounds it might
be useful to set one or more oscillators to xed frequencies. This can be done for each
individual oscillator by activating the Fixed option. This allows the creation of sounds in
which only the timbre will vary when different notes are played, but the tuning will stay the
same. Fixed Mode would be useful, for example, in creating live drum sounds. Fixed Mode
also allows producing very low frequencies down to 0.1 Hz. Note that when Fixed Mode is
active, the frequency of the oscillator is controlled in the shell with the Frequency (Freq) and
Multiplier (Multi) controls.
Operator includes a special Osc<Vel control for each oscillator that allows altering frequency
as a function of velocity. This feature can be very useful when working with sequenced
sounds in which the velocity of each note can be adjusted carefully. Part of this functionality
is the adjacent Q (Quantize) button. If this control is activated, the frequency will only move
in whole numbers, just as if the Coarse control were being manually adjusted. If quantize is
not activated, the frequency will be shifted in an unquantized manner, leading to detuned
or inharmonic sounds (which very well could be exactly what you want...).
The amplitude of an oscillator depends on the Level setting of the oscillator in the shell
and on its envelope, which is shown and edited when the Envelope display is visible. The
envelopes can also be modied by note velocity and note pitch with the Vel and Key
parameters available in the Envelope section of each oscillator's display.