Reference Manual

467 Live Instrument Reference
The LFO’s speed is set with the Rate knob. The switches below this knob toggle the Rate between
frequency in Hertz and tempo-synced beat divisions.
The entire Filter section can be toggled on or off via the switch next to its name.
Global and Keyboard Parameters
Tension’s Global and Keyboard Parameters.
The remaining section contain all of the parameters that adjust how Tension responds to MIDI
data, as well as controls for performance parameters such as tuning and portamento.
The Keyboard section contains all of Tension’s polyphony and tuning parameters. The Voices
chooser sets the available polyphony, while Priority determines which notes will be cut off when
the maximum polyphony is exceeded. When Priority is set to High, new notes that are higher
than currently sustained notes will have priority, and notes will be cut off starting from the low-
est pitch. Low Priority is the opposite. A setting of Last gives priority to the most recently played
notes, cutting off the oldest notes as necessary.
The Octave, Semi and Tuning controls function as coarse and fine tuners. Octave transposes the
entire instrument by octaves, while Semi transposes up or down in semitone increments. The Tun-
ing slider adjusts in increments of one cent (up to a maximum of 50 cents up or down).
The pitch bend modulation range in semitones is set by the P. Bend slider.
Stretch simulates a technique known as stretch tuning, which is a common tuning modification
made to electric and acoustic pianos. At 0%, Tension will play in equal temperament, which
means that two notes are an octave apart when the upper note’s fundamental pitch is exactly
twice the lower note’s. But because the actual resonance behavior of a vibrating tine or string
differs from the theoretical model, equal temperament tends to sound “wrong“ on pianos. In-