3.5

Table Of Contents
187MainStage Instruments
Sub knob: Generate square, pulse, and white-noise waveforms with the sub-oscillator.
The sub-oscillator also allows you to route a side chain signal through the ES1
synthesizer engine. See Use the MainStage ES1 sub-oscillator.
2’, 4’, 8’, 16’, and 32’ buttons: Transpose the pitch of the oscillators up or down by
octaves. The lowest setting is 32feet and the highest is 2feet. The use of the term feet
to determine octaves comes from the measurements of organ pipe lengths. The longer
and wider the pipe, the deeper the tone.
Modulate ES1 pulse width
In MainStage, rotate the Wave knob to a position between the square wave and pulse
wave symbols.
The pulse width can also be automatically modulated in the modulation section (see
Use the MainStage ES1 router). Modulating the pulse width with a slowly cycling LFO,
for example, allows periodically mutating, fat bass sounds.
MainStage ES1 oscillator waveforms
The table outlines the basic tones of the oscillator waveforms—how they affect your
synthesizer sound.
Waveform Basic tone Comments
Sawtooth Warm and even Useful for strings, pads, bass, and
brass sounds
Triangle Sweet sounding, softer than
sawtooth
Useful for flutes, and pads
Square Hollow and “woody” sounding Useful for basses, clarinets, and
oboes
Pulse “Nasal” sounding Great for reed instruments, synth
blips, and basses
Use the MainStage ES1 sub-oscillator
The ES1 sub-oscillator is used to make your sound richer. Its pitch matches the frequency
of the main oscillator. You can choose from the following sub-oscillator waveform options:
A square wave that plays one or two octaves below the frequency of the primary
oscillator
A pulse wave that plays two octaves below the frequency of the primary oscillator
Variations of these waveforms, with different mixes and phase relationships, resulting in
various sounds
White noise, which is useful for creating percussion sounds as well as wind, surf, and
rain sounds
OFF, which allows you to disable the sub-oscillator
EXT, which allows you to run an external channel strip signal through the ES1
synthesizer engine, by using a side chain