Novation Ultranova User Manual

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Novation Ultranova User Manual Manual pdf 20 page image

19RE3: Not used.RE4: Portamento TimeDisplayed as: PortTimeInitial value: OffRange of adjustment: Off, 1 to 127With Portamento active, notes played sequentially glide from one to the next, rather thanimmediately jumping to the desired note pitch. The synth remembers the last note playedand the glide will start from that note even after the key has been released. The Porta-mento Time is the duration of the glide, and a value of 70 equates to approximately 1second. Portamento is primarily intended for use in a mono Mode (see RE5 below), whereit is particularly effective. It can also be used in a Poly mode, but its operation can be un-predictable, particularly when chords are played. Note that Pre-Glide must be set to zeroin order for Portamento to be operative.RE5: Portamento ModeDisplayed as: PortModeInitial value: ExpoRange of adjustment: Expo or LinearThis sets the ‘shape’ of the Portamento and Pre-Glide (see RE6 below) transitions fromone note to the next. In Linear mode, the glide alters the pitch evenly between the previousnote and that being played. In Expo mode, the pitch changes more rapidly at irst, and thenapproaches the ‘target’ note more slowly, i.e., exponentially.RE6: Pre-GlideDisplayed as: PreGlideInitial value: 0Range of adjustment: 0, -12 to +12Pre-Glide takes priority over Portamento, though it does use the Portamento Timeparameter to set its duration. Pre-Glide is calibrated in semitones, and each note playedwill actually begin a on a chromatically-related note up to an octave above (value = +12)or below (value = -12) the note corresponding to the key pressed, and glide towards the‘target’ note. This differs from Portamento in that, e.g., two notes played in sequence willeach have their own Pre-Glide, related to the notes played, and there will be no glide‘between’ the notes.Although the use of Portamento is not recommended in Poly modes when playingmore than one note at a time, this restriction does not apply to Pre-Glide, whichcan be very effective with full chords.RE7: Polyphony ModeDisplayed as: PolyModeInitial value: Poly1Range of adjustment: Mono, MonoAG, Poly1, Poly2, Mono2As the names imply, three of the possible modes are mono and two are polyphonic.Mono – this is standard monophonic mode; only one note sounds at a time, and the “lastplayed” rule applies.MonoAG – AG stands for Auto-Glide. This is an alternative mono mode, which differsfrom Mono in the way Portamento and Pre-Glide work. In Mono mode, Portamento andPre-Glide apply both if notes are played separately, or in a legato style (when one note isplayed when another is already held down). In MonoAG mode, Portamento and Pre-Glideonly work if the keys are played in a legato style; playing notes separately produces noglide effect.Poly1 – in this polyphonic mode successively playing the same note(s) uses separatevoices and the notes are therefore ‘stacked’, so the sound gets louder as more notes areplayed. The effect will only be evident on patches with a long amplitude release time.Poly2 – in this alternative mode, successively playing the same note(s) uses the originalvoices, so the volume increase inherent in Poly1 mode is avoided.Mono 2 – this differs from Mono in the way the Attack phases of the Envelopes are trig-gered. In Mono mode, when playing Legato style, the envelopes are only triggered once, bythe initial key press. In Mono 2 mode, every key press will re-trigger all the Envelopes.RE8: Not usedenvelopeSThe UltraNova provides a great deal of lexibility in the use of envelopes in sound creation,based on the familiar ADSR concept.The ADSR envelope can be most easily visualised by considering the amplitude (volume)of a note over time. The envelope describing the “lifetime” of a note can be split into fourdistinct phases, and adjustments are provided for each of these:Attack – the time it takes for the note to increase from zero (e.g. when the key is pressed)to its maximum level. A long attack time produces a “fade-in” effect.Decay – the time it takes for the note to drop in level from the maximum value reached atthe end of the attack phase to a new level, deined by the Sustain parameter.Sustain – this is an amplitude value, and represents the volume of the note after the initialattack and decay phases – i.e., while holding the key down. Setting a low value of Sustaincan give a very short, percussive effect (providing the attack and decay times are short).Release – This is the time it takes for the note’s volume to drop back to zero after the key isreleased. A high value of Release will cause the sound to remain audible (though diminish-ing in volume) after the key is released.Although the above discusses ADSR in terms of volume, note that the UltraNova isequipped with six separate Envelope generators, allowing control of other synth blocks aswell as amplitude – e.g., ilters, oscillators, etc.Pressing the ENVELOPE button [15] opens the Envelope Menu, which has two pages foreach envelope. One of the SELECT buttons and one of the PAGE buttons will be illumi-nated, indicating that more than one envelope is available to be controlled and that furthermenu pages are available. A total of 16 parameters per envelope is displayed for adjust-ment, eight per Page. Note that the last parameter on Page 2 is common to all envelopes,and this appears on Page 2 for all envelopes.Envelope 1 (Amplitude) parameters (Page 1)Envelope generator 1 controls the ADSR parameters of the notes’ amplitudes.RE1: Amplitude Attack TimeDisplayed as: AmpAttInitial value: 2Range of adjustment: 0 to 127This parameter sets the note’s attack time. With a value of 0 the note is at its maximumlevel immediately the key is pressed; with a value of 127, the note takes over 20 secondsto reach its maximum level. At the mid-setting (64), the time is approx. 220 ms (providedAmplitude Attack Slope (Page 2, RE1) has a value of zero).TIMEKEY "ON" KEY "ON"PITCHPortamento TimeTIMEKEY "ON" KEY "ON"PITCHPortamento TimeATTACK DECAY RELEASESUSTAINTIMEKEY "ON" KEY "OFF"VOLUMEOSCILLATORS O1Semi O1Cents O1VSync O1Wave O1PW/Idx O1Hard O1Dense O1DnsDtn0 0 0 Sawtooth 0 127 0 0O1PtchWh O1WTInt FixNote ModVib MVibRate OscDrift OscPhase NoiseTyp+12 127 Off 0 65 0 0deg WhiteO2Semi O2Cents O2VSync O2Wave O2PW/Idx O2Hard O2Dense O2DnsDtn0 0 0 Sawtooth 0 127 0 0O2PtchWh O2WTInt FixNote ModVib MVibRate OscDrift OscPhase NoiseTyp+12 127 Off 0 65 0 0deg WhiteO3Semi O3Cents O3VSync O3Wave O3PW/Idx O3Hard O3Dense O3DnsDtn0 0 0 Sawtooth 0 127 0 0O3PtchWh O3WTInt FixNote ModVib MVibRate OscDrift OscPhase NoiseTyp+12 127 Off 0 65 0 0deg WhiteFILTERS F1Freq F1Res F1Env2 F1Track F1Type F1DAmnt F1DType F1QNorm127 0 0 127 LP24 0 Diode 64FBalance FRouting FreqLink ResLink-64 Parallel Off OffF2Freq F2Res F2Env2 F2Track F2Type F2DAmnt F2DType F2QNorm127 0 0 127 LP24 0 Diode 64FBalance FRouting FreqLink ResLink-64 Parallel Off OffENVELOPES AmpAtt AmpDec AmpSus AmpRel AmpVeloc AmpRept AmpTTrig AmpMTrig2 90 127 40 0 0 OFF Re-TrigAmpAtSlp AmpDcSlp AmpAttTk AmpDecTk AmpSusRt AmpSusTm AmpLvlTk LvlTkNte0 127 0 0 0 127 0 C 3FltAtt FltDec FltSus FltRel FltVeloc FltRept FltTTrig FltMTrig2 75 35 45 0 0 OFF Re-TrigFltAtSlp FltDcSlp FltAttTk FltDecTk FltSusRt FltSusTm FltLvlTk LvlTkNte0 127 0 0 0 127 0 C 3E3-E6 E3Att E3Dec E3Sus E3Rel E3Delay E3Repeat E3TTrig E3MTrig10 70 64 40 0 0 OFF Re-TrigE3AtSlp E3DcSlp E3AttTk E3DecTk E3SusRat E3SusTim E3LvlTk LvlTkNte0 127 0 0 0 127 0 C 3