Access Virus Rack XL User Manual page 70

70
CHAPTER 7
The Parameters
SATURATION CURVE
The SATURATION stage in the filter section of-
fers a selection of different saturation or distor-
tion characteristics. You can use these to add
overtones to a sound. Beyond that, you are free
to radically bend sounds using further DSP ef-
fects. The intensity of the distortion or DSP ef-
fects can be varied considerably via the second
half of the OSC VOL control range. For the dis-
tortion curves, this intensity range is equivalent
to a gain boost of 12 decibels, in the case of the
"Digital" curve as much as 24 decibels. A spe-
cial feature of the VIRUS' SATURATION stage is
that, despite the fact that its gain is boosted,
the signal level is kept constant via OSC VOL so
that only the tonal color or timbre of the sound
is varied.
The SATURATION stage is always downstream
of (post) Filter-1 irrespective of the given filter
routing. Consequently, in serial filter modes, the
SATURATION stage is always located between
the two filters. You can thus filter the oscillator
signal conventionally with the first filter, distort
the signal, and process the distorted signal via
the second filter as you see fit.
The Effects section of the VIRUS features a fur-
ther distortion module called DISTORTION. Its
design is largely identical to that of the SATU-
RATION, except for one major difference:
whereas SATURATION affects each voice sepa-
rately, DISTORTION processes all voices col-
lectively in the effects section. This makes a
huge difference in tone.
Let's take look at the SATURATION modes:
- OFF The signal is not processed.
- LIGHT, SOFT, MIDDLE, HARD Different an-
alog distortion curves with different charac-
teristics and intensities.
- DIGITAL Digital distortion with hard clipping.
- SHAPER Sine characteristic curve with sev-
eral wave cycles. With the Shaper, you can
drastically warp signals. In some cases, the
results are similar to the spectra of linear fre-
quency modulations.
- RECTIFIER Continuous rectification of the
signal; this type of distortion is independent
of the given level.
- BITREDUCER Continuous reduction of the
digital signal's bit depth; generates digital
quantization noise.
- RATEREDUCER Continuous reduction of
the digital sampling rate; generates digital
aliasing.
- RATE+FLW The RateReducer with keyfol-
low; the sampling rate follows the played
pitch.
- LOWPASS 1-pole low-pass filter for moder-
ate processing of high frequencies.
- LOW+FLW The low-pass filter with keyfol-
low; the cutoff frequency follows the played
pitch.
- HIGHPASS 1-pole high-pass filter for mod-
erate processing of low frequencies.
- HIGH+FLW The high-pass filter with keyfol-
low; the cutoff frequency follows the played
pitch.
To reiterate the point, the amount of distortion,
intensity of the DSP effects, and the cutoff fre-
quencies of the 1- pole filter are controlled via
the OSC VOL knob.
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1 SATURATION
Curve
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Off≤