Note Mode And Keyboard Mode - 4ms Company Spherical Wavetable Navigator User Manual

Note Mode and Keyboard Mode

Pressing both the LFO->VCA and LFO Type (! ) buttons at the same time toggles
between three modes in this order: Mute Mode, Note Mode, and Keyboard Mode. If you hold
down a Channel button while pressing the LFO->VCA and LFO Type buttons, only that
channel will change modes. Otherwise, all channels will change modes.
Mute Mode
Mute Mode is the default mode. The Channel buttons mute/unmute the channels, and the
LFOs run continuously. When a channel is muted its Channel button will be off, otherwise it'll
be white.
Note Mode
Note Mode is useful when using the 1V/oct, Transpose or Spread CV jacks. In Note Mode,
the LFOs stop running continuously and instead become envelopes which fire once
whenever the channel's note changes.
An example patch would be to patch a 6-channel CV sequencer into each of the SWN's 1V/
oct jacks. Each channel on the SWN would fire its envelope (and thus play a note) only when
the sequencer changes its pitch. Each channel can trigger at a different time, so this is an
easy way to create polyphonic melodies, with the pitch and rhythm controlled entirely by the
sequencer and the envelope and audio waveshape and timbre controlled by the SWN.
The Scale selection on the SWN is important in Note Mode. Only notes in the currently
selected scale for each channel will cause the envelope to fire. It's highly recommended to
use the semitone quantization scale if you want consistent results with a sequencer that
outputs quantized voltages. Double-quantizing (i.e. once on the sequencer and once with the
SWN) can lead to unpredictable results. If you sequencer or CV source is not quantized, then
any scale selection on the SWN will work fine.
Notes can also played by pressing the Channel buttons manually. This triggers the
envelopes in the same way as changing the CV on the 1V/oct jack. The envelopes are ASR
(attack-sustain-release) in Note Mode, so the note will sustain as long as you hold down the
button.
In Note Mode, the Channel buttons glow a dim pink.
When switching to Note Mode from Mute Mode, the LFOs reset to a ramp-down envelope
with a reasonable duration for playing note, and any channels with quantization turned off are
set to a Semitone scale (see Scale section, page 23). When switching back to Mute Mode,
the previous LFO speeds and shapes are restored.
Keyboard Mode
Keyboard Mode is similar to Note Mode, but the envelopes will only fire when the Channel
buttons are pressed. The 1V/oct jacks can be used to set the pitch of each channel, but
changing notes will not cause the envelopes to fire. Only pressing the buttons will play notes.
When a button is pressed the current 1V/oct value will be latched, so the note will not change
while you hold the button down. This is useful to generate random notes by patching an LFO
or sequence into the 1V/oct jack.
The envelopes are AD (attack-decay) in Keyboard Mode, so unlike Note Mode, the notes
don't sustain when you hold the buttons down.
In Keyboard Mode, the Channel buttons glow a dim purple.
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