SSF entity BASS DRUM Quick Start Manual

SYNOPSIS

The Entity Bass Drum Synthesizer is a modern amalgamation of the most important functions to create a wide range of bass, bass drum and
various percussive rhythm based sounds. Additional functions have been incorporated in order to increase both the versatility in use within a
modular environment and broaden the sound sculpting abilities of the Entity itself.
The Entity BDS is a studio quality, high delity analog design with focus on maintaining maximum clarity and dynamic range. Special care has
been applied to producing an isolated, low inherent noise and high headroom device suitable for home, studio and live/DJ use. Entity excels as
both a center piece or just an addition to that monster patch. But you may nd that when using Entity, very few additional modules are
needed to achieve satisfying results.
Please take some time to read over the manual, play with the controls and try out some examples on the following pages. Get familiar with
the subtleties of the controls as you will be rewarded after just a short time of experimenting. As always, Enjoy!

TRIGGER INPUT and PING!

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The TRIGGER input jack is used to initiate a percussive tone and trigger an envelope from the Rise/Fall generator. Any signal above 1V
can be used - not just triggers or gates.
The PING! button is used to audition a sound without anything patched into the TRIGGER input.

BODY and BODY CV

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The BODY control emulates the response of a drum head. It is a subtle control and the e ect can vary depending on the status of
other parameters like RING and FM levels. The center position is the most tuned response while Tight produces the least resonant,
lowest amplitude and loose produces a abbier sound. BODY CV works best with bipolar voltages but will accept any polarity CV.
The Body Control works as an o set when external CV is used.

ENVELOPE GENERATOR

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The built in RISE/FALL envelope generator is a powerful feature of the Entity BDS. It can be used to optionally modulate the frequency
and or amplitude of the sound via the FM LVL and AMP switches. The envelope can also be used stand-alone via the +ENV output on
the bottom left of the module - or self patched from that jack into the other voltage controllable functions of Entity.
The envelope output jack is accompanied by a novel DUCK output. This is an inverted and positively o set copy of the envelope output.
This jack can be used creatively but commonly utilized for patching into external VCA CV inputs to keep the VCA normally on until a
note/envelope is triggered via Entity BDS. For instance, a bass, lead or pad could be patched into an external VCA and that signal will
"duck out" in volume when Entity BDS is triggered.
RISE controls the attack stage time of the envelope, FALL controls the decay stage time.
The RISE CV and FALL CV inputs are used to voltage control these functions. The controls become standard CV attenuators when
signals are patched into the CV inputs.
At the top left of the module are a set of switches in the ENV SHAPE section that independently alter the shape of the two envelope
stages. These can be set to logarithmic, linear or exponential. The shapes provide a huge variety of ways to a ect the frequency and or
amplitude of the resultant sound.
An interesting feature of the envelope generator is the way it is set to reset upon recurring trigger signals. Rather than reset upon every
new trigger, the envelope waits until it has nished the Rise stage and reaches the re-trigger threshold during the Fall stage. This
provides some additional frequency and/or amplitude dynamics to occur between a set number of sequential triggers. This a ect
occurs when the Rise time is set beyond the duration of the actual percussive sound produced. For instance, you can achieve e ects like
slight pitch and/or amplitude changes between beats or a steady rise in pitch/amplitude other a larger number of beats. De nitely
worth experimenting with!

PITCH and 1V/OCT

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The PITCH control tunes the tonal frequency of the output. Featuring a large span of control from about 8Hz to roughly 2.2kHz. Both higher and lower frequencies are capable using the 1V/OCT and/or
FM CV inputs. The 1V/OCT input is used for tracking Entity with a sequencer, keyboard or as an additional FM input. The module will reliably track at least four or more octaves.
FM LVL, FM CV and FM SWITCH
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The FM LVL control is a bipolar attenuator. Center position reduces the modulation depth to zero. Fully right is maximum positive depth, fully left is maximum inverted depth. FM CV jack is used for patching external modulation
sources to frequency modulate the output. The switch below FM LVL has three positions that select the routing to the FM LVL control. The rightmost position selects
into the FM CV jack. The center position will sum any signal patched into
RING and RING CV
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The RING control a ects the resonance and resonant decay time of the output signal. The amount of resonance/decay produced by this function is independent of the other controls. However, using the internal
envelope or external CV to control the amplitude (volume) in the OUTPUT VCA section (see below) can have an a ect on how much resonant decay is heard - a useful sound design feature. At maximum setting, RING
will produce a sustained self oscillation. When set to minimum, a small amount of resonance will still be present. The RING CV input is used to modulate the RING function and the RING control works like a standard
attenuator when RING CV is in use.
OUTPUT, AMP CV and SWITCH
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The OUTPUT control a ects the amplitude (volume) of the sound. This control has two functions which are dependent on the position of the switch below the control. When the switch is set to AMP, the OUTPUT
control works like a standard volume attenuator - min position will fully attenuate and max position produces a 16Vpp output level (while saturation level is in min position). If a signal is patched into AMP CV, the
control behaves as a cross-fader, fading between the full CV signal value in the min position and full nominal output level in the max position. Similarly, when the switch is set to ENV, the control fades between the
full internal envelope signal at min, and full nominal volume at max. The cross-fade feature is useful for achieving better control over signal dynamics - similar to a parallel compression type behavior.
It can be useful to use the internal envelope or external CV to modify the output dynamics - for example, you could have a long RING decay set but use the AMP VCA to attenuate the sound before the RING decay ends
and use the envelope shape controls to modify the amplitude dynamics etc.
SATURATION and SAT CV
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The SATURATION control a ects the harmonic content of the sound using a multistage, discrete transistor topology. Just a touch will add a bit of punch while the full range o ers heavy saturation e ects onto the
output signal. When both the OUTPUT and SATURATION controls are at max, a small amount of hard clipping is introduced. If only soft clipping is desired (more bass heavy, softer high frequency distortion) you can
back down on the output control. The saturater does add a bit of amplitude to the signal but the already high headroom of the output section allows you to back o the output level a bit while still retaining a higher
than normal output volume.
A-MIX INPUT
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A-MIX is short for Ampli er Mix. This is an auxiliary input into the nal output VCA stage. This input is useful for mixing other signals with the Entity BDS sounds. For example, noise can be mixed with the output to
make a snare sound, etc. Using the internal envelope or an external CV to control the output levels will help to shape these signals into percussive sounds.
FM CV with the internal envelope generator. The leftmost position selects the internal envelope only.
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FM CV only and doubles as an "OFF" selection if no CV is patched
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