Access Virus Rack User Manual page 108

106 CHAPTER 16
The Parameters
SATURATION CURVE The SATURATION
stage in the filter section offers a selec-
tion of different saturation or distortion
characteristics. You can use these to add
overtones to a sound. The intensity of
the distortion can be varied considerably
via the second half of the OSC VOL con-
trol range. For the distortion 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
special 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 var-
ied.
The SATURATION stage is always down-
stream 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 dis-
torted signal via the second filter as you
see fit.
Let's take look at the SATURATION
modes:
OFF The signal is not processed.
LIGHT, SOFT, MIDDLE, HARD
analog distortion curves with different
characteristics and intensities.
DIGITAL Digital distortion with hard
clipping.
SHAPER
several wave cycles. With the Shaper, you
can drastically warp signals. In some
cases, the results are similar to the spec-
tra of linear frequency modulations.
01111111111111111112
1 SATURATION
Curve
61111111111111111154
VOLUME This knob has two functions:
In the left half of its control range up
to the center position (MIDI value 64),
OSC VOL determines the master volume
of the three oscillators prior to the filter
section input. The Noise Generator and
the Ringmodulator are not affected by
the master volume knob OSC VOL. Their
level is controlled separately in the
OSCILLATOR EDIT menu (see appropriate
section).
In the right half of the control range
from the center position to the far right,
OSC VOL increases the saturation inten-
sity (Gain) for the input of the SATURA-
TION stage (see appropriate section);
however this adjustment is compensated
post-SATURATION stage so that when
you adjust the gain you are not actually
Different
increasing the volume, only manipulat-
ing the tonal spectrum in terms of satu-
ration. The intensity of the remaining
DSP effects available in the SATURATION
Stage is controlled via the OSC VOL
knob.
Sine characteristic curve with
Off≤