Using Menus; The Oscillator / Mixer Section - Novation X-Station User Manual

Using Menus - The Oscillator / Mixer Section

Using Menus

Many of the more specialised features and utilities of the KS Synth are
accessed from menus. There are nine separate menus, each of which
consists of several pages linked together.
In KS Synth mode, the top row of buttons in the Envelopes section of
the front panel are used to access menus by pressing the relevant but-
ton. The menus available are :
MONO / POLY Selects the Oscillator Menu
GATE Selects the Mixer Menu
HOLD Selects the Filter Menu
ON / OFF Selects the LFO Menu
DEST Selects the Arpeggiator Menu
GATE Selects the Sync Menu
F1 Selects the Wheels Menu
F2 Selects the Aftertouch / Breath Menu
F3 Selects the Pan Menu
As soon as a Menu is entered, the display will show the first page of
whichever menu was accessed the previous time the Menu was used.
For example, if the Filter Menu had been previously selected, the dis-
play would show one of the pages of the Filter Menu.
Filter Q norm
<<MENU>>
Once any of the Menus have been selected, the BANK / PAGE buttons
to the left of the display are be used to navigate forwards and back-
wards between the menu's pages. Once the desired menu page has
been reached, the values are altered by using the DATA / VALUE knob.
The display behaves in the same way as when a front panel control is
adjusted. The current value being shown on the bottom line and the
new value being shown on the top line. MENU text in capitals is at the
left of the display to inform that a MENU is selected.
Once in a Menu it is still possible to alter any of the front panel controls,
but it will be noticed that when a knob is moved, the display text for the
knob just moved will only be shown on the screen for a short period of
time. (This time is set using the Function Display Timeout parameter in
the Global Menu - see page 25). After a short time, the display will
revert back to showing the current menu page.
It is possible to exit a Menu by pressing the current Menu button again,
or to move to another menu by pressing a different menu button.

The Oscillator / Mixer Section

The Oscillators generate pitched waveforms (as described in the
Synthesis Tutorial chapter) and these are fed into the Mixer. Most of
the controls which determine the pitch and waveform of the Oscillators,
and how they react to modulation are in this area of the front panel.
Also found here are the level controls for the Mixer.
Oscillator Select Button
There are three independent Oscillators, a Noise generator and a Ring
Modulator. Each one can be independently controlled by the buttons
and knobs in the Oscillator area.
To make make the controls active and to see waveform and octave set-
tings for Oscillator 1, press the OSCILLATOR button once or more until
the OSC 1 LED lights. For Oscillator 2, press until the OSC 2 LED
lights. For Oscillator 3, press until the OSC 3 LED lights. For the Noise
generator, press until the NOISE LED lights, and for the Ring
13
Modulator, press until the X MOD LED lights.
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OCTAVE Button
Sets the basic pitch of Oscillator 1, 2 or 3 in Octave jumps. To change
the basic pitch of the selected Oscillator to +1 octave for example,
repeatedly press the OCTAVE button until the display indicates that +1
has been selected.
NOTE: The 0 position corresponds to the concert pitch of 440Hz when
note A above middle C is played.
PW SELECT Button and PWM Knob
The function of the PWM knob is dependent on the selection of the PW
SELECT button. With the POSITION setting selected, the PWM knob
will manually control the pulse width of a square waveform (the select-
ed waveform for the Oscillator must be Square wave for this to hap-
pen). In order to understand how the Pulse Width knob affects various
waveforms, examples, using factory presets are used. See the following
paragraphs titled: Obtaining a classic Square/Pulse PWM sound and
Obtaining a Double Saw 'thick' detuned sound.
With the PWM knob in the central position, the Pulse Width wave
becomes a square wave. As the knob is adjusted clockwise, or anti-
clockwise, the Pulse Width becomes narrower producing what is
termed as a Pulse Wave.
With the LFO position selected by the PW SELECT button, the width of
the Pulse Wave may be modulated by LFO 2. The intensity of this mod-
ulation is determined by the PWM knob. With the knob at central posi-
tion there is no effect. Turning clockwise or anticlockwise introduces the
effect. Continuous variation in the width of a pulse waveform (which is
what is happening when LFO 2 is modulating it) changes the harmonic
content. This is pleasing to the ear, especially at lower pitches where all
the associated harmonics fall within the audio range. This creates the
classic PWM sound, as described below.
When modulated by the MOD ENV, the effect is most apparent when
using fairly long Mod Env Attack and Decay times.
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THE KS SYNTHESIZER