Octave Link - Native Instruments Absynth 5 Reference Manual

10.7.2 Octave Link

When you activate the option Octave Link by clicking on the Octave Link button, ABSYNTH
5 transmits the frequency intervals determined for an octave to the other octaves within the
scope of the tone. For this reason, you do not need to tune every note individually for all of
the octaves. When you have turned on Octave Link and newly tuned a note, the note changes
by the same amount simultaneously in all of the octaves such that the intervals in all of the
octaves correspond exactly to those in the basis octave. If you want to tune all of the notes
individually, turn Octave Link off.
In Keys per Octave control set the number of MIDI buttons to produce an octave from which
you can recognize that an octave in ABSYNTH 5 does not necessarily have to consist of eight
whole tones or twelve half tone steps. If you turn on Octave Link, set the value in (for example)
Keys per Octave control at 11, and then change the pitch of a particular note, then the 11th
note above and below the selected button will be tuned correspondingly.
As an example, take a typical tuning with 12 half tone steps per octave. In this example, Keys
per Octave control as well as Octave Interval control both have the value 12. For stretched
tunings (e.g. the tempered tuning of a piano) you should increase Octave Interval slightly,
e.g. to 12.01.
To automatically produce quartertones, set the Keys per Octave control to 1 and Octave
Interval control to 0.5. To produce eighth tones, put the Keys per Octave control at 1 and
Octave Interval control at 0.25.
When defining an octave, the Octave Link and the controls only influence the operation of
the other parameters. You will not hear any changes until you change the pitch of a note in
Note control, Frequency control or Ratio control.
ABSYNTH 5 Reference Manual – 153