A4 osc 2 page 2

I’m not really an advenced user of synthetisi and i dont understand things about osc2 page 2 .

Can you please help me ?

[ul]
[li]First is abour AM1 /2 i cant explain me what does it exactly do to the osc. I hear some modifications but i cant understand how it exactly works ! [/li]
[li]I also dont understand the pitch relation between osc1 and 2 and the implication of sync mods (SMD) on it.[/li]
[li]It’s the same with the sync rate between oscilators (SNC). More they are sycronised, more the pitch os one affect the other, but i cant understans the rules of this relation.[/li]
[li]An last, I really dont understand what BND/SLI do to the oscillators and what are the rules about it.[/li]
[/ul]

The manual is really light about thoses questions. I really whant to understand that in details !

Can someone help me ?
Thanks

(excuse my english)

Hi

you’re right the manual isn’t very in depth about these. But I think Elektron presume that anyone buying their gear is at least somewhat familiar with terms like AM and Oscillator sync. It sounds to me like you might need to brush up on some of the tech jargon commonly associated with analogue synthesis.

AM stands for amplitude modulation. How one oscillator can modulate the amplitude of another oscillator for interesting new timbral qualities.

With oscillator sync, one oscillator will lock to the pitch of another oscillator.

Set SMD to 1->2 or 2->1
Also set SNC to 127
Place some notes
Mess about with TUN for both OSC1 and OSC2

This means either OSC1 is locked to the pitch of OSC2
Or that OSC2 is locked to the pitch of OSC1

In this way only the master OSC can be used to tune the patch. The slave OSC provides timbre control.

You should really read some of this. Not all of the articles will be relevant. But some of them certainly will be
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/allsynthsecrets.htm
[url=“http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/allsynthsecrets.htm”]

here’s a whole chapter about AM (ampiltude modulation)
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/mar00/articles/synthsecrets.htm

A very deep and good explanation of oscillator sync can be found here [http://www.clavia.com/nordmodular/Modularzone/Theory%20and%20history.html](http://www.clavia.com/nordmodular/Modularzone/Theory and history.html)

The A4 let’s you adjust the sync amount from soft to hard sync.

To get an idea what the AM can sound like on the A4 try this:

-Activate AM1
-Keep OSC2 Level at 0 (OSC1 level needs to be up so you can hear it)
Now while you play some Notes, mess around with the Waveshape, Tuning, PW, SPD and PWM parameter of OSC2.

I use this alot for bell’ish sounds (mixed with a bit of noise), works great !

Great !

Thanks a lot for thoses explications and thos links.

I also will try to find some explication about BND/SLI command on SOS.

Thanks

SLI is slide speed, that’s the length of time it takes for the pitch to slide from note 1’s pitch to note 2’s pitch when a note slide is applied to note 2.
BND is a note bend amount dial, with positive and negative ability, which acts like a basic pitch envelope in conjunction with SLI.
Negative values bend up to the played note and positive values bend down, the further you turn the BND knob the greater the pitch sweep and, of course, SLI amount dictates the speed of the bend.

Righ !

now i have understood all he A4 fonctionnement !
Thanks !

You can also AM the oscillators using the LFOs. They go well into the audio range :+1:

I have an other newbie question, because i’m not really operationnal with the hiden features of the A4.
I’m not english spoken and i don’t really understand all the details of the manual…

I used to play with a little virus B years ago, and unison was really great to make big bass.

I found the unison in polyconfig but i don’t understand how to activate/use it !
It may really help me to make big bass that i need (i can’t make nice deep bass with the A4 at the moment).

in Polyconfig change Allocation to Unison.

don’t forget you need to set poly voices to use also, not just activate unison

I love unison mode, I like to set like only 3 poly voices and do some creative voice stealing in unison mode with all 4 tracks.

Ok i didn’t understood fist that i had to assign thoses voices to unison.
Thanks

no problem…just keep in mind that you are assigning the voices to be used unison…so for example, if you use all 4 voices for unison, you won’t be able to play another voice…you can get creative with just assigning 3 and/or not putting a trig on the same spot :slight_smile:

not really the easiest synth to learn that stuff

having a knob laden mono synth is the best way

though you might need 2 to cover the A4 parameters :astonished: