Home

M-AUDIO TimewARP 2600 User Guide

1. Technical Support Technical Support web www m audio com tech tel pro products 626 633 9055 tel consumer products 626 633 9066 fax shipping 626 633 9032 Sales e mail sales m audio com tel 1 866 657 6434 fax 626 633 9070 Web www m audio com e mail support m audio de tel 49 0 7941 9870030 fax 49 0 7941 98 70070 Sales e mail info m audio de tel 49 0 7941 98 7000 fax 49 0 7941 98 70070 Web www m audio de M Audio U K Floor 6 Gresham House 53 Clarenden Road Watford WDI7 ILA United Kingdom M Audio Canada 1400 St Jean Baptiste Ave 150 Quebec City Quebec G2E 5B7 Canada Technical Support Floor 6 Gresham House 53 Clarenden Road Watford WDI7 ILA United Kingdom Renseignements Commerciaux Technical Support e mail techcanada m audio com e mail support maudio co uk phone 418 872 0444 tel Mac support 44 0 1765 650072 fax 418 872 0034 tel PC support 44 0 1309 671301 Sales Sales e mail infocanada m audio com tel 44 0 1923 204010 phone 866 872 0444 fax 44 0 1923 204039 fax 418 872 0034 Web www maudio co uk Web www m audio ca M Audio France M Audio Japan TEYET F O HSH LA 7 1 2 389888 T 460 0002 AURA PIO 2 18 10 Avid Technology K K 2 18 10 Marunouchi Naka Ku Nagoya Japan 460 0002 AASY YR b Technical Support tel e mail 0810 001 105 in
2. oooo o Mo Poo de ook TS oo TT User Guide English Copyright O 2004 by Way Out Ware Inc All rights reserved No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical from or to any form of media without the prior written permission of Way Out Ware Inc Requests for permission to reproduce any part of this work should be addressed to Way Out Ware Inc attn Copyright Adminstration info wayoutware com Co 99g Ce des e e WANY OUT VW ATE Q 99g Ce our 9 9 WAYOUTWARE in partnership with M AUDIO M AUDIO 1 The TimewARP 2600 Manual 22 200 eeraa arareo tee teen eens 3 11 The ARP 2600 1970 1981 and Onward 0 a breira e eee ee 3 LZ Foreword e ceeibespr ir r ep sages ANE VEN DEP REA Y pees pe EXC AK peda dee REA PIER 3 13 How this Manual is Organized seese e see 4 14 HowTo Use This Manual 2 2 3 et PER RE PSPRE hid CEPR ODOPEREPERP REN M career ds 4 2 System Requirements Installation Configuration Setup and Usage 5 21 DigidesigiiPro Tools PLAT e RRPRREUMMD eU Debe een A erc e ee ei 5 2 2 MIDI Communication and Control 0 0 ence tenn eee eee 7 3 The Craft of Audio Synthesis sisse 8 3 1 Sigma Gnd SOUS sce eere RR PR ERREUR RR een eder aude RE eld e anatase aun eae 8 3 2 gt Attributes OF Signals 12 be per d Oe deb Sack ERR don T Re E ERU e Roda dci de 9 3 3 A
3. A 147 2 725 pa 2 43 xK E 3 157 lo s eic a D c D o o e ANY 17 Increasing Pitch In audio synthesis you can use various modulation techniques such as AM and FM to generate inharmonic spectra 3 2 3 TimewARP User Guide Attributes of Random Signals A completely random signal noise actually has a continuous spectrum it does not consist of isolated sine waves in a harmonic series nor even in an inharmonic series A noise spectrum is a continuum of frequency components in order to describe it we have to talk about how much energy is in each band in this continuum One kind of noise may have high frequency energy while another has low frequency energy In audio synthesis noise is an extraordinarily useful signal Filters can be used to shape a noise spectrum into almost anything even pitched sounds There are a lot of different ways to be unpredictable these are all noise signals but they have different spectral balance characteristics 3 2 3 1 Spectral Balance Color The physical processes such as molecular motion or random popping of electrons from one atom to another that we typically depend on for random electronic noise have a frequency distribution of equal probability at any frequency or through any frequency interval Curiously enough this produces noise signals that for audio purposes don t sound properly balanced acro
4. A pure 3 and 5 limit tuning which resolves to very symmetrical derived relationships between notes A 1 1 440 Hz 1 1 16 15 10 9 6 5 5 4 4 3 64 45 3 2 8 5 5 3 16 9 15 8 3 7 Lattice in A A pure 3 and 7 limit tuning which resolves to very symmetrical derived relationships between notes Some of the intervals are very close together offering several choices for the same nominal chords A 1 1 440 Hz 1 1 9 8 8 7 7 6 9 7 21 16 4 3 3 2 32 21 12 7 7 4 63 32 47 6 1 12 6 1 13 6 1 14 6 1 15 6 1 16 Other Music 7 Limit Black Keys in C Created by the group Other Music for their homemade gamelan this offers a wide range of interesting chords and modes C 1 1 261 625 Hz 1 1 15 14 9 8 7 6 5 4 4 3 7 5 3 2 14 9 5 3 7 4 15 8 Dan Schmidt Pelog Slendro Created for the Berkeley Gamelan group this tuning fits an Indonesian style heptatonic Pelog on the white keys and pentatonic Slendro on the black keys with B and Bb acting as 1 1 for their respective modes Note that some of the notes will have the same frequency By tuning the 1 1 to 60 Hz Dan found a creative way to incorporate the inevitable line hum into his scale Bb B 1 1 60 Hz 11 11 9 8 7 6 5 4 4 3 11 8 3 2 3 2 7 4 7 4 15 8 Yamaha Just Major C When Yamaha decided to put preset microtunings into their FM synth product line they selected this and the following tuning as representative just intonations As such they became the de facto introduction to JI for man
5. Import asks you to select the file you want to read in Import will never overwrite any existing Group Category or Patch if any Group or Category or Patch in the file to be imported has the same name as a Group or Category or Patch that already exists Import will append a number to the loaded name So when a friend sends you his collection of a thousand patches you can import them without worrying about possible name overlaps Cut Copy Paste The Cut Copy Paste buttons appear within the Patch Manager dialog to move items from one place in the hierarchy to another You can for example Cut a patch or a group of patches from one category and Paste it into another Up Down The Up Down buttons appear within the Patch Manager dialog to move selected items Up or Down in their list This is useful for arranging your MIDI patch lists Rename Delete The Rename Delete buttons appear within the Patch Manager dialog to Rename or Delete selected items Voice Button Clicking on the Voice button activates a drop down list from which you may select the number of simultaneously sounding voices you want to use Because the TimewARP 2600 is a true analog synthesizer emulator its modules are running even when no audio signals appear at the synthesizer s output Each voice added to the multi voice capability of the TimewARP 2600 is a clone of the entire patch and module set This will have an immediate and obvious effect on the CPU load met
6. Y south Output Volt current 2 Power positive Loudspeaker Y negativ Cone H forth Y back Your Eardrum A Y out 5 Se 4 AES 4msec TimewARP User Guide Another way to record such a signal is with high speed digital circuits to measure the underlying medium many times each second and store the measured numbers This is digital recording Since the TimewARP 2600 is not constructed of electronic circuits concepts such as voltage don t apply here The TimewARP 2600 is software a complex piece of computer behavior The signal medium for the original ARP 2600 was electrical pressure measured in volts The signal medium for the TimewARP 2600 is simply number sequences We use those numbers the way the original machine used electrical pressure where the original Owner s Manual used the word voltage we will just say signal or signal level and in the module specifications we will refer to virtual Volts or vV 3 2 Attributes of Signals The simplest possible signal is a sine wave It s like the back and forth motion of a point on a circle as the circle rotates A lot of the mathematics of sine waves is based on that rotating circle idea you don t have to get involved in that unless you re curious about it but it s helpful to train your imagination by picturing the basic sine wave graph as a slightly stretched coil spring like a slinky The motion of a pendulum or of a tuning fork s
7. in section 2 2 Digidesign Pro Tools This release of the TimewARP 2600 is an RTAS plug in and runs only under Digidesign Pro Tools 6 1 and later versions on either Apple OS X or Windows XP On either of these platforms the requirements for the TimewARP 2600 are essentially those of Pro Tools itself System Requirements These are the same as Pro Tools itself including enough memory to satisfy the practical needs of the TimewARP 2600 software Disk Space and RAM The executable file occupies 6 1MB on disc and the RAM requirements when running are the same as the Pro Tools minimums System Clock The TimewARP 2600 performs all signal generation and processing in real time In complex polyphonic patches this may put a considerable load on your CPU You may have difficulty with a clock speed less than 800MHz higher clock rates will increase the number of polyphonic voices you can use and the complexity of the patches available Installation Installation on either platform is accomplished by very simple standardized installation sequences You must of course have a current installation of Pro Tools on your target computer Mac OS X Insert the distribution CD or download the dmg installer file from www wayoutware com Double click the dmg installer to initiate installation If you agreed to the license a TimewARP 2600 installer icon appears Double click it to initiate the installation process When finished start Pro Tools an
8. of signal graphs it doesn t matter what they are on the same timebase and vertical scale and use a pocket calculator to work out the result of multiplying the two signals together That s what a ring modulator does The expression ring modulator describes the appearance of the analogue circuit design that s required for the multiplication In the frequency domain the difference between this and ordinary AM is only that the carrier signal components are suppressed Once again if you work out the arithmetic a single frequency carrier modulated by a single component program generates a three component AM spectrum but only a two component ring modulation spectrum What s useful about this Well since the carrier is almost always periodic it comes from an oscillator right it has a harmonic spectrum Suppressing this spectrum lets you hear just the sidebands which can be completely inharmonic if you re careful about the ratio of the two input signal frequencies Frequency Shifting It s theoretically possible not only to suppress the original carrier as in ring modulation but to isolate the lower and upper sidebands and make them available separately The arithmetic here is fascinating because the end result for once is in one to one correspondence with the input for each component of the program signal there is a component in the output at C p or at C p In other words the final spectrum has only as many components as the orig
9. sine wave component of a signal 250Hz sine wave saw tooth LE mmm guitar string immediately after pitch A LLL nmm o just before z dying out HIII va amp pulse 2 on LLL nmm m 9 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 F 8 9 10 Increasing Pitch octaves middle C 250Hz It is the distribution and relative strength of spectral components that we experience as the tone color of a sound or sounds Bright dull sharp tinny heavy and so on these are all descriptive words for the spectral attributes of sounds Harmonic Series The spectral view of any periodic signal has components at simple multiples of the signal frequency For example suppose we examine a sawtooth wave at a frequency of 110Hz It will have components at TIO 220 330 440 and so on A harmonic series is composed of numerically equal frequency intervals and that means decreasing pitch intervals N 2N 4N 8N 16N 32N 64 128 256 512 1024 Increasing Frequency 9 1 2 3 4 5678910012 Increasing Power A simple number sequence like this is called a harmonic series It is interesting to think about musically the smaller numbers in the series all form simple musical intervals octaves fifths fourths and thirds The first couple of octaves worth of a harmonic series make useful musical intervals octaves 5ths Aths 3rds and so on Beyond th
10. the new TimewARP 2600 Unfasten the seat belts of your mind How else can you hope to experience time travel How else can you enjoy free flight Jim Michmerhuizen Jim Michmerhuizen is the author of the original ARP 2600 Manual and Founder and Director of the Boston School of Electronic Music 1 3 1 4 LJ IDIO How this Manual is Organized This is not a textbook it s a survival manual Chapter 2 is about installing and configuring the software so you can get up and running Chapter 3 is a brief introduction to the vocabulary and methods of classical analog synthesis so that we can understand each other throughout the rest of the book Chapter 4 is a module by module reference including the digital extensions made possible by the fact that the TimewARP 2600 is software a piece of computer behavior rather than a collection of electronic hardware Chapter 5 is not in this book butis a collection of patches with accompanying documentation located in a separate document file called Patchman pdf found on the distribution CD or as a download from www wayoutware com The patches and commentary are keyed to the numbered chapters sections and subsections of this manual Some of the patches form a tutorial sequence and some illustrate vocabulary lessons and concepts How To Use This Manual You ll probably need to do a quick run through of Chapter 2 as you install the TimewARP 2600 and learn some of the basic setup operati
11. 1 8 3 2 13 8 27 16 7 4 15 8 Mean Tone Temperament An early tempered tuning with better thirds than 12ET Sounds best in the key of C Use this to add an authentic touch to performances of early Baroque music C 1 1 260 Hz 1 4 Tone Equal Temperament 24 notes per octave equally spaced 24 root 2 intervals Mexican composer Julian Carillo used this for custom built pianos in the early 20th century 19 Tone Equal Temperament 19 notes per octave 19 root 2 offering better thirds than 12 ET a better overall compromise if you can figure out the keyboard patterns 31 Tone Equal Temperament Many people consider 31root2 to offer the best compromise towards just intonation in an equal temperament but it can get very tricky to keep track of the intervals Pythagorean C One of the earliest tuning systems known from history the Pythagorean scale is constructed from an upward series of pure fifths 3 2 transposed down into a single octave The tuning works well for monophonic melodies against fifth drones but has a very narrow palate of good chords to choose from C 1 1 261 625 Hz 1 1256 243 9 8 32 27 81 64 4 3 729 512 3 2 128 81 27 16 16 9 243 128 Just Intonation in A with 7 limit Tritone at Dit A rather vanilla 5 limit small interval JI except for a single 7 5 tritone at D which offers some nice possibilities for rotating around bluesy sevenths A 1 1 440 Hz V1 16 15 9 8 6 5 5 4 7 5 3 2 8 5 5 3 9 5 15 8 3 5 Lattice in A
12. 2600 can be used to process audio signals in a similar manner to a reverb or other effects plug in To set this up create an audio track or select a track already recorded in Pro Tools If this is a new track select either mono or stereo in the track creation window this will determine in turn the channel options offered by the TimewARP 2600 for this track In the mix window display for this track at the track inserts block up at the top click on the first available insert selector Choose the TimewARP 2600 plug in from the appropriate menu If the current track is mono the TimewARP 2600 for this track will be configured for one channel of input and you can select between mono and stereo output If the current track is stereo the TimewARP 2600 insert will automatically be configured for stereo throughout Confirm this when the synthesizer panel comes up by observing that the preamp module in the upper left corner has two channel outputs rather than just one If you are processing an existing track press play on the transport control to hear the audio being processed by the TimewARP 2600 in real time You need to select an appropriate TimewARP 2600 patch such as those in the Voice or Guitar Effects categories in the Factory group to successfully process audio this way If you are processing a live track enable the track s record mode and then audio from your input will be fed through the TimewARP 2600 You need to select an appropri
13. Hancock and many many others Its modular design and the popularity of its Owners Manual made the ARP 2600 a widely used teaching instrument in many schools and music conservatories around the country and internationally We are proud to bring you this software emulation of the 2600 Have fun with it learn from it but above all make noise with it 1 2 Foreword Unfasten the seat belts of your mind The TimewARP 2600 will be an astonishing exhilarating and enlightening experience Creating this manual has been an astonishing exhilarating and enlightening experience for me How many are ever given the chance to revisit an earlier life an earlier project a project like the ARP 2600 Manual decades later and get it right It s time travel I m grateful to Way Out Ware for providing me that opportunity When at Alan R Pearlman s invitation began work on the original 2600 manual in September of 1970 the 2600 itself barely existed For the first two months was writing blind without a machine in front of me My first hands on experience with a synthesizer had been only six months earlier it was a Putney VCS3 finished the text in March of 1971 Margaret Friend created the graphics and the Owner s Manual for the ARP 2600 began what turned out to be a surprisingly long career In spite of the many defects that my inexperience contributed the gaps in coverage and outright errors it became quite popular To this day it st
14. The Pan Control takes its input from the jack just below the horizontal pan slider Normally this signal comes from the mixer Centered the Pan feeds its input signal equally to the left and right channel outputs moving the slider left or right shifts the signal balance accordingly between the two output channels Reverb Unit The input to this unit is the rightmost jack in the row that runs across the middle of the panel By default it carries the Mixer output The output jack to its upper right provides a 100 wet signal from the Reverb at a fixed level There are interesting patches in which this signal is subjected to further processing via say the Ring Modulator or the Envelope Follower The two sliders adjust the wet dry mix fed to each output channel 40 4 8 4 9 TimewARP User Guide Envelope Follower The Envelope Follower generates from any audio frequency input a fluctuating DC output level directly proportional to the average moment by moment input signal amplitude Its sensitivity is such that with the input attenuator wide open a 1V P P square wave will produce a 10vV output The maximum output is 10vV The risetime or time it takes for the Envelope Follower to respond to any sudden change in the amplitude of the signal input is 10 milliseconds to 50 of final value and 30 milliseconds to 90 of final value Like all similar circuitry the Envelope Follower tends to ride on low audio frequencies as i
15. The TimewARP 2600 gives you a three level hierarchy for storing and organizing your patches All Patches are sorted into various Categories which are in turn sorted into major Groups Each of the three patch selection buttons generates a drop down list associated with one layer in this hierarchy Groups Categories and Patches can also be selected by keyboard shortcuts The up down arrow keys on the computer keyboard select Patches the left right arrow keys move between Categories and using the control key with the left right arrow keys moves between Groups 4 1 3 Save Button The Save button saves the current patch configuration and settings under the name of the most recently loaded patch This button is disabled if the patch is locked see 4 1 1 above 4 1 4 Save As Button The Save As button saves the current patch configuration and settings under a group category and patch name of your choice Within the Save As dialog you may create new groups and categories at will There is no limit to the number of groups and categories you may create 4 1 5 Patch Manager Button TimewARP 2600 Patch Manager Save your patch as Groups Categories Patches E a ud Group Factory E New Group Expo obert s Grou ads Rin o 2 een See pain 1 v Effects i bu he isi Category Leads HJ New Category Cut Robert s Group 11 Voice Effects 5 Fast Pulse Two Vo Patch Book Sound Effects 6 Mono Organ Copy patchman Sequences 7 Uni
16. a pinch of this PPDPPLPL SLL LSS SSS SS SL LSSSSIN and a dash of that This goes both ways any complex signal can also be constructed from a collection of sine waves with the appropriate attributes amplitude frequency and phase relationships In fact any kind of motion any repeating pattern of the sort that we are interested in here as sound waves can be examined and analyzed under two different headings TimewARP User Guide 3 221 Waveshape and Time Domain Attributes Any repeating motion can be diagrammed in a graph where the horizontal axis is a period of time and the vertical one is the motion itself back and forth This is the time domain view of a signal waveshape pattern of change through time short time audio signal A long time C 4 6centuries b gt not so long time 2 days D audio signal Ims lt gt 3 2 2 2 3 2 2 2 1 Spectrum and Frequency Domain Attributes Instead of looking at a signal as something in motion through a period of time we can look at the collection of sine wave components of the signal In such graphs the horizontal axis is a frequency range instead of a time period and we indicate each spectrum component with a single vertical line in the graph The height of the line indicates the strength of the component at that frequency This is the frequency domain or spectral domain view of a signal Spectrum the
17. an output from something Each vertical attenuator across the middle of the panel for example adjusts the strength of the signal coming in from the input directly below it 4 1 14 4 2 TimewARP User Guide Normalled Jacks The most commonly used signal connections are normalled i e defaulted A default signal is identified by a small icon at an input jack To see a simple example of this note that the first input jack on the left in the row of jacks running across the middle of the TimewARP 2600 is an input to the Envelope Follower The symbol underneath this jack indicates that the default signal to this input comes from the Preamp That means that the Preamp output is pre wired to the Envelope Follower input except when a plug is inserted into the jack For another simple example note that in the same row of jacks the third one from the right is a mixer input and that the symbol just beneath it indicates that the default signal to this input comes from the Voltage Controlled Filter VCF O Note again that the fifth of the five audio inputs to the VCF is similarly defaulted from the Noise Generator counting across from left to right this is the 21st jack 9 Ci So you can listen to this input by opening the VCF input to the mixer and the Noise Generator input to the VCF Now experimenting with the two horizontal control sliders at the top of the VCF panel will give you a wide range of filtered sounds It will b
18. and reload the MIDI controller to slider assignments that you set up In the TimewARP 2600 these are global assignments independent of any particular patch settings saving a patch does not save these assignments and loading a patch does not change the current assignments You can if you want set your mappings once and they will be there throughout all of your personal patch changes Load Microtuning r 7 Select the desired Micro Tuning Micro Tuning v 12ToneEquiTemper HarmoSeries 1 1 HarmoSeries 1 2 Harmo12 2 Meantone 3 1 4ToneET 4 19ToneET 5 31ToneET 6 PythagoC 7 JIA7 SD 8 3 5LattA 9 3 7LattA 10 7LimBIkC 11 PelSlenB 12 JiMajYam 13 JIMinYam 14 Partch11 15 L FREQ sN You may also load alternate tunings for the keyboard These are described in Appendix 6 1 The TimewARP 2600 does not allow you to modify these tunings or to save or create new ones Microtunings are a global attribute of the keyboard once loaded the tuning will govern anything you play until you load a different one regardless of your patch changes 3 4 1 1 4 MIDI Beat Synchronization F 3 Midi Beat Clock Synchronization MIDI Beat clock synchronization provides a means to lock LFO functions to MIDI tracks There are 24 MIDI Beats per quarter note of a MIDI track So if you would like the LFO to cycle once per quarter note enter 12 in the text box This information is stored with the patch v Synchr
19. ate TimewARP 2600 patch such as those in the Voice or Guitar Effects categories in the Factory group to successfully process audio this way MIDI Tracks Running as a track plug in the TimewARP 2600 can process prerecorded MIDI tracks To do this set up two tracks just as you did above in section 2 1 3 1 an audio track that is running the TimewARP 2600 as a track insert and a MIDI track whose output is routed to the TimewARP 2600 When you play this track use the Pro Tools transport window to play rewind pause the MIDI sequence etc the MIDI events stored in the track sequence will be routed to the TimewARP 2600 MIDI note events will become key depressions at the virtual keyboard MIDI pitch bend will turn the virtual keyboard pitch bend knob and MIDI controllers that are mapped to TimewARP 2600 sliders knobs or switches see section 2 2 will move those controls Selecting Patches The TimewARP 2600 gives you a three level hierarchy for storing and organizing your patches All Patches are sorted into various Categories which are in turn sorted into major Groups Each of the three patch selection buttons generates a drop down list associated with one layer in this hierarchy Groups Categories and Patches can also be selected by keyboard shortcuts The up down arrow keys on the computer keyboard select Patches the left right arrow keys move between Categories and using the control key with the left right arrow keys moves between Gr
20. besi a a dbeeed ee e dte E aa 45 5 Patching the TimewARP 2600 aaaea aaeeea s eee 46 G PDS MON CSS cero cant ie A S sale odo Upbtankaletuticiake dapanrats ace bte ertet 47 6 1 Table of Alternate Keyboard TuningS 0 0 0 0 es 47 7 COMO RTT RU u A I T 49 English TimewARP User Guide 1 1 The ARP 2600 1970 1981 and Onward The ARP 2600 was the second product of ARP Instruments It was released in 1970 and continued until the manufacturer ceased operations in 1981 Its design combined modularity for studio flexibility and for instructional use and integration for real time performance Functionally the ARP 2600 was completely modular any signal output could be routed to any signal input with a patch cord Operationally the ARP 2600 was integrated using internally wired default signal paths that made it possible to create a wide range of keyboard patches by simply opening up slide attenuators as though sitting in front of a mixing console The ARP 2600 earned an early reputation for stability and for flexibility exceeding that of its competitor the Minimoog Used 2600 s in good condition command premium prices on eBay today and businesses around the country make a living reconditioning rebuilding and customizing 30 year old units Among rock musicians the ARP 2600 was used by Stevie Wonder Pete Townsend Joe Zawinul Edgar Winter Paul Bley Roger Powell Jean Michel Jarre Mike Oldfield Herbie
21. d proceed to 2 1 3 1 Windows XP Insert the distribution CD or download the installer file from www wayoutware com Run the exe installer file If you agreed to the license follow the installer instructions When finished start Pro Tools and proceed to 2 1 3 1 Setups Real time Instrument for Performance and Recording The TimewARP 2600 can transform your computer into a real time instrument for live performance or recording To set this up create an audio track in Pro Tools Select either mono or stereo in the track creation window this will determine in turn the channel options offered by the TimewARP 2600 for this track In the mix window display for this track at the track inserts block up at the top click on the first insert selector Choose the TimewARP 2600 plug in from the appropriate menu Now create another track but in the track creation dialog choose MIDI track instead of audio track and route the track output to the TimewARP 2600 As input for the new track select your MIDI keyboard device and enable the track for recording Pro Tools will route all incoming MIDI events from your MIDI keyboard device to the TimewARP 2600 plug in If your MIDI keyboard has any additional MIDI control devices sliders knobs buttons etc you can assign these to any TimewARP 2600 sliders knobs and switches that you choose For details see section 2 2 2 1 3 2 2 1 3 3 2 1 4 Processing Audio Signals The TimewARP
22. d to incoming MIDI Beat Clock signals see section 4 1 11 4 Dual Pitch Control Output Like the original ARP 2600 the TimewARP 2600 virtual keyboard can generate a second pitch control signal when two keys are depressed This signal is available at the two jacks labeled Upper Voice at the lower left of the keyboard module To use one of these simply patch it to an oscillator That oscillator will now track the uppermost key depressed rather than as with the standard keyboard control signal the lower key Gate and Trigger Control Two switches in the upper right quadrant of the keyboard module govern the logic of the keyboard gate and trigger signals When the Trigger Mode switch is set to Single the keyboard generates a continuous gate signal as long as any key is depressed and generates a trigger signal only on the transition from no key depressed to any key depressed In this operating mode you have complete performing control over the production of trigger signals to avoid them play legato and to generate them play non legato This is the baseline logic of the original ARP 2600 keyboard With this switch set to Multiple the keyboard will generate a trigger on every new keypress regardless of your performing habits The gate logic is not affected The three position switch labeled Auto Repeat is Off in its center position This is the default In its lower position the keyboard gate and trigger are taken from the local LFO Ac
23. ditions the modulator will generate from any two periodic signals an output signal consisting of the sum and difference frequencies that can be generated from the frequencies of the two inputs The input frequencies themselves will be suppressed If both signals are audio frequency a large variety of harmonic and inharmonic timbres can be produced from the modulator depending on the ratio of the input frequencies and on their own harmonic content If A is a sine wave and we represent its frequency by Fa and B is a complex waveform of frequency Fb with overtones 2Fb 3Fb 4Fb etc then the output of the modulator will be a complex waveform with frequency components Fb Fa Fb Fa 2Fb Fa 3Fb Fa 4Fb Fa etc A moment s experimentation with the pre wired sawtooth and sine inputs to the modulator will demonstrate the complexity of the timbres that can be generated by this simple means If still with AC coupling one input is subsonic and the other at some audio frequency there will be an output from the modulator only when the value of the subsonic input is changing and the output will be roughly proportional to the rate of change If for example the subsonic input is a square wave the modulator output will be a series of short decaying tonebursts one at each rise or fall in the input signal When the inputs are DC coupled any DC component in either one of the inputs will pass into the modulator and affect the modulating process The eff
24. e and is a controllable and useful feature Lag Processors A lag processor is a low pass filter intended specifically for processing sub audio signals It introduces a lag in the output signal wherever the input shows a sharp change in value How much of a lag depends on the cutoff frequency of the processor VI 3 6 5 3 6 5 1 Modulation Methods The simplest possible signal we said above has exactly three attributes and no more frequency amplitude and phase If starting from a steady state signal we systematically modify any of these characteristics we are said to be modulating the signal And so based on these three signal attributes there are three possible forms of modulation Amplitude Modulation AM Frequency Modulation FM and Phase Modulation PM The first two are more commonly used in audio synthesis than the third we won t say anything here about phase modulation Using AM and FM methods it is possible to generate waveforms and spectra that are far more complicated and interesting to the ear than anything that can be produced by merely mixing and filtering signals Mainly that is because of sidebands Sidebands and Sideband Spectra What happens to the spectrum of a sine wave when we modulate its amplitude What happens when we modulate its frequency Clearly since the signal that results from AM or FM methods is no longer a plain vanilla sine wave then in the frequency domain it mu
25. e 16th they get too close together to sound good A octave gt o z 5th a o amp maj min 6 3rd 3rd Qo z 8 ANY ANY 2 3 4 8 16 Increasing Pitch Most musical instruments generate harmonic spectra Some have more some have fewer harmonics and there are wide spectral variations even within a single instrument depending on how it is played In general whatever the actual spectral components are they will always form a harmonic series Pick any frequency the multiples of that are a harmonic series A B and C are all harmonic series A 1250 A 1500 Hd 250Hz 500 750 1K 2K a B E etc a 2 100Khz 200 300 400 T o o o g c etc 2Khz 4K 6K 8K Increasing Pitch _ In audio synthesis you will use oscillators to generate pitched tones that have a harmonic spectrum 3 2 2 2 2 Inharmonic Series Inharmonic in this context means not forming a harmonic series Some waveforms do not repeat themselves at a regular interval the spectra of such waves will have components at strange non integral frequency ratios or they may have shifting spectral components that die out and reappear Some percussion instruments such as kettledrums or bells have inharmonic spectral components Not all spectra are harmonic An Arbitrary collection of sines at unrelated frequencies is unharmonic
26. e trigger input is defaulted from the internal clock but any square or pulse wave or the keyboard gate or trigger signals will work Upon being triggered the S H sets its output level to the same value as the input signal at that instant After the trigger the output signal will hold that level until the next trigger pulse Any signal whatsoever may be sampled The default input is from the Noise Generator so that the step sequence is random The accompanying diagrams show how when the signal being sampled is random noise the output voltages are correspondingly unpredictable An infinite variety of cyclical output patterns may be obtained on the other hand by sampling a periodic waveform Different ratios of the sampling frequencies to the frequency of the waveform being sampled create different melodic patterns if the output level is controlling a VCO The level control attenuates the input signal before it is fed to the S H circuit The rate control actually belongs to the internal clock when that is disconnected from the S H circuit the rate control has no effect on the operation of the S H circuit j utu ELECTROHIC ENITCH LEVEL RATE esee The Internal Clock Electronic Switch The Internal Clock is a manually controlled low frequency square wave oscillator It is the default trigger source for the S H device It is also hardwired as the clock source for the Electronic Switch Under MIDI control the Interna
27. e worth your while to experiment thoroughly and systematically with the default signal connections at this point particularly if you are planning to use the TimewARP 2600 in live performance In section 4 we will document the behavior of each separate module and in section 5 we give sample patches for further experimentation here we will only mention a few general principles to keep you from going out of your skull with complications Experiment with one signal at a time With the VCF for example when you have listened to everything the filter can do with a noise input close that input and open the default VCO 3 sawtooth immediately to its left Now you can experiment not only with the VCF controls but also with the manual frequency controls of VCO 3 and when you have done that experiment one by one with the control input signals to VCO 3 Preamp Gain Control The Preamp section controls the gain of the audio signal s from the track in which the TimewARP 2600 is running A rotary knob labeled Gain adjusts the signal level 4 PREAMP E OUTPUT If the TimewARP 2600 is running in full stereo configuration as a plug in to a stereo track the preamp will display two output jacks one for each stereo channel Use these signals for any purpose for which you might ordinarily use an internally generated signal You can filter them run them through the Ring Modulator or use one as an AM or FM program signal The default input to the Envelo
28. ect when both inputs are at audio frequency is to allow into the output waveform some of the input frequencies in addition to the sum and difference frequencies The effect when one of the inputs is subsonic is that the modulator operates as a voltage controlled amplifier the output amplitude will be in direct proportion to the instantaneous amplitude of the low frequency input and will vary as its absolute value varies Also the output phase will reverse when the low frequency input signal changes from positive to negative or vice versa The AC coupling time constants are 235 msec for the left input and 90 msec for the right input Noise Generator NG The Noise Generator has two manual controls one for spectral balance color and one for output level The spectral balance is continuously variable from white to red low frequency noise output In the latter case the output falls off at the rate of 6dB Octave the pink noise position approximates a 3dB Octave slope The level control at minimum cuts off the output signal completely At maximum the output is clipped at 20vV P P to produce binary or two valued noise Clipping begins with the level control approximately half open input 42 4 1 4 7 1 4 1 2 4 11 3 TimewARP User Guide Voltage Processors VP The Voltage Processors are simple utility functions for mixing inverting and shaping signals INVERTER Ed INCREASE LAG TIME VP 1 VP 1 has four s
29. er So the number of voices you can generate without overtaxing your CPU will depend on your machine s clock speed Reset Button The Reset button removes all patch cords and returns all sliders to a standard position MIDI Indicator This virtual LED glows when there is any MIDI input to the TimewARP 2600 not just keystrokes but also controller input and sysex dumps Output Level Meter This shows the output signal level If it reaches into the red segment your signal will distort CPU Load Meter This meter shows roughly how much of the time between samples the sample period is being devoted to the TimewARP 2600 emulation process In a complex patch or a many voice polyphonic performance the meter may indicate overload when this happens it is likely that the TimewARP 2600 output signal will be interrupted so your audio feed will develop a glitch To avoid this you will have to simplify your patch or decrease the number of voices or acquire a faster more capable computer 43 11 4 11 1 4 11 2 4 1 1 3 TimewARP User Guide The Magic Logo AMSAR 2600 8633 At the lower right of the main panel is the TimewARP 2600 Logo Clicking on this brings up a menu About TimewARP 2600 identifies the team the people who worked together to bring you this software Load Save MIDI Maps Select a Midi Controller Map to load Midi Map Default Map E Use the Load Save MIDI Maps commands to save
30. et access to the signals and processes we ve just described so that you can play with them on your own Throughout the past century people have been noodling around with electronic ways of generating audio signals In particular beginning in the 1960 s people such as Bob Moog Don Buchla and Alan R Pearlman began to settle on some ideas that have become almost standard for audio synthesis independent modular functions for signal generation and signal processing capable of being controlled not only by hand but also by signals of the same kind as they generate This wasthe idea of voltage controlled operation and it was completely revolutionary Using independent modular functions made it possible to change one attribute of a signal without necessarily affecting any other attribute so the craft of synthesis became the craft of constructing and tuning integrated configurations of modules The cables that connected modules were called patchcords and so connecting modules together came to referred to as patching them and so finally any working configuration came to be called a patch Let s take a look at some modules that generate signals Oscillators A device that repeats the same motion over and over is an oscillator In audio synthesis oscillators typically produce very simple geometrical pattern signals such as sine triangle pulse and sawtooth waves named simply for what their time domain graphs look like Osci
31. f they themselves represented changes in signal amplitude this is not critical but has been held to a ripple of less than 1 P P down to OOHz and less than 10 down to 40Hz The primary use of the Envelope Follower is with external instruments Essentially it extracts from any audio input a control signal representing the amplitude envelope of that input this signal may control the VCF VCA or any of the VCO s The Envelope Follower output is an envelope and can be used in the same fashion as the output from either of the envelope generators The default input to the Envelope Follower is from the preamplifier When the TimewARP 2600 is configured for stereo input it is the first left channel preamplifier output Ring Modulator The Ring Modulator is essentially a multiplier from its two inputs A and B it produces the output function A x B 5 The kind of transformation this effects on input signals depends to a large extent on what they are and on whether the modulator is AC or DC coupled to them The type of coupling is selected by the Audio DC switch at the bottom of the modulator 41 M AUDIO 4 10 When the inputs are AC coupled Audio position of the switch any DC component present in them is canceled before they are fed to the modulator Thus a sawtooth that starts from zero and goes to lOwV will instead start at 5W and move to 5vV so that its overall positive and negative deviation cancels to zero Under these con
32. fo m audio fr Assistance Technique PC MAC 0 820 000 731 0 820 391 191 e mail e mail Macintosh SSAA tel win support m audio jp mac support m audio jp 052 218 0859 10 00 12 00 13 00 17 00 Assistance Technique t IAKESSSEHUSHtE Sales e mail support m audio fr mac m audio fr hs 33 0 1 72 72 90 52 Site Web www m audio fr 060731_TIMEWARP_UG_ENO1 IVI AUDIO e mail info Q m audio jp tel 052 218 3375 fax 052 218 0875 Web www m audio jp Q9 9 Oo Ce Soe 9 o WAYOUTWARE in partnership with 49 M AUDIO
33. ful tuning beforehand you can have both keyboard expression and hardware knob slider control at the same time MIDI Patch Selection In each group of patches the first 128 are available to standard incoming MIDI patch selection commands Patch categories don t affect this numbering For example if the first category in a group has 127 patches then the second category will have just one patch available for MIDI patch selection Groups themselves can be selected with MIDI bank select commands M AUDIO 3 1 3 1 1 This chapter is about the facts physical mathematical and auditory that make the TimewARP 2600 and the hardware that it emulates possible We have to spend a few minutes here distinguishing between physical signals and the sounds that people hear in the presence of certain kinds of signals This is important because synthesizer equipment can only deal with signals physical commotion of one sort and another When you are fiddling with synthesizer equipment you are generating and modifying signals for the sake of the interesting we hope sounds you hear when those signals reach your eardrums Signals and Sounds A signal is something happening a waving flashlight or ambulance siren referee flag dropping winking at a friend Tiny disturbances of the air around us are signals for our ears we hear them as noise or singing or sirens shrieks growls whatever The signal is the physical disturbance in the air t
34. ge from 10kHz to 20kHz is just one octave out of the 10 we hear This is a really important fact in audio synthesis you will encounter it over and over again in every patch you create It governs much of the arithmetic of generating and controlling spectral distributions and patches Equal pitch intervals require exponentially increasing frequency increments Equal frequency increments make a harmonic series In a harmonic series as we go up the series we get smaller and smaller pitch intervals A harmonic series is composed of numerically equal frequency intervals and that means decreasing pitch intervals ToKHz Each division 4 is one octave To add an octave you have Frequency in cycles seconds A to multiply F x 2 5KHz 312Hz 625Hz 2500Hz 20Hz 40Hz 78Hz 156Hz 1250Hz 0 1 2 3 middle C 6 ri 8 9 10 Pitch by octaves Signal Amplitude and Audible Volume This is a very dicey relationship It is true that for any given signal increasing its amplitude will increase the volume of the associated sound But a lot of other signal characteristics have a greater impact on our perception of volume than amplitude does For example the difference between talking and shouting at someone is far more a matter of pitch and spectrum tone color than of mere amplitude When yell raise my voice that is raise the pitch of my voice and put more energy into it which generates more harm
35. he movement of the eardrum The sound is your perception of the signal Hello Analog and Digital Representations of Signals The signals we are concerned with in sound synthesis are audio signals more or less regular variations in air pressure at our eardrums repeating at rates of between 20 and 20 000 times in one second Such signals are straightforward physical processes which can be recorded and reproduced One way to do that is to look at the pattern of air pressure variation and model it in some other medium During the past century this has been done with grooves in a phonograph record magnetic fields along a length of tape or wire and other media The usual scenario is with one or more microphones generate an electronic model of the vibrating air then use the electronic signal to drive a magnetic recording head or amplifier or LP recording lathe Throughout such processing the signals we deal with are directly analogous to each other except for the change in medium from air to voltage to magnetic field strength or stylus position the signals are identical Graphed or charted they even look the same This is analog recording Analog signals 250 Hz approximately middle C Source A amp forth Y back Air Pressure Wave B A higher Y lower Microphone Diaphram C 4 forth Microphone back Output Signal Voltage D 4 higher Y Phonograph lower LP groove E A down Magnetic Field on Tape F4 north Power amp
36. here are only three input jacks They are at the upper right corner labeled Left Input Pan and Right Input respectively All of the other jacks in the upper half of the control surface are outputs In the lower half of the control surface the jacks numbered 1 through 7 are inputs to the voltage processors and of the column of four jacks in the section labeled Sample amp Hold the upper and lower jacks are inputs The seven jacks that are both input and output belong to the Electronic Switch and the Multiple outlet Because the switch works in either direction it has either two inputs and one output or one input and two outputs The Multiple output distributes at least one input to 1 2 or 3 outputs All the remaining jacks are outputs Most of them are labeled as such a few are not but have arrows pointing to them For example in the Voltage Processor VP the three jacks furthest to the right are outputs and in the Envelope Generator section of the upper half of the panel the two jacks labeled Gate and Trigger are outputs 4 1 13 Sliders and Slider Operations There are fifty eight sliders Thirty six of these are plain old signal attenuators And of those 36 29 are all in a row across the middle of the panel There are actually 31 sliders in the row but the two on either side of the box labeled Attack Release are not plain old signal attenuators Most of the attenuators are directly associated with either an input to something or
37. ignal inputs and one output Two of the inputs have attenuators The output signal is the inverted sum of all four inputs The attenuator governed inputs carry default connections from 10vV and from the keyboard pitch control Opening the 10wV slider thus produces up to 10vV at the processor output VP 2 VP 2 has two signal inputs and one output One of the inputs has an attenuator The output signal is the inverted sum of the two inputs The attenuator governed input carries a default connection from 10vV so that opening the slider produces up to 10vV at the output The Lag Processor The Lag Processor is a low pass filter for processing control signals The slider adjusts its cutoff frequency The corresponding rise time ranges from 0 5ms with the slider at minimum to 500msec about half a second with the slider at maximum The Lag Processor can be used to process audio signals as a 6dB octave manual filter with a maximum Fc of approximately 1KHz 43 M AUDIO 4 12 4 13 The Sample amp Hold Module S H The Sample amp Hold Module produces stepped output signal levels by sampling the instantaneous value of any signal at its input The stepped levels produced in this manner are useful for controlling oscillator and filter frequencies and occasionally VCA gain The S H circuit has a signal input the waveform to be sampled a trigger input and an output giving the result of the sampling operation Th
38. ignal level back to zero at a rate related to the cutoff frequency and slope In the frequency domain it passes all spectral components higher than the cutoff frequency and attenuates those below the cutoff frequency by an amount proportional to the cutoff slope Cutoff Slope This is the rate at which a filter attenuates spectral components as a function of their frequency It is usually a multiple of 6dB octave Feedback and Resonance It is usually possible with any signal processing device or system of devices to mix some of its output signal back into the input signal This may be intentional or it can happen by accident everybody who has ever worked with a PA system has experienced the terrible screech of a system in feedback In filter modules for audio synthesis it is common to provide controllable feedback With just a little the filter response begins to peak around its cutoff frequency as the feedback level increases the peak gets stronger Eventually just as happens with a PA system the filter falls into oscillation Regardless of the input signal it screams a sine wave at its cutoff frequency In this state it is no longer behaving as a filter at all it has become an oscillator Systems in feedback have been very well studied in physics Their behavior can be described mathematically Whereas feedback in a PA system can be unpredictable and uncontrollable feedback in a filter module for audio synthesis can b
39. ill gets an occasional respectable mention in the analog synthesis community When Way Out Ware s Jim Heintz called in early 2004 to tell me about the TimewARP 2600 a lot of time had passed Regarding software synthesizers had grown weary and cynical Analog modeling software had been a decade long disappointment some products did interesting things but not the things that real analog modules do Jim however had already encountered thought about and solved these problems He owned a real 2600 He really aimed at getting it right and would not be satisfied with anything less It was a pleasure finally to accept his invitation to do an Owner s Manual It s now clear that Way Out Ware has set a new standard for software based audio synthesis The behavior of the TimewARP 2600 software both module by module and integrated into patches is effectively indistinguishable from that of the analog hardware that it emulates Soaring and swooping through the free air of analog synthesis a world of nothing but sliders and cords and continuously evolving patch configuration was a capstone course at the Boston School of Electronic Music in the 1970 s That is the world that the TimewARP 2600 for a new generation of musicians in a new millennium that means you provides access to it is the first and believe only software synthesizer to support real time performance by sliders and patchcords alone So here it is your new Owner s Manual for
40. inal program did This is called frequency shifting Picture the entire program signal spectrum shifted up or down by some fixed frequency The important thing to remember about this is that it s not pitch shifting which would have to be accomplished by frequency multiplication but frequency shifting It s an addition or subtraction process and it really messes up any harmonic relationships that might have existed in the original spectrum Frequency Modulation The spectrum resulting from amplitude modulation always has three components for every one component of the program signal the carrier itself and two sidebands In Frequency Modulation however the number of sidebands depends on the modulation depth It is possible from only two sine waves to generate a spectrum with dozens or even hundreds of components Modulating one sawtooth with another can produce a spectrum so complex that it sounds almost like a noise generator In such a patch you will usually reach for a filter to take the edge off the resulting spectrum What happens is this as the depth of modulation increases the number of sidebands does too without limit The additional sidebands come in at guess what integral multiples of the program frequency For this reason the most useful FM techniques involve only sine wave carrier and program signals Controlling One Module by Means of Another The modulation methods we ve just described can be accomplished with voltage c
41. iven this for a carrier carrier spectrum and this for a program program KC CAN Spectrum here s the AM result carrier Zr low er upper sideband gt 4 sideband the carrier is gone and varying variable amplitude number of depending sidebands on the modulation depth and here s the FM result TAN 3 6 5 2 3 6 5 2 1 3 6 5 2 2 3 6 5 3 3 7 TimewARP User Guide So just for example if you modulate a 10 component carrier signal with a 10 component program signal the signal resulting from the modulation will have not less than 100 spectral components This can get very messy the most useful thing you can do with such a signal before you do anything else is filter it to get rid of some of the fuzz Amplitude Modulation Suppose we modulate the amplitude of a 1000Hz sine wave with a 5Hz sine wave The result is indistinguishable from what we would get if we mixed three sine waves at 995Hz IkHz and 1005Hz They are the same signal The 995Hz component of the output is the lower sideband resulting from the modulation and the 1005Hz component is the upper sideband Ring Modulation While a VCA responds only to a positive going signal at its amplitude control input a ring modulator responds to both positive and negative levels at both of its inputs Its output is simply the product arithmetically of the two inputs If you are new to audio synthesis draw a couple
42. l Clock may be synchronized to incoming MIDI Beat Clocks see section 4 1 11 4 The Electronic Switch has two connections on one side and one on the other as indicated by the panel graphics For clarity let s call these three jacks A 1 A 2 and B The switch alternates between connecting A 1 to B and A 2 to B It doesn t matter which side is the signal source and which is the destination the switch works the same regardless The switching rate is governed by the Internal Clock This is a permanent feature of the switch rO ELECTRONIC ul iu 44 4 14 4 14 1 4 14 2 4 14 3 TimewARP User Guide The Virtual Keyboard This has five octaves 60 keys The control panel at the left is modeled on but not identical to the original ARP 3620 keyboard LFO EED LFO LFO O 0O 3 SINGLE KYBO r O LFO V SRATO DELAY a ET VIBRATO QA 2 i i IK DELAYED VIBRATO DEPTH MULTIPLE AUTO TRIGGER REPEAT o on MODE L ay 2 OCTAVES up o v i rar 2 OCTAVE UPPER INTERVAL d VOICE LATCH z 5 PITCH BENO TRANSPOSE PORTAMENTO Low Frequency Oscillator LFO Section The keyboard unit has its own LFO section independent of any of the standard VCO s It can be used in two ways for vibrato or for automatically repeated keyboard gates as for example in imitating the repeated notes of a mandolin Three sliders govern the Speed Delay and Depth of the LFO Under MIDI control the keyboard LFO may be synchronize
43. l when you are creating and tuning a new patch if you don t have a hardware MIDI keyboard handy The virtual keyboard also displays as key depressions incoming MIDI note events Use this to monitor your external MIDI keyboard connection and activity Polyphonic Operation The TimewARP 2600 can respond to as many as eight simultaneous keydown events Use the Voices dropdown see section 4 1 1 2 to set the number of voices Saving and Loading Patches You may save patches using the Save or Save As buttons or load patches with the Patch Manager see section 4 1 below There is no limit to the number of patches you can create and save To enable the Save button the Lock button padlock icon must be in the unlocked mode You may wish to create a bank of template patches generic versions of often used configurations The TimewARP 2600 responds to MIDI bank select and patch select commands MIDI Communication and Control Slider Knob and Switch Control You may control any slider knob or switch on the TimewARP 2600 plug in with any MIDI controller If you have a hardware control surface or if your MIDI keyboard has slider or knob control devices you can use them to control any combination of sliders knobs or switches in a patch Any connections you set up are global to the TimewARP 2600 you can store them independently of any specific patch see section 4 1 2 1 below To connect a slider knob or switch to an external MIDI cont
44. llator Output SPECTRUM TIME domain FREQUENCY domain odi 77737 3dB Octave Sawtooth d Tm E f 3f 4 LT 20 OdB Pulse T Taim paee T Daan 12f 16f OdB Triangle rs 10 m 20 OdB Sine AAJ E 10 20 4 Vt In an analog synthesizer the underlying medium in motion is usually electrical pressure or voltage In a digital synthesizer the signal is actually generated as a sequence of calculated numbers Conventionally these are generated at the standard sampling rate for music CDs 44 1KHz This does not become motion until at the output of the synthesizer the number stream is converted to variations in voltage and then amplified and then used to drive a loudspeaker A loudspeaker is a motor that moves back and forth instead of around and around Because oscillator generated signals are periodic their spectral components always form a harmonic series 21 3 5 2 3 5 3 3 5 4 Noise Generators A device that jiggles at random without ever repeating itself is a noise generator Waterfalls steam wind fans and such things are all noise generators The spectrum of a noise signal is a statistical distribution of frequency components This is the opposite of a sine wave which is exactly one frequency A noise spectrum that is perfectly balanced throughout the musical range is called pink noise Pink noi
45. mple of this is the lag processor described in section 3 6 4 5 below In the frequency domain it weakens spectral components that are higher than the filter cutoff frequency the frequency at which the filter begins to have an effect on the signal 3 6 4 2 3 6 4 3 3 6 4 4 3 6 4 5 TimewARP User Guide High Pass Filters Any device or mechanism that passes along faster motions better than slower ones is a high pass filter Take the drinking straw from your water glass Seal the end of it with your thumb and dip it back into the water Notice that you can pump it up and down in the glass fast or slow but the water never leaks into the straw as long as you hold your thumb over the end Think of the up and down motion of the water at the bottom end of the straw as the signal Now start letting a little air leak into the straw as you move it up and down The water level at the bottom end of the straw no longer stays down when the straw signal goes down it starts to come up again And then when you draw the straw back up the water leaks back down more or less rapidly depending on the position of your thumb at the top of the straw 4T Vf gt f 2 4 8 16 32 Tintin A highpass filter makes dnd so lower it difficult for the medium frequency components to keep a new level it are weakened leaks away This is a high pass filter In the time domain it constantly leaks its output s
46. nattenuated FM Control input is from the keyboard The Audio LF switch above this input switches the mode of the VCO from Audio 10Hz 20 000Hz to LFO Mode 0 03Hz 30Hz When the VCO is in LFO Mode the default connection to the keyboard is removed This can be overridden in this mode by patching a cable to the Keyboard CV output on the left side of the front panel The default signals to the next three FM Control inputs are from a the Noise Generator b the ADSR Envelope Generator and c VCO2 sine 10 100 IKHz 10KHz 03 T 3 0 30 FIN TUNE PUL WIDTH ON Kar OFF FM CONTROL 4 4 Voltage Controlled Filter VCF The Voltage Controlled Filter has variable cutoff frequency Fc and resonance Q The response below Fc is flat down to DC above Fc the response falls off at 24dB per octave Fc range is from 10Hz to 10kHz without control voltages under voltage control Fc can be driven as far down as 1Hz and as high as 20kHz Fc is controlled manually by a coarse tuning slider labeled initial filter frequency and a fine tune slider Fc may also be controlled by external voltages the sensitivity under voltage control is 1 0vV oct INITIAL FILTER FREQUENCY 10 NE FIN UNE F SONANCE 36 4 5 TimewARP User Guide The Q or resonance of the filter circuit is controlled by a single manual slider As the Q is increased by moving this slider from left to right the response below Fc is gradually atte
47. ne INITIAL OSCILLATOR FREQUENCY 10 100 1KHz 10KHz o ME 3 0 30 FIMF TUNE SAWTOOTH ON ker OF FE CONTROL 0000 eo ad 34 4 3 2 TimewARP User Guide VCO 2 VCO 2 generates sine triangle sawtooth and pulse outputs A pulse width slide control can adjust the duty cycle from 10 to 90 at the middle of its travel the pulse width is 50 that is a square wave The default signal to the first unattenuated FM Control input is from the keyboard The Audio LF switch above this input switches the mode of the VCO from Audio 10Hz 20 000Hz to LFO Mode 0 03Hz 30Hz When the VCO is in LFO Mode the default connection to the keyboard is removed This can be overridden in this mode by patching a cable to the Keyboard CV output on the left side of the front panel The default signals to the next three FM Control inputs are from a the Sample amp Hold b the ADSR Envelope Generator and c VCOI square There is a fourth attenuator governed input for digital control of the pulse width The default signal at this PWM input is from the Noise Generator FI TUNE PUL WIDTH L TRIANGLE SAWTOOTH out ie O HT CO PULSE PWN 35 M AUDIO 4 3 3 VCO 3 VCO 3 generates sawtooth pulse and sine outputs the pulse width is manually variable The sine output is a TimewARP 2600 extension the original ARP 2600 VCO3 provided just sawtooth and pulse outputs The default signal to the first u
48. negative voltages on positive input a digital inverter simply multiplies its input number stream by 1 Inverters 3 S in t h i Ps 1 pu C dy dh gf output AME CONI ONIS Signal Mixing A signal mixer adds two or more signals together and outputs the result of the addition This is a more complex signal usually than any of the inputs But not necessarily if signal B for example is the exact inversion of signal A then mixing the two will produce a signal of exactly zero these four signals added mixed together make EC two sines added together Attenuators Amplifiers An attenuator cuts the strength of a signal passing through Digitally this is accomplished by multiplying the input by some value ranging from 0 0 which passes no signal to 1 0 which passes the signal at its full input amplitude An amplifier may increase the amplitude of a signal But not necessarily it is usual for a voltage controlled amplifier to have a maximum gain factor of 1 0 In fact the purpose of VCAS is actually to chop the signals passing through them It would make more sense to think of them as voltage controlled attenuators 23 MI 3 6 3 1 3 6 4 3 6 4 1 Gain Factor To describe the behavior of an amplifier or attenuator we may use the expression gain factor to mean the ratio of output signal amplitude to input amplitude Filters A filter is a device that works bette
49. nuated until a sharp peak remains at the cutoff frequency Gain at Fc is always unity At this Q setting just below the point at which oscillation begins the filter will ring distinctly in response to any sharply defined pulse presented to its signal input In this state it is effectively analogous to a highly resonant physical system and may be used for various percussion effects depending on its resonant frequency identical to Fc and on the impulse spectrum exciting it As the Q is raised still higher beyond about the halfway point in the slider travel the filter will oscillate Operating in this state it generates a pure sine wave even in the absence of any signal input The VCF has five Audio signal inputs They are fed through logarithmic attenuators to a summing point and then to the VCF itself The default input signals are from the Ring Modulator VCO 1 Square VCO 2 Pulse VCO 3 Sawtooth and Noise Generator The VCF has three frequency Control inputs The first is normally from the Keyboard pitch control The slider that governs this input is a TimewARP 2600 extension on the original ARP 2600 the keyboard control depth was not adjustable The second and third FM Control inputs are governed by linear attenuators prewired to these are the ADSR Envelope Generator output and the VCO 2 Sine output Inserting a patch cord at an input jack automatically disconnects the default signal Envelope Generators The Envelope Generato
50. onics which is a matter of spectral content not amplitude Stage actors have to learn to overcome this tendency in order to be heard onstage without shouting they have to learn to increase their speaking amplitude without yelling If you examine visually the recorded signal from a pipe organ or even an orchestra you may be surprised to find the apparent amplitude of the softer signals almost equal to that of the loudest This has to do with the spectral distribution of the sound Of two different signals of approximately equal amplitude the one with the broadest spectral distribution the most harmonic content will sound louder 19 3 4 2 1 3 4 3 3 4 4 How Adding Volumes Means Multiplying Amplitudes Nonetheless for a given signal and its spectrum it is always true that a bare increase in amplitude will be heard as an increase in loudness But how much of an increase It turns out that just as with frequency and pitch the relationship here is exponential A century of research has established that equal steps in loudness are represented by multiplicative ratios in signal amplitude A 3dB rise or fall in sound level is noticeable but it s not much it represents a factor of 2 change in signal power Reference Power level decreasing Power level 33 30 27 24 21 18 15dB I2dB 6dB Ref 3dB Reference F Sound level jecreasing 4 sound level tany In other words if you double the amplitude of a
51. onize Internal Clock MIDI Beats Per Cycle Synchronize Keyboard LFO MIDI Beats Per Cycle 24 You may synchronize the Internal Clock IC see section 4 13 to the MIDI Beat Clock MBC by specifying the number of MBC pulses per IC transition As a reference there are 24 MBC pulses per quarter note The keyboard LFO see section 4 14 1 may also be synchronized to incoming the MBC independently of the Internal Clock Setting different sync counts for these is a fun way to program complex rhythms that are locked to the tempo of your MIDI tracks In order for the MBC messages to be sent to the TimewARP 2600 you must enable MIDI Beat Clock in the Pro Tools MIDI Menu and select the TimewARP 2600 as a recipient of these messages Also MBC messages are only sent when the Pro Tools transport control is running MBC synchronization is a patch attribute not a global one the sync counts you set here will be stored with the current patch when you save it 4 1 12 Jacks Patchcords and Default Connections The panel has eighty one mini jacks Forty five are inputs twenty nine are outputs and 7 operate as both input and output Of the 45 inputs 32 are in a row running across the center of the panel There are actually 34 jacks in the row but the two labeled gate and trig are outputs This row of input jacks divides the control surface almost evenly in half Above this row in the upper half of the control surface t
52. ons After that you can pretty much mix and match according to your experience If you re new to audio synthesis you ll want to walk through the tutorial patch sequence in Patchman pdf referring back to Chapter 3 for concepts and Chapter 4 for detailed module specifications while you explore and learn to control the vast range and patch repertoire of the TimewARP 2600 software synthesizer If you already have some experience with audio synthesis you might go directly to Chapter 4 for the detailed module by module specifications of the TimewARP 2600 If you know and love the original ARP 2600 itself take particular note of section 4 1 where we describe what you can do with the TimewARP 2600 that you could not do with its analog ancestor These digital extensions include patch load save additional VCO sine wave outputs dual channel signal input automatic Y connections at all signal outputs sixteen keyboard micro tuning options MIDI Beat Clock synchronization and MIDI controller mapping with subranges for all the panel sliders TimewARP User Guide 2 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 2 2 1 3 2 1 3 1 In this chapter you will find all of the platform dependent information you need in order to install and operate your TimewARP 2600 software synthesizer The TimewARP 2600 provides an extended set of digitally based features that no hardware based analog synthesizer can offer We describe the most important of these
53. ontrolled or digitally controlled equipment For example to set up an AM effect feed the carrier signal into a VCA audio input and the program signal into one of the amplitude control inputs Likewise to set up an FM method route the program signal into one of the frequency control inputs of a VCO See section 4 3 for news of some TimewARP 2600 extensions relating to this NS N 3 7 1 LJ IDIO Linear and Exponential Sensitivity to Control Signals In designing and constructing a voltage controlled device or a digitally controlled algorithm we have to consider how we intend the controlling parameter to relate to the controlled parameter Suppose for example we build an oscillator that changes its output frequency by exactly 1000Hz for each rise of 1 volt in electrical pressure at a designated point a control input in the oscillator circuitry This is a linear relationship between the control value and the frequency In order to march such an oscillator through a musical scale one would have to provide exponentially increasing voltage steps at each rising musical interval That s pretty awkward and it gets worse very rapidly The pitch interval produced by a 1 volt control interval will depend completely on what the original frequency of the oscillator was set to before applying the control voltage For an initial frequency of 1 volt control becomes a pitch increase of Octave a perfect fifth a
54. oups Making Patch Connections Use the mouse to connect any output to any input jack Position the cursor at any signal output click and hold down the mouse button and drag the patch cord to any signal input To remove a patch cord drag either end away from its signal jack The TimewARP 2600 will not connect two outputs or two inputs together If you drag from one jack to another but no patch cord appears it may be that both jacks are inputs or both are outputs The TimewARP 2600 will allow Y connections distributing a single output signal to multiple destinations by holding the control key down while clicking an output that already has a cable connected to it A second cable will appear attached to the cursor which can then be plugged into another input Using the Sliders and Knobs To adjust a slider or knob drag it with the mouse For increased resolution hold down the command Apple or control Windows key during the drag operation If you pause for a moment over a slider a display will pop up with the numerical value and name of the parameter it controls If you have MIDI controller hardware you can easily connect it to the sliders knobs or switches see section 2 2 2 2 1 7 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 1 1 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 TimewARP User Guide Using the Virtual Keyboard Display The graphic TimewARP 2600 keyboard display responds directly to mouse events click on any key to create a MIDI keydown signal This is usefu
55. output only when a gate signal is present at its input At the onset of a gate signal the output level rises to 4 1OvV at a rate set by the Attack slider When the level reaches 10WwV it immediately begins to fall at a rate set by the Decay slider to a level set by the Sustain slider It remains at this level while the gate signal continues Finally when the gate ends the output falls to zero at a rate set by the final Release slider If the gate ends at any time during the ADSR cycle the generator immediately advances to its final Release phase the current output level starts falling to zero from whatever value it had at the moment the gate ended When the Envelope Generator is controlled from the Keyboard Controller it responds to the trigger signal from the keyboard supposing that an envelope is already in process by repeating the first two stages of an envelope and returning again to the Sustain level For all other control gates presented to the generator input circuitry internal to the generator itself derives a trigger signal from the leading edge of the gate AR Envelope Generator The AR Envelope Generator offers variable Attack time and final Release time Two vertical sliders control these parameters The generator produces an output only when a gate signal is present at its input At the onset of a gate signal the output level rises to 10vV at a rate set by the Attack slider When the level reaches 10vV it remains at thi
56. pe Follower under these conditions is taken from the left channel 33 M AUDIO 4 3 4 3 1 Voltage Controlled Oscillators VCO These generate three or more of the following basic waveforms The output amplitude and phase relationships are the same for all oscillators The oscillator sensitivity under virtual voltage control is IvV octave For convenience in fine tuning control depth the three attenuator governed FM Control inputs at each oscillator provide three different sensitivity ranges The leftmost slider is full range wide open it passes its signal unchanged The second slider is 50 wide open it passes its signal at half strength The third slider wide open passes its signal at 25 of its original amplitude vco 1 VCO 1 generates saw square and sine outputs The sine output is a TimewARP 2600 extension the original ARP 2600 VCOI provided just sawtooth and square wave outputs The default signal to the first unattenuated FM Control input is from the keyboard The Audio LF switch above this input switches the mode of the VCO from Audio 10Hz 20 000Hz to LFO Mode 0 03Hz 30Hz When the VCO is in LFO Mode the default connection to the keyboard is removed This can be overridden in this mode by patching a cable to the Keyboard CV output on the left side of the front panel The default signals to the next three FM Control inputs are from a the Sample amp Hold b the ADSR Envelope Generator and c VCO2 si
57. perfect fourth 2 Octaves And so instead of linear sensitivity VCO s for audio synthesis are designed almost universally with exponential sensitivity to control signals Such a design sets up an exponential relationship between control signal and frequency in order to maintain a simple linear relation between control signal values and audible pitch changes Similar arguments apply in the design of voltage controlled filters it s more practical to work with a linear relationship between control signal and cutoff timbre and therefore the relationship between control signal and cutoff frequency really has to be exponential TimewARP User Guide 4 1 Top Row Control Panel Buttons and Indicators Just above the panel graphics outside the case of the TimewARP 2600 is a horizontal row of buttons and indicators for patch storage import export voice cloning and other operations These powerful features of the TimewARP 2600 have no equivalent in the world of analog synthesis they are unique digital extensions of the original ARP 2600 synthesizer 4 1 1 Patch Lock Button Padlock Icon This padlock button helps you to avoid accidentally overwriting your favorite patch Basically it disables the Save button while leaving the Save As button enabled Under these conditions you can save your current patch only by assigning it a new name 4 1 2 Group Category and Patch Drop Down Lists
58. r at some frequencies than at others The inverters mixers and attenuators we have been describing work the same at all frequencies so they are not filters Because of this frequency dependent characteristic of filters they change the shape of any complex waveform passing through And so it will be important for you to get to know what filters do to signals in both the time domain and in the frequency domain Low Pass Filters Any device or mechanism that passes along slower motions better than faster ones can act as a lowpass filter Picture yourself stirring a cup of tea with one of those little wooden paddles they hand out in the coffee shops Stir it back and forth fast Now slow down Now imagine the tea has turned to syrup You can still stir it slowly but if you try to go fast the stick will simply not move That s a lowpass filter You can see the effect of this on a signal quite easily f ria L8 uu 32 A lowpass filter in the time domain LN DIN pt N ILS and in the frequency domain this cuts off higher frequency components EE makes it difficult for the medium to change value For audio signals you will usually be more interested in the frequency domain effects of filtering For subaudio signals it is usually the time domain effects changes in waveshape that we care about In the time domain a low pass filter rounds off any sharp transitions in the signal A good exa
59. roller hold down the control Mac or shift Windows key and click on the slider knob or switch image The responding dialog box offers you both global and patch specific connections Global MIDI Map Settings Select the controller number either by directly typing it in or by moving the physical control on the MIDI device you intend to use Set the response curve polarity and range The response curve may be linear or exponential or logarithmic The polarity is either direct or inverted To set the Control Range drag either end of the bar inward Whenever the bar covers less than the entire controller range you may also drag it to the right or left to adjust the range offset You may if you wish assign the same external control to several TimewARP 2600 sliders or knobs and set a different curve polarity and range for each one In this way you can create patches and configurations of the TimewARP 2600 that are specifically adapted for expressive performance either live or in the studio Patch Specific Settings Besides globally assigning a slider knob or switch to a MIDI controller you may also assign the slider or knob to be controlled by the velocity and or aftertouch parameters of incoming keyboard events These assignments are not global they are stored with individual patches In real time these controller values are summed with the current global control values to determine the real time value of the slider So by care
60. rs generate transient positive going waveforms with controllable rise and fall times They are used primarily with the VCF and VCA in generating events whose time varying spectrum and amplitude must be accurately and repeat ably controlled The output from each generator is a positive going signal whose rise and fall time is set by slide controls on the generator and whose onset and overall duration is determined by a gate signal The maximum value that either envelope can reach is 10vV thus unattenuated either envelope is capable of driving a VCF or VCA from its minimum initial setting 10Hz for the VCF IOO0dB for the VCA all the way up to maximum See 4 1 2 and 4 1 3 specifically the data on control input sensitivity Also reread sections 2 1 6 through 217 Gate signals for operating an Envelope Generator may originate with a Manual Start button the Keyboard Controller or any 10vV square wave or pulse signal The two position switch just under the lower AR generator selects between the two latter sources The Manual Start button overrides both of these ATTACK D CAY sustuk mue nue warace me 37 4 5 1 4 5 2 LJ IDIO ADSR Envelope Generator The ADSR Envelope Generator offers variable Attack time initial Decay time Sustain level and final Release time Four vertical sliders control these parameters note that three of these are time parameters and the fourth Sustain level is not The generator produces an
61. s level while the gate signal continues Finally when the gate ends the output falls to zero at a rate set by the final Release slider If the gate ends at any time during the AR cycle the generator immediately advances to its final Release phase the current output level starts falling to zero from whatever value it had at the moment the gate ended The AR Envelope Generator does not require a trigger signal for any phase of its operation 4 6 TimewARP User Guide Voltage Controlled Amplifier VCA The Voltage Controlled Amplifier has a maximum gain of unity and a dynamic range of lOO0dB With the initial gain control at maximum and with no control input the VCA will pass with unchanged amplitude any signal presented to its signal input On the other hand with the initial gain control at minimum no signal will pass through the amplifier at all unless some positive signal level the VCA does not respond to negative control signals is present at one or both of its control inputs The first control input has linear sensitivity the gain of the amplifier in response to a signal at this input is S 10 i e dividing the signal level by 10 will give the gain factor The second control input has exponential sensitivity the gain of the amplifier in response to a signal at this input will equal 1OdB vV There are two audio signal inputs to the VCA The default connections to these are from the VCF and the Ring Modulator Inserting a pa
62. s in such events is to chart each changing attribute separately in its own time domain graph Such a graph is often referred to as an envelope Over the years some standard vocabulary has developed for talking about envelopes Attack for the first part of an event Decay for some later parts and Release for the last part when the event is coming to an end How Signals and Sounds Go Together Sort of Signal activities being entirely physical kinds of things are easily nameable measurable catalog able and countable Sounds as we pointed out above are not quite so easily domesticated The music and other sounds that we listen to correlate in several well established ways with the signals around us but the correspondence is not simple There are always surprises Signal Frequency and Audible Pitch This is probably the best established and most reliable correspondence It dates all the way back to Pythagoras the Greek philosopher who 2500 years ago worked out that halving the length of a vibrating string made the pitch rise by one octave 3 4 1 1 3 4 2 TimewARP User Guide How Adding Pitches Means Multiplying Frequencies The range of audio frequencies of human hearing in other words is conventionally stated to be 20Hz to 20KHz And when you think linearly it sounds tragic to learn of someone say who can only hear up to lOkHz But in the realm of human pitch perception such a person has kept 90 of his hearing ran
63. se is very useful in listening tests of loudspeakers because a trained human listener can hear even tiny differences between two different noise spectra OdB White noise spectrum 15 Pink noise SeT Ode spectrum 15 OdB Red LF noise 15dB spectrum 30dB 12 3 4 5 6 7 8 10 Filtering and equalization can shape a noise spectrum into almost any sound Envelope Generators A device whose output is intended to control some time varying attribute of an event is called an envelope generator These are sometimes referred to as transient generators to call attention to the fact that their output is not constant but transient An envelope generator produces an output signal only on demand The demand is made by means of timing signals called gates and triggers envelope generators are controlled by gate and trigger signals N fk gate trigger N ADSR envelope A AR envelope J Sample amp Hold Processors The idea of sampling a signal does not directly relate to any particular characteristic of audio events instead it is an idea from electronics that has turned out to be useful for creating patterned control signals 3 6 3 6 1 3 6 2 3 6 3 TimewARP User Guide Modules and Methods for Processing Modifying Signals Inverters A signal inverter works exactly like a seesaw When the input goes high the output goes low and vice versa An analog inverter would output
64. signal you will hear an increase in loudness But then to get another increase equal to the first one you have to double the amplitude again Signal Spectrum and Audible Tone Color This is a quite solid relationship In fact the word spectrum has achieved a meaning in both worlds depending on the context it can refer to a measurable attribute of physical signals or a character of perceived sounds Any change you hear in the character of a sound in its tone color or spectrum must have an associated variation in the character of the physical signal that is arriving at your eardrums Tone change waveform change The reverse is not quite so certain It s fairly easy to find waveform changes that listeners can t hear For example we humans simply aren t sensitive to phase relationships within a complex spectrum But in the time domain two identical spectra with shifted phase relationships among their components can look unrecognizably different Signal Envelopes and Audible Event Contours One of the most fascinating areas of audio synthesis is listening for the envelopes of time varying events Here there are all sorts of mysteries in which signal attributes get regularly misperceived frequency variations get heard as volume spectral evolutions are heard as pitch and amplitude envelopes generate an elusive spectral twitter 3 5 3 5 1 TimewARP User Guide Modules and Methods for Generating Signals How can you g
65. son Bass Lead Patch Name om Other 8 Reso Reverb w ve Paste 9 Detune Lead iba i 10 DollDays author 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 00 1 Up 11 Ring Reverb Pulse Down Date Rename Notes C Show Info on Front Panel Delete Cancel Select C ok Cancel C ok Use the Patch Manager to organize and reorganize your patches to move patches from one category to another and to move whole categories from one group to another Use it to export and import patch collections dozens or hundreds of patches at a time 29 4 1 5 1 4 1 5 2 4 1 5 3 4 1 5 4 4 1 6 4 1 7 4 1 8 4 1 9 4 1 10 LJ IDIO The Patch Manager window displays all three levels of the patch hierarchy and supplies a number of tools for managing the entire collection These tools are listed in a column on the left of the window To use them select one or more items from the hierarchy and then click on the operation you want to perform Any operation that cannot be applied to the current selection of items will be disabled in the list Import Export Use the Import Export commands to write or read entire Groups Categories and Patches to from external files Export works on whatever items are currently selected by selecting all of the current groups you can use Export to make a backup of all of your patches When you export a single Patch the names of the Group and Category for the patch are exported with it
66. ss our range of hearing They sound too bright white noise has equal energy in any two equal frequency bands 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20K so it s NOT equal in equal pitch intervals 20 40 80 160 320 6401 25 2 5 5 10K 20K octave intervals even when you use dB for the vertical axis 6 8 OdB 12 9dB a u TERPEN THIS is why white noise sounds so shrill 3 3 TimewARP User Guide Attributes of Auditory Events Of all the thousands of sounds you hear in a single day only some have a definite beginning or ending point Many just come and go without a clear start stop Those that do have a reasonably clear start stop we will call auditory events The other sounds the less clearly defined ones we can call auditory textures or backgrounds or even structures Think how some sounds are more complicated than others The hum of a refrigerator is sort of simple the hum of a tuning fork is as we heard above really simple A single bass note from a piano is quite complicated the way it keeps changing and evolving as it dies away Human speech is a very complicated kind of sound even when it s your native tongue when it s a language you don t understand it sounds even more complicated There are many many more kinds of sounds to hear than you or have words to describe them with Here are just a couple of the most general distinctions people make about different kinds of sounds distant h
67. st have some additional components These additional components are called sidebands They have been studied for at least a century and are pretty well understood physically and mathematically Audio synthesis is probably the only application of AM or FM modulation where we are interested in sidebands for their own sake as something to listen to directly in the past this kind of thing was only interesting to radio engineers radar sonar television broadcast engineering In those disciplines modulation sidebands are products of broadcasting methods in the electromagnetic spectrum Because of that historical background some of the conventional language for talking about modulation processes is a little weird the signal being modulated is often referred to as the carrier signal and the signal that provides the modulation pattern is called the program Guess why Any form of modulation generates for each component of the original signal at least one lower sideband at a frequency equal to the component minus the modulating frequency and at least one upper sideband at a frequency equal to the component plus the modulating frequency If the carrier the original signal is itself complex with multiple spectral components then each of its components will produce its own sidebands independently of all the others Likewise if the modulating signal the program is complex the arithmetic applies separately to each of its components G
68. tch cord automatically disconnects the default signal The default signal at the linear control input is from the AR Envelope Generator and at the exponential input is from the ADSR Envelope Generator Inserting a patch cord automatically disconnects the default signal l a vea s ie OUTPUT CONTI EINEBAR EXPL 39 M AUDIO 4 7 4 7 1 4 7 2 4 7 3 Mix Pan Reverb Output Module The three functions in this module provide final processing of the output signal That at least is what they are intended for you may actually use them in other roles for any purpose you please If you leave the default connections undisturbed the module is configured as a two input Mixer which feeds a Pan Control and a Reverb unit which are themselves mixed to feed the final left right system output channels When the TimewARP 2600 is configured for mono operation this section omits the Pan control and provides only one output channel LEFT OUTPUT RIGHT OUTPUT Mixer The two inputs to this Mixer carry default connections from the VCF and the VCA they can of course be overridden with patch cords The two jacks just above the sliders and below the Mixer graphic are not inputs they are the outputs from the attenuators This lets you use the two sliders as floating attenuators in any situation where you need to set the strength of a signal Although if you do this there s no way to get any signals into the mixer Pan Control
69. ttributes of Auditory Events 0 0 e e 17 3 4 How Signals and Sounds Go Together Sort Of n nannaa anaana eens 18 3 5 Modules and Methods for Generating Signals naana anaana ee 2 3 6 Modules and Methods for Processing Modifying Signals 0 0 cc cece eee 23 37 Controlling One Module by Means of Another 0 0 0 cece cece eee 27 4 Modular Components of the TimewARP 2600 Laaa 29 4 Top Row Control Panel Buttons and Indicators 0 eee nee eee 29 2 2 Preamp Galh Control aco etn cos red ee ates Modus es Seatbelt baw dowel an eal dre tess 33 4 3 Voltage Controlled Oscillators VCO 0 eee eee eee e 34 4 4 Voltage Controlled Filter VCF nonna eee eee eee Hh e 36 2 5 Envelope Gerieralors i3 ved tea bois dua bin Modules Decet ba tcp db an eal drei ease 37 4 6 Voltage Controlled Amplifier VCA 0 eee eee bebe e 39 4 7 Mix Pan Reverb Output Module 0 eee ened e es 40 AB Envelope FOIOWEL ce ee E cede e nia wade dd p Mand d eai depre bit lien 4 4 9 RINGIMOGUIGIOF sic 0242S oe eme tx PE io aeiaai ta aE on aE bh ad eO qam dep bp re mes 4 4 10 Noise Generator NG 6 eee eben hme 42 aN Voltage Processors VP 91 te ctu ete e eode Parte Decet t p db b a o ali dre Rd 43 4 12 The Sample amp Hold Module S H iiiiiisissssssssssssssssss esee e 44 4 13 The Internal Clock Electronic Switch nananana annene annaa RR en 44 A 14 The Virt al Keyboard uou trot aia dn
70. tual key depressions no longer play a role in gating In its upper position the LFO and the keypress are ANDed together when you press a key there is a series of pulses from the LFO and when you release the key the series stops This is the mandolin effect we mentioned above The keyboard Gate and Trigger signals are available on the main panel from two jacks in the Envelope Generator section 45 M AUDIO Please see the Patchman pdf file found on the install disc or at www wayoutware com for suggestions If you are new to audio synthesis consult the tutorial patch collection 46 TimewARP User Guide 6 1 6 1 1 6 1 3 6 1 4 6 1 5 6 1 6 6 1 7 6 1 8 6 1 9 6 1 10 6 1 11 Table of Alternate Keyboard Tunings Tuning Presets compiled by Robert Rich 12 Tone Equal Temperament non erasable The default Western tuning based on the twelfth root of two Good fourths and fifths horrible thirds and sixths Harmonic Series MIDI notes 36 95 reflect harmonics 2 through 60 based on the fundamental of A 27 5 Hz The low C on a standard 5 octave keyboard acts as the root note 55Hz and the harmonics play upwards from there The remaining keys above and below the 5 octave range are filled with the same intervals as Carlos Harmonic 12 Tone that follows Carlos Harmonic Twelve Tone Wendy Carlos twelve note scale based on octave repeating harmonics A 1 1 440 Hz 1 1 17 16 9 8 19 16 5 4 21 16 1
71. um of traffic passing ccir the cell phone ringing WW Mwy me SE I the person on the other end WAN NNH church bell Pia eee ee RM S neighbor calling his dog the dog barks WW left ear signal right ear signal 17 MI 3 3 1 3 3 2 3 4 3 4 1 Steady State Attributes Some sounds once they get started remain pretty constant They don t change much while they continue and when they stop they just stop We say such sounds reach a steady state in which we can pick out a definite Pitch Loudness and Tone Color Notes from organ pipes or from electronic drawbar organs are steady state sounds transient part ATTACK transient part DECAY of event 4 steady state part sort of time Time Varying Attributes i e Envelopes Some sounds have a pretty clear start and end but while they re happening they change Think of a bird song or ordinary human speech Such sounds can sometimes be analyzed as more or less rapidly changing in one or more of those fundamental auditory attributes pitch loudness or tone color Think for example of how the sound of a plucked guitar string evolves from the moment you pick it to the moment you can t hear it anymore It starts out loud and fades away and it starts out bright with lots of harmonics and is slowly muffled as it fades out One way to conveniently diagram what happen
72. winging back and forth as they slowly come to rest is a decaying sine wave A sine wave signal has exactly three attributes its frequency its amplitude and its phase It has no other characteristics at all The decaying swing of the pendulum or the tuning fork does have one other attribute the amount of energy amplitude that it loses on each swing It s not a pure sine wave 3 2 1 Fundamental Attributes Picture a point on that rotating circle leaving a trail behind as it rotates like an airplane propeller Picture the trail stretched out behind like a coil spring and ask yourself amplitude phase important only 4 period gt 3 in comparing two signals 1 frequency period 3 2 1 1 Amplitude what s the diameter of this imaginary circle 3 2 1 2 Frequency how fast is it rotating 3 2 1 3 Phase when does it start a new cycle 3 2 2 Complex Attributes Most of the activity that reaches our ears every day is far more complex than just a sine wave Banging on a garbage can creates a much more complicated sort of vibration than tapping a tuning fork But any kind of motion that isn t a sine wave can still be analyzed as a collection of sine waves This is called Fourier analysis after the man who discovered that it was possible and proved mathematically that it always worked A complex signal can be made of simple ones like this IVAVAVAVAVAVAVASAS and
73. y people Just Major gives preferential treatment to major thirds on the sharps and a good fourth relative to the second C 1 1 261 625 1 1 16 15 9 8 6 5 5 4 4 3 45 32 3 2 8 5 5 3 16 9 15 8 Yamaha Just Minor C Similar to Yamaha 92s preset Just Major the Just Minor gives preferential treatment to minor thirds on the sharps and has a good fifth relative to the second C 1 1 261 625 1 1 25 24 10 9 6 5 5 4 4 3 45 32 3 2 8 5 5 3 16 9 15 8 Harry Partch 11 limit 43 Note Just Intonation One of the pioneers of modern microtonal composition Partch built a unique orchestra with this tuning during the first half of the 20th century to perform his own compositions The large number of intervals in this very dense scale offers a full vocabulary of expressive chords and complex key changes The narrow spacing also allows fixed pitched instruments like marimbas and organs to perform glissando like passages G 1 1 392 Hz MIDI note 67 1 1 81 80 33 32 21 20 16 15 12 11 11 10 10 9 9 8 8 7 7 6 32 27 6 5 11 9 5 4 14 1 9 7 21 16 4 3 27 20 11 8 7 5 10 7 16 11 40 27 3 2 32 21 14 9 1 7 8 5 18 1 5 3 27 16 12 7 7 4 16 9 9 5 20 11 11 6 15 8 40 21 64 33 160 81 TimewARP User Guide If you have any questions comments or suggestions about this or any M Audio product we invite you to contact us by using the following information M Audio USA 5795 Martin Rd Irwindale CA 91706 M Audio Germany Kuhallmand 34 D 74613 Ohringen Germany

Download Pdf Manuals

Related Search

M AUDIO TimewARP 2600 User Guide

M-AUDIO TimewARP 2600 User Guide

Contents

Download Pdf Manuals

Related Search

Related Contents