Glide – Dave Smith Instruments PROPHET 12 KEYBOARD User Manual
Page 46
36 Glide
Dave Smith Instruments
Glide
Glide or portamento is a feature that has been present on synthesizers
since at least the early ‘70s. (Earlier modular synthesizers could achieve
the same effect through the use of a lag processor.) In monophonic
synthesizers (or the Prophet 12 when U
nison
is on), it simply causes
the pitch of a note to glide up or down from the pitch of the previously
played note. When played polyphonically, the Prophet 12 behaves in a
similar fashion, except the pitch glides up or down from the previous
note played on that voice. For example, say C3 is played on voice 1 with
g
liDe
on. More notes are played and cycle through voices 2 through 12.
The next time voice 1 sounds, it’s playing F#4. The pitch will glide up
from C3 to F#4.
Glide is turned on and off using the g
liDe
switch, but the g
liDe
a
moUnt
must also be set in the Oscillators section. If g
liDe
is on, but g
liDe
a
moUnt
is set to 0 for all oscillators, g
liDe
has no apparent effect. Glide
Amount can be set to a different value for each of the oscillators.
Tip:
To set g
liDe
a
moUnt
for all four oscillators simultaneously,
press and briefly hold any of the oscillator select buttons until all four
buttons light. g
liDe
a
moUnt
now controls all four oscillators. Press
any of the oscillator select buttons to de-select the other oscillators.
In addition to g
liDe
a
moUnt
, there are four Glide modes—FixRate,
FixRate A, FixTime, and FixTime A—that determine how g
liDe
behaves. Turn g
liDe
on to display and change the modes.
FixRate:
The time to transition between notes varies with the interval
between the notes; the greater the interval, the longer the transition time.
The glide rate is fixed.
FixRate A:
The same as FixRate, but glide is only applied when playing
legato. That is, glide only occurs when a note is held until the next note
is played. This effectively allows glide to be turned on and off from the
keyboard.
FixTime:
Glide is set to a fixed time, regardless of the interval between
notes.
FixTime A:
The same as FixTime, but glide only occurs when playing
legato.