Architecture – Sonic Charge Microtonic User Manual

Page 4

Advertising

Architecture

Sound Synthesizer

The sound engine of

Microtonic

offers eight channels of stereophonic sound

(called

drum channels or simply channels)

. Each channel has its own set of parameters that

define its sound. Collectively these parameter settings constitute a

drum patch. You

work with one channel at a time and you can load and save drum patches individu-
ally.

(The file extension for a drum patch file is “

.mtdrum”)

The parameters of a drum patch are organized into four main sections: the

Mixing

Section, the Oscillator Section, the Noise Section and the Velocity Sensitivity

section

(from left to right on the screen)

The

Mixing Section is the final stage in the audio processing chain. It mixes the os-

cillator and the noise generator and optionally distorts and equalizes the channel.
After this stage the audio from the various channels are mixed and sent to the host.

Microtonic

plug-in comes installed in two different versions, the “standard version”

(“Microtonic”)

which offers two assignable stereo outputs and the “multiple output

version”

(“MicrotonicMulti”)

which offers eight individual stereo outputs, one for

each drum channel.

The

Oscillator produces a steady or pitch-modulated tone. The oscillator features

three different waveforms and typically provides the tonal quality and the pitch of a
drum sound. For example, a low-frequency tone with a quick drop in pitch is often
used to synthesize bass drums. A higher frequency setting and a slower drop in fre-
quency can simulate the sound of a tuned drum like a tom. Other types of modula-
tions can be used to create a vast variety of sounds.

The

Noise Generator is used to add noisy elements to the sound. For example, it

can be a noisy punch sound, such as the sound of a hand or a drumstick hitting a
drum, or the sound of the vibrating snares on a snare drum.

The noise generator

also features a stereo mode where two uncorrelated noise sources are used for
the left and right output channels. This mode creates a dispersed stereo effect

similar to the sound of a reverb. Furthermore, the noise section features a multi-
mode filter with low-pass, band-pass and high-pass modes as well as an amplitude
envelope with different shapes allowing you to sculpt the noise just the way that fits
your sound.

Lastly, we have a

Velocity Sensitivity Section that controls how MIDI velocity and

pattern accents affect the sound

(see below for more info on pattern accents)

. You

have three different settings; two of which controls the volumes of the oscillator and
the noise respectively, and one that controls the amount of pitch modulation on the
oscillator.

Pattern Engine

The

Pattern Engine plays rhythmic patterns in sync with your host preset

(that is, if

your host supports tempo and song position synchronization of plug-ins)

. You have

12 different patterns to choose from, labeled

A to L. Each pattern consists of up to

steps and you may chain them in series so that when one pattern ends the next

automatically follows. Each step in turn has switches for triggering drum channels
with either accented or normal velocity.

(Accented velocity corresponds to a MIDI

velocity of 127, the hardest you can hit a MIDI key, and normal velocity is 64.)

Advertising