Q (Resonance)
FFT (Spectral Plot) of SMR output with white noise input
Narrow Q: RES knob at 100%
Wide Q: RES knob at 10%
Each channel has a resonance setting (Q). When the Q/resonance parameter is set high, the six channels act more like
resonators rather than what we normally think of as “filters”, in that they produce a somewhat pure tone or pitch in the
presence of even a tiny bit of that frequency on the audio input. The digital noise signal that's normalized to the input contains
all frequencies, so no matter what note is assigned to a channel, it will output sound.
Interestingly, a trigger or gate also contains all frequencies, so sending a pulse into the audio input causes all channels to
make a sound. Varying the Q value changes the clicky-ness and ringy-ness of the sound, as well how rapidly the resonant
sound decays (see scope shots below). If the pitches of the six channels are tuned to different notes in a scale, chords can be
played (See Scales and Banks, below). If the pitches are controlled using the 1V/octave inputs, then the SMR acts like a six-
voice VCO.
Trigger fed into SMR audio input (purple trace). Resonant sound at output (blue trace).
Gate fed into SMR
RES (Q) at 40%
RES (Q) at 75%
RES (Q) at 100%
Both rising and falling edges
of gate signal causes a
resonant sound on the output
When a channel is tuned to a particular frequency, the SMR will be quiet until that frequency appears on the input, at which
point it will make a resonant sound exactly at the tuned frequency. Try running a sine-wave output of a VCO into the SMR and
sweeping the VCO pitch up and down. As the VCO pitch comes close to the frequency of any of the channels, that channel
will ring and continue ring for a bit after the VCO has left that frequency.
When the resonance is low, the six channels act more like band-pass filters. Each slider controls the volume of that band. If
the bands are spaced evenly across the range of human hearing then the SMR will function like a graphic EQ. If the bands
are rotated or swept up and down in frequency, then the SMR will function somewhat like a traditional band-pass VCF.
Rotation
Rotation is a major feature of the SMR. The light ring is important to watch when learning about rotation. Rotation can happen
in one of two directions: clockwise or counter-clockwise. When rotated, all six channels move in the same direction, and the
six lights on the light ring will fade to the next adjacent spot. If a channel is locked, it won't rotate (see Locks, below). If a
channel is rotated such that it would land on top of a locked channel or another channel moving in the opposite direction, then
it will move through the locked or moving channel and stop on the other side.
Rotation is closely linked to Morph, which sets how quickly (or slowly) rotation can happen (see Morph section below). No
matter how much rotation you tell the SMR to do, it will only go as fast as the Morph setting allows. Rotation is also queued,
so if you quickly turn the ROTATE knob ten notches to the right and have a very slow Morph setting, the SMR will start
rotating all the channels one step at a time until it's rotated a total of ten times. Each of the ten rotations will happen at the
Morph speed. Reversing direction clears the queue, so if you want the SMR to stop rotating, you can turn the ROTATE knob
one click in the other direction. The SMR will forget the remaining rotations in the queue and just rotate once in the new
direction.
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