38
The Editor View
5.3
The Synth View
The
Synth
view is activated by clicking on the
Synth
button. This view allows one to go ’under the
hood’ and tweak the core synthesis modules of
Ultra Analog VA-3
and therefore to customize its
tone and behavior.
The two oscillators of
Ultra Analog VA-3
appear on the left of this view. They are followed
by the two filter-amplifier lines and their associated mixers. One can switch from one line to the
other by clicking on the tabs to the right of the oscillators. This reveals the main parameters of the
filter and amplifier modules as well as that of the
LFO
module and envelope generators used as
modulation sources.
To the right of the interface one finds the detailed or expert view of each of the synthesis
modules giving access to all their parameters. One can switch to any of these modules by clicking
on the corresponding tab to the left of the modules.
5.3.1
The Oscillator Module
The
Oscillator
module is the main sound source of
Ultra
Analog VA-3
and offers the features of the most reputed analog
oscillators. It provides a fine control on the pitch, standard wave-
forms, a sub-oscillator, and hard synchronization. The
Oscilla-
tor
module is implemented using precise modeling algorithms
rather than wave tables providing alias free sources with clean
pulse width modulation and synchronization.
Waveform
The
Shape
drop down menu is used to choose the wave form
generated by the oscillator. Wave forms include sine wave, saw
tooth, rectangular and white noise as shown in Figure 20.
When the
Shape
is set to rectangular, one has additional con-
trol and can adjust the pulse width of the rectangular wave. This
parameter is controlled using the
PW
knob. In its leftmost posi-
tion the pulse is very narrow while in its rightmost position the
wave is perfectly square and only the odd harmonics are heard.
Note that the pulse width of the rectangular waveform can be
modulated with the signal received from the
LFO
module. The
amount of modulation, around the value set with the
PW
knob,
can be set from the
LFO
module using the
VCO PW
knob.