Novation Ultranova User Manual Download Page 14

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Synth eDIt SectIon

Hardware Navigation

See page 4 for an overview of the UltraNova and a brief description of what each of the top
panel controls do.

On the UltraNova, all the menus which control the sound generation and sound processing
blocks are accessed by the buttons in the

Synth Edit

area of the top panel.

When a menu is called up, the parameter values displayed are those of the currently-
selected patch.

Each menu is accessed by its own dedicated button, and has between one and four pages.
If a menu has more than one page, one of the two

PAGE

buttons [4] will be illuminated,

and these can be used to scroll through the additional pages. Up to eight parameters of
the menu are displayed on the LCD, and each is varied with the rotary encoder immediately
above the parameter text.

Using the menu buttons [11] to [22], you can go directly from one menu to another with a
single button press. Some of the sound generation/processing blocks are duplicated (e.g.
Oscillator), and the

SELECT

buttons [10] are used to select which particular block of that

type is to be controlled. The UltraNova remembers which block was last accessed, and
also which menu page, and when that menu is recalled, it re-opens with the last settings
visible.

oScIllatorS 1, 2 anD 3

The UltraNova has three identical oscillators and a noise source; these are the synth’s
sound generators. Pressing the

OSCILLATOR

button [11] opens the Oscillator Menu,

which has two pages for each oscillator. One of the

SELECT

buttons and one of the

PAGE

buttons will be illuminated, indicating that more than one oscillator is available to be

controlled and that further menu pages are available. A total of 16 parameters per oscillator
is displayed for adjustment, eight per page. However, note that ive of these are common to
all three oscillators, and another to the noise source; these six parameters appear on menu
Page 2 for every oscillator.

Per-oscillator parameters (Page 1)

Oscillator 1 is used as the example in the descriptions which follow, however all 3
oscillators are identical in operation.

RE1: Coarse tuning

Displayed as:

O1Semi

Initial value:

Range of adjustment:

-64 to +63

This parameter sets the basic per-oscillator tuning. Incrementing its value by 1 shifts the
pitch of every note on the keyboard up by one semitone for the selected oscillator only,
thus setting it to +12 effectively shifts the oscillator tuning up one octave. Negative values
detune in the same manner. See also Transpose at page 38.

RE2: Fine tuning

Displayed as:

O1Cents

Initial value:

Range of adjustment:

-50 to +50

This parameter lets you make iner adjustments to the tuning. The increments are cents
(1/100 of a semitone), and thus setting the value to 50 tunes the oscillator to a quarter-
tone midway between two semitones.

RE3: Virtual Oscillator Sync

Displayed as:

O1VSync

Initial value:

Range of adjustment:

0 to 127

Oscillator Sync is a technique of using an additional “virtual” oscillator to add
harmonics to the irst, by using the virtual oscillator’s waveform to retrigger that of the irst.
This technique produces an interesting range of sonic effects. The nature of the resulting
sound varies as the parameter value is altered because the virtual oscillator frequency
increases as a multiple of the main oscillator frequency as the parameter value increases.
When the Vsync value is a multiple of 16, the virtual oscillator frequency is a musical har-
monic of the main oscillator frequency. The overall effect is a transposition of the oscillator
that moves up the harmonic series, with values in between multiples of 16 producing more
discordant effects.

To get the best out of Vsync, try modulating it using the LFO.
Try assigning it to the MOD wheel for ‘hands-on’ control.

RE4: Oscillator waveform

Displayed as:

O1Wave

Initial value:

Sawtooth

Range of adjustment:

See table at page 40 for full details

This selects the oscillator’s waveform from a range of 72 options. As well as analogue
synth-type waveforms like sine, square, sawtooth, pulse and 9 ratios of sawtooth/pulse
mix, there are various digital waveforms and 36 wavetables consisting of nine individual
waveforms per wavetable, plus the two audio input sources.

If audio input sources are selected, then any additional oscillator parameters
will have no effect on the sound. The audio input will be used as the source for
subsequent manipulation (e.g., ilters, modulation, etc).
To hear either of the audio inputs a note must be played on the keyboard.

It is possible to create a MIDI gate effect on vocals using audio inputs
as the source.

RE5: Pulse Width/Wave Table Index

Displayed as:

O1Pw/Idx

Initial value:

Range of adjustment:

-64 to +63

This control has two functions, depending on the waveform selected by

RE4

. With pulse

waveforms, it varies the pulse width of the oscillator output. This basic effect can most
easily be heard by adjusting

RE5

with

RE4

set to

; you will note how the harmonic

content varies and at high settings the sound becomes quite thin and metallic. A pulse
wave is essentially an asymmetric square wave; when set to zero, the waveform is a normal
square wave. (See page 9.)

RE5

has a different function if the oscillator waveform is set to

be one of the 36 Wave Tables (see

RE4

above). Each Wave Table consists of nine related

waveforms, and the setting of

RE5

determines which is in use. The total parameter value

range of 128 is divided into 9 (approximately) equal segments of 14 value units, so setting
the value to anything between -64 and -50 will generate the irst of the 9 waveforms, -49
to -35 the second, and so on. See also the Wave Table Interpolation parameter (

RE2

on Oscillator Menu Page 2), which can be used to introduce further variation in the way
wavetables are used.

RE6: Hardness

Displayed as:

O1Hard

Initial value:

127

Range of adjustment:

0 to 127

The Hardeness parameter modiies the harmonic content of the waveform, reducing the
level of the upper harmonics as the value is decreased. Its effect is akin to that of a low-
pass ilter, but operates at oscillator level. You will note it has no effect on a sine waveform,
as this is the one waveform with no harmonics.

OSCILLATORS

O1Semi

O1Cents

O1VSync

O1Wave

O1PW/Idx

O1Hard

O1Dense

O1DnsDtn

Sawtooth

127

O1PtchWh