Novation Ultranova User Manual Download Page 9

Page: 9 / 135

Saving a patch (Page 2)

RE1

: Not used.

RE2: Bank selection

Use this control to select which bank (A,B,C or D) the patch is to be written to.

RE3: Patch position

Use this control to select the patch destination number where the currently edited sound
will be written to. The current destination patch name will be displayed under

RE4

and

RE5

for reference, although this will be overwritten with the new patch name if the patch is

saved without changing the position.

Use the COMPARE button to listen to the patch selected by RE2 and RE3.

RE4 – RE5

: Not used.

RE6: Category select

Select a category for the new patch. See page 7 for the list of categories.

RE7: Genre select

Select a genre for the new patch. See page 7 for the list of available genres.

RE8

: Not used.

To exit the Write menu press any other synth button (e.g., SYNTH [25]).

Note: A faster method of managing patches (writing, loading, renaming, reordering etc.) is
by using the downloadable UltraNova Librarian. This can be downloaded free of charge from

http://novationmusic.com/support/ultranova.

Updating the UltraNova’s Operating System (PC)

OS update iles will be available from time to time at
www.novationmusic.com/support/ultranova in the form of a MIDI SysEx ile. The update
procedure requires the UltraNova to be connected via USB to a computer which has irst
had the necessary USB drivers installed. Full instructions on performing the update will be
supplied with the download.

SyntheSIS tutorIal

This section covers the subject of sound generation in more detail and discusses the vari-
ous basic features available in the UltraNova’s sound generation and processing blocks.

It is recommended that this chapter is read carefully if analogue sound synthesis is an
unfamiliar subject. Users familiar with this subject can skip this chapter and move on to the
next chapter.

To gain an understanding of how a synthesizer generates sound it is helpful to have an ap-
preciation of the components that make up a sound, both musical and non-musical.

The only way that a sound may be detected is by air vibrating the eardrum in a regular,
periodic manner. The brain interprets these vibrations (very accurately) into one of an
ininite number of different types of sound.

Remarkably, any sound may be described in terms of just three properties, and all sounds
always have them. They are:

•  Pitch
•  Tone
•  Volume

What makes one sound different from another is the relative magnitudes of the three
properties as initially present in the sound, and how the properties change over the
duration of the sound.

With a musical synthesizer, we deliberately set out to have precise control over these three
properties and, in particular, how they can be changed during the “lifetime” of the sound.
The properties are often given different names: Volume may be referred to as Amplitude,
Loudness or Level, Pitch as Frequency and Tone as Timbre.

Pitch

As stated, sound is perceived by air vibrating the ear drum. The pitch of the sound is
determined by how fast the vibrations are. For an adult human, the slowest vibration
perceived as sound is about twenty times a second, which the brain interprets as a bass
type sound; the fastest is many thousands of times a second, which the brain interprets as
an high treble type sound.

If the number of peaks in the two waveforms (vibrations) are counted, it will be seen that
there are exactly twice as many peaks in Wave B as in Wave A. (Wave B is actually an
octave higher in pitch than Wave A). It is the number of vibrations in a given period that
determines the pitch of a sound. This is the reason that pitch is sometimes referred to as
frequency. It is the number of waveform peaks counted during a given period of time which
deines the pitch, or frequency.

Tone

Musical sounds consist of several different, related pitches occurring simultaneously. The
loudest is referred to as the ‘fundamental’ pitch and corresponds to the perceived note
of the sound. Other pitches making up the sound which are related to the fundamental in
simple mathematical ratios are called harmonics. The relative loudness of each harmonic
as compared to the loudness of the fundamental determines the overall tone or ‘timbre’ of
the sound.

Consider two instruments such as a harpsichord and a piano playing the same note on the
keyboard and at equal volume. Despite having the same volume and pitch, the instruments
still sound distinctly different. This is because the different note-making mechanisms of
the two instruments generate different sets of harmonics; the harmonics present in a piano
sound are different to those found in a harpsichord sound.

ime

Time

FX - EQ

EQBasLvl

EQMidLvl

EQTrbLvl

EQBasFrq

EQMidFrq

EQTrbFrq

FX - DELAY 1/2 DELAY1

Dly1Time

Dly1Sync