Yamaha Electone EL-87, Owner'S Manual

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Voice Editing Basics
The EL-87 Electone uses a versatile tone generation system
developed by Yamaha that is capable of producing an exceptionally
wide range of voices. To be more specific, the system uses individual
sound sources that "modulate" each other's frequencies and thus
create complex sounds not possible by the ordinary mixing of those
sound sources.
(1) Operators
Along with the sophisticated AWM sound sources that are the backbone
of the Electone's authentic voices, the tone generation system features
other sound sources called "Operators." An Operator is a sound
generator that produces one very simple type of sound: a pure sine
wave. A sine wave by itself is not very interesting to listen to; however,
when one sine wave is used to modulate a second sine wave, together
they result in a new, complex waveform.
(2) Modulators, Carriers and Algorithms
The top Operator, which sends the modulation signal is, not surprisingly,
called the modulator. The bottom Operator, which receives or "carries"
the modulated sine wave and outputs the resulting sound, is called the
carrier. The complexity or brightness of the sound depends on the
output level of the modulator.
This kind of arrangement in which Operators are "stacked" together is
called an algorithm. With four sine wave Operators available for
stacking, the various algorithms can produce a wide variety of sounds.
Voice Algorithm Examples