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VCO 1

VCO1 Pitch Control (Blue) Coarse and Fine Tune Sliders

The first slider controls the Coarse tuning and covers a range of six octaves. The second determines the Fine tuning which has a range of + or - one semitone.

This is unlike many other synths that used knobs with fixed increments from which to select pre-defined octaves.

The waveform is selected in the Audio Mixer section underneath the blue slider.

<aside> ⚠️ You can use a modifier key (set in the Settings Window) to step the VCO coarse sliders in semitone increments. The default is the Command key on Mac and Control key on PC.

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Low Frequency or Keyboard Trigger Switch

This is normally set to AUDIO KYBD ON to allow you to trigger VCO1 via the keyboard. However, selecting LF KYBD OFF lowers the frequency of VCO1 to below the human hearing range. When a note is played you’ll hear a clicking sound instead of a tone, the speed of which can be changed by adjusting the (blue) Coarse and Fine tuning sliders. With LF KYBD OFF, VCO1 can be used as a second LFO via the S/H module.

Frequency Modulation Slider (Pink) and LFO Modulation Source Switch

The pink FM slider governs the depth of pitch modulation introduced by either of the two waveforms selected by the switch underneath. With the switch set to the upper position the LFO is set to a sine wave and altering the pink FM slider introduces a greater or lesser vibrato depth.

With the switch set to the square wave, moving the slider will modulate VCO1 between the note played on the keyboard and a second note. Moving the slider will alter the pitch of the second note up to a maximum of one octave. Using this, it’s easy to create an effect similar to that of a trill. Use the LFO Freq slider (pink) to change the speed of the trill.

Frequency Modulation Slider (Yellow) and S/H Mixer or ADSR Source Switch

The yellow FM slider governs the depth of pitch modulation introduced by one of two sources selected by the switch underneath. With the switch set to the upper position, the pitch of VCO1 is modulated by the output of the S/H Mixer (or Sample and Hold Mixer).

For an example of how this works:

What you should hear now is a series of different random pitches, the speed of which is determined by the pink LFO Freq slider. Try changing the S/H Mixer source underneath the blue slider from VCO1 Square Wave to VCO1 Sawtooth and listen to the difference.

Changing the switch position from S/H to ADSR allows the ADSR envelope generator contour to. modulate the pitch of VCO1. The depth of this modulation is determined by the yellow slider.