John Bowen Solaris, User Manual

LOOPING ENVELOPE (LOOPEG) | 41

GRAPHIC DISPLAY

Figure 74. Looping Envelope diagram

Figure 75. Looping Envelope Menu, page 1 of 4

Parameter

Description

Time1 – 

Time8

These controls determine the length of each 

of the 8 segments of the envelope. The default 

range of the time controls is 1.0 ms – 20.0 

seconds. The Looping Envelope can also be 
synced to the MIDI clock by setting the 

Sync

parameter on menu page 4. When synced to 

MIDI clock, the time values for each segment 

are shown in time divisions.

Start

When Loop is enabled, this control determines 

the starting point of the loop. The envelope 

will play as normal up until the KeyOff Point, 

then loop back to the segment indicated by this 

control. The loop will continue until the key is 

released, at which point the release phase of 

the loop is activated, from KeyOff Point through 

segment 8.

KeyOff

This control serves two purposes. When Loop 

Mode is active, KeyOff Point determines the last 

segment in the loop. KO Point  also defines the 

beginning of the release stage of the enve-

lope. If Loop Mode is off, segments 1 to KeyOff 

Point represent the attack and decay portions 

of the envelope. The KeyOff Point represents 

the Sustain portion. Segments following the 

KeyOff Point represent the release phase of the 

envelope. When Loop Mode is on, the envelope 

behaves as described above.

Table 14.  Looping Envelope Main mode, page 1 parameters

Amplitude Modulation (AM) is a process of varying the 

amplitude of one sound (the carrier) by the amplitude of 

another (the modulator). If the frequency of the modulator is 

sub-audio, AM results in a tremolo effect. If the modulator’s 

frequency is above around 10hz, the timbre of the carrier 

is affected by the introduction of additional partials to the 

output. When two sine waves are used, AM results in two 

additional sidebands equally spaced around the carrier’s 

fundamental frequency. The frequency of the sidebands is 

the sum and difference of the carrier and modulator’s fre-

quencies, and the amplitude of the new partials is half the 

amplitude of the carrier.

Solaris has 2 AM modules. Any source can be used as the 

carrier or modulator, though a classic AM synthesis tech-

nique is to modulate the amplitude of one oscillator with 

another oscillator. The following algorithms are available:

Shift

Typical AM that produces two sidebands around the 

carrier

Clip

Multiplies the two input signals and clips the result. 

Creates two strong sidebands (stronger than those 

generated by Shift) around the carrier’s frequency, 

and on strong sideband at a much lower frequency. 

Phase cancellation eliminates the original carrier.

Abs 

(abso-

lute)

Outputs the absolute value of multiplying the two 

input signals without clipping. Creates two weak 

sidebands widely spaced around the carrier.

Ring

Classic ring modulation that creates two strong 

sidebands around the carrier and eliminates the car-

rier completely due to phase cancellation.

Table 13.  AM Algorithms

The AM section can be side chain modulated by selecting a 

modulation source for the 

Control

 parameter. 

Amount

This is a bipolar mixer for the output of the algorithm. Using 

Ring Mod

 as an example: if you have the 

Offset

 at 

0

, the 

Amount

 will seem just like a bipolar mixer (with negative 

values just producing an inverted phase signal), and when 

the 

Amount

 is at 0, you won’t hear anything. However, if 

you then adjust the 

Offset

 to some other value, you will 

hear some of the original 

Carrier

 input, and then by adjust-

ing the 

Amount

, you can hear the Ring Modulated output 

increase.

Offset

Shifts the 

Carrier

 input above or below (or around) zero.

Looping Envelope (LoopEG)

The Looping Envelope is a two dimensional, 8-stage bipo-

lar envelope with looping capability. This envelope can be 

selected as a modulation source for any other modulation 

destination.