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SPECTRALIS
2.4.3 Motif:
An exchangeable musical phrase consisting of a series of notes, which can be assigned
to a part.
2.4.5 Drum Groove:
The Parts 1 – 11 (Kick – Perc3
)
can be treated as a Group independent of the Parts
with tonal Instruments and are referred to jointly as ”Drum Groove”.
2.4.6 Pattern:
Consists of up to 16 parallel parts. Patterns can be changed in real-time sonically and
musically by selecting and swapping songs, motifs and drum-grooves.
The pattern is also the most important storage level of the Spectralis. When you add
a new motif to a part, the contents of the motif will be automatically copied to the
Pattern Slot. In short the Spectralis automatically creates a copy of the motif. The
same applies for the sound parameters. Rather than administering a program number
in the pattern, the pattern always contains the complete set of parameters for the
sound. Due to this form of storage management you never run the risk to lose a setting
for instance in pattern ”xy” when making changes in pattern ”yz”.
2.4.7 Song:
You can combine up to 32 Patterns in a song, which can be played back either in a
predetermined order which can be accessed, changed, varied or transposed during
LIVE operation.
2.4.8 Sequence:
With the Spectralis a ”sequence” is a succession of notes or sound-parameter changes,
which are generated by the internal ”quasi-analog” step-sequencer. This means you
can not only control the note-output but also the sound of the Spectralis rhythmically.
Contrary to the data of the drum-grid and the realtime sequencer the settings of the
step-sequencer are stored within an "analog-synthesizer"-sound.
2.4.9 Fixed Filterbank:
In recent years it’s become a bad habit to refer to any instrument with more than one
filter as a filterbank. This can be rather confusing for the user, which is why we would
like to describe what actually constitutes a fixed filterbank. There are very few musical
instruments which don’t have at least some kind of filter. Most feature a lowpass filter,
which cut off overtones upward of a predetermined frequency more or less steeply.
You may be used to decreasing or increasing the cutoff-frequency to create the typical
synthetic sounds. However, it is not possible with this kind of filter, to selectively
boost multiple different frequency bands simultaneously, while other bands above,
below or in between these bands are being limited. In nature this kind of behavior is
quite common.
Your oral cavity serves as a prime example. Different vocal sounds can be shaped by
unconsciously changing your oral cavity’s shape to form different types of resonance
bodies which will emphasize some frequencies and dampen others. The fixed filterbank
of the Spectralis can effectively do the same thing. For this reason they consist of
multiple, parallel bandpasses, fed thru amplifiers allowing you to emphasize or limit
selected frequencies.
These levels of these amplifiers can be controlled by the step-sequencer of the
Spectralis. This set-up allows you to create quite unusual sounds, which far exceed
the sound-repertoire of a normal ”subtractive” synthesizer.
The Step Sequencer
originated at a time
when the possibility
of recording musical
Motifs simply by
playing them was just
a fantasy. The
classical Step
Sequencer consisted
of one or more rows
of potentio-meters
which were read in
sequential order -
sending an indi-
vidual value per step.
If you applied the
control frequency to
the pitch modulation
input of
an VCO, the Sequen-
cer changed the pitch
ac-cording to the
potentio-meter
Settings.
Explanations of terms
Summary of Contents for Spectralis
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