SOMA Pulsar 23, User Manual

PULSAR

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23

USER MANUAL

DEL

 sensors

 — Erase notes from LR loops.

If the REC PLAY switch is in the REC position, the DEL sensor deletes notes from the cor-

responding loop.

If the REC PLAY switch is in the PLAY position, the DEL sensor will mute the recorded notes 

without changing the contents of the loop.

  When in the REC mode, holding DEL while touching ADD to play, will record a new 

part, while the already recorded notes will be erased (punch-in record mode). If you 

do the same in PLAY mode, the performance will be played on top of the muted re-

corded part. In this case, the contents of the loop will not change.

REC PLAY

 switch

 — determines the operation mode of the LR channel.

REC — recording in a loop is done while playing back already recorded notes. PLAY — plays 

back recorded part. Middle position mutes the loop, but it keeps moving according to the 

incoming clock.

CLK

 pins

 are individual clock inputs for each LR channel.

If you connect something with a low output resistance, the internal clock will be automatically 

turned off and replaced by the incoming signal. Synchronization occurs along the rising edge 

when the signal exceeds the level of 2 volts. CLK inputs can work with any type of signal: 

digital, analog, periodic, aperiodic, noise, etc. Thanks to hardware and software protection, 

any reasonable experimentation with CLK inputs will not cause the LR to freeze or crash. This 

opens up great opportunities for creating aleatoric compositions and experimental rhythms.

TRIG

 (trigger) pin

 — LR channel output and envelope generator input.

LRST 

pin (looper restart)

 — applying a positive impulse (rising edge) to this pin will cause 

LR to restart from the zero position.

This function is needed for synchronizing the LR with the array of clock dividers, and it can 

be used for shortening the loop length. Naturally, this pin can also be used for all kinds of 

experiments.

For tight LR synchronization with the array of clock dividers, connect the LRST pin to the 0.25 

divider output. This connection will ensure the synchronization of the LR and the divider in 

the case of modulation of the clock frequency, restart of LR from different positions, etc. Such 

synchronization may be necessary if you generate part of the rhythmic behavior (for ex-

ample, control filters and other synthesis parameters) with the divider, and the other part 

plays from the looper/recorder. Also, such synchronisation is strongly recommended if you 

use MIDI-clock. Actually, if you have no intention to make asynchronous beats, it's better 

to keep the LRST and 0.25 pins always connected.

  You can make the LR loop length shorter if you connect the LRST to the lower output 

of the divider (0.5, 1, 2, 4, etc.)

  Please remember that the LR has the clock up-sampling process that needs a little 

time for setting. The first few dozens of milliseconds after MIDI clock start can be 

inaccurate. To avoid this, the timespan between stop and start on your DAW or se-

quencer that feeds MIDI-clock to Pulsar, has to be at least 5 seconds (then the up-sam-

pling system stops to wait for the next clock pulse and saves the previous value that 

will be used after clock start). 

A second option is to use the LRST pin for alignment with the clock divider.