Portamento and Glissando
The term "portamento" describes the continuous gliding from one note to the next like
strings or some brass instruments (e.g. trombone) can do. A glissando is a similar effect with
one difference: The pitch does not change continuously but in note steps. On acoustic
instruments a glissando can be performed e.g. on a piano when you play very fast over a
wide key range. The MicroWave II/XT/XTk offers some different effect types that can be
trimmed for each situation. The term "glide" is used for all different types of effect in
common.
Glide
Active
off / on
Enables or disables the glide effect.
Type
porta / glissando / fingered / f.gliss
Determines the effect type.
•
Porta selects a normal portamento effect with all notes gliding continously from
one to the next.
• Similar to that,
gliss selects the normal glissando effect with all notes gliding in
semitone steps.
• When
fingered or f.gliss is selected, the portamento or glissando is only applied on
legato played notes and so the first note played is not influenced. This feature is
useful especially for solo sounds, when it is often undesireable to slide into the
beginning.
Mode
exp. / linear
Selects whether the pitch is changed in an
exponential or linear style. On classic analog
synthesizer the
exponential style was used mainly since it could be easily created with
analog circuits. The
linear setting produces a more accurate gliding with better audible
results. The following diagram illustrates the difference between the two modes:
Time
0…127
Determines the glide time. Low values will give a short glide time in the range of
milliseconds that gives a special character to the sound. High values will result in a long
glide time up to several seconds which can be useful for solo and effect sounds.
exponential
linear
Time
Pitch
Time
Pitch
Active
|
Type
|
Mode
|
Time
on
|
Gliss
|
exp.
|
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User’s Manual MicroWave II • MicroWave XT • XTk
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