Modor NF-1 User Manual

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Summary of NF-1

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    Modor digital polyphonic synthesizer user manual.

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    Contents 1 getting started . . . 1 1.1 connections and settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.2 menu navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1.3 loading patches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1.4 saving patches . . . . ....

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    5 amplifier section 23 6 effects section 24 6.1 chorus/flanger effect unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 6.2 delay effect unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 7 modulation section 28 7.1 lfos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...

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    1 getting started . . . 1.1 connections and settings before you can start playing the modor nf-1 a few connections have to be made. This chapter is written to help you make the very first connections and some system settings so that you can immediately start playing your instrument. By following the...

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    1.2. Menu navigation chapter 1. Getting started . . . Setting midi channel finally the instrument has to be set to the right midi channel such that the channel numbers of the external midi keyboard and the modor nf-1 match with each other. Look up in the midi source device on which channel the midi ...

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    1.3. Loading patches chapter 1. Getting started . . . 5. Parameter: to adapt a few sound parameters that have no dedicated knob on the front panel 6. System settings: to set some global system parameters 7. Tonescale: change the tuning of a patch with quarter tones up or down 8. Frmfrq: set the form...

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    1.5. Patch initialisation chapter 1. Getting started . . . 1.5 patch initialisation a last thing we explain in this ”getting started ...”-chapter is how to reinitialise the actual patch. If you want to start building up a new patch completely from scratch, this might be helpful. Quickly hit the menu...

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    2 overview 2.1 structure of a patch in this part, we consider how to create or adapt a patch. A ’patch’ might also be called a ’sound’ or an ’instrument’, a patch is defined by a series of parameter settings that determine on how the sound is generated, processed and transformed by the different sec...

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    2.2. Frontpanel overview chapter 2. Overview – an amplifier with volume and pan settings (in parameter menu) and input drive • effects section, chapter 6 – a combfilter effects unit, creating chorus and flanger effects – a delay effects unit • modulation section, chapter 7 – 3 low frequency oscillat...

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    2.2. Frontpanel overview chapter 2. Overview – waveform selection button, to set the selected oscillator’s waveform – fm carrier and fm modulator buttons, to select harmonics of the add, fm and fbfm waveforms. These buttons have no function if the selected oscillators have other waveforms than add, ...

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    2.2. Frontpanel overview chapter 2. Overview – comb filter effect unit, to mix the signal with a slightly delayed version of itself (up to a few milliseconds). To make chorus, flanger and a number of other effects. ∗ mix control to mix between the dry signal and the altered signal [0,127]. ∗ speed c...

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    3 oscillator section 3.1 using the oscillators the oscillators are the sources of the sound in a synth. There are three identical fully independent oscillators in the modor synth, oscillators 1, 2 & 3. Every oscillator has a ”modification” parameter (mod), a pitch (tune and fine) and 2 modulation co...

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    3.2. Oscillator waveforms chapter 3. Oscillator section remark that these selection pushbuttons are not enabling or disabling the oscilla- tors. This might be a little confusing when using the nf-1 for the first time. To enable or disable an oscillator, just set its volume with the oscillator mix co...

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    3.2. Oscillator waveforms chapter 3. Oscillator section sawtooth waveform, turning up mod creates ”holes” in the sawtooth that sound a bit like the classic pwm on a square waveform. 3.2.2 square pwm oscillator the square oscillator generates a classic ”square” or ”pulse” waveform in which the mod pa...

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    3.2. Oscillator waveforms chapter 3. Oscillator section 3.2.4 sync oscillator this oscillator creates a synced square wave with a decaying amplitude as shown in the figures below. This sounds very much like a synced waveform found on many other subtractive (virtual) analog synthesizers. 3.2.5 additi...

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    3.2. Oscillator waveforms chapter 3. Oscillator section the additive harmonics oscillator still has another parameter: the fm-carrier pa- rameter can be used to make the harmonic series start with another harmonic than f . Juse the fm carrier button and the select encoder to set another start harmon...

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    3.2. Oscillator waveforms chapter 3. Oscillator section f f 3.2.8 arcade noise oscillator this oscillator creates a type of hard noise with a certain tonal character. This type of noise is remodelled after the noise creation algorithms present in early arcade video game machines. It creates waves th...

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    3.2. Oscillator waveforms chapter 3. Oscillator section the modulator’s frequency is in the audio range, just as the carrier frequency. You won’t hear a sine wave going up and down in pitch, as you might expect when hearing the term ”frequency modulation”, as if it’s frequency is modulated by an lfo...

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    3.3. White noise chapter 3. Oscillator section oscillators. This way, it gives the unique possibility of combining for example a glassy 80’s style-fm oscillator with classic analog or other waveforms. You don’t have to use one oscillator to frequency-modulate another. Some very typical 80’s fm-style...

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    3.4. Ring modulator chapter 3. Oscillator section f 3.4 ring modulator the ring modulator creates a multiplication of the signals from oscillator 2 and 3, which results in a mix of sums and differences of the frequencies present in the source oscillators. This mix of sums and differences gets most i...

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    4 filter section 4.1 lp/hp/bp/bs filter the main filter of the modorsynth is a selectable lp/hp/bp/bs resonant filter. You can select it to be a lowpass (lp), highpass (hp), bandpass (bp) or bandstop (bs) filter. A filter eliminates a certain part of the sound and and lets another part pass. In a lo...

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    4.1. Lp/hp/bp/bs filter chapter 4. Filter section cutoff resonance with the res control at maximum [127] the filter goes into selfoscillation. This means that a bright, sinusoidal wave is generated by the filter itself. Even without input, with all oscillator volumes set to zero, the filter keeps pr...

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    4.2. Formant filter chapter 4. Filter section three standard modulation sources are hardwired to the filter’s cutoff frequency. You can modulate the filter by a low frequency oscillator (lfo), an envelope (env) and/or by the note’s base frequency (keyb) using the three rotary knobs lfo/env/keyb of t...

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    4.2. Formant filter chapter 4. Filter section 2800hz, it sounds like a ’a’. Ten presets of these peak frequency combinations are programmed inside the modor nf-1 and can be selected and placed in the three vowel slots at left, center and right positions of the formant-control. Vowel formant 1 forman...

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    4.3. Filter configuration chapter 4. Filter section 4.3 filter configuration the filter configuration can be set to serial or parallel, using the route button in the formant section. The corresponding leds on the frontpanel indicate which is the actual configuration. Serial in the serial configurati...

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    5 amplifier section the amplifier section is quite straight-forward. First the output of the filter section can be overdriven using the drive-control, next it sets the volume and panning of the sound, using the amp envelope (env4) and the volume and pan settings in the parameter menu. It finally mix...

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    6 effects section 6.1 chorus/flanger effect unit chorus, phaser and flanger effects are created by a so-called ’modulated comb filter’. A comb filter takes a signal and adds a slightly delayed version of the same signal to it, eventually with a feedback loop to repeat the delay multiple times. The d...

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    6.1. Chorus/flanger effect unit chapter 6. Effects section delay + × fb mix in out delay length modulation dry-wet mix this control sets the balance between the dry signal and the delayed signal. This is set to zero to disable the comb filter effect unit, and often around halfway to get a maximum ch...

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    6.2. Delay effect unit chapter 6. Effects section no or only very little feedback is added. Set the delay-control rather high, and experiment with the speed- and depth-control to receive a well-sounding chorus • flanger: a typical flanger effect can be get with a quite high amount of positive feedba...

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    6.2. Delay effect unit chapter 6. Effects section delay filter + × fb mix in out time the delay length control sets the center around which the delay length is mod- ulated. Filter this control acts as a filter on the delay line. With the filter control at maxi- mum, the filter is fully open and no e...

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    7 modulation section 7.1 lfos an lfo, or ”low frequency oscillator” produces a cyclic modulation signal that can be used to modulate a number of sound parameters. The frequency of the modor lfo’s can be varied between around 0,1hz and 10hz (or its cyclic period between 10 seconds and 100milliseconds...

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    7.2. Sample&hold chapter 7. Modulation section be synced to an external midi clock, by hitting the sync button in the lfo section. • lfo3 is a global triangle lfo of which the amplitude depends on the setting of the modwheel, found next to the pitch bend wheel on most synth keyboards. If the modwhee...

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    7.3. Envelopes chapter 7. Modulation section s&h speed there is also a ls&h or lowpass sample&hold variant of this modulator that can be chosen as modulation source. The ls&h makes a somewhat more fluent ”glide” from one value to another, which can sometimes give beter effects in cases where too sud...

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    7.3. Envelopes chapter 7. Modulation section the envelope output level runs from zero over level l1 and level l2 to level l3 where it is held as long as the note is held on the keyboard. After the release of the key it drops again to zero. The times to move from one level to another are set by the t...

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    7.4. Modulation matrix chapter 7. Modulation section • t3 = decay • l3 = sustain • t4 = release l1=l2=127 l3=s 0 t1=a t2=0 t3=d t4=r key pressed key released 7.4 modulation matrix the modor nf-1 has a ”modulation matrix” of 7 freely assignable modulation lines that can route some modulation source s...

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    7.5. Pitch modulation chapter 7. Modulation section • rndm: a random signal chosen at the start of a new note • s&h: a modulation signal that changes to a new value on a regular interval, set by the s&h speed control • ls&h: ls&h is a lowpass filtered version of the s&h signal, it glides from one le...

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    7.6. Amplitude modulation chapter 7. Modulation section after patch initialisation, the pitch lfo source is set to ”s&h”. This can be adapted in the parameter menu (see § 8), where you can select lfo1, lfo2, s&h and ls&h as pitch lfo source. Pitch envelope also, there is no dedicated pitch envelope ...

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    7.7. Other popular modulationschapter 7. Modulation section tremolo after patch initialisation, the third modulation wire is preset as a tremolo effect. Push the src/yes or dst/no button 3 times and set the tremolo amount with the value-control. Volume pedal the fourth modulation wire is preset at i...

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    7.7. Other popular modulationschapter 7. Modulation section l1=l2 l3=s 0 t1=a t2=0 t3=d t4=r and so on . . . And of course, a lot more modulation wires can be set up! How about an envelope that alters the oscillator mix? The aftertouch opening and closing your filter? A random lfo speed? A pedal to ...

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    8 menu reference the menu of the modor nf-1 exists out of 9 menu items. When the menu button is hit you enter the menu, and the first menu item appears on the upper display line, while a black dot moves from right to left over the screen. By pressing again before it reaches the left side, the next m...

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    8.2. Save chapter 8. Menu reference • pressing the no/dest-button cancels the load-operation, exits the menu and re- stores the active patch. • pressing the menu-button gives you a choice: load (y/n). Use yes/src to finish the load operation, or no/dest to cancel and leave the menu. After choosing y...

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    8.5. Parameter chapter 8. Menu reference wait one second to select it (the black dot reaches the left side of the screen). You now just get two options: initialise or cancel, make your choice with src/yes or dest/no. 8.5 parameter although there are many controls on the modor nf-1 frontpanel, a few ...

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    8.7. Formant frequencies chapter 8. Menu reference • ctrlchangetx: choose if the modor nf-1 sends midi control change messages when turning a control on the front panel [on,off] • os version: check the version number of the actually installed operating system. 8.7 formant frequencies in this menu th...

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    8.9. Sysex dump chapter 8. Menu reference modor nf-1 offers a possibility to vary and experiment with the tonescale. You are able to add or subtract a quarter tone to the pitch of each one of the 12 half tones in an octave. In the tonescale menu, you see the 12 tones of an octave in the upper line o...

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    8.9. Sysex dump chapter 8. Menu reference memory dump a memory dump creates a very long sysex message containing all of the patches in memory, from memory postions a00 upto n31. This way you can create a backup of the complete memory of the modor nf-1. Select the sysex dump menu by pressing menu 9x,...

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    8.10. Menu overview chapter 8. Menu reference 8.10 menu overview 43.

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    9 midi implementation 9.1 midi implementation chart midi implementation chart v. 2.0 manufacturer: modor music model: nf-1 version: 1 date: march 2015 transmit recognize remarks 1. Basic information midi channels [1-16] [1-16] note numbers - [0-127] program change - [0-31] bank select response? - [0...

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    9.1. Midi implementation chart chapter 9. Midi implementation notation information no no turn gm1 system on no no turn gm2 system on no no turn gm system off no no dls-1 no no file reference no no controller destination no no key-based instrument ctrl no no master fine/coarse tune no no other univer...

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    9.2. Midi controller list chapter 9. Midi implementation 9.2 midi controller list control function transmitted received remarks 0 bank select no yes bank a - n 1 1 modulation wheel no yes mod source modw 2 no no 3 no no 4 no no 5 portamento yes yes 6 no no 7 volume pedal no yes mod source pedl 8 no ...

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    9.2. Midi controller list chapter 9. Midi implementation control function transmitted received remarks 44 wire 1 amount yes yes 45 wire 2 amount yes yes 46 wire 3 amount yes yes 47 wire 4 amount yes yes 48 wire 5 amount yes yes 49 wire 6 amount yes yes 50 wire 7 amount yes yes 51 delay feedback yes ...

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    9.2. Midi controller list chapter 9. Midi implementation control function transmitted received remarks 91 env 2 t4 yes yes 92 env 3 t4 yes yes 93 env 4 t4 yes yes 94 env 1 l1 yes yes 95 env 2 l1 yes yes 96 env 3 l1 yes yes 97 env 4 l1 yes yes 98 env 1 l2 yes yes 99 env 2 l2 yes yes 100 env 3 l2 yes ...