The digital oscillators – Dave Smith Instruments TEMPEST User Manual

Page 38

28 Oscillators

Dave Smith Instruments

The Digital Oscillators

Sample: Off, sample name 1, sample name 2, …—

Tempest contains

several hundred sampled sounds, including different types of noise, acoustic

drums and percussion, classic analog and digital drum machines, effects, and the

single-cycle waves from the Prophet VS. The sample format is 16-bit, 44.1kHz,

mono. For a complete list of samples, see “Samples” on page 72.

Level: 0…127—

Sets the volume level of oscillator 3 or 4.

Note:

Volume level can be set, or affected by modulation, at several points

in the signal path, so clipping distortion may occur if the levels and/or modu-

lation amounts are set high. If clipping is undesirable, simply turn the level

and/or mod amount down until it stops clipping.

Also, if l

evel

is set to 0, the oscillator is effectively off; modulation applied to

the oscillator level will have no effect.

Pitch:

-24…+24—

Offsets the base oscillator pitch as much as two octaves up

or down in semitone increments. A setting of 0 indicates there is no offset and the

oscillator plays at its base pitch.

Note:

A few of the sounds—for example, some of the noise types—are of a

fixed pitch and do not transpose, either from the P

itCh

control, the pads, or

via MIDI.

Fine:

-50…+50—

Fine tune control with a range of a quarter tone up or down.

Zero is centered. Steps are in cents (50 cents = ½ semitone). f

ine

settings are also

reflected in the P

itCh

value. For example, if P

itCh

is set to 0, but f

ine

is set to

-50, the displayed P

itCh

value is -0.50 (-50 cents).

Glide: 0...127—

Sets the oscillator glide (portamento) rate. g

lide

is set indepen-

dently for each oscillator. Low values are faster. See also “Glide Mode,” below.

Reverse:

Reverses the playback of the sampled waveform.

Pre/Post Filter: 0...127—

Oscillators 3 and 4 can be processed by Tempest’s

low- and high-pass filters, completely bypass the filters, or be set to a mix of the

two. A value of 0 means all of the output from oscillators 3 and 4 goes through

the filters, 64 is an equal mix of filtered and unfiltered signal, and 127 bypasses

the filters entirely.

Note:

oSt

ilteR

affects both oscillators 3 and 4, not just the currently

selected oscillator.