Glide – Dave Smith Instruments PROPHET 12 KEYBOARD User Manual

Page 46

36 Glide

Dave Smith Instruments

Glide

Glide or portamento is a feature that has been present on synthesizers

since at least the early ‘70s. (Earlier modular synthesizers could achieve

the same effect through the use of a lag processor.) In monophonic

synthesizers (or the Prophet 12 when U

nison

is on), it simply causes

the pitch of a note to glide up or down from the pitch of the previously

played note. When played polyphonically, the Prophet 12 behaves in a

similar fashion, except the pitch glides up or down from the previous

note played on that voice. For example, say C3 is played on voice 1 with

liDe

on. More notes are played and cycle through voices 2 through 12.

The next time voice 1 sounds, it’s playing F#4. The pitch will glide up

from C3 to F#4.

Glide is turned on and off using the g

liDe

switch, but the g

liDe

moUnt

must also be set in the Oscillators section. If g

liDe

is on, but g

liDe

moUnt

is set to 0 for all oscillators, g

liDe

has no apparent effect. Glide

Amount can be set to a different value for each of the oscillators.

Tip:

To set g

liDe

moUnt

for all four oscillators simultaneously,

press and briefly hold any of the oscillator select buttons until all four

buttons light. g

liDe

moUnt

now controls all four oscillators. Press

any of the oscillator select buttons to de-select the other oscillators.

In addition to g

liDe

moUnt

, there are four Glide modes—FixRate,

FixRate A, FixTime, and FixTime A—that determine how g

liDe

behaves. Turn g

liDe

on to display and change the modes.

FixRate:

The time to transition between notes varies with the interval

between the notes; the greater the interval, the longer the transition time.

The glide rate is fixed.

FixRate A:

The same as FixRate, but glide is only applied when playing

legato. That is, glide only occurs when a note is held until the next note

is played. This effectively allows glide to be turned on and off from the

keyboard.

FixTime:

Glide is set to a fixed time, regardless of the interval between

notes.

FixTime A:

The same as FixTime, but glide only occurs when playing

legato.