Elektron Sidstation - Manual (Page 18)

SIDSTATION
Owners Manual
18
Triangle is usually the waveform that produces the most audible results, both for synchronisation
and ringmodulation (but do experiment with other waveforms as well – the ringmodulator can do
some wild things with the mixed waveform). Also, try different pitch settings. The effect of the
synchronisation / ringmodulation varies very much depending on the pitchlevel of the two
coupled oscillators. The best effects are often found when changing the pitch of the modulating
oscillator in realtime (with pitchbend or LFO).
Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)
This is the first screen of the menu that controls the pulse width modulation:
The most characteristic waveform of the SID-chip is probably the pulse sound. Its shape can be
varied wildly from a needle-sharp thin sound to full rich square. The parameter that control the
basic setting of the pulse width sound is Start. Try first setting Sync and Add=0. You can now
vary the pulse width from the most sharp pulse sound (1) to square (64). This is all very well, we
can vary the type of pulse sound, but wouldn’t it be fun to have the pulse animated from sharp to
square? To do this, set the start parameter to 1 and increase the add value to around 3. Let the
note play a while and notice the difference.
The Sync switch stands for Synchronise to note on. If set it will restart the pulse settings to the
start value each time you press a new note. If not selected it will run through the pulse values
without regarding new notes. This renders the start value obsolete, as the pulse values will
never restart from it.
The figure above shows a theoretic visualisation of a pulse sound. The A-pulse shows a sharp
pulse sound and B a square. If we start with a pulse like the one in A (Start=16) and set add to a
value higher than zero it will gradually turn into a more square-like shape, and then become
sharper again. This makes the sound animated and “alive”.
Moving the focus to the extreme right accesses the second screen that holds the pulse width
modulation LFO control settings:
The LFO parameter lets you choose an LFO to modulate the pulse width. Any of the four LFO’s
in SidStation can be used. The Depth value sets the modulation depth (0 to 127).
Note: For any of the above settings to have any effect, you must select Pulse as the
waveform of the current oscillator. The pulse settings will also affect the Mixed waveform, but
the effect can not be explained logically (the sound gradually disappears with higher pulse
width settings).