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Software Instruments 145 Here is a detailed circuit diagram of a Robota voice with a description of all control parameters.

Pitch envelope (pitch env) Controls the pitch envelope level.

Tune

Tunes the instrument.

Oscillator shape (osc shape)

The shaper adds additional frequency shares to the basic sound of the oscillator by artificially reshaping the wave shape. A sine wave (shape = 0) can be reshaped up to a square curve (shape = max).

Oscillator waveform

The fundamental waveform of the oscillators is selected here. You can choose from sine/triangle/sawtooth/sample. If "Sample" is selected, you can use the controller to select a sample, i.e. a previously recorded drum sound. These samples are saved in the folder /Synth/robota/samples/. If you select custom samples, they will appear in the selection list. If you are playing your own samples, they will appear in the selection list.

Noise

Adjust the ratio between the oscillator sound and the noise generator.

Attack

Adjusts the attack time. The greater the set value, the softer the attack of the sound.

The attack rate is also applied to the lo-fi and filter envelope curves.

Decay

Adjusts the decay curve. The greater the value, the slower the instrument will decay.

FM/Ring modulation frequency (Fm/rng frq)

The fundamental frequency of the frequency or ring modulation.

FM level (fm lvl)

At a low frequency FM first adds vibration to the sound, at high frequencies and low levels it creates bell-like sounds, as the level increases metal sounds, and finally noise.

Ring modulation level (rng lvl)

Ring modulation creates typical auxiliary frequencies.

FM/Ring modulation decay (Fm/rng dcy)

Time constant of FM/ring modulation by-product. Only the beginning of the drum sound is affected by the modulation.

Rectify

Distorts the audio signal.

Crush

Bit rate reduction. Digital artifacts become audible with higher settings.

Down sample (dwnsmple)

Sample rate reduction. Ideal for creating the "old school sound" of older digital drum machines. As it is increased, the result becomes darker.

Lo-fi decay (lofi dcy)

Time constant of the by-product of the three lo-fi effects which makes the sound

"dirty". Only the beginning of the drum sound of the lo-fi effects is affected if the decay is low. For instance, this makes the kick of a kick drum sound more interesting.

Filter modes (flt mode)

Filter mode: High cut – sound portions above the cut-off frequency are filtered out.

Band pass (BP) – Sound portions above and below the cut-off frequency are filtered out. Low cut - All sound portions below the cut-off frequency are filtered out. This mode is set as a preset and can not be changed.

Filter frequency (flt freq)

The cut-off frequency of the filter.

Filter resonance (flt reso)

Filter resonance which increases the sound portions at the cut-off frequency of the filter. If the resonance is high, the filter itself can also be used as an oscillator.

Filter modulation -/+ (flt mod -+)

Regulates how much and in which direction the filter envelope curve moves the filter frequency in which direction.

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Filter-Modulation decay (flt mod dcy)

Decay time of the filter curve. Smaller values with high resonance create a "zapping"

sound of the filter, greater values create the typical sweep sound.

Filter modulation velocity (flt mod vel)

Specifies how much the filter modulation depth depends on the velocity. If this value is increased, louder beats will generate higher filter curves than quieter ones.

24 dB

The filter can operate with a slope of 12 dB or 24 dB. This mode is set as a preset and cannot be changed.

Comb filter (comb filt on)

You can activate a comb filter, a feedback delay that creates resonance-like sounds comparable to a plucked string. The delay time and feedback levels are permanently linked fo the filter parameters (frequency and resonance). This comb filter is set as a preset and can not be changed.

Compressor

Controls the compressor strength. This lets you increase the "power" of the drum sound.

Compressor response (comp resp)

Controls the compressor time. The lower the value, the faster the compressor follows the volume.

Tube

Controls the level of the tube amp simulation. It "saturates" the output signal of the voice and adds warmth to the sound if the settings are moderate. Increasing the settings makes the sound "dirtier".

Volume/Pan

Controls the volume and panorama position of the drum instruments.

Sequencer

Incident lighting is used to control the drum patterns just like in all classical drum computers and groove boxes. The step sequencer consists of 16 individual step buttons with LEDs corresponding to the appropriate partitioning of a beat:

16ths or 32nds (a half beat is in each case displayed). A button lights up to indicate the releasing of the instrument at this point in the beat (= step).

A left click turns on the step, a further left click deletes the step again.

A pattern can be a maximum of 4 beats long. The length can be modified using the fader on the button bar.

The beat to be edited can be selected with the applicable “edit” button. The “Follow”

button specifies whether the step of a beat is in time.

"1 > 2-4" auto draw: If more than 1 beat is activated as the loop length, the "Auto draw" mode ensures that the drum note set in the first beat is set automatically for the following beats. This makes it very simple to produce a continuous beat from a loop length of 4 beats. Notes set in the rear beats are not affected by auto draw.

How to program a drum pattern:

• Select the pattern length with the fader.

• Select “Event” mode.

• If you edit during playback, turn off “Follow”. Select the beat with the “Edit”

buttons.

• Use “Select” to choose an instrument to edit.

• Use the “Clear bar” button to delete all steps in the selected instrument.

Software Instruments 149

• Turn on the appropriate step buttons, and use the “Velocity”

controller to adjust the beat velocity.

• Repeat the procedure with the other instruments Snapshots

In addition, you can automate programming of the editable sound parameter of a drum sound via so-called "snapshots". You can thereby save the sound parameters of a drum instrument on the step buttons of the sequencers.

Automating the drum instrument with snapshots.:

• Set the edit mode to “Snap”.

• If you edit during playback, turn off “Follow”. Select the beat with the “Edit”

buttons.

• Select an instrument and edit the sound. You can control the sound of an instrument even when playback has stopped by using the loudspeaker button.

• Save the sound as a snapshot to one of the step buttons.

• Change the sound of an instrument and save the settings to other step button Warning: The parameters are not changed abruptly but are faded internally instead, in order to avoid crackling. If two snapshots with extreme parameter differences are too close together, the drum sounds will sound differently when the pattern is played.

• Using the arrow keys, you can jump between the individual snapshots during stopped playback.

• Press “on” to activate snapshot automation.

Groove Control

The secret behind “groove” beats lies in delay. That is, individual beats are either anticipated or delayed according to patterns. For example house beats use the

“shuffle” whereby straight 1/16s are delayed at certain times.

In the Robota there are groove velocity and groove swing presets. Groove velocity presets contain for each step of a beat a certain offset to increase or reduce the

original beat velocity. Groove swing presets contain for each step a time alignment that is either anticipated or delayed. The result is a livelier-sounding sequence. The strength of the effect can be adjusted with the % regulator.