ALESIS FUSION
ANALOG SYNTHESIS TUTORIAL
Other (real-time) controllers
There are other controllers known as ‘real-time’ controllers These can take many forms and are:
VELOCITY
How hard you strike the keys affects the sound. Typically,
velocity is
routed to the filter and the final amplifier
to control tone and amplitude
respectively. However, velocity can also be used to control other
parameters such as tuning, pulse width, panning, LFO rate - whatever.
PITCH BEND
This usually takes the form of a ‘wheel’ or
a ‘bender’ lever to the left of
the keyboard and allows you
to ‘bend’ a note’s pitch much like a
guitarist bends the strings of his instrument.
MODWHEEL
This usually takes the form of a
‘wheel’ to the left of the keyboard that
allows you to
introduce LFO control of the oscillator(s) to add vibrato.
However, the modwheel can also be used to open and close the filter
or change pulse width or control oscillator sync sweep
- whatever.
Most
synths (including Fusion) allow this controller to be totally
assignable to almost anything you want.
KEYBOARD
This uses keyboard position as a controller.
Normally, the keyboard
controls the pitch of the
oscillators so that you can play the synth in a
conventional musical way. However, it is also
possible to use the
keyboard to control (for example) panning so that low notes are
on the
left of the stereo image and high notes are on the right.
Or it could be
used to control pulse width or filter cutoff (or both).... or
LFO rate or
envelope time.... whatever!
AFTERTOUCH
This allows you to press harder on the keyboard after
a note has been
played to effect some change in the sound. One example might be to
use aftertouch to introduce vibrato... or it could be used to
open/close
the filter or affect amplitude or panning or pulse
width or LFO rate...
whatever.
FOOT PEDAL
This allows you to use a variable
foot pedal to add vibrato, open/close
the filter, control amplitude, pan the sound
left-to-right, alter pulse
width, LFO rate/shape.... whatever.
ASSIGNABLES Many synths (Fusion being no exception) offer front panel assignable
controls whose purpose
is to allow certain ‘key parameters’ to be
available for
quick and easy tweaking and adjustment. These can
typically be assigned
to almost any function such as envelope attack,
envelope release, pulse width,
LFO rate - whatever - allowing ‘hands
-
on’ control of those parameters quickly and easily.
In most cases, the function
of the real-time controllers is totally assignable to do whatever it is
you want - modwheel and/or aftertouch to open the filter or aftertouch to introduce vibrato, for
example.
Controllers
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