ARP 2600 - Page 24

18
2.331
1
Any signal
from
any device in a
synthesizer
may be
fed directly
to
an
external amplifier
or
recorder.
More commonly
it
will be
routed
through
other devices before reaching
the
synthesizer's main
output
channels.
Several
signals may
be
combined in a
mixer,
or
one
signal may
i
be
split to follow
two different
paths, which,
modifying it
in
different
ways,
may later
recombine.
2.331
2
Likewise,
externally
generated signals
(from tape
recorders,
preamplifiers,
etc.)
may be
fed
directly into
the signal
input of
any
device in a synthesizer,
provided
only that the
signal source
output
has
the proper electrical
characteristics (i.e.
impedance
and amplitude;
See
Section
4).
2.332 Setting
up
a
patch
may also
involve providing control
paths;
but not necessarily.
2.3321
It
is
possible
to
generate
many
interesting sounds
without
ever
using voltage control; but it's
tedious
work, particularly if you're
try-
ing to get something
like "Mary
Had
a Little Lamb"
or something
similar. In
the early days
of electronic synthesis the only
way you
could get
a
tune
was
either by "playing"
an oscillator by
hand, as
if
it
were a penny-whistle,
or
by
recording separately
each note on tape
and
then
splicing all the
notes together. Then
for controlling
the vol-
ume you
had
to
run the completed tape
through an amplifier, with
one hand on the
volume control,
while rerecording
the
result on
another
recorder.
Likewise
for
controlling the timbre,
or tone, of the
melody.
2.333 every
connection
in a
patch
is either a
signal
path or a control
path.
2334 no connection
in
a
patch can
be both a
signal
and
a
control path
at
the
same
time.
2.335 the audible effect
of
manipulating
any
man-
ual control
depends on
the
particular
patch
being
used;
2.3351
Thus,
for
example,
if
the
audio
output
from
an oscillator is
part
of a
signal path,
then
changing the
frequency
of
the
oscillator
will
in some
way
change the
pitch of
a
sound in the
synthesizer's
main
output;
but if
the same
oscillator is
controlling
another oscillator
whose output is
part of
a
signal
path, then
changing the
first
oscillator's
frequency might
change the
rate of
a
vibrato
or, at a higher
frequency,
the
timbre
of
a
frequency-modulation
or
amplitude-modulation
effect.