Manx SJ-2 User Manual
SJ-2 Version 1.3
Contents
Getting Started
Introduction.................................................................
3
Installation
...................................................................4
Adjusting Parameters...................................................4
P
rogramming the SJ-2
Oscillators...
..................................................................6
PWM
.............................
.......................
........................
.9
Filter...............................................................
.............
11
Envelopes
......
...............................................................13
LFO...........................................
..............................
......17
Oscillator mix................................................................17
SJ-2 Control panel
Programmer, portamento, bend range
...............
........
..19
Unison Mode, LFO 2 & Ar
peggiator......................
.........
20
Continuous Control & Midi Learn
..............................
....21
Zoom out....................................
..............................
....21
A
ppendices
Appendix One: Audio Filters.........................
.................23
Appendix Two: Troubleshooting.
...................................26
Appendix Three: Info for users
.......................................27
1 Contents
User Guide last updated: 03-04-2015
2
Introduction
Congratulations on acquiring the Manx
SJ-2
synthesizer.
We hope you will find the
rich,
organic
sound of
the instrument to be as satisfying as we do
.
Manx Synthesizers originally started out as a vehicle to test out novel oscillator designs, whilst looking into
the possibility of providing digital oscillators with more ‘grunt’.
These designs share much ‘DNA’ with what lies under the hood of Manx instruments today. However, we
subsequently shifted our attention onto the filter and envelope sections, which we felt, were still being somewhat
‘trashed’ by real analog gear.
For patches which feature an open filter and bland EG settings, the SJ-2 does sound similar to its predecessor, the
Manx Super-Jay. However, patches with significant filtering and bold EG settings are probably the most commonly
used synth sounds out there; and these are a kind of sounds in which the SJ-2 can now excel.
Please note that the SJ-2 does not attempt to model any particular hardware instrument down to the finest
detail but we have tested it alongside audio examples of the awesome MKS-80 all the way through development
and the SJ-2 programming functionality is rather similar to that of the hardware beast.
Please note that if you are new to synthesis, parts of this user guide may appear to be ‘a bit heavy’.
Don’t worry, once you start turning knobs and flicking switches on the SJ-2, it will all start to make sense.
3 Getting Started
General features
6 note polyphonic, with double and unison modes.
Midi Learn for all parameters; Patch memory system with full library.
Independent PWM LFOs, velocity sensitivity, generous modulation routings and much more....
General information
The SJ-2 has no on-board effects - its output is mono.
External effects must
be used if you need stereo image
ry, or layer 2 SJ-2s together, then pan.
The SJ-2
can respond to velocity
data but in most factory presets,
this is switched off.
The SJ-2
s CPU consumption is
ve
ry sensitive to patch complexity.
4 Getting Started
The SJ-2 features two fully loaded oscillators; you can control the pitch and basic wave-shape of each, from
the oscillator panel shown above.
Whilst the pitch of oscillator 1 can be set in only in octave intervals, the oscillator 2 pitch is continuous and
is controlled by the two left side knobs, labelled ‘Range’ and ‘Tune’ respectively; these both control oscillator
2’s pitch but the ‘Tune’ control has a much finer action.
It is a little bothersome to select an appropriate octave for oscillator 2, but this arrangement is handy
when the two oscillators are synchronized (see below for details).
WAVE SHAPE AND TUNING (1)
1
1
1
1
1
2
6 Programming -Oscillators
When playing a guitar, the sound produced originates from the strings. In the case of a synthesizer, the basic
sound comes from a section called the ’oscillator section’.
Just as a guitar can have twelve strings instead of six, so a synthesizer may feature two oscillators instead of
one. This is the case with the Manx SJ-2
Having two oscillators instead of one can give you a fatter sound, especially if the two oscillators are set two
be slightly out of tune.
Oscillator Overview
KEY FOLLOW (3)
There are several factors which determine the pitch of the SJ-2’s oscillators, besides their specific tuning
settings; other factors include; master-tune control , pitch-bend midi data, modulation sources and of course
the keyboard itself.
The way the oscillator’s pitch responds to the keyboard is known as ‘key tracking’ and as you may imagine,
normally it is tracked such that 12 keys up the keyboard will equal a 1 octave pitch increase, just like a piano.
Its quite rare for synthesizers to offer alternatives to this configuration - other Manx V2 synths don’t - but the
SJ-2 does: the two controls at the far left of the oscillator section control this:
If the switch is set to VCO1 (another term for oscillator 1), the second oscillator will continue to track the
keyboard in the standard (12v keys = one octave) way, but the first oscillators key tracking will be tempered by
the key follow slider next to it - fully open, this slider will again produce one octave for 12 keys but when this
slider is set to zero, oscillator 1 will not track the keys at all; it’s pitch will then hang purely on the other factors
mentioned above.
Setting the key follow switch to VCO2 will set the oscillator 1 pitch to track the keys normally with oscillator 2
being tempered by the slider, whilst setting the switch to ‘off’ will cause both oscillators to follow the keyboard
normally.
Use the key tracking facilities however you like, but please note that this can be a really useful feature if the
oscillators are synchronised.
The important characteristic of oscillator synchronising is that changing oscillator 2’s pitch will change the
timbre of the oscillator section but the pitch of both oscillators will track the pitch setting for oscillator 1.
By modulating the 2nd oscillator’s pitch using the SJ-2’s envelopes or LFOs, sync’ing will provide another means
to have your patch’s timbre evolve as a key continues to be held down (along side with filter modulation -
described later in the user guide).
3
3
7 Programming -Oscillators
Normally, the two oscillators are free running (simulated); they operate independently. This means
that when you press a key multiple times, the resulting sound may not be exactly the same each time,
because the oscillators will interact with each other differently each time.
However, when Oscillator Sync is turned on, the 2nd oscillator will be forced to reset to the
start of its wave-cycle, every time the 1st oscillator naturally works round to the start of its
cycle.
If your new to synthesis and this sounds complex - don’t worry. Simply try it out - you will
recognise the kind of sounds sync’ing can produce since they appear everywhere in
popular recorded music.
OSCILLATOR SYNCHRONIZATION (2)
5
5
44
OSCILLATOR CROSS MODULATION (4)
Yet another factor which can affect the pitch of oscillator 2 is the output from oscillator 1; that is oscillator 1’s
waveform - when at the top of its cycle osc 2’s pitch will rise and when at the bottom of its cycle, osc 2’s pitch
will fall.
Clearly this pitch fluctuation will be very fast indeed and will serve to provide a timbrel effect rather than
discernible pitch variance.
The left hand cross-mod slider simply sets the extent to which osc 2 is modulated by osc 1. The right hand
slider controls the extent to which cross modulation responds to envelope 1 (please see the section on
envelopes later in the document.)
OSCILLATOR MODULATION RESPONSE (5)
As mentioned earlier, a number of factors can affect oscillator pitch besides the oscillator pitch controls
themselves.
These other factors are said to ‘modulate’ the oscillators’ pitch - modulate simply means ‘change’, and while
the keyboard could certainly be described as a modulator, the term is more commonly reserved for other
parts of the synth’s architecture which can affect pitch - lfo’s and envelopes in particular (these will be
defined later in the user guide.)
The SJ-2 works as follows: parts of the SJ-2 architecture which can control pitch have their own sliders to
set how much pitch modulation will occur, and this will be the same for both oscillators.
In addition, though, the way the oscillators respond to the modulation can be set individually for each
oscillator from within the oscillator section, using the switches labeled (5) above.
Using these switches, you can set each oscillator to either respond positively or negatively to the
modulation, or not at all.
This may seem a little unnecessary, but it’s actually a really neat feature and once again, is
particularly useful when the oscillators are sync’ed.
8 Programming -Oscillators
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