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
Pulse Width Modulation
Both of the SJ-2’s oscillators have the option of selecting a pulse wave, which looks like this:
The pulse waves have a feature which none of the other waveforms have; The peak to trough
ratio can be adjusted. We do this using a parameter known as ‘pulse width’.
Pulse Width
Pulse Width increased
This is a superb feature for two reasons:
Firstly, one wave shape - pulse - becomes an infinite number of wave shapes; all pulse waves with
different pulse widths.
The second reason is even more useful;
Because pulse width is a continuous variable, we can modulate it (vary it) in real time, using either
LFOs, envelopes (see later sections), or key tracking.
9 Programming -PWM
Pulse width & pulse width modulation are so important that the SJ-2 has a section
dedicated to them:
The controls labelled ‘PW’ set the pulse width for each oscillator.
If the oscillator is set to any wave other than pulse wave, the settings here will have no effect.
The actual Pulse width can be made to fluctuate around the point set by the ‘PW’ slider, by an amount
set by the ‘PWM’ slider - this stands for ‘pulse width modulation’.
And what is the nature of this fluctuation? That is set by the slider labelled ‘SPD’ and the switch next to it.
THE SWITCH:
(Please refer to later sections on LFOs and envelopes.)
Each of the SJ-2’s oscillators has a dedicated LFO specifically for pulse width modulation.
With the switch set to ‘LFO’, the dedicated LFO will modulate the pulse width at a speed set by the ‘SPD’
slider.
With the switch set to ‘EV1’, envelope 1 will modulate the pulse width.
With the switch set to ‘KYBD’, keyboard tracking will modulate the pulse width.
With the switch set to ‘SYNC’, oscillator 1’s LFO will modulate the pulse width of both oscillators.
The two remaining switches set the polarity of the pulse width modulation.
10 Programming -PWM
Meet the SJ-2’s Filter
3
8
21
4
5
6
7
As mentioned in the introduction, considerable effort has gone into giving the SJ’s low pass
filter that extra bit of ‘flare’ one normally associates with analog technology.
However, from a user’s perspective, the filter controls are the same as you would find on any other
subtractive synthesizer - if you’re familiar with synthesis, you won’t need to spend a long time reading
this section.
If you are not already familiar with synthesis, I have provided a brief introduction to the subject in
Appendix #1. Before that , here’s a summary of the SJ-2 filter controls:
HIGH PASS FILTER (1)
This cannot be modulated by other parts of the synth; the high pass frequency setting
will control the cut-off point.
It essentially functions rather like a bass cut control.
11 Programming -Filter
3
8
21
4
5
6
7
CUT-OFF FREQUENCY (2)
- sets the cut-off frequency of the filter.
RESONANCE (3) REZ
- sets the resonance of the filter.
ENVELOPE SOURCE (4)
- determines whether the filter cut-off is modulated by envelope 1 or envelope 2.
(please see the envelope section further on in the user guide.)
ENVELOPE POLARITY (5)
- determines whether the envelope modulates the filter cut-off positively or negatively.
ENVELOPE INTENSITY (6)
- determines how much envelope modulation is applied to the filter cut-off.
LFO MODULATION (7)
- determines how much LFO modulation is applied to the filter.
(Please see the LFO section further on in the user guide.)
FILTER KEY FOLLOW (8)
This is similar to key tracking, discussed in the oscillator section earlier.
When set to zero, the keyboard will not influence the filter’s cut-off at all,
but at higher settings, higher keys will sound brighter than lower keys.
CAUTION: Turning up the resonance can lead to a profound increase in
sound volume, perhaps unexpectedly. Please consider both your speakers
and your ears and use this feature cautiously.
12 Programming -Filter
CAUTION: When the filter cut-off is built up from zero using an envelope generator
with a long attack time, transient low frequency rumbles can occur when the filter’s
output slips from inaudible to audible. To avoid this issue, be sure to add a small
amount of attack time to the volume envelope. (Envelopes are discussed below.)
Meet the SJ-2’s envelopes
The SJ-2 has two ADSR type envelopes, which can be scaled by velocity and key-tracking
Envelopes are triggered when a key is depressed; from this point the output of the envelope (used for
modulation) will develop over time in a predictable profile, defined by the user, using controls in the
envelope section. The configuration of these controls varies from one instrument to another, but a
popular standard which emerged early on is to have four controls - Attack, Decay, Sustain & Release.
The following graph shows how these four controls operate on the envelopes output:
ATTACK
DECAY
RELEASE
SUSTAIN
OUTPUT
TIME
holds this level
indefinitely,
until key is released
13 Programming -Envelopes
Key is released
Key is pressed
The SJ-2 has two envelopes, both triggered simultaneously by depressing a key. The output of these envelopes
can be assigned to various parts of the synth; pitch, volume, filter cut-off, cross-modulation and more.
Envelope 1 to Pitch
Envelope 1 to Pulse
Width
Envelope 2 to volume
Envelope 1 to oscillator
cross modulation
Switchable: Envelope 1
or Envelope 2 to Filter
cut-off.
The default configuration for the SJ-2 is to have envelope 1 control filter cut-off and/or other attributes
such as pitch, while envelope 2 is used exclusively to control volume. However, by switching to ‘envelope 2’
in the filter section, you can have envelope 2 control both volume and filter cut-off, whilst reserving envelope 1
for other purposes.
VELOCITY CONTROL
Velocity (how hard a key is struck) can be used to scale the envelopes in both axis; the amount of
intensity scaling is controlled by the left slider highlighted above; the right slider controls time scaling.
This effect can be applied separately to envelopes 1 and 2 by using the two switches labeled ‘DYNAMIX’
in the envelopes section.
Hard Soft
14 Programming -Envelopes
8
Key follow: These sliders affect the intensity of the envelope generators according to how high up
the keyboard a particular key is pressed. High settings will cause higher keys to follow a more intense
envelope profile.
CAUTION: If you reduce the SJ-2 envelope’s SUSTAIN amount, the peak of the envelope’s output can actually
rise - the SJ-2 attempts to recover overall volume level . This helps to offset any loss of volume which the
patch might incur due to the reduced sustain setting.
However, at very low sustain settings, the effect can be quite dramatic.
If an envelope which is controlling volume is subject to a reduction in sustain level,
PLEASE PROCEED CAUTIOUSLY in order to protect equipment and prevent ear damage.
Self-Compensating Sustain Level
Please note that the maximum output from either of the SJ-2’s envelopes exceeds the highest cut-off frequency
setting (all frequencies allowed through) by a wide margin. This is deliberate and can be used to refine a
cut-off envelope profile around its peak, as shown below:
Max cut-off
Max cut-off
Envelope to filter slider set so that the
maximum envelope output is less than
max cut-off (all frequencies allowed through)
Envelope to filter slider set so that the
maximum envelope output exceeds
max cut-off.
In the second example, because the peak is ‘clipped’, the filter remains fully open for a longer period
and this will have a dramatic effect on the sound.
Please note that adding filter cut-off manually, in addition to envelope output, will further intensify this
effect since the two sources (cut-off slider & envelope output) are simply added together.
15 Programming -Envelopes
ENVELOPE TO FILTER CLIPPING
At extreme settings, the peak of an SJ-2 envelope can be so snappy that it becomes important to co-ordinate
the attack times of the two envelopes, in order to prevent the filter from peaking after the volume has decayed
to sub-optimal levels. This is really only an issue when you have some moderate attack time on the filter envelope,
zero attack on the volume envelope but a swift decay on the latter. The following diagram illustrates the issue:
SHORT ATTACK TIMES
Filter envelope
Volume envelope
The brightest part of the sound,
defined by the filter envelope peak,
is compromised because the volume has
already decayed into the background.
One solution is to add a little bit of attack time to the volume envelope as well. (Increasing volume
‘decay’ time will also solve the problem but this will drastically change the nature of the sound!)
One might be concerned that adding some attack time to the volume envelope might ‘blunt’ the sound and
leave it with out much punch. In the case of the SJ-2, this concern is unfounded, because at low settings, the
envelope’s attack is loaded toward the end of the attack phase - the following diagram will hopefully make
this clearer:
Attack Decay
Filter envelope
Attack Decay
Volume envelope
Even in the case that the filter envelope’s attack is set to zero, adding a small amount of attack to
the volume envelope can significantly increase a sounds punch, because the volume’s peak lingers for
more time overall, whilst the decay is still abrupt and dramatic.
Again, if sustain is set to high, or decay is slow, then the effect described above will not be noticeable.
16 Programming -Envelopes
At low attack settings, the SJ-2’s envelopes’
attack profile is not linear; It rises very steeply
indeed, to begin with, before slowing down and
rounding off. Right at the end, it speeds right up
again, to form a peak.
This gives you the sonic quality of a hesitant attack,
without losing too much in the way of punch. This
characteristic is not exhibited at higher attack
settings and will not be noticeable if decay times
are long. However, with short decay times, small
attack adjustments can have a big effect on a
preset’s perceived loudness.
In fact this is an illusion - the decay time itself remains the same but with a higher sustain level,
the attenuation from peek to sustain is reduced so the decay appears to be less pronounced.
Simply readjust the decay time to compensate for this.
Changes to resonance setting may similarly affect perceived time; again, simply readjust the decay
setting to compensate if required.
Increasing sustain level affects the decay time .......
Low Frequency Oscillator
LFO Destinations
Just like the SJ-2’s main oscillators, the low frequency oscillator (LFO) creates waveforms.
You can select from four different wave-shapes; sine, triangle, square and random.
Unlike, the main oscillators, the LFO is not influenced by which key has been depressed;
the frequency is controlled by the slider labeled ‘RATE’ in the LFO 1 section and it can go
down to sub-audible frequencies. The purpose of the LFO is to provide a cyclic control
output and it can be sent to various places, in a similar way to the envelope generators
discussed earlier.
The slider labeled ‘DELAY’ will cause the LFO output to build from nothing to its full amount over a period of time, rather like
the attack control in an envelope generator.
The SJ-2 actually has two flexible LFO’s; the second one appears in the SJ-2 Control Section, described later.
(In addition, there are dedicated LFOs for each oscillator’s pulse width, bringing the total to 4.)
The SJ-2’s second LFO can only provide a sine wave and has no delay function. It can control either pitch or filter cut-off.
The important thing about LFO 2 is that its intensity is scaled by modulation wheel data.
Other Programming Features
OSC MIX: this allows you to adjust the volumes of t
he SJ-2’s main oscillators. Note: if you find that the SJ-2
filter is distorting at high res settings, please try turning
these volumes down a little.
ENV RESET: not currently implemented.
17 Programming -LFO / OSc Mix
The SJ-2 control panel provides all the input you need to effectively control the synthesizer. Here, you will find
master volume and master tune knobs, facilities to load and save patches, polyphony assignment, a second LFO
and a basic arpeggiator. Please note that apart from the patch memory menus, all controls in this section save
with the patch, including Master-Tune and Test-Tone controls.
PROGRAMMER
Click on the white
button labelled ’Patch
‘
in order to select a patch. Note that if you make
alterations to a par
ticular patch, those alterations will remain in effect if you select a different
patch
, but will not be present if you launch the
SJ-2 on another occasion. Copying patches
from one memory slot to another can be achieved by clicking on the menu labelled File
. This
menu also
includes options for saving & loading either individual patches (presets) or the
entire bank, as
discrete files on your hard drive.
Patch display
:
displays the currently selected patch.
Value display
: displays the value of the current or
last adjusted parameter setting.
There are no facilities on the SJ-2
to layer
two patches together or split the keyboard
between two patches.
However, you can achieve these configurations by launching 2 instances
of the SJ-2
in your host program
and controlling them
from the host program.
Test Tone:
Use this to
check that the SJ-2
is correctly set up within your host software
. If pressing
keys does not
yield a sound but the Test Tone can be heard, then the chances are that the
SJ-2
s midi input is not configured correctly. The test tone emits a pitch of middle C ʹ
you
can thus check that the SJ-2
tuning is correct.
Patch menus
:
PORTAMENTO
PITCH BEND RANGE
The SJ-2 features polyphonic portamento.
Yes, this entire section is devoted to pith bend range. It’s more flexible than is usually available; the pitch bend
effect can be controlled separately for each oscillator and the range can go up to 2 octaves each way.
19 Control Panel
UNISON MODE
The SJ-2 can play a maximum of 6 notes at the same time. Use the switch in the Unison mode section to layer
multiple notes under each key. Here is a breakdown of the possible settings:
Poly
- The SJ-2
is in it
s normal polyphonic mode (6 voices).
Solo -
The SJ-2
acts like a monophonic synthesizer
.
Two
- The SJ-2
becomes 3 note polyphonic and two voices are stacked for ea
ch note
played, these two voices will be detuned
in accordance with the Unison Detune knob.
Four -
As above, but 3 voices are stacked up and the polyphony is reduced to 2 note.
Eight -
All 6 voices are stacked in unison and you can only play one note
at a time.
Please note
that it is not possible to set envelope release to more than zero in this mode.
Unison Detune ʹ allow
s stacked voices to be detuned.
Hold Switch : This will hold notes currently being played until the switch is reset.
LFO 2
The SJ-2s second LFO is briefly described in the programming section of this guide. Note that this LFO
only ‘kicks in’ when modulation wheel is applied.
ARPEGGIATOR
The SJ-2’s arpeggiator switches are not marked up, but they are very simple; the left switch has
4 settings:
(1) Arpeggiator Off (2) Descending Pattern (3) Ascending Pattern (4) Ascending & Descending Pattern
The right switch controls octave range, ranging from 1 to 4.
Speed is hard sync’ed to the host’s clock and the ‘Speed’ knob will allow you to select multiples of the
external BPM.
When the arpeggiator is turned on ( Mode switch is anything other than at its top position ) the ‘hold’
switch, found in the Unison Mode section will hold the arpeggio, not the individual notes.
20 Control Panel
Continuous Control &
Midi Learn
Right click on any switch or knob to bring up a menu which will allow you to either manually assign a
continuous controll
er number or use the Midi L
earn facility:
Simply click
midi learn and then adjust the control on your midi control keyboard which you would like
to a
ssociate with the
SJ-2 parameter.
When you save your song the continuous
controller assignments will be s
aved and will be
functional
when you reopen it later.
If you save a preset or bank, the controller assignments will be saved with
the bank or preset.
If you open a previously saved bank or preset
, the
current controller assignments will be lost and
those
contained in
the loaded bank
/ preset
will come into effect.
If you open a single preset, the controller assignments saved with that preset will be loaded into the
SJ-2
and
propagated across all of the patches in the SJ-2 ʹ you can not ha
ve controllers
assigned differently for different p
atches.
When you open a new song and launch the SJ-2
, the default factory bank is automatically loaded
which doesnt contain any controller assignments at all. But you can then load up a preset
(whic
h you
saved previously)
which has the
controller assignment
configuration that you wish to use
, into an empty
slot
. The
controller assignment
configuration will then apply to all patches in the SJ-2
. This allows
you to work with many different configu
rations according to your needs at any given time.
Zoom Out
Clicking on the discrete black hotspot in the top left of the programming view-port will cause the
SJ-2 to ‘zoom out’ revealing its appearance from a distance. You can not program the instrument from
the zoomed out view - but you can simulate ‘stepping back’ from the instrument whilst consolidating
one’s thoughts.
Click on he image to return to the programming view-port.
21 Midi Learn / Zoom
Frequency
intensity (volume)
The basics.......
You may think of a synthesizer filter as being rather like a single ‘tone’ control that you might find on a
home audio system such as a personal CD player. However, it’s an extremely intense tone control; so much so
that when the tone control is turned down to its minimum setting, the sound disappears all together!
Synthesizer filters and EQ devices allow us to adjust the balance of frequencies in a sound; bass refers to low
frequencies and treble refers to high frequencies. Frequency is an interesting subject and is discussed below.
Frequency
intensity (volume)
Frequency
intensity (volume)
Frequency
intensity (volume)
BASS TREBLE
BASS TREBLE
BASS TREBLE
BASS TREBLE
Graphic view of the action of a standard audio player tone control
Tone control set to fully open
Tone control set to minimum
Graphic view of the action of a synthesizer low pass filter
Cut-off set just up from midway (no resonance)
cut-off set just up from midway, with resonance applied
Cut off
Cut off
Please note that a little way beyond the cut off point, frequencies are
removed entirely.
Please note that this type of EQ cannot remove any
frequencies entirely
The last of the graphs above introduces another feature of synthesizer filters - resonance. On the SJ-2 filter,
the resonance is controlled by the slider labelled ‘REZ’. When resonance is applied, frequencies around the
cut-off point are emphasised, as shown in the graph. At very high settings, this emphasis results in an audible
high pitched squeal, which can be used to great effect.
RESONANCE
CAUTION: Turning up the resonance can lead to a profound increase in sound volume, perhaps unexpectedly.
Please consider both your speakers and your ears and use this feature cautiously.
Appendix One:
23 Appendix One - Audio filters
8
Frequency and Waveforms...................a little bit of magic!
It just so happens that sound waves don’t like to propagate through air in any form other than a sine
wave.
It stands to reason; air which is of a higher pressure because of a sound wave will want to expand
quickly, but this urgency will dampen off as the pressure returns to normal, and a subsequent rebound in
the other direction will complete a sign wave pattern. Similar physics are at work in a swinging pendulum
- it will only prescribe a sine wave pattern.
However, we can clearly hear square or sawtooth shaped waves coming out of a synthesizer. And,
although they don’t commonly occur in nature, you can hear these waves coming off of electrical
installations and other machinery as well. How is this so?
The answer lies in adding sine waves together - in other words, hearing more than one sine wave
at the same time. Consider the diagram below, which graphically illustrates hearing a loud low pitched
sine wave, and a much quieter high pitched sine wave, both at the same time:
If that appears to be intuitive, this instance may not. Look what happens when we decrease the
gap between the high and low sine waves, so now they are of a similar but not identical pitch:
+
=
+
=
24 Appendix One - Audio filters
When an equalizer (EQ) or filter is applied to a sound, it is adjusting the relative balance of the component
sine waves in that sound. A sound which is bright will have louder high frequency sine waves than a sound
which is dull.
As you can see a regular waveform which is not a sine wave begins to emerge. It turns out
that when many different sine waves are added together, the resulting wave-shape can be
anything at all. In complex cases such as speech, you are still hearing a ‘chorus’ of sine
waves, but in this case, the relative volumes and pitches of those wave would be constantly
If we add yet another sine wave, higher pitched and quieter than the others, we get this:
+
=
An EQ device
SJ-2 filter
25 Appendix One - Audio filters
changing.
TROUBLESHOOTING & KNOWN ISSUES
These issues apply to SJ-2
version 1.3
and may be resolved in
subsequent
versions.
Defaulting to Patch 1, u
pon
start-up:
With some VST host programs, when you reopen a song which contains an instance of the SJ-2
, for
some reason the host software
tells the SJ-2
to default to the first patch. So, for example, if you’re
working on a song which includes
the SJ-2 set at patch number forty (which has been
tweaked to
your liking), upon saving and reopening the song, the SJ-2
is not set as it was when you saved, but
instead is set at patch number one. This is a serious irritant because the recall o
f all settings within a
particular song is one of the best features of
virtual studio technology.
This problem is not unique to Manx Synths and only
occurs under certain conditions with particular
hosts. None the less,
we will look at resolving th
is issu
e in future updates.
If you experience this problem,
please note that the settings you applied to the patch you were
working with will have been properly saved with the song, so there should be no problem if your song
includes several SJ-2
patches, c
ontrolled by program change events.
Setting a program change key in your host program will ensure that the SJ-2 returns to where you left it.
Alternatively
, you can apply the following work around:
1 ʹ copy the patch you are working with into patch#1 memory slot using the SJ-2
s ‘patch menu’ button.
2-
Save your song. When you reopen it later, if the SJ-2 defaults to patch 1, its no longer a
problem and everything will be just as it was when you saved.
Unison mode - no stacking:
I
f unison mode fails to stack voices
appropriately
, please ensure that your host software is sending midi
data
to the SJ-2 via channel 1. The SJ-2
is not multitimbral (since you can have multiple
instances running within the host software). There for there should be no
requirement to use any midi
channel other than 1.
Selecting different waveforms whilst a note is pl
aying:
Sometimes this leads to some strange behaviour with the oscillator output. This is easily resolved by
either
briefly changing the unison mode setting or briefly jumping to another patch and back again.
Appendix Two
File Menu buttons not working properly
People may find that on some systems,
the buttons which increase and decrease the numbers in the
data fields presented in the file menu do not respond properly. If this is the case, simply fill the data fields
in manually.
If you click ‘load patch’ and nothing happens, just click ‘load bank’, than hit ‘cancel’ and then return to
load patch again.
26 Appendix Two - Troubleshooting
CREDITS
We wou
ld like to thank the following contributors:
Jeff McClintock.
David Haupt, Daz Disley, Rob Herder,
Rick Jelliffe,
Christian-W. Budde & Chris
Kerry,
who
have provided
code used in Manx synthesizers.
END USER AGREEMENT
You must agree to the following terms and conditions
before installing and using
the Manx SJ-2 Demo version:
You may not attempt to disassemble or alter the SJ-2 demo DLL
or accompanying files
in any way.
You can distribute the SJ-2
demo provided you do not directly profiteer from
the distribution and
credit the
SJ-2 as a Manx product.
You must agree to the following terms and conditions before installing and
using the Manx SJ-2 retail version:
After
purchasing the SJ-2
retail version you are
licensed to use this on up to a maximum of 3 computers
provided
that you are the sole owner and user of these computers.
You may not attempt to dis
assemble or alter the SJ-2 DLL or accompanying files in any way.
Please do not distribute the SJ-2
DLL to other individuals.
Copyright Manx S
ynthesizers 2015
www.manxsynthesizers.com
Appendix Three-
Information for users
27 Appendix Three - Information for users
3D Anaglyph
representation of
the Manx SJ-2
Synthesizer.
Other Manx Instruments:
Thanks for going with the SJ-2!
Bit 100 v2
MM-2
XS-4
Destiny v2
Gigmate v2
http://www.manxsynthesizers.com/
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