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Table Of Contents
Constant Beat Detuning (CBD) menu: See Emulating Stretch Tuning in the ES2.
Oscillator Start menu: See Adjusting the ES2 Oscillator Start Point.
Choosing the ES2 Keyboard Mode (Poly/Mono/Legato)
A polyphonic instrument allows several notes to be played simultaneously—an organ or
piano, for example. Many older analog synthesizers are monophonic, which means that
only one note can be played at a time, much like a brass or reed instrument. This shouldn’t
be viewed as a disadvantage in any way, because it allows playing styles that are not
possible with polyphonic instruments.
If you choose Mono mode, staccato playing will retrigger the envelope generators
every time a new note is played. If you play in a legato style (play a new key while
holding another), the envelope generators are triggered only for the first note you play
legato, and then they continue their curve until you release the last legato played key.
The Legato mode is also monophonic, but with one difference: The envelope generators
are retriggered only if you play staccato—releasing each key before playing a new key.
Note: On several monophonic synthesizers, the behavior in Legato mode is referred to
as single trigger, while Mono mode is referred to as multi trigger.
Using Unison and Voices for a Richer ES2 Sound
One of the great strengths of polyphonic analog synthesizers is unison—or “stacked
voices”—mode. Traditionally, in unison mode classic analog polysynths run
monophonically, with all voices playing simultaneously when a single note is struck. As
the voices of an analog synthesizer are never perfectly in tune, this results in an extremely
fat chorus effect with great sonic depth.
To enable monophonic unison mode for the ES2
µ
Activate either Mono or Legato mode, and turn on the Unison button:
The intensity of the unison effect depends on the number chosen in the Voices
parameter field. Increase the Voices value for a fatter sound.
The intensity of detuning (voice deviation) is set with the Analog parameter (see
Emulating Detuned Analog Synthesizer Oscillators in the ES2).
To use the ES2 in polyphonic unison mode
µ
Activate the Poly and Unison buttons.
62 Chapter 5 ES2