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Chapter 23 Ultrabeat 317
Between the ring modulator and the filter section you’ll find a signal flow switch that
controls the routing (Filter Bypass button). Repeated mouse clicks will send the signal
to the filter (Filter Bypass button turns red), or bypass the filter and send it directly to
the EQ section (Filter Bypass Switch remains gray). The direction of the arrow on the
Filter Bypass button illustrates the routing.
Note: The Filter Bypass button determines the signal flow. It doesn’t turn the ring
modulator on or off. Use the Ring Mod field for this (see above).
The Noise Generator
The fourth synth engine is the noise generator. Noise contains—in a technical sense—
all tonal frequencies; that’s why our ears can’t recognize any tonality in a noise signal.
Despite this (or as a direct result of it), noise is an indispensable ingredient when
creating drum sounds. For this reason, Ultrabeat’s noise generator is outfitted with
extensive features.
To use the noise generator, you first need to turn it on. This can be done with the On/
Off button. When in an active state, the button is red.
Volume can be modulated by the sources found in the Mod and Via menus. If a Mod
source is activated, the effect it has on Volume is set by the (Mod) ring that surrounds
the knob. If a Via source is activated, its effect can be set by moving the slider that
appears on the Mod ring. Colored areas between the Volume knob and its surrounding
ring clearly show the values of the Mod modulation (blue) and the Via modulation
(green), compared with the mean Volume value (red).
If neither a Mod or Via source is selected (both set to Off), the Mod ring, its slider and
the colored areas remain hidden.
The noise generator has its own filter which functions independently of Ultrabeat’s
multimode filter. The four Type buttons LP, HP, BP, and Byp allow you to switch the filter
between lowpass, highpass or bandpass modes, or deactivate it (Byp).
The names of the filter types illustrate how they work: A lowpass (LP) filter allows
frequencies that are lower than the Cutoff frequency (see below) to pass. This filter type
dampens higher frequencies, and makes the sound less sharp and bright.
A highpass (HP) filter has exactly the opposite effect. It filters out the lower frequencies
while leaving the higher frequencies untouched.