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Chapter 3 ES2 103
Create ES2 sounds with templates
ES2 sound design with templates
There are a number of tutorial templates that you can open from the Settings pop-up menu
(choose the Tutorial Settings folder).
This programming tour of the ES2 is included as a part of the toolbox to help you learn the ES2’s
architecture through experimentation with these template sounds.
As you become more familiar with ES2 functions and parameters, you can create your own
templates to use as starting points when designing new sounds.
ES2 Slapped StratENV setting
The target of this setting is the sound of a Stratocaster, with the switch between bridge and
middle pickup in the middle position—in phase. It attempts to emulate the noisy twang
typical of this sound’s characteristics. This might be a useful template for emulations of fretted
instruments, harpsichords, clavinets, and so on.
Take a look at the sound’s architecture:
Osc 1 and Osc 3 provide the basic wave combination within the Digiwave eld. Changing the
Digiwaves of both in combination delivers a huge number of basic variations—some also work
pretty well for electric piano-type keyboard sounds.
Osc 2 adds harmonics with its synced waveform, so you should only vary its pitch or sync
waveform. There are a couple of values that can be changed here, which will give you a much
stronger, more balanced signal.
An old trick, which delivers a punchy attack, was used—to create an eect that the use of a
naked wave wouldn’t deliver, even with the best and fastest lters available: You use an envelope
(in this case, Env 1) for a quick “push” of a wavetable’s window—or all wavetables together, where
it makes sense.
Set up Envelope 1’s decay time for this short push by moving the wave selectors for all
oscillators. (Although it makes no sense to do this on the synced sawtooth oscillator, Osc 2, use
the envelope trick regardless.) This allows you to vary the punchiness of the content between:
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Envelope 1’s contribution to the overall attack noise and changing decay length—a short
decay results in a peak, a long decay results in a growl, as Envelope 1 reads a couple of waves
from the wavetable.
•
Modulation destination—you can always assign this to each of the oscillators separately.
•
Start point—you vary the wave window start with minimum and maximum control of EG1/
Osc. waves modulation: negative values for a start wave before the selected wave, positive
values for a start wave from a position behind the selected wave that rolls the table back.
Feel free to experiment with this wavetable-driving trick. The growl eect works well for brass
sounds, and some organs absolutely shine with a little click, courtesy of a wavetable push.
Envelope 2, which controls the lter, provides a slight attack when used for “slapped”
characteristics. Setting it to the fastest value eliminates the wah-like attack, while retaining
the punch.
For playing purposes, you’ll nd that LFO 2 is used as a real-time source for vibrato. It is assigned
to the mod wheel and pressure. Feel free to change the wheel and pressure settings