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• Tension Mod slider: Adds a slight upward pitch bend effect to the strings, immediately
after being plucked, struck, or strummed. This type of modulation is common to all
stringed instruments, like the D6, guitars, and so on. A predefined Tension Modulation
characteristic is built into each model, but this can be altered with the Tension Mod
parameter. The impact of this parameter can be significant, enabling you to obtain
weird sound effects from the EVD6. You can also use it to simulate an out-of-tune
clavinet, or as a quick-and-dirty sitar sound, for those “Norwegian Wood” covers.
• Stiffness and Inharmonicity sliders: The Inharmonicity parameter determines the lowest
harmonic—the harmonic threshold. Inharmonic content above this threshold is
stretched or spread across the frequency spectrum. The Stiffness parameter controls
the intensity of the stretching or spectral spreading set by the Inharmonicity slider.
The Stiffness and Inharmonicity parameters enable you to intensify or reduce the
strength of the inharmonic content in the sound. When combined at different levels,
these parameters can create metallic, bell-like sounds, or DX-like electric piano-style
sounds. They can also be useful for wood bass sounds.
The fundamental note pitch is not affected by the Stiffness and Inharmonicity
parameters.
• Pitch Fall slider: Provides control over a characteristic of the original D6, where the pitch
of each note falls immediately after you release the key. This sonic quirk is due to the
physical construction of the D6. The intensity of this effect varies with each model, but
it can be completely deactivated by setting this slider to the leftmost position.
Setting EVD6 Excite Parameters
These parameters describe the string excitation. In other words, they are used to emulate
the characteristics and power of the hammers striking the string, and other elements that
form part of the initial key strike.
• Shape slider: Contours the attack shape, allowing you to simulate the hardness of the
rubber hammers in an original D6. As the instrument ages, the hammers become worn,
split, and so on, which has an impact on the overall brightness and tone. Negative
values—to the left—provide a softer attack, and positive values result in a harder attack.
• Brilliance slider: Controls the level of the harmonic content caused by string excitation.
Positive values—to the right—result in a sharper sound. Negative values result in a
more muted sound.
188 Chapter 8 EVD6