User Manual

Glide

Dave Smith Instruments

Glide

Glide or portamento is a feature that has been present on synthesizers

since at least the early ‘70s. (Earlier modular synthesizers could achieve

the same effect through the use of a lag processor.) In monophonic

synthesizers (or the Prophet 12 when Unison is on), it simply causes

the pitch of a note to glide up or down from the pitch of the previously

played note. When played polyphonically, the Prophet 12 behaves in a

similar fashion, except the pitch glides up or down from the previous

note played on that voice. For example, say C3 is played on voice 1 with

gliDe on. More notes are played and cycle through voices 2 through 12.

The next time voice 1 sounds, it’s playing F#4. The pitch will glide up

from C3 to F#4.

Glide is turned on and off using the gliDe switch, but the gliDe amoUnt

must also be set in the Oscillators section. If gliDe is on, but gliDe

amoUnt is set to 0 for all oscillators, gliDe has no apparent effect. Glide

Amount can be set to a different value for each of the oscillators.

Tip: To set gliDe amoUnt for all four oscillators simultaneously,

press and briey hold any of the oscillator select buttons until all four

buttons light. gliDe amoUnt now controls all four oscillators. Press

any of the oscillator select buttons to de-select the other oscillators.

In addition to gliDe amoUnt, there are four Glide modes—FixRate,

FixRate A, FixTime, and FixTime A—that determine how gliDe

behaves. Turn gliDe on to display and change the modes.

FixRate: The time to transition between notes varies with the interval

between the notes; the greater the interval, the longer the transition time.

The glide rate is xed.

FixRate A: The same as FixRate, but glide is only applied when playing

legato. That is, glide only occurs when a note is held until the next note

is played. This effectively allows glide to be turned on and off from the

keyboard.

FixTime: Glide is set to a xed time, regardless of the interval between

notes.

FixTime A: The same as FixTime, but glide only occurs when playing

legato.