Apple MainStage 3 Instruments - MainStage 3 Instruments

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Drag the pointer in the Planar Pad all the way up, which results in the leftmost
panorama position.
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Switch on Solo Point. The sound begins with a strongly filtered sawtooth wave and turns into
an unfiltered square wave. It initially sounds from the right, and then it moves to the left while
morphing into a triangular wave. After you release the key, the saw sound is heard.
Use Vector synthesis loops
The basic sound of the Vector Loop setting—without the Vector Envelope—consists of three
elements:
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Oscillator 1 delivers a metallic FM spectrum, modulated by oscillator 2’s wavetable.
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Oscillator 2 outputs cross-faded Digiwaves (a wavetable), modulated by LFO 2.
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Oscillator 3 plays a PWM sound at the well-balanced, and keyboard-scaled, speed of LFO 1.
These heterogeneous sound colors are used as sound sources for the vector loop. Unison and
Analog make the sound fat and wide.
A slow, forward loop is preset. It moves from oscillator 3 (PWM sound, point 1) to oscillator 1
(FM sound, point 2), then to oscillator 3 again (PWM, point 3), then to oscillator 2 (wavetable,
point 4), and finally it returns to oscillator 3 (PWM, point 5). Points 1 and 5 are identical, which
prevents any transition from point 5 to point 1 in the forward loop. This transition could be
smoothed out with Loop Smooth, but this would make the rhythmic design more difficult
to program.
The distances between the points of the Vector Envelope have been set to be rhythmically
exact. Given that Loop Rate has been engaged, the time values are not displayed in ms,
but as percentages. There are four time values (each at 25%), which is a good basis for the
transformation into note values.
Do the following:
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Switch off the Vector Envelope by setting Solo Point to on. This allows you to audition the
individual points in isolation.
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Take the opportunity to alter the pointer positions in the Planar Pad according to your taste. The
X/Y axes of the Planar Pad control the cutoff frequency of Filter 2, and the panorama position.
Adjustments to these make the sound more vivid.
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Activate the Vector Envelope by setting Solo Point to off. Check the result, and fine-tune the
pointer positions in the Planar Pad.
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Alter the Loop Rate from the preset value of 0.09 up to 2.00. You will hear a periodic modulation,
much like that of an LFO. At this point, the modulation is not synchronized with the project
tempo. To synchronize the loop speed with the project tempo, move the Rate to the far left, and
set a note or bar value.
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You can create faster rhythmic note values by clicking between two points and setting the new
time values—which result from the division that occurs—to a value of 12.5%, for example.
Chapter 3 ES2 104