SuperCollider

Bum Note 2

A polyphonic subractive synthesiser with built-in sequencers

Overview

This is Bum Note 2's window with the Controls tab open.

It is a analog synthesiser with built-in sequencers. You can play the keyboard with either the mouse or the QWERTY keyboard. See Keyboard GUI.

The Control Strip

The control strip appears at the top and there is something similar in every instrument. It manages the Audio & MIDI settings.

  1. Controls, Step & Piano Tabs - open the 3 tabs of the instrument. Controls hold all the synthesiser controls, Step is a monophonic sequencer and Piano is a polyphonic piano roll sequencer. The Step sequencer can only be used in Mono mode and the Piano Roll can be used both in Mono & Poly modes.
  2. On/Off - turns Bum Note On/Off. Right or Alt-click will turn other instruments On/Off as well.
  3. Solo - solos Bum Note. Right or Alt-click will solo just this instrument.
  4. MIDI - opens a window to select the MIDI in & out channels + ports. See MIDI Devices & Controls.
  5. MIDI Control Editor - opens the MIDI Control editor and allows you to edit the MIDI controls you set up on this instrument. See MIDI Devices & Controls.
  6. Preset Manager - Add, remove or select presets, see Presets & Programs.
  7. Master Audio send channel - this sets where the audio effect send of this instrument are going. (i.e Which audio output bus or which effect bus)
  8. Master Audio out channel - this sets where the audio output of this instrument are going. (i.e Which audio out bus or which effect bus)

The Synth Controls

The basic graph of this synth is:

The controls are laid out in a similar manner.

  1. Pulse - a pulse wave oscillator.
    • Pitch - pitch adjustment in semitones.
    • Fine - tuning in fractions of a semitone.
    • PW - pulse width of the oscillator. When fully left the wave is square.
    • PWM - pulse width modulation. Which LFO is modulating the pulse width is selected below this control.

  2. Tri - a triangular wave oscillator. The pitch of this oscillator matches that of the saw tooth. The FM control modulates the frequency with the output of the pulse wave oscillator.
  3. Saw - a saw tooth oscillator.
    • Pitch - pitch adjustment in semi tones.
    • Fine - tuning in fractions of a semi tone.

  4. Link - links the pitch and phase of the saw tooth to that of the pulse.
  5. Mixer - controls the levels of each oscillator.
    • Pulse - the level of the pulse wave oscillator.
    • Tri - the level of the triangular wave oscillator.
    • Saw - the level of the saw tooth oscillator.
    • Noise - the level of noise added.

  6. Pitch controls -
    • Slide - adds portamento when two notes are played simultaneously . (Mono mode only).
    • LFO - modulates the pitch of all 3 oscillator with an LFO. Which LFO is modulating the pitch is selected on the right.

  7. Low Pass - the low pass filter.
    • Filter - the filter cutoff frequency.
    • Q - the filter Q.
    • Env - the amount the AR envelope modulates the filter.
    • LFO - the amount the LFO modulates the filter. Which LFO is used is selected above this control.
    • KYBD - the amount keyboard scaling modulates the filter.
    • A - the AR envelope attack.
    • Curve - the shape of the curve in the AR envelope.
    • R - the AR envelope release.
    • Velocity - the amount velocity modulates the filter.

  8. High Pass - the high pass filter.
    • Filter - the filter cutoff frequency.
    • Q - the filter Q.
    • Env - the amount the AR envelope modulates the filter.
    • LFO - the amount the LFO modulates the filter. Which LFO is used is selected above this control.
    • KYBD - tthe amount keyboard scaling modulates the filter.
    • A - the AR envelope attack.
    • Curve - the shape of the curve in the AR envelope.
    • R - the AR envelope release.
    • Velocity - the amount velocity modulates the filter.

  9. ADSR - the amplitude ADSR envelope.
    • A - attack time - the duration of the attack portion.
    • D - decay time - the duration of the decay portion.
    • S - sustain level - the level of the sustain portion.
    • R - release time - the duration of the release portion.

  10. Volume - the amplitude of the synth.
  11. Pan - the panning position of the output.
  12. Send - the effect send amp.
  13. Velocity - the amount velocity effects the overall amplitude of the instrument.
  14. LFO A & B - there are 2 LFOs, A & B.
    • S - synchronises the lfo wave to the tempo. This changes the Freq control to Speed in beats.
    • Wave menu - selects the shape of the LFO wave. Either Sine, Saw Down, Saw Up, Square, Noise 1 or Noise 2.
    • Freq - is the frequency or synchronised speed of the LFO.
    • Slope - changes the slope of the LFO wave so that its peaks are squashed together.
    • S&H - applies a Sample & Hold to the LFO wave which is synchronised to the tempo.

  15. EQ - EQ the sound by boosting the lower and higher frequencies.
  16. Glide - this smoothes the overall filter response.
  17. MIDI In - controls when pitches & envelopes are triggered by note on events.
    • Normal/Latch - In Latch mode MIDI Notes will not change the oscilators pitch but will still open the amp envelope. The oscilators pitch will continue to be changed by the notes in the Step sequencer. This allows you play the notes in the Step sequencer with MIDI Note On events.
    • ADSR - mode off, stops MIDI Notes from opening the amp envelope. This allows the Step sequencer to play either the Piano Roll or incoming MIDI notes.
    • Vel - mode off, stops MIDI velocity from changing the filters frequency.
    • Filter - mode off, stops MIDI Notes from triggering the filter AR envelopes.

  18. Mono/Poly - switches between Monophonic and Polyphonic modes. You can also set the number of voices used in Polyphonic mode.

The Mono Sequencer

This is Bum Note with the Step tab showing. It has 6 sequencers contolling Note On, Note Off, Accent, Note, Slide & Velocity. Having separate speeds and durations can producing interesting variations in a sequence.

  1. Note On, Off & Accent - These sequencers control when a Note On, Note Off or Accent happens. Accents trigger the filter envelopes.
  2. Note seq - This sequencer controls the pitch of the oscillators.
  3. Slide seq - This sequencer controls when to or not to slide to the next note.
  4. Velocity seq - This sequencer controls the velicity of each note.
  5. R, Sp & St - Ruler, Speed & Steps.
    • Ruler - draws the top ruler with bars of n beats.
    • Speed - a divider of the MIDI clock tempo. Higher values go slower. i.e when set to 4 the sequencer will go at a 1/4 of the maximum song tempo.
    • Steps - the number of steps in the sequencer section.

  6. Latch - only allows the note sequencer to advance when a Note On happens.
  7. Write - will write the notes been played into the Note sequence.
  8. Adv - will advance the sequencer to the next beat everytime a note is recorded.
  9. Rec - will record what's been played.
  10. Steps/Oct - is the tuning scale used. This is in Steps Per Octave. Normally set to the Western scale of 12.
  11. Root - the root MIDI note all tuning scales are set to. In this example MIDI note 60 - C is always the same pitch no matter which scale you use.
  12. Net - allows anything being played on the keboard to be networked and played on every computer in a colaboration, including MIDI In note events.

Piano Tab

There is a Piano Roll tab for sequencing Bum Note 2 in both Mono & Poly modes. See the Piano Rolls help file on how to use this.

LNX_Studio v2.0.3