Audio Damage Basic - Manual (Page 8)

Tune & Level: ! !
Each oscillator has, in addition to the waveform selector, a control labeled “TUNE” and another labeled “LEVEL.” The TUNE knob
controls the relative pitch of that oscillator. The absolute pitch is controlled by the MIDI note input from your DAW or controller, and
the TUNE knob is offset from that. Say, for instance that you play a C3 note on your controller. The TUNE knob is capable of
adjusting the relative pitch of the oscillator up or down a maximum of one octave. The numerical display below the waveform selector
indicates the offset. So, if you have the TUNE knob at approximately 3 o’clock, the numerical display will be somewhere in the order
of +5.00. This means that the oscillator will sound a perfect fourth interval, five semi-tones above C3, or F3. !
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The TUNE knobs of all three oscillators can be used to create interesting harmonic interactions. For instance, if you leave OSC 1 at
+0.00, and turn OSC 2 to +0.12 and OSC 3 to -0.12, this creates a very thick, “analog” sound when using the sawtooth or square
waves. Another fun trick is to tune OSC 2 up a perfect fifth (+7.00) and OSC 3 down an octave (-12.00). This will result in an
excellent “techno” bass sound when played around C1 to C2. !
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The LEVEL control for each oscillator does exactly what it says on the panel: it controls the volume of that oscillator. You can think of
the three level controls (plus the NOISE control, which is also just a LEVEL for noise) as the faders on a mixer. That mixer’s output
goes to the filters. !
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Glide: ! !
Glide, sometimes called (albeit not quite accurately) glissando, or more often, (and somewhat more correctly) portamento, is
controlled by the GLIDE knob, found between OSC 1 and OSC 2. This knob controls, in essence, the time it takes the oscillators to
get from the last pitch they played to a new one they’ve received. So, if you have GLIDE set to zero, and play a C3 followed by a C4,
the oscillators will play the C4 immediately. If you have it set to 12 o’clock, it will take about half a second for the oscillators to reach
the new pitch, as they slide (or glide, if you will) through all the intervening pitches. !
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Sync: ! !
Between OSC 1 and OSC 2, and again between OSC 2 and OSC 3, on the left side, you’ll see two buttons labeled “SYNC.” The
upper one syncs the phase of OSC 2 to OSC 1, and the lower one syncs the phase of OSC 3 to OSC 1. The oscillator hard sync
sound is very distinctive, especially when the pitch of the slaved oscillator is modulated. The sync effectively forces the waveform of
the slaved oscillator to reset every time the waveform of the master oscillator (in both cases, OSC 1) starts over. It is difficult to
describe this effect in any meaningful way, so we encourage you to experiment with it. !
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