Abbreviation for Pulse Width Modulation. By varying the pulse width of a pulse or rectangular waveform, different timbres of sounds can be created.
Envelope
A series of parameters included as part of a sound over a certain period of time.. The four most common parameters are Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release, or ADSR.
The Syn Instrument Type on the M-solo implements Attack, Decay and Release. An effect similar to Sustain can be obtained by setting Decay to its maximum amount.
Oscillator (Syn)
A circuit which produces a continuous waveform. An oscillator is necessary for an electronic musical instrument to produce sound. The M-solo offers four waveforms (Triangle Sawtooth, Square and Pulse), each of which produces a distinctive tone quality.
Virtual Multi-Contact (VMC)
When a key is depressed on a tone-wheel Hammond Organ, it closes 9 electrical switch contacts. These 9 contacts represent the 9 pitches provided by the Drawbars - the fundamental tone plus eight harmonics. The contacts are closed and opened by means of 9 horizontal flat springs which touch 9 busbars.
Since the 9 busbars are physically separated, the harmonics do not all sound simultaneously, but in succession. The “Key-Click” on tone-wheel Hammond Organs is due to these physical characteristics.
The M-solo employs Virtual Multi-Contacts to replicate these characteristics of a tone-wheel organ. You can adjust the sounding time of the contacts and the Key click level.
In addition, you can play a rhythmic phrase by flicking keys to engage only some of the Virtual Multi Contacts and fully depressing keys to engage all of the contacts (see the illustration below). This is a style unique to the Hammond Organ, and is not characteristic of a piano or synthesizer playing style.
Tablet
A switch used to control sounds and effects on an analog organ or synthesizer.
Tone-wheel organ
An electric musical instrument which generates sound using a “tone-wheel generator.” A series of metallic disks rotate next to magnetic pickups. The standard configuration is 91 separate disks, each disk having a different number of teeth or high spots to generate approximately 7 1/2 octaves.
Transistor organ
An organ employing transistors or solid-state circuitry instead of vacuum tubes. This circuitry was used widely in lightweight combo organ popular in the 1960’s through to contemporary music. The M-solo includes three (3) combo organs among its Instrument Types - Vx, Farf and Ace.
Drawbar registration
Setting of Drawbars to produce different tones.
Foldback
On a B-3, the lowest note produced by the 16' Drawbar is the 2nd “C” (“2C”) from the left end of the keyboard, while the highest note that can be played by the 1′ is the 4th “F#” from the left end of the manual. The lower and higher keys on the manual “Fold Back,” in that they repeat the pitches played by other notes.
Footage
A pitch designation derived from the pipe organ. For example, if a sound or stop is designated “8′” the pipe used to play the lowest note on a keyboard would be eight feet (8′) long, a 4′ stop would use a pipe four feet long for the lowest keyboard note, etc.
Leakage tone
As explained previously, each tone-wheel rotates next to a magnet. The tone-wheels are mounted in separate bins in order to prevent the magnets from intercepting frequencies from neighboring wheels; however, a small amount of current may still “leak” through, producing a phenomenon called Leakage. Leakage is usually heard as a “hash” type sound consisting of many frequencies sounding at once. The amount of leakage tone from the M-solo can be adjusted to your preference (⇒).