mxm-mono-00 manual

Eighty parameters — the largest instrument in the collection. Two oscillators into a four-channel mixer, a passive high-pass into a diode ladder, two envelopes, two LFOs, a sample-and-hold, three serial effects, and a fifteen-row routing matrix that can turn a patch into a self-running machine. It follows the Roland System-100 as the later plug-out arranged it: the 101 keyboard synth and the 102 expander joined into one voice.

Ranges and Init values below are read from the plugin itself. Where the panel shows a percentage, the figure underneath it is given too.

The routing matrix

Fifteen inputs, each choosing one of fourteen sources — or Default, which restores the machine’s own normalled wiring for that input. The matrix replaces patch cords: every row is an ordinary plugin parameter, so a host can automate it and MXM Player can change it on a step.

The fifteen inputs. LFO-1 EXT CV IN, LFO-2 EXT CV IN, S&H EXT IN, GLIDE IN, VCO-1 EXT CV IN, VCO-2 SYNC IN, RING MOD IN, MIXER EXT IN, VCF LFO IN, VCF ADSR IN, VCF ADSR GATE IN, VCA ADSR IN, VCA ADSR GATE IN, PHASER LFO IN, PHASER MANUAL IN. Each is Default at Init.

The fourteen sources. KYBD CV, LFO-1, LFO-2, S&H OUT, S&H CLK, VCO-1, VCO-2, VCO-1 SYNC, VCO-2 SYNC, RING MOD, NOISE, MIXER, VCF ADSR, VCA ADSR.

Audio-rate sources into control inputs are allowed, which is where the harder sounds come from. A gate input treats anything above 0.25 as high, so an LFO or an oscillator can gate an envelope.

Picking Default on any row puts the familiar connection back, so the matrix is safe to explore — there is no wrong patch you cannot undo one row at a time. The Patch view lights connected cells from the signal actually moving through them: gates read as gates, control voltages show their position, and audio columns show block peak, so a patch that plays itself also shows why.

Voice

Note priority — Low or Last, Init Low

Which note wins when more than one is held. Low is the machine’s own behaviour.

Tune — −100.0 … +100.0 cents, Init 0.0 cents

Fine tuning for the whole instrument.

Bend range — 0 … 24 st, Init 2 st

How far pitch bend travels, in semitones.

Portamento — 0.0 ms … 5.00 s, Init 0.0 ms

Glide time between notes.

Glide — 0 … 100 %, Init 0 %

Glide depth — how much of the portamento is actually applied. Separate from the time, so a patch can keep a long glide time and be faded in and out by the matrix.

Glide to — VCO-1, VCO-2 or VCO-1+2, Init VCO-1+2

Which oscillators the glide reaches. Sending it to one only makes an interval open and close as the pitch moves.

VCO LFO — 0 … 100 % (0 … 12 semitones), Init 0 %

Vibrato depth. Full scale is one octave.

VCO LFO to — VCO-1, VCO-2 or VCO-1+2, Init VCO-1+2

Which oscillators the vibrato reaches.

Oscillator 1

Range 1 — 64’, 32’, 16’, 8’, 4’ or 2’, Init 8'

Octave register, in organ footages. Six positions, reaching far lower than most of the collection.

Wave 1 — Sawtooth, Square or Triangle, Init Sawtooth

One waveform at a time.

Pulse width 1 — 5 … 50 %, Init 50 %

Duty cycle. 50 % is a square; the control travels downward only, because the two halves are symmetrical and a 70 % pulse sounds like a 30 % one.

PWM source 1 — Manual, LFO-1, Glide, VCF ADSR, VCA ADSR or LFO-2, Init Manual

What moves the width. Six sources, so the pulse width is nearly as well connected as a matrix row.

PWM 1 — 0 … 100 %, Init 0 %

How far the chosen source swings the width.

Ext CV 1 — 0 … 100 %, Init 0 %

How much whatever is patched to VCO-1 EXT CV IN moves VCO-1’s pitch. The amount lives here; the source is chosen in the matrix.

Oscillator 2

Range 2 — 64’, 32’, 16’, 8’, 4’ or 2’, Init 8'

Octave register for the second oscillator.

Coarse 2 — −24 … +24 st, Init 0 st

VCO-2’s tuning against VCO-1 in semitones — two octaves either way, which makes this an interval selector rather than a detune.

Fine 2 — −100.0 … +100.0 cents, Init 7.0 cents

Fine detuning. Init is 7 cents sharp, so the two oscillators beat as soon as VCO-2’s mixer level comes up rather than sitting in a dead unison.

Wave 2 — Sawtooth, Square or Triangle, Init Sawtooth

VCO-2’s waveform.

Pulse width 2 — 5 … 50 %, Init 50 %

VCO-2’s duty cycle.

PWM source 2 — Manual, LFO-1, Glide, VCF ADSR, VCA ADSR or LFO-2, Init Manual

What moves VCO-2’s width. The two oscillators have independent width sections, unlike the other mono instruments in the collection.

PWM 2 — 0 … 100 %, Init 0 %

How far the chosen source swings VCO-2’s width.

Sync — Off or On, Init Off

Whether VCO-2 is hard-synced to VCO-1.

Sync strength — Strong or Weak, Init Strong

How the sync behaves. Strong locks at any ratio, the familiar hard sync. Weak holds near named intervals and rolls between them instead of snapping, which gives a less rigid sound — sync that bends rather than sync that clamps.

Mixer

Four channels into the filter.

VCO-1 level — 0 … 100 %, Init 80 %

VCO-2 level — 0 … 100 %, Init 0 %

Raise this and the 7-cent Init detune starts beating.

Ring mod level — 0 … 100 %, Init 0 %

The ring modulator’s output — VCO-1 against VCO-2. Its input is a matrix row, so the ring modulator does not have to be fed the two oscillators.

Noise level — 0 … 100 %, Init 0 %

Noise colour — White or Pink, Init White

White is flat per hertz; pink falls 3 dB per octave and sits better under a pitched sound.

Filter

A passive high-pass first, then the diode ladder. The ladder runs at twice the project sample rate so the cutoff control reaches its intended top end without folding.

HPF — 10.0 Hz … 10.0 kHz, Init 10.0 Hz

The passive high-pass before the ladder, in real hertz. Init is effectively out of the way.

Cutoff — 20.0 Hz … 20.0 kHz, Init 10.0 kHz

The diode ladder’s corner, in real hertz.

Resonance — 0 … 100 %, Init 0 %

Feedback around the ladder. It trims some bass rather than compensating it away, and it will self-oscillate — the top of the control sits meaningfully past the threshold, and above that point the filter is seeded with an inaudible excitation so it sings from silence.

Key follow — −100 … +100 % (−1:1 … +1:1 with the keyboard), Init 0 %

How much the played note moves the cutoff, pivoting on middle C. At +100 % the cutoff follows the keyboard octave for octave. Negative values invert it, so the filter closes as you play up — which nothing else in the collection offers.

Filter env — 0 … 100 % (0 … 7 octaves), Init 0 %

How far the VCF envelope moves the cutoff. Full scale is seven octaves.

Filter LFO — 0 … 100 % (0 … 4 octaves), Init 0 %

How far the LFO moves the cutoff. Full scale is four octaves. Which LFO — or which other source — is decided by VCF LFO IN in the matrix.

Amplifier

Initial gain — 0 … 100 %, Init 0 %

A fixed amount of amplifier opening, independent of the envelope. Raise it and the voice drones without a key; it is also how you hear a self-running matrix patch with nothing played.

Amp env — 0 … 100 %, Init 100 %

How much the VCA envelope opens the amplifier.

Amp LFO — 0 … 100 %, Init 0 %

Tremolo depth.

Tone — −100 … +100 %, Init 0 %

A tilt after the amplifier: negative darkens, positive brightens, centre is flat.

Envelope (VCF)

A full ADSR driving the filter. Its input and gate are both matrix rows, so it does not have to be driven by the keyboard.

VCF attack — 0.4 ms … 10.00 s, Init 5.0 ms

VCF decay — 0.4 ms … 10.00 s, Init 300.0 ms

VCF sustain — 0 … 100 %, Init 70 %

A level, not a time.

VCF release — 0.4 ms … 10.00 s, Init 200.0 ms

VCF trigger — Gate, LFO or Gate+Trig, Init Gate

What restarts the envelope. LFO refires it continuously while a key is held, which is one of the two ways this instrument runs itself.

Envelope (VCA)

A second, independent ADSR driving the amplifier — this instrument is the only one in the collection with two.

VCA attack — 0.4 ms … 10.00 s, Init 5.0 ms

VCA decay — 0.4 ms … 10.00 s, Init 300.0 ms

VCA sustain — 0 … 100 %, Init 70 %

VCA release — 0.4 ms … 10.00 s, Init 200.0 ms

VCA trigger — Gate, LFO or Gate+Trig, Init Gate

Modulator 1

LFO-1 rate — 0.2 … 25.0 Hz, Init 4.0 Hz

LFO-1 shape — Sine, Triangle, Sawtooth, Square or S&H, Init Sine

LFO-1 CV gain — 0 … 100 %, Init 0 %

How much whatever is patched to LFO-1 EXT CV IN moves LFO-1’s rate. A gain and an offset together make the rate CV row a small utility processor rather than a plain input.

LFO-1 CV offset — −2400.0 … +2400.0 cents, Init 0.0 cents

A fixed offset added to LFO-1’s rate CV — two octaves either way.

Modulator 2

LFO-2 rate — 0.2 … 25.0 Hz, Init 1.0 Hz

Init is slower than LFO-1, so the two are useful together straight away.

LFO-2 shape — Sine, Triangle, Sawtooth, Square or S&H, Init Sine

LFO-2 CV gain — 0 … 100 %, Init 0 %

LFO-2 CV offset — −2400.0 … +2400.0 cents, Init 0.0 cents

Sample and hold

S&H rate — 0.6 … 125.0 Hz, Init 4.0 Hz

The sampling clock. The top of the range is well into audio rate, where the sample-and-hold stops being a stepped modulator and becomes a sound source.

S&H lag — 0.0 ms … 2.00 s, Init 0.0 ms

Slew between steps. At zero the output jumps; raised, it glides, turning stepped random into a wandering line.

S&H mode — Off, Saw, Saw (inv), Triangle or Sine / Ext, Init Off

What is sampled. The first four use internal shapes; Sine / Ext samples whatever the matrix sends to S&H EXT IN, which is how the sample-and-hold gets fed an oscillator or the mixer.

S&H CLK is available as a matrix source in its own right, so the clock can drive other things — pointing it at an envelope’s gate is the other way this instrument runs itself.

Effects

Three in series, in this order: phaser, delay, spring reverb.

Phaser — 0 … 100 %, Init 0 %

Phaser depth. It sweeps 2.5 octaves around a 800 Hz centre. Both its LFO and its manual position are matrix rows, each reaching four octaves per unit of control voltage — so a patched phaser sweeps far wider than the knob alone.

Delay — 0 … 100 %, Init 0 %

Delay mix.

Delay time — 20.0 ms … 1.00 s, Init 375.0 ms

Tempo sync — Off or On, Init Off

Whether the delay time follows the host tempo instead of the control above.

Reverb — 0 … 100 %, Init 0 %

Spring reverb mix. The same spring code is available on its own as mxm-folded-spring, which adds tank choice and a feedback path this instrument does not have.

Output

Volume — −60.0 … 0.0 dB, Init −6.0 dB

Output level.

The Parameters view

Every control on one page as an editable slider, with direct text entry. It is the same parameters as the panel, laid out for reading and for typing an exact value rather than for playing.