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Electronic Instruments Volume 2 Akkord

AKKORD
Operation manual
Electronic Instruments Volume 2 Akkord

Akkord
Instrument Design: Lazyfish
Sound Design: Lazyfish, Dennis DeSantis
Interface Design: Phirol

Introduction

Akkord is a hybrid additive / FM synthesizer, featuring an original tone generation engine


combining 3 oscillators, a harmonics generator and flexible wave shaping options.
The rich and distinctive sound is enhanced by a range of internal effects, and animated
by 2 feedback envelopes and beat-syncable LFOs. Further, the ensemble features
a unique chord sequencer with which to drive this powerful synthesiser.
Electronic Instruments Volume 2 Akkord

The Akkord Synthesiser

Global controls

Synth settings Akkord is a polyphonic synthesiser, but it can optionally


operate monophonically by enabling the Mono button. In this
mode, when multiple MIDI notes are pressed simultaneously,
the lowest note is used.

VelAtt sets the extent to which the envelopes attack time is


influenced by velocity (softer velocity results in longer attack
times). Set to hard-left for no influence.

Porta switches between one of two portamento modes. When


the button is off, playing notes legato-style triggers pitch
glide, but when the button is on, pitch glides every time a
note is played. Time sets the portamento time (from no glide
at hard-left to very slow at hard-right).

Key and Fine transposes the note input in semitones, and


PBnd sets the pitchbend range in semitones.

Envelopes 1 and 2 Envelope 1 is hard-wired to amplitude, but like Envelope 2, it


can also be freely assigned to other parameters using the
drop-down menus in the other sections.

The 2 envelope controls are identical - Attack, Decay and


Release set the times of the respective stages and the Sustain
knob sets the level of the sustain stage.

When the envelope Delay sections are enabled, the envelope


signal is fed through a tempo-synced feedback-delay unit,
creating more complex, rhythmic envelope shapes. Delay sets
th
the delay time in 16 steps, and Return controls the amount
of feedback.

LFO 1 and 2 The two (identical) low frequency oscillators can be used as
modulation sources for the oscillators, the Harmonics /
Shaper section and the filter.

Five waveforms are available Sin (sine); Tri (triangle);


Pls (pulse); Rnd1 (slow random waveform) and Rnd2 (random
waveform).

When Sync is enabled, the LFO cycle is retriggered on each


MIDI note (phase start position is set with the Phase knob).
The BPM switch enables the LFO speed to be set in cycles-
per-bar, and the Fade switch enables LFO fading in and out
(fade time is set using the Fade knob).
Electronic Instruments Volume 2 Akkord

Freq specifies the LFO speed (in either cycles-per-bar, or


cycles-per-second) and Width adjusts the waveform shape.

Tone Generation

Main and modulation Main Osc selects the main oscillator waveform, and Mod Osc
oscillators selects the modulator oscillator waveform. Five identical
shapes are available for both oscillators - Par (parabolic
waveform), Tri (triangle), Saw (Sawtooth), Pls (Pulse) or Imp
LP (lowpass filtered impulse)

Sub oscillator The Sub Osc section provides an additional oscillator to be


mixed with the Main Oscillator. The upper menu selects the
waveform, and the Gain knob determines the sub oscillator
output level.

The lower menu selects a pitch modulation source, and Mod


specifies the modulation amount.

-Oct+ enables the oscillator pitch to be transposed, in octaves


(+/- 3).

Noise oscillator The noise oscillator is a second additional oscillator, offering


5 different types of noise to be mixed with the main and sub
oscillator output.

The upper drop-down menu selects the noise type from 1 of 5


choices Noise (white noise); Rnd Mono (monophonic
random sample-and-hold noise, more sharp); Rnd Poly
(polyphonic random sample-and-hold noise, more smooth);
Geiger (produces clicks at random intervals); Geiger Poly
(produces polyphonic clicks at random intervals).

Gain defines the noise output level.

The Colour knob allows fine adjustment of the noise


generator. The effect of the colour knob depends on the noise
type selected - in Noise mode, the colour knob controls the
balance between low and high frequencies; for the Rnd modes
it determines the frequency of the random waveform; and in
the Geiger modes, it defines the impulse density.

The Colour parameter can be modulated select a modulation


source from the lower drop-down menu; and set the amount of
modulation with the Mod knob.

Pitch and Amplitude The section labelled PM (pitch modulation) above the
modulation main/mod oscillator menus provides a low frequency sine
oscillator dedicated to oscillator pitch modulation (for main,
Electronic Instruments Volume 2 Akkord

mod and sub oscillators). When the PM power switch is


enabled, Depth defines the amount of pitch modulation and
Rate sets the LFO speed. The LFO is polyphonic and each
new MIDI note resets the phase.

Similarly, the section labelled AM provides a dedicated


amplitude modulation LFO. (The amplitude modulation is
applied after the Harmonics & Shaper section.)

Harmonics / Shapers This section is where the mod oscillator modulates the main
oscillator to create additional harmonics. This section also
offers several wave shaping distortion algorithms.

Harm determines the amount of harmonic distortion of the


oscillator signal (main, sub and noise) via the modulation
oscillator. The harmonic distortion is created by applying a
small delay to the signal and modulating the delay time via
the modulation oscillator.

Shaper determines the amount of wave-shaping distortion.


Five distortion modes are available from the drop-down menu
in the top-left corner of this section. In If Pulse then Width
mode, the shaper knob sets the pulse width of the main, mod
or sub oscillators (if any of them are set to pulse). Falling
slope mirror mode inverts falling signals; Slope to Sign
converts rising signals to a static +1 signal and fallings
signals to a static 1 signal (similar to a pulse wave);
Parabolica runs the signal through a parabolic function; and
Sign converts positive signals to a static +1 signal and
negative signals to a static -1 signal.

Note that selecting shaper bypass from the shaper mode


menu bypasses the shaper only harmonics distortion cannot
be bypassed.

Env and LFO control the amount of modulation of both the


Harm and Shaper parameters via the envelopes or LFOs. The
particular modulation source can be selected via the drop
down menus at the left.

HR/SR mixes between harmonic distortion only and harmonics


plus shaped signal. If shaper is set to bypass then this
control mixes between harmonic distortion and the dry input
signal.

Filter Six filter types are available, selectable by the drop-down


menu in the top-left. Allpass 1 is a 1-pole allpass phase
shifter; Allpass 2 is a 1-pole allpass with feedback and delay,
and a more pronounced phase shifting effect; LP2 is a 2-pole
lowpass filter; LP4 is a 4- pole lowpass filter; HP2 is a 2-pole
Electronic Instruments Volume 2 Akkord

highpass filter and HP4 is a 4-pole highpass filter.

Cutoff determines the filter cutoff frequency, and Reso


determines the filter resonance. Ktr (key track) sets the
amount of influence of MIDI note on cutoff frequency.

The middle drop-down menu selects an envelope modulation


source, which corresponds to the Env depth knob. Similarly,
the lower menu selects an LFO modulation source, which
corresponds to the LFO depth knob.

Effects section

Phaser Center determines the phaser centre frequency; Depth


determines the amount of frequency modulation; and Rate
defines the frequency modulation rate.

The frequency modulation is conducted by 4 internal LFOs,


and the Phase knob determines the phase offset between
them.

FB defines the amount of feedback, and Flange enables


flanger mode (a small delay is applied to the feedback signal).

Mix crossfades between the input and the wet signals.

Chorus / Tremolo This section features a stereo chorus/tremolo effect, which


splits the input signal into high and low frequency bands and
then modulates them independently.

Centre sets the pitch at which low and high bands are divided,
and D Lo and D Hi set the delay time for the low and high
bands. Rate sets the modulation rate; Phase determines the
amount of phase offset between the internal LFOs; D Mod
controls the amount of delay time modulation; and A Mod
controls the amount of amplitude modulation.

Mix crossfades between the input and the wet signals.

Delay A stereo, tempo-synced delay unit with feedback-filter.

Del L and Del R set the delay time for the left and right
channels in 16th steps. Fb sets the amount of feedback.

The feedback path features both a high-pass and a low-pass


filter. The HP and LP knobs define the respective cutoff
frequencies.

Mix crossfades between the input signal and the wet, delayed
Electronic Instruments Volume 2 Akkord

signal.

EQ, O-Drive The Low and High knobs set the frequency of a pair of low
and high shelf EQ units, for which the Boost knobs determine
the amount of frequency attenuation/amplification
The Drive knob determines the amount of signal amplification
before a saturator unit.
Electronic Instruments Volume 2 Akkord

The Sequencer

The Akkord ensemble also features a powerful 8-pattern, 32-step, polyphonic chord sequencer.
As the sequencer is driven by the MIDI clock, please ensure that the play button is pressed on
the Reaktor toolbar.

The 8-patterns (labelled A to H) can be selected by clicking on the pattern selector at the top of
the main Sequencer section. Click once on the pattern selector to select a single pattern to
play/edit, or click and drag to select a range of patterns to loop.

Beneath the pattern selector lies the 32-step sequencer (the central display). Each of the 32
steps can store up to 32 notes. Click on any of the 32 steps to be able to edit with the note
editor (bottom display). In the note editor, you can either create chords by drawing individual
notes by hand, or by selecting a chord from the Chords list, enabling the chord generator (press
On), and then clicking on the root note in the editor.

The order of the 32 steps can also be rearranged. To move steps, click and drag in the 32-step
sequencer display (the middle display).

On the right hand side are Copy and Paste controls for both the 32-step sequencer (to allow
copying and pasting between patterns) and the note editor (to allow copying and pasting between
steps). Pressing the arrow buttons shift the notes up and down the keyboard on the selected
step.

The Octave transposes MIDI output, and the Gate knob determines the length of sustain for notes
th
(in 16 steps).

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