hover anything for the why
Bass · 100 bpmThe synth as sections in signal order, the way the paper draws it, each judged for the part it plays.
Level
Play runs the part round two bars at 100 bpm in A minor. Hold: raw plays the source mixer raw while you hold it, with the filter open, the envelope a switch and the LFO off, so you hear what the rest of the panel takes away. The space bar plays and stops.
LFOoff
off · a control signal
A low frequency oscillator is a wave too slow to hear, pointed at a parameter: the pitch for vibrato, the level for tremolo, the cutoff for a wobble. Rate is its speed, depth how far it moves the target; the wave is its shape. It also moves the pulse width when the VCO says PW by LFO. The 2024 report: candidates "mistakenly thought that the LFO was something audible rather than a control signal".
VCOA1 · 55.0 Hz
at the part's own octave
One oscillator, the paper's VCO. Range is its octave in organ feet, 8' the part's own, the setting the papers mark (the 2023 report: one octave too high). Detune spreads a second VCO a few cents from this one; past 30 it is out of tune. Width narrows the pulse from a square, and PW by LFO lets the LFO move it: the pulse-width modulation the 2019 and 2024 reports say very few candidates recognised.
Source mixer2 on
saw + sub → the filter
What goes into the filter, mixed rather than chosen: the VCO's pulse and its second wave, a square sub-oscillator an octave or two down (the More row sets which), and white noise. The second wave's name is a switch: press it for Saw, Tri or Sine, the spec's "selecting and mixing sine, triangle, pulse, square and saw". A saw has every harmonic, a square the odd ones, a narrow pulse the even ones too, a triangle faint odd ones, a sine one alone; noise is every frequency and no pitch. The 2024 report: "Candidates were often successful in discussing the sub-oscillator".
VCF600 Hz
warm · env lifts 1.6 oct
Low-pass keeps what is below the cutoff, so lower is darker; high-pass keeps what is above; band-pass keeps a band. Resonance is a peak at the cutoff. Env routes the envelope to the cutoff, so each note opens bright and closes: the routing the 2019 report says only the top candidates noticed.
VCA
obeys the env
The amplifier. On Env it obeys the envelope, so the note has its shape. On Gate it obeys the key alone: full while the key is down, nothing after, the envelope disabled. The 2019 report found candidates confusing "the VCA gate (disabling the envelope) with a noise gate designed to cut out background noise".
ENVheld
on the amplifier and the cutoff
Attack, decay and release are times; sustain is a level. A bass wants a fast attack and a short release, a pad a slow attack and a long release; the 2024 report's most common AO4 mark was the fast attack and release. The 2020 report: only the best candidates noticed the release was very short.
Hear
A1 · 55.0 Hzhome note
saw + subinto the filter
warmthe filter
heldthe envelope
no stemthe paper's check
Every word here comes from the panel: the home note from the part and the range, the sources from the mixer, the brightness from the filter and its cutoff, the shape from the envelope or the gate, and whether the patch matches the question the preset set.