| rdfs:comment
| - Unlike most other attempts at fully polyphonic synths of the 1970s, the PS-3100 was not paraphonic; each note had a voice consisting of its own signal source, voltage controlled filter, voltage controlled amplifier, and envelope generator. The main compromise was in the signal sources. The synth had a bank of 12 voltage controlled oscillators, each set up to play a specific note of the equal tempered chromatic scale -- the first VCO played C, the second one C#, the third one D, and so on. These 12 VCOs were connected to the 12 keys of the top octave on the keyboard; top-octave division was used to produce the notes of the lower octaves. (This led to the keyboard having an unusual span of F to E; it was necessary for the number of notes to be a multiple of 12; hence, the typical "extra" top
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| abstract
| - Unlike most other attempts at fully polyphonic synths of the 1970s, the PS-3100 was not paraphonic; each note had a voice consisting of its own signal source, voltage controlled filter, voltage controlled amplifier, and envelope generator. The main compromise was in the signal sources. The synth had a bank of 12 voltage controlled oscillators, each set up to play a specific note of the equal tempered chromatic scale -- the first VCO played C, the second one C#, the third one D, and so on. These 12 VCOs were connected to the 12 keys of the top octave on the keyboard; top-octave division was used to produce the notes of the lower octaves. (This led to the keyboard having an unusual span of F to E; it was necessary for the number of notes to be a multiple of 12; hence, the typical "extra" top note of the keyboard had to be omitted.) A unique feature was the set of 12 trim controls for the VCOs, one for each note; among other things, this allowed the user to execute alternate tunings. In addition to the 48 voice circuits, the synth provided several additional processing blocks which came after the mixer which combined the 48 voices. An "ensemble" circuit, essentially a chorus effect, could be used to give the sound (which could be rather static due to the top-octave division architecture) more of a sense of space. The "resonator" was a bank of three bandpass VCFs with fixed resonance, but coupled together so that the cutoff frequencies of all three could be swept with a single control voltage. Two low frequency oscillators and a "general envelope" were available as control voltage sources; one of the LFOs, which was capable of running into the audio range, could also be used as a modulation source for a built-in amplitude modulation unit, which allowed the user to dial in any amount of modulation up to full ring modulation. With respect to the control signals, the synth was semi-modular. Patch jacks built into the panel allowed the user to use patch cords to route control signals, in addition to a few hard-wired or switchable routings. A few inputs jacks conveyed control signals to the voice circuits; in this case, the control effected all voices equally. An oddity was that the keyboard's pitch wheel had no normalled connection; in order for it to serve its conventional function, the user had to patch its output to the VCO frequency input.
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