Roland Overview of the V-Synth, How the V-Synth Is Organized, Basic Structure, Polyphony

Overview of the V-Synth

How the V-Synth Is Organized

Basic Structure

Broadly speaking, the V-Synth consists of a controller section and a

sound generator section.

fig.01-01.e

Sound

Generator

Section

Play

Controller Section (controllers such as keyboard, pitch bend lever, etc.)

The right side of the V-Synth’s front panel is where the controls for the Sound Generator section are located. The controls on the left side are mainly those of the Controller section.

Sound Generator Section

The sounds you play on the V-Synth are called patches. Each patch consists of a structure (an arrangement of its six sections), zones (which allow for sixteen individual setups for sixteen key ranges), and three effects.

fig.01-02.e

Zone 16	Patch
Zone 15

Zone 2

Zone 1

Section name	Function
OSC1, OSC2	This section generates the sound on which
	a patch is based. The sound is produced ei-
	ther by built-in preset waves or sampled
	waves, or by calculating an analog model-
	ing waveform. An external audio input
	source can also be used.
MOD	This section mixes and modulates the two
	audio signals.
COSM1, COSM2	This section applies a wide variety of pro-
	cessing including filtering. This differs
	from the effects in that effects are applied to
	the final mix of the sound, COSM is applied
	to each individual note.
TVA	This section creates time-variant changes in
	volume, and sets the pan position.

Effects	function
MFX	The multi-effects are multi-purpose effects
	that can completely change the nature of
	the patch’s sound. There are 41 different ef-
	fects types; select and use the type that suits
	your aims.
CHORUS	Applies a chorus effect to give the sound
	depth and spaciousness.
REVERB	Applies a reverb effect to add ambience to
	the sound.

Controller Section

The controller section consists of the keyboard, pitch bend/ modulation lever, time trip pad, D Beam controller, C1/C2 knobs, arpeggiator, and pedals connected to the rear panel. When you manipulate these controllers, they send performance data to the sound generator section, causing the V-Synth to create sound.

Polyphony

The maximum polyphony of the V-Synth depends on the OSC and COSM types used by the patch.

Changing the effect type or switching effects on/off does not affect the available polyphony.

About Multitimbral Performance

The V-Synth allows up to 16-part multitimbral operation, and can be played multitimbrally by performance data sent from an external device. You can use the V-Synth to play the sounds of a song you created on your sequencer, or as part of an ensemble. From the keyboard you can play only the patch that is assigned to part 1. The PATCH Information window shows you the patch that is assigned to each part (p. 98).

A sound module that allows you to control multiple sounds independently in this way is called a multitimbral sound module.

16