Unison and the Chords engine
Stack the voices into one fat note with Unison, or play a whole chord from one key with the Chords engine.
There are three ways to get more than one note from a key. Paraphonic plays different notes on four voices. Unison stacks the voices on one note, slightly detuned, for a thick sound. The Chords engine builds a chord from every key you press. Unison and Chords both work from a single finger.
- What Unison does and how it differs from paraphonic mode
- How to switch it on and off
- How the Chords engine builds a chord from one key
- How to store your own chord in Chord mode
The steps5 steps
- Switch on Unison: hold Shift and press Paraphonic. The Paraphonic button blinks.
Stuck?
Latch Shift by tapping it, then press Paraphonic.
- Play single notes. Several voices play the same note, a little apart in pitch, so one key sounds like a big stack.
Stuck?
Play three notes, one at a time.
- Switch it off again with Shift + Paraphonic.
Stuck?
Shift, then Paraphonic.
- This sound uses the Chords engine. Hold a key and turn Wave: it picks the chord, from an octave and a fifth through minor and major sevenths and ninths.
Stuck?
Hold a key, then turn Wave through its range.
- Play different keys. The last key you play is the root, the note the chord is built on, and the chord shape follows it.
Stuck?
Play three different keys.
Unison is Shift + Paraphonic, with the spread as a setting. Chords is an oscillator type whose Wave knob picks the chord. On a real unit, Chord mode can also store a chord of your own; see the notes below.
On the real MicroFreak
Shift + Paraphonic turns Unison on and makes the Paraphonic button blink; on a real unit a plain press of Paraphonic switches it off. Keep Paraphonic held (you can release Shift) and turn the Preset knob to set the spread, from 0.001 up to 12.000, where 12 is an octave. Unison Count is 2 to 4 voices, 4 by default; with 3, one voice stays free for the keyboard. Spread can be an Assign destination (hold Assign and push Paraphonic).
For Chord mode, press Paraphonic so it blinks, hold Paraphonic and play a chord, lift your fingers and release Paraphonic: it stays on and blinks slowly, and every key now plays that chord shape from its own note, fitted to the current scale. Press Paraphonic again to leave. The Chords engine's Wave knob picks Octave, 5th, sus4, minor, minor 7, minor 9, minor 11, 6th and 9th added, major 9, major 7 and major; Timbre sets inversion and range; Waveform sweeps from string-machine-like waves to a wavetable. The Chords engine switches paraphony off, and the last key you play is the root.
Where the model differs
The model has Unison on and off, with spread in the Utility menu (Utility > Preset > Voice). It does not model Chord mode.
Questions1
What is the difference between Unison and Paraphonic?
Paraphonic plays up to four different notes. Unison plays one note on several voices, spread slightly in pitch.