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TŒRN

Handbook — sound design: filters, envelopes, effects, synths.

Sound design

Each voice runs through the same chain: source → ADSR → filter → effects → mixer. This chapter walks each stage and the four filter pages where you control them.

The signal chain

Every voice — sample or synth — passes through the same stages:

Source ADSR envelope Multimode filter Bitcrusher Reverb send Pan / Gain Output

Synth voices (11, 13, 14) replace "Source" with oscillator banks (voice 11 also has a dedicated filter envelope). Rows 9, 10, and 12 are intentionally empty — no source stage. Sample voices 1–8 use SD-card audio as the source.

The four filter pages

Enter from the grid with the both-touch gesture, right pad first. (Left-first on sample voices opens the sample browser instead.) Each filter page is a vertical mixer strip split into four encoder columns. Turn an encoder to edit; short-press to assign that parameter as the fast-filter default (encoder 3 from draw mode will recall it). Encoder 2 long press is play/pause so you can audition without leaving the editor. Pages cycle with a tap on touch 2.

How each filter page is drawn: at rest the matrix shows four narrow vertical sliders with a single letter printed next to each one — that is all the space the grid has. The moment you start turning an encoder, the device replaces those tiny letters with the parameter's full 4-letter name spelled out across the lower rows, in the colour of the parameter you are changing. Release the encoder and it falls back to the resting letters.

Page 0 — sample lane: PAN · FREQ · RVRB · BITC

At rest

Sliders + single-letter tags: P · F · R · B.

Encoder turning

Full name printed: here FREQ is being changed.

LetterFull nameWhat it doesRange
PPANStereo placement of the voice in the mix.−16 … +16 (centre = 0)
FFREQMultimode filter cutoff — brightness of the voice.0 – 10 kHz
RRVRBSend level into the shared reverb bus.0–32 (0 = dry). Not on voices 3, 4, 13, or 14.
BBITCBitcrusher depth + sample-rate reduction (combined macro).0 = bypass, 1–32 increases crush
RVRB availability: the reverb send appears on sample voices 1, 2, 5–8 and synth voice 11. Voices 3 and 4 show a dim, inactive slider — no send path. Voices 13 and 14 use CENT (coarse pitch) in the third column on page 0 instead of RVRB.

Page 1 — synth voices: CHRS · RESO · FLNG

At rest

Letters C · R · F — column 4 is empty on this page.

Encoder turning

Full name RESO while encoder 2 is being moved.

LetterFull nameWhat it doesRange
CCHRSChorus depth — adds a detuned doubled copy of the voice.0–32
RRESOFilter resonance peak around the cutoff frequency.0.7 – 5.0 (numeric value in firmware)
FFLNGFlanger amount — short modulated delay.0–32

Page 2 — WAVE · INST · CTOF · SHAP

At rest

Letters W · I · C · S.

Encoder turning

Full name INST while encoder 2 is being moved.

LetterFull nameWhat it doesRange
WWAVEOscillator waveshape.Sine · Sawtooth · Square · Triangle · Pulse
IINSTInstrument archetype for synth voice 11.BASS · KEYS · CHPT · PAD · WOW · ORG · FLT · LEAD · ARP · BRSS
CCTOFCoarse pitch / cutoff trim depending on voice type.Voice-specific (semitones or filter offset)
SSHAPPulse width / wavefolder amount where the waveshape allows it.0–32

Page 3 — ADSR: ATCK · DECY · SUST · RELS

At rest

Letters A · D · S · R — attack, decay, sustain, release.

Encoder turning

Full name SUST while encoder 3 is being moved.

A D S (hold) R peak sustain level

Attack — time from trigger to peak. Decay — time from peak to the sustain plateau. Sustain — held level while the note remains on. Release — fall after note-off. Each parameter is 0–32 on the encoder; the firmware maps it to milliseconds (A / D / R) or 0–1.0 (S).

Tip: tweak release last. Long release smears notes into the next step; pair short release with high sustain for staccato drums.

ADSR in detail

All voices share the same envelope generator. Channel 11 (poly synth) additionally has a filter envelope with its own A/D/S/R that modulates the filter cutoff — same encoder layout, different page nest. Reach it through filter page 1 on voice 11 (the third filter row swaps in for filter-ADSR when applicable).

  • Attack 0 = instant click. Use for percussive material.
  • Decay 0 + Sustain max = organ-style hold. Use for pads.
  • Release 0 = note shuts immediately at the next step. Use to tighten busy grooves.

Per-voice effects

Three blocks live after the filter:

BlockControlsRange
BitcrusherBit depth + sample-rate reduction with loudness compensation.1–16 bits; 1000–44117 Hz
ReverbRoom size, damping (bright→dark), wet/dry blend.Room 0.0–0.79; Damp 0.01–0.8
Filter (multimode)LP / HP / BP with cutoff and resonance.0–10 kHz; Q 0.7–5.0

The reverb is a global shared bus. Only voices with an active RVRB control can send into it (see filter page 0 above). Balance wet against dry by mixing send amounts on the lanes that support it.

Fast filter (encoder 3 from the grid)

From draw or single mode, turning encoder 3 twists the parameter chosen as the fast-filter default for the current channel. That choice is set in the filter editor: short-press a column to mark it as that voice's macro. The next time you spin encoder 3 from the grid, you are sweeping that control.

Most players assign FREQ as the default for sample lanes and CUT for synth lanes. Lanes can each have their own choice — the firmware remembers per channel.

The synth voices in detail

Voice 11 — 3-voice polyphonic synth

Three oscillators per voice, three voices of polyphony, ten instrument presets in a single ROM-style table (BASS · KEYS · CHPT · PAD · WOW · ORG · FLT · LEAD · ARP · BRSS). Each preset bundles a waveshape recipe, envelope curve, and filter envelope amount. Independent ADSR per voice, independent filter envelope per voice, per-voice pan, gain, waveform, fine pitch (cents), and coarse pitch (semitones).

Voices 13 & 14 — 2-oscillator mono synths

Two oscillators each, full ADSR. Filter page 0 swaps RVRB for CENT (coarse pitch) in the third column — there is no reverb send on these lanes. They add two performance modulators:

  • LFO — rate 0–2 Hz, depth 0–100%, applied to filter frequency for that voice.
  • Arpeggiator — step 0–12 semitones, span 2–16 steps, ping-pong pattern. Independent per channel.

Waveforms include sine, sawtooth, square, and triangle. These channels are great for basslines and lead lines where polyphony is unnecessary.

Voices 9, 10, 12 — empty rows

These matrix rows are reserved but intentionally carry no voice. The cursor can visit them, but placing notes or opening filters has no effect — there is no audio path. See The matrix → voice lanes.

Per-voice tuning

  • Global transpose — semitone offset added to the synth pitch path. Currently a code-level hook (initialised to 0); no menu page exposes it.
  • Channel detune — −12 to +12 semitones, per channel.
  • Channel octave — −3 to +3 octaves, per channel.
  • Synth-11 fine tune — −50 to +50 cents per voice.
  • Synth-11 semitone offset — −2 to +2 per voice.

These add together. Big-picture tuning lives in detune + octave; subtle character lives in cents + semitone offset.

Resetting a voice

From the filter editor of any channel, encoder 4 long press resets envelopes, filters, and synth data for that channel only. Note data in the grid stays intact — only the tone snaps back to factory curves. To reset the whole project's sound layer (every voice), use ETC → RSET → EFX; that one is destructive across the board.

EFX reset is global. Patterns and sample assignments survive, but every filter, envelope, synth, and octave helper goes to defaults across all 16 channels.