Manual Nomenclature

[UrbanCyborg]

There are a number of terms used in the manual that appear to be called something else in the actual interface, or are missing altogether. For instance, There are references to the Power knob. There's no such knob, but the functionality described seems to be that of the Shape knob. I guess it got called power in-house because the function is exponential/logarithmic waveshaping. Still, it's confusing.
Even more confusing are the references to the Freq and Ratio Buttons, which don't appear to actually exist on the synth. Any idea what's being referred to here?

Reid

[huggermugger]

There are a number of terms used in the manual that appear to be called something else in the actual interface, or are missing altogether. For instance, There are references to the Power knob. There's no such knob, but the functionality described seems to be that of the Shape knob. I guess it got called power in-house because the function is exponential/logarithmic waveshaping. Still, it's confusing.
Even more confusing are the references to the Freq and Ratio Buttons, which don't appear to actually exist on the synth. Any idea what's being referred to here?

Reid

I don't own Sines (yet ), but in the image from the store, I see Ratio and Freq dials for each oscillator.

[Steve W]

Freq and Ratio Buttons v. Freq and Ratio Knobs. Maybe the knobs are also off/on toggles or they click counterclockwise to an off setting like hardware? I don't have the instrument to test.

[UrbanCyborg]

No, they don't, and the manual says "Buttons," and goes on to say that you can set modes with them.

Reid

[Steve W]

No, they don't, and the manual says "Buttons," and goes on to say that you can set modes with them.

You mean like in this section?

Aaannnd it's 1983 all over again... we told you DX synthesis was easy! Now set the Freq/Ratio buttons for both oscillators to Ratio mode, and play around with both oscillators' large tuning knobs - a cavalcade of classic DX goodness awaits. If you find something you like, use the Utility button above the oscilloscope to copy Oscillator 1 to Oscillator 3, and Oscillator 2 to Oscillator 4, pan Oscillator 1 hard left and Oscillator 3 hard right, and dial in the Drift
knob (in the bottom right Master section) to taste. Instant stereo FM fwangery.

and

The important controls you'll want to play with are the big oscillator tuning knobs (notice that they're set to Ratio mode) ,

I searched the pdf for "mode" and didn't see any description of how to set an oscillator to Ratio Mode.

[UrbanCyborg]

Yeah, that was the reference. Maybe one of CA's people will ring in here.

Reid

[cherryaudio Greg]

Hi,

Yeah, looks like the manual needs to be updated to reference Shape instead of Power. We'll get that fixed.

In regard to "ratio mode," I'll get clarification on that. My first thought is that it could mean the ratio knobs are set to anything other than 1.

Greg

[cherryaudio Greg]

Hi,

Okay, in an earlier version of Sines, there actually was a button. We'll fix those references.

If the knob is set to 1, you're not using a ratio. If you tweak the knob to something else, you'd be in "ratio mode" for that oscillator.

Greg

[UrbanCyborg]

Thanks for the clarification.

Reid

[cherryMitch]

This is probably already explained above, but to be clear, I tend to write the manuals "as we go," because there are usually a lot of fires to put out at the end of dev. The idea is that I'm constantly updating as features change, but sometimes I miss stuff. In this case, we indeed changed the Power knob to Shape late in the game (we decided that "power" didn't tangibly express what was happening and that "shape" might be more descriptive).

And there indeed was a single freq knob plus a mode button to select between regular tuning and DX-style ratios (i.e., no Ratio knob). If I remember correctly (lotsa GX-80 brain overload since then), we realized this wasn't practical, because there was no way to do subtle detuning when set to ratio mode, so we made Freq and Ratio into separate knobs and ditched the mode button.

And then I forgot to update the manual. Sorry for the confusion, and thank you for bringing it to your attention, manual is all corrected now.