Yoshimi User Manual ~ PadSynth

## PadSynth

The PadSynth engine was designed by Paul Nasca and to the best of our knowledge there is no comparable type generally available. It uses a waveform oscillator that is virtually identical to the one used by AddSynth. Some complex mathematics is then applied to manipulate the overall spectrum. Finally this is converted to a set of fixed perfectly looping wavetables. As a result none of these harmonics controls are real-time. Also, it is the wavetables that are called for actual sound generation after passing through the usual envelope controls (which are real-time).
There are two tabbed views in a single window. You will normally be shown the harmonic structure, the envelopes one (as it's name suggests) consisting mostly of envelope and LFO inserts.

### Harmonic Structure

(left side)
The way some of these controls operate is rather obscure. While making dramatic changes to the visual aspect of the harmonic profile, the effect on the sound is often quite subtle. Unfortunately, it is difficult to describe their operation without deep understanding of the mathematics involved.
Base Type Base shape of the harmonic: Gauss, Square or Double Explonential.
Width (spread) of one harmonic.
FreqMlt Multiplier for base harmonics.
Str Stretch of the harmonic profile.
SFreq Stretch frequency.
Size Size of the base harmonic.
Profile (harmonic): Full, Upper, Lower.
AmpMultiplier Amplitude multiplier type: Gauss, Sine or Flat.
AmpMode Amplitude mode: Sum, Multiply, Div1, Div2.
Par1 The spectral width of the multiplier (depends on mode selected).
Par2 The amplitude of the multiplier (depends on mode selected).
AutoScale We don't currently have information about this control.
(right side)
base The note value for the central harmonic sample.
smp/oct The number of samples used in each octave.
no.oct The number of octaves of samples independently generated.
Sample Size Size of the sample.
There is a button to give access to an overall Resonance that can be applied to the engine. Below this is a Waveform button which gives access to a highly detailed waveshape editor.

(bottom)

Bandwidth Bandwidth in cents. The higher the bandwidth the wider the harmonic spectrum.
Bandwidth Scale We don't currently have information about this control.
Spectrum Mode We don't currently have information about this control.
Overtones Position This sets the type of overtone variation. For Harmonic there is no control, so the other parameters are inactive. Similarly Par 2 does nothing for Shift so is disabled for that variation.
Par 1 spreads the harmonics according to the 'position' type.
Par 2 provides a further variation on the harmonics spread.
ForceH This moves the shifted harmonics by a variable amount towards to the nearest actual multiple of the fundamental.
Note
If any of the above controls are altered it will be necessary to click on the Apply button (which will have turned red) as the wavetable has to be rebuilt.
Also, be aware that with a very big sample size and/or octave range and samples/octave this could take many seconds to complete.

### Envelopes and LFOs

Once again we have all the standard inserts. There are also the same local controls found in AddSynth and SubSynth. None of these affect the wavetable itself, so there is no need for the apply button here.

The Export button that appears at the bottom of both of these views takes you to a filer window for exporting a complete wavetable with the total number of samples you have currently set. These don't include any changes in the sound produced by controls in the envelopes window.

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