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Monday, September 15th, 2025 02:42 pm

Synth Glossary

Aftertouch:
A means of generating a control signal based on how much pressure is applied to the keys of a MIDI keyboard. Most instruments that support this do not have independent pressure sensing for all keys, but rather detect the overall pressure by means of a sensing strip running beneath the keys. Aftertouch may be used to control such functions as vibrato depth, filter brightness, loudness and so on....

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Matrix-6
This synthesizer was based on the popular Matrix line. The Matrix-6 is basically a stripped down Xpander with a 5-octave, 31-note (C-C) keyboard, which features on and off velocity, as well as channel aftertouch. It features 6-note polyphony and pitch and modulation levers (not wheels) to the left of the keyboard. Each voice has two DCOs (as opposed to the Xpander's VCO), a VCF, three envelope generators (5 stage: Delay, Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release), two ramp generators (simple envelopes), tracking (not just for the keyboard but for remapping any modulation source), portamento and FM controls, three LFOs, and two VCAs. Along with other "Matrix" products from Oberheim, the Matrix-6 features what Oberheim called, "Matix Modulation System", which makes for very flexible and powerful modulation programming. With this much programmability it is unfortunate that the only user interface is a single slider and a keypad.

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