Tuesday, June 17th, 2025 02:30 am

Synth Glossary

Arpeggiator:: Many synths can only play one note at a time (they are monophonic). With the arpeggiator on, if more than one note is pressed at a time, the synth will alternate between the notes. They also often have a range control that allows the user to tell the ynth to play additional octaves - so if the range is set to two octaves the synth will play the keys that are held down in the octave that they are played and then in the next octave up/down....

The analog Matrix 1000 is essentially 1,000 Matrix 6 patches in a single-space compact rackmount module. It has the same synth architecture as the Matrix 6. Each of it's 6 voices gets it's own DCO (digtally controlled analog oscillator), a low pass filter, 2 VCA's, 3 envelope gens, 2 LFO's, and 2 ramp gens. The sounds are plentiful and good enough, however if you want to edit your own, you'll need a Matrix 6 or Matrix 6R to externally edit parameters. You can also load sounds from the Matrix 6 via SysEx or software.

The Matrix 1000 provides an excellent source of pads, textures and ambient sounds. It has 195 "keyboard" sounds, 118 "strings", 130 "woodwinds & perc", 239 "synthesizer", 119 "bass", 74 "lead" and 125 "effects". For the price, there is no better way to find genuine analog Oberheim Matrix sounds in a compact and very in-expensive rack module that is loaded with more sounds than you'll ever need! The older versions of the Matrix 1000 have a black front-panel. The newer models in the '90's have a cream face-plate.