Korg monologue

Appendix: Music terms

A plain-English glossary of the terms used in this course and in synth circles generally. Where a term has a specific meaning on the monologue, it says so.

Sound and synthesis

Term	Meaning
Analogue	Sound made by electronic circuits rather than calculated by software. The monologue’s oscillators, filter and amplifier are analogue circuits.
Subtractive synthesis	Starting with a harmonically rich tone (saw, square) and removing frequencies with a filter. The method the monologue uses.
Monophonic	One note at a time. The monologue plays a single note even if you hold two keys.
Polyphonic	Several notes at once, as on a piano. The monologue is not polyphonic.
Oscillator (VCO)	The part that makes the raw tone. VCO stands for voltage controlled oscillator. The monologue has two.
Waveform	The shape of the oscillator’s signal, which sets its character. Saw is bright and buzzy, triangle is soft, square is hollow.
Saw (sawtooth)	A bright, buzzy waveform rich in harmonics. The classic starting point for basses and leads.
Square	A hollow, woody waveform. Changing its duty cycle changes the tone.
Triangle	A soft, rounded waveform with few harmonics.
Noise	Random hiss with no pitch. Used for percussion, wind and breath sounds. VCO 2 can produce it.
Harmonics	The extra frequencies stacked above the main pitch that give a sound its colour.
Timbre	The tone colour of a sound, what makes a saw wave sound different from a triangle at the same pitch.
Duty cycle / pulse width	The proportion of each cycle a square wave spends “high”. Changing it makes the tone thinner or hollower.
Filter (VCF)	Removes part of the sound’s frequency range. The monologue has a low-pass filter.
Low-pass filter	Lets low frequencies through and cuts the highs. Lowering the cutoff makes the sound darker.
Cutoff	The frequency where the filter starts cutting. The most-turned knob on any synth.
Resonance	A boost at the cutoff frequency that makes the filter sound pointed or squelchy. Also called emphasis or Q.
Self-oscillation	When resonance is so high the filter starts producing a tone of its own.
Drive	Distortion that adds harmonics and grit. A DRIVE knob sits near the output.
Amplifier (VCA)	Controls how loud the sound is. The envelope usually shapes it so notes start and stop smoothly.
Envelope (EG)	A shape that changes over the life of a note, controlling volume and optionally pitch or filter cutoff.
Attack	How long a note takes to reach full level after a key is pressed.
Decay	How long it takes to fall away after the peak (or, in A/G/D mode, after the key is released).
Sustain	The level held while a key stays down. The monologue’s A/G/D type holds at full level.
Release	How long a note takes to fade after the key is released.
Pluck	A short, quickly fading sound, made with a fast decay and the envelope closing the filter.
LFO	Low frequency oscillator. A slow wave that wobbles another setting automatically, rather than making sound itself.
Modulation	One signal changing another. An LFO or envelope moving pitch, cutoff or shape is modulation.
Vibrato	A gentle repeating pitch wobble, from an LFO on pitch.
Wah / filter sweep	The cutoff moving up and down, from an LFO or envelope on cutoff.
Wobble bass	A bass whose cutoff is moved by a tempo-synced LFO, common in dubstep and drum and bass.
Hz (hertz)	Cycles per second, the unit of frequency. Higher Hz means higher pitch or a faster LFO.
Sync (oscillator sync)	VCO 1 restarts VCO 2 every cycle, forcing it to follow VCO 1’s pitch and giving a tearing, harmonic sound when VCO 2’s pitch is swept.
Ring modulation	Combines two oscillators to produce the sum and difference of their frequencies, giving bell-like, metallic or clangy tones.
Detune	Setting two oscillators slightly apart in pitch so they beat against each other, which thickens the sound.
Audio rate	A modulation speed fast enough to be heard as a tone. A fast LFO at audio rate gives growling, metallic sounds (FM-style).
Patch / program	A saved sound, made of all the knob and switch settings. Korg calls them programs.

Pitch and notes

Term	Meaning
Note	A single sound at a particular pitch, named A to G with sharps or flats.
Pitch	How high or low a sound is.
Octave	The distance between a note and the next note of the same name, double the frequency. The monologue’s OCTAVE switch shifts the keyboard by whole octaves.
Semitone	The smallest step on a keyboard, from one key to the very next, black or white. Twelve make an octave.
Cent	One hundredth of a semitone. Used for fine tuning and detune amounts.
Interval	The distance between two notes, such as a fifth (seven semitones). Setting VCO 2 an interval above VCO 1 creates a harmony.
Fifth	An interval of seven semitones. Two oscillators a fifth apart sound strong and open.
Scale	A set of notes that sound good together, such as major or minor.
Root note	The home note of a scale or bassline.
Transpose	Moving everything up or down in pitch by the same amount.
Footage (16’, 8’, 4’, 2’)	Organ-style pitch names borrowed by synths. 8’ is normal pitch, 16’ is an octave lower, 4’ an octave higher. VCO 2’s OCTAVE switch uses them.
Portamento / glide	A smooth slide from one note to the next instead of a jump.
Slide	The monologue’s per-step version of glide in the sequencer: a step marked as sliding glides into the next.
Legato	Playing notes smoothly joined, with the next key pressed before the last is released.
Staccato	Short, detached notes.
Microtuning	Changing the tuning so notes fall between the usual twelve per octave, or follow a different scale. The monologue has several microtuning options.
Bass	The lowest part of the music. A synth bass is usually a saw or square wave through a low filter.
Lead	A synth sound that plays the melody, usually bright and cutting.
Drone	A long held note, often under other sounds.

Rhythm and sequencing

Term	Meaning
Sequencer	A recorder that stores a pattern of notes and plays it back in a loop. The monologue stores one sequence of up to 16 steps in each program.
Step	One slot in the sequence. The monologue has up to 16, one per button.
Step recording	Entering notes one step at a time while the sequence is stopped.
Real-time recording	Playing notes in while the sequence runs.
Rest	A step with silence. Entered with the REST button.
Tie	A note that carries on across the next step instead of restarting.
Gate time	How long a note is held within its step. A short gate time sounds staccato.
Active step	A step that plays. A step can be switched off without deleting it.
Motion sequence	Recorded knob movements, such as a cutoff sweep, that replay with the sequence.
BPM	Beats per minute, the measure of tempo.
Tempo	The speed of the music.
Bar	One cycle of the beat count. In 4/4, a bar is “1, 2, 3, 4”. With 1/16 steps, 16 steps make one bar.
4/4	The most common time signature: four beats per bar.
Sixteenth note	A quarter of a beat. At the monologue’s default step resolution, each step is a sixteenth note.
Swing	Delaying every second note slightly so the rhythm lilts. The monologue has a Swing setting in SEQ EDIT.
Quantise	Snapping notes to the nearest step on the grid.
Groove	The overall feel of a pattern; how it makes you want to move.
Loop	A section that repeats continuously.
Arpeggio	The notes of a chord played one after another. A short repeating sequence can imitate one.
Riff	A short repeated musical phrase, often a bassline or lead line.
Acid bassline	A squelchy, resonant bass with slides and a moving cutoff, named after the Roland TB-303 and heard in acid house.

Connecting and syncing

Term	Meaning
MIDI	A standard language for sending notes and controller moves between instruments and computers.
MIDI channel	One of 16 separate lanes in a MIDI connection, so several devices can share a cable.
Control change (CC)	A MIDI message that moves a control, such as a knob.
Program change	A MIDI message that selects a different program.
USB MIDI	MIDI sent over a USB cable, so the monologue can talk to a computer directly.
DAW	Digital audio workstation, recording software on a computer such as Ableton Live or Logic.
Sync	Making two machines run at the same tempo and start together. The monologue has SYNC in and out jacks for this.
Sync pulse	A short electrical pulse sent for every step, used to lock machines such as Volcas together.
Audio in	An input that lets you pass an outside sound through the monologue’s filter and drive.
Line level	A standard signal strength for gear such as synths and mixers.
Mono output	One audio channel. The monologue has a single mono output.
Headphone out	A stereo socket for headphones.
Sound Librarian	Korg’s Mac and Windows software for backing up and organising programs on a computer.
Firmware	The software inside the instrument. Updating it can add features or fix bugs.