PENUMBRA

1.2 · a space-drone instrument for the M-VAVE FM-1 · cheat sheet
The FM-1's panel, labelled for Penumbra MASTER is volume. SELECT morphs on HOME. PRESETS moves scene. ALGORITHM sets the tempo. Knobs 1 to 4 on HOME are DRONE, VOX, SPACE and TONE. OCT minus and plus move the white keys' octave. Buttons: FX the FX page, held for throws; SEL chooses; ENV SHAPE; LFO JOURNEY; EDIT SCENE; GLO SYSTEM; HOME; SAVE, which keeps a hold; ARP freezes; SEQ starts the clock; PLAY plays or stops the loop; REC records it. Black keys 1 to 5 are the drone voices, 6 the kick, 7 BLOOM, 8 to 11 VOX's sounds GLASS, REED, HALO and LOW. The white keys play VOX in the scene's key. MASTER volume SELECT HOME: MORPHpages: the row PRESETS scene ‹ ›glides 12 s ALGORITHM tempoSHAPE: level · holds: extra OCT− OCT+ white keys' octave, ±2 ENV held: keep A / B · both 5 s: update HOME a bead per drone voice SCENE · KEY · LOOP DRONE VOX SPACE TONE any page goes back to HOME after 30 s on HOME · in a hold, what the hold plays KNOB 1DRONE KNOB 2VOX KNOB 3SPACE KNOB 4TONE Hold any button a moment: the screen says what it does. white keys: VOX, always in the scene's key · held: bend

The holds: hold one, the knobs play it

HoldK1K2K3K4Also
Drone b1–5LEVELTONEDETUNEOCTAVEALGO: HELD/SWELL
VOX sound b8–11BRIGHTWAVEFILTERRELEASE
BLOOM b7LEVELLENGTHHEIGHTFIFTH
FXSHIMMERFEEDBACKFREEZEDIP ±ALGO: WARP
White keyBRIGHTVIBRATOSHIMMERRELEASEALGO: PITCH
ENV (A/B)OCT− keeps the sound as A · OCT+ as B · SELECT blends A ↔ B, gliding

Key holds stay as set, and ENV then opens that part's page. Throws and bends ease back when you let go; SAVE while holding keeps them. DIP: left low-pass, right high-pass.

SHAPE (ENV): four knobs a page · ALGO the part's level

PageK1K2K3K4
DRONEFILTERBODYSWARMWAVE
DRONE 2RATESWEEPWIDTHDRIFT
VOXBRIGHTATTACKRELEASESHIMMER
VOX 2WAVEFILTERRESOGLIDE
VOX 3DETUNEB OCTB MIXENV
PULSEDROPDECAYCLICKSPACE
TEXTURECOLOURSWEEPRATEWIDTH
TIDESRATEDRONESPACEVOX
PANDRONEVOXPULSETEXTURE

ENV again or SELECT: the next page. SEL twice: the page back as made. TIDES: one slow swell under it all (ALGO: even .. wandering). PAN: each part's place (ALGO: RATE, the tide or 60 s .. 0.5 s). PAN 2: how far each sways (ALGO: OFFSET, in sync .. mirrored).

The looper: VOX, kick and BLOOM, on the clock

RECrecord · again: close the loop
REC while it playsoverdub a layer · again: keep it
PLAYstop the loop, or play it from its start
PLAY held, let goundo the last layer
PLAY held + ALGO½ speed · as played · 2×
REC + PLAYclear the loop

Up to 16 bars, 8 layers. It follows the scene's key, and is saved with the journey.

Moving through it

  • SEQ starts and stops the clock; the drone swells in and fades out with it.
  • PRESETS: the next scene. Drone notes move one voice at a time.
  • SELECT on HOME: MORPH by hand; halfway, the key changes.
  • ARP: FREEZE what you hold; again to let it ring out.
  • Black 6 the kick, black 7 BLOOM, 8–11 GLASS · REED · HALO · LOW.

Pages

FXREVERB: DECAY SIZE SHIMMER TONE · REVERB 2: MOTION LOW CUT INTERVAL LEVEL · DELAY: TIME FEEDBACK TONE WEAR · DELAY 2: LEVEL LOW CUT PING-PONG WARP
EDITSCENE: SELECT field, K1 scene, K2–K4 value; ROOM, HALO its space · SEL stores
LFOJOURNEY: 6 presets, 8 user slots · SEL opens · SAVE stores · again: SOUNDS, 8 sounds without scenes (SAVE stores the sound, SEL glides it in)
GLOSYSTEM: clock, MIDI, bend range, SLEEP, RESET SOUND · again: BENCH
HOMEthe corona, the scene, the loop, the macros

Good to know

  • It saves itself once the sound rests; SAVE saves now.
  • A dot in the header: not saved yet.
  • SLEEP (SYSTEM): everything lets go over 20–90 min.
  • MIDI (channel 1): VOX's notes, clock and song position, CCs and program changes both ways; the black keys on channel 2 (the manual's MIDI section).
  • Leave space: the silence is part of it.