The Output is the last node on the canvas. Every sound ends there, and it decides two things: how loud the whole patch is, and how many notes it plays at once.
Level, meters and the limiter
- Open the Output’s popup for its meters on a dB scale, the Level fader, the true peak and RMS readouts, and how much the limiter is taking off. The meters are solid up to the RMS level and paler up to the peak.
- A look-ahead limiter at −1 dB with a soft clip catches peaks at the end of the chain, so a loud patch does not distort. Keep the meters out of the red anyway: the limiter is a safety net, and a patch that leans on it all the time sounds squashed.
- If a sound ever goes numerically wrong, the Output goes silent for that moment instead of jumping to full volume.
- In a host, the Output’s level is the Master parameter, so it can be automated.
- The popup also shows the CPU load, the voices in use and the latency Helin reports to the host (1.5 ms).
Voices
Every key you play gets a voice: its own copy of the sources, filters, amps and envelopes, so each note has its own filter sweep and its own fade. The voices then mix together before the effects. (Cables and modulation shows which nodes run per note.)
- Voices on the Output sets how many notes the patch plays at once, from 1 to 16. Double-tap it for 8.
- One voice makes the patch mono. A key played over a held one changes the pitch without restarting the envelope, and letting go slides back to the key you are still holding, like a mono synth.
- Bass has Legato and Pluck: Legato plays one voice that slides between held keys, Pluck gives every note its own voice. If Legato left a patch at one voice, raise Voices on the Output to play chords again.
- Unison is different: it stacks up to seven detuned copies of one source inside each voice, for width and thickness. Four keys with Unison at 3 is four voices, twelve oscillators.
- Hold and the sustain pedal keep voices sounding after you let go of the keys.
Next: Effects