Summit may, of course, be used simply as a standalone synthesiser. However, there are many more possibilities, and how you choose to integrate it into your existing synth/recording setup will be determined by the other equipment you have and your own imagination!
Below are three examples illustrating how Summit could form part of a synth setup.
This setup does use not a DAW, and thus would be appropriate for live performance rather than recording. Here you could a MIDI controller - the Novation Summit - is used to trigger sounds in both Summit and another synth such as a Novation Summit via MIDI, and in a Eurorack via CV+GATE. An external modular LFO in the Eurorack could modulate one or more parameters in Summit via its CV IN connection. Both audio outputs of Summit, plus those of Summit and the Eurorack are all sent to the external mixer. You could also use Summit’s FX section in a send-and-return loop from the mixer to add delay or reverb, etc.
In the second example, a Summit in stand-alone mode is connected via MIDI to Summit. This would permit Summit to be triggered by the Summit, taking advantage of its polyphonic aftertouch capability. The MIDI data could also be routed through to the Eurorack, which again is providing an LFO output to Summit’s CV input. Note that audio signals have been omitted from the diagram to aid clarity. The computer is connected to Summit via USB.
In this example, the computer is the primary item. All the audio is summed in a Focusrite Clarett audio interface and sent to the computer’s DAW. The Clarett also enables other live instruments to be recorded in the DAW at the same time. As in Example 1, one of Summit’s two FX sections can be used to treat an external signal in a loop from a Line In and a Line Out of the Clarett. The USB connection from the Clarett to the computer is to allow Clarett configuration with Focusrite Control software.
The simplest and quickest way of finding out what Summit can do is to connect the rear panel main outputs – in either mono or stereo - to the input of a power amplifier, audio mixer, powered speaker or other means of monitoring the output.
If using Summit with other sound modules, connect MIDI THRU to the next sound module’s MIDI IN, and daisy-chain further modules in the usual way. By default, Summit transmits MIDI data on Channel 1: note that data for Part A and Part B are simultaneously transmitted separately on Channels 2 and 3 respectively. MIDI transmit/receive differs between Single Patch and Multi Patch modes: please see the table on MIDI operation in single and multi patch modes for more details.
With the amplifier or mixer off or muted, connect the AC mains to Summit . Turn the synth on
: after completing its boot sequence, Summit will load Single Patch 000*, and the LCD display will confirm this:
“Dystopian” is the name of the factory Single Patch in Bank A, memory location 000.
Turn on the mixer/amplifier/powered speakers, and turn up the Volume control until you have a healthy sound level from the speaker when you play.
*This refers to the first time Summit is powered “out of the box”. To save a new startup patch:
The patch you were on before pressing the Settings button will now be your startup patch.
Instead of a speaker and/or an audio mixer, you may wish to use a pair of headphones. These may be plugged into the rear panel headphone output socket. The main outputs are still active when headphones are plugged in. The Volume control also adjusts headphone level.
By default, the headphone output follows the main output, which – again by default – carries both Parts A and B of a Multi Patch. You can change what you hear in the headphones on Page A of the Settings menu.
Although most of the key parameters affecting the nature of the sound Summit generates are accessible through dedicated, “per-function” rotary controls and switches, many further parameters and synth settings can be modified using the OLED display and its associated controls.
The menu system has been designed so all parameters and settings can be accessed on a single menu “level” – there are no multi-level submenus to navigate.
Summit’s menu system has been designed to be as simple and consistent as possible. The buttons above the display, plus Settings and the two Patch buttons, select one of eleven menus. All menus except Patch have multiple pages: use the Page ◀ and ► buttons to scroll through the pages in sequence.
On each page, Row 1 is a “title” row and stays fixed. Rows 2, 3 and 4 each display a parameter for modification; some pages do not present data in all rows. Use the three buttons to the left of the display to select the row to edit: the active row is indicated by a ► symbol. The parameter value may be adjusted either by the rotary control or the Value +/- buttons.
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Synth section
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Page 4 of 8
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Parameter to be adjusted
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Current parameter value
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Row 3 is selected
Summit can be effectively two synthesisers in one. Each control on the panel and each menu function can affect the relevant parameter in either or both, depending on the mode in use.
When a Single Patch is in use, the two synthesisers operate “in tandem”: they are both operational but do exactly the same thing. When you move a control on the panel or adjust a parameter in a menu, you are making the same adjustment to both synths, by the same amount. Each synth has 8 voices, so you have 16 voices available in all. The MULTIPART CONTROL and MULTIMODE buttons ( to
) will be unlit.
When a Multi Patch is in use, the two synths operate independently. The Multi Patch will consist of two separate Single Patches, one – Part A – generated by one synth, the other – Part B – by the other. The ability to combine two different sounds gives you a greatly enlarged sound palette to work with, as every parameter in each Part may be adjusted independently, if wished.
When a Multi Patch is selected (or created), the MULTIPART CONTROL and MULTIMODE buttons become available, and their colour reflects Summit’s operational mode:
With Part A selected in MULTIPART CONTROL, Summit’s controls will affect only the synth generating Part A: similarly, with Part B selected, the controls affect the Part B synth. You can press buttons A and B together to invoke the third control state – Both. Now the control panel – knobs, buttons, sliders and menus - will affect both synths at the same time.
You can choose how to play Multi Patches with the three MULTIMODE buttons, though a factory Multi Patch will default to the Mode that the sound designer had in mind when they developed the Patch.
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In Layer Mode, you will hear parts A and B mixed together (initially 1:1, but the actual mix can be adjusted in the menus), and you can play the Multi Patch over the whole extent of the keyboard.
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In Split Mode, Part A is assigned to the lower part of the keyboard and Part B to the upper. The “split point” is, by default, at middle C (C3). You can move the split point anywhere else on the keyboard by holding down the Split button and then pressing the key denoting the new split point, or by changing the SplitPoint parameter for the Multi Patch on Page 3 of the MULTI SETTINGS Menu. Note that the chosen split point is specific to each Patch: different Patches may have different split points.
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In Dual Mode, what you hear follows the selected MULTIMODE CONTROL button, so you can play Part A or Part B alone over the whole extent of the keyboard. If you press A and B together to invoke the Both state, you will hear both Parts A and B together: this is exactly the same configuration as selecting Layer Mode: in this case, the control panel and menus will affect both Parts simultaneously.
Summit has 1,024 memory locations for Patches:
Note
Because each Multi Patch is made up of two Patches - which can be played independently if you wish – you actually have 1,536 individual Patches at your disposal!
The two blocks of 512 have the same arrangement: each consists of four Banks of 128; the banks are designated A to D. The memory is pre-loaded with 768 factory Patches: these have been especially created for Summit and we hope they will inspire you and be of use to you in your compositions.
Note
A full list of factory Patches and sound designer credits can be found at the end of this manual, see List of factory patches with designer credits
There are 384 each of Single Patches and Multi Patches. These occupy Banks A, B and C in both cases; both Banks D are provided as convenient memory locations for storing your own Patches, although you can store your own Patches in any memory location if you don’t mind overwriting a factory Patch (they can easily be restored using Novation Components). Each Bank D memory location is pre-loaded with the same default “initial” Patch: for Single Patches this is named Init Patch, and for Multi Patches it is named Init Multi.
An initial Patch will always be the starting point for creating new sounds “from scratch”.
A Patch is loaded by simply selecting its number with the rotary control or Value +/- buttons , or the Patch +/- buttons
, if row 2 is currently selected on the OLED. It is immediately active.
When a Single Patch is loaded, the Patch Information page is displayed:
The top row of the page displays the Patch name; below this are the Patch number and Bank name (A, B, C or D).
The bottom row, Category, indicates which “type” the Patch is. The default setting is All, but if you select one of the twelve other categories available (plus two additional “User” categories), then stepping through the Patches - either with the rotary control or the Patch +/- buttons [6] - will only offer Patches of that category; this is useful for speeding up Patch selection.
When a Multi Patch is loaded, the first of four Patch Information pages is displayed:
As with Single Patches, the Patch name, number and Bank are displayed. Note that the prefix Multi is appended to the Patch and Bank labels, to help distinguish them from the Single Patch information.
Press Page ► to display Page 2:
This page gives you details of the two Single Patches that have been combined to create the Multi Patch. Press the MULTIPART CONTROL buttons A or B to see the Patch for each Part. Note that they are all shown as occupying Bank A, Patch 000. This is to allow you to select an alternative single Patch (or Init Patch) to modify the overall sound of the Multi Patch. The Category field operates in the same way as with Single Patches.
Press Page ► to display Page 3:
This page allows you to set the relative volume of Parts A and B of the Multi Patch. Level A and Level B are operative regardless of whether Parts A and B are routed to the same output (the default setting), or separately to the Main and AUX Outputs. This alternative routing may be made on Page A of the Settings menu (see page 43).
In Split Mode, Part A is played by the lower part of the keyboard and Part B by the upper. The split point can be anywhere on the keyboard and you will find its position varies between Multi Patches. For Init Patch, the “split point” is at middle C (C3): in the Patch example shown above, the Patch designer decided to place it at F3. You can change the split point by selecting Row 4 and choosing another note, from C-2 to G8. This range is greater than the size of the keyboard because it allows for octave shifting of the keyboard, or of MIDI Note data being received by Summit from an external source.
If you only want to move the split point within the physical keyboard range, hold down the Split button and then press the key denoting the new split point.
Press Page ► to display Page 4:
The Octave A and Octave B parameters let you pitch-shift the two Parts of the Multi Patch independently of each other, by one or two octaves, up or down.
The Compare button lets you hear the Patch you loaded in its “factory” state, ignoring any changes or tweaks you’ve been making. Hold the button down to hear the original Patch: when you release it, you’ll be back to your modified version. Note that you can’t select Compare while holding any keys down. This is a useful feature to use when you’re about to save a new Patch into a memory location that might already contain a Patch you want to retain – you can press Compare during the Save process to check what’s in the intended memory location.
You can press Initialise at any time to load a copy of Summit’s default initial Patch. The Patch loaded will be Init Patch. If you are in Multi Patch mode, Init Patch will be loaded for either Part A or Part B, depending which Part was the last to be selected.
Loading Init Patch does not overwrite the previous Patch, though you will lose any modifications you made to the previous Patch if you haven’t already saved it.
Single Patches can be saved to any of the reserved 512 memory locations; similarly, Multi Patches can be saved to any of their 512 locations. However, if you save your Patch to any location in Banks A, B or C in either case, you will overwrite one of the factory presets. To save a Patch press the Save button. The OLED display changes as shown below:
You can now give the Patch you want to save a name. The existing name is displayed initially; use the Row 2 button (►) to move the cursor to the character position to be changed and then use the rotary parameter control to select the new letter. Repeat this process one character at a time. Upper case, lower case, numbers, punctuation marks and space characters are all available in sequence from the rotary control. Use the Row 4 button to insert a space instead of a character. When you have entered the new name, press Page ► to move to Page 2, where you decide which memory location the modified Patch will be saved in.
Now you can enter the memory location by Bank and number. Note that the name of the Patch currently in the memory location you select is displayed on Row 4, to remind you what is already stored there in case it’s something you don’t want to overwrite. Press Page ► again to select Page 3, and you can (if you wish) assign your Patch to one of the several pre-determined categories.
When you’ve done this, press Save again, and the display will confirm the Patch is saved.
Tip
You may save a modified Patch to the same location, if you are happy for the earlier version to be overwritten. This can easily be achieved by pressing Save four times in succession.
Tip
Summit Factory Patches can be downloaded using Novation Components if they have been accidentally overwritten. See Loading patches
Once you have loaded a Patch you like the sound of, you can modify the sound in many different ways using the synth controls. Each area of the control panel is dealt with in greater depth later in the manual, but a few fundamental points should be noted first.
The OLED display will show the last menu page selected until a rotary control or slider is moved on the control panel. This instantaneously changes the display to show the control being moved: it will also show the new parameter value alongside the parameter value that was saved for the currently loaded Patch:
Many rotary controls have a parameter range of 0 to +127. Others, e.g., the Filter’s Env Depth control or the Oscillators’ Mod Env 2 controls, are effectively “centre-zero”, and have a parameter range of either -64 to + 63 or -128 to +127.
The display reverts to the previous menu page a short time (user-definable) after the control is released. If no control is touched for 10 minutes, the display turns off, but will resume immediately when a control or menu button is selected.
Exceptions to the above are the Master Volume rotary control, the more setting of the three Oscillator Wave buttons and the Dual setting of the Filter Shape button. When you adjust the Master Volume control it does not alter the OLED display in any way, but selecting an Oscillator Wave to more will change the display to page 3, 5 or 7 of the Osc menu (the page number depending on the oscillator being adjusted), as these pages include the WaveMore parameter for wavetable selection. Similarly, setting Filter Shape to Dual changes the display to page 4 of the Voice menu, where the FltShpMore and FltFreqSep parameters, which are used for multiple filter configurations, are available.
As with traditional analogue synths, most of the primary sound modification controls on Summit are dedicated, physical rotary controls or switches, providing instant access to the most commonly needed sound parameters.
Many more parameters are available for adjustment in most of the synth sections via the menu system; these tend to be parameters you wouldn’t need immediate access to during live performance. Those in the Osc, Env, LFO, Arp/Clock, Voice and FX menus all affect the relevant sections of sound generation and treatment directly, while the Mod and FX Mod menus let you interconnect different synth sections with the Modulation Matrix or the independent FX Modulation Matrix, which is dedicated to the control of FX parameters.
Adjusting the frequency of a synth’s filter is probably the most commonly-used method of sound modification in live performance. For this reason, Filter Frequency has a large rotary control. Experiment with different types of patch to hear how changing the filter frequency alters the characteristic of different types of sound. Also listen to the different effect of the basic filter shapes, then try selecting configurations of dual filters by setting Shape to dual.
Summit’s keyboard is fitted with a standard pair of synthesiser control wheels, Pitch and Mod (Modulation). Pitch is spring-loaded and will return to its centre position. The range of control of pitch is independently adjustable for each oscillator (with the BendRange parameter - see Pitch Wheel Range) in semitone increments up to +/-2 octaves; the default setting for the Initial Patch is +/-1 octave, but many Patches will have different bend ranges.
The Mod wheel’s function varies with the patch loaded; it is generally used to add expression or various elements to a sound. A common use is to add vibrato to a sound.
It is possible to assign the Mod wheel to alter various parameters making up the sound – or a combination of parameters simultaneously. This topic is discussed in more detail elsewhere in the manual. See Modulation matrix – sources.
We have also equipped the keyboard with a pair of Octave Shift buttons . These effectively shift the entire keyboard up or down an octave at a time with each press, up to maximum of three octaves. When in use, an Octave button will illuminate white at one of three different brightness levels to indicate Octave Shift is active: the brightness increasing with the degree of shift applied.
By default, the C roughly in the middle of the keyboard (just below the Oscillator Shape controls) is Middle C (relative to A = 440 Hz).
Summit includes a powerful arpeggiator (the ‘Arp’), which allows arpeggios of greatly varying complexity and rhythm to be played and manipulated in real-time. The Arpeggiator is enabled by pressing the Arp On button .
In its most basic configuration, when a single key is pressed the note will be retriggered by the arpeggiator, at a rate determined by the Tempo control or the ClockRate parameter on Page 1 of the Arp menu. If you play a chord, the arpeggiator identifies its notes and plays them individually in sequence at the same rate (this is known as an arpeggio pattern or ‘arp sequence’); therefore if you play a C major triad, the arpeggiated notes will be the C, E and G making up the chord.
The arp tempo can also be synced to an incoming MIDI clock, so you can easily lock arp patterns to sequencers, drum machines or other sound generators.
Adjusting the Gate , Type
, Rhythm
and Octave
controls will alter the rhythm of the pattern (the way the sequence is played and the note range) in a variety of ways. Most of these parameters, and several others, can also be adjusted from Page 2 of the Arp menu. See The Arpeggiator for full details.
Summit has a high degree of MIDI implementation, and almost every control and synth parameter is able to transmit MIDI data to external equipment, and similarly, the synth may be controlled in almost every respect by incoming MIDI data from a DAW, sequencer or master control keyboard. Moreover, synth data for each of the two bi-timbral parts may be transmitted and received on different MIDI channels, permitting an enormous range of external MIDI interfacing possibilities.
The Settings menu has three pages devoted to MIDI configuration, and provides numerous options for enabling various aspects of MIDI control. Apart from per-Part MIDI Channel setting, these include Arpeggio MIDI Out, Aftertouch, CC/NRPN transmit/receive and Program/Bank Change transmit/receive. Please see MIDI operation in single and multi patch modes for full details.
The factory default is for all MIDI transmit/receive options to be On, and MIDI Channel 1 is set as the active channel for global synth data, Channel 2 for Part A data and Channel 3 for Part B data. See the table at The Settings menu for more details.
Each of the two ANIMATE buttons may be programmed to provide instant modification to the synth’s sound, which persists for as long as the button is pressed. This is a great way of adding sound effects “on the fly” in live performance.
Many of Summit’s factory Patches include programming for the ANIMATE buttons. When an Animate function is available, the button is illuminated. The ANIMATE buttons are programmed using the Modulation Matrix, and appear in the Source lists in the Mod and FX Mod menus. Each button may be assigned as a modulation source for any of the Destinations available in either (or both) the Mod Matrix and FX Mod Matrix. See The Modulation Matrix and The FX modulation matrix for more details.