Now we've given you a rough overview of how Novation Play works, it's time to deep a little deeper. We've designed Play to sound great without much tweaking, but we know a lot of us want to understand a little more how it works, and maybe learn a thing or two. In the next section, we'll dive into each control area and give you a better idea of what's going on.
In Play we've sampled a range of patches from some legendary instruments and arranged them into a set of presets.
You can browse and pick presets and create your own presets based on the patches we've sampled using the Macro controls and effects in Play.
What's the difference between a patch and a preset?
The terms preset and patch are used fairly interchangeably in the world of synthesisers. Often a synth contains a number of patches (often hundreds); an allotted amount of them are “Factory patches” or patches with pre-set values, hence you might use the terms presets. You can of course make your own patches and call them presets, as they have pre-set values for you to come back to.
In Play, we've sampled patches, or presets, from iconic synths and given you a number of useful preset sounds.
To select a preset, click on the preset's name to open the preset browser. You can choose a sound based on its type or the synthesiser we sampled.
On the left, there's a search bar and a quick menu to filter presets by their sound.
When you choose a preset, at the top we've included a name, short description, and which instrument we used to sample the sound.
To go back to the main window, double-click on the preset you want to use, or click outside the preset browser.
If you've selected a sound and tweaked it using the macro controls and effects, you can save it to use later, or to use it in your DAW.
To save a Preset:
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Get the preset sounding how you'd like it.
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Click the current preset's name to open the Preset Browser.
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Click either the Save
, or Save As…
button in the top right corner of the Preset Browser.
Save overwrites an existing User Preset, Save As… creates a new Preset.
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Type a name into the Preset name box.
If you give the preset the same name as another User Preset, you'll see an Overwrite button. Clicking this irreversibly overwrites the other preset.
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Click Save.
If you like a Preset, you can add it as a favourite so you can come back to it quickly.
To add a preset to the Favourites section, click the small heart icon to the left of the Preset's name in the browser.
You can find your favourite presets in the Favourites section on the left of the Preset Browser.
You can add any preset as a favourite, both factory and user presets.
Each Preset has a set of preset macro controls and effects, but if you want, you can develop the sound further by tweaking these controls.
In the next few sections, we'll go over each Macro control and effect in more detail to help you learn what's going on, and how to get the sound you want.
To adjust the Macro controls, you can either use your mouse, or the encoders on your Launchkey MK4.
Each Keys Preset has the same first six macro controls. The last two macro controls differ depending on the Preset.
The Drums presets have as slightly different set of Macro controls, but the first four affect individual drums, and the last four affect the whole kit.
The following Macro controls apply to the keyboard instruments in Play.
Attack adjusts the time it takes, after you press a key, for the volume to climb from zero to full volume. You can increase the Attack to create a sound with a slow fade-in.
Decay adjusts the time it takes for the volume to fall from its initial full volume, to the level set by the Sustain level control, while you hold a key.
Sustain is different to the other Envelope controls; it sets a level rather than a time period.
It sets the volume level the envelope stays at while you hold a key, after the Attack and Decay time.
Release adjusts the time it takes for the volume to fall from the Sustain level to zero when you release a key. You can use a long Release to create sounds that “fade-out”.
Cutoff is a common parameter found in synthesisers, it lets you adjust the level where certain frequencies are allowed to pass through a filter. By adjusting the cutoff point, you can control the brightness or darkness of the sound. Changing the cutoff can give you a darker or brighter sound depending on the filter type. Most of the presets use a low-pass filter where the lower you set the filter, the darker the sound.
Filters are essential for shaping and sculpting the timbre (or character) of your sound.
Increasing Resonance accentuates a narrow band of frequencies around the Cutoff frequency set by the Cutoff control. You can use it to accentuate different parts of the sound.
Tip
If you set a high resonance and move the Cutoff control as you play the keys, you can get the classic filter-sweep-style effect.
The filter envelope (abbreviated to env) controls how the cutoff changes over time after you press a key. It shapes how bright or dull the sound becomes through the note’s duration.
Modulation is a way to “modulate” or change certain parameters over time to make the sound move or evolve. The movement could be anything from the sound's pitch, to filter frequencies, or the waveform shape.
The Modulation control changes how much movement is present in your sound.
The LFO (Low Frequency Oscillator) section of a synthesiser is a Modulator. Instead of being a part of the sound synthesis itself, we use it to change (or modulate) other sections of the synthesiser. For example, LFOs often change Oscillator pitch, or Filter cutoff frequency, and many other parameters.
Where we use Envelopes to control a one-off modulation over the duration of a single note, LFOs modulate using a repeating cyclic waveform or pattern.
The LFO in Play is pre-mapped to different parameters in different presets, some subtle, some extreme.
The Filter LFO macro control works in the same way as the LFO, it's a repeating cycle. However this Macro control is set up to always control parameters relating to the Filter, such as LFO speed, or LFO depth.
Filter Mod adds movement to the filter so your sound feels more alive. It adjusts how much the filter opens and closes over time, creating sweeps, pulses, or gentle motion. Unlike Filter LFO, which uses a repeating cycle, Filter Mod often blends several modulation sources already built into the preset. This can include envelope-driven changes, LFO movement or performance-based modulation.
Raising Filter Mod increases the amount of this built-in movement. Lowering it keeps the filter response steady. It is a quick way to make a patch feel brighter, darker, smoother or more dynamic without digging into detailed filter settings.
Alongside the more usual synth controls, we've also added Macro controls to control other aspects of the sound:
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Bleepiness – Controls how sharp, high-pitched, and percussive the sound feels.
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Bloom – Makes the sound swell or grow over time, like it’s opening up.
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Brightness – Adjusts how light or dark the tone sounds by emphasising higher or lower frequencies.
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Chomp – Adds a biting, punchy low mids that make the sound feel more aggressive.
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Degraded – Reduces sound quality for a rough, lo-fi character.
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Digital – Adds crisp, synthetic tones typical of older digital synthesisers.
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Fizz – Increases the high-end buzz or sparkle in the sound.
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Flamm – Slightly delays one layer of the sound to create a doubled, percussive feel.
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Flutter – Adds a rapid, subtle wobble or modulation for movement.
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Grind – Introduces distortion or grit, making the sound heavier.
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Harmonics – Boosts or changes the overtones to make the sound richer.
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Loose – controls how tight or relaxed the transients are (sharp initial bursts). Increasing Loose makes the sound boomier, increases sustain, and make it sound rounder.
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Motion – Brings in effects, like delays, to give the preset more movement.
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Movement – Similar to Motion, Movement adds rhythmic or tonal variation to keep sounds alive.
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Notch – Cuts or boosts a small band of frequencies (high resonance), shaping the tone.
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Open – widens the sound giving it a more stereo soundstage or more harmonic content.
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Scoop – Reduces mid-frequencies for a scooped, or chunky, tone.
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Shape – Changes the waveform’s contour, altering how smooth or sharp it sounds.
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Sizzle – Enhances the very high frequencies for extra air and presence.
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Special – Applies a unique or creative effect that changes the sound’s character.
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Talk – Adds vocal-like filtering that mimics human vowel sounds.
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Thickness/Thinness – Adjusts how full or hollow the sound feels.
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Trouble – Introduces roughness and noise, for a bit of chaos and character.
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Truncate – Shortens the sound’s tail or decay for a tighter feel.
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VHS – Adds nostalgic tape warmth and wobble for a vintage vibe.
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Vintage – Adds subtle warmth, noise, and pitch drift to make the sound feel old-school or analogue.
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Vowel – Morphs the filter to produce vowel-like tones.
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Wobble – Modulates pitch or volume for a rhythmic, pulsing effect.
The following Macro controls apply to the drum instruments in Play.
The first four macro controls for all the drum kits apply different changes to each part of the drum kit, the kicks, snares, hats, and percussion elements.
Each kit has its own effects that relate to the style of kit, and the macros sometimes all do the same thing, but sometimes each section of the drum kit has a different effect.
The second four macro controls are the same for every drum kit:
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Filter – adjusts the filter for the drums, allowing you to filter out high or low frequencies.
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Distortion – adds a crunchy overdriven effect to the drums
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Reverb – adds space to the drums.
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Delay – adds repeats to the drums, useful for getting more interesting rhythmic beats. The Reverb and Delay macros affect the main Reverb and Delay effects.
With effects, you can add more depth and movement to your presets. This section covers the effects in a little more detail.
The main controls for the Reverb and Delay effects set the Amount, or how loud the effect is, compared to the dry signal.
When you click the pencil icon to the left of the Reverb and Delay controls, it opens some extra settings:
Reverb (reverberation) adds the effect of an acoustic space to a sound. Unlike delay, reverb is created by generating a dense set of delayed signals, with different phase relationships (timings) and EQ applied to re-create what happens to sound in a real space.
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The dropdown adjusts the reverb's timbre, allowing you to change the sort of environment it sounds like your instrument is in.
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The second control adjusts the decay. The decay is the length of time the reverb lasts for; longer decays emulate larger spaces.
Delay produces one or more repetitions of the notes you're playing.
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Width – adjusts how the delays are separated into the left and right speakers, the stereo width of the delay effect.
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Filter – EQ the delayed part of the sound so you only let through certain frequencies. This is useful for creating space in the overall sound.
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Time – controls the interval between delayed sounds. You can turn on/off the metronome to sync the delays to your project's tempo.
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Feedback – how long the delay effect goes on for (how much of the delay's output is fed back into the delay's input, adding repeats to the delay). With maximum feedback, you could still be hearing delays over a minute after playing the first note.
An audio compressor takes audio signals and balances them out making the loud parts closer in level to the quiet parts and usually turning up the whole signal. They do this by detecting parts of the sound over a certain threshold and turning them down, while turning up the whole signal.
The result is often a thicker sound that has an average (perceived) volume that's louder than the uncompressed signal.
The Compressor in Play is a single control, as you increase it the amount of compression increases.
The bar around the outside of the control shows how much the loud parts of the sound are being turned down by.
Compressors are useful for making dynamic sounds more consistent, or making sounds thicker.
Chorus is an effect produced by mixing a continuously delayed version of the signal with the original. The characteristic swirling effect is produced by the Chorus processor’s own LFO making very small changes in the delays. The changing delay also produces the effect of multiple voices, some of which are pitch-shifted; this adds to the effect.
Cassette gives your preset the sound of running your instrument through a 1980s tape deck. It adds saturation, distortion, noise, and wobble to give more character to the sound.
Spinner is a rotating modulation effect. It has similarities to a Leslie speaker (a spinning speaker design for organs) and gradually brings in a rotating modulation effect.
Tip
This effect works really well on slow moving pad sounds.
Freeze captures a small part of the currently playing sound and loops it until the Freeze effect is disabled. Play a sound and turn on freeze, and you'll hear what it captures.
Once the Freeze effect is on, you can play other notes alongside the frozen chunk of sound, effectively giving you a pad sound to play along with.
Inside Play there's are virtual pitch and mod wheels and a virtual keyboard. These let you see what notes and changes are coming into Play either from your DAW or when you're playing your Launchkey.
The Pitch wheel gives you a visual indication of where you've set the pitch wheel on your Launchkey. You can also adjust the pitch wheel in Play using your mouse.
You can adjust the pitch bend range in the Settings page.
The Mod wheel gives you a visual indication of where you've set the mod wheel on your Launchkey. You can also adjust the mod wheel in Play using your mouse.
The Mod wheel maps to different settings depending on the Preset.
The on-screen keyboard has three uses, it:
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allows you to see what notes you're playing on your Launchkey.
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lets you use your mouse to play in notes and test out sounds without needing a Launchkey connected.
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lets you see what notes are coming into Play, for example when you're playing back a MIDI track in your DAW.
The pads are only available when you've set the instrument to a drum instrument. The virtual pad layout:
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allows you to see what notes you're playing on your Launchkey.
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lets you use your mouse to play in notes and test out sounds without needing a Launchkey connected.
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lets you see what notes are coming into Play, for example when you're playing back a MIDI track in your DAW.