Frequency Controls

All of the frequency controls are grouped by operator, with operator 1 on the left, followed by operators 2, 3, and 4.

Menu Button

The label for this section is a button which brings up a menu, and this is documented in the section on Menu Buttons.

Waveform Selector

This combo box is where you set the waveform for the operator. The TX81Z has eight different waveforms that you can use for each operator. Wave 1 (the sine wave) is the simplest waveform, the one that will yield the fewest harmonics. The waveforms more or less get more complex as you increase the value.

The combo boxes can be swapped out for a faster method of selected the waveform. See the section on the One Click OP & LFO Wave Type Selection option.

Ratio/Fixed Mode Button

This selects whether or not the frequency of the operator follows the keyboard (ratio), or stays the same over the entire keyboard (fixed). Ratio is typically used for the tonal part of the sound and fixed is typically used for the atonal part of a sound or for special effects, like the click of a jazz organ or whatever.

Frequency Indicator

This will tell you what frequency is currently dialed up for the operator. If the operator is set to ratio mode, then the indicator will tell you the ratio, which is determined by the values of the coarse and fine frequency settings. If the operator is set to fixed mode, the indicator will contain the fixed frequency value, which is a combination of the fixed range, coarse frequency, and fine frequency settings.

Fixed Frequency Range

This control is disabled when the frequency mode of the operator is set to Ratio. When it's set to Fixed, this more or less acts as a multiplier for the coarse and fine frequency settings and sets their overall range.

Coarse Frequency

This sets the "coarse" frequency for the operator. I've tried to come up with a definition for that term, but all I can say is that it changes the frequency in larger increments than the fine setting. If the operator is set to Fixed mode, this will only change the value for every fourth setting in the whole range. In other words, the bottom two bits of this value are ignored by the unit in fixed mode. Yeah, it's strange.

Fine Frequency

I haven't come up with a clear definition of "fine" frequency either. It's the smallest possible change you can make to the base frequency value.

Detune

Detune detunes the operator a little bit. It doesn't change the frequency shown in the display.

Simplified Frequency Controls

If you go into the Options menu of the voice editor and turn on Simplified Frequency Selection, this will swap out the normal base frequency controls and replace them with a single slider that you can use to set the frequency. The frequencies are in sorted order (sort of). See the section on Simplified Frequency Selection for more information.