A Transwave is an Ensoniq idea; a great idea, as a matter of fact. A working Transwave is made up of two parts:

• A single waveform, made up of usually up to 128 waves run end-to-end together. This is called a Transwave.
• The Transwave is affected by a Transwave Modulation function turned ON, which is a Looping function that will loop a segment of the Transwave. Upon responding to any modulator; e.g. velocity, mod wheel, etc., the function will dynamically change which segment the ASR will loop.

Transwaves are moderately difficult to sample and build properly. They must follow certain rules in order to avoid clicking or other distortions. However, many good click-free Transwaves have been made. Sources include Waveboy's TranswaveLibrary for the EPS/ASR, several sounds on RCS's Chicken CD-ROM II, and "Art of Transwaves" CD-ROM by Derek Von Krogh, and perhaps more.

The ASR-X has 1 Transwave as an internal ROM wave. The EXP cards have many more (especially EXP-3).

So the first part of the equation is relatively easy. You can load a pre-made Transwave or use one of the ROM transwaves to start your Transwave journey.

But what about programming the modulation of your Transwave? Perhaps you want to adjust the Transwave using velocity. How do you do it? Where's the parameter?

The ASR-X supports Transwave Modulation, using these parameters plus an extra undocumented one:

• StarttoEnd Index (size of the wave frame)
• IndexModSource (your choice of modulators)
• Index ModAmt (Amount of mod effect)
• PlayMode=LOOPSTRT-X or TRANSWAV (undocumented and inaccessible from front panel)

The first three set up the Transwave modulation. The fourth enables Transwave Looping; unfortunately, the ASR-X front panel interface does not include this option (thanks, Ensoniq). Unisyn does not include this parameter either. RCS has incorporated it into the latest version of ASR-X Tools.

So what does this mean to you? Try these things:

• Use ASR-X Tools or Unisyn to toy with a 1-SOUND that utilizes a Transwave-class ROM wave. Use different modulators, and try different StarttoEnd Indexes and Amounts.
• Purchase a Transwave set, translate it into the ASR-X, save the 1-SOUND, and then load the AIFF file that is created into the Scratch Pad. Send it to a Pad, and then play with the Index parameters. IMPORTANT! Do not adjust the PlayMode parameter - if you do, you will effectively turn the Transwave Looping OFF, with no way of turning it back on (unless you are using ASR-X Tools).
• Sample a sound, usually a "D" and best a simple waveform, and use ASR-X Tools to turn on the Transwave looping. Play with the Index parameters. You'll see why Transwaves are hard to get right - but sometimes you'll come up with a "winner".

Have fun!

Contributor: Garth Hjelte

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