On the output stage of a 002 / 002R without a Digital IO card installed, 6 voices are ‘hard panned’ to the left and 6 voices to the right (or 4 & 4 on an 8-voice 002R). This means that, if you are in Poly mode, you will hear 1 note on the left output followed by 1 note on the right output and so on.
This was a conscious design decision: each 002 / 002R voice is purely analogue from the oscillators onwards (no DSP, no DA conversion) and we are able to obtain excellent Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) from the outputs.
Also, voices can be distorted (Drive) and stacked (Unison/Stack mode) - the sum of these is very hot and for this reason we send half the voices to output L and the other half to output R.
There are a couple of solutions for this:
- Purchase a Digital Input/Output expansion board for your 002 / 002R. This will centre all voices, though in performance/multitimbrality mode each part/patch can be given it’s own pan position in the stereo spread.
- Without a Digital IO board installed, we recommend that your synth is plugged into a DAW / mixer with two channels and then the panning of these set as the owner desires. This will give the best signal to noise behaviour in recording and the optimum ‘spread’ of the sound across the mix.