Some personal notes to help with the official manual
The Fenix III is a wonderful sequencer.
One of the most flexible Ive every had the good pleasure to own.
It is totally modular.
You can view it as three main CV/Gate sequencers
with a 4th expander sequencer
The sequencers are a bit confusing at first.
I'll divide them into CV & Gate parts, then see how they work together.
The CV sequencers
From top the CV sequencers are labeled: C1, B1, A1 (blue knobs)
The 4th (expander) sequencer, named A2, has red knobs.
The sequencers produce CV voltages between 0 & 8 volt.
These are the CV outputs of the sequencers:
They can be clocked via the master clock, external MIDI or external CV.
By default, the master clock is connected to all 4, but can be overridden
with a signal at the clock input or CV-step input
Sequencers B1, C1 and A1 are pretty standard 16 step.
Forward, ping-pong, random modes.
A2 is an expander of A1
The A1 expander can be 16 steps, 2 x 8 steps, or in Inverse Mute mode.
The Gate sequencers
There are 4 of these: C4, B3, A4 & A3
It is important to understand the difference between gate and clock signals
A gate is a continuous high signal.
A clock has a high & low state for every step.
The clock can be standard (50% high / 50% low) or variable (called a PW clock) .
The PW (pulse width) clock can be changed ... eg (10% high/90%low or 30% high / 70% low , etc etc).
We can even apply a CV to modulate this pulse width.
--------------------------------------
C4-C1
The C4 Gate sequencer is linked to the C1 CV sequencer
The C4 gate sequencer uses 3 position toggle switches (as do all the other gate sequencers).
In the manual, C4 is called Gate expander 1 (page 17).
The extreme left toggle with the yellow cap switches between Gate/clk/PWM.clock.
The PWM clock is always the master clock and not any external clock.
Thus the Clk setting can be any external CV used to clock this sequencer
(such as an LFO)
or the master clock if that is what is timing this sequencer.
The 16 toggles (above the rotary encoders) select between Yellow switch/off/clock patterns.
Up = Yellow switch pattern; Middle = off; bottom = clock pattern.
This means that if the switch is in the bottom position, the output will have a clock signal,
and if it is in the top position, it will have whatever the yellow toggle is displaying.
...........................................................................
B3-B1
The B3 Gate sequencer is linked to the B1 CV sequencer.
Slight difference to c4-c1.
In the manual, it's called Gate expander 2 (page 18).
This gate expander has 2 outputs (row 1 & 2) and runs in sync with the CV sequencer B1 .
The extreme left toggle with the yellow cap switches between Clock/skip/PWM.clock.
The extreme right toggle switches between rows 1 & rows 2
The 16 toggles (above the rotary encoders) select between Row 1/ off / row 2.
Up = row 1 pattern; Middle = off; bottom = row 2 pattern.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The A3 & A4 gate sequencers
The A3 gate sequencer has two rows of outputs -- row 1 (top), row 2 (bottom).
You select which row using each of the 16 switches above the pots.
The A3 gate sequencer exits from Gate output A.
Its outputs are PW/ Row 1/ Row 2
It is identical in function to the B3 gate sequencer
The A4 sequencer outputs via "Gate C4".
(I wonder if this was a mistake in the panel design ???
was it supposed to be A4??)
Its outputs are PW/Mute/Out/Trigger
It functions much like Gate sequencer C4
I'll add to this page over time.
please let me know if there are any mistakes.
