For a sample patch, the actual samples are what oscillators are for a synthesizer, the main sound source. The following settings can be made in the Osc section of the NN-19:
This changes the start position of samples in a sample patch. Turning the knob clockwise gradually offsets the samples' start position, so that they will play back from a position further "into" the samples' waveform. This is useful mainly for two things:
Removing "air" or other unwanted artefacts from the start of less than perfect samples.
Occasionally (although not in any samples supplied with Reason) you may come across samples where the start point of the sample is slightly ahead of the start of the actual sound. There may be noise or silence in the beginning which was not intended to be part of the sample. By adjusting the sample start position, this can be removed.
Changing the start point as an effect.
For example, if you had a sample of someone saying "one, two, three", you could change the start position so that when you played the sample it would start on "three".
You can also assign velocity sample start allowing to use your playing to determine the exact sample start. See "Velocity Control" .
By adjusting the corresponding knobs you can change the pitch of all samples belonging to a patch, in three ways:
The range is 0 - 8. The default setting is 4.
Allows you to raise the frequency in 12 semitone steps (1 octave).
Fine steps (100th of a semitone)
The range is -50 to 50 (down or up half a semitone).
Note that the controls in this section cannot be used to tune samples against each other, as all samples will be affected equally. To tune individual samples, you use the Tune parameter below the keyboard display.
The Osc section has a button named "Kbd. Track". If this is switched off, the sample's pitch will remain constant, regardless of any incoming note pitch messages, although the oscillator still reacts to note on/off messages. This could be useful if you are using non-pitched samples, like drums for example. You could then play a sample in a zone using several keys, allowing for faster note triggering if you wanted to play a drum roll, for example.