Please…
Legato means there is no new attack when changing note to note - smooth, connected phrases with no silence between notes. On a synthesizer, that generally means not re-triggering the envelope generator each time a new note is played for a smoother flow to a melodic phrase.
Portamento is basically glide between notes - sliding the pitch up or down from one note to another. Portamento is more noticeable between large intervals. On synthesizers portamento is usually a smooth slide, but can sometimes be a chromatic slide, which is divided up into discreet half steps as it moves between pitches. Polyphonic portamento - many pitches sliding to different pitches at different rates - can be lots of fun, but not necessarily useful.
Portamento can be used in legato phrases or in separated phrases.
Thank you.
The chromatic thing is called “glissando”.
And to make things more complicated:
some synth have a mode where glide (portamento or glissando style) is only switched on, when you play in legato style.
Thanks till
Yes, “fingered portamento”, also called “legato portamento” only uses portamento between notes played legato. No portamento if the note is retriggered.
Sequential Circuits Pro-One was supposedly first with fingered portamento. I know later versions of Yamaha FM synthesizers also had this as an option.
My cz5000 has glide AND portemento which really confused me at first because I thought they were the same. Buy portemento works just as describe earlier and glide is more of an automatic pitch bend.