Dave Smith Instruments SYNTHESIZERS

As Dave notes in the manual (and I reiterate in the Definitive Guide), 
there's a built-in NOISE GATE when Distortion is active.

The noise gate is triggered by the left channel.  So if you have one 
oscillator panned to the right, the gate isn't going to get triggered, 
and you won't hear sound.

If you pan the oscillator to the left, the gate is triggered, and you'll 
get sound (albeit with the gate potentially "interfering").

The reason why Distortion = 2 is a factor is if you set Distortion = 1, 
you get ONLY the gate and no distortion.  In case you want to use that.

Hope this helps.