A few Usage/Feature Questions

[AJYoung]

Since documentation for Zyn is sparse at the moment, I have a couple questions about functionality. These aren't bugs, so I figured I should start a new thread.

In the future, once Zyn is more stable on Windows VST, I'd like to help out with the documentation, and possibly even do a series of tutorial videos!

1. What is the "NRPN" button for? I can't seem to figure out its function. Looking at the old documentation, it seems to have something to do with controlling parameters that are not part of standard MIDI, but I don't really know how to use it.

2. Is it necessary to have both "No Kit" and "Single Kit" options? We have the ability to limit keys in the instrument settings. Only possible uses I could think of for Single Kit (that differ from No Kit) are: Quickly switch between different sounds for a part (stored in each Kit), or being able to switch Part Insertion effect routing.

3. Is there (or will there be) a Multi-Out version for Windows VST? I'm only testing the demo, so maybe that comes with the purchase. It would be REALLY beneficial to have, as Zyn is one of the most powerful and CPU-efficient synths I know of. I would love to use Multi-Out functionality as FL Studio's Piano Roll makes sending multitrack MIDI to Zyn a breeze.

4. Is there a function for the Sync Button on LFO's yet? I have not yet found one. In addition, I remember there being a "Continuous Mode" in the Old Zyn. Is "Sync" that option? I don't really remember what that was supposed to do, but judging by other synths "Continuous" would keep the LFO running even if there were no notes, and "Sync" doesn't seem to do that.

5. Now that the Macro Learn system is implemented, what is the function of the "MIDI" Button above the "Learn" Button on top of the GUI?

6. Is there any way to set the phase relationship of unison voices? I see there is a drop-down labeled "INV." and described as "Subvoice Phases" but the choices don't seem to change the sound at all. I also seem to remember that Old Zyn had options in the Oscillator Editor for phase and harmonic phase randomness. I can't seem to find those in ZynFusion, could it be related?

I'll add more as I have them. I'm just trying to learn more of Zyn's deep functionality.

[fundamental]

1. What is the "NRPN" button for? I can't seem to figure out its function. Looking at the old documentation, it seems to have something to do with controlling parameters that are not part of standard MIDI, but I don't really know how to use it.

IIRC the button itself doesn't do anything, but it may be connected to the old NRPN handling code in the future. The old NRPN handling code was built to allow NRPN MIDI CCs to control the parameters within system/insertion effects, but IMO it is obsolete at the moment.

2. Is it necessary to have both "No Kit" and "Single Kit" options? We have the ability to limit keys in the instrument settings. Only possible uses I could think of for Single Kit (that differ from No Kit) are: Quickly switch between different sounds for a part (stored in each Kit), or being able to switch Part Insertion effect routing.

Based upon how you're asking the question it seems that there may be confusion as to what "single kit" means. Perhaps a better description would be "priority kit". I'm not sure if the whole documentation string shows up in the UI or not, as it's quite long, but it is:

"Kit mode/enable\n"
"Off - Only the first kit is ever utilized\n"
"Multi-kit - Every applicable kit is run for a note\n"
"Single-kit - The first applicable kit is run for a given note")

So, for single kit you could have
Kit A - note 5..5
Kit B - note 20..20
Kit C - note 0..127

With single kit only a single A/B/C would ever play with kits A/B taking priority at notes 5 and 20 over kit C.

Generally I've seen this feature used when people make drumkits and they want to define some default for notes which aren't a fixed effect sound.

3. Is there (or will there be) a Multi-Out version for Windows VST? I'm only testing the demo, so maybe that comes with the purchase. It would be REALLY beneficial to have, as Zyn is one of the most powerful and CPU-efficient synths I know of. I would love to use Multi-Out functionality as FL Studio's Piano Roll makes sending multitrack MIDI to Zyn a breeze.

Is there, no.
Will there be, quite likely.

4. Is there a function for the Sync Button on LFO's yet? I have not yet found one. In addition, I remember there being a "Continuous Mode" in the Old Zyn. Is "Sync" that option?

Yes to the last question.

5. Now that the Macro Learn system is implemented, what is the function of the "MIDI" Button above the "Learn" Button on top of the GUI?

This is going to sound like a dumb answer, but it serves as a second GUI element to have a tooltip to inform users about the midi-learn/automation-learn/macro-learn functionality. Once some sort of auto-scroll is added to tooltips, then it will likely serve no purpose.

6. Is there any way to set the phase relationship of unison voices? I see there is a drop-down labeled "INV." and described as "Subvoice Phases" but the choices don't seem to change the sound at all. I also seem to remember that Old Zyn had options in the Oscillator Editor for phase and harmonic phase randomness. I can't seem to find those in ZynFusion, could it be related?

There is a unison_phase_randomness control internally which is not exposed in the fusion UI. At the moment I can't recall if it was omitted due to it not being in the zyn-fusion mockup or if I didn't think that it was commonly used. After playing around with it for a moment or two I should likely add it back into the interface.

[AJYoung]

With single kit only a single A/B/C would ever play with kits A/B taking priority at notes 5 and 20 over kit C.

Wonderful, that clears things up quite a bit! I can definitely see that being useful now that I know what it actually does.

Will there be, quite likely.

In addition, I remember there being a "Continuous Mode" in the Old Zyn. Is "Sync" that option?

Yes to the last question.

Okay, good to know. I guess the follow-up question is what does "Continuous" mean in this context (or more accurately, "Sync")? I don't see a difference in behavior with that option turned on.

There is a unison_phase_randomness control internally which is not exposed in the fusion UI. At the moment I can't recall if it was omitted due to it not being in the zyn-fusion mockup or if I didn't think that it was commonly used. After playing around with it for a moment or two I should likely add it back into the interface.

It probably isn't commonly used. But it would be nice to have as an option. You can create some unique plucky stuff with unison phases all beginning in sync. Also many detuned d-n-b style sounds rely on using unison phases to create "beat" frequencies, and having the sound start the same each time you play a note (instead of with random phases) is crucial.

If you do plan on adding unison_phase_randomness to the UI, I would still keep random phases as the default, as most people will use that.

I see there is a drop-down labeled "INV." and described as "Subvoice Phases"

I'm curious what this control is then. Is it related to to the phases of unison vibrato?

(As a side note: it appears in the tooltip that "vibrato" is misspelled as "vibratto". I make that mistake as well sometimes lol).