Hi. I have never really tried altering the default synthmaster engine quality settings because my pc was kind of old. Meaning, I have never altered them per patch, nor globally. Generally looks like a lot of them are set to 'draft'. Not that I have found this to be a problem that I could tell. : ) However, since I have an improved system now, I was wondering exactly what the audibly noticeable difference might be as a result of increasing the engine quality? The 2.9 manual only says:
"Engine Quality changes the internal sampling rate. It can take 4 different values: Draft (No oversampling), Good (x2), Better (x3), Best (x4)"
Thanks for any clarification you might provide.
more info on synthmaster engine quality settings?
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- KVRer
- Topic Starter
- 15 posts since 21 Aug, 2011
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- KVRian
- 665 posts since 1 Jan, 2018
In general, oversampling reduces artifacts caused by aliasing. If you want a practical sense of what that means for this synth in particular, I suppose it's best to give some examples. This isn't a comprehensive list by any means, but here are a few things I've noticed while working on some physical modeling-type sounds:
1) Using FM with noisy carrier or modulator waveforms, the results will be clearer and more distinctly tonal at higher quality settings.
2) Some of the layer effects sound different. For instance, the phaser sounds brighter (more high frequency content) and the distortion sounds steadier and less mechanical at high quality settings.
3) Comb filters (which are what I've spent most of my time working with lately) are much noisier/brighter sounding at low quality settings, which could be a good or bad thing, depending on the effect you are trying to achieve. For my purposes, I've found it more useful to use the Draft setting and then filter/EQ out some of the higher frequencies later, but of course, that's not going to be ideal for all applications.
4) The resonant frequencies of the VAnalog filters change depending on the quality setting. Most of the filter types have the same tuning regardless of quality, but compared to the others, the VAnalog filters are about 3.5 semitones higher when in "Draft" and "Better" quality and 4.5 semitones higher when in "Good" and "Best" quality. This seems like a bug, as it means that presets relying on high filter resonance will be detuned if a user overrides the preset quality setting. (for what it's worth, the Diode Ladder filter is detuned as well, 5 semitones below the others, but at least its tuning stays the same regardless of the quality setting)
5) Noise oscillators are quieter in the higher quality modes (about 6 dB lower in "Best" than in "Draft"). All other oscillators stay about the same volume when you change the quality.
I don't know if this clarifies things much. In most cases, just using your ears will tell you more than any verbal description, but hopefully this gives you some idea of what to expect.
1) Using FM with noisy carrier or modulator waveforms, the results will be clearer and more distinctly tonal at higher quality settings.
2) Some of the layer effects sound different. For instance, the phaser sounds brighter (more high frequency content) and the distortion sounds steadier and less mechanical at high quality settings.
3) Comb filters (which are what I've spent most of my time working with lately) are much noisier/brighter sounding at low quality settings, which could be a good or bad thing, depending on the effect you are trying to achieve. For my purposes, I've found it more useful to use the Draft setting and then filter/EQ out some of the higher frequencies later, but of course, that's not going to be ideal for all applications.
4) The resonant frequencies of the VAnalog filters change depending on the quality setting. Most of the filter types have the same tuning regardless of quality, but compared to the others, the VAnalog filters are about 3.5 semitones higher when in "Draft" and "Better" quality and 4.5 semitones higher when in "Good" and "Best" quality. This seems like a bug, as it means that presets relying on high filter resonance will be detuned if a user overrides the preset quality setting. (for what it's worth, the Diode Ladder filter is detuned as well, 5 semitones below the others, but at least its tuning stays the same regardless of the quality setting)
5) Noise oscillators are quieter in the higher quality modes (about 6 dB lower in "Best" than in "Draft"). All other oscillators stay about the same volume when you change the quality.
I don't know if this clarifies things much. In most cases, just using your ears will tell you more than any verbal description, but hopefully this gives you some idea of what to expect.
