MSoundFactory: Transition to and from precise oscillator shapes at precise times

[Annabanna]

Getting back into Melda stuff, so I'm a bit rusty.

I'm looking to trigger synthesized kick drum sounds where it starts at one specific oscillator shape, and ends at another exact setting. I think I remember enough about modulators, etc to work out the general concept and timing, but wondering how to get the exact values since the shape is a continuous control which doesn't really map to any other particular scale AFAIK.

I vaguely remember using banks to store specific values. Is that the approach that would work best here? Just looking for an overall approach so I don't waste too much time. I can work out the details.

thx

[jmg8]

Yes, banks will be best. I would probably use wavetable for this as you can morph from any shape to any other.

[Gone soft]

Also trial and eventual success with inputting various values in the modulator/envelope til you find the right ones and make note of those, easiest if the osc shapes you're after correspond with the ones at excact integer values offcourse... If not then yes bank and modulate the bank. Once the values for the bank to care about are set you set the bank number, tweak to taste and hit save in the bank number you want, in this case it seems two would be quite sufficent.

[Annabanna]

Yes, banks will be best. I would probably use wavetable for this as you can morph from any shape to any other.

Hadn't thought of wavetables, but I guess that makes sense. I've used Serum quite a bit, though I haven't really done much in terms of designing my own wavetables.

[Annabanna]

Also trial and eventual success with inputting various values in the modulator/envelope til you find the right ones and make note of those, easiest if the osc shapes you're after correspond with the ones at excact integer values offcourse... If not then yes bank and modulate the bank. Once the values for the bank to care about are set you set the bank number, tweak to taste and hit save in the bank number you want, in this case it seems two would be quite sufficent.

OK, thx. I already have the exact shapes worked out. It's a matter now of seeing how they map... though perhaps the wavetable thing avoids that since it goes from one exact shape to another, and the values (I'm guessing) are just the wavetable indexes.

[Gone soft]

I'm not sure what you mean how they map? If I understand you correctly I'd just set an envelope to modulate the is shape, max value what I'd want to be the starting point and min value where I'd want it to end. Zero attack, either zero sustain or just appropriate release time depending on what works best given how you trigger the sound. Does that make sense? Or did I get something wrong?

[Annabanna]

I'm not sure what you mean how they map? If I understand you correctly I'd just set an envelope to modulate the is shape, max value what I'd want to be the starting point and min value where I'd want it to end. Zero attack, either zero sustain or just appropriate release time depending on what works best given how you trigger the sound. Does that make sense? Or did I get something wrong?

No, that's pretty much what I was thinking. Just haven't had a chance yet to see if the min/max values correspond to the actual same scale/values that are on the shape knob. If so, that's great. I just remember having a few nightmares a while back about scales that didn't line up between modulators and the items they were modulating, so the concept worked overall but there was a constant value mismatch to addresss (linear to log, that sort of thing).

It's been a while, so I don't remember all the details of exactly why I had to go through and painstakingly create transformation tables. I just remember it being a lot of work. Haven't had a chance to sit down with these values yet, so possible there's no such issue here, and it's just straight forward.

[Gone soft]

It worked for me with osc shape the last time I tried some months ago within a modulator, give it a go. If not there's always banks. Wavetable may be more flexible but possibly more work to set up and some ways of using the Wt osc may possibly require more CPU (at least it used to, things may have gotten more optimized since then). Let us know how it went.

[Gone soft]

Ahem, I was remembering how I did this in MPowerSynth, I see now in MSoundFactory it's a slightly different story. Sorry. At least I'm not the first and probably not the last to mess up those two. Wavetable modulation will have the added advantage of polyphonic modulation of you need it, it almost seems an oversight there's no polyphonic modulation of oscillator shape but at least that's what I found.

[Annabanna]

It worked for me with osc shape the last time I tried some months ago within a modulator, give it a go. If not there's always banks. Wavetable may be more flexible but possibly more work to set up and some ways of using the Wt osc may possibly require more CPU (at least it used to, things may have gotten more optimized since then). Let us know how it went.

It's straight forward. Easier than expected, and apparently, integer values are mapped to the purebreed oscillator types (100% triangle, 100% rectangle, etc).

Oddly, some of the others do have range issues like the custom knob only ever gets 75% of it's range from any modulator. Fortunately, since I just need the two endpoints to be exact, it's easy to just fix such issues with a single point added to a transform map.

I should also note for anyone trying something like this that you'll likely need to change the smart interpolation to a higher value to avoid artifacts during the quick shift.

Wavetables can wait until I have something more complex to work out. No need for a polyphonic kick drum.

thx