Low-pitched Vs. High-pitched Notes Loudness

[2.0project]

Hi everyone,

Am I the only one having isssues with high- and low-pitched notes in terms of loudness?

High pitched notes are louder than low pitched notes.
I know high-pitched sounds are more easily heard by our ears but I don't have this issue when playing the guitar or using a piano VST. It's quite annoying because I made an ambient pad preset and I barely hear the low-pitched notes and adjusting velocities doesn't seem to do anything.

I have the latest version of SynthMaster installed.

Any help or tips would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[FLWrd]

I think you're underestimating the influence of harmonics in stringed instruments. Quite possibly, your patch doesn't have strong harmonics in the mid range when playing a low pitch.

What do you mean by "adjusting velocities doesn't seem to do anything"? Did you set the influence of velocity on volume via the modulation matrix?

[simon.a.billington]

Higher frequencies require less energy to generate.

That is why if you apply the same consistent gain across the frequency span it perceivably gets louder, but the energy or gain level remains the same. You can use a tool like the Paz Analyser to visually see this.

Or to view it another way you can use the WLM meter, set a sine wave generator so that it averages at the meter's long term threshold, then slowly raise the frequency. As you do that the meter will go more into the red the higher you raise the frequency.

The rule or thumb is to drop 3dB per octave in gain and then everything will seem consistent.

http://www.waves.com/plugins/meters#sor ... :number=20

[2.0project]

Thanks to both of you for your replies! (Happy New year btw!)

What do you mean by "adjusting velocities doesn't seem to do anything"? Did you set the influence of velocity on volume via the modulation matrix?

No I haven't and I'm not sure to understand why I should do that.
Isn't that the purpose of the Velocity Curve, to control the velocity of which each note is being hit?
I thought modifying the velocity would get me the result I want but it won't. To me it seems like there's something wrong with the way the velocity works in SynthMaster. I have no problem doing that with other synth VSTs...

That being said, I still tried what you said and set the Volume (modulation parameter) to be controlled by the MIDI Velocity (modulation source) in the modulation matrix but it won't do it for me because the synth plays chords and doing so alters the volume for the whole chord (and not for single notes like I want). Note that I also tried other modulation parameters instead of volume and the results are the same.

Just FYI, the preset is pretty simple. Just a 8-voice sawtooth with slow attack and release (Oscillator 1) on Layer 1 and a low-pass filter.

The rule or thumb is to drop 3dB per octave in gain and then everything will seem consistent.

I didn't know that, I'm still pretty new to synth stuff. I'll definitely try that! Not sure how to achieve this in SynthMaster though.


Any other ideas?
Anyone else?
Maybe kv331 could help me with their product?

[FLWrd]

Thanks to both of you for your replies! (Happy New year btw!)

You too.

Isn't that the purpose of the Velocity Curve, to control the velocity of which each note is being hit?

First this: don't apply too many visual effects to your post. It's confusing.

Second: no, velocity is just one of the many parameters that can be used to control the volume of the patch. It can do much more. E.g., it's quite common to make velocity also change the cutoff or the attack speed. The synth designer shouldn't make these choices for you. Modular synths are often considered the holy grail of synthesis, because all possibilities are open. SynthMaster isn't truly modular (the main audio path is fixed), but leaves almost all modulation to the sound programmer. That is one of the reasons it's rated so highly, but also why it's a bit difficult to get SynthMaster to do what you want.

If you want each note in a chord to be separately influenced by the velocity, you must make velocity modulate the volume of Layer 1 and/or Layer 2 (or, another possibility, make velocity modulate the volume of each oscillator separately). Select as target Layer 1 > Voice Volume, and as source Midi > Midi Velocity. Then switch the little + (add) to x (multiply) and set the amount of influence to +1 (completely to the right). What that does is multiply the complete signal coming out of Layer 1 with the velocity of the note that triggered that layer. That will give you the conventional way to control a note's volume from the keyboard velocity.