Two Quick Hive Questions

[fourthmanfire]

1. What's the real difference between the "Size" and "Decay" parameters of the Reverb? I've read the manual's explanation and have played around with both of them to see, but I'm not getting the real differentiator between the two (other than some crazy feedback when size is 0 and delay is 99.5ish+). Is there a reason that they're two separate controls? Does it have to do more with the "back end" of reverb setup? Thanks for any tips/tricks..

2. This may be the case with all plugins, so if so, please disregard. I've found that I cannot play a new note with my computer keyboard when I move the Hive window. This is slightly problematic, as sometimes I'm holding a note or playing a sequence and I need to get to the MIDI or to another plugin's window while hearing the sound, but until I release the window/click, I am not able to. Oddly enough, this does not happen when I play notes on my MIDI keyboard. Is this an issue or not really?

Thanks y'all.

[Jax Pok]

Try the manuals for Valhalla DSP reverbs.

[Howard]

AFAIK "Size" controls the time between individual delays (as adjusting it shifts the pitch of the resonance!)
BTW the Valhalla manual calls this "modal density". Sounds about right.

AFAIK "Decay" controls how hard the walls are and therefore how much signal gets passed on between delays.

What's not so clear to me is the difference between Decay and Damp... I'll ask Urs when he's available.

[EvilDragon]

Decay could be how quickly the delays reduce in volume, whereas Damp controls the filter cutoff of the filter in the feedback loop?

2. This may be the case with all plugins, so if so, please disregard. I've found that I cannot play a new note with my computer keyboard when I move the Hive window. This is slightly problematic, as sometimes I'm holding a note or playing a sequence and I need to get to the MIDI or to another plugin's window while hearing the sound, but until I release the window/click, I am not able to. Oddly enough, this does not happen when I play notes on my MIDI keyboard. Is this an issue or not really?

Doesn't happen over here at all. What's your DAW, OS, MIDI controller?

[fourthmanfire]

AFAIK "Size" controls the time between individual delays (as adjusting it shifts the pitch of the resonance!)
BTW the Valhalla manual calls this "modal density". Sounds about right.

AFAIK "Decay" controls how hard the walls are and therefore how much signal gets passed on between delays.

What's not so clear to me is the difference between Decay and Damp... I'll ask Urs when he's available.

Thanks for the attempted explanation and follow-up, Howard. I appreciate it!

Decay could be how quickly the delays reduce in volume, whereas Damp controls the filter cutoff of the filter in the feedback loop?

2. This may be the case with all plugins, so if so, please disregard. I've found that I cannot play a new note with my computer keyboard when I move the Hive window. This is slightly problematic, as sometimes I'm holding a note or playing a sequence and I need to get to the MIDI or to another plugin's window while hearing the sound, but until I release the window/click, I am not able to. Oddly enough, this does not happen when I play notes on my MIDI keyboard. Is this an issue or not really?

Doesn't happen over here at all. What's your DAW, OS, MIDI controller?

Ableton, OS X Yosemite, MIDI Controller is M-Audio Axiom, but again, this issue only happens with my computer keyboard, not my MIDI controller..

Let me try to explain the issue more clearly. I open Hive, play a note (staccato...*tap tap tap tap*) on my laptop keyboard. If I try to keep playing notes (as in strike the note again), I am not able to when moving the Hive window (by clicking the top bar). I am only able to resume playing new notes when I release the click of the Hive menu bar..

I'm sorry if this is confusing - if it's still unclear, I'll try explaining another way .

[BDeep]

Re: your second point. I have use Live and OS X as well. It happens on all synths. What happens is that when you move the plugin window, Live regains focus of your keyboard, so the keystrokes aren't forwarded by Live to Hive. That's also the reason your MIDI keyboard works just fine, it doesn't rely on the focus of windows. So it's not odd at all

If it's a really big issue for you, you might want to consider one of those Korg nanokeyboards. They're not much to play on, but they're so tiny that you can have one right within reach. And it's still much better than using the laptop keyboard.


EDIT: actually, Live doesn't allow any keyboard input whatsoever when you drag a plugin window, so it doesn't just take focus again, it ignores it altogether.

[EvilDragon]

but again, this issue only happens with my computer keyboard, not my MIDI controller...

Therein lies your problem. Most DAWs take keyboard focus when you click within the plugin window, so you can't keep on using your QWERTY virtual keyboard while tweaking the plugin...

...except in Reaper. Reaper has an option to direct all keyboard input to virtual keyboard, which means you can keep QWERTYing and tweaking the plugin until cows come home.

[fourthmanfire]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I have one more question. Is there any way to reverse the direction of the scroll in the patch browser? Currently when you scroll "down" with your mouse wheel, the patch goes back to the beginning....and when you scroll "up", the presets shift to the left.

I feel like this is counterintuitive? Wouldn't it make more sense to scroll DOWN to get to more (later) presets?

I realize this is a small issue. I also realize u-he is very active and responsive on the forum, so who knows..maybe my feedback is worth something.