Hello everyone
I am creating sounds which I later export into mono samples to be used in old-school tracker songs. Some sounds are way too narrow therefore I would like to widen them with a chorus-like effect. The problem is that most chorus effects, including the Zebra2 chorus, work with stereo phase offset, which rules them out for my purpose. Do you have any ideas how I could achieve a chorus-like widening effect which will preserve the sound when mixing to mono?
Thank you for all your answers, best regards
Zebra2: Mono Chorus?
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- KVRer
- 10 posts since 21 Apr, 2016
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- KVRian
- 642 posts since 22 Jun, 2018
Hello fellow tracker person! Which tracker/mod format are you using?
Zebra's mod fx has a "stereo" knob, turn it to zero to get a mono chorus. If the "Quad" knob is at a non-zero value, you also have to turn down the "Q-Phase" knob to zero.
You could also leave the stereo effect, split the file into two mono files, and use them separately.
To get a nice stereo effect in your tracker again, you can do a few different things. The most common one is to load your sample onto two channels, pan them left and right and slightly detune one of them.
In Fast Tracker, you can simply use the E5x command to detune your samples. Impulse Tracker doesn't have a dedicated detune command, but the EFx, EFx, EFx and EFx commands apply portamento only on the first tick, which essentially makes them behave like detune commands.
However, what I like to do, is to load the sample onto two channels, pan them left and right again, but instead of detuning them, I'll start one sample at a different point using the 9xx command in Fast Tracker or the Oxx command in Impulse Tracker. This works extremely well with looped pad samples and such.
Looping samples with a chorus on them can be quite difficult, but if you are going for an old school tracker sound, the loop points don't have to be perfect anyway. Most classic tracker tunes had pretty shitty loop points.
Zebra's mod fx has a "stereo" knob, turn it to zero to get a mono chorus. If the "Quad" knob is at a non-zero value, you also have to turn down the "Q-Phase" knob to zero.
You could also leave the stereo effect, split the file into two mono files, and use them separately.
To get a nice stereo effect in your tracker again, you can do a few different things. The most common one is to load your sample onto two channels, pan them left and right and slightly detune one of them.
In Fast Tracker, you can simply use the E5x command to detune your samples. Impulse Tracker doesn't have a dedicated detune command, but the EFx, EFx, EFx and EFx commands apply portamento only on the first tick, which essentially makes them behave like detune commands.
However, what I like to do, is to load the sample onto two channels, pan them left and right again, but instead of detuning them, I'll start one sample at a different point using the 9xx command in Fast Tracker or the Oxx command in Impulse Tracker. This works extremely well with looped pad samples and such.
Looping samples with a chorus on them can be quite difficult, but if you are going for an old school tracker sound, the loop points don't have to be perfect anyway. Most classic tracker tunes had pretty shitty loop points.
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- KVRer
- Topic Starter
- 10 posts since 21 Apr, 2016
Hello Delta Sign
Thanks for your answer! The Stereo knob to left was the first thing I tried before posting here, but the result still showed a phase offset. It's easy to see in Audacity when zooming into the stereo sample. Quad was at zero already. I suspect that the Stereo knob does only cover a range between non-zero values. Can someone confirm this?
I didn't understand your suggestion about splitting the stereo file. The left and right channel are identical up to the phase shift, so using one of them will wipe the chorus altogether. But maybe you meant something different?
Also thanks for the tracker tricks. Since I limit myself to four tracks I can't use the two-channel trick, but I will have a closer look to the commands you mentioned.
And since you asked, I used MED on AMIGA back in the nineties to create some songs for a game and now I am attempting to improve these with better samples. The four track limitation is not a hard limit but simply a design choice to get a blend between old and new tech. Currently I use milkytracker, so the commands you explained should work there.
Thanks for your answer! The Stereo knob to left was the first thing I tried before posting here, but the result still showed a phase offset. It's easy to see in Audacity when zooming into the stereo sample. Quad was at zero already. I suspect that the Stereo knob does only cover a range between non-zero values. Can someone confirm this?
I didn't understand your suggestion about splitting the stereo file. The left and right channel are identical up to the phase shift, so using one of them will wipe the chorus altogether. But maybe you meant something different?
Also thanks for the tracker tricks. Since I limit myself to four tracks I can't use the two-channel trick, but I will have a closer look to the commands you mentioned.
And since you asked, I used MED on AMIGA back in the nineties to create some songs for a game and now I am attempting to improve these with better samples. The four track limitation is not a hard limit but simply a design choice to get a blend between old and new tech. Currently I use milkytracker, so the commands you explained should work there.
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- KVRian
- 1426 posts since 30 Mar, 2014
I think he means if you have a regular mono signal and want to add a chorus like effect inside the tracker itself. It's more of a comb filter effect when you offset two identical signals without modulating them, if I'm not totally mistaken.starbird1975 wrote:I didn't understand your suggestion about splitting the stereo file. The left and right channel are identical up to the phase shift, so using one of them will wipe the chorus altogether. But maybe you meant something different?
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- KVRAF
- 4197 posts since 23 May, 2004 from Bad Vilbel, Germany
Can't confirm - 100% mono here if "Stereo" and "Quad" are both set to zero. Are you sure the audio source isn't stereo? That will of course be preserved.starbird1975 wrote:The Stereo knob to left was the first thing I tried before posting here, but the result still showed a phase offset. It's easy to see in Audacity when zooming into the stereo sample. Quad was at zero already. I suspect that the Stereo knob does only cover a range between non-zero values. Can someone confirm this?
If you need to convert any audio source to mono, insert a "Mix" module set to "Pan Mono" mode and turn the "Mix" knob up to maximum. There may be easier methods, depending on your patch.
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- KVRer
- Topic Starter
- 10 posts since 21 Apr, 2016
Hello Howard
Now that's interesting. You're right, the Stereo knob indeed does reduce the phase shift to zero. So I went to analyze my preset and found that it indeed generates a stereo sound. I had dual oscillator with non-zero width which generates a stereo phase offset just like the chorus does, only that the chorus does other things as well.
So the question is answered, Zebra2's chorus is indeed mono compatible with the right settings. Thanks for clarifying this topic!
Now that's interesting. You're right, the Stereo knob indeed does reduce the phase shift to zero. So I went to analyze my preset and found that it indeed generates a stereo sound. I had dual oscillator with non-zero width which generates a stereo phase offset just like the chorus does, only that the chorus does other things as well.
So the question is answered, Zebra2's chorus is indeed mono compatible with the right settings. Thanks for clarifying this topic!