Tal J-8

[EvilDragon]

Ahahahaha

I suppose the "heat" of a live gig makes it more unstable, but it seems it just has that giant heatsink in the back. That's probably not enough to ensure proper cooling of the innards. Mounting a fan or two in strategic places would probably help, tho. But yeah, it's definitely not a gigging machine...

[clipnotic]

why are there 12 voices, not 8/16 (haven't tried it yet, so don't know full info)

Because it's an enhancement! The better question is, why not 16/32

The next amazing TAL plugin, great work!

[mholloway]

Could someone here that is in-the-know please clarify for me *exactly* what the "Calibration" knobs are doing?

I ask because I've seen multiple comments within this thread talking about the Calibration knobs as if they were like the 'Dispersion' controls in the Arturia Jup-8 V4 -- that is, providing drift / randomization per-note trigger for each voice, per the parameter named on the knob...


...but there is nothing I can find in the J-8 manual to support this notion. The manual, in fact, states that the calibration controls are for making the J-8 filter behave like the U-No-LX filter -- and sites the example of increasing the calibration 'reso' knob to make the J-8 filter have overall stronger resonance and push into self-oscillation.

So where did this notion of the calibration knobs being a per-voice, note-triggered drift and randomization come in? Is it possible that folks just incorrectly assumed it was like the Arturia dispersion, when in fact it's not at all, and is instead just a static offset (increase) for each named parameter? Or something else?

In the Arturia, if you crank dispersion amounts up, you clearly hear that it results in note-triggered randomization: you'll hear the variation across notes as you continue to play, so long as you aren't playing the same note over and over (dispersion only kicks in for non-same notes, interestingly enough). I'm not hearing this sort of thing with the J-8, so again, what do the calibration knobs *literally* do?

thanks!
-M

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

The SC panel/button is the per voice controls. Not the calibration knobs.

[mholloway]

The SC panel/button is the per voice controls. Not the calibration knobs.

I know that. But can you answer my question, what do the Calibration knobs do, literally speaking? The manual only describes the Resonance calibration knob, but doesn't really explain what the others are actually doing. It's not clear, and I've read the whole thing.

And also -- I could look for the earlier posts -- people seemed to suggest there was 'randomization' available in the J-8, e.g. like the Arturia Dispersion -- but I'm not finding anything that works that way. The SC allows settings offsets, but there's no randomization or master drift control that I'm aware of.

The dispersion is actually the coolest part of the Arturia synth, imho. It's very musical and pleasant sounding, even at high levels. In J-8 you can apply a slight amount of random LFO ( with key-trig turned on) to pitch and cutoff, but that's not quite the same, and doesn't cover as much ground, parameter-wise.

[perpetual3]

If you’re examine the waveforms through a scope, you’ll see that the Vca and drive knobs will alter the shape of the wave form and add some harmonics.

The SC panel/button is the per voice controls. Not the calibration knobs.

I know that. But can you answer my question, what do the Calibration knobs do, literally speaking? The manual only describes the Resonance calibration knob, but doesn't really explain what the others are actually doing. It's not clear, and I've read the whole thing.

And also -- I could look for the earlier posts -- people seemed to suggest there was 'randomization' available in the J-8, e.g. like the Arturia Dispersion -- but I'm not finding anything that works that way. The SC allows settings offsets, but there's no randomization or master drift control that I'm aware of.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

And also -- I could look for the earlier posts -- people seemed to suggest there was 'randomization' available in the J-8, e.g. like the Arturia Dispersion -- but I'm not finding anything that works that way. The SC allows settings offsets, but there's no randomization or master drift control that I'm aware of.

They are just per voice offsets to add slop. You're not missing anything. I'm not sure what the Arturia does but there's no random Drift control in J-8. At least nothing user configurable.

[waltercruz]

So where did this notion of the calibration knobs being a per-voice, note-triggered drift and randomization come in? Is it possible that folks just incorrectly assumed it was like the Arturia dispersion, when in fact it's not at all, and is instead just a static offset (increase) for each named parameter? Or something else?

well, calibration seems more like an offset/calibration for some parts of the synths, not per voice. there's some tips on the left panel:

VCO -> VCO Tone
Drive -> Filter Drive
Reso -> Resonance Intensity
Env -> Envelope Decay Roll Off

[AnX]

why are there 12 voices, not 8/16 (haven't tried it yet, so don't know full info)

Because it's an enhancement! The better question is, why not 16/32

yes, well done.... but the numbers are odd

i assumed it was using voice cards (like Obsession) so the number of voices should be in multiples of 8 (like the original)

im gonna spend some time with it today anyway, so I'll soon find out.

(i have read the manual but it's pretty sparse, more a quick start guide)

[kvotchin]

nvm...

[mholloway]

Any audio/video examples of this one yet? Intriguing, for sure, but I do like to hear the thing first...

Even better, there's a demo...

[abi]

So nice to have these Roland vibes without having to deal with them. Tal is so refreshing!

[Arashi]

Patrick can handle the criticism , this is not about what's wrong with the plugin becasue imho there is nothing wrong with it .
Everything is uber-quality from the get go , like any other tal commercial plugin , just a few minor tweaks to make it even better.
It's not that this thread is overloaden with bug reports and inferior coding issues , it simply can't be becasue this is TAL
He delivers

[EvilDragon]

i assumed it was using voice cards (like Obsession) so the number of voices should be in multiples of 8 (like the original)

OBsession uses voice card system yes, that means it could have any number of voices really, but it does it in blocks of 8 because of SSE/AVX processing which is 4/8 things at once, so it makes no sense to support odd numbers/not multiples of 4 for that type of processing. J-8 is likely the same, since you have per-voice offsets on SC page.

[AnX]

exactly, so 8/16 would seem logical, not 12