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morelia · Post by **morelia** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 7:19 am

I'm just reading through Simon Cann's HTMAN, and I am trying to explore Zebra a bit more thoroughly. The first thing that I can't seem to do is send an oscillator to the MSEG1, 2, 3 or 4.

This is a great book BTW. Only downside is that it makes me want to buy all the synths he talks about. But I'll make do with Zebra. The emphasis he puts on envelopes made me want to explore the user definable envelope, and having sold Rhino (I know

) I only have Zebra with these wizbang envelopes.

jupiter8 · Post by **jupiter8** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 7:24 am

Envelope generators don't take inputs as they are modulators. If you connect them to an amplifer you get a volume envelope,filter cutoff you get a filter envelope etc. So it does'nt make sense to send an osc. to an envelope generator.
Some envelopes can be modulated though and do take inputs however i can't imagine audio rate envelope time modulation makes much sense.

What is it you want to do exactly ?

morelia · Post by **morelia** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 7:31 am

I just thought I could use the MSEG in place of the ADSR. Like a more configurable amplitude envelope.

jupiter8 · Post by **jupiter8** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 7:33 am

Then you need to connect the oscillator to an amplifier and modulate that with the MSEG. I'll fire up Z2 and see how to do it.

jupiter8 · Post by **jupiter8** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 7:46 am

OK,that was a tad more complicated than i expected. The final volume is hardwired to env 1-4 or gate. You can modulate the volume with an MSEG so you need to deal with 2 envelope generators. So set an rough outline with env1 and use an MSEG to modulate the fancy stuff. There is a volume knob for each row in the matrix. Under it is a mod knob that sets the amount of modulation. Under that you can choose a MSEG as modulator.

Hope that makes sense.

morelia · Post by **morelia** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 8:03 am

jupiter8 wrote:There is a volume knob for each row in the matrix. Under it is a mod knob that sets the amount of modulation. Under that you can choose a MSEG as modulator.

Hope that makes sense.

Sure did. Thanks for that. Now that I know it seems simple.

jupiter8 · Post by **jupiter8** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 8:28 am

morelia wrote:
jupiter8 wrote:There is a volume knob for each row in the matrix. Under it is a mod knob that sets the amount of modulation. Under that you can choose a MSEG as modulator.

Hope that makes sense.
Sure did. Thanks for that. Now that I know it seems simple.

Everything is easy when you know how to do it.

Urs · Post by **Urs** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 10:24 am

Yeah, thing is, the VCA relies on envelopes that at one point go to 0 and stop. MSEGs can loop forever, thus they are not suitable as VCA sources. As pointed out, they can be used as a secondary modulator on top of a normal ADSR or gate

Still, if you take MSEGs you probably want dramatic effects. This is best done on pitch and timbre, while volume modulations are perceived more subtly - which is why I think the (already pretty complex) ADSR envelopes in Z2 are mostly sufficient.

Later,

Urs

u-he

KVR Audio

Stupid questions about Zebra