Note-controlled frequency of a filter

[arseniiv]

Hi! You may know, carefully controlling resonance frequency or some other characteristic of a filter may add a second melody (as in overtone singing). So, possibly VST makers have thought about it and added an option to set resonance (or some other) frequency of their effect’s filter(s) with note events (am I right effect VSTs can handle them?). Do you know some with such a quirk?

[AnX]

If you have a mod matrix you can set key tracking or note number to cut off and/or reso

[chk071]

Yep. Keytracking is what you're asking for. And, it is present in almost all synths, just look in the filter section.

[ENV1]

Sounds like you want to 'play' an oscillating filter.

This is generally possible through cutoff frequency modulation, but whether you will be able to have it in tune with the keyboard depends on the synths filter and the modulators 'strength-profile' because not all of them respond in such a way that all 12 notes in an octave will necessarily give you the same 12 tones that a regular oscillator would give you.

But fortunately there are lots that do. Many old analogs for instance had a means to have the filter frequency in (more or less) perfect tune with the keyboard. For example the minimoog has 2 switches in the filter section which IIRC correspond to 25% and 75% keytracking respectively. So when both are engaged keytracking is 100% and as a result the filters cutoff frequency responds just like oscillator pitch does, i.e. when it oscillates you get the right 12 tones within an octave across the whole keyboard range, and at the right basic frequency it will be in tune with the regular oscillators too. Another is KORGs Mono/Poly. This one has a knob that goes over 100% (150% to be precise) so you wouldnt turn it up full. KORGs PolySix, dito. And there are many many more, the list would be gigantic.

One where it doesnt work (not with the 'regular' features anyway) is KORGs MS-20. Although you can patch keyboard CV to cutoff frequency you can not play the oscillating filter(s) like a regular oscillator because regardless of the modulation strength you can not get them to be in tune even within 1 octave, let alone across the whole keyboard range. (So thats one example where keytracking and cutoff freq dont 'gel', so to speak.) However, KORG have added another way to the software which works differently than the patch cord way. There is a section labeled 'External Modulation', which has KBD Track as an option. When this is used (instead of the patch cord) with the strength level set to +2.50 then the oscillating filter(s) will play in tune across the whole keyboard range too.

So like i said, it ultimately depends on the synth. Just slapping keytrack on the cutoff is not guaranteed to work so the best you can do is pick a few synths you like because of their other qualities and see if it works or not. Chances are good that it will because in my experience there are more where it works than there are where it doesnt.

[arseniiv]

Thank you all! Am I getting it correct that effect plugins do frequently have keytracking too? I’d wanted to play one thing on a synth and some other with the filter (not from that synth).

[shonky]

Thank you all! Am I getting it correct that effect plugins do frequently have keytracking too? I’d wanted to play one thing on a synth and some other with the filter (not from that synth).

You might be able to do this in Ableton with key mapping by using control>k to open the key mapper, click filter cutoff to select it, hold down ctrl and hold down the lowest and highest notes you want to use for the filter to select the range, then adjust the range of the filter cutoff so that the lowest frequency of the filter correlates with the matching pitch (so say if using a range of 110hz to 440hz and a keyboard range of A1-A3 the keymapped notes should trigger resonances within the same range) although any keymapped notes will not also be available to trigger notes in the original synth, being an either/or situation.

You could also do a search for Filter Organ, this is a VST that can play tuned filters over existing audio so you could send audio from the synth track to another audio track, place Filter Organ on the audio track and then route MIDI from an empty MIDI channel to play the filters over the original synth track.

[_al_]

Thank you all! Am I getting it correct that effect plugins do frequently have keytracking too? I’d wanted to play one thing on a synth and some other with the filter (not from that synth).

all the melda plugins do this, i think. even the free pack

[onerob]

Try this:

http://www.filterorgan.com

[SMH]

Polyana FX and Scamp both do it. It's polyphonic in Polyana.

[LeVzi]

If I remember right, Filterbank 3 from Tone2 is a filter/synth sort of thing. Dunno if this is of any use.

[Ah_Dziz]

All the Melda plugins have a giant modulation system that includes midi modulation. They have a few filters and then lots of eqs (that contain more filters) all of which can do what you're talking about.
Another fun thing is smartelectronix Rez Synth by destroyfx. It's basically just a big playable band pass filterbank controlled by midi. It's really old but it works great in a bridge on windows. Not sure about Mac.

[arseniiv]

Oh, definitely many thanks! Grabbed Melda freebies and FilterOrgan. And how did I miss Rez Synth when browsing destroyfx’s site, I don’t know.

[perpetual3]

Try this:

http://www.filterorgan.com

Wow this has been something I’ve been looking for for a long time. Thank you so much.

Now, off topic, anybody know something similar using resonators?

[Liero]

Any other plugins people know of that are EQ's and accept incoming MIDI notes to change the center frequency of an EQ band?

[ericzang]

Now, off topic, anybody know something similar using resonators?

u-he mfm2. but is monophonic midi note tracking

https://www.lmdsp.com/products/superchord/ - polyphonic

melda mcomb can likely be set up to track midi notes monophonically
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 8#p6940078