3 ms·

The filter does not appear to keytrack, thus it gets more or less powerful depending on which notes you play(this is sometimes desirable but usually not). It i

by chipsy 11y ago

The filter does not appear to keytrack, thus it gets more or less powerful depending on which notes you play(this is sometimes desirable but usually not). It is possible to make the filter hoot at low cutoff and maximum emphasis.

tsenkov 11y ago
Filter doesn't have keyboard tracking, yet. I've seen it on many synths and I definitely want to have it on the NV-1. Oh, you're right! On a very low C, full emphasis and cutoff at 1. Is this bad?
- chipsy 11y ago
  It's bad if your synth is aiming to be a virtual analog. The correct behavior of extreme resonance, at least in a Moog-type filter, is self-oscillation [0], but actually achieving that through digital subtractive techniques remains CPU-intensive and a cutting-edge filter design challenge, because all the action is taking place at the top of the spectrum, where sampling rates start to matter. A generic "clean digital" filter sound that can do typical resonant sweeps would be acceptable for a web synth, and a purely additive emulation like that of IL Harmless would be good enough for almost everything. There's no such thing as a totally worthless sound, but some sounds are more immediately useful for musical purposes, and letting the filter break usually indicates a low attention to detail. Low-quality digital resonance tends to have a "dentist's drill" timbre to it, even when it's not broken. A last thought: I don't know how your envelopes are made right now, but they matter a great deal to the timbre. The curvature matters, as does the speed. You can use a generic filter with poor resonance performance, but the overall result will still sound pretty good with quality oscillators and well-tuned envelopes. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVgIf71uWB4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVgIf71uWB4
  - tsenkov 11y ago
    Thank you. This is very useful. I am not using my own filter, right now. It's the default LP one in the Web Audio. I think it is probably one of the "not-so-good" parts of it. I don't want to offend anyone from the guys that made the spec, they did more than anyone expected with this API, but I do notice this "dentist's drill" timbre. I always feel it like... "pixelated sound". As for the envelopes - I spent quite some time tuning them. Yet, this is the first time I work on such a project, so I don't know exactly how bad or good they are. Great info! Very useful.

by chipsy 11y ago

tsenkov 11y ago

Filter doesn't have keyboard tracking, yet. I've seen it on many synths and I definitely want to have it on the NV-1. Oh, you're right! On a very low C, full emphasis and cutoff at 1. Is this bad?

chipsy 11y ago
It's bad if your synth is aiming to be a virtual analog. The correct behavior of extreme resonance, at least in a Moog-type filter, is self-oscillation [0], but actually achieving that through digital subtractive techniques remains CPU-intensive and a cutting-edge filter design challenge, because all the action is taking place at the top of the spectrum, where sampling rates start to matter. A generic "clean digital" filter sound that can do typical resonant sweeps would be acceptable for a web synth, and a purely additive emulation like that of IL Harmless would be good enough for almost everything. There's no such thing as a totally worthless sound, but some sounds are more immediately useful for musical purposes, and letting the filter break usually indicates a low attention to detail. Low-quality digital resonance tends to have a "dentist's drill" timbre to it, even when it's not broken. A last thought: I don't know how your envelopes are made right now, but they matter a great deal to the timbre. The curvature matters, as does the speed. You can use a generic filter with poor resonance performance, but the overall result will still sound pretty good with quality oscillators and well-tuned envelopes. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVgIf71uWB4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVgIf71uWB4
- tsenkov 11y ago
  Thank you. This is very useful. I am not using my own filter, right now. It's the default LP one in the Web Audio. I think it is probably one of the "not-so-good" parts of it. I don't want to offend anyone from the guys that made the spec, they did more than anyone expected with this API, but I do notice this "dentist's drill" timbre. I always feel it like... "pixelated sound". As for the envelopes - I spent quite some time tuning them. Yet, this is the first time I work on such a project, so I don't know exactly how bad or good they are. Great info! Very useful.