preenfm Forum
PreenFM => preenfm2 and preenfm3 => Topic started by: solipsvs on July 01, 2015, 09:44:31 PM
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(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/123999/20150701_144753.jpg)
what a nice looking machine. i love the display! and the white knobs... :o the way the editor is set up is very nice and easy to get around. i would say that this is probably the easiest fm synth interface i can imagine, having used a few. bravo on the matrix and the first 4 multipliers as destinations... that makes this thing a monster. i am only using at most 2 lfos per voice and it already sounds very animated! i can imagine using this in many synth capacities. i may want another one (in which case im in luck, i have 2 more unassembled) because this would make sense for so many elements in my music. i think this is a very good value for a kit. the sound is simply gorgeous! i need no other fm hardware, this will do incredibly nicely!
one thing i would love to see however is a phase control for the lfos that was controllable over midi cc
i would also like to be able to set the lfo shape with midi cc.
perhaps the bias setting as well?
any chance of a simple delay in place of the filter?
fold over distortion from that old thread might be nice too... i can see the need for another pfm2 ;D
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Thanks a lot for the nice words... Much much appreciated :)
1. one thing i would love to see however is a phase control for the lfos that was controllable over midi cc
2. i would also like to be able to set the lfo shape with midi cc.
3. perhaps the bias setting as well?
4. any chance of a simple delay in place of the filter?
5. fold over distortion from that old thread might be nice too... i can see the need for another pfm2 ;D
1 & 5 : I don't get what you mean.
2 & 3 : These two could be easily done. But cannot you use NRPN ? they're accessible through NRPNs.
4 : No, a delay requires a good amount of memory. The preenfm2 chipset does not have that.
Thanks
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(http://support.spectrasonics.net/manual/Omnisphere2/layer_page/lfos/images/lfo_phase2.png)
(http://www.hobbyprojects.com/general_theory/images/phase1.gif)
LFO start phase just lets you start the LFO from another point besides the 0 degree phase offset position of the cycle. Very useful in sound design/wobble creation. highly useful for making grooves based on tempo synced LFOs. (it would be nice to control the lfo separately from the voice, but i realize that is too much to ask)
any distortion based FX or even distortion>filter FX would be welcome... funkyfli made a fold over distortion hack: http://ixox.fr/forum/index.php?topic=63477.msg65336#msg65336 speaking of filter FX... have you ever considered a dual mode filter? this is where the bottom half of the sweep is a low pass and the top half is high pass... this plus the bias setting would make for interesting sounding filter sweeps.
i would like to request as many matrix destinations as possible if there are more possible such as LFO bias or parameters other than frequency cutoff in the filter.
NRPN is cool but my favorite sequencer doesnt use them, only CC messages. im talking about Zaquencer: https://zaqaudio.com/
are there any user banks around?
also: how do you make an image display at a size that will fit in the page?
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1. Haha.. i read several times and each time i read "phrase controle" :) (with the aditional R).
Adding a phase controle to the LFO is a good idea.. But i have to think how to make it fit nicely in the UI without breaking the navigation. Not sure it's possible though.
5. I Must have a better look at funkyfly fold over distortion hack.
I also want to have as many matrix targets as possible. The problem is that many parameters requires a modification (can be CPU heavy) only when the parameter changes. With the matrix the modification will be required all the time which is not nice on the CPU. For you info the current CPU usage with maximum polyphony and FX is very close to 100%.
That's also the reason why it's not possible to add heavier FX than the one that exists.
I resized the image adding width=800 in the img tags did the trick.
There are a couple of URL at the bottom of http://ixox.fr/preenfm2/download/
Xavier
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what do you think of the dual mode filter idea? that shouldnt take up more cpu than the current filter models i think... and as long as there is memory available, i figure it could probably work.
for navigation, couldnt you just add another page so you need to click one more time to get through the loop? i think phase control of the lfos is worth an extra click...
hey how about a randomize button like sammich fm?
btw even without these things i think its a great instrument.
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Dual mode means 2 filter in paralel at the same time no ? so it's twice the CPU.
Another page for one parameter for each LFO. That makes 3 more pages in the LFO sections. Don't know....
A randomize button ? :D
Search for "random" in this page ;)
http://ixox.fr/preenfm2/manual/menu-mode/
Xavier
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in a dual mode filter the filter types are completely separated in the sweep, they dont overlap. that means still only one active filter at any point in the sweep... i have no clue if that changes anything.
i also have shruthis that take an audio input that i could use as a filter. so native preen distortion (in place of a filter) would be just fine.
DOH! random right there in the menu. thank you!
so lets think of more parameters for each lfo... you could separate the KSyn into keytrigger and delay start and maybe onset curve? how about lfo depth? that would give us a global control of each LFO depth and could also be a matrix destination. add phase and you got the new pages full.
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what do you think?
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Adding the CC you suggested ? Yes.
The CPU cannot handle 2 filters in paralel at the same time. Filter section can only be very simple. So no, sorry.
For the improved LFO and new filters, i have to investigate more.
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i have a great idea... we could add more waveforms to the LFO list. this way, you can avoid an offset parameter, as there are only a few useful offsets anyway! so for instance, you could make the list like this: sine 0, sine 90, sine 180, sine 270, saw 0, saw 90, saw 180, saw 270, etc
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Hmmm... Why not.
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where do i get the current bootloader and
can we make the lfo phase a modulation destination? or is it tweakable by cc?
can we have a global polyphony setting so we can make all 4 patches in a combo cut each other off (or maybe a group setting)? for instance i want to use it as a monosynth, and play a melody where all steps can be played with a different patch. of course i will need to send notes to the appropriate midi channel. or hey it might be nice to have a vector mixer for all 4 parts of the combo. im not sure how these will affect the cpu but i suspect that cutting off playback for one or more layers will free up cpu...
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Latest bootloader is 1.11 and is available with the firmware 1.06.
http://ixox.fr/preenfm2/download/
I don't get the point having lfo phase as modulation destination as it's only used when you press a new note to initialize the phase.
No CC but NRPN - NRPN is automatic and free regarding the code ;)
MSB : 1
LSB : 68 + <LFO number>
No plan for global polyphony. That would be to have one FILTER per voice ?
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hmm its not for the filter, its just so one sound cuts another off.
having phase as mod destination is only useful at note on anyway, dont need it after note on. so it would be nice to access that within the matrix. by the way, my sequencer doesnt do nrpn. can we please make it respond to cc?
what do you think of a vector mixer? i guess that can be done with 4 volume levels, but it might be nice to have it as a native part of the voice architecture...
also sorry for being dim but how do i upgrade the bootloader to 1.11? do i just load it from the usb key?
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You cannot load the bootloader from the USB key as it cannot burn itself.
To upgrade the bootloader you have to enter DFU mode. Follow this :
http://ixox.fr/preenfm2/build-it/burn-firmware/
No plan for vector mixer : i remind you that the firmware is open source ;)
Eventually LFO phase on matrix destination, but can be complicated from some of the source. I have to check.
And yes i would need to add more CC controls.
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pity about that vector mixer ;) im not a coder tho. :( are you saying this because theres no more resources for a mixer of the kind? it doesnt matter really, i can just use a controller made for the task.
xavier thank you for a lovely synth as is and im flattered that you actually added the phase control over the LFOs! ive never been immortalized this way...
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Haha... LFO phases were a good sugestion ;)
You can already make a external vector mixer by controlling Filter Gain with NRPN.
http://ixox.fr/preenfm2/manual/midi/
If your DAW does not support NRPN (ableton live ?) you'll have to wait for CC support for the filter gain.
Xavier
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no i like to use mostly hardware sequencers for everything. the one i would like to use with pfm2 is zaquencer (https://zaqaudio.com/)
hey! can we load our own LFO waves?
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ok i just need to learn how to use it but i think i can use nrpns with my Wave Idea Bitstream 3x, record them to a scene or motion sequence and then trigger those with zaquencer... scenes with program changes, and motion sequences with notes or simple tempo sync. i knew there were options! im loving this synth!
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i think i have some improvement ideas for LFO manipulation if you dont mind hearing me out haha and thank you very much for adding an offset, seriously thats very cool already!
of course offset as a mod destination (note on only) is a very nice idea indeed.
another idea i have is perhaps enabling some sort of LFO reset event independent of 'note on' that will force restart the LFO phase to whatever is set plus any offset from the mod matrix.
another idea is perhaps to allow us to load our own LFO shapes? maybe allow oscillator shapes as lfo shapes since its already there?
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I'm not into a firmware upgrade mood, but i keep these ideas in mind.. Thanks for sharing.
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ah well it doesnt hurt to ask. im on my second build, and my third will be soon.