Messages

16

preenfm2 and preenfm3 / Re: The Preenano-Accident...

« on: December 21, 2020, 05:37:20 PM »

OK... updated the bank a little bit...

Prg Nr. 0...15
Should be useful for "sequencer"-stuff... in the (very low) discant maybe for some ambient-fx?

Prg Nr. 16...29
This should be useful for bass-sounds (and maybe some of the sounds may be useful for sequencer-sounds, too... but mainly they are intended for the lower end)...

I also updated the "Preen(i)ano" accident, so it is more playable and sounds more like a piano in the upper range.

Have fun!

Stefan

PS: No,... the bank is still not complete... I would have done two more bass-sounds but lost inspiration for today... (and you should stop in that case... ;-P). On the long run there will be pad-sounds and slowly evolving ambient-textures in the upper program-numbers. Maybe one or the other lead and/or FX-sound, too...

17

preenfm2 and preenfm3 / Re: The Preenano-Accident...

« on: December 21, 2020, 11:09:26 AM »

I don't have any objections, Xavier. I will give you a hint, when it's ready to go...

best,
Stefan

18

preenfm2 and preenfm3 / Re: The Preenano-Accident...

« on: December 21, 2020, 07:53:54 AM »

i like it! especially in the bass register. would you share the settings?

Well, the setup is quite complex. So, just sharing the settings for the operators is most probably not that good...

WOW, sounds good! :oCould you give us a patch?

As I do not know how (or if) I can export a single patch and as I planned to release that bank when ready... here is a copy of my current WIP-bank. All of the sounds exclusively created on and for the PreenFM. No converted DX-xyz stuff. The first 16 patches were planned to be usable for some electronic "sequencer"-stuff. The next 16 (or so) shall be all sorts of bass sounds, maybe... still needs to be decided...

have fun with the patches -- but please keep them local to this forum for now (until the bank is completed). As said, this is WIP and so there will be lots of new patches and some patches may change until release...

best,
Stefan

19

preenfm2 and preenfm3 / The Preenano-Accident...

« on: December 20, 2020, 08:29:31 PM »

Today I started creating a "phosphor"-Patch for my all-electronic(a) "elements"-bank. This didn't work out. It does not sound chemical...

20

preenfm2 and preenfm3 / Re: Sequencer to Op-Frequency Mapping?

« on: December 19, 2020, 04:57:14 PM »

OK, while I could change the firmware it would mean that the patch-set I am currently creating would be incompatible with all the other Preens out there... So, I will just not do this type of sounds...

21

preenfm2 and preenfm3 / Re: Sequencer to Op-Frequency Mapping?

« on: December 18, 2020, 07:21:38 PM »

Hello Xavier,

I tried to do the most simplistic test-setup for this scenario I could think of. See the first three images for the settings (basically just a single oscillator being modulated by step-seq1). Image nr. 4 shows the resulting output. A step of 12 halftones upwards.

What I expected was the same "upstairs"-pattern but counted up in "harmonics" from the base-note (262Hz). So, the lowest frequency should have beed (approximately, just omitting the fractions) 262Hz. The next at double that frequency 524Hz. Next at the third harmonic 768Hz.. and so on and so on...

More mathematically: What the setup delivers is (2^(n/12)*f_base) and what I wanted to get was (n*f_base)

best,
Stefan

22

preenfm2 and preenfm3 / Feature-Request/-Idea: More standard-waveforms (if possible)

« on: December 18, 2020, 12:17:37 PM »

Xavier,

currently the preenFM2(/3?) has 7 standard and 6 additional user-waveforms. The standard waveforms consist of all the usual "analogue"-type "basic"-waveforms (sine, triangle, square...) and some "special" ones allowing for different side-band spectra...

As FM-synthesis in fact is some sort of additive synthesis, it strongly benefits from some more "special" modulator waveforms allowing for better control about the number, position and strength of the harmonics in the generated sidebands.

I have no idea, however, if the PreenFM2 would have enough RAM left for this (I really wouldn't like to sacrifice the user-waveforms for that). But if there is enough RAM left for the stunt and if there is enough interest in this I would/could donate some specifically crafted waveforms in this regard.

best,
Stefan

PS: Why not using the already existing user-waveforms for that? Well, it would limit the ability to share the resulting patches...

23

preenfm2 and preenfm3 / Re: keytracking as mod source?. other suggestions

« on: December 18, 2020, 10:37:26 AM »

this will produce different colors of noise?

Well, yes, sorts of... what helps a lot when using FM(PM) for creating the sounds you want to create is thinking of FM like some sort of additive synthesis. That is you start with silence and add spectral components to it:

The basic thing behind it is: Your output-operator defines the position of the spectral content and your modulating-operator defines the distance, width and spacing of your harmonics.

So, if you want to change the color of your noise, then choose algorithm Nr. 6, choose (just for a start, change this later!) sine-waveforms for OP1/2/3 and choose (just as an example, change this later to your taste...) the frequency-factors 1.0 for OP1, 4.0 for OP2 and 8.0 for OP3. For OP4 choose noise. And for the start turn down ALL modulation-indecees to 0.0. Now turn up the modulation-index for OP3. Do this slowly(!) and notice, that the output of OP3 starting from a pure sine-wave gets more and more noisy but centered around the choosen frequency for OP3. Do the same for OP2 and OP1 until the noise sounds like you want it to.

Now modulate this (OP1-freq, OP2-freq, OP3-freq, MI1, MI2, MI3 ) from within the mod-matrix. You will be getting some really different colors of noise...

Was this of some help, maybe?

best,
Stefan
 

24

preenfm2 and preenfm3 / Re: Sequencer to Op-Frequency Mapping?

« on: December 18, 2020, 09:39:33 AM »

will try to (a) reproduce and document what I have done, how it behaves and (b) what I want to get...

best,
Stefan

25

preenfm2 and preenfm3 / Re: Preen FM2 reboot (eg after FW-Update or USB-mount) results in freeze...

« on: December 18, 2020, 09:35:56 AM »

OK, so nothing to worry about...

26

preenfm2 and preenfm3 / Re: Sequencer to Op-Frequency Mapping?

« on: December 18, 2020, 08:38:42 AM »

Xavier, If i set it up like you suggested, I end up having halftone-steps...?

BTW: Could this be a bug? Halftone-steps are all fractional multiplexers and should all sound at least quite rough when used as modulating operator because it will always break the usual relationship of overtones. So, while this would make sense for "all op frequencies" it clearly doesn't for a single one...

Stefan

27

preenfm2 and preenfm3 / Sequencer to Op-Frequency Mapping?

« on: December 17, 2020, 02:04:30 PM »

Hi,

I tried to figure out the mapping in between Seq1/2-values and Operator-Frequencies as such I can do the following:

Set up two operators at frequency at frequency "f". Alter the frequency-multiplyer of one of the operators to "n times f", with "n" being the value seen in the according sequencer (Seq1/2).

I tried to set this up in the mod-matrix (Seq1 --> [Multiplier-Value] --> OP1-freq) but whatever I set for the multiplier-value I seem unable to achieve the desired result.

Why do I want to achieve this? For some sounds I would like to create it is essentatial, that I can modulate the frequency of an operator to be an exact integer-multiple-step of the frequency of another one. If there is another way to achieve this (scaled LFO output quantized and used as OP-frequency-multiplyer, maybe?), this would be fine, too...

TIA,
Stefan

(Edith says: typo fixed)

28

preenfm2 and preenfm3 / Preen FM2 reboot (eg after FW-Update or USB-mount) results in freeze...

« on: December 17, 2020, 01:51:51 PM »

Hi,

this might be a known issue of some sort but a quick search in the forum did only reveal something about "hanging"/"freezing" notes but not about what I experience when updating the FW or accessing the USB-Stick. In both cases the PreenFM2 wants to reboot afterwards. It seems like it reaches the reset but hangs directly after. I have to turn it off and on instead. Is that a known thing? And what can I do to mitigate it?

best,
Stefan

29

preenfm2 and preenfm3 / Re: Distortion when more than 1 voice

« on: July 15, 2020, 02:17:46 PM »

Also, I re-housed my Preen in the official case & made an OLED screen out of 2 pieces of perfboard back to back (copper sides together)...

As I have already written in the LCD-Whine-Thread:

My tests clearly show, that this is magnetic coupling from the inductor (used in the OLEDs PSU) of the OLED-Board. So a by far better solution than aluminium-foil, copper-plated PCB back-to-back, whatever (really Gold?), is to use a ferro-magnetic and electrically conductive material such as iron. Just go to the super-market with a magnet and buy some soda-cans made out of tin and not of aluminium. Empty them, cut out fitting sheets, sand the sheets, so there is no lacquer left on it (so it's conductive all over!) and place that in-between your perfboards... (use at least one -- better more -- ground-wires)

best,
Stefan

Edith says: "tin" soda-can can be misleading. What's meant is: soda-cans made of tinplate (tin plated steel). Can be easily identified with a magnet...

30

preenfm2 and preenfm3 / Re: Exponential Envelope Option?

« on: July 06, 2020, 07:12:49 AM »

I always thought that click meant the oscillator does not start at a zero crossing.

All for all I recall, this is correct.

BTW: An attack-time of 0 is neither exponential or linear. It's a step... always. 

best,
Stefan

PS: The main problem arising with exponential/logarithmic volume/envelopes is mapping them to a useful range of control-values... Say you want to map a range of 0...-60dB to a range of control-values of 0...+1,0. Where in a range of say 0 to +1 would you expect to hear the signal half as loud as at +1? At +0.9 (exponential) or at +0.5(linear)? You want a control range of 0...-96dB? Well, this would make things even worse... "Half as loud" would then be at a control-value of 0.9375. Even if you reduce the control-range to something like 0...-40dB the control-value would sit at 0.8, then.

This is the main reason why most synthesizers do *NOT* use exponential envelopes (even if some of the manufacturers perpetually keep on repeating to state that they do...).