Friends,
I made a video awhile back of myself controlling the Voyager’s pitch with the Etherwave Plus. When ascending from zero beat there is a definate zippering effect.
You can listen to it here, but keep in mind this video isn’t intended to be musical. You may have seen this before. Zippering effect at 3:20 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eleittomrtE
Because this recently came up in a post and a question on my youtube account where I had to plug my theremin in and see about their answer, I decided to try this out.
I controlled the frequency of the Frew Box, and no zippering.
Voyager= zippering effect.
As a side experiment, I put the filter resonance all the way up and controlled the cutoff with the theremin with the same positive zipper effect.
The effect itself is reminiscent of sample and hold but it is a very 8 bit sound. I think it sounds fine but Im wondering if this is a resuly of the Etherwave, or if this is happening because the Voyager I have has digital implementations.
I have noticed a similar zippering effect when using the touchpad to control the freqbox’s pitch and it is even prevalent when controlling the filter cutoff without that much resonance.
Basically, I can live with it, but Id like to know what is causing this zipper effect.
This would answer the question about whether or not the Old School will respond in the same way to this type of CV.
I controlled the frequency of the Freq Box, and no zippering.
Voyager= zippering effect.
As a side experiment, I put the filter resonance all the way up and controlled the cutoff with the theremin with the same positive zipper effect.
I experienced the same thing.
The FreqBox was smooth.
Both the Voyager and LPF stepped.
When I turned the resonance up on the LPF and used the theremin to control the cutoff frequency, it sounded rater cool to my ears. (somewhat of a S+H effect)
I also noticed a “dead” spot in my theremin, where the pitch would lock. I could move slightly with no changes. Once I broke out of the spot, the pitch would change. It seemed to be “looking” for a voltage. (creating the S+H effect)
Hi Eric,
I think it’s the same problem with the OS. The CV inputs are directly connected to the analog summing opamps and there’s no processor scanning of these inputs.
I find out even on the old Minimoog model D you can hear these noises.
I think low voltages must be very very clear otherwise you will hear noises.
The problem of the cascade filter is that the exponentiator is very sensitive in the lower CV range. Maybe I’m wrong, it’s just an idea.
Have fun,
Rudi
See I thought that as the low voltages are fired, the difference in Hz is what created the zippering. Like it was something to do with the Theremin and not the Voyager. But I thought about the touchpad creating the same zippering.
I really didn’t think that the CV’s would have to go through the Digital Brain, that didn’t make sence to me.
The sound is really good, really 8-bit. I was thinking that the Voyager’s response would be different.
Erik, if you’ve got a CP-251 the lag processor might smooth out the stepping. I find it useful to put a lag after a knob generating a CV. Just a little lag up and down to smooth out the knob twists. Most likely good for etherwave VC’s too.
LP,
Ill definately keep that in mind, the lag processor wasn’t the module that I was the MOST familiar with.
RL,
Thats all well and good, as I don’t use my touchpad a whole lot, and I think if I did it would be to control something externally anyway. I personally don’t see the point in using the touchpad to control pitch when the keyboard does a perfectly good job for that. I really haven’t experimented much with pot mapping and programming many different destinations with the software. I like just dialing up sounds pretty straightforward from the panel settings, my favorite thing to do is to change the filter poles though.
I appreciate everyones answers and help with this issue, ive been really trying to figure this out for a long time, and glad to know that it isn’t an issue with any digital latency or anything like that.