I’ve been trying to find the sound I had lost since I last posted on this forum.
I’ve tried so many different combinations and I remember having only tweat a little to get the more complex sound. I’m beginning to wonder if there’s something wrong with my Phatty. So i’d like to hear what you all think.
This is what’s happening. When I have the loop going with the LP I use the MW METAL preset on. I add the second oscillator, and have them synced. The OSC1 is at 2’ and OSC2 is at 16’. But having OSC2 at 16’ doesn’t add any bass. Instead it sounds like OSC1 (at 2’) with a bit more color. This doesn’t seem right to me. Does this sound abnormal to anyone else?
I’m pretty sure the OSCs were synced because I remember changing the patch that way. Is it possible to make it sound synced through tweaking the OSC2 Freq? I just remember having it synced though! ARG!
Nothing is wrong with your Little Phatty. When sync’d Osc. 2 is usually placed at a higher frequency than Osc. 1. The preset you mention (on my Tribute) has Osc. 1 at 2’ and Osc. 2 at 4’. BUT osc. 2’s volume is OFF, and there’s no sync. If you want it more bassy, switch Osc. 1 to 4’ or lower and add Osc. 2 with a higher freq. for color with the volume and sync on.
Unfortunately I have tried that. I keep getting one of the sounds that I originally made, and so I try and use those as a jumping place to find the one I like a lot.
I remember having both OSCs the same wavelength (triangle), but I think that which ever OSC was lower was something with a little more tooth. I’ve been listening to the same loop over and over, have the LP also playing it live so that by tweaking I can try and get the sound harmonised.
Keep in mind that using sync means that Osc2 no longer gets sent into the main mix. It strictly gets fed to Osc1 to reset Osc1s wave pattern. So all it does is create a a complex waveform that is entirely sent out from one oscillator. Therefore, the fundamental pitch you hear with sync on is always going to be whatever the pitch of Osc1 is. To make this plain, try turning the pitch of Osc2 when the sync is on. You’ll hear a change in the timbre of the sound, but the pitch stays the same.
Oscillator 2 is still sen to the main mix when Sync is on. You can confirm this by setting oscillator 1 level to zero, setting oscillator 2 level to anything above zero, and switching Sync on and off. You should be able to hear oscillator 2 in either case.
It is true that with osc 1>2 sync turned on, you will not hear a change in pitch of osc2 as a result of turning the osc2 frequency knob… but here is the reason why:
when Sync is turned on, the sound from oscillator 1 is routed internally to the oscillator 2 Sync Input (osc.1 still goes to the mixer as usual, also) - this resets the waveform of oscillator 2 to the beginning of its cycle, once per cycle of oscillator 1. This means that oscillator two, whatever frequency it is tuned to naturally, will take on the the fundamental pitch of oscillator 1 with more or less overtones depending on the natural (“un-synced”) frequency of oscillator 2. Not the most concise explanation but there you have it… This should be explained (with illustrations, no less) in the manual, probably a lot better than I explained it just now.
I read through the manual and it all makes sense. There’s some slight tweaking that I’m not doing in the right direction. I’m sure I’ll find it eventually. I distinctly remember having them synced and having osc 1 as 16’ and osc 2 as 2’. I don’t remember messing with Osc2 Frequency, but I do know I changed both waveforms to the far left (triangle). I’ll let you now when I find it again. Haha.
Alright so I’ve been keeping what everyone’s said in mind, and tweaking the hell out of the phattys oscillators. I found that I was able to get close to the original sound unsynced. The problem lies though in that I then had to move the mod wheel up a bit, and have a couple of the oscillator settings way different then remembered. I did however discover that it wasn’t the 16’ octave of OSC1 but the 8’, with OSC2 at 2’.
Then I tried syncing them, because that’s how I remember changing the patch. I put the modwheel down and set Osc1 to the middle of triangle and sawtooth(?). Osc2 with the level up is set at triangle to give it a sine-like bell sound. This part I found interesting: Because the 2’ octave of Osc2 was sounding harse, I had been avoiding the possibility that I had used it. However, I slowly rotated the freq dial and stumbled on various sections (4 or 5) where the freq gave a smooth almost sine like sound. Having the the freq on Osc2 '2 just above the forth notch I pretty much nailed the sound.
The only difficulty now is getting the sound to be less stacatto. I know the action needs to be as fast as possible but I basically need to hear the low notes last a bit longer, so the sounds flow less chopily. I’m guessing this would be in decay? or maybe release as the sounds are more sequence based and not notes you can hold down.
I can’t imagine trying to rediscover something on a Voyager
if there’s a “click” on the attack, I recommend to run the sequence and turn up the Attack time(s) just until the point when the click stops. Also your guess about the Release time is a good one; if the notes don’t overlap and they are sounding choppy you can add a bit of release to soften the note shapes. remember to add a bit of release to the filter also so you don’t hear the filter slam shut while the volume is still fading out.
Seriously, though. I do all my songs as a full midi sequence, with multiple patch changes sent from my sequencer. Well, every so often I screw up and forget to save a patch and lose it. So I start again from scratch like I do with all my sounds. It sucks when you know you had a sound you wanted and lose it. But you can’t get too set on one patch. There are too many other possibilities out there!
So if it’s taking too long trying to recreate a sound, create a new one that you like. It’s so much better than spending hours trying to remember a patch that’s lost.
