Grandmother PB wheel issue - Firmware 1.0.2 general problem?
Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2019 12:40 pm
Hi all owners of a grandmother
The manual of the GM clearly states the following:
PITCH BEND RANGE
The pitch bend range of Grandmother’s PITCH wheel can be set anywhere from 1 to 12 semitones. To
adjust the Pitch Bend Range setting, press the (D#1) key, and then use the lowest 12 white keys (F0 to
C2) to select the corresponding number of semitones (1-12). The Default is 2 semitones.
I noticed, that the default on my synth is about 1/4 st, instead of 2 st. Also the PB wheel appeared to bend more down, than up (asymmetrical) and not according to the settings described in the manual.
Also my MOD-wheel was never 0%, so a calibration was recommended after contacting support. At this point I have to strongly advise:
Dear Moog team - you could save a lot of time and effort (for you and us customers) by just recommending to do a calibration in your manual or while registering, and make those files accessible immediately, not after we contacted you. Especially since it seems to be a necessary standard-procedure for most if not all GMs.
Anyways alot of time spent on analysis what the heck is going on, but back to the case. The mentioned calibration fixed a lot, my synth started to behave more as it should in general but the PB-wheel...
A. I realized, that the GLOBAL SETTINGS / Pitch Bend Range settings (D#1) menu allows me to actually press the white keys F0 to D2 and interprets them in the PB-ranges 0-12st
(F0=0st, G0=1st, ... to D2=12st) opposing the manual, which clearly states F0 to C2 allowing 1-12st. ???
B. The PB wheel never returns to the value (MIDI and pitch) I started from. If released snappy, it is acceptable, but if bending slowly back to 0-ish, it lands around +-35c of the original PB (on 12st PB range setting), which is a around 3/4 st apart and very apparent. Also the MIDI-data is drifting around accordingly, never going back to 0-ish again, but has an offset 600 up and it never reaches -100% value, despite calibration.
C. According to the real selectable PB intervals it all makes more sense now, but the PB wheel still bends around a 1/2 st too low up and down on 12 st PB interval settings. So it would go up +11,5 and down -12,5 st instead of +-12st.
My problem is that I can hear of course the PB being off while bending and also the pitch rarely getting back to an acceptable starting pitch after bending... it just sounds horrible.
Now the Moog customer services stated:
"The Grandmother is meant to behave more like a purely analog synth and is thus calibrated as such. This means that it may not always achieve the most accurate settings that a hybrid or digital synth could achieve. The additional MIDI implementation is a nice feature to have, but some discrepancies will be present due to the calibrations and the nature of the synth."
Please note:
I do have purely analog (and yes, really old) devices. I can adjust the PB range by ear on each of them and return to the starting pitch on each of them in a way, that it never hurt my ears had I never started measuring them and I don't care about MIDI data, if the thing does, what it should and it sounds good.
So what do you think?
1. Does your GM behave similarly?
2. Do you think, that this is acceptable "analog" discrepancies and not just poor behavior?
The manual of the GM clearly states the following:
PITCH BEND RANGE
The pitch bend range of Grandmother’s PITCH wheel can be set anywhere from 1 to 12 semitones. To
adjust the Pitch Bend Range setting, press the (D#1) key, and then use the lowest 12 white keys (F0 to
C2) to select the corresponding number of semitones (1-12). The Default is 2 semitones.
I noticed, that the default on my synth is about 1/4 st, instead of 2 st. Also the PB wheel appeared to bend more down, than up (asymmetrical) and not according to the settings described in the manual.
Also my MOD-wheel was never 0%, so a calibration was recommended after contacting support. At this point I have to strongly advise:
Dear Moog team - you could save a lot of time and effort (for you and us customers) by just recommending to do a calibration in your manual or while registering, and make those files accessible immediately, not after we contacted you. Especially since it seems to be a necessary standard-procedure for most if not all GMs.
Anyways alot of time spent on analysis what the heck is going on, but back to the case. The mentioned calibration fixed a lot, my synth started to behave more as it should in general but the PB-wheel...
A. I realized, that the GLOBAL SETTINGS / Pitch Bend Range settings (D#1) menu allows me to actually press the white keys F0 to D2 and interprets them in the PB-ranges 0-12st
(F0=0st, G0=1st, ... to D2=12st) opposing the manual, which clearly states F0 to C2 allowing 1-12st. ???
B. The PB wheel never returns to the value (MIDI and pitch) I started from. If released snappy, it is acceptable, but if bending slowly back to 0-ish, it lands around +-35c of the original PB (on 12st PB range setting), which is a around 3/4 st apart and very apparent. Also the MIDI-data is drifting around accordingly, never going back to 0-ish again, but has an offset 600 up and it never reaches -100% value, despite calibration.
C. According to the real selectable PB intervals it all makes more sense now, but the PB wheel still bends around a 1/2 st too low up and down on 12 st PB interval settings. So it would go up +11,5 and down -12,5 st instead of +-12st.
My problem is that I can hear of course the PB being off while bending and also the pitch rarely getting back to an acceptable starting pitch after bending... it just sounds horrible.
Now the Moog customer services stated:
"The Grandmother is meant to behave more like a purely analog synth and is thus calibrated as such. This means that it may not always achieve the most accurate settings that a hybrid or digital synth could achieve. The additional MIDI implementation is a nice feature to have, but some discrepancies will be present due to the calibrations and the nature of the synth."
Please note:
I do have purely analog (and yes, really old) devices. I can adjust the PB range by ear on each of them and return to the starting pitch on each of them in a way, that it never hurt my ears had I never started measuring them and I don't care about MIDI data, if the thing does, what it should and it sounds good.
So what do you think?
1. Does your GM behave similarly?
2. Do you think, that this is acceptable "analog" discrepancies and not just poor behavior?