Post by jiffy on Sept 27, 2009 9:25:48 GMT
Page 1:- www.alesismusic.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=4970 This link edited by JMS on 8-30-2021 to connect to the New FusionZone Forum location
This post is going to be an ongoing personal collection of tips, tricks, and discoveries. I may even pull in links and quotes from other posts. The idea is to catalog what I learn in a way that's easily accessible and update-able.
Why not just make normal posts in the Fusion Tips forum itself? Why have a separate post?
The answer is that I want to cut down on searching, remembering, organizing, and commenting on tips that I personally find useful in my particular setup. Tips I post won't get scattered as time passes by, and anything new I run across will automatically have a place to be put... here...
I won't be asking how-to-do-this-thing, there won't be any help!-my-Fusion-is-acting-up posts, and there won't be redundant repeating of the same old questions in a different form (how do I play a MIDI file, etc).
And frankly, there will probably be a lot of stuff that is mostly of interest to me. Less useful to others. Obscure stuff like mod matrix tricks. Lists of FM or PM-only sounds. Custom FX patches. Brainstorms. Comments. Stuff I like others probably won'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
MOD MATRIX: keytracked stereo
To get the best stereo effect, you just take a 2-track sound and pan hard left and hard right, correct?
Nope. Of course, "best" is subjective, but that old method just makes a static wide space that is soon quickly forgotten, once again allowing the brain to focus on the dull lifelessness of a sound you're trying to cheaply "sweeten" via wider stereo field.
Here's how I roll my own, more dynamically interesting stereo effect. Esp useful for the more traditional keyboard sampled instruments, like FM and other electric piano, Rhodes, clavs, xylophones, marimbas, and our beloved acoustic piano. Takes a dead field and makes it alive, responsive to your playing and friendly to the ears, by gradually spreading the notes across the field.
Add Mod
Source: Keytrack
Amount: 3-4 octaves (smaller = wider)
Destination: Osc Pan
Index: Osc 1 (and another Mod for each Osc you want to pan)
Type: Additive
Amount: (varies)*
*(you'll want a spread of somewhere like 20 ==> 80)
Naturally you'll first want to go to the OSC PAN and set it mostly to the left, say around 20. What this Mod does is make the sound go more and more to the right channel, depending on which note it is on the keyboard. C3 slightly right, C5 even more to the right, etc.
Can still be used with other pan effects, like Autopan and Rotary. Makes the sound interesting because the brain/ear is "chasing" a moving target.
Update.
Turns out you don't need to set the OSC PAN mostly to the left after all. Upon closer examination, it seems that the stereo spread starts from middle C, then spreads outwards AWAY from middle C at the rate you set in the Octaves and Amount.
This actually makes it a bit easier to predict or manipulate how to spread originally mono multisamples across the stereo field in pairs. For example, I finally got a hold of the elusive and much-praised NS piano soundfont, but it's a mono multisampled piano. Bright and strong (perhaps too much upper midrange presence) and relatively small in sample size at 27MB, but small due to it not being in stereo.
So, to simulate stereo and also achieve some detuning effects, you can load the sample twice in the first and second slots in the sample synth engine. This will work with any mono multisample that you want to thicken up with more presence, volume, and cross-fading possibilities. But rather than have each multisample in the same exact stereo position, instead offsetting one of the sample's OSC PAN more left than the other, while leaving the Octave and Amount spreads identical, you can more predictably control this gradual stereo spread of the "pairs" of notes across the keyboard.
That is, of course, assuming that the mono multisample sounds out in the exact center of the stereo field all the way across its whole octave ranges. Which, unfortunately, the NS piano doesn't -- it favors the left side for the lower octaves, and the center for everything else...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
FUSION as a MIXER
2-track ==> Use EXT IN patch.
Up to 8 channels ==> Use SONG mode.
Add an Audio Track for each new channel needed.
Set RECORD ARM ==> ON
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Export entire SONG as a stereo WAV (bounce or mixdown)
1) Use 2 patch cables from MAIN OUTs. Alternatively use a Y-cable from Headphones Out.
2) ==> route patch cables to 2 free Audio Inputs
3) IMPORTANT: to avoid feedback, set these 2 Audio Tracks to the AUX Output...
4) Record SONG. All tracks, both MIDI and audio, will be mixed together and recorded onto the 2 free tracks.
5) Export each track to a folder:
UTILITY/Track Utilities/Export from this track
6) Connect USB cables to Fusion. Navigate to folder where you saved the 2 audio tracks. Copy to computer.
Note: The WAV files are 24-bit, and need to be converted down to 16-bit before you can burn them immediately to a CD. Use WinAmp to first test recorded sound quality and mix levels, then use WinAmp to convert down to 16-bit and burn CD.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Physical Modeling Synthesis
Yamaha and Stanford own the licenses on the most advanced/accurate physical modeling algorithms. List of Yamaha keyboards/sound modules that use physical modeling:
VL70m sound module
Yamaha EX5
PLG150VL plug-in card
Cs6x (w/ PLG card)
MU128 (w/ PLG card)
Motif ES (w/ PLG card)
Other PM players:
Korg Prophecy
Korg Z1
Technics WSA
Alesis Fusion
Nord G2
All Yamaha manuals highly recommend using a breath or wind controller of some type to get maximum effect from PM-type voices. The difference is night and day. Breath and wind controllers even make analog and rompler voices much more expressive.
Bottomline: get a BC or wind controller for the Fusion's PM voices.
www.patchmanmusic.com/midisolutions.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
FM programming shortcut
EDIT/Synth/OSC/Output
On this one page you can quickly setup all your FM operators and interactions. Very intuitive, can hear immediate results without getting confused.
-- turn OSC on/off
-- set route to modify other OSCs
-- set amount of mod
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
PITCH BEND: Up a 2nd, down an Octave
How to set the pitch bend wheel to bend a note differently. This one makes the up-bend raise the pitch a whole tone (2 semitones), while making the down-bend lower the pitch an octave.
1) Set PB a full octave
EDIT/Program/Pitch ==>
Pitch Bend Range: 12 semitones
2) Make a mod to decrease range to 2 semitones
EDIT/Add Mod/SourceDestination ==>
Source: Controller
Index: Pitch Wheel
Destination: Pitch
Type: Additive
Amount: -10.00%
3) Make a table to split the up/down behavior of the PB Wheel
EDIT/Mod/Settings/Shape ==> New Table
EDIT Breakpoint 1
Point Position: -100
Point Value: 0
EDIT Breakpoint 2
Point Position: -0
Point Value: 0
EDIT Breakpoint 3
Point Position: +100
Point Value: +100
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
UI SHORTCUT KEYS
Note: Before using SET LOC + [1-8] to mark often-used EDIT pages, you must go to GLOBAL/Settings/Options and make sure (Edit) -[8] is set to Selection. After creating shortcut combinations, you can then go back to Enable/Disable mode for the -[8] keys.
SONG/EDIT
LOC 1:
LOC 2: Track/General/Program..... patch #
LOC 3: Song/General..... current Locate point
LOC 4: Track/Param/EDIT Program Param..... parameter
PROGRAM/EDIT
LOC 5:
LOC 6: Synth/OSC/Config.....view
LOC 7: Synth/Filter.....frequency
LOC 8: Effects/Insert/Select.....type
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
More expressive acoustic or lead solo voices
1) Select Legato function on both Synth/ENV/Shape and Portamento pages.
Legato playing on the synth is the biggest step towards realism away from normal keyboard on/off mentality. Careful attention to Envelope shape and behavior also helps; try Freerun mode. Also release velocity.
2) For more natural, subtle portamento use, set voice count to 2.
Counter to what you might first think, using one voice only for a monophonic solo voice often results in mechanical artifacts ==>
Edit/Program/Pitch
Voice Mode: polyphonic
Number of voices: 2
3) Use lots of MODs, especially for Velocity and Aftertouch.
velocity ==> filt cut, rezz, FM amount, Attack length, Decay Length, OSC start
aftertouch ==> filters, manual pitch bend, FM amount, OSC volume
aftertouch ==> also routable thru FX MOD ==> FX rate, amount, wet/dry
4) Use controllers for additional spice
foot expression ==> volume swell, breath pressure, wah-wah, FX depth
foot switch ==> rotary engine, delay feedback, ARP latch, pitch bend direction
triggers (T1-4) ==> trills and hammer-ons (use SMOOTHING for pseudo-portamento changes rather than mechanical pitch-switching)
mod wheel ==> dial in common alternative sound to voice (growl, overdrive feedback, marcato)
5) Layer voice elements, bring out with performance controls
-- sampled attack portion (chiff, splat, overblow, filter resonance)
-- stack voices in MIX/SONG mode,
---- use Range ==> Alternate Range Type
---- Alt Range sources: velocity, aftertouch, controllers, foot pedal
---- keep voice family confined to a range of a couple octaves or less
---- follow 2-voice polyphony rule above
---- minimize detune
6) Use realistic phrasing
-- vary staccato, marcato, legato, gating
-- pause for breathing
-- repeat riffs with different phrasing
-- think like acoustic player
-- volume swells, decrescendos
-- use Breath Controller if possible
-- when laying tracks, practice part, perform it (no step sequencing)
7) Mix and match, for contrast
-- use lower quality ensemble as a prelude to the more realistic solo
-- sprinkle actual recordings, samples of actual phrases
-- to this end, assign sample phrases to keys
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
FM factory presets
PRESET 1
A7 B7 B8 L6 L7 L8 M1 P1 P2 P5 P6
PRESET 2
A8 E2 G2 K7 M7 N4 P1 P4 P5 P6
PRESET 3
B2 B7 B8 G7 H7 K6 K7 L2 L3 L5 H7 P1 P2 P3 P5
PRESET 4
A6 A7 A8 B7 E5 K7 M1 M2 P7 P8
ELECTRONICA
A2 A3 A4 B2 B3 B6 C1 C2 C4 C7 E1 E8 F7 G6 I2 I8 J2 J4 J5 J6 J8
K1 K2 K3 K7 L1 L3 L5 N2 N3 N4 N5 O1 P1 P4 P7
SYNTH DRUM
A2 A3 A4 A6 A8 B1 B3 B7 C2 C3 C6 D5 D7 E1 F1 F6 F8 G1 H1 H2 H7 H8
I7 I8 J1 J2 J5 J6 J7 J8 K5 K6 K7 K8 M5 M7 N1 N2 N3 N5 O3 O5 O8
MORE
A2 A8 B5 C2 C3 C4 C7 D1 P3 D8 E2 E3 E4 E5 E6 F4 F5 G5 G8 H2
PRESET 5
A7 B6 C5 C6 I4 I8 J7 J8 K3 K6 L4 N1 N4 O3 P6 P8
132 137 138 148 149 157 163 166 173 182 195
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Physical Modeling factory presets
PRESET 1
J3 J7 P7
PRESET 2
B8 I1 I8 J1 J3 J4 J5 J6 J7 J8
PRESET 3
I8 J4 K4 P7
PRESET 4
I1 I2 I3 I4 J1 J4
ELECTRONICA
(none)
SYNTH DRUM*
A5 B4 B5 B6 C7 C8 D4 E4 E6 E8 E8 F2 F3 F4 F7 G2 G3 G4 P1
MORE
G7 H1 B7
PRESET 5
I7 O5 141 154 175 181 182 183 187 189 197
*Interesting to note how many synth drum sounds are made using PM, but no voices in the Electronica bank used PM at all.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Meanwhile, the deluge of stuff to publish from my handwritten notes continues... I think in this post session I'll concentrate on FM techniques I just learned. From the Micron manual:
Alesis Micron wrote:
FM Type
A. Linear FM types
lin 2 > 1
Oscillator 2 is added to the phase of oscillator 1. Linear FM is the
style used by typical FM music synthesizers. Modulating a sine
wave with another, higher-frequency sine wave produces a
fundamental frequency with a variety of overtones, and this can be
used to reproduce the sounds of many physical musical
instruments
FM programming shortcut
EDIT/Synth/OSC/Output
On this one page you can quickly setup all your FM operators and interactions. Very intuitive, can hear immediate results without getting confused.
-- turn OSC on/off
-- set route to modify other OSCs
-- set amount of mod
I actually understood what they were saying in the Micron manual. By experimenting with FM, approaching it in the Fusion as suggested in the 2nd quote above, and by flip-flopping over to the /Pitch screen for the modulating OSC, while constantly monitoring the Amount of modulation (dang, sounds sooo complicated in print.... if only I had a video camera to show what I mean, it's not really that hard)... I now understand much more about using 2 or 3 OSCs in FM synthesis to shape the basic tonal characteristics of the main OSC. It's amazing the variety of timbres you can get just varying OSC2's Pitch and/or Mod Amount.
The great thing about this basic eye-opening FM mini-tutorial is that the lessons learned spill over into the Fusion's VA synth engine, where FM Amount and Source are additional Mod options... nice... I believe the Micron and the Andromeda also contain these options. Klaus?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
PM (Physical Modeling)
5 basic values from a wind controller
- MIDI note
- pitch bend
- gate (turns on envelope)
- velocity (how much env works)
- breath control
Typically, wind controller players are disappointed in the response they get from playing stock analog sound patches on non-PM synths. BC is a naturaly slower attack rate, so players limit themselves to either all-crisp attacks or all-sluggish attacks on these non-optimized analog (modelling) synths. They miss out on the signature "who-do" tonguing of the wind player. To simulate this with stock analog sounds, you need to mix in parallel the effects of both the ADSR envelope and the BC "envelope" to control the final envelope of the patch.
To mimic this on the Fusion without a BC:
- MIDI note ==> keyboard note
- pitch bend ==> aftertouch, wheel
- gate ==> envelope Delay, very short Attack
- ENV ==> short Attack, no sustain, short release
- velocity ==> velocity, extreme sensitivity
- combined gate velocity ==> slow delay, hard velocity switched re-trigger of envelope
-- breath control ==> foot expression pedal
Breath Control response curves
==============================
1) soft song ==> exponential
2) general purpose ==> LOG then EXP
3) loud solo piece ==> LOG, then flattened LOG
4) for p, mf, ff ==> 3-point, LOG, EXP, LOG
At top 25% of modulation peaks, make modulation affect the sound timbre rather than just the volume, as natural wind instruments change timbre when overblown.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
PM 'body' via Cabinet Simulation
VA can mimic BC attacks, envelopes, OSC timbre via velocity/aftertouch. However, PM models tell us that a sound's character and expressiveness arise from the interaction of 3 basic elements:
1) breath pressure/envelope combined with traditional ADSR response
2) timbre/sound-driver element interactions (reed, wind jet, mix)
3) acoustic resonant body of the instrument (clarinet bore, lead guitar cabinet)
Trying to aproximate PM synthesis using FM and VA tricks, this is what I've come up for a variable sax/trumpet/synthy lead sound. Click here for a downloadable link. This sound is version 7 of the original.
The main thing to notice is the Insert FX Tube Overdrive with 0 Drive, but accentuated cabinet frequencies. This in turn is magnified/brought in by aftertouch performance, which lends a sort of musical boxiness to the natural reed-like driver ==> this results in an acoustic simulation that is normally addresed by many PM parameters...
This post is going to be an ongoing personal collection of tips, tricks, and discoveries. I may even pull in links and quotes from other posts. The idea is to catalog what I learn in a way that's easily accessible and update-able.
Why not just make normal posts in the Fusion Tips forum itself? Why have a separate post?
The answer is that I want to cut down on searching, remembering, organizing, and commenting on tips that I personally find useful in my particular setup. Tips I post won't get scattered as time passes by, and anything new I run across will automatically have a place to be put... here...
I won't be asking how-to-do-this-thing, there won't be any help!-my-Fusion-is-acting-up posts, and there won't be redundant repeating of the same old questions in a different form (how do I play a MIDI file, etc).
And frankly, there will probably be a lot of stuff that is mostly of interest to me. Less useful to others. Obscure stuff like mod matrix tricks. Lists of FM or PM-only sounds. Custom FX patches. Brainstorms. Comments. Stuff I like others probably won'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
MOD MATRIX: keytracked stereo
To get the best stereo effect, you just take a 2-track sound and pan hard left and hard right, correct?
Nope. Of course, "best" is subjective, but that old method just makes a static wide space that is soon quickly forgotten, once again allowing the brain to focus on the dull lifelessness of a sound you're trying to cheaply "sweeten" via wider stereo field.
Here's how I roll my own, more dynamically interesting stereo effect. Esp useful for the more traditional keyboard sampled instruments, like FM and other electric piano, Rhodes, clavs, xylophones, marimbas, and our beloved acoustic piano. Takes a dead field and makes it alive, responsive to your playing and friendly to the ears, by gradually spreading the notes across the field.
Add Mod
Source: Keytrack
Amount: 3-4 octaves (smaller = wider)
Destination: Osc Pan
Index: Osc 1 (and another Mod for each Osc you want to pan)
Type: Additive
Amount: (varies)*
*(you'll want a spread of somewhere like 20 ==> 80)
Naturally you'll first want to go to the OSC PAN and set it mostly to the left, say around 20. What this Mod does is make the sound go more and more to the right channel, depending on which note it is on the keyboard. C3 slightly right, C5 even more to the right, etc.
Can still be used with other pan effects, like Autopan and Rotary. Makes the sound interesting because the brain/ear is "chasing" a moving target.
Update.
Turns out you don't need to set the OSC PAN mostly to the left after all. Upon closer examination, it seems that the stereo spread starts from middle C, then spreads outwards AWAY from middle C at the rate you set in the Octaves and Amount.
This actually makes it a bit easier to predict or manipulate how to spread originally mono multisamples across the stereo field in pairs. For example, I finally got a hold of the elusive and much-praised NS piano soundfont, but it's a mono multisampled piano. Bright and strong (perhaps too much upper midrange presence) and relatively small in sample size at 27MB, but small due to it not being in stereo.
So, to simulate stereo and also achieve some detuning effects, you can load the sample twice in the first and second slots in the sample synth engine. This will work with any mono multisample that you want to thicken up with more presence, volume, and cross-fading possibilities. But rather than have each multisample in the same exact stereo position, instead offsetting one of the sample's OSC PAN more left than the other, while leaving the Octave and Amount spreads identical, you can more predictably control this gradual stereo spread of the "pairs" of notes across the keyboard.
That is, of course, assuming that the mono multisample sounds out in the exact center of the stereo field all the way across its whole octave ranges. Which, unfortunately, the NS piano doesn't -- it favors the left side for the lower octaves, and the center for everything else...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
FUSION as a MIXER
2-track ==> Use EXT IN patch.
Up to 8 channels ==> Use SONG mode.
Add an Audio Track for each new channel needed.
Set RECORD ARM ==> ON
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Export entire SONG as a stereo WAV (bounce or mixdown)
1) Use 2 patch cables from MAIN OUTs. Alternatively use a Y-cable from Headphones Out.
2) ==> route patch cables to 2 free Audio Inputs
3) IMPORTANT: to avoid feedback, set these 2 Audio Tracks to the AUX Output...
4) Record SONG. All tracks, both MIDI and audio, will be mixed together and recorded onto the 2 free tracks.
5) Export each track to a folder:
UTILITY/Track Utilities/Export from this track
6) Connect USB cables to Fusion. Navigate to folder where you saved the 2 audio tracks. Copy to computer.
Note: The WAV files are 24-bit, and need to be converted down to 16-bit before you can burn them immediately to a CD. Use WinAmp to first test recorded sound quality and mix levels, then use WinAmp to convert down to 16-bit and burn CD.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Physical Modeling Synthesis
Yamaha and Stanford own the licenses on the most advanced/accurate physical modeling algorithms. List of Yamaha keyboards/sound modules that use physical modeling:
VL70m sound module
Yamaha EX5
PLG150VL plug-in card
Cs6x (w/ PLG card)
MU128 (w/ PLG card)
Motif ES (w/ PLG card)
Other PM players:
Korg Prophecy
Korg Z1
Technics WSA
Alesis Fusion
Nord G2
All Yamaha manuals highly recommend using a breath or wind controller of some type to get maximum effect from PM-type voices. The difference is night and day. Breath and wind controllers even make analog and rompler voices much more expressive.
Bottomline: get a BC or wind controller for the Fusion's PM voices.
www.patchmanmusic.com/midisolutions.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
FM programming shortcut
EDIT/Synth/OSC/Output
On this one page you can quickly setup all your FM operators and interactions. Very intuitive, can hear immediate results without getting confused.
-- turn OSC on/off
-- set route to modify other OSCs
-- set amount of mod
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
PITCH BEND: Up a 2nd, down an Octave
How to set the pitch bend wheel to bend a note differently. This one makes the up-bend raise the pitch a whole tone (2 semitones), while making the down-bend lower the pitch an octave.
1) Set PB a full octave
EDIT/Program/Pitch ==>
Pitch Bend Range: 12 semitones
2) Make a mod to decrease range to 2 semitones
EDIT/Add Mod/SourceDestination ==>
Source: Controller
Index: Pitch Wheel
Destination: Pitch
Type: Additive
Amount: -10.00%
3) Make a table to split the up/down behavior of the PB Wheel
EDIT/Mod/Settings/Shape ==> New Table
EDIT Breakpoint 1
Point Position: -100
Point Value: 0
EDIT Breakpoint 2
Point Position: -0
Point Value: 0
EDIT Breakpoint 3
Point Position: +100
Point Value: +100
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
UI SHORTCUT KEYS
Note: Before using SET LOC + [1-8] to mark often-used EDIT pages, you must go to GLOBAL/Settings/Options and make sure (Edit) -[8] is set to Selection. After creating shortcut combinations, you can then go back to Enable/Disable mode for the -[8] keys.
SONG/EDIT
LOC 1:
LOC 2: Track/General/Program..... patch #
LOC 3: Song/General..... current Locate point
LOC 4: Track/Param/EDIT Program Param..... parameter
PROGRAM/EDIT
LOC 5:
LOC 6: Synth/OSC/Config.....view
LOC 7: Synth/Filter.....frequency
LOC 8: Effects/Insert/Select.....type
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
More expressive acoustic or lead solo voices
1) Select Legato function on both Synth/ENV/Shape and Portamento pages.
Legato playing on the synth is the biggest step towards realism away from normal keyboard on/off mentality. Careful attention to Envelope shape and behavior also helps; try Freerun mode. Also release velocity.
2) For more natural, subtle portamento use, set voice count to 2.
Counter to what you might first think, using one voice only for a monophonic solo voice often results in mechanical artifacts ==>
Edit/Program/Pitch
Voice Mode: polyphonic
Number of voices: 2
3) Use lots of MODs, especially for Velocity and Aftertouch.
velocity ==> filt cut, rezz, FM amount, Attack length, Decay Length, OSC start
aftertouch ==> filters, manual pitch bend, FM amount, OSC volume
aftertouch ==> also routable thru FX MOD ==> FX rate, amount, wet/dry
4) Use controllers for additional spice
foot expression ==> volume swell, breath pressure, wah-wah, FX depth
foot switch ==> rotary engine, delay feedback, ARP latch, pitch bend direction
triggers (T1-4) ==> trills and hammer-ons (use SMOOTHING for pseudo-portamento changes rather than mechanical pitch-switching)
mod wheel ==> dial in common alternative sound to voice (growl, overdrive feedback, marcato)
5) Layer voice elements, bring out with performance controls
-- sampled attack portion (chiff, splat, overblow, filter resonance)
-- stack voices in MIX/SONG mode,
---- use Range ==> Alternate Range Type
---- Alt Range sources: velocity, aftertouch, controllers, foot pedal
---- keep voice family confined to a range of a couple octaves or less
---- follow 2-voice polyphony rule above
---- minimize detune
6) Use realistic phrasing
-- vary staccato, marcato, legato, gating
-- pause for breathing
-- repeat riffs with different phrasing
-- think like acoustic player
-- volume swells, decrescendos
-- use Breath Controller if possible
-- when laying tracks, practice part, perform it (no step sequencing)
7) Mix and match, for contrast
-- use lower quality ensemble as a prelude to the more realistic solo
-- sprinkle actual recordings, samples of actual phrases
-- to this end, assign sample phrases to keys
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
FM factory presets
PRESET 1
A7 B7 B8 L6 L7 L8 M1 P1 P2 P5 P6
PRESET 2
A8 E2 G2 K7 M7 N4 P1 P4 P5 P6
PRESET 3
B2 B7 B8 G7 H7 K6 K7 L2 L3 L5 H7 P1 P2 P3 P5
PRESET 4
A6 A7 A8 B7 E5 K7 M1 M2 P7 P8
ELECTRONICA
A2 A3 A4 B2 B3 B6 C1 C2 C4 C7 E1 E8 F7 G6 I2 I8 J2 J4 J5 J6 J8
K1 K2 K3 K7 L1 L3 L5 N2 N3 N4 N5 O1 P1 P4 P7
SYNTH DRUM
A2 A3 A4 A6 A8 B1 B3 B7 C2 C3 C6 D5 D7 E1 F1 F6 F8 G1 H1 H2 H7 H8
I7 I8 J1 J2 J5 J6 J7 J8 K5 K6 K7 K8 M5 M7 N1 N2 N3 N5 O3 O5 O8
MORE
A2 A8 B5 C2 C3 C4 C7 D1 P3 D8 E2 E3 E4 E5 E6 F4 F5 G5 G8 H2
PRESET 5
A7 B6 C5 C6 I4 I8 J7 J8 K3 K6 L4 N1 N4 O3 P6 P8
132 137 138 148 149 157 163 166 173 182 195
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Physical Modeling factory presets
PRESET 1
J3 J7 P7
PRESET 2
B8 I1 I8 J1 J3 J4 J5 J6 J7 J8
PRESET 3
I8 J4 K4 P7
PRESET 4
I1 I2 I3 I4 J1 J4
ELECTRONICA
(none)
SYNTH DRUM*
A5 B4 B5 B6 C7 C8 D4 E4 E6 E8 E8 F2 F3 F4 F7 G2 G3 G4 P1
MORE
G7 H1 B7
PRESET 5
I7 O5 141 154 175 181 182 183 187 189 197
*Interesting to note how many synth drum sounds are made using PM, but no voices in the Electronica bank used PM at all.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Meanwhile, the deluge of stuff to publish from my handwritten notes continues... I think in this post session I'll concentrate on FM techniques I just learned. From the Micron manual:
Alesis Micron wrote:
FM Type
A. Linear FM types
lin 2 > 1
Oscillator 2 is added to the phase of oscillator 1. Linear FM is the
style used by typical FM music synthesizers. Modulating a sine
wave with another, higher-frequency sine wave produces a
fundamental frequency with a variety of overtones, and this can be
used to reproduce the sounds of many physical musical
instruments
FM programming shortcut
EDIT/Synth/OSC/Output
On this one page you can quickly setup all your FM operators and interactions. Very intuitive, can hear immediate results without getting confused.
-- turn OSC on/off
-- set route to modify other OSCs
-- set amount of mod
I actually understood what they were saying in the Micron manual. By experimenting with FM, approaching it in the Fusion as suggested in the 2nd quote above, and by flip-flopping over to the /Pitch screen for the modulating OSC, while constantly monitoring the Amount of modulation (dang, sounds sooo complicated in print.... if only I had a video camera to show what I mean, it's not really that hard)... I now understand much more about using 2 or 3 OSCs in FM synthesis to shape the basic tonal characteristics of the main OSC. It's amazing the variety of timbres you can get just varying OSC2's Pitch and/or Mod Amount.
The great thing about this basic eye-opening FM mini-tutorial is that the lessons learned spill over into the Fusion's VA synth engine, where FM Amount and Source are additional Mod options... nice... I believe the Micron and the Andromeda also contain these options. Klaus?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
PM (Physical Modeling)
5 basic values from a wind controller
- MIDI note
- pitch bend
- gate (turns on envelope)
- velocity (how much env works)
- breath control
Typically, wind controller players are disappointed in the response they get from playing stock analog sound patches on non-PM synths. BC is a naturaly slower attack rate, so players limit themselves to either all-crisp attacks or all-sluggish attacks on these non-optimized analog (modelling) synths. They miss out on the signature "who-do" tonguing of the wind player. To simulate this with stock analog sounds, you need to mix in parallel the effects of both the ADSR envelope and the BC "envelope" to control the final envelope of the patch.
To mimic this on the Fusion without a BC:
- MIDI note ==> keyboard note
- pitch bend ==> aftertouch, wheel
- gate ==> envelope Delay, very short Attack
- ENV ==> short Attack, no sustain, short release
- velocity ==> velocity, extreme sensitivity
- combined gate velocity ==> slow delay, hard velocity switched re-trigger of envelope
-- breath control ==> foot expression pedal
Breath Control response curves
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1) soft song ==> exponential
2) general purpose ==> LOG then EXP
3) loud solo piece ==> LOG, then flattened LOG
4) for p, mf, ff ==> 3-point, LOG, EXP, LOG
At top 25% of modulation peaks, make modulation affect the sound timbre rather than just the volume, as natural wind instruments change timbre when overblown.
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PM 'body' via Cabinet Simulation
VA can mimic BC attacks, envelopes, OSC timbre via velocity/aftertouch. However, PM models tell us that a sound's character and expressiveness arise from the interaction of 3 basic elements:
1) breath pressure/envelope combined with traditional ADSR response
2) timbre/sound-driver element interactions (reed, wind jet, mix)
3) acoustic resonant body of the instrument (clarinet bore, lead guitar cabinet)
Trying to aproximate PM synthesis using FM and VA tricks, this is what I've come up for a variable sax/trumpet/synthy lead sound. Click here for a downloadable link. This sound is version 7 of the original.
The main thing to notice is the Insert FX Tube Overdrive with 0 Drive, but accentuated cabinet frequencies. This in turn is magnified/brought in by aftertouch performance, which lends a sort of musical boxiness to the natural reed-like driver ==> this results in an acoustic simulation that is normally addresed by many PM parameters...