[LAU] WhySynth and QMidiArp trouble

[Sean Bolton]

Warning! I'm bottom-replying to a top-reply to a bottom-reply. Protect
yourself from whiplash!

Hi Louigi,

On Tue, 18 Sep 2012 15:46:39 +0400
Louigi Verona <louigi.verona at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hey man!
> Sorry, did not mention it in the original post. I did try to make the
> limit go up from the default 12 to 99. Did not help.
> 
> On Tue, Sep 18, 2012 at 3:38 PM, Leigh Dyer <lsd at wootangent.net>
> wrote:
> 
> > On 18/09/12 8:45 PM, Louigi Verona wrote:
> >
> >> Hey fellas!
> >>
> >> I am loading Whysynth through Carla and then use QMidiArp to play
> >> it. Problem is, some of the presets (like "New String Thingy",
> >> first preset) are "clicking" - they produce occasional clicks or
> >> pops. I would like to know if someone has experienced same thing?
> >> I am attaching a QMidiArp file so that anyone can try to reproduce.
> >>
> >> I wondered if it is the fault of the WhySynth preset, but no
> >> settings I tried changed the situation. I then tried doing things
> >> with Carla - you can see QMidiArp has two sequencers there. So I
> >> added two separate WhySynths and made each sequencer in QMidiArp
> >> go into a separate WhySynth. Number of clicks went down, but
> >> occasional audible clicks stayed.
> >>
> >> Any ideas how to fix this? I really like that WhySynth preset and
> >> would like to use it without clicks!
> >>
> >
> > This is just a guess, but you could try increasing the polyphony
> > limit in WhySynth. If that patch has long envelopes, you could
> > easily be hitting the limit while playing a sequence (the default
> > limit here seems to be 12 notes). I don't know about WhySynth in
> > particular, but in many synths this causes clicks, as new notes
> > cause older notes to end abruptly.
> >
> > Thanks
> > Leigh

Okay, if I run your QMidiArp sequence into WhySynth with the default
first patch selected, I get almost no sound at all (because the notes
are short and the patch attack times are long). I have to boost the
level by more than 30dB to get it into normal listening range. So that
makes me wonder if I'm really duplicating your setup.

There are two circumstances under which I know WhySynth clicks.  One is
voice stealing -- like Leigh said, when WhySynth is playing at its
polyphony limit and a new note on comes in, an existing note is
abruptly shut off then reused for the new note, which often causes a
click.

You said you tried increasing the polyphony limit to 99, but I just
discovered a bug (fixed on github): while the GUI will let you set
limits up to 128, the plugin will only accept limits up to 64.  Try
changing the limit to 64, and if this helps (even if only momentarily),
then that's probably your problem.  Try using release envelope shapes
of 'linear' or 'lag', and reducing the release time to the minimum
needed.

The other type of click is caused when playing in monophonic mode, and
a change in pitch causes WhySynth to switch to a different wavetable. I
consider this a bug, but one I probably won't fix until WhySynth Mark
II.  If you are using WhySynth in monophonic mode when you're hearing
the clicks, make sure you're using version 20120903 or later, since I
made some changes which reduced the number of conditions under which
the click would happen.  Also, switching oscillator modes may help
(although probably at the expense of the sound you want). minBLEP, FM,
PD, and async granular do not have the mono-mode click problem.

Hope that helps.  Let me know, since I'll be very interested if you're
experiencing a third type of click.

-Sean