25 Jun
2006
25 Jun
'06
3:58 p.m.
On Sun, Jun 25, 2006 at 02:01:48 -0400, Dave Robillard wrote:
On Tue, 2006-06-20 at 08:35 +0100, Steve Harris
wrote:
It has a very specific meaning, +1.0 is +1.0 octaves.
On Tue, Jun 20, 2006 at 09:05:33 +1000, Loki
Davison wrote:
Nonsense. As a numerical unit it has no meaning whatsoever, and the
unit actually used has no bearing on the user interface provided (which
should of course be exponential). Because people actually use them in Om, because
people actually use Om
unlike certain other modulars. volt per octave is pretty damn obscure
in a computer program.... If i wanted to have a cutoff at concert A
what the hell is that in volts per octave?S
Zero typically. I have to take issue with this, 1.0f per octave is the
natural way to preresent things like filter cutoff in a modular. It's what
makes the great modular systems so easy to work with. The only sane unit for frequency is Hz. As Loki said,
if I want a
cutoff at concert A, I (like any musician) know that's 440Hz. Whatever
arbitrary ugly real number it is in "V/Oct As Defined By AMS" is not
something I or anyone else cares to know. Any table of frequencies, or
math app, or damn near _anything_ that deals with frequencies will
present it in Hz. If you can come up with a real reason why this
arbitrary "AMS V/Oct" makes any sense in a _digital_ modular, I'd like
to hear it.
It's all about modulation, if I connect a [-1.0, 1.0] sine LFO to a cutoff
modulation input then I want it to modulate up and down by N octaves, not
N Hz, frequency-linearly symmetric modulations sound wrong. My favourite
(digital) modular filters have a centre frequnecy (shown in Hz, expoentialy
scaled control) and a modulation input that modulates in octaves.
You want the modulation to be musically relevent, and the most musically
useful unit for pitch is octaves :) Humans aren't SI sadly.
I agree that describing it as volts is a bit odd, but it instantly makes
people like me feel at home. There's not reason why a digital modular neds
units for its modulation sources. It's just real numbers.
- Steve