If the user
sends a 20khz sine wave into an application's
"volume" port that's either their mistake, or its exactly
what they wanted to do.
If that is what they want to do they should use the right
tool, wich would be ring modulator in a synth. I'd expect
synths to use audio rate controls at least for some units,
even if in almost all cases 1/16 would be enough.
If a 'normal' audio app with a volume control (e.g. a mixer)
would actually accept a 20kHz sine wave as a control signal
then I'd consider it to be of extremely low quality and bad
design. The same app would happily add any noise present on
its controls to its signals and I wouldn't trust it for any
serious work. It's sort the software equivalent of using
cheap low-quality analog faders.
Why is this a bad design or even low quality? Long before FM
synthesis was born Moog allowed this to be done and a whole
industry grew out of the result - he could modulate his oscillators
frequency from his oscillators frequencies - who cares if this is freq
or gain. It is very short sighted to suggest that because you think
something should not be done then it is thus a bad thing.
Look at the ARP 2600, it allowed just this to be experimented with.
Look at the Korg MS-20, look at a load of synths. Then take your
clappers off and consider what might come out of a mixer that
allowed you to do the same.
The 1/16 as suitable for synths is also ludicrous. There are a few
heads out there arguing that with the correct algorithms there is
no real reason that analogue should sound so much better than
digital. OK, it does now, probably because some people keep on
arguing that quantisation of parameters 'would be enough' as they
cannot be hacked to have their code to the necessary legwork.
BTW, why is a mixer a 'normal' audio app? If it is functioning on a
computer then isn't it mixing other audio apps, even if they are
just capture processes? Are they then not 'normal' or is that just
the way you see them?
Fons, does your convolution algorithm cut corners? I doubt it as
it is recognised generally as an amazing peice of work. Why do
you then think that cutting corners elsewhere is acceptable?
Regards, nick
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