A few noob questions

Cyforce · 18 Oct 2010

Xan wrote: 3. How do you make a mono synth? This one's pretty obvious probably, but I just can't figure it out.

Midi to Poly Modul - click on the little P, and set voices to 1 😉

trogluddite · 18 Oct 2010

I'll pass on 1 & 2 as well - sounds a simple request, but SMs voice management makes them a bit tricky - probably not impossible, but tricky!

4) This kind of logic switching CAN be done by using lots of comparisons, logic primitives etc. and a whole load of spaghetti wiring - but I'm going to introduce a little known, and very elegant way to do it.

This involves using something called a 'State Machine' (the name comes from Alan Turing's first theorising about the possibility of creating a computer before there even was such a thing). You won't see the State Machine in your toolbox normally - but if you go to the Options menu, there is an option on the 'Advanced' page for 'Show R&D components'. Some of them are a little unstable (hence hiding them), but I've yet to have a problem with this one - it will show up in the 'Maths' toolbox on a pretty pink background.

Here's the schematic - hopefully the explanation afterwards will throw a little light on how it works...

(NB: the Chorus and Distort are just empty dummies that you can fill with whatever you like) The first section takes the presses from the buttons, and then sends an integer to the State Machine, Zero for the distort button, One for the Chorus button. (inside the workings of SM, the triggers from the buttons also get sent to the State Machine to let it know when it has to do something)

The output is zero, one or two where 0=no effect, 1=distort, 2=chorus, to get the selector to switch to the correct choice. This output number is called the machine's 'State'.

The clever bit, is the little table connected to the State Machine's other input. To take the first line as an example... s0;0->1;1->2; ...s0; at the beginning means "Here is a list of what to do if the current state is 0 (Effects are off) and you get sent an input" ...0->1; means "If you see a 0 input, change the state to 1" (If distort button is pressed, change to DIstort On state) ...1->2; means "If you see a 1 input, change the state to 2" (If chorus button is pressed, change to Chorus On state)

The remaining lines are similar lists for what to do if the state is 1 (Distort is already on) and state 2 (Chorus is already on). The syntax is important, you must use the semicolons after each part, and you have to use the 'fake arrow' -> thing for the change instructions. If you connect a boolean to the 'Map Syntax is Correct' output of the state machine, it will show true or false to say whether you have it right or not.

That's probably quite a lot to take in all at once, so feel free to just copy the schematic for now - but when you have really complex button logic that is all interdependent, it is way easier than using dozens of seperate components - and it's also much easier to edit if you need to change the logic at all.

Xan · 19 Oct 2010

Thanks for those answers. That state machine is awesome. So are mono synths.

I'm still interested in the panning individual notes, if anyone knows how to do that.

stw · 19 Oct 2010

trogluddite wrote: The clever bit, is the little table connected to the State Machine's other input. To take the first line as an example... s0;0->1;1->2;.

Hey trog, where did you get the syntax for the map from? A nice prim which simplifys some modules i've created in my shematics. I didn't recognize that before... 😕

loopeytunes · 19 Oct 2010

here's a quick and dirty pan alternator, it's not the best way to do it but plays fine on my side, you get a few crackles here and there hence the "Quick n Dirty" but it does work.

Loopey

trogluddite · 19 Oct 2010

stw wrote: where did you get the syntax for the map from? A nice prim

There's a little description on the Wiki - some of the other R&D components have entries too. Good examples of the more useful ones can be found here and there on the forum as well (mwvdlee's Missing Links Thread has some particularly good Custom Parser examples). Supposedly they are all unfinished or obsolete, but the ones I've used so far seem to be stable enough - the State Machine and the Wave Writes I'd really miss if I didn't have them. Another big advantage of the state machine is that it never suffers from trigger priority issues, or the weird 'lost triggers' problem that sometimes happens with complex routings (see the Misbehaving Trigger Thread)

Tip for anyone who hasn't enabled R&D primitives before - they all have the pink background in the toolbox to make it easy to tell which ones they are. Also, once they are in a schematic they will continue to work even if you turn the 'Show R&D' option off - so you don't have to worry that your schematic won't work for other users.