Why are so many of my patches out of tune ?
 

Ever since I first bought my Polar I've been annoyed by the number of patches that have bad tuning. Not all of them, but a significant amount, maybe even a majority.

I've just been checking them with Autotune, and there seems to be no pattern to it. A below middle C (on on patch, for example) is 10cents sharp then E above middle C is 15cents flat. That's only a fifth away so playing chords sounds horrible and because it's not constant across the patch you can't just adjust the tuning for the patch.

What would cause this ?

Have you updated to the latest OS version? As well, have you tried to reset your Virus? With the Virus unplugged from power, press and hold the ARP EDIT button while plugging the Virus power back in. You should see two white LEDs bounce around back and forth. After a few seconds of this released the ARP EDIT button and your Virus should reset itself thus keeping patches in tune.

If you are not on the latest OS version, it would be best to do that too as many bugs have been squashed as well as optimizations made and features added.

Good luck!

Yes, I've done all of those - many times infact. I think it's something more fundamental than that.

Then try a factory reset.

If this isn't helping so you have contact Access support (maybe something wrong with your board)..

Atziluth - what's the difference between a factory reset and holding down the ARP EDIT button when turning it on ?

I sent an MP3 of some out of tune patches to Access tech.support and they said that they said it sounded in tune to them :o

And remember, it's not all patches that are out of tune. It's only some and each patch is out of tune in different ways, and only in small ways (some people wouldn't really notice it).

You better disable your pitch mod, eh! (^_^)

Nah, seriously, i'll follow this one, i'm quite intrigued.... (^_^)

Well, if Access can't hear that something is out of tune, I'm not sure where to start.

I'm not exactly a synthesis expert - is there a parameter that might affect pitch over the keyboard so that some notes are in tune and others not ?

have you tried playing with the PHASE INIT knob? Perhaps there is an issue with the OSC starting at different parts in its waveform with each key press which would sound like it is out of tune? Have you checked to see if any LFO assignments are present either in the dedicated LFO page, or the MOD Matrix? The fact that you say some patches are in tune while others 'appear' not to be would mean these patches that sound out of tune may have modulation of some sort going on that you aren't aware of. Any time I had ever had an issue like this resetting the Virus would fix it. If there was a real problem, I would think the entire synth as a whole would be out of tune, not just some of the patches.

Good luck however!