A6 trance demo - Page 2 - The Unofficial Access Virus & Virus TI Forum

Keith Phillips · #11 08.06.2006, 10:15 PM

No problem. I spent many hours last night finding as much dirt on this thing that I could.

That tips page looked like a little gold mine.

Looked like some of it could definitely be applied to other synths too, analog or digital both.

F5D · #12 11.06.2006, 06:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Keith Phillips

I am very VERY close to being swayed into getting this thing instead of the TI now. :P

Shit. Should I send Alesis an email and ask them to send me some money? I guess there are already quite many people who have purchased an A6 because of this demo.

Btw, beware of A6's midi implementations. The knobs don't send midi cc and there are no dedicated midi cc's for cutoff etc. However there are about 30 midi cc modulation sources which can be used but they must be programmed into the sound. I usually record cutoff tweaks manually.

Keith Phillips · #13 11.06.2006, 07:06 PM

Damn why did they have to cripple it there? Surely that is pretty trivial stuff for a MIDI keyboard. Thats a bummer because I wanted to be able to control filter cutoffs, etc. in Sonar and arm CCs and overdub record them to get things to sound right like I do with VST parameters.

I could have swore I saw that it was implemented but maybe it was incorrectly mentioned.

Well I guess the first step is getting good sounds out of the thing anyways, I don't think I will be able to do that for some time. lol

Keith Phillips · #14 11.06.2006, 07:25 PM

On page 258 it states that the panel knobs send NRPN data and can be recorded and sequenced. There even appears to be six levels of thinning to change the density of the information in case your sequencer has problems with a large amount of data. I'm kind of confused.

Keith Phillips · #15 11.06.2006, 07:39 PM

Ok, I found some info from Rob Papen in response to some Albino question.

In short, the A6 does transit data but it is not a simple CC (like 128 values) but instead a LSB/MSB pair (for 16-bit values) and some third value. This would make sense for something like a filter cutoff, a 128 value stepping would suck for a filter.

Had you tried to record any knob movements before? I'm not sure of the steps but some sequencer may have to be configured some way to record different types of controller data (like these triple value settings.)

Keith Phillips · #16 12.06.2006, 05:28 AM

Care to share how a couple of the demo patches were made at some point? Would be a good starting point for programming this thing when I get it.

Hopefully around July 15th I can order one.

F5D · #17 12.06.2006, 05:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Keith Phillips

Ok, I found some info from Rob Papen in response to some Albino question.

In short, the A6 does transit data but it is not a simple CC (like 128 values) but instead a LSB/MSB pair (for 16-bit values) and some third value. This would make sense for something like a filter cutoff, a 128 value stepping would suck for a filter.

Had you tried to record any knob movements before? I'm not sure of the steps but some sequencer may have to be configured some way to record different types of controller data (like these triple value settings.)

I haven't tried to record any knob movements yet. I will try soon. I haven't read the A6 manual almost at all. It still is a very complex synth and I guess I don't know even the first half of the synth yet, just some basic things. I haven't touched the third envelope, envelope looping (and many other things), arpeggiator, sequencer etc. yet.

Good thing about the A6 is that altough it has only some basic oscillator waveforms, you can mix them all and get many different kind of waves. With modulations, oscillator hard sync, ring modulation etc. you get even more different kind of sounds. If you have a good waveform coming from oscillators, you can build many different kind of sounds just by using different amp- and filter envelope settings. I also like the noise generator alot.

I don't remember exactly how I did some of the sounds. There are so many parameters involved. Imo one good idea is to listen to your favourite trance tracks and tweak the synth at the same time and program the same sounds. Then with just some little tweaks you can get your own personal sounds too. When I'm listening to etn.fm for example and hear a good sound, it usually takes about 5-30 minutes to replicate it. Sometimes I record a short clip of the playing song that I can compare the sounds later when the song isn't playing anymore.

Keith Phillips · #18 12.06.2006, 05:38 PM

Check out that tips and tricks page and look at sections "9.11." It details exactly how to setup the A6 to send and receive panel data for the knobs. Apparently the only things that don't transmit/receive are some globals, like midi channel change for mixes (stuff that doesn't affect programs basically.) So you wouldn't want to automate that anyway..

I guess it is far easier to program this thing than say a softsynth? I find that it takes WAY TOO LONG to try to get a sound out of a softsynth (prime example: Z3ta+) with just endless mouse clicking. It is so arduous it isn't even funny. I want knobs!

Keith Phillips · #19 12.06.2006, 05:53 PM

I'm kind of surprised that I can't find any Cakewalk instrument definition files for the A6... There goes a day or two of work right there. lol

It will make things a lot easier to have one though. That way you can automate the synth manually by inputting an insert controller series of events and just draw them in. You have to dismantle the MIDI NRPN data though and attach the appropriate numbers to a human-readable parameter list.

I guess I should make that available for download after I make one (for anyone that uses Sonar.)

F5D · #20 12.06.2006, 07:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Keith Phillips

Check out that tips and tricks page and look at sections "9.11." It details exactly how to setup the A6 to send and receive panel data for the knobs.

Ok, I will check it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Keith Phillips

I guess it is far easier to program this thing than say a softsynth? I find that it takes WAY TOO LONG to try to get a sound out of a softsynth (prime example: Z3ta+) with just endless mouse clicking. It is so arduous it isn't even funny. I want knobs!

I don't like to program soft synths much either (depending on the synth plugin of course). Anyway, I could say that andromeda is at least funnier to program assuming that you know how the synthesis works. There are tons of parameters in A6 which you don't need or wouldn't like to touch at all. A good example of this are the envelope dynamics settings. Usually every synthesizer has logarithmic attack, decay, sustain and release but with A6 you can define all these (different exponential, linear and logarithmic curves. "Linear" in "A6 language" here means logarithmic voltage and "logarithmic" means 2 log (log (x)), I guess) and the A6 has 2 decays and releases which makes things a little confusing at first and sometimes you have to tweak these dynamic settings to get a normal envelope behaviour.

These extra parameters make alot more things possible but sometimes I wish I couldn't change them. If you know what button you have to push and what knob to twist, you can do sounds without problems but at first you will be a little confused because there are so many buttons and knobs (altough you were familiar with analog synthesis). After using the synth for some time, the editing will get alot faster. However, altough the A6 has so many buttons and knobs, you still have to tweak some parameters from the lcd. Usually if you turn a knob or push any button, the lcd follows your moves and shows you all the parameters of the group which' parameter you changed.