SY-300 - Are some of the controls a bit confusing?

Started by Radu, May 23, 2017, 11:19:09 AM

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Radu

Or is it just me? I'm referring to Pitch Env Attack and Pitch Env Depth in the Wave/Pitch category; and Filter Env Attack and Filter Env Depth in the Filter/Amp category. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it's in the way they interact. So for example, I set Pitch Env Depth to -12 so it slowly rises to the note I'm actually playing (the lower I go with this value, the lower the starting pitch). And I can set the attack (how slowly or quickly the note rises to the pitch I am playing) by modifying Pitch Env Attack. Values below zero will give me a slower attack time, hence a slower time until the pitch rises to the note I'm playing. But going below a certain point with the Pitch Env Attack control starts me on a pitch above the lowest pitch, then falls to the lowest pitch, then starts to rise up again. And all of this is dependent on picking dynamics as well. Also, when leaving the Pitch Env Depth at 0, the Pitch Env Attack does nothing. So these two values are interdependent. Am I good so far? Am I missing something? I'm just trying to understand all the controls. So moving on to the Filter Env Attack and Filter Env Depth, these controls do the exact same things as previous controls, and interact the same exact way, except they relate to the Filter (instead of the Pitch). Correct? Please, if anyone can enlighten me, sorry I'm not exactly concise, I seem to get the other controls but this gave me a bit of a headache to understand and now I need confirmation. I will probably be asking about some of the LFO features in another topic. Thank you so much for taking the time!

Edit: I forgot about the + value example. Basically it does the opposite, as you'd expect, however, the attack envelope doesn't do anything strange at higher/highest values, that's why I'm saying it's a bit confusing. Manual explanations don't help that much either.

szilard

Env Attack modulates the envelope of the parameter and is an AR (attack/release) type, so turning the knob left of center slows the attack, but right of center quickens the release. Env Depth determines how much the envelope will affect the parameter and at 0 there is no affect. I haven't noticed anything strange in the behavior of pitch env depth, but I don't think I've gone beyond a 5th above or below the note I'm playing ...

Radu

Quote from: szilard on May 23, 2017, 02:49:46 PM
Env Attack modulates the envelope of the parameter and is an AR (attack/release) type, so turning the knob left of center slows the attack, but right of center quickens the release.
Ok, this makes perfect sense, it is illustrated in graphically in the manual as well.

Quote from: szilard on May 23, 2017, 02:49:46 PM
Env Depth determines how much the envelope will affect the parameter and at 0 there is no affect.
No affect as in - env attack parameters will do nothing while env depth is at 0, right?

Quote from: szilard on May 23, 2017, 02:49:46 PM
I haven't noticed anything strange in the behavior of pitch env depth, but I don't think I've gone beyond a 5th above or below the note I'm playing ...

Hmm.. env depth doesn't seem to modulate the pitch with accuracy (like the half steps in the actual pitch setting). Not for me at least. And env attack makes enough sense, I just don't understand why it behaves strangely past a certain point in the negative values (like I said, falls to the lowest pitch before starting to raise up to the actual pitch, if env depth is -value and env attack is high -value). Or maybe that's how it's meant to work.. I'm a bit of a noob if that wasn't apparent already.

Thank you for replying!

szilard

Quote from: Radu on May 23, 2017, 03:01:03 PM
No affect as in - env attack parameters will do nothing while env depth is at 0, right?

That's right, it effectively turns the envelope off.

Radu

Quote from: szilard on May 23, 2017, 03:08:12 PM
That's right, it effectively turns the envelope off.

Thank you! I find it hard sometimes to properly assess some of the features inside this unit, because the sounds are so sensitive to dynamics. I wanted to make sure that this was right. Soon, I will have a full understanding of all the parameters thanks to experimentation and the people on this forum.

chrish

Using pitch attack envelopes in small increments will add a subtle change to the sound. Our ears enjoy changes in sound even if they're not highly noticeable.

Radu

Quote from: chrish on May 23, 2017, 06:55:44 PM
Using pitch attack envelopes in small increments will add a subtle change to the sound. Our ears enjoy changes in sound even if they're not highly noticeable.

Indeed, I fully agree on the subtle use of these features (although I can think of a couple highly situational uses for the more extreme settings too). The only reason I was testing the extremes was to understand the controls, because I believe the manual does a poor job at explaining how some things work.