Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: The Yamaha AN1x Synthesizer mailing list

previous by date index next by date
previous in topic topic list  

Subject: Re: SV: [AN1x-list] Violin Sound

From: "Jerry Aiyathurai" <tuskerfort@...>
Date: 2001-06-03

> But your statement here was interesting too. I have only briefly
played with the ribbon controller and meant to get back to it but
have been busy with other, mostly using the modulator wheel. What is
the advantage of the ribbon? Why is it (or is it?) more natural for
example than a mod wheel....in what kinds of cases do you prefer the
ribbon over the mod wheel?

>>>>>>For me, the big difference is that you can attack the ribbon,
anywhere along it's length. You don't have to slide up from zero or
64 to get there. This makes it great for trills, if it is assigned to
pitch for example. As bruce said its good for fast stuff. The only
weak point of it, is that it has only a 128 step resolution, so you
have to keep the pitch range pretty small, if you are using it for
pitch (the pitch wheel, by comparison has much more steps, I think
128 times 128 according to the midi spec, so you can do huge sweeps
without a stepping sound). I find that for other things, the ribbon
is pretty good, but again, you have to keep the range small, or the
sound gets grainy.


> While we're at it, I know I can assign most (if not all) parameters
to a controller...but if anyone had a list over the TOP best things
to assign to the mod wheel, and also to the ribbon controller I bet
it would help....Anyone?

>>>>>>>>>The mod wheel - I tend to use very traditionally. For more
lead and bass typs sounds I use it for vibrato/tremolo application
and for patch morphing. For pads, I sometimes program a timbral
change (filter cutoff, pulse width, etc) so I can control the mood of
the song.

On the ribbon - I have a couple of tricks that are particular to the
An1x. Basically the ribbon on the AN1x is great for triggering things
like envelopes. One thing I like to do is create a pitch envelope of
about 20-30 and a pitch depth of zero. Then I assign pitch depth to
the ribbon (X axis). I set this value to "direct" so that the
midpoint is no envelope, the left-hand-side of the ribbon is a sweep
up and the right-hand-side of the ribbon is a sweep down. Now if you
just control the pitch of both oscillators with the pitch envelope,
you get regular results, but remember that the more synthetic-
sounding features of the AN1x can be modulated by the pitch envelope
also (FM, Oscillator sync etc). I usually just have one oscillator
swept by the pitch envelope, so that the oscillators 'grind' against
each other. So now when playing, your patch sounds normal (because
the pitch envelope depth is zero), but if you tap the ribbon, you
hear an explosion, as the pitch envelope creates FM, or other
interesting sounds. Where you tap on the ribbon, determines the pitch
and direction of the explosion. So you can have a lead sound and when
you reach a climax, you can trigger these noises. A pretty cool
synth, because it sounds like a modular with these effects.

Also the Z axis is great for wah things like opening the filter.
Especially if you have a lot of amplifier feedback (try the BEF
filter with a lot of feedback), you can make it scream when you press
the ribbon (Z pressure). Remember you don't have to use the LPF all
the time, as you can control the brightness of the sound with the osc
edge. Don't hurt your ears doing this. It can be really nasty.

My $0.01. I hope these ideas help. I myself am learning a lot from
these discussions.

Cheers,

Jerry