I actually played with the Gentle Electric Stand-alone pitch
follower/pitch to Voltage conv./. Env. follower a looong time ago -
put a bass guitar into it - it was known generally among people who
used it, that low frequency, or middle frequency sounds with steady
sustain, worked the best. As you state, it detected the fundamental
and tracked a tunable voltage to that note. The problems arose when
you tried to sustain a note on a stringed instrument for too long.
The harmonics would become more predominant than the fundamental, and
the thing would begin to jump around to all the harmonics, which was
not always uninteresting, but not really what you were looking for
either. If you changed notes on the guitar or base while the sustain
was still strong, you could get it to track. Unfortunately, it was an
analog device and it took some slightly noticeable amount of time to
detect the fundamental, so staccato playing was out, limiting your
technique to eighth or quarter notes. I believe this was why it was
used by woodwind players alot at that time, because they tended to
sustain notes for a longer length of time at a level that the circuit
could tolerate. If I remember correctly, it had a CV out, a Gate out,
and a voltage output from the env. follower.
BarryM
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--- In SergeModular@y..., John Papiewski <johnp@w...> wrote:
> There's a practical limit on pitch follower accuracy.... it has to
> figure out what the fundamental frequency is, and in the presence
of
> harmonics, esp. dynamic harmonics that becomes a real problem. I
don't
> know if the digital pitch trackers have some exotic algorithm that
does
> a good job with guitar etc.
>
> JP
>
> C. Whitten wrote:
>
> > In the latest edition of Sound On Sound (UK magazine) there is an
> > interesting article about the Roland SPV 355 Pitch to Voltage
Synthesizer.
> > It occurred to me that this type of unit has fallen by the
wayside since
> > the 70's. Does anyone offer one? (A module with banana connectors
would be
> > superb).
> > In an old Serge price list I have, mention is made of a 'PEF
Pitch and
> > Envelope Follower'. Did Serge ever do pitch to voltage?
> > It would make a great new module. Surely with today's knowledge
it must be
> > possible to improve on the slightly unpredictable results of the
older
> > machines.
> > CW
> >
> >
> > To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> > SergeModular-unsubscribe@y...
> >
> > Keep on Patchin'!
> >
> >
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