MOTM

In a message dated 12/25/99 9:40:26 AM, vulture.squadron@... writes:

>From: "Paul & Alleyne" <vulture.squadron@...>

>hello all
>a thought occured to me this morning - now am i stupid, or can you use
>an EG
>& VCA in conjunction with an envelope follower and come up with a Compressor
>application..?
>put it this way i've been messing around with a drum loop putting it thru
>a
>Korg MS-03 pitch to voltage convertor, and experimenting with the gate
>outputs to the EG or the evnvelope outputs direct to the VCA - so far (and
>i
>can't really be bothered today - as there's some serious eating to be done)
>i've managed to emulate some of my favourite Eventide Omnipressor settings,
>but not really been able to look at levels and ratios (which is yer bias
>setting on the vca..?)

>which brings me onto - if this compression milarky is possible (in a serious
>context, as opposed to wacky omnipressor messing around with dynamics),
>then
>the MOTM envelope follower might do well to have features that would help
>in
>this. at the moment i can only think of a course & fine level control,
>and a
>direct out for the original signal

>ideas..? comments..? witty put downs..?

First:
When making steak and kidney pie, how do you prepare the kidneys?

You boil the piss out of em!

Now then:
Given a precision (i.e., MOTM) envelope generator and a similarly precise VCA 
with a -- in unison gang -- reversing attenuator CV input, one would have a 
mono compander; i.e., compressor/expander. Compression would be found when 
the attenuator was being turned more negative (since a higher level from the 
envelope follower would result in a lower output from the VCA), while turning 
it more positive would result in an expander type setting.

But using VCAs and envelope followers in this fashion would be greatly 
enhanced by adding VC Lag processing, since a lot of the character of 
different compressors comes from the way they compress. For example, an LDR 
based compressor would be quite sluggish (and maybe an exponential slope 
too?). And if one were to try and make a stereo compressor, I think they 
often average the level of both channels to avoid weird pumping between 
channels kinda things.

I'm not sure how using an EG would help this act as a compressor, but it 
would be great for just altering the envelope of a sound like long attacks 
and short release for a pseudo backwards sound. It would be a great addition 
to an envelope follower to have a built in comparator to allow a gate out for 
this very purpose.

Ho Ho Ho
JB
One of the Three Wise Men