On 05/30/2013 04:38 AM, Tim Munro wrote: > One of my basic concerns is whether or not it is appropriate to make all > options available to all controllers. Is vibrato really appropriate for > Pan (10), Chorus (93), Reverb (91), or Sustain (64)? Perhaps the > appearance of vibrato options in the dialog could be made conditional, > based on the controller chosen. > > A problem with the term "Vibrato" is that it refers to the frequency > modulation of an audio tone. "Tremolo," on the other hand, usually > implies amplitude modulation. Perhaps replacing "Vibrato" with > "Vibrato / Tremolo" would make it clear that this option is not limited > to frequency. > > "Vibrato wavelength" seems a bit murky. I think it would be clearer if, > instead, the number of vibrato cycles in the selection could be specified. > Or, better still, the vibrato frequency in hertz. The number of half > cycles of vibrato could be calculated from the available time interval, > the vibrato frequency, and the current tempo. Tim:
I'm offering a few comments relative to your words above, based on my experience. Perhaps it will be useful - perhaps not. The "Sustain" controller is not useful for 'ramping' up or down. The sustain 'pedal' is either up (values 0 thru 63), or down (values 64 through 127). I don't see "Vibrato" among the controllers defined for General MIDI, though I do see "Tremolo Depth". Many synthesizers ignore many of the controls. The synthesizers I have used respond to either the modulation control (1) or channel pressure (after-touch, which is often assignable) to cause vibrato to occur, or control how much of it is used. I think the soundfont used has some degree of control on how vibrato works. One of the best software synthesizers around (Qsynth / Fluidsynth) makes use of the FluidR3_GM soundfont, which (I think) is quite good. But modulation (vibrato) with it, can often be a problem. For plucked string-type instruments, increasing the modulation control can produce an interesting change in the sound. But for melodic instruments (Flute, Cello, Oboe, etc), it can produce a sound that is (to me) very bad. The above behavior of Qsynth with the FluidR3_GM soundfont is (to me) so bad, that I have gone to great lengths to remove modulation (and channel pressure) controller values from sequences to be played with Qsynth. The same thing applies to the Soundblaster Live (emu10k1) hardware synthesizer using the FluidR3_GM soundfont, though to a lesser degree. That being said, the FluidR3_GM soundfont has a good amount of vibrato built-in for melodic instruments, so I usually don't need to use it. But if you do use it, a little goes a long ways... The modulation controller values I removed from sequences to be played by Qsynth, sounded very good on my Roland D20. -- Sincerely, Aere ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Introducing AppDynamics Lite, a free troubleshooting tool for Java/.NET Get 100% visibility into your production application - at no cost. Code-level diagnostics for performance bottlenecks with <2% overhead Download for free and get started troubleshooting in minutes. http://p.sf.net/sfu/appdyn_d2d_ap1 _______________________________________________ Rosegarden-devel mailing list [email protected] - use the link below to unsubscribe https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/rosegarden-devel
