Randomize smooth wave in Pulsar?

[MrFigg]

Been trying for ages to get the mental guitar tremolo effect used by My Bloody Valentine in their guitars. Choruses and Uni-Vibes kind of worked but not really. Anyway, I just reinstalled iZotope Vinyl and the Warp function seems to be perfect. I know NOTHING about cv but with a bit of mucking around I got a Pulsar connected and running the Warp Slider. All well and good but I’d like to randomize where the slider goes. I also want it to be a smooth wave and not stepped ( as in square or triangle???). Can anybody tell me how to do that. Also what knobs time tweak on Pulsar so it runs slowly. I could read the Pulsar manual but again I just don’t understand that stuff. Humble guitarist. So...anything you can tell me about this would be great. Thanks

[Loque]

Get Janitor. Slow Attack, longer Release, increase Gain.

[MrFigg]

Get Janitor. Slow Attack, longer Release, increase Gain.

Thanks Loque. I’ve got it. Just didn’t know what it did . I guess now I think about it I could have just drawn in a random automation curve for the warp slider but I figured it’d be good to learn something new. Thanks for helping. I’ll check it out.

[MrFigg]

Loque...should Janitor be on Pulsar or straight into Vinyl?

[Arjanders]

Pulsar cv out into Janitor cv in.
Janitor cv out into Vinyl.

With slow attack time and longer release the value changes of the pulsar will be smoothen out.

In the janitor you can see a light represent the values send out. If you want a bigger picture how the cv out looks like you can put after the janitor a CVA-7 cv analyser (also free).

[MrFigg]

Pulsar cv out into Janitor cv in.
Janitor cv out into Vinyl.

With slow attack time and longer release the value changes of the pulsar will be smoothen out.

In the janitor you can see a light represent the values send out. If you want a bigger picture how the cv out looks like you can put after the janitor a CVA-7 cv analyser (also free).

Excellent. Many thanks.

[Carly(Poohbear)]

You could use the smooth random LFO from Thor (waveform 5).....

Capture.JPG (32.84 KiB) Viewed 1975 times

[MrFigg]

You could use the smooth random LFO from Thor (waveform 5).....Capture.JPG

Aha!!!!!! So how do I get it out of Thor and into Vinyl?

[jam-s]

You should be able to route that LFO to a CV out using the mod matrix.

[Carly(Poohbear)]

You could use the smooth random LFO from Thor (waveform 5).....Capture.JPG

Aha!!!!!! So how do I get it out of Thor and into Vinyl?

On the back of Thor there is an LFO2 output.

That may do the job fine however the LFO's in Thor (and some other devices) work from -0.5 to +0.5 , there are a number of different ways to get this signal to the full -1 to +1, e.g. Janitor has a scale knob however you can do this from inside Thor as well, you just output the LFO twice to CV1 and connect from the CV1 out to the Vinyl with this in the mod matrix.

Capture.JPG (20.92 KiB) Viewed 1879 times

[MrFigg]

Many thanks for all the help with this. One last question though if that’s ok. When I open the cv programmer in the VST it has values from -100 to +100. What exactly is that and what should I set them to? Total cv virgin. Thanks.

[Carly(Poohbear)]

CV is all about controlling the signal, it's in the name Control...Voltage.

So an LFO happens as standard go from a negative to a positive signal. Now this works well with something like a PAN as usually zero means center, so a negative value moves the PAN to the left and a positive to the right.

With Knobs if you set a parameter to the middle the CV signal will offset that value, negative will reduce the parameter (turn it down) and a positive will increase it (turn it up), this is also where the fun starts with CV as we can keep the signal only in the positive range or the negative or 90% positive and just 10% negative etc etc etc, we are controlling the transmission....... oops, sorry went all twilight zone then...
That's a normal CV signal into a back of a RE and a BIG note you don't physically see the knob or switch etc move on the front of the device.
With VST's it's sort of the same however it works more like the combinator in it actually does moves the control and this is where the base value comes into play, setting the base value say to 50 was like in my previous example of setting the knob of a parameter to the middle.
The "Amount" on the left is how much of that signal is going to effect my control, turning the "Amount" down will change how much it will move the knob left and right from the base value.
The fun part of CV is controlling that signal, getting to do what we want and you can do it many different ways and that is where a lot of people start to get confused, there really is not a right and wrong way maybe more of an efficient way

So to confuse you as I'm awkward like that, taking a feed straight from the Thor's LFO2 port into a VST with amount set to full is also the same as doubling the signal in Thor (like my example going out of CV1) and then halving the amount value on the VST.

Hopefully that answers your question, how much do you want the signal to effect the parameter is a positive value you should set.... FYI a negative value just does invert of the signal. Example set a Freq control to positive value and using the same LFO set a Q ("Reso") value to negative, as the freq. drops the Q goes up and vice versa.

[MrFigg]

CV is all about controlling the signal, it's in the name Control...Voltage.

So an LFO happens as standard go from a negative to a positive signal. Now this works well with something like a PAN as usually zero means center, so a negative value moves the PAN to the left and a positive to the right.

With Knobs if you set a parameter to the middle the CV signal will offset that value, negative will reduce the parameter (turn it down) and a positive will increase it (turn it up), this is also where the fun starts with CV as we can keep the signal only in the positive range or the negative or 90% positive and just 10% negative etc etc etc, we are controlling the transmission....... oops, sorry went all twilight zone then...
That's a normal CV signal into a back of a RE and a BIG note you don't physically see the knob or switch etc move on the front of the device.
With VST's it's sort of the same however it works more like the combinator in it actually does moves the control and this is where the base value comes into play, setting the base value say to 50 was like in my previous example of setting the knob of a parameter to the middle.
The "Amount" on the left is how much of that signal is going to effect my control, turning the "Amount" down will change how much it will move the knob left and right from the base value.
The fun part of CV is controlling that signal, getting to do what we want and you can do it many different ways and that is where a lot of people start to get confused, there really is not a right and wrong way maybe more of an efficient way

So to confuse you as I'm awkward like that, taking a feed straight from the Thor's LFO2 port into a VST with amount set to full is also the same as doubling the signal in Thor (like my example going out of CV1) and then halving the amount value on the VST.

Hopefully that answers your question, how much do you want the signal to effect the parameter is a positive value you should set.... FYI a negative value just does invert of the signal. Example set a Freq control to positive value and using the same LFO set a Q ("Reso") value to negative, as the freq. drops the Q goes up and vice versa.

Totally aaaaaaawesome Carly. I’m going to have to read what you wrote maybe 15 times more and very slowly but I think it explains it all really well. Just to check though...when you’re talking about the cv values did you mean the cv out from the LFO. I was talking about the cv programmer on the VST...for the inputs on the back of the VST. Opening that programmer with the little arrow gives me a grid where I can define what parameter to alter with cv1, cv2 etc. it also gives me a little box where I can alter a value from minus to plus 100. Maybe that’s what you meant though.
And then there’s trim pots hahahaha. Maybe better to leave them for another day?

[LABONERECORDINGS]

That's a normal CV signal into a back of a RE and a BIG note you don't physically see the knob or switch etc move on the front of the device.

If you wrap the device into a Combi, then take the CV from your source, wap it into any of the CV sockets on the back of the combi, program the Combi so the correct Cv input is sent to the correct control you can see the destination knob move. What's more fun is when you connect the CV in to a Combi knob, and then link the knob in the programmer to a control that's within the Combi (say filter frequency for example), the Combi knob can set the 'start' position, while the additional CV signal gets added to the Combi knob value and then you can see the start position change (when CV isn't piping through)

CV can also go above +-1 too, so there's that to play with.

Thor audio input can also be converted to CV output (and CV input to Audio output), so you can get some neat conversion going on there. Use the audio in to CV out method when using external gear to control Reason (yes you can use external CV and Audio devices when you have the right type of soundcard)

Using my MOTU 2408 all light piped to my Mackie d8b and the d8b is my 'mad wiring system' for sending CV via audio cables to my other bits of kit and vice versa

CV is the nuts when you get into it

[Carly(Poohbear)]

when you’re talking about the cv values did you mean the cv out from the LFO. I was talking about the cv programmer on the VST...for the inputs on the back of the VST. Opening that programmer with the little arrow gives me a grid where I can define what parameter to alter with cv1, cv2 etc. it also gives me a little box where I can alter a value from minus to plus 100. Maybe that’s what you meant though.
And then there’s trim pots hahahaha. Maybe better to leave them for another day?

I used the word "Amount" as that is the label the VST interface has, this is your programmer with the little arrow with the little box next to it where you can alter a value from minus to plus 100..

[MrFigg]

when you’re talking about the cv values did you mean the cv out from the LFO. I was talking about the cv programmer on the VST...for the inputs on the back of the VST. Opening that programmer with the little arrow gives me a grid where I can define what parameter to alter with cv1, cv2 etc. it also gives me a little box where I can alter a value from minus to plus 100. Maybe that’s what you meant though.
And then there’s trim pots hahahaha. Maybe better to leave them for another day?

I used the word "Amount" as that is the label the VST interface has, this is your programmer with the little arrow with the little box next to it where you can alter a value from minus to plus 100..

Thanks Carly. Appreciate you taking the time. And your patience .

[rgdaniel]

... we are controlling the transmission....... oops, sorry went all twilight zone then....

If you'll forgive the old fart pedantry, it's actually "Outer Limits"...

[Carly(Poohbear)]

... we are controlling the transmission....... oops, sorry went all twilight zone then....

If you'll forgive the old fart pedantry, it's actually "Outer Limits"...

LOL same ballpark, just hitting the wrong way

[dvdrtldg]

If you want complete randomization, as opposed to one crazy LFO curve on a loop, you also need to play around with the rate & amplitude. I haven't got Pulsar in front of me, but it should be possible to modulate these around the back of the rack via CV

Another thing is that Pulsar is a pretty straightforward device in terms of LFO curve options. If you want to get freakier, Shape from Lectric Panda is really versatile, and easy to figure out. Little LFO is also very good, and it's free (I think?)