where does the voice come from within a patch?

sheepsleg777 · Joined: Jul 18, 2005 Posts: 3 Location: virginia

im new to this site and to the nord g2. i've read about almost all of the topics on this forum, and im almost finished reading the manual as well. and let me tell you what a nice manual it is. very user friendly, verses, say, the motif manual. never in my life have i ever been so confused reading, until the motif manual. on every subject in that manual, it would have you go to four other pages, then to another four pages. it was one big mess. anyhow, i've looking all over to try and figure this out. i understand logic, and computers pretty, so the g2 isn't really that bad. im just struggling to figure out, "when in the editor and creating a patch, where does the sound/voice come from???" the examples in the manual, didn't really explain that. can you upload different wav's or voices, or do you have to shape them from scratch??? don't know, its probably a very simple question with a very simple answer, but im st.. thanks for any input..

Jason · Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2005 8:57 pm Post subject:

The G2 is strictly a hardware synthesizer based on a modular platform. The waveforms or sounds you end up hearing are generated by the raw oscillators and then further processed by the modules when you create a patch and as you play or trigger the sounds. This as opposed to sampled waveforms in many modern synths.
There currently are no options available to upload new sounds of your choice, however the inputs on the G2 allow for other various amazing processing potential not to be over looked. You can not currently load any files into the G2, though this is theoretically possible with a new editor OS update but this is doubtful and there is no news for plans of this.So basically the G2 is like the older analog modular synthesizers, just a digital version of it. If your still unsure about all this, a simple thing to study is just basic waveforms, how they are generated as well as how this relates to synthesizers. Using VCA's , VCF's , E.G.'s etc. I hope this helps a little. It isnt the greatest explanation for sure. welcome

Jason · Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2005 9:08 pm Post subject:

One more clarification , the sounds come from the oscillators that you configure within the editor in conjunction with the other modules to edit. These are not sampled waveforms, they are generated from the Oscillator modules etc.
The other modules are mostly not sound sources but rather a means to contour the sounds of the oscillators. Smile

You can just hook up the Oscillators to the outputs within the editor and hear the raw sound, but it isnt very useful for other purposes, though it may help you to understand the concepts a bit better.

ian-s · Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2005 9:34 pm Post subject:

Hi Jason, you bet me to it again Smile

The confusing situation is not made better by every manufacturer using the same terms to refer to different things.

As I understand it, in the Clavia vocabulary, the modules and connections included in a single slot and it’s FX area, are a patch. If the patch is polyphonic, then the patch will be able to play 2 or more ‘voices’ which are identical copies of your patch which are allocated to different keys if you play a chord. A different set of knob/switch settings for the same patch is called a variation, you get 8 per patch.
A group of up to 4 patches can be loaded as a performance.

There is no predefined voice architecture at all, the design of your virtual synthesiser is completely up to you, using the available modules of cause.

sheepsleg777 · Joined: Jul 18, 2005 Posts: 3 Location: virginia

wow, thats different. thanks for the input. i guess i can stop beating my head against the wall now. not exactly what i expected from this machine, but its defiantly workable. thanks again

Unfed · Posted: Sun Jul 24, 2005 11:44 am Post subject:

seraph · Posted: Sun Jul 24, 2005 1:40 pm Post subject:

sheepsleg777 · Joined: Jul 18, 2005 Posts: 3 Location: virginia

well, i at least expected to be able to upload wav, or other sound files. but other than that, just compactness and the uniqueness of being a clavia product. so its not a let down, its just different. like i said im fairly new at this game, seeing how its not my job, but more of a growing hobby that im very intrigued by. again, thanks for the input.

Unfed · Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2005 5:23 pm Post subject:

cappy2112 · Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2005 6:36 pm Post subject:

Kassen · Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2005 7:15 am Post subject:

mtvic · Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2005 6:45 pm Post subject: Who is this Unfed poster?

Unfed maybe this is in the wrong topic but I have just emailed you a request for critique.

sheepsleg777 why don't you just feed the G2 AUDIO INs with playback of wave files and process them .
I know its not a sampler but you can really mangle up with processing.

Sonically
MTVictor

Rob · Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2005 2:49 pm Post subject:

Kassen · Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2005 3:03 am Post subject:

I think looking at samples like that is a lot like some peolple look at electronic music in general, calling it all emotion and expression less.

You can do anyhting to samples that you can do to oscilators and many of those techniques are lot more usefull when applied to samples. It's just a shame nearly all commercial implementations suck so badly.

elektro80 · Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2005 3:07 am Post subject:

That is an excellent point, Kassen.

Perhaps offtopic, but still related to the "where does the voice come from within a patch?" is the "where is the music in a piece of music". Like:
"damn.. I am looking at this sheet music and I see the notes, but where is the music?"

Kassen · Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2005 3:23 am Post subject:

Yeah. I think this question touches on so many high-level points. Nearly everything in digital synthsis tends to come down to matrixes (many of which are kinda degenerate cases that should realy be called tables) and matrix operations. Typically the big difference between sample based techniques and synth based techniques is where the tables come from which nicely brings us back to the original question.

Clavia choose to use tables based on mathematics which has as a huge advantage that they are very, very predictable and thus relatively easy to controll and manipulate into what you want. The downside is that you can't write them in yourself if you want to use some table that can't easily be expressed as math (such as a vocalist singing or the sound of a broom hitting a trashcan) and that math typically isn't very concerned with sounding good as such (but of cource can be made to).

ramsy_gss · Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2005 5:41 am Post subject:

Hey hey....I've just gotten myself a G2. One of the big reasons I got my hands on one was to turn a simple old akai sampler (With 8 outputs) into a classic wavestation type synth. The samples play out of the Akai and then have a twisty old time in the G2. There's some bugs but it (mostly) sounds ok.