A Few Settings I Can't Figure Out

OP-1
#1
1) In Mic (Shift+Mic), what does "output to input" (ear icon) do?
2) In the Element LFO, I don't understand how the 2 last Source options ("synth engine envelope" and "pitch & volume," as they're called in the manual) can be used to affect modulation.
3) Also in Element, what is the last Destination option (a drawing of a note and speaker)?

I've messed around with various combos of those settings, sometimes nothing happens, sometimes something does. I just can't intuit it.

Thanks for any help.
#2

Answering question 3 -Speaker and note is volume and pitch.
Q2 we can make a sound louder or quieter with say the accelerometer ,by wobbling OP1.Same for pitch.The four options work a bit different.
In mic the ear is output as source,so Master out.This is good for bouncing tracks together in Tape ,with effects etc.It seems not to work when used as source for modulation,only the other two options work(mic-which is input- and radio).The Ear does nothing as far as I can work,in modulation and this may be for some feedback issue or a loop in TEs design.

1 Like
#3
Q2 we can make a sound louder or quieter with say the accelerometer ,by wobbling OP1.Same for pitch.The four options work a bit different.

If I'm reading it right, I believe you're describing how things work when you set source to the accelerometer and the destination to "Pitch & Volume (note+speaker)" icon.

However, what I'm asking is what happens when you set Element's source to "synth engine envelope" and "pitch & volume"? How does the characteristic of the envelope you've made (T2) and your assigned pitch (I assume the key you press) & volume (What is that based on?--the main volume knob?) affect what the modulation is like?

Thanks for the other explanations. I understand those now.
#4

Ok, in your example you would end up with the envelope(T2) directed at our pitch/volume destinations.Orange will fine tune our destination.If we select Green,this routes our enlvope to pitch as well as its (normal) control of volume.The other three destinations are volume ,so the envelope would have two modulations of volume ,giving a steeper shape than normal.I recommend trying G to get a feel for how it modulates volume with three different shapes for the three other settings(blue/white/orange).It modulates the synth voice volume.It is often called Amplitude mod.
The mic is a blast as source if you haven’t tried that yet.That is mod with an audio signal as source,with audio rate envelope follower (signal follower).

#5

I think I understand most of it now.


The mic is a blast as source if you haven’t tried that yet.That is mod with an audio signal as source,with audio rate envelope follower (signal follower).


It is! One thing I noticed is that, under certain scenarios, if I rub my finger back and forth over the mic, it produces a vinyl scratching effect.

Thank you again for the help.
#6

Have you tried it with radio as source or external line input?Then select synth engine as destination or FX with a filter,like Punch.i haven’t tried CWO yet…

#7

Oh yes-Pitch & Amp seem to work different when Mic is source and is fun to investigate (with radio/ext audio).

#8
Have you tried it with radio as source or external line input?Then select synth engine as destination or FX with a filter,like Punch.i haven't tried CWO yet..

I just tried with CWO now, directed at its Frequency parameter. I like how radio as mod renders it a really natural, irregular fluctuation.


Oh yes-Pitch & Amp seem to work different when Mic is source and is fun to investigate (with radio/ext audio).

Paired with radio it seems like it can turn in a wild cacophony. Not sure how to make use of this one yet.

#9

I was thinking an external drum hit at same tempo ,synced rough, to modulate side chain style mod.

#10

Ear is also good for recording EQ,master FX or drive to tape.Useful for sampling master or album too.Or album to tape,though I haven’t tried that.

#11

About the music note / speaker icon destination:

Blue and green are clearly volume/pitch, and only work on synth (not drum). Clearly meant for tremolo/vibrato.

But I just discovered today that red appears to be some kind of overdrive-ish distortion? Works on both synth and drum. Use crank LFO to effectively set it to a static value. Tasty on bass synths/drums.

And white, I still can’t figure out. On synth, it sounds almost like a duplicate of blue (volume). But it’s not quite identical (e.g. use phase to make a pure sine wave, and compare crank lfo routed to blue vs white).

#12

hmmmm I’m starting to think the white/orange are actually drive/release settings for a hidden synth/drum (non-master) compressor/limiter.

Would explain why white seems to be like a level control, and red seems to distort (bass especially). With low release settings, the gain reduction starts to alter the waveform, not just amplitude.

Fiddling with the master drive can give some similar sounding results (not exactly the same, which isn’t surprising, given it’s probably tuned differently to be an individual track limiter)

I’d actually noticed before that the track seems to have some limiting/compression going on.

Your #10YOP1