variation in trigger duration using on board possibilities of pulsar23

[fabiankalkerParticipant]

hi – as an easy example – I would like to modulate the decay time of the hihat.

any suggestions how I can use onboard possibilites of pulsar23 to  modulate trigger durations?

 

[postsolarpunkParticipant]

Creative workarounds:

Maximize release time of the high hat, record a high hat loop and put it into a switch. Then use another module (I tested using snare module), turn the volume, attack, and release all the way down, and connect the trigger of that module to the CV of the switch. Connect output of the switch to the MIX IN pin. Use the second module to turn ON and OFF the high hat in whatever sequence you record for that module. This is hard to control though.

Another idea I just tried, take the trigger of the second module, patch that to the SQUARE to TRIG pin in the top left and take that TRIG pin to the trigger input on the high hat module. Turn down the volume of the high hat to zero. Have the second module trigger control the CV of the switch like before, but now since it’s feeding a trigger to the high hat, if you do a short tap of the second module, it will trigger the high hat with a long decay but then cut off the audio shortly since it closes the switch. If you do a long hold on the second module, this will leave the switch open, trigger the high hat with the long decay, and you can hear the high hat decay normally. This is one way to control the length of the “length of audio decaying when triggering” the module, not precisely the decay rate, but it gets close.

Another idea is to control the delay module feedback parameter. Turn down the attack and decay of the high hat module and turn up the FX send (high hat module volume optional to blend some of the original signal in). Then use CV control to control the amount of feedback the delay has to control the “decay time”. Use a short delay time and tune it appropriately short so it sounds like an oscillating sound source (or don’t, have fun). Then I used a slower LFO to control the amount of feedback which extends the “decay time” of the high hat. If you use the BPF mode, then I found it likes to oscillate very quickly but it’s really fun to throw CV on the TUNE parameter on the delay and get crazy karplus strong sounds out of it. You could use a MIDI sequence tied to the feedback to control when the high hat decays and for how long. You could use a MIDI sequence tied to the TUNE knob to control at what pitch the high hat will decay at. Switching to DBL mode, if you turn the TUNE knob all the way down and the TIME knob to taste while controlling the feedback, you can get a more realistic “decaying high hat control” type of sound. I think this is the most accurate sounding way to do that. Messing with different TIME  and TUNE values while modulating the feedback in the DBL mode with a square wave LFO can generate different sounding high hat patterns depending on the high or low state of the LFO. Could patch the square LFO to the TUNE knob as well to push the delayed hat around in time.

 

[postsolarpunkParticipant]

Okay I just discovered this. Using that first idea with the switch to “uncouple” the module decay time from the actual length of the triggered audio here’s a really decent sounding Karplus Strong Patch for you to try:

Snare Settings: Snare module volume, FX, and attack at zero and BPF, MIX, and TUNE to taste. Use this as the white noise exciter.

Delay Settings: DLY in BPF mode and volume up.

Snare TRIG out to CV of SWITCH

Snare ENV out to FB of DELAY

Snare OUT to SWITCH IN

SWITCH OUT to DELAY IN

Tap in a snare pattern to get some short noise triggers sent to the delay.

Tune the delay TIME and TUNE to a low value (somewhere around 9 oclock) and turn up the feedback until it starts oscillating.

Now turn up the release time on the snare module to finely control the amount of feedback on the delay module. By patching a decaying CV source you effectively “decay the decay time” of the oscillator. With a short attack it’ll self oscillate at first then decay away rapidly so now you have better control over the resonating length of the signal.

Tweak snare parameters to experiment with different exciter sources. Mix in dry snare. Send the dry snare to the fx. Send the DELAY OUT to the REVERB IN or patch it into the EXT in of another synth or something. Switch the Delay to DBL mode and tweak parameters to get a different string type. And so on.

I think the trick here is you get the benefits of the high feedback for different tones but then the ENV keeps it from getting out of control by decaying the feedback away. This trick is probably useful for other applications.

[Fabian]

thank you so much for these suggestions – none solved my initial problem ( so far )  but they are hugely inspiring for me!!

the last one is amazing, that is a whole new world opening up with the ENV to FB mod!

 

[postsolarpunkParticipant]

Glad to help! lol I’m not sure there is a way to modulate the decay time of the high hat, but this the closest thing I could come up with.

[Author]

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