Dave Smith Instruments SYNTHESIZERS

I've had my mono Evolver now for about 8 months and I've had a real 
blast tweeking the default sounds, but decided if I was ever going to 
get the most out of this thing it was time to start some patches from 
scratch 

I have tried the route of tweeking default patches down to a vanilla 
sound (and that works) but being the proud macho fool that I am I 
wanted to start from dead zero, so I downloaded the .syx file the 
blanks bank 4 so I could start building my own but so far nada...dead 
zero

Here's where I'm at,it seems to me that this should produce something
I get MIDI signal to the evolver, cause other banks are working, the 
trigger select and key off settings are ok , the osc1 level is up, so 
are my master and VCA volumes....but no sound 
emanates.....grrrrrrrrrrrr

Globals
I have MIDI channel correct (banks 1-3 respond fine, the light 
flashes in MIDI in) 
Volume at 100
Transpose at 0
BPM 135 (but irrelevant)
CLock Div at 16n  (also irrelevant)
MIDI clock off

lock seq off
poly off
input gain 0db (irrelevant)
fine tune 0
MIdi ch 1


the relevent ( I think) patch 1, bank 4 settings are 

OSC1 
freq C3
fine 0
shape S-t
level 96

all other oscillators set to level = 0 

filter 
freq 14
env amt 17
attack 5
decay 16
sustain 11
release 9
resonance 20
key amt 13

vca 
level 8  (and if i crank it up to 100 to drine , still nothing!!)
env amt 10
attack 5
decay 9
sustain 34
release 15
pan St1
vol 99

LFO1 
freq 14
shape tri 
amt 4
dest OAF - all oscillator frequencies


LFO 2-3 all freq 0

ENV amt = 0

trigger select ALL
KeyOff/transpose -12

Seq1-4 dest all off 

and NOTHING comes out 

this post probably qualifies as the stupid question of the month, but 
can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong?  I'm embarassed to ask, but 
I figure I can't be the only guy in town who decided to zero out one 
of the banks with the patch cleanser in the files section of this 
forum, so an answer here might help the next guy like me save a few 
hours

thanks to any and or all help on this


 Brian
(from a cheap hotel at midnight  in Chicago

"bcomnes" <bcomnes@...> writes:
> vca 
> level 8  (and if i crank it up to 100 to drine , still nothing!!)
> env amt 10
...
> vol 99

The first two values above seem odd.

I think the basic formula for the overal VCA output level is:

    final_level = (level + env_amt * env_level) * volume

[where "env_level" is the current level of the VCA envelope.]

So for typical sounds you'd set "level' to 0, "env_amt" to 100, and
"volume" to 100, and reduce "volume" if it's too loud.  For drones you'd
set "level" to 100 and "env_amt" to 0.

-Miles
-- 
"Nah, there's no bigger atheist than me.  Well, I take that back.
I'm a cancer screening away from going agnostic and a biopsy away
from full-fledged Christian."  [Adam Carolla]

thanks to Julian  who said 

that filter value is kinda low.. why not open it right up?
also, what's the HPF doing in this patch? if that's set at "o 99", 
you won'thear much.

well the filter helped a little and the hpf  wasn't the issue 

and thanks also to Miles who said

I think the basic formula for the overal VCA output level is:

final_level = (level + env_amt * env_level) * volume

[where "env_level" is the current level of the VCA envelope.]

So for typical sounds you'd set "level' to 0, "env_amt" to 100, and
"volume" to 100, and reduce "volume" if it's too loud. For drones 
you'd
set "level" to 100 and "env_amt" to 0.

that seemed to do the trick 

anyway I'm now getting something out of my pride and joy Evolver so 
the rest is the work to fill in patches 2-128   

thanks to all 

this is a great forum for a great synth

Looks like you've got it sorted but I wanted to say don't beat 
yourself up not getting too far with those 'blank' Evolver Banks. I 
know someone went out of their way to post them and all, but they 
don't make a great starting point for creating patches because every 
single parameter is set to zero. These initialized banks come from  
Soundtower's Evolver editor which IMO are kind of useless. I would 
take the Evolver's Initialized program (program 128 on bank 1) which 
is great 'starting point' since the osc's will sound and basic 
things like mod wheel are set up already. Just copy that (I know 128 
times is a lot) you will save yourself a lot of grief.  I guess 
starting from zero on all settings is a useful exercise to try at 
least once!       


--- In DSI_Evolver@yahoogroups.com, "bcomnes" <bcomnes@y...> wrote:
> thanks to Julian  who said 
> 
> that filter value is kinda low.. why not open it right up?
> also, what's the HPF doing in this patch? if that's set at "o 99", 
> you won'thear much.
> 
> well the filter helped a little and the hpf  wasn't the issue 
> 
> and thanks also to Miles who said
> 
> I think the basic formula for the overal VCA output level is:
> 
> final_level = (level + env_amt * env_level) * volume
> 
> [where "env_level" is the current level of the VCA envelope.]
> 
> So for typical sounds you'd set "level' to 0, "env_amt" to 100, and
> "volume" to 100, and reduce "volume" if it's too loud. For drones 
> you'd
> set "level" to 100 and "env_amt" to 0.
> 
> that seemed to do the trick 
> 
> anyway I'm now getting something out of my pride and joy Evolver 
so 

> the rest is the work to fill in patches 2-128   
> 
> thanks to all 
> 
> this is a great forum for a great synth