Wiardgroup

My brain was tied up in knots last night as i tried to wrap my head around this concept. Im not sure if the Envelooper is capable of this, but imagine if each *point* of a multi-point envelope could trigger an *event* in the synthesizer. For example (& ill use an ADSR to illustrate the idea)- an envelope rises to a *point*, where a tributary envelope is fired off to do its thing (could be another multi-point envelope with the same capability of the master envelope). Meanwhile, the main envelope continues as Decay to a *2nd point* (where a 2nd tributary envelope is fired off). Decay continues to the *3rd point* (3rd trib. env.), and Sustain to envelope close (open & close could also be triggers for tributary envelopes). So effectively you are generating a family tree kind of situation, each envelope & tributary envelope encapsulating its own job.
  Initially it sounds like maybe what a sequencer can do, but its the tributary envelopes where things get interesting. It might even do the role of a sequencer when applied to audio-rate jobs. The only barrier is limitations in a synthesizer of assignable parameters (that are musically useful). Many parameters simply dont respond interestingly when they are wrapped in an envelope.
  Anyway, now i have to go and unwrap my brain,
 -Matt

plord wrote: 
>             Hello Grant and fellow Wiardos... 
> Grant Richter wrote: 
>> I have a working Envelooper module with software. It is quite 
>> fascinating from an engineering perspective. I have been working for a 
>> year or so to try and find if it can do anything musical. 
> At the risk of displaying my considerable ignorance, I've been thinking 
> about this conundrum, how *would* you interact with the Envelooper do 
> something musical? I am reminded of Paul Perry's suggestion to all us DIY 
> types who think they have a product: first, design the user interface, and 
> write the manual :) 
> The Envelooper has two UIs, as I see it.  One is the physical module 
> itself, the other is the software used to create the shapes for each 
> section.  For the physical, well, as I recall, you'll have 4 outputs, 
> switches to select the mode, knobs to control stage time, some number of 
> per-stage gate/trigger inputs and outputs, and well I don't know what all 
> else.  It seems to me that all that is fairly straightforward, you patch 
> the outs to control VCOs, filters, VCAs, etc.  The one panel feature that 
> has a strong "IS it musical or not?" emphasis is the knob that selects the 
> timebase; the shorter the time, the more the bugmusic, right? 
> Grant, I think you mentioned that you had worked out a recorder function 
> to capture note, gate, and slope data from sequencers, joysticks, etc.? 
> That's more than half the battle right there, I think.  When recording 
> joysticks, for example, I assume the 256 capture points are distributed 
> evenly across the timebase set by the knob?  So one way to increase 
> musicality would be to allow CV or Clock control of the timebase function. 
> You could then send voltages (or variable clock) to play the gestures in 
> musically useful related time-bases.  Why, a Sequantizer would be ideal 
> here :) and maybe an Envelator to slew the output.  What other patching or 
> routing access to the stages is available from the panel? 
> The second UI, the software, seems like a *serious* opportunity to keep 
> things musically useful.  For the 3 people who are likely to use Wave256 
> and burn their own EEPROMS, that is :) Where I keep getting stuck is, 
> other than note data, how do you visualize 256 segments of a stage and 
> create musical elements out of them?  Will there be any way to dump or 
> load data other than burning a chip?  I wonder about the software UI, and 
> by extension, the concept of getting into the vast store of patterns and 
> gestures that the Envelooper could hold and building msic out of them. 
> * For instance: For VCA control, could the module or the software take 
> voltage/computer keyboard input to create a 10V gate pattern?  Any 
> Envelooper stage could take, say, spacebar (0 volts) for rests and enter 
> (5V) for gate, shift-enter (10V) to hold from previous step.  You'd want 
> copy and paste functions in the software and, ideally, some sort of 
> rudimentary grid layout.  Depending on where you set the timebase, each 
> "step" could be a micro-blip or a 25 second gate signal, and...have I got 
> this right, there is a mode where the 4 stages can start at the same time 
> and loop on different timebases? 
> * You could use one or two stages of the 'Looper to tweak the mod 
> inputs on an EnveLATOR, obviously.  But couldn't you also use a slow 
> timebase, and instead of sending a 10V pulse as above for a gate sequence, 
> have each wave hold an actual complete envelope shape of its own, to send 
> to a filter or VCA, etc.?  That is, instead of just punching through 
> static voltages and letting the Vactrols sort it out, slow the Envelooper 
> down and send a pattern of one-shot envelopes.  For this to work, I guess 
> the software ought to provide a small library of envelope shapes of 
> varying slope and depth, AR, AD, ADSR, that you could cut and paste into 
> each wave slot (or, rest, as above). 
> * am I getting too meta?  Also...working the software in this way would be 
> kind of tedious? 
> I dunno.  I begin to see why this is taking so long :) 
> Paul 
> -- 
> been avoiding work for too long now. 
>