Knob quantise in the Ti a good thing?
 

Not really come across this feature before but am I right in saying it can enable you to chop up filter sweeps into stages? How does it operate, do you select the number of stages you want it to be chopped up into and then it runs off the tempo clock? Will you be able to make radical changes to a patch in the mod matrix and then assign the whole thing to knob quantise?

Am I talking shit?

Knob quantisize is very intuitive function. It works exactly like note quantisize. You set the quantisation accuracy (probably 1/64th to 1/1) and then the value of knob is read on each selected time point (clock from MIDI or internal). It's a nice feature. Perfect for arpeggios.

Bet it sounds great. Whack up the resonance, crank down the cutoff step rate, then sweep.

Strange as it may seem, although I hated it originally at the time, my MC505 with its 127 discrete cut-off steps is actually really nice to use as an "effect" in its own right, as cranking up the resonance really highlights the steppage in all its retro digital glory when swept slowly, and it sounds really great in contrast to the smooth transitional stuff we've been used to hearing recently.

Can you give some examples on how to use this in cool ways with arpeggios?

Let's imagine taht you have a 1/16th arpeggio. Then just set the knob quantisize to 1/16th and start tweaking the cutoff knob like there's no tomorrow. The cutoff will set to new value everytime a new note is played instead of sliding continuously like with ordinary knob mode.

Gate? No.

Let's bend this from a iron wire (a Finnish saying):

You have a plain saw with LP filter. Nothing else. You grab a cutoff knob and turn. You hear how the cutoff changes smoothly even you move the knob quickly. The cutoff follows perfectly the knob movements. Then you switch on knob quantisize and set it to 1/8th. You start to turn the cutoff knob. But what on earth is happening? The cutoff doesn't change smoothly, but instead it takes 1/8th of time to cutoff to change to the value of the knob. When changing the cutoff value fast now the cutoff seems to be stepped and the steps synced to tempo. Yay!

Do I have to draw a picture?

Take the cut-off (or whatever) and quantise it to have a low-step count - sync' it to an LFO, and then you'd get tempo gated type stuff. Well, actually, more "step-sequenced" type stuff.

As Juho says, imagine if you swept the cutoff knob as normal - it's nice and smooth, as Access have programmed it so that all the values 0-127 are smoothly joined together (I just wish every other synth manufacturer did this too :? )...

However, if you quantised it to 128, then it would get rid of the smoothness, and it would step from one value to another at 128 different points. (Similarly like many older digital synths did by default, such as my MC505).

Having the option to quantise it further to a really low value, such as 8 (ie. 8 values/regions over the whole 0-127 spread), the cutoff knob would appear to be really "steppy", and you'd only have 8 different cut-off frequencies to sweep across (as opposed to 128 different, discrete values - or smoothed like it normally is). So, although you would sweep the cutoff knob as usual, the actual frequencies would step/jump violently from value 0, to 14, then to 28, then 43, 57, 71, 85, 100, 114, and finally 127 - [or something along those lines]. It wouldn't be smooth between each value.

At least that's how I think the knob quantise function will work? Please correct me if I'm wrong, if anyone knows.

Yep, it's another new and interesting function that makes me feel more jealous of the TI owners.

If it works the way I'm expecting too (same as the posts above), I can't wait to hear what it does to midi-synced beats running into the input.

Without reading though - does it actually have the option to set it to a low value? *Important for my imagined beat effect.

The TIs still look girly though..... :cry:


PS at Juho. Yes draw a picture you grumpy bastard! Hehehe.

Cool! Well, I clearly understood the stair steping effect, but using it only on the cutoff aint that impressive to me, but what you could use this for in creative ways, like mentioned here: aditionaly on the LFOs, LFO depth, effects etc!

Can you use it on all the controllers, and have different step resolution on them? :D

Couldn't have put it better myself, it will be a fantastic feature I reakon.

well this is not really a must (as a new feature) since it is already possible to achieve this effect by mapping cutoff to velocity, but it is cool to have it done automatically....

forget it :oops:

It sounds more impressive than you think. Especially with the resonance whacked up in this context. All Viruses allow you to turn off the "Smooth" setting that morphs between the midi values, but even so, the Virus still sounds relatively inocuous as the aliasing between the "steps" isn't all that pronounced or great.

However, I've made an example of my MC505:-

(turn your speakers down before listening to it, as the resonance is quite high).

[505 stepping] 389kb MP3

The aliasing is much cruder, and you can really hear the stepping when I slowly swept the cutoff knob when using a peaking-type filter. It's really pronounced.
High resonance was used, and I ran it through a distortion effect to give it bite.

Not sure. Best wait for the detailed spec's to come out, or for someone to test one for real. ;)

Come on Access, release those TIs so the pre-order guinea pig beta-testers can knock us up some MP3s for us to wank over! ;)

Yeah, come on Access :x

LOL

DS

I don't think the quntisising is just reducing the read points. It's more like reducing the reading frequency. The knob movements aren't updated as fast as usual.

Ah, I get ya. So it's more like a Sample & Hold, except you control the cut-off frequency (or whatever) at whichever point in time it takes the sample as well as being able to set the gate/hold time in relation to the tempo?

Thanks for that mate!!!! Much better than drawing a picture......:)

I really had no idea what all this was about until u posted that clip, and it makes much more sense now. Sounds like it will be a pretty cool feature

Top marks for effort!