Subbass patch - sounds different depending on the key. Any advice how to fix this?
 

Hello to all the sound designers on this forum, I'm new here although not new to Virus TI. Would like to join in to the community and of course starting out with a possibly very basic issue.

I've found a very nice sub bass preset patch on Virus TI, called Simplex M. Fits quite well into a DNB track I'm making, but I discovered that the sound produces an oscillation or maybe it is resonance that "wobbles" the volume while the notes are pressed down for a second or two. It sounds sweet and well subby making my speakers shake... however the oscillation of the volume changes in speed depending on the key I press - it sounds faster on some and slower on others. Generally less frequent as I go to lower notes. Any possible ideas of what can be causing this change?

It sounds as though an LFO is controlling the volume of it or resonance, but the LFOs don't change their frequency. Some sort of self resonance? why does it change with key change? and how can I make it constant? I've discovered the "keyfollow" function on filter and all 3 oscillators and they are all set to normal... changes don't seem to affect the sound...

Any thoughts?? (or maybe some got a subbass patch that doesn't do this sort of unpredictable change?)

Many thanks in advance!

You could try using the matrix to set Keyboard Follow to automate various things, that ought to give you a bit more control over it. Beyond that it's also possible that certain notes sound louder due to the acoustics in the room you are in.

You should really write your own patches, you will feel prouder of your work afterwards :> The easiest way to create a good subbass is simply to use a pure Sine wave, and play some low notes.


-Annikk

I tried to tweak the keyboard follow from the hardware control panel without automating anything and it makes no difference to the frequency of these strange oscillations... I don't think my room is an issue because its not the reverbarations in the room that make the sound oscillate, but something inside the Virus. What is it - I am puzzled, but I don't want to give up on it, it sounds good, just random I want to be able to control it.

Good point about making my own patch, I will have to do this I guess if the one I found keeps misbehaving!

Is it set to sync? Try turning sync off, and oscillator 2 off.


-Annikk

Well, the random start of LFO3 is responsible for the fluctuations of the sound, it detunes the voices randomly. If you want a steady detune, set LFO3 amount to 0 and set the unisono detune manually.
When it comes to the keyfollow effect, it's due to the relative and not absolute detuning, the higher the frequency the higher the detuning and the faster the beating. After you deleted the LFO3 influence, you'd be able to compensate this by using keyfollow on the unison detune parameter.

is it natural beating of detuned waves that are beating slow due to the low frequency notes?

Could it be the filter key tracking? (don't have any virus here, sorry if it's a nonsense)