May 21

Issues with Oscillators Always Generating Sound

When inserting an oscillator on an empty track or at the end of the chain on a lane it could be surprising that all of a sudden you are hearing a tone. I think defaulting the oscillator level to 0% could be more surprising as it may feel broken because the user is not hearing any sound after trying to play some notes. Another thing I was thinking was setting the default level to lower values like 25%, that would work out to be -12dB, or 10% for a -20dB level. That way it's less likely to be loud and annoying when not expecting the sound. I'm open to suggestions to improve this.

Closed

May 25, 2023

Decided to keep things as they are for now.

May 23, 2023

It's not really an issues and will more likely serve as education for users to keep an eye on the module chain they are creating. So always start with an AMP Envelope, then add the other modules before the envelope. It's a way better approach than reducing the output of an oscillator which could get a tad annoying if the output would always have to be adjusted after inserting an oscillator. Personally I'd much rather see a global volume with a hard-limiter to avoid accidentally blowing the ears or speakers... Sure you could maybe bake in some auto-logic that if the sound generating module has no module controlling the level after it in the chain the volume could be reduced/muted or better yet alert the user that there is no level controlling device after it and things could get loud...

May 23, 2023

Samuel Lindeman: I mostly agree with you. I prefer simplicity, and once a user understands how it all works IMO it makes sense. And yes, the best approach is to always start with an amp envelope. Having said that, the default is 50% which is only -⁠6dB, and once you stack a few things it might get loud fast. So defaulting to 25% might be a better option I think. Thoughts? When I insert a noise oscillator, for example, I always find it way too loud for it to be useful.

May 23, 2023

Nikolozi: I usually prefer to start at around -⁠12db and amplify from there if/when needed. The downside of this is that with lower default levels it may influence the users judgement on the sound quality if it's not as 'loud' as the others in direct comparison. This is where the global master volume & limiter could come in handy... (I personally enjoy driving the oscillators and filters hard into a compressor/limiter and then reduce the output level).