LFO max speed (+63) out of sync

Elektron Gear Analog Keys/Four
#1

why doesn’t the speed go to +64?

from an intuitive standpoint i assumed maxing the speed knob on any given multiplier would give me the full synced speed. i realized recently that this is not the case, i can only get a perfect tempo sync at +32. other multiples of 2 work for subdivisions, etc.

this seems weird to me because you can go to -64 and get perfect sync, but not +64.

this goes from an annoyance to a hard limitation when trying audio range FM using the keytracking settings at 2k, you cannot reach the highest octave, it sucks. but the lfo resolution is pretty bad at that high speed anyway so the FM is pretty dirty regardless. perhaps i am missing something though, can anyone shed some light?

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#2

In most normal sync scenarios you at least have the option to double the speed multiplier and then use speed 32/16/8 etc to sync up

The range is limited to +63 due to the 128 discrete values available in a 7bit range - 64 / 0 / +63

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#3

Not sure but I think +63 equals +64.

#4

I know that in other areas (or other Elektrons) I have been disappointed that the +63 value was not software snapped high to the theoretical +64 equivalent, so I think the observation is valid … if I was developing the software I’d make it happen that way so that the musically useful value was substituted in for the ‘almost’ value

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#5

Just checked, it seems to be +63, not +64.
I thought some +63 values were snapping logical highest values for Elektron gear. Not sure anymore. Maybe for OT…

-64 is usable with some waveforms and negative depth values.

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#6

this

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#7

well thanks everyone, sounds like we are on the same page. and yes, +1 for the substitution avantronica described. also why wouldn’t they put the 64 on the much more frequently used positive side?

side note: just installed 1.35 OS and very happy to see new LFO and ENV depth decimal values and true zero!

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#8

It’s convention afaict across a range of MIDI devices/applications … I’m sure there’s a compelling reason to split it that way based on efficiency with binary calcs/storage etc but I’m just speculating, at its core MIDI is a well thought through standard, there will be a reason imho

is this now on the MK1 (there’s no room surely) … not running the latest os yet …
fwiw, those depths are not stored internally as decimal, the decimal display is a fudge for the higher resolution between steps - so between value 0 and 1 there are 127 values (not 99), this means that a user reading the display could see the same value shown for two different (albeit very subtly) consecutive values due to the rounding error - this is the same in OB anyway and I don’t like it there either - I can see why they’d do it this way but I’d sooner have seen the full 14bit range presented somehow - probably inconsequential at the end of the day - the way the additional depth has always been shown on the Mk1 analogs is quite neat, though subtle, although getting to true zero was easy and also very clear