I want to ask a question regarding the Analog Four LFO side chain possibilities.
I did read all the info in the forum regarding this topic but it was all too overwhelming and confusing.
I would like to do a simple sidechain effect to my synth line, using the LFO.
First, what is the best and simple way to achieve this ?
it appears that whatever I try it does not sound like a simple 1/4 note sidechain.
Second, this is what Iām trying:
Setting the LFO to a multiplier of 32 and the speed to -16 with the trig mode set to āOneā and the shape is a square wave.
A Trigless trig is triggering the LFO, while all other trigs are not.
The trigless trig is set to 16 steps long.
However, when the notes that are playing are not positioned on the 1/4 notes it just sounds weird, cutting off my sounds when they suppose to play.
I have trigs on 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 16
Trigless trig as mentioned is on the 1
Am I missing something here ?
How would you go about achieving this ?
Appreciate any help! thx in advance and bless you all
@Tchu Unfortunately, and Iām probably missing something, hence this post.
I followed this guide to a t, but when I set my lfo setting like EZBOT did in the video Im losing all the sound. its like the channel is muted.
Trigless trig on 1, 5, 9, 13 which triggers the LFO.
All other trigs are not.
Multiplier: 16 or 8
Speed: 16 / minus 16
Mode : ONE
Shape: RAMP or SQR
DPTH: All the way down.
The sound is lost. NO ducking. is this connected to the fact the A4 doesnāt have exponential curve shape ? im not sureā¦ should have worked with square IMO.
This can be read as dismissive, so let me say up front I donāt mean it that way but rather to explain a thing all of us have had to go through. It sounds like you need to learn the basics of the box. Starting with that before jumping into plocking LFOs will give you the foundation with which to debug problems like this when they come up.
Im not saying dedicate years of study. Just take a few days experimenting with the basics. Whatās the signal flow through the filter and amp and how/which envelopes affect that. Then modulations like the LFOs and destinations and depths. Then the sequencer, trigs, patterns, all the settings on the Note page. Then plocks and trig types. The the more esoteric stuff like songs and kits and what the FX track is for and neighbor tracks and such is all important, but can probably come later in this case.
The result will be that, when youāre messing around with something new and sound stops playing, youāll be able to run through the path and figure out why. Like: What was the last thing I changed? The LFO? Are any of its depths turned up? If so, what are their destinations? Could they affect volume ā so the amp or the filter or the velocity orā¦? Do I expect them to? Do they have the shape/speed I expect? Are they being triggered when I expect? Can I change their destination to better hear whatās going on?
The above is just one example chain of questions that should result from the issue you describe. There are hundreds more that would take forever to walk through but can happen really quickly when itās all in your head. So itās important to get that base knowledge down as early as possible.
Once you do, if youāre still stuck, come back and post something like, āthis is happening but it shouldnāt because of X. Iāve tried X, Y, and Z and found out ā¦ but donāt know what Iām missing. Hereās a zip of my project.ā That will help narrow those hundreds of possible question chains down to just one or two that the kind folks here will happily share.
Hello @jemmons
I do appreciate your comment and in no way looking at it as dismissive.
Fair to say I own the Analog four MK2 for 3 years now, have read the manual and generally having a blast with the machine.
However I was never able to reach a sidechain effect using the LFO. not even once. even though I went over every guide on YouTube and this forum.
If I take your approach, then I can say that when starting a fresh project, clean.
Placing trigs on all the notes as EZBOT did, and following his guide in the most exact way possible. it just mutes my channel.
playing with the SPH parameter makes me feel like every note is being cut , even when they are not triggering the LFO.
I am not sure how to better describe this. I will try to send a proj file later today.
The problem with this is that, when I follow those same instructions just now, I get ducking as I expect on my A4. So I donāt know what to tell you. The solution is to find the one thing youāre doing different than me, and thatās a big list of āCheck this setting. Is it X? Are you sure?ā
For example, the A4mkii LFO does have a EXP shape, so seems like you should be using that? You donāt say what your DST is. Thatās crucial. I know EZ says use MOD āoneā, but āholdā makes better sense to me on the A4. Maybe it works different on the DT? And on and on.
Itād be more helpful if you could boil it down. Like, āfrom a blank project, when I do these three things to my LFO I loose all sound. Iād expect ā¦ to happen instead. Am I crazy?ā or something like that. Then we can get at the root of whether youāre misunderstanding how the machine works, have found a bug, or thereās some sort of miscommunication.
@jemmons Here is an empty project with the abovementioned issue:
Its a simple project: track 1 holds 16 trigs , with trigs 1, 5, 9, 13 have LFO trig: ON.
The LFO page (tried both lfo1 and lfo2) is set to ONE, with RAMP, depth all the way down.
DST is set to AMP VOL.
If you have any pointers it would be greatly appreciated.
Looking at your project (thanks for the upload!) a ramp is the wrong shape. With DST set to VOL and DEP in the negative, weāre using the LFO to bring down our amp volume. For a pumping sound, we want the volume to be brought down the most when it triggers and then open up. So we want our LFO shape to be big at first, trailing down to small. SAW and EXP have that shape. EXP will yield the most compressor-like behavior.
Having a DEP of -128 is probably extreme with a DST of VOL. Thatās probably why youāre not hearing anything. Try bringing that up to something more around -40 when experimenting, trying to get the right sound. After you have something that sounds like pumping, then you can adjust it to taste.
On the A4, an LFO with a MOD of āONEā will trigger on every note trig regardless of whether itās locked to do so (this could be a bug? But I think its purpose is to be used as a one-shot envelope, so it makes sense in a way). This will work if you have one long sustained note on 1 and then trigless locks on 5, 9, and 13. But for something like this where you have a bunch of plucks on 1ā16, you want an LFO thatās free running, triggers only when the trig is locked to tell it to, and ideally does not loop. HOLD does all those things, so Iād use that.
After making those adjustments, I get some good pumping. Let me know if it works for you.
@jemmons
First, Iām happy to see that its not just on my machine.
When following EZBOTās guide it does not yield the desired result with the A4.
The āONEā shape is a bug IMO.
because it should have been cycled just the ONE time, whenever an LFO trig is happening like an envelope, which it doesnāt do.
If the cycle is set 1/4 and it start with a reversed square for example - it should result in exactly 1/8 note quiet and 1/8 note loud.
DPTH to taste would have been sufficient. but it does not do that.
I did find that HLD is the better option here, utilizing the SPH param (for example: SPH 32 with a negative 16 speed value) to taste would generate some interesting results, i guess it is sufficient.
but this is not as shown in the various guides online.
I will try to play around with other settings, but at least I know im not crazy
Thank you for the assistance and lets make some killer music!
I love the knax preset with a lfo triange down only, on filterā¦ trig on every beat with length of 4 trigs (techno) and adjust settings to create opening baseline in sync with kick
Maybe. The documentation is pretty clear that ONE and HLF are both started whenever a note is triggered ā in other words they are not free running. And retriggering (via the LFO lock on a trig) really only makes sense for a free-running LFOs. So I can see their point.
But yeah, itās confusing and the behavior of different LFO modes (and, especially, how those interact with LFO retrig locks) is not very well spelled out. Itās something we have to learn through experience with the device and experimentation.
Thatās the thing. People making guides online are doing their best, but theyāre often not experts with an A4, not experts at explaining things, or both. They can point you in the right direction, but at the end of the day they are useless if you donāt bring your own foundational understanding of the instrument to the table.
Glad itās working for you! Have a great weekend of awesome music!
From what I recall lfo trig is different on the analogs than the other boxes. Been a min since I messed with it but the behavior seemed to be that trig would reset even a free running lfo
Anyway exp wave, negative depth, positive speed value and ONE shot trig mode start phase at 0
Speed to taste should get you close. Iām going from memory so donāt hold me to the specifics lol
@astricii
I believe you missed the whole point of this post, but no worries
The ONE mode doesnāt work as intended when you donāt have a long sustain note, it just triggers ONCE, and never againā¦ this is not useful for sidechain effect.
I tried the settings you suggested its not working. You can also try it yourself just place trigs on every step and see if these settings yield the desired result.
Try HLD with with SPH 32 and speed to 16 or negative 16 it works way better.
Nothing bugged with the LFO as far as I can see, but Iām using Analog Keys.
Iāve tweaked your project so it ducks as I think youāre expecting it to (DEP set to 0, but param-locked DEP -128 on steps 1, 5, 9, 13)
