LFO questions

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

I am struggling to understand LFOs.

I set an LFO to control SRC Start to go through the 64 slices of a sample with the crossfader.
First of all i don’t understand why i need to choose ISAW and not SAW (going down to go « up » the slices?).
Then i set full DEP on scene B, 0 SPD. When move the crossfader to the right it goes only until the slice 37. Did i do something wrong? Problem of calibration (that would be huge !) no other LFOs are playing.

Edit: Calibration seems ok. Once again it must be the man :wink:

#2

Ok so you are doing two things at once here.

  1. modulation of slice by LFO.
  2. modulation of LFO by crossfader.

In the manual under LFOs it discusses the maximum depth of modulation, and values you would want to dial in to achieve your result.

Which one are you having trouble with, the LFO mod or crossfader mod?

#3

A true sawtooth wave (saw ramp up) has a slowly rising slope, whereas an inverse saw (saw ramp down) has a ‘hard edge’ at its start. Waves with ‘hard edges’ at their start are better for triggering things, compared to waveforms that ramp up over time.

Think of a 1-shot LFO, which is an LFO that’s triggered only once, as a simple envelope. So a true sawtooth (saw ramp up) is like Attack at 64, Decay at 0. An inverse sawtooth (saw ramp down) is like Attack at 0, Decay at 64.

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#4

Thanks for these info. Strangely there’s no Sine Wave in the OT, do we know why? I know it’s doable within the designer but it seems like a basic to have in the presets.

#5

Reading you i realize my mistake. I should of course set the crossfader on the Start parameter it self not through a LFO :man_facepalming:
Still i think i don’t get the modulation of LFO by the crossfader and this value of 37. Is it the top of the ramp? Should it not be at 64?

#6

For 64 slices, you need LFO depth 32 and a locked value of start 32. The saw LFO is bipolar. Adjust speed to suit the scale settings.

The crossfader is independent but you could also lock the values to one side of the crossfader so you can activate the LFO from there.

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#7

IIRC those are the same waveforms the Monomachine has. Doesn’t answer the question, but most of the time, the difference between sine and triangle isn’t so obvious anyway and the lfo designer covers the rest.

If you want a sine wave always present, use a template part (mine is in bank P). Save all your CC assignments, other frequently used settings and lfo designer waves there.
You can also copy individual items from there, so you don’t have to copy/paste the whole part!

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#8

I wish but i can’t copy Bank through project, that would be SO useful.

#9

I don’t understand that. What do you call a locked value of start? Shall i lock that parameter on a trig? Why do i get 37 if i set depth full on? By bipolar do you mean about the two sides of the saw?

#10

There are actually different ways to approach this but I’ll just explain the one I use most often.

Say for example, you want to sweep the entire range of slices across the pattern length. Set LFO to ‘sync trig’ (to make the LFO cycle for the pattern duration). Set LFO speed to 32, then lock depth 32 and start 32 to a trig (alternatively you can just leave the start setting at 32 but by locking it you can change the values on different trigs to get variations). Now copy that same trig across your pattern as desired. At this point you should be good to go (assuming you already sliced the sample and set the slice mode on).

Im not very good at explaining but once you get this method working, you can experiment with variations and other ways of doing the same thing.

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#11

Yep. I use similar settings. SAW, Start 32 for 64 slices or Slices mode off (Start), Depth 64.
2 depth values = 1 slice value.

Some lfo settings at 1m30s. Same principle, but with Slice mode off. I didn’t use Sync Trig here but I always set it like that for sync slices controlled by lfo.

https://youtu.be/H8hm4Ins71A

In this test it’s a realtime recording with lfo on start.

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#12

That’s the kind of information i’m after.

Why did they called it Sync Trig and not Sync Pattern?

So It’s needed to set a value for Start to tell the point zero from which the LFO has to start his job?

Some things are still blurred:

If Slices is Off, then the track won’t play the slices plocks.

I also did not expect to have to plock values in order to use the LFO.

When i set slices On and Depth 64 assigned to the crossfader, the crossfader reaches the 37th slice?
Sorry to insist on that but i’m trying to understand the logic of the LFO and that doesn’t make sense to me.

#13

Sync Track in fact…depends on track length/scale.
Yes weird, it is not synced to trigs…

It plays Start plocks. With Slice mode off, it behaves as 128 slices (appart from LENgth, being applied to the whole sample).

No plocks in my exemple.

Depends on lfo, Slice/Start value.

With Slice 32, SAW lfo, Sync Trig, Depth 64 (32 slices), it goes from slice 1 to 64 (-/+32 bipolar).

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#14

Yeah, you’d have to copy patterns, tracks or parts individually (or mess with OTs files on the cf card). Copying the part for presets work, they carry all the relevant information.

#15

That was in @djenzyme example :wink:

Thanks for all the details, that enlightens it!

What do you mean « for presets »? For a template?

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#16

Another request: i often wished i could lock to a scene the DIR parameter of the delay but it is not possible.

Would this be possible with an LFO?

#17

As all setup pages parameters, it can’t be plocked or used as lfo destination.

It can be achieved with 2 tracks (1 dry, 1 wet).

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#18

I was more thinking of a kind of wizard thing with volume LFO trick to mimic it rather than a direct target.

#19

Another question: the parameters SPD and DEP in the LFO setup page are controlling the same parameters than the ones on the main LFO page but non lockable?

#20

Correct.
Only the parameters on the first layer of each page are P lockable.

(Unless that changed in OS1.4 , Im still on OS1.3)

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