So I think I know the answer to this question before I ask it, but before consigning this track to the trash I thought I’d ask if anyone has an idea for a solution.
I’m playing around with the XT classic engine and have found a lovely round squarey/triangley sound with a long decay. There’s no sample playing, it’s purely the XT classic engine itself. The problem comes when I come to re-trigger the sound in quick succession. Due to the long decay I’m getting some very audible clicks as the sound re-triggers. I’ve tried playing with the main amp settings (attack, hold etc) as well as note length but nothing really makes any difference. Of course I can reduce the decay of the sound source but this renders the sound useless to me.
Am I right in thinking that, as the Rytm has one voice per track, and that said voice re-triggers each time a note is played, that there’s not much I can do here, other than reduce the decay of the sound source?
yes rytm envelopes cut to 0 attack if the decay is still going.
the machine is designed to be used in conjunction with the sequencer.
using parameter locks within the sequence of your XT track one can program trig lengths and envelope parameters accordingly to mitigate clicks and retain the elements of the sound you like.
Whenever I have this problem I either set a trigless trig on the step before the note change and use that to snap the decay to zero (using microtiming to get it just right) or I set my amp envelope to be something like 0 attack, auto hold, and <5 release and use the note length parameter to cut the sound off right before the next note.
I’m assuming trigless trigs won’t work here as I’m triggering the sound on sequencer for almost all of the steps in a pattern, so don’t have any room to wedge any more trigs in. Having said that, this approach would work really well on another project I have, so thanks for the suggestion.
The note length p-locks didn’t seem to affect the sound for some reason, but it did prompt me to try adjusting the decay on each sound via p-locks, which has worked a treat. So problem solved!
So I thought altering the decay had sorted it, but when I went back and listened to a previously saved version of the project, I realised that track sounds soooo much better with the longer decay (minus the clicks of course).
I then hatched an ingenious plan to make a duplicate track with the same engine and parameters, and share the triggers/notes between the two of them. I was getting ready to call myself a genius when I played it back and found it sounded absolutely identical. The tracks aren’t in a choke group, so is it the case that the trigs are re-setting because they’re using the same XT classic engine, even though they’re on different tracks? Can two tracks not use the same engine independently of eachother?
If the tracks are not in the same choke group then there is no relation between the engines. Think of the LT vs the MT/HT and owning two separate XT synths instead of one synth with 2 XT engines. If you heard any change in audio it’s down to tolerances in analog components or phase cancellation between two identical synths playing the same pattern.
To answer the question from @Aksdnt the click most likely comes from the oscillator resetting while the amp is still open. Usually this creates an inaudible frequency or is too fast to be perceptual if the sound is relatively high pitch but in low bass to sub frequencies the instant resetting the phase to 0° creates a DC click that sounds like a full spectrum pulse.
It’s interesting you say that, as now I go back and listen, it’s less like clicks (although they’re still there at certain points in the pattern) and more like a dulling of the sound. So maybe it is indeed phase cancellation that’s happening with the triggers split between the tracks. I might try and tweak some paramaters on one of them to see if I can get what I want.
The slightly ridiculous thing in all of this is that I have an analog four sat on my desk which would be perfectly capable of creating something very similar to the XT classic, which wouldn’t have the same issues with pops and clicks. But I’m determined to make this work now. I feel like I’m constantly finding these deep, rich sounds on the Rytm, only to hit a brick wall when it comes to using them in a pattern.
