I recently ordered a DB01. I got a good deal on it since it was a demo model from Perfect Circuit. It arrived a couple hours ago and I have been getting some weird behavior out of the filter. I cleared all settings, started a new pattern and entered a sequence.
My settings are as follows:
LFO rate - 0
LFO level - 0
VCF ENV - 0
Resonance - 0
Drive - 80%
Detune - 70%
Fm level - 0
Filter is set to LP, wide open and then i tweak some knobs from there (resonance and noise).
When I close the filter it seems to never fully close. This is a little hard to get from the video, but depending on the note when I am playing a drone it gets close, but doesn’t close completely. Weirder still is as the knob is roughly 80% counter clockwise it starts to leak sound in the slightly upper midrange. This is more noticeable when the noise is turned up as it disappears and returns as the sweep continues. The sound that leaks through sounds very tinny and thin. Lastly, Idk if its just me but it seems like the filter jumps large values fairly quickly. I could be overthinking things at this point. (I was moving through the filter sweeps pretty quick to keep the video short but it seems to behave that way otherwise as well.)
I was wondering if anyone here had any similar issues or suggestions. Its not a huge deal and it sounds pretty damn good otherwise but I thought it couldn’t hurt to ask around since I am a newb more or less. I have contacted Perfect Circuit and am waiting to hear back.
If you’re driving the filter at around 80% it’s probably not going to fully close.
The filter is more or less based on the Polivoks filter, which is dirty and knarly and just about any adjective that isn’t smooth.
Also, does it still exhibit any of this behaviour with the detune knob at 0?
I’m only able to listen on my phone right now, so can’t hear anything too unexpected. I’ll have a listen on my headphones in a bit.
Thanks, I appreciate the response. Good to know that the filter is supposed to be a little out there. I figured that might be the case.
With the drive and detune set to 0 things do improve and get more subtle overall but the behavior is the same. It gets reallyy close to being closed around 80% counter clockwise and from there it kind of turns into a high pass filter with more sound coming through as you go. Tried messing with the VCA env as well but same deal. I think I could live with it and be careful not to roll off more than 80%.
It gets close enough to being closed that I could fake it. Only bummer is if I wanted to close the filter for a bit and bring it back in I’ll have to deal with the clicks while it is (kind of) closed (honestly might sound kinda cool). That and I might be losing some resolution if other peoples are sweeping through the full range of the knob. Not a big deal really. Just want to make sure I didn’t get a faulty unit, cause I think I’ll be getting quite a lot of use out this thing.
If the drive and detune are down then the filter should pretty much close. The behaviour in the last 20% you describe does seem a little odd, even for a polivoks filter. I know they use the same filter in the Acidbox and that does close fully, though I imagine they’re calibrated quite differently, as the acidbox might be used by DJs, who would definitely need it to close all the way.
I don’t have my DB-01 anymore to check but I’m too noisy a musician to ever have noticed whether mine did what yours is doing.
My gut feeling is that it’s just the way the synth is set up. It wouldn’t hurt to send Erica Synths an email via their support page, they’ve been super helpful and responsive in the past when I’ve had questions.
I didn’t get the high-frequency leak with drive and detune at zero but in my limited experience with the unit (I’ve had it for two weeks) there were definitely times when I expected it to shut up and it didn’t. I figured I’d just put it through a mixer if I really needed to silence it.
Sounds good, I’ll shoot them an email. They do seem like an awesome company. I mean who could not love Tuna the cat. Sorry to hear you got rid of yours. I really enjoyed your last track with it.
I can very much confirm this – it totally closes, to the point where I’ve felt mine might close too early! The last 20% of my counter-clockwise doesn’t do much, so I’ve wondered if there’s a calibration screw somewhere inside.
Hi @Lwekk, did you ever get an answer from Erica synths? Just noticed the filter on my db-01 had the same behaviour, after 80% closed, goes slightly high-pass and never fully closes. This even with all other knobs fully closed, drive, env etc. I wondered if it was something to do with the LFO…
I just bought a DB-01 and I’m having the same issue. Got in contact with Erica and got this reply:
"Hello.
This is entirely expected behaviour - there is unfortunately no way to adjust this. The filter of the DB-01 is based on the filter found in the vintage Formanta Polivoks synthesizer. This filter is grainy and noisy by design - slight bleed with the filter closed is expected. I hope despite this you still find your DB-01 useful and have fun with it! "
Basically same response I got from them when I bought their first rev Acidbox years ago and found the same behaviour. Interestingly the newer Acidbox III does close as normal, as Fin25 mentioned earlier.