I’m noticing that the attack portion of some samples has a slight ‘fade-in’ sometimes when the pattern is being played for the first time. When it repeats, the attack transient is fine, it’s just the first time. Has anyone else noticed this, or know why it happens?
Is your attack up on the amp page?
That was the first thing I checked, but it’s not. It’s very subtle, like it’s taking some time to load from memory and fading in just as it gets loaded, and the next time around it’s fine.
a guess (though unlikely):
could it be you have more than one sample playing on first step, but that the audio from one sample is missing on the first pass (like a rim shot layered with a kick - the rim shot is missing = softer overall attack).
And the reason it’s missing on that first pass could be because it’s unquantised and actually on the last step, just microtimed so late that it sounds like step one on subsequent passes?
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Hmmmm. It only happens with longer samples, but I’m realizing now that I should record a sample to show what I’m talking about. I’ll try and do that tonight. Thanks for the suggestions all the same
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Is there an amp/filter LFO set to trigger on pattern start? If that’s an option, I can’t remember off top of head…
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Okay, finally got around to making a recording of the problem. The sequencer isn’t running here, I’m just trigging the samples from the buttons (the same things happens during the sequence, this is just to hear it in isolation). I change from one pattern to another–each with its own Part–and play several samples twice in succession. You can really hear how the attack transient is ramping up the first time, and sounds normal the second time (and every time afterward).
https://soundcloud.com/jujak/sample-fade-problem
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Any ideas? I wonder if this is just a result of having a lot of samples on the card, slowing the initial deposit into RAM. But I would have thought that all the samples in the audio pool are put into RAM when the project is loaded, not just the ones from the current Part.
Your audio makes the issue very clear. I haven’t had a chance to use my ot at all lately and no more ideas off the top of my head I’m afraid.
I haven’t been able to get to my OT lately either, but I haven’t noticed this, I usually use longer loops though. My start point plocked triggers definitely don’t do this…
Try messing with the amp setting in amp setup page.
Have you tried in a new empty project?
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The only time I get this is when Im using a neighbor track and the first time the trig is passed it sometimes ramps up like this, then is fine.
Also, are you using the compressor on the master channel out? maybe you have the attack and decay and threshold set causing it to pump up like that. Just trying to cover all that it may be.
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It wasn’t the master track, but the individual track compressors. When the attack is set too high, it acts like a noise gate slowly opening up, but only on the first time a sample is played after a Part is loaded. I’ll see if I can work around it with some creative gain staging, and maybe back off on the compression? Thanks for the suggestion!
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I notice this sometimes too. Like when I have a kick on step one, it won’t always play the first time I start the pattern.
In the amp setup page do you have amp set to anlg? This would make the first trig obey the true attack setting but the next trigs will start from the current envelope level. If so try rtrg if you want them all the same…
Okay, so the problem is fixed thanks to all your suggestions and helpful troubleshooting.
What I learned from this may be helpful to others, so this is what I think was happening.
Several of the samples I imported to the OT for this project were at a low volume relative to the rest of the mix. Even with the VOL parameter in the Amp page cranked, I just wasn’t getting them to stand out. To remedy this, I did the wrong thing. I basically used the compressor as a gain booster to bring the quiet samples up to the desired volume, adding a little squeeze in the process. What I should have done–and what fixed the ‘ramping’ behavior–was to normalize/boost the volume in the edit page for the sample and save it as a new sample. By retaining a very low starting volume and asking the compressor to boost it in an attack/release manner (with the gain sometimes set to 15 or more!) I was inadvertently creating a volume swell as the samples were loaded and triggered for the first time. Not sure why it didn’t happen on every trig, could be a quirk of the OT compressor’s release parameter. But when I made the sample itself louder before it ever went through the gain stage of its track and machines, it sounded fine with or without compression.
So, a word to the wise: if one of your samples is quieter than the rest, go into the edit page and normalize it, or just boost the volume, then save it. Don’t boost with effects, it’s a waste of slots and can screw with your transitions.
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