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Is there a synth with two-note legato 'mono mode'?
I'm looking for a synth that will allow me to replicate two-string guitar hammer ons.
There are lots of monos that will allow you to hold one note and then play a second note. When you release the second note, the synth will revert to the sound the originally held note without re-triggering the envelopes. Classic Moog feature.
I'm looking for one that allows that for two notes: two notes held and then two notes tapped. Each time the tapped pair of notes is released, the held notes sound again (preferably without re-triggering the envelopes).
As an example, if I hold down C2+G2 and then play B3+E4 in some rhythm of staccato notes, each time I release B3+E4 the synth reverts to C2+G2 because they're held.
I've tried a bunch of synth apps that I thought might support it and haven't found one that will let me do this. Need to be able to a) set the max polyphony to 2 notes and b) set it to "last note" priority and keep the originally held notes in memory so they sound again upon release. I'm still under the hopeful impression that Sunrizer or iMini might actually get me there but I couldn't find the right settings incantation to make it happen.
I sort of got what I was after by using two instances of Viking on separate tracks as a mono synth but I'm really looking for one that will allow me to do this with a single track/instance so that I can play it live.
Comments
I can't think of anything off hand. You could use something to split the midi of two notes played and send it to two versions of the same AU, but then that's getting back to using two synths again. Will have to check all my synths, but really can't think of one off hand.
You could probably program such a beast in one of the modular apps, but that would be way over my head
You will need a poly synth that allows limiting the number of voices, if you restrict it to 2 voices then the initial notes will sound, using the 2 voices, then second pressed notes will take priority, and it would then return to the original notes when the second ones are released and the voices are available again.
Not sure of anything that would allow this though.
EDIT: Poison has this but the minimum voices is 4
You may have problems with poly notes cycling and ruining the effect. In essence it still needs to be mono for each note. I think the splitting midi notes may be the most simply way after all.
Just had another though, you could do this with pitch bend if you are pitching up the notes by the same interval.
We should get lives @AndyPlankton
LMAO I know........and just to prove that point, you could also automate the OSC tuning
although as with the PB idea, you wont trigger the envelopes on the second notes, as would happen with a real Hammer-On
BTW if you happen to have a Rockband Mustang controller, you can do this with that, it has a synth mode which supports hammer-On/hammer off although Im not 100% sure if the Hammer-Off is actually a Pull Off which would retrigger the env's
Is this even possible on any hardware synth? If it were me, I'd reach for my actual guitar via midi.
with iM! you can use aftertouch to control pitch bend, so if you have an aftertouch enabled controller you could use that, as long as you are pitching up by the same amount each time anyway.
One thing I'm not sure of though, is the aftertouch pressure sensitive, and if so will it be progressive pitch bend rather than instant.
Easiest solution would be to use a sequencer (or an arpeggiator if it's happening in a repeatable rhythm). That would be the approach I'd take for this because I'm lazy.
Failing that, try to program one of the midi controllers like Lemur, midi designer, etc. There might be a way to do two note polyphony on one of those.
OK, this is bugging me LOL
If you are after a trill or repeated hammeron/off then what about having a square LFO controlling the OSC pitch, then when you want the trill, up the LFO output to the OSC pitch or the amount the pitch is affected by the LFO (this could be either way round depending on the synth.), then when you want it to stop drop the LFO output back to 0, you could probably map it to a mod wheel for ease of playing. You could also map the LFO speed to another control to get different 'trill frequencies'
Good stuff. Thank you guys.
This is actually the first path I went down. But then editing automation in cubasis was pissing me off so I went with two tracks of mono.
And the passage, though caveman simple on guitar, is too complicated on keyboard (for me anyway) to be able to muck with the mod wheel. But I think you're onto something. I could set a pedal controller to change the pitch of OSC2.
I'm not sure. I'd imagine so.
How does one reach for a guitar via MIDI? Do you mean guitar to midi note conversion? I don't think that would change the voicing problem but it would be a much simpler way to capture the riff!
Well, there's a problem with conventional keyboards in that if you were to hit, for example, a three-fingered chord, and then hit a higher three fingered chord, then let go, like a guitar hammer-on, how does the keyboard know which of the original three keys were 'hammered' to a higher one, then to which one should the lower value be returned? If you hit a three fingered chord and then hit one key higher and let go, which one is the one that is assumed to be the hammer-on?
On a guitar to midi box (like my now unused Roland GI-10), because the strings are separate midi channels, any hammer-on is treated as a sudden immediate pitchbend for that string alone, separately in each string of the chord's case.
Have you tried using a guitar-style controller such as Geo Synth in "string" mode? That sounds to me what you are after (if I have understood it correctly).
Good idea. I haven't. I don't own geo synth or geo shred though. Can anyone try it out for me? I'll look into Guitar Capo and Guitarism tonight.
I don't think it needs to know how to correlate new notes with old notes. There's no bending going on. It just needs to be able to maintain an active connection between held notes and the oscillators so that it will revert to the sound of the held notes. Since there's no new 'keydown' event, the envelopes should continue to run as is.
Just tried it on my Sequential Circuits Six-Trak. Held 6 notes, hit 6 other notes and when I released the 6 new notes, the original 6 rang out. It doesn't have a way to voice limit though.
Huzzah! It actually does have a way to voice limit. If I record a silent sequence of 4 notes, it has two voice polyphony.
Still, I'd be very interested to find an iOS synth that can do it because I'm lazy and actually want to do this project "in the box".