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How would you “distort” and lfo?

audiblevideoaudiblevideo
in General App Discussion

I watch a video from Anthony Martinelli Music and at the 7:30 ish mark he’s discussing using distortion on an lfo.

How would you do this to get the effect he demonstrates using iOS synths (excluding MiRack I suppose)?

Comments

  • wimwim
    edited April 27

    If you're talking about an LFO that's putting out MIDI, that's not straightforward.

    Drambo or miRack or other CV based modular can do that simply by just running the LFO output through a distortion FX the same way you would an audio speed oscillator. Then you can output midi from there.

    Within a synth you don't have that option unless the synth has that as a feature. I can't think of any that do offhand.

    I'm trying to think if there are any MIDI LFO apps that have wave folding capability. I can't think of any offhand.

  • wimwim

    I can think of a few MIDI LFO apps that can modulate their own LFOs. That's a form of distortion, though not so much in the classic wave folding, etc. sense.

  • wimwim
    edited April 27

    It's as easy as pie to output a distorted MIDI LFO from Drambo.

  • audiblevideoaudiblevideo
    edited April 27

    @wim I kind of Intuited your answer, that it had to be some sort of voltage that could sum, as opposed to midi which would just modulate without any clipping. Modulate the modulators yes, which results in folding but I don’t think it clips. Or would it turn into some sort of squarish wave if you just kept adding modulations?

    (Sorry if my terminology is wrong)

  • timfromthebordertimfromtheborder

    @wim said:

    I'm trying to think if there are any MIDI LFO apps that have wave folding capability. I can't think of any offhand.

    I believe FAC PolyFlo can do this, but I don’t own it myself.

  • wimwim

    @audiblevideo said:
    @wim I kind of Intuited your answer, that it had to be some sort of voltage that could sum, as opposed to midi which would just modulate without any clipping. Modulate the modulators yes, which results in folding but I don’t think it clips. Or would it turn into some sort of squarish wave if you just kept adding modulations?

    (Sorry if my terminology is wrong)

    Distortion is just a general term. There are virtually infinite ways to distort an audio signal, including LFOs which are just slow audio signals.

    Clipping is when the portion of a wave that's above a threshold is simply cut off. Wave folding is turning that portion back on itself (see the oscilloscope in my screenshot). Bit-crush, which looks like a stepped wave form ... you get the idea.

    Drambo has the excellent Graphic Modulator, where you can draw in your own distortions. Also, if you're using Drambo as a host, you can run the LFO through any AUv3 distortion you like.

    Broad subject. 😉

    (btw, I'm not sure why you excluded miRack in your OP. It's just as good a solution as Drambo in many ways for this. Though I feel like Drambo has the edge.)

  • GavinskiGavinski
    edited April 27

    From memory, PolyFlo can do both folding and clipping

  • pricklyrobotpricklyrobot

    Haven’t used it and can’t vouch for it, but this app: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mlfo/id1602306976 will apparently let you draw your own LFO wave shapes.
    Looks pretty cool.

  • SamuSamu

    @wim said:

    @audiblevideo said:
    @wim I kind of Intuited your answer, that it had to be some sort of voltage that could sum, as opposed to midi which would just modulate without any clipping. Modulate the modulators yes, which results in folding but I don’t think it clips. Or would it turn into some sort of squarish wave if you just kept adding modulations?

    (Sorry if my terminology is wrong)

    Distortion is just a general term. There are virtually infinite ways to distort an audio signal, including LFOs which are just slow audio signals.

    Clipping is when the portion of a wave that's above a threshold is simply cut off. Wave folding is turning that portion back on itself (see the oscilloscope in my screenshot). Bit-crush, which looks like a stepped wave form ... you get the idea.

    Drambo has the excellent Graphic Modulator, where you can draw in your own distortions. Also, if you're using Drambo as a host, you can run the LFO through any AUv3 distortion you like.

    Broad subject. 😉

    (btw, I'm not sure why you excluded miRack in your OP. It's just as good a solution as Drambo in many ways for this. Though I feel like Drambo has the edge.)

    Drambos WaveTable LFO with all the WaveEffects is also pretty handy for creating off-the wall LFO shapes.

  • timfromthebordertimfromtheborder

    @Samu said:

    @wim said:

    @audiblevideo said:
    @wim I kind of Intuited your answer, that it had to be some sort of voltage that could sum, as opposed to midi which would just modulate without any clipping. Modulate the modulators yes, which results in folding but I don’t think it clips. Or would it turn into some sort of squarish wave if you just kept adding modulations?

    (Sorry if my terminology is wrong)

    Distortion is just a general term. There are virtually infinite ways to distort an audio signal, including LFOs which are just slow audio signals.

    Clipping is when the portion of a wave that's above a threshold is simply cut off. Wave folding is turning that portion back on itself (see the oscilloscope in my screenshot). Bit-crush, which looks like a stepped wave form ... you get the idea.

    Drambo has the excellent Graphic Modulator, where you can draw in your own distortions. Also, if you're using Drambo as a host, you can run the LFO through any AUv3 distortion you like.

    Broad subject. 😉

    (btw, I'm not sure why you excluded miRack in your OP. It's just as good a solution as Drambo in many ways for this. Though I feel like Drambo has the edge.)

    Drambos WaveTable LFO with all the WaveEffects is also pretty handy for creating off-the wall LFO shapes.

    You can also create a kind of wavetable LFO by cross fading two graphic shapers. Like, feed them into an x-fader and have an LFO modulate the blend.

  • HelHel

    Audio damages latest distortion plugin Kombinat4 will also accept cv signals as it can disable /enable dc blocking .

  • rs2000rs2000

    @audiblevideo said:
    @wim I kind of Intuited your answer, that it had to be some sort of voltage that could sum, as opposed to midi which would just modulate without any clipping. Modulate the modulators yes, which results in folding but I don’t think it clips. Or would it turn into some sort of squarish wave if you just kept adding modulations?

    (Sorry if my terminology is wrong)

    You have the choice:

  • SamuSamu

    Running a Square Wave LFO thru a resonant filter is pretty neat trick too...

  • colonel_mustardcolonel_mustard

    you can do this inside most modular environments, i should think. i'd go with sunvox myself, since it's the easiest one for me to understand (even if it does look scary before you actually use it - really, it's a box of lego).

    i imagine you could set up a muted channel in aum or wherever (maybe don't send the lfo to your speakers) and set up a low-frequency-outputting thing (e.g. sunvox/drambo lfos), run that source through any effects and then into an envelope follower, like fac envolver (are there others?), then the midi that generates could be used to modulate any number of parameters of anything within the session.

    but i can't think of an elegant solution (outside of staying in a modular).

  • audiblevideoaudiblevideo

    Thanks all for the ideas and explanations

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