March 29, 2024, 04:32:02 pm
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register
News:

Arturia Forums



Author Topic: Strange happenings with LFOs and sequences between use sessions  (Read 1454 times)

MichaelMonkey

  • Apprentice
  • *
  • Posts: 35
  • Karma: 0
I've been having a lot of fun playing around with a combination of mods tied to vco levels and lfos controlling filter settings, while also setting up arpeggiated sequences.  All is good, until I turn my MB off, go to bed, come back the next day, and it the patch sounds completely different, out of tune, or timing, etc.  the last thing I do before turning the MB off is to save the preset.  I've been waiting for the MB to warm up for 15 minutes to see if it is a tuning issue.  I've also tried manually turning it.  Still sounds off.  Any thoughts?  Is this a known bug?

DrJustice

  • Super Doc
  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1.046
  • Karma: 480
Re: Strange happenings with LFOs and sequences between use sessions
« Reply #1 on: July 18, 2019, 07:07:20 pm »
I've not heard about this before. The presets should definitely come back sounding identical after a power cycle. If this behaviour prersists you should probably talk to tech support.

WytchCrypt

  • Newbie
  • Apprentice
  • *
  • Posts: 49
  • Karma: 2
Re: Strange happenings with LFOs and sequences between use sessions
« Reply #2 on: July 18, 2019, 09:38:45 pm »
I've been having a lot of fun playing around with a combination of mods tied to vco levels and lfos controlling filter settings, while also setting up arpeggiated sequences.  All is good, until I turn my MB off, go to bed, come back the next day, and it the patch sounds completely different, out of tune, or timing, etc.  the last thing I do before turning the MB off is to save the preset.  I've been waiting for the MB to warm up for 15 minutes to see if it is a tuning issue.  I've also tried manually turning it.  Still sounds off.  Any thoughts?  Is this a known bug?

I've been heavily using my MxB the past few days for a project I'm working on using only presets I've created and I've noticed a similar tuning issue, but only with presets I've created and not related to arpeggiated sequences.  I'll pull up one and the tuning of one of the oscillators will be off and I'll need to use the fine tune knob to bring it back in line - meaning instead of being originally set at 12 o'clock, I'll have to move the fine tuning to about 2 o'clock to match the original tuning at 12 o'clock.  I also thought it might be a warming up issue (though I don't know if that really affects a modern synth like the MxB compared to an old MiniMoog) but that didn't seem to matter.  I'm just working around it so it's not really causing a major problem but it's odd.  Also, the factory presets don't seem to have the problem  ??? 
« Last Edit: July 18, 2019, 09:42:05 pm by WytchCrypt »

minus_ego

  • Apprentice
  • Jr. Member
  • *
  • Posts: 61
  • Karma: 3
Re: Strange happenings with LFOs and sequences between use sessions
« Reply #3 on: July 19, 2019, 12:59:39 am »
I've been having a lot of fun playing around with a combination of mods tied to vco levels and lfos controlling filter settings, while also setting up arpeggiated sequences.  All is good, until I turn my MB off, go to bed, come back the next day, and it the patch sounds completely different, out of tune, or timing, etc.  the last thing I do before turning the MB off is to save the preset.  I've been waiting for the MB to warm up for 15 minutes to see if it is a tuning issue.  I've also tried manually turning it.  Still sounds off.  Any thoughts?  Is this a known bug?

I also thought it might be a warming up issue (though I don't know if that really affects a modern synth like the MxB compared to an old MiniMoog) but that didn't seem to matter.

I can confirm that on my created patches it takes a good 10-15 minutes of warming up before they begin to sound correct.  However I have not noticed anything like what the original poster was referencing.

endreola

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 156
  • Karma: 3
Re: Strange happenings with LFOs and sequences between use sessions
« Reply #4 on: July 19, 2019, 06:23:32 am »
This may not provide much help but I tend to always keep mine powered on.  Sure, will occasionally power-cycle to revive it from some funky state, or power it off altogether when I know It won't be used it for a while, but no issues with it going out of tune.

The MB has two operating modes, Preset and Panel.  It's a long-shot but perhaps it got switched to Panel mode when expecting to be in Preset?

MichaelMonkey

  • Apprentice
  • *
  • Posts: 35
  • Karma: 0
Re: Strange happenings with LFOs and sequences between use sessions
« Reply #5 on: July 19, 2019, 05:55:15 pm »
I've been heavily using my MxB the past few days for a project I'm working on using only presets I've created and I've noticed a similar tuning issue, but only with presets I've created and not related to arpeggiated sequences.  I'll pull up one and the tuning of one of the oscillators will be off and I'll need to use the fine tune knob to bring it back in line - meaning instead of being originally set at 12 o'clock, I'll have to move the fine tuning to about 2 o'clock to match the original tuning at 12 o'clock.  I also thought it might be a warming up issue (though I don't know if that really affects a modern synth like the MxB compared to an old MiniMoog) but that didn't seem to matter.  I'm just working around it so it's not really causing a major problem but it's odd.  Also, the factory presets don't seem to have the problem  ???

I can confirm that the factory presets do not suffer from this issue, so it must be something I am doing. If it were happening to the presets, I'd assume it was a hardware issue and contact tech support. It also only seems to happen when I am using the sequencer and arpeggiator (combined) mode. I have saved numerous presets which do not include use of that mode and this does not seem to happen. I have also made significant changes to factory presets and this doesn't seem to happen (that I've noticed). Also, in that mode, there have been times where I am tweaking something else, and will look over and the pitch of the individual notes change.  Not kidding.  Like a poltergeist!  But it isn't a random change (or I'd assume it was my memory playing tricks on me).  On two separate occasions, when in that combined sequencer-arpeggiator mode, while tweaking the sound, with the sequencer running and key hold on, I notice a dramatic change in the melody, looked over and the note pitch buttons (blue) under the sequence are now ordered in four semitone progressions, repeated across the 16 notes. I hope this makes sense. I should have taken a picture.

I do not currently have access to my MB, but I think I will create some new presets from scratch, using some of the modulation settings in my other presets, but only using the sequencer without the arpeggiator, to see if the problem is with the combined mode (which is very cool, but also seems kinda twitchy).

DrJustice

  • Super Doc
  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1.046
  • Karma: 480
Re: Strange happenings with LFOs and sequences between use sessions
« Reply #6 on: July 19, 2019, 08:16:17 pm »
In the combined sequencer and arpeggiator mode (aka the Matrix Arpeggiator, MxArp for short hereafter), no notes are stored and the blue lights are not sequence notes as such and not semitones, but instead octave selections for the up to 4 held keys. The MxArp is not adequately described in the manual and it may not be entirely intuitive...

One thing that will put the blue lights (octave selections) into the progression you see, is if you've been in MxArp mode, the go to sequencer mode, then back to MxArp mode. That is intentional - it's an MxArp reset (not mentioned in the manual). BTW, if you start in MxArp mode, hold some notes and then go to sequencer mode, the MxArp pattern that was playing will be captured to the sequencer (not mentioned in the manual). Mind you, there's sometimes an issue where you get a scrambled MxArp pattern when you have been in sequencer mode and go back to MxArp mode, but I can't get that to happen as I'm testing right now (rare occurrence anyway).

If you get a different tonality/sound/tempo, as you describe, that could be due to panel knobs being detected in their physical position as the synth warms up and things are drifting slightly. If you select a preset right after power up and let it stay at that preset, it may be changed in this way during warm up and thus sound different. A good practice to avoid this is to select a/the preset after the warm up period. I consider the warm up period to be around 20 minutes, and if I want to do an for autotune I wait at least 30 minutes (as an side, haven't needed an autotune in two years - it just stays in tune, but that's ion the same room not being moved).

Another potential gotcha for getting a "surprise" tempo is if the setting in the MCC for "Load Sequence Tempo" is set to "never", whereby the tempo becomes global in the sense that new tempos are not loaded when a preset is loaded. However, I doubt that is part of your issue.

So apart from the panel knob drift during warmup and the Tempo Loading setting, I can't think of any known things that might change your sound and tempo. I've just been playing around a bit with the MxArp, and don't get any strange things happening here. I've not power cycled cold/warm states though - if I did that I'd expect the odd panel knobs physical position to take effect during warmup, as described. If you continue to get unexpected changes other than those I've mentioned in this posting, I'd recommend a chat with tech support.

.
« Last Edit: July 20, 2019, 01:45:29 pm by DrJustice »

MichaelMonkey

  • Apprentice
  • *
  • Posts: 35
  • Karma: 0
Re: Strange happenings with LFOs and sequences between use sessions
« Reply #7 on: July 20, 2019, 01:48:18 am »
Thank you all for your comments and thoughts.  DrJ, I really appreciate the detailed information you've provided about the MxArp mode.  I don't remember reading any of that in the "manual" (although I read the manual once, quickly, and now just reference combination key commands (for tuning and initializing and stuff). I really do wish there was a real manual, especially for something as rich, robust, complicated, and sometimes (but surprisingly not often) counterintuitive nature of the MxB. The next time I use my MxB, I will let it warm up for at least 30 minutes just to be sure. I think I will also disconnect my midi connections to my other devices.  I have Midi In on the MB connected to my Korg Kronos and midi thru goes to my Monologue.  Midi out goes to my Mother 32.  I wonder if part of the problem is my my Kronos sending midi messages of various kinds to the MxB when they both start up (I have it all set to a single switch so the synths and effects all turn off and on at the same time.  Probably should do it manually, but I'm trying to be efficient with my electricity and my time.

 

Carbonate design by Bloc
SMF 2.0.17 | SMF © 2019, Simple Machines