I am very happy to have finally got my A4 to respond to cutoff from an envelope follower via MIDI
The A4 should have an envelope follower built in, but unfortunately it is omitted.
I connected a nord stage to an Analogue Solutions filtered coffee MS-20 type unit.
Filtered Coffee sends envelope out (huzzah)
This goes to the volume in of a Moog minitaur (which is a lovely synth)
via the Minitaur editor I assign the volume cv to the cutoff on cc19 (filter 2)
I play audio through the A4 on track 4 and finally, finally I get the cutoff of filter 2 (as I don’t know how to assign the minitaur activity to filter 1 as well) responding to the input from my nord (or anything else for that matter)
It’s a bit convoluted so I’m going to get a modular cv to midi set up unless Elektron see fit to implement a software envelope follower (like they did with MD).
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love Elektron and what they have achieved for you and I to enjoy, but I love envelope followers more.
sd:
hd
apologies for its sketchiness, but hopefully gets the message across to give it a go/finally enjoy an A4 with an envelope follower
Nice! The DSI Evolver has envelope follower as a modulation source, which is very cool. In fact, the Evolver’s feature set is the main reason that I haven’t bought an Analog Four.
Yup, I have a mono Evolver desktop that I bought for the envelope follower, but I couldn’t get the response to be anything except smooth, and I’m after sensitive fast response and decay (but that’s probably me not persevering with the unit)
The lack of a envelope follower on the A4 is a missed opportunity, but now that I have one working my A4 feels like it is the instrument it should be.
The filters sound lovely now that I have them burbling away and earning their keep.
Nice workaround. I’m very fond of envelope followers, and am patiently waiting for Elektron to add one to the A4/K. It’s just a matter of writing some code, and I’m sure they’ll do it since it’s one of few things that set DSI synths above the A4/K. The A4/K is already a great toolbox for analog processing, but dynamic interaction is what’s missing still, and with it it’ll be unbeatable.
Just like the Moog MF-101 they will add a fast/slow (smooth) toggle for maximum flexibility (while still keeping it simple).
Envelope Follower are used when you want something to be controlled via the sound of something else.
As mentioned: T-wah (Touch Wah)
I e plug in a guitar in a unit that got a envelope follower, set it to control an lowpass/bandpass filter sweep. Then the dynamic of your playing of the guitar will control i e the sweep of a filter = wah wah sound without rocking an pedal. That is an direct control that reacts instantly to your playing of the guitar. Most, if not all, people have an intuitive understanding of that.
But IMHO it can get VERY interesting when you are setting it up in a indirect control manner.
The concept of Envelope Followers were the main reason for me in getting the NM G2 many years ago. Just by using four modules:
[ol]
[li]Input (for the incoming external signals)[/li]
[li]Envelope Follower (gets a parallell signal tapped off from the input module)[/li]
[li]MIDI CC Out (converts the signal dynamic of the envelope follower into MIDI Controller Change values)[/li]
[li]Output (parallell direct connection for the external signals just passing thru)[/li]
[/ol]
Hence, any signal I send into the G2 will get a MIDI conversion (of the signal dynamics) that I can use to control anything else that accepts an MIDI CC#. So what I mean with indirect control:
I e if I play guitar, into an rack delay. I could for example let the delay output pass thru the G2 (input > output, the 1 direct to 4 in above list). Which will just sound as nothing more than guitar > delay. With my guitar playing technique I can alter the dynamic. And with the delay settings that I play with/against, I can get different (poly)rhythms (from the delay feedback) if compared to my dry guitar signal.
But with the G2 inserted in parallell of the output of the rack delay. It would allow me to have the dynamic of the delay feedbacks to become converted into MIDI and allow me to control any parameter of choice. The combination of my playing dynamic (which the delay will ‘copy’) AND the delay rhythms/feedbacks would present an different signal dynamics (than just my direct signal) that the envelope follower would try to track. And in turn also control a parameter later in realtime, in sync to my playing (if not playing to sloppy).
So if I set the parameter being something that affects the dry guitar signal (ie filter). The parameter control via MIDI would still BE in control of my playing in dynamic (= dry guitar) and the delay (= later in time). But the parameter response on the filter on my dry guitar signal would be less recognizable to my playing (because that happened just a slight moment earlier).
Can get totally into a mess of ugly sounds. But when playing carefully it can sound really cool…