Mod Archive Forums
Music Production => Tracking => Topic started by: asmodeus on June 28, 2009, 18:05:56
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Well, I don't understand most of the "special" effects. Can anybody explain me those effects a little bit more (or show me good websites) or show me wave samples (graphics) with and without that effect for comparison? Or maybe short module examples with and without?
These are the effects I don't really understand yet:
- tone portamento
- vibrato
- tremor
- arpeggio
- tremolo
- glissando control
- vibrato/tremolo/panbrello waveform
- panbrello
Thanks in advance.
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What do you want to know exactly? How you use them, what they do?
I can give some small descriptions:
- Tone portamento: Slide to the given note from the last played note. The bigger the value, the faster it slides.
- Vibrato: Well, how should I explain this? if you really don't know what a Vibrato is, look it up on wikipedia. The first number of the effect value is "Speed" and the second is "depth" of the vibrato
- Tremor: Turns the sample "on and off" rapidly. Implementation is somewhat buggy in many trackers. First number is supposed to be the "ontime" in ticks and the second is "offtime", but actually, Impulse Tracker adds 1 tick to both values IIRC.
- Arpeggio: Changes between 2 or 3 notes rapidly. First number is the first note (base note + x in semitones), second number is the second note (if only 2 notes should be alternated, use the same value here)
- Tremolo: The same as Vibrato, but with volume and not frequency. Same usage.
- Glissando Control: Glissando means Portamento actually. This switches between "smooth" (S10 in IT) and "note-wise" (S11) portamento, i.e. portamento jumps between semitones and doesn't go up smoothly.
- Vibrato / Tremolo / Panbrello waveform: Changes the waveform of the mentioned effects. 0 = Sine, 1 = Ramp Down, 2 = Square, 3 = Random
- Panbrello: Same as Vibrato and Tremolo, but changes Panning. Same usage.
I don't know what tracker you use, but ModPlug gives nice descriptions if you double-click an effect. (Be sure to use the latest version, OpenMPT 1.17.02.54, because prior versions Including the "old" Modplug 1.16 miss some effect descriptions).
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Thanks for that helpful descriptions.
First of all, I'm using ModPlug.
So Vibrato is comparable with portamento (Exx and Fxx), just moving from the base note to another note given with depth (relatively)? That means, if given depth is 15 and played note C-5, it is moving between C-5 to almost C#5?
What does it in general mean to "change the waveform"?
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Not exactly. Vibrato works a bit like a fast
|C-501...E04
|........F04
|........E..
|........F..
|........E..
|........F..
|........E..
|........F..Depending on the player mode (linear frequency slides disabled or enabled), the depth of the vibrato may vary, just try it out yourself. Good depth values are 4 to 6 in most cases.
The waveform describes HOW vibrato, panbrello and tremolo are done: Sine means that it alternates between the two extrema like a sine wave, Square means that it switches between them like a square wave, etc...
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Okay, thanks! I think I've now understood most of the effects :).
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Just another question: Can't the tone portamento effect always be used instead of the normal portamento effects (Exx and Fxx in IT), or are there any differents where you can only use one of them?
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It depends on what you want to do. If you simply want to slide down or slide up, use Exx and Fxx. If you want to slide to a specific note, Gxx might be the better option since you don't have to calculate the exact parameters for Exx or Fxx, you just have to approximate the desired slide speed.
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So theoretical I can used both for the same thing. Thanks :).