6.Why do some bowed string instrument voices tend to “squeek”?
As anyone who has played (or tried to play) a real violin knows, these instruments naturally tend to squeek if not properly controlled. The same occurs with S/VA synthesis. As with a real bowed string instrument, bow speed and pressure must be properly controlled in the VL70-m to produce the desired sound. Bow speed is usually controlled either via breath control or an expression pedal. Bow pressure is controlled via control number 13: “64” is medium pressure, lower values produced reduced bow pressure, and higher values produce increased bow pressure.
7.Why are pitch bends produced by a pitch bend wheel not always accurate?
Natural acoustic musical instruments have no “pitch parameter”. Pitch is determined by the properties of the instrument’s resonant body as well as the condition of the instrument’s driver. The same applies to Virtual Acoustic Synthesis: in the VL70-m pitch bend is simulated by manipulating the appropriate pipe/string length and driver characteristics. As a result, the pitch bend range may not always be “mathemati- cally” accurate.
With reed instruments such as saxophone or clarinet, highly realistic pitch bends are pro- duced by controlling both pitch and embou- chure at the same time. Since the embouchure component of the pitch bend behaves with characteristics acoustic unpredictability, precise pitch bends are not always produced. If you want the kind of pitch-bend precision produced by conventional synthesizers, select the VOICE sound module mode, go to the CONTROL EDIT mode, and set the Embouchure Depth and Embouchure Depth parameters to “+00”. Then set the pitch bend range to the desired value. Other controller parameers assigned to “pitch bend” can affect pitch bend accuracy, so check to make sure that none are assigned.
8.Why do some voices not respond as expected to EG edits?
The effect of editing envelope generator parameters may not always be as expected — particularly with plucked string instrument voices such as guitar or bass. This is because the VL70-m actually simulates the plucking, free oscillation, and muting of the strings rather than simply using an EG to approximate these events. If the sound of a string voice decays naturally, for example, setting a long release time will have little or no effect on the actual sound of the voice. Since the attack and decay portions of the voice also have natural timbre variations, these can be unnaturally altered by inappropriate EG settings — which is OK if you’re trying to produce an unnatural effect. Trial and experimentation and the only sure ways to determine how the EG parameters are going to affect a particular voice.
