Subject: Taurus Patch Programming #4
Date: Mon, 29 Dec 1997 19:08:35 -0800
From: timkoelm@iconz.co.nz
To: jv1080@emccta.com

Seasons Greetings, JV/XP'ers!!

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and are enjoying your holidays. My apologies to those
on the list who were expecting a patch tutorial last week - I guess I fell into the
Christmas spirit a little too much and got lazy. Anyway, I hope that this week's patch
makes up for it!

This patch is called 'CrystalDream' and true to its name, it's a dreamy bell-pad. The
raw sound is the '2.2 Bellwave' sample from internal waveset B...The source of this
sample was the classic PPG Wave synthesizer, I believe. This is a four-tone patch - all
tones use exactly the same sample. For evocative pad sounds, I find it hard to resist
the Roland D-50 'Soundtrack' method of sound design - meaning, to pitch tones an
interval of a fifth apart. That's what I've done to tones 2 and 4 in this patch - they
are pitched a fifth above tones 1 and 2. The effect of this pitch relationship between
tones works every time. The downside of this method is that only a limited range of
chords will sound 'right' when playing. I find that just slowly playing simple major and
minor chords work best with this patch.

Half of this patch is 'made' through use of the Time Variant Filter (TVA) and Time
Variant Filter (TVF) - the other half through use of the LFO's, which I'll discuss soon.
The TVA is used to shape a slow attack to the sound and a longish release. The TVA goes
through its cycle quickly in this patch. The TVF also follows the TVA closely - compare
the shape of the envelopes of the TVF and TVA. A LPF is used to remove high-frequency
content from the raw sample.

I've used the LFOs to create a subtle delayed vibrato effect, which can be heard during
the decaying portion of the sound. The LFO rates for LFOs of all four tones are set to
slightly different values, but all modulate PITCH in equivalent amounts. The DELAY time
of the LFO is set to a value of 53, and the FADE time is set to 63. XP-80 and JV-2080
owners, and/or those of you with editor/librarian software will be able to observe this
visually. Experiment with, and listen closely to these parameters to see what effect
they have on the sound. The second LFO for each tone is modulating PAN position in
maximum amounts, for stereo movement.

For a final touch, I've used the Modulation Delay program, for its special spatial
qualities. I've set the stereo delay times to their near maximum, and I've used the RATE
and DEPTH technique outlined in my previous post. Programming the EFX processor is
almost a little art in itself, so experiment with it as much as you can.

Happy New Year Everyone!!

Best Regards,

Taurus3

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