Hey all, I was trying to add some timed Gain fluctuations to a synth in Renoise and I can’t seem to find a “sync” option to lock the LFO speed to variables of the song’s tempo, 1/4 beat 1/2 beat etc etc…
Anyone know how to do this?
Thanks!
I guess the only reasonable way to do it is simply using pattern effect commands to change the LFO’s parameters whenever you do a tempo change.
You can listen to bpm changes through a notifier event with scripting and then recalculate the LFO settings according to the new BPM/LPB rate, but that won’t be a realtime process which is quite an essential thing for LFOs.
Another way that you might follow is using a key-tracker device and make the key notes (that create the pulse line in the pattern track) control the LFO instead, depending on the key note received several values are changed by the LFO. You would have to configure the LFO a one-shot device in that case.
Still might not give any satisfactory results.
It’s definitely possible, but due to the way the LFO currently works it can be a bit tricky.
The LFO’s frequency is measured in LPC (lines per cycle). Therefore, if your song is running at 4 LPB (lines per beat), then a frequency of 4 LPC means the LFO will last for exactly one beat (1/4 note). A frequency of 2 LPC means the LFO is running twice as fast (1/8 note), while 8 LPC is twice as slow (1/2 note), and so on. To get other musical timings, you will have to multiply/divide the LPC value accordingly. If you want triplet notes you can divide the LPC by 1.5, and for dotted notes you can multiply the LPC by 1.5.
An unfortunate overall side effect of the LFO is that if you later change your song’s LPB timing, your LFO timings will no longer match your song, so you will have to adjust all of your LFO timings to compensate for the new LPB.
To get more control over how the LFO starts, you can use the LFO’s reset command to reset its position to sync up with your beats/notes. Use x8yy to reset, where x is the number of the LFO device in the DSP chain, and yy is the position within the LFO’s shape from 00 (beginning) to FF (end).
Anyway… you can also check out one of the Renoise 2.8 demo songs that I’ve made: Main menu > Help > Tutorial and Demo Songs > Tutorial - Beat Synced Wobbles
This demo song shows a technique for precisely syncing the LFO to musical timings, via the use of a secondary custom LFO which is programmed with the exact timings, which in turn controls the ‘real’ LFO’s frequency so that you don’t have to manually calculate everything. It maps many common musical timings to some easy pattern commands. Check the Song Comments for a more detailed description.
Too many damn three-letter acronyms in this post! LFO, LPB, LPC, DSP, WTF!