What is _quantum?

afta8 · August 11, 2013, 2:16pm

I did an oprint on renoise.song().tracks[].prefx_volume and noticed the parameters value_quantum and time_quantum

I can’t work what these are for and where they might be useful, can anyone enlighten me?

danoise · August 11, 2013, 2:48pm

Normally, DSP parameters work with floating point precision, but some devices will only work with quantized values.
An example would be the Filter Type, which set it’s values in steps of one - so here, the quantum is 1

On the other hand, time_quantum sounds like it could be used for time travel
Actually not sure which parameters that make use of it, but I am sure the principle is the same

afta8 · August 12, 2013, 3:03pm

Ah ok, I get that, thanks

time_quantum is still quite confusing though, I mean why would this be on a volume fader? Unless its something to do automation… anyway I thought they were some kind of esoteric/hidden functions waiting to be exploited!

danoise · August 13, 2013, 10:38am

Here’s what the devs had to say (lua docs will soon be updated with this info):

-- The minimum interval in pattern lines (as a float) at which a parameter can  
-- have automation points. It is 1/256 for most parameters, but 1 for e.g. song  
-- tempo, LPB and TPL which can only be automated once per pattern line.  
renoise.song().tracks[].devices[].parameters[].time_quantum  
 -> [read-only, float]

afta8 · August 13, 2013, 3:51pm

Sweet, looking forward to it