note on/off triggers with cv16 expander

[shield]

Hi,

I just got the cv16 expander and I am a bit confused about how I could generate note on/off commands to go with the cv values I set. I essentially would like to replicate the behavior of the regular cv tracks.

I thought I could emulate the triggers using the envelopes, however they do not go to note-off / release when stopping the sequencer. Am I missing something obvious?

[mgd]

Not sure what you mean by Note On/Off.

Do you mean Gate High/Low? That can be achieved in several different ways:

1) Configure one of the 8 envelopes (e.g. use envelope #8) to behave like a gate by setting attack and decay to 00 or something close to 00 and the sustain level to whichever level is appropriate for your situation. The exact setting will depend on the configuration of your "Gate" CV Output (switch to the left aka -5V/+5V or switch to the right aka 0V/+10V). Then use ^80 for a "trigger" and ^81/^82 for Gate On/Off. Any of ^*6 (i.e.^16/^26/^36/^46/^56/^66/^76/^86) will also stop the currently active modulator and in case of an envelope bring it down to 0 (or -5V).

2) Directly program the desired voltage in each step. You do this either by entering the corresponding 3 digit hex code. Be aware of the output range switch flipped left or right (-5V/+5V or 0V/+10V - the following examples assume flipped right). Entering 000 will give you 0V and FFE (or whatever the maximum is) will give you +10V. The values in between are spread linearly. I personally find it most convenient to just use note values. C-0 give 0V, C-1 is +1V, C-2 is +2V, ..., C-9 is +9V and C-A is +10V. Notes in between give you 12 steps each with step size being 0.083333V.

If the above is not clear fell free to ask. I admit to have invested quite some time in terms of reading the manual and experimenting with the ENV/LFO/modulators of the CV16 until I felt comfortable with them. These days I think they are extremely powerful and only a few convenience additions are missing (which are on Thomas TODO list AFAICT )

HTH,
Michael

[shield]

Thanks for the detailed write-up! Yes, gate high/low is what I meant.

1) is exactly what I tried. The problem is that the envelope stays in the sustain stage even when the pattern or the whole sequencer stops. Only double pressing shift-stop brings down the gate.

For 2) my problem is that I don't think I could achieve the correct re-trigger behavior that I need, i.e. that the voltage very briefly drops to zero before the gate is on again.

[mgd]

Re 1)
Never thought about it but upon rereading SHIFT+STOP and realizing all gates are reset it seems reasonable to assume all ENV at least enter their release phase as well. I think one could argue that qualifies as unexpected behaviour if not a bug.
@Thomas: Shall we create a bug report or should this be a feature request?

Re 2)
In my experience I could create basically all ENV behaviour I looked for by tweaking the parameters and switching between ^80 and ^81/^82 (for ENV 8). Sometimes I resorted to temporarily speeding up the track clock. What exactly is it that you wish to achieve?

[XORadmin]

1) Yep, i think i missed that somehow. I will see to let them go to the release phase on the next version on sequencer stop.

2) The CV16 is not made to allow retriggering and even not to have a trigger/gate behaviour. It does voltages and modulations as it's main function.
You would need to use the local tracks with or without the local envelopes at best for retriggers etc (can be generated from the CV16 FX, too). Or use the trigger16 in combination.