Tips for creating a playable synth patch part 2

Last time we talked about using Keyfollow for various synthesis function, this time we will look at using Velocity.

Velocity - Volume

Try hit a tone on any physical instrument with various strength and it will make a tone no matter how soft you hit it. This is the reason why i only have Velocity control Volume to a certain degree. Typical it will control 30-60% of the Volume but never 100%.

Velocity - Filter

Imagine the tone from a piano, when played soft its a kinda round smooth sound it produce. Play it hard and more brightness is added to the sound. The tricky part is to make that transition using Velocity, add too much Velocity to the filter and it will sound like the strings are about to break, add too little and it will sound muddy. Usually i find my self using a Velocity - Filter setting of max 25%.

Velocity - VCA-Decay

Imagine you hit a piano key soft and notice how long a decay it got, then hit i hard and notice the longer sustained note. To emulate this kind of behaviour we use Velocity - VCA-Decay. The correct setting for this depends on the instrument familie, drums need only a subtle change, pianos a bit more and guitars can go from a very short muted pluck sound to a very long sustained note. Velocity - VCA-Decay is often used along with a seperate Velocity - VCF-Decay to give the same feel to the filters, meaning the filter will open up as you play harder.

Velocity - Waveform

A classic Velocity - Waveform setting is when using Velocity to control the Pulse Width on a Square waveform. When emulating a jazz guitar sound i will often use Velocity to control the Pulse Width from a 40% position to a 30% position. This gives the waveform a little life on its own when playing at various strenght. Doing the same with Sync can also add a spark of life to the tone of a sound.

If you are working with Additive or Wavetable you can have the Velocity control the waveform in a more drastic way. Imagine a wavetable of nine pipes on a organ, have Velocity control the transition between those nine pipes going from 1 pipe to two pipes to three pipes etc. This will give you a very dynamic organ patch suited for soft to hard playing style.

This was some of the most obvious uses of Velocity within a synth.

/Michael