No more clicking envelopes

edited May 2022 in Tips and Tricks

Use the gate declicker infront of amp envelopes

Comments

  • edited May 2022

    Does anyone know how the gate declicker actually works, and what it does to the signal (@rs2000 ?)

    I presumed it just added a very tiny amount of attack/release (or slew) to the amplitude of the audio feed. But if this was the case, surely the de-clicker module would need to appear AFTER the amp env(?)

    Thanks in advance for the explanation

  • @tk32

    From my understanding it reads the incoming signal and

    finds a zero crossing in the signal before letting the gate open/close.

  • that would make a lot of sense. Thanks!

  • So for situations where the timing of the start of the note was ultra-critical (eg psytrance bass lines) using the declicker would possibly be inappropriate?

  • edited May 2022

    It gets a gate and then waits for the next 0 x ing to open and close the gate

    resulting in under one cycle delay of the osc


    the half cycle that is delayed is the cause of the click:

    waveform is turned on and off at some random point in time of the waveform cycle

    (other synths just cheat here and delay everything by 5 ms to not click)

  • edited May 2022

    For those who aren't sure what 'zero crossing' means, here's a quick diagram I made that should help explain the concept.


  • Yes, I've run into some instances with low frequency oscillators where the declicker caused more issues than benefits to the sound. But I've found that to be fairly rare.

  • edited May 2022

    (diagram slightly tweaked - see original post above)

  • edited May 2022

    I guess you want control over the phase of osc (start at 0 x ing)

    wavetable osc does that…

  • Sure, you'd rather sync (re-trigger) the LFO instead.

    The gate declicker takes an audio signal as an input. If you have a bass line with, say, a low note with a fundamental around 50Hz, indeed the delay caused by the declicker could be as high as around 10ms.

    If that's critical then you better use an oscillator with sync'able start phase or, like @lala said, the Wavetable OSC.

  • @rs2000

    So for most standard synth racks, you're much better off just using the incoming gate(s) as input to all your Oscillator's Osc sync. As far as I know nearly all of Drambo's oscillators support osc sync (and it works polyphonically).

    If I've understood correctly. the declicker module is only really needed for sound sources that can't be synced with the incoming gate(s).

    What other scenarios would the declicker be useful for?

  • @tk32 In fact, any scenario that requires switching without clicks but for some reason you can't control the phase of the source.

    Sometimes the solution can be different handling of polyphony, sometimes just a slightly increased envelope attack but sometimes there needs to be a safe switching method like in rhythmic and stutter effects - this is where the gate declicker can come in very handy.

  • edited May 2022

    I like your term 'safe switcher'

    That's a great way to think about it what it does. And - of course - not all it's useful applications are limited to audio.

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