Anybody know of a virtual synth that supports pitch envelope? I think the CS-80 supports it. Any others you can think of?
Diva, Zebra, and Hive do it. Diva is especially easy. Most of the G-Force plugs can do it. For free synths, I am pretty sure Surge XT can, but I haven’t tried it.
- Paul
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I’m probably missing something but don’t most virtual synths give the user options to use envelopes or LFOs as a modulation source which can be assigned to pitch?
Hi
I’ll try out Surge XT.
Pitch envelope is different than modulation. For example, the envelope would allow one to program rising notes when a key or chord is released similar to portamento. That’s a basic example. Take a listen to the opening chords of the U.K. song Alaska.
Paul
In Alaska the notes rise.
Yeah, most synths allow you to do that, either via dedicated pitch envelope or mod matrix routing. I.e. it is nothing special that requires a niche synth
Not really - in synth-speak, modulation means that a source (which can be an LFO, an envelope, an arpeggiator or also a controller like velocity, aftertouch, modwheel, pedals) MODULATES (i.e. changes) a sound engine parameter - in your case oscillator pitch.
Some synths use fixed modulation paths (e.g. aftertouch always modulates filter frequency and volume) with only the amount controllable per patch; others have a very sophisticated “modulation matrix” and a multitude of modulation sources like envelopes, LFOs, sequencers and other funky stuff, which can be flexibly assigned to modulate one or more parameters of the sound generation.
The “pitch envelope” is simply a fixed implementation of such a modulation assignment → an envelope curve assigned to modulate the “oscillator pitch” parameter. Some synths have such a dedicated “pitch envelope”, some other synths may just have two envelopes - one fixed to amplitude, the other sharing duties between filter and pitch. I’ve seen all kinds of funky envelope implementations in classic synths.
Many modern synth approaches have multiple envelope generators you can freely assign to whatever parameter you want to control; with amp, filter and pitch envelope just being applications of such “generic” envelope-based modulation.
With Surge XT, there are only two dedicated envelopes: “Filter EG” and “Amp EG” - the usual suspects. To get one more envelope in order to control pitch, you need to use one of Surge’s LFOs - these allow you to set them to Envelope mode. So just pick one of the LFOs, set it to Envelope mode, then assign it to either Oscillator Pitch or Scene Pitch (across all oscillators) using the Modulation Matrix and dial in the modulation amount and the right envelope shape.
See - a synth doesn’t always need to have an explicit “pitch envelope” to allow you to create pitch movement - you’ll just need to find the mechanism in the specific synth you have that gives you the best way to modulate the “pitch” parameter in the way you want.
BTW: the “Alaska” intro is not a pitch rise when the chord is released - it is rather an envelope in the “attack” phase, starting slightly below the target key and moving up towards the target key. Easy to implement in Surge XT using an LFO.
Cheers,
Torsten
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