Keyfollow question .. please help!

When the cutoff keyfollow is at 100%, the cutoff frequency changes chromatically, just like pitch. I.e. if you have 500 Hz on C4, you get 1000 Hz on C5 and 2000 Hz on C6.

Thanks Art,

So this means that I would have to divide the chromatic range 12 ways to get the exact cutoff per 1/2 pitch?

Does this math also proportionally scale when other values of keyfollow are chosen? i.e. 10% keyfollow means that the increase will be 1/10th of when it was 100%?

This really helps though.

I do understand that it's all about the ear, and tweaking things to sound good, but does help to know exact parameters especially when there are many instruments in the mix, and one wants to accurately control ranges of parameter tweak.

Once again, thanks Art!!

-Manish

Well yes 10% should be 1/10 of 100%. In general, why do you need to know the exact frequency value? Never needed this in my 10 or so years of sound design on Rolands. You do have ears right?

Ah, totally agree (Yes, I do have ears , but sometimes, Im more of an engineer than a musician (I know, it sucks), and I would feel comfortable if I knew exactly how my parameters were set (especially when it comes to frequencies, pitch and volume levels).

For example if I have a violin playing with some percussion and Im manipulating the flute cutoff values, it helps me immensely to know by doing the math that Im not invading into the frequency range of another instrument?

It's much easier setting the parameters initially based on a method, and then tweaking them to get the best sound rather than setting them to arbitrary values and then listening and tweaking to get them perfect.

Just dont trust my ears enough to get that kind of perfection, so I choose to tweak based on some well known facts, and then listen to the mix to tweak it furthermore.

Im primarily a guitar player, so dont have much experience with a wide range of frequencies and sounds, just getting into it and learning a lot in the process!! Still learning about the construction of sounds other than my guitar and it's very confusing!!

Do you think this is an impractical approach? What would be a better/quicker way to achieve a good mix when there are many instruments in the performance and they're all being played together (Different patterns of course)?

As always, this is good advice Art, thanks a lot!!

-Manish

Oh, forgot to add, I dont have a keyboard, I use the Fantom XR with Logic Express and exclusively sequence my music in Logic, playing in sequences through my guitar or the Mac keyboard (No velocity sensitivity or modulation controls in realtime). It's a painful process and I need to plan everything out up-front to get the best utilization for my time.

Planning to get the PCR-500/800 so that I can play out sequences and tweak parameters much easier to get that "play-by-ear" feel. I dont have the space for the PCR-500 in my setup (Which is a corner of my living room in the apartment I live in !!).

So now you know why it helps to know exact parameter change effects before programming sounds/tracks.

Thanks though Art, really helped to get me started.

Manish