caution: excited new mx4 user entering the room!

polyslax · Post by **polyslax** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 6:14 pm

Yeah I'm deeply in love with my new mx4

But so little buzz here, thought I'd give the forum a virtual kick in the pants.

Anyone want to talk mx4, share patches, play us some tracks, drop a tutorial on us, anything?

stretta · Post by **stretta** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 1:56 pm

Have you viewed the video examples? Anything requiring clarification?

polyslax · Post by **polyslax** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 2:41 am

stretta wrote:Have you viewed the video examples? Anything requiring clarification?

I've done the demo and the videos, actually found it a pretty direct synth to get to grips with. So, I'm not really looking for instruction on the use of the synth so much, just seeing if anybody wants to get some noise going on this board.

Anyhow, I'm loving the range of sounds I'm getting out of MX4. A lot of beautiful raspy sounds from the digital waves, and the mod possibilities are staggering.

thracks · Post by **thracks** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 9:31 am

I wish there were more "noise" here. I love MX4. Maybe I'll find some time to put up a few of my patches. They're nothing special, but it'd help spread the word.

fontane · Post by **fontane** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 9:33 pm

MX4 kicks ass... i have been using it in my latest mixes... i'll ftp them and post a link...

i have been using it for bass mostly... it's my "goto" synth

lnx · Post by **lnx** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 10:43 pm

Stretta: What video examples, where?

Do you work for Motu?

Do you know how the "wavetable index" works? The manual doesn't really explain. When I change that parameter and look at the corresponding wave display it is almost like it is mixing two different waveforms...

I used to have a job designing analog/digital hardware synths in the 80's so don't be afraid to get technical!

Thanks.

stretta · Post by **stretta** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 10:47 am

The video examples come with the MX4 installer. They should be in your Applications folder under MOTU MX4 if memory serves.

A wavetable is simply a collection of single cycle waves. A wavetable in MX4 can have up to 256 waves. The waves can be smoothly interpolated, or they can be disjoint and fractured (Bosch). The wavetable index slider pages through the currently selected wavetable.

With a normal subtractive synthesizer, you typically start with a wave with a lot of higher harmonic content, like a saw wave, and cut it down with filters to achieve the sound you're looking for. You can still do this with MX4, but with wavetables, you can start with waves that produce unusual spectra. The harmonic content of a wave can be all over the place, or with strange holes that would not be achievable with filters. In fact, the best way to get acquainted with MX4's wavetables is to turn off the filters entirely.

With smoothly interpolated wavetables, you can morph between disjoint sets of spectra - what you're referring to as sounding like cross-faded waveforms. Try modulating wavetable index with an LFO or envelope or the mod wheel.

Things really start to get fun with waveform symmetry. Normally, you can only pulse width modulate a square wave. However, with waveform symmetry, any wave can have the same effect - and you can do this in conjunction with wavetable index. If both these parameters are modulated with aperiodic sources, the result is a wavefrom with a lot of movement and motion - very organic - and you can do this with all three oscillators.

Anyway, check out the Bosch wavetable for a wavetable with 256 unique waveforms, most of which are disjoint.

lnx · Post by **lnx** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 10:58 am

Hmm... I checked my applications folder, under MOTU MX4 and the various subfolders, and I don't see any videos. I ran the installer again to be sure, and still no videos.

Are they downloadable somewhere?

Thanks for clearing up the wavetable question.

manumontevideo · Post by **manumontevideo** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 8:30 am

lnx wrote:Hmm... I checked my applications folder, under MOTU MX4 and the various subfolders, and I don't see any videos. I ran the installer again to be sure, and still no videos.

Are they downloadable somewhere?

Thanks for clearing up the wavetable question.

Look at Here:

http://www.pek.ch/Produkte/motu/mx4/mot ... ain_f.html

stretta · Post by **stretta** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 10:41 am

You can also try here:
http://lasso.motu.com/mx4/MX4_Tutorials ... rial_1.mov
http://lasso.motu.com/mx4/MX4_Tutorials ... rial_2.mov

lnx · Post by **lnx** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 12:09 am

thanks for the links.