Please tell me all the cool things you can use the FBK and NEI waveforms for
Nei is the neighbour track, it takes the audio after the multimode filter of the preceding track. With neighbour tracks you can have for example four filters or more.
Fbk is a feedback loop, it takes the audio after filter 1 and routes it back into the oscillator (similar to plugging a cable from the headphone out and going back into the synth). If you turn up the fbk oscillator level a bit, the sound becomes grittier, but the more you turn it up the more you go into howling feedback territory. You can also introduce filter resonance and modulation and remember to shape the sound with the amp envelope.
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Thanks man! Neighbour track? Which side? And what happens if there is no neibor on that side? And does it matter if the neighbour is muted or not?
Track 1 routes to track 2, track 2 to track 3 and track 3 to 4. Nei does not work on track 1.
You can do serial (turn down level of the track where the audio is routed from) or parallel (both track level up).
Not sure what happens when you mute the track where the audio comes from… I think it does not affect the audio in the neighbour.
Haven’t used it in a while.
Thanks again man! So little is explained in the manual about why it’s there and what it’s ment for
Yeah…not much in the manual. Many don’t even know the A4/AK have neighbour tracks.
But it is pretty straight-forward. It just takes the audio and routes it into the next track (like on the OT) and you can do AM, ring mod etc.
Feedback oscillator is best learned by experimenting, imho. If you go through the factory patches, some use the feedback osc to beef up the sound, but it can really go crazy!
Makes great percussion, howling leads and unstable sequences.
so feedback for the really dirty stuff? Had a feeling it was like that already
Well I can’t say I’ve come anywhere near of thoroughly exploring it and often when I went beyong beefing up a lead or bass sound, I got really interesting sounds that unfortunately were extremely difficult to mix. Soloed they were amazing and I could listen how the sequence was on the verge of breaking up for hours, but I couldn’t really use them for a track.
There’s a ton of potential, but it seems really hard to make use of it…I mean no kidding, it’s out of control feedback! Maybe feed those sounds into a sampler?
I’m sure you can find threads here about the feedback oscillator and probably some good presets.
So far what I really liked was having a 16th note sequence with octave jumps, use a saw or pulse + feedback osc and then modulate the filters and fdb osc level so that the sequence goes from controlled to breaking apart and back to under control…
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You’ve given me an idea for my current work in progress! Cheers.
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It really helped me understanding neighbour tracks to take a thorough look at the signal-flow-chart in the A4 manual. The signal is actually picked before the VCA and then routed to the next track. If you choose neighbour as oscillator you don’t feed a full track (think of a soundlocked drum track) into another. There’s ways to improvise that, though.
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Can you give me an example of a situation where you decide you need to use NEI as oscillator waveform?
When one filter section is not enough! You can really go wild on modulations there.
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and this three times? wow!
Incredible, isn’t it?
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Does before the VCA mean that any sequenced melodies are not transported to the other track to be used al an oscillator?
No, just their amplitude env is ignored. It’s basically a drone that goes to the next track
Aha okay, so also the filter envelope gets ignored? but not the stationary filter settings?
No. All that is in the pink box is ignored. The rest feeds into the next track.
You can for example still modulate volume with an LFO or the secondary envelope.
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aha, thanks for clearing that up!
This image also clears up how the two filters work together. I thougt they were parallel but now i see they are serial
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