Automating a clock sync'd LFO rate?

  • Hardware: Virus TI Desktop
    TIOS: 3.3.0.00
    Sequencer: Ableton Live 8.0.5
    Platforms: OS X 10.6.1 and Windows 7


    It seems that I can automate the LFO rates when they are not clock sync'd, but I lose the ability to automate the LFO rate once I sync the LFO to the clock. So many effects and sounds I want to make rely on the LFO's being clock sync'd and "playing" the sync rate via automation; is it really not possible to automate variations of each LFO's clock interval? I'm having a very hard time believing this to be true, it seems like a relatively basic requirement for modern synthesis. :S

  • Thank you Jörg. If you find the time, I would appreciate an explanation on why that is the case, so I can in turn explain it to all my production buddies who are going to make fun of me for spending this much on a synth that doesn't have this ability. ;(

  • Thanks Mark - I was aware you can automate the LFO rates when they are not synced to the clock. What you've said about it not being as convenient is certainly true, but this is also an issue of accuracy in production. I'm sure I'm not the only one who is a perfectionist when it comes to my work, and being forced to unsync the LFO in order to automate it will always either be evident to my ears, or require more than a reasonable amount of production time painstakingly and manually setting the hz rates for a dozen clock variations, which I have to re-do each time I want to change the tempo of my production. If you consider that some productions don't maintain a static tempo throughout, you'll see this becomes even more significant an issue.


    All that aside, can anyone with Access confirm whether or not this feature is being considered for a future release? I am bewildered and maybe even a little upset that new features such as the atomizer and new effects have been worked on and completed before something that seems so critical and basic to me. I understand everyone is using the Virus platform to make different sounds and not all of them rely on clock sync'd LFO automation, but this is a huge majority of what I intended to use the Virus for - writing sick dubstep and breakbeat leads with massive oscillating filters. I figured this was the type of operation to which the Virus was engineered, so color me significantly disappointed at this time.

  • You can actually automate lfo's in clock mode in Ableton Live... I do it all the time! Just go to one of the lfo's in VC and right click the image to the left of the clock on/off and add it as a automation parameter!


    Im actually away from my virus at the moment since im touring so Im not totally sure if thats the precise place to right click but if I wasn't correct just click around that part of the lfo page and you will find that it can be automated when u do an alt click!

  • Thanks for the advice, however, this is what I found after excitedly opening up Live to test your suggestion:


    While I can make the right-click menu appear for the sync'd LFO rate by right clicking the clock divider in the display section to the right of the LFO rate knob, adding this parameter to the automation list and changing the clock rate does not make the parameter appear in Live's automated parameter list. I can make the parameter appear in Live when it is not sync'd, so that fact coupled with Jorg's comment above that this technique is not possible still leads me to believe we are missing this feature.


    Please let me know if you find otherwise!

  • You can actually automate lfo's in clock mode in Ableton Live... I do it all the time! Just go to one of the lfo's in VC and right click the image to the left of the clock on/off and add it as a automation parameter!!


    Video demo please, or it doesn't exist.
    I believe after over 5 years of trying (and being told by Jörg at least 3 times) that this feature isn't implemented.
    It's a shame for such a versatile Synth to be missing this.

  • Errr it works! wait till i get home from my euro tour and I will show u.
    You know why its works? Because im always using it at home... this is real
    Turn the clock on and add the lfo as a automation parameter.


    Ill make a video when I get home... but thats not gonna be untill the 23rd of novemeber so I suggest while im not there u just right click around the lfo section untill u see that your able to add the lfo rate as a automation parameter(and yes while in clock mode!). Once u add it as an automation parameter go to the bottom of the automation parameter list in ableton because new automation parameters are added to the bottom of the list. Then just mess around the envelopes in ableton and watch the rate change in clock mode.


    Dont give up, click around and u will find.

  • AFAIK you are the only person on the planet including the devs who has made it work while synced.
    Or you are mistaken.
    I would have been using this feature in 1998 when I had my first Virus if it existed.
    Of course I hoped the TI would have it, but it doesn't.

  • Wow, I can't believe this is something that doesn't actually work. Despite just how much the Virus can actually do, I find it odd that something as crucial as this does not exist. Soooo many VSTi software synths have such a function, I would think it should be standard. I really hope you guys at Access do figure out getting it to work. I found it very odd that I was told last year that you can only dump arp notes on odd numbered channels, but not even. This is something else I found very strange and annoying about the Virus, but at least there was a workaround as long as you kept odd numbered channels for dumping arp notes.

  • Dear Trey,
    This is correct. LFOs cannot be automated or modulated once they are set to "clock mode".


    Best wishes,
    Jörg Hüttner


    Marc, youre saying the opposite to this.
    I'm really glad if they do work now, but we've been told for a long time it doesn't have that functionality.

  • we enabled the clock divider parameter for automation some month ago. initially, it was on the list of parameters which should not be automated. i guess jörg just overlooked that or we didn't document it well. in any case, even though it is enabled for automation since a while, it doesn't work unfortunately and that's what we will fix.


    marc

  • Thanks for the info Marc, this is huge news for me an many other dance producers.
    I wish I had known when it was added (never saw this is a changelog) so I could have tried it.
    Though I can understand why you didn't shout about it yet if it isn't working fully.

  • Funny nobody knows this works... I actually first started having this work w/o using VC but with my mpc 2000xl by just hitting record and clicking thru the clocks by hand(which was annoying). I had sent access an email about 4 months ago about having this feature in VC and they told me it couldnt be done. It wasn't till a few months back that I found this hidden in the vc lfo page and it made my fucking day!


    I really don't understand why this isn't something that is documented...
    I don't understand why it doesn't work for everyone else. I feel like a lucky guy because I really needed it for my dubstep influenced tunes and there it was =)

  • It isn't documented because it still doesn't work 100% as Marc said.
    I've just tried it and it still doesn't work for me unfortunatly, looking forward to the mentioned fix.
    I can wait a bit longer, it really will open some great modulation possibilitys.