Legato Phrasing
Once again, playing legato
phrases results in sudden, “electronic-sounding” changes in the pitch.
On the blown pipe, we used a
technique that used a crossfader to alternate between a pair of delays at each
note transition. Can we do that here,
too?
Yes, we can. And we’ll follow this same philosophy on
almost every other wind model, too:
wherever there’s a delay, we’ll add the following modules:
- A second, parallel delay.
- A crossfader to mix them together.
- A pair of track/hold modules to the alternating
circuit.
An example patch is
below. Notice that legato phrases and
trills sound smoother than before.
Even with this
pipe-alternation method, there can be clicks when playing high notes. So there’s one hidden addition to this patch:
we’ve turned on auto-glide in the patch settings, and set it to 21ms. It helps to smooth out clicks on high notes.
How does it work?
The technique is the same
one used in the blown pipe model.
Notice that both the
embouchure and bore delays are now a pair of parallel delays, mixed together
with a crossfader.
There are some additions to
the alternating circuit, as well. Each
pair of delays now has its own track/hold modules, as well as its own short
delay line on the incoming pitch. On
this patch, it’s not obvious two separate circuits are needed. But keeping them separate lets us treat them
separately later: for example, we can
put different tuners on them, or we can modulate their pitch separately.