by Christopher » Sat Jun 01, 2013 5:30 am
I have to agree with alexg that the EQs are indeed quite tedious to use. Yes, it's true that one could just enter the required frequency via the keypad, but in my opinion that is a somewhat flawed argument. The whole point about the SOLARIS as a hardware instrument is, that all those knobs and displays allow the user to approach sound design in a much more intuitive way than almost any other modern synth (or software for that matter). In case of the EQ, the SOLARIS falls a bit short of that aspiration.
Here is what's wrong in my opinion:
Our ears perceive frequency in an exponential fashion. One octave means double the frequency. However the EQ frequency on the SOLARIS maps linearly to the encoders. One turn always gives you the same amount of Hertz (which seems to be ca. 85Hz/turn). So if you deal with bass, a single turn can get you from 25 Hz to 110 Hz which makes a huge difference. But if you are trying to adjust the top end, you need almost 12 turns (or thereabouts) just to get from 10 kHz to 11 kHz. This is neither intuitive nor musical.
The solution I think is quite obvious: Just like other frequency related parameters (OSC Pitch, Filter Cutoff etc.), the encoders need to map to the EQ frequency exponentially rather than linearly. For instance there could be a '1 octave per turn' relationship.
I believe this would be a significant improvement.
I have to agree with alexg that the EQs are indeed quite tedious to use. Yes, it's true that one could just enter the required frequency via the keypad, but in my opinion that is a somewhat flawed argument. The whole point about the SOLARIS as a hardware instrument is, that all those knobs and displays allow the user to approach sound design in a much more intuitive way than almost any other modern synth (or software for that matter). In case of the EQ, the SOLARIS falls a bit short of that aspiration.
Here is what's wrong in my opinion:
Our ears perceive frequency in an exponential fashion. One octave means double the frequency. However the EQ frequency on the SOLARIS maps linearly to the encoders. One turn always gives you the same amount of Hertz (which seems to be ca. 85Hz/turn). So if you deal with bass, a single turn can get you from 25 Hz to 110 Hz which makes a huge difference. But if you are trying to adjust the top end, you need almost 12 turns (or thereabouts) just to get from 10 kHz to 11 kHz. This is neither intuitive nor musical.
The solution I think is quite obvious: Just like other frequency related parameters (OSC Pitch, Filter Cutoff etc.), the encoders need to map to the EQ frequency [i]exponentially[/i] rather than linearly. For instance there could be a [i]'1 octave per turn'[/i] relationship.
I believe this would be a significant improvement.