Why???

[AlenK]

Why do drum tones get a vibrato (pitch) LFO _and_ an amplitude LFO while melody tones only get a vibrato LFO??? I think it's obvious that there is far less need for LFOs on drum tones than on melody tones yet the former gets one that the latter lacks.

It's all the more perplexing when you realize that the LFOs are not polyphonic - you don't actually get a separately phased one for every note. You get independent delays and rises on a given LFO for every note, but these just modulate a single LFO (not mentioned in the manual but easy to confirm). So if you were to try to add vibrato to a kick drum (why you would want to do that is of no consequence) the cymbal gets it too, as well as every other drum tone in a set. Totally useless feature for a drum set, I say. (BTW, the LFOs in hex layers and melody tones work the same way.)

An amplitude LFO on a melody tone, on the other hand, would be a VERY useful feature. And it would cleverly allow something that is just not possible on an XW today: crossfading between two tones using the modulation wheel (it involves setting the LFO to a square wave with a very low or ideally zero speed). You can crossfade between two oscillators in the solo synth but that is monophonic.

Is the lack of an amplitude LFO for melody tones due to a hardware limitation or what?

[Gnomo Alegre]

Hello:

These data are very interesting. I am agree with you. Why in the drum tones?

 

Thank you.

Edited July 18, 2013 by David

[Patrick Arend]

The xw-p1 is an enigma.

[Mike Martin]

Is the lack of an amplitude LFO for melody tones due to a hardware limitation or what?

 

 

Yes it is a hardware limitation.

[AlenK]

Bummer. Okay, I'll move on. I don't cry over spilled milk.