Can't modulate the wavetable... ARE YOU KIDDING ME????

[noisetheorem]

I think the subject says it all.  I am sure this has been posted here before, but I just got mine and I really can't understand why that feature would be omitted.  My PolyEvolver can do it, and I'd probably sell that if the Origin could.

I picked up the Origin from a dissatisfied customer along with a used Virus TI2.   One of them is leaving the studio, and this feature omission will weigh on that decision.  The WT oscillator is significantly less useful in this way.

[hermitnerd]

Scan the wavetable, as in having like a CV input that would quickly switch from waveform to waveform? Can't currently do that in Origin AFAIK, but you can crossfade between four different wavetable waveforms using the 2D Envelope - here is a sample patch and the message it came with:

http://www.arturia.com/evolution/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=4524.0;attach=157
http://www.arturia.com/evolution/smf/index.php?topic=4524.msg14747#msg14747

From what I understand, Arturia tried to stay true to the original Prophet VS, which didn't have the wavetable scan feature either (only crossfade between four wavetable osc's). In general the premise seemed to be "what if we opened up several MiniMgs, CS-80s, Jupiter 8s, Oberheim SEMs and Prophet VSs, and made a monstrous polyphonic modular out of them?"

[noisetheorem]

And this is the problem.  By staying so true to the original design they basically fail at creating a modular instrument.

Seriously, this sticking to the original spec hurts the instrument much more than it helps.  The fact that only certain oscillators can do sync is just flat out stupid. 

Basically it comes down to 'well, you can put a Mg filter in a jupter signal path, but that's about it'.   They almost might as well just made it a hardware platform for loading their fixed signal plugins.

 

[Philippe]

And this is the problem.  By staying so true to the original design they basically fail at creating a modular instrument.

Not exactly in that case.... We've been investigating this feature at some point in the past but it would have required a large amount of DSP internal memory to store all the waves, a memory that is rare and not available, or that we prefer to keep for other new features / modules.

Also I definitely don't agree when you say that we fail creating a modular instrument. Beside, the crossfading of all the wavetables has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Origin is a true modular or not. It could be a feature of a prewired patch synth as well.

Seriously, this sticking to the original spec hurts the instrument much more than it helps.  The fact that only certain oscillators can do sync is just flat out stupid. 

With the first versions of the firmware it was not possible to modulate the filter resonance of all the filter types (Origin, Mg, CS80...). Some users asked us why? In that case there was no technical reason apart the marketing choice to stick to the real filter specs. Listening to these users we changed our mind and finally decided to show the RM for all the filters. Concerning the SYNC I don't know if there is a technical potential difficulty for some variety of oscillator. If there isn't, then the SYNC could be extended. If there is, then this could be a new feature requiring some time to implement it, with its own priority in the list of all other possible evolutions.

[IAA]

Philippe,

Out of interest, as a keen origin user, whats the current order of priority for developments - or  - what might be next for us over the next few months?
(by the way the MiniBrute filter is really interesting and I'm wondering whether..........)

Ian

[noisetheorem]

I know its been a while, but I wanted to reply.

I have trouble believing this is not technically possible since other DSP based synthesizers somehow manage to do this.  Korg Radias, Access Virus TI2...even the Waldorf Blofeld.  So I think it's more about the choices that Arturia has made and their own knowledge of what hardware can do than it is about limitations of hardware instruments.