Is my Super 6 working correctly or are these bugs?

UDO Audio Gear Super 6
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Hi everyone, I recently picked up a Super 6 and am really enjoying it. It is an incredible synth and sounds fantastic. Please do not take this post the wrong way, I just want to ensure everything is correct on my unit and see if others are experiencing same, and see if these are potential bugs or enhancement requests.

I’m running OS 0.25 and notice following:

1. Moving LFO1 LR Phase slider quickly slows down LFO speed - moving this slider up/down quickly will slow down LFO rate (even though IMO it shouldn’t), almost like the LFO processing can’t keep up. As soon as you stop moving the LR slider, the LFO rate speeds up again.

Not sure why LR phase slider should affect actual LFO speed. Do your units experience same? Is this a bug and something fixable in firmware, or is it due to hardware limitations (processing)?

2. ARP Direction patterns don’t work while playing - holding keys while playing arp, and then cycling through arp direction (up, down, up/down, random) does not apply selected arp pattern to DOWN (plays Up, not Down) or RANDOM modes (plays Up, not Random). However, if you select the arp direction you want BEFORE playing keys, THEN the arp pattern gets applied correctly! Therefore this issue seems to be due to holding keys and cycling through arp mode.

With most arps you are able to play keys and cycle through the arp patterns as you play to give variance to your music. IMO this seems to be a bug if arp direction is not being applied correctly while holding keys. Does your Super 6 behave the same?

3. Arp Mode cycling to Sequencer LED triggers sequencer, stops arp upon cycling back to Up - related to above, in OS 0.21 I noticed before I updated to 0.25, that when cycling through the arp modes it would skip the sequencer LED (it remained unlit) and only cycle through the arp direction LEDs. The arp would continue to play as I cycled through arp modes while holding the keys. This is expected behaviour.

After updating to 0.25, cycling through the Arp modes it now includes the Sequencer LED and starts triggering the sequencer, ruining the arp pattern. Then, pressing the arp button to go back to UP direction, and there is no more arp playing! This ruins the entire point of having the arp modes if we can only use them ONCE and having the mode button trigger the sequencer.

IMO this behaviour is not correct and should be reverted to OS 0.21’s behavior – either cycle through the arp modes and leave the sequencer out of it (unlit), OR if cycling to the sequencer LED while playing an arp, sequencer should not activate and not play notes. If someone wants to use sequencer, they should select Sequencer mode BEFORE they play. Arp and sequencer should be treated separately.

The current behaviour of stopping the arp pattern after cycling through arp directions one time makes the arp mode button almost unusable during a performance – one can only go through the arp direction patterns ONCE, and then it triggers sequencer, and then stops your arp completely if you go back to UP. This is not usable. Is this only my unit or does your Super 6 behave the same?

4. LFO1 - S&H rate slider at max disables S&H - I notice S&H is only LFO waveform that exhibits this behavior. I’m guessing this is due to manual stating “With random selected and its rate set to the max, a fifth waveform, white noise is generated.”.

Yes, with LFO1 S&H selected and rate at max, I do hear some subtle noise but it is very, very faint. This noise when applied to DDS1 Modulator seems to have no effect, and the noise is very faint when LFO1 is applied to filter and VCA mod.

Are your units the same – does your LFO1 S&H deactivate when rate is near max, and are the “noise” levels low and have no effect on Osc1 pitch and faint on filter/VCA mod?

5. ENV1 looping - requires always holding keys, does not decay, stops immediately upon letting go of key - ENV1 looping is only active while holding down a key. It does not continue even after letting go of keys (ie trail off with proper decay while still looping). Is this the same for everyone? If so, a feature request would be to support envelope looping decay after letting go of key, instead of abruptly having the loop stop as soon as you let go of the key.

The decay effect I’m suggesting can be faked by having ENV2 ADSR Decay slider mid way and other sliders down, but the user STILL needs to hold a key down for the looping to be active. It would be nice to just strike a key, the loop triggers while decaying naturally (like an envelope would), vs having to constantly hold a key to trigger the loop/having it abruptly stop when you let go of key.

6. Filter Drive 2 has little effect/too quiet - not sure if just my unit but Filter Drive 1 is noticeably louder than Filter Drive 2 mode, especially when resonance is increased. When flipping to Filter Drive 2 I find the volume drops significantly and there is little drive effect (almost like it’s not on), even though I would expect even more drive vs. Filter Drive 1. Anyone else have same?

7. DDS1 and 2 Noise waveshapes - very quiet vs. other osc waveshapes - noise waveforms are much quieter on my unit compared to the other DDS1/2 osc waveshapes. Anyone else finding the same? If so this is probably a feature request to increase their volume.

Sorry for the long post and appreciate your thoughts! :slight_smile:

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+1 for the ENV 1 looping and Drive loudness.

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Actually, the LR PHASE slider doesn’t affect the speed of LFO 1 . The parameter LR PHASE simply offsets the phase of the LFO waveform on the left and right channels. That can give you the impression of a changing LFO speed, particularly while you are moving the LR PHASE slider. The only thing that is changing, though, is the phase relation between the left and right channels.

This is on our bug list.

The playback of the arpeggio/sequence shouldn’t be interrupted in between selecting the options SEQ and UP. This is on our bug list. Also: Please note that firmware version 0.21 didn’t include the sequencer yet.

With RND selected as a waveform and at the highest frequency setting, LFO 1 generates a noise signal. It is most recognizable when modulating the filter cutoff frequency. If you modulate an oscillator’s frequency at the maximum amount with a noise LFO, the pitch will rise for about 2 semitones due to (noise) frequency modulation. I admit, though, that the noise to oscillator modulation is not very noisy in character. We’ll see if we can make the impact of the noise signal more pronounced.

The envelope is always triggered by a key press. As soon as you release a key, the release stage will be responsible for how the envelope will behave thereafter. This also applies to the envelope in loop mode. The stages that are being looped are the attack and the decay stages. The loop is stopped as soon as no gate signal is received anymore by a pressed down key. Just like in default mode, the envelopes amplitude will then fade out according to the setting of the release stage.

If you’d like to utilize periodic modulation independently of when a key is pressed and released, you have to use an LFO. If you, for example, like to modulate the filter cutoff frequency with LFO 1 , make sure to set a long release time for the VCA envelope. Then you’ll get the effect you’re after.

The filter drive modes are dependent on the oscillators’ signals. There can be a lot of amplitude variation, especially when resonance is engaged. We’ll investigate this further to see if we can come up with a more desired behaviour.

We’ll investigate this one as well to see if we can adjust the noise volume.

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Love the detailed response here, thanks for the info!

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Thank you very much for taking the time to respond and your consideration!

I appreciate your insights and good to know most of what I mention is either being worked on (arp modes/directions) or can be investigated for enhancement (ie noise levels, RND noise effect, filter drive 2 effect etc).

Regarding LFO1 LR Phase affecting LFO1 speed, and ENV1 looping fadeout after letting go of key, please see following videos as I hope it will clarify and demonstrate the issues accurately.

LFO1 LR Phase slider affecting LFO rate
You can see adjusting LR Phase slider definitely affects LFO rate. I don’t understand why this behaviour is happening but would not expect it to occur. At any rate, is it possible to modify LR Phase to NOT affect LFO1 speed?

ENV1 Looping fadeout - current behavior vs desired effect (request).

Although the request is to make ENV1 Looping continue after letting go of key, it could be possible to support current behavior + requested behavior simultaneously, if required:

  • Default ENV1 Loop mode: must hold keys to enable looping (ie, loop immediately stops upon letting go of keys). This is how the Super 6 operates today.

  • SHIFT + ENV1 loop: enable envelope loop to continue AFTER letting go of key (natural fadeout of loop – desired loop sound as shown at end of this video - albeit I have to hold keys to demo it, due to current loop behaviour)

Ideally if ENV1 Loop behaviour were changed to the requested decaying loop mode as standard, then maybe SHIFT + ENV1 loop could enable ENV2 Looping instead (this would be a welcome addition too)!

I actually think ENV2 looping would be a fantastic enhancement in addition to all this, so you could have 2 loops going simultaneously (ie enable ENV1 Loop, and re-toggle to SHIFT + ENV1 Loop = ENV2 Loop… so both ENV1 and ENV2 looping are activated) :slight_smile:

Thank you for your consideration! :slight_smile:

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Thank you for the videos, SuperSixer.

What you perceive as a change of the LFO rate is the result of shifting the phase of LFO 1’s waveform. Think of it like moving the phase forward on one channel while pushing it back on the other channel. By moving the LR PHASE fader, you are basically dragging the phase in two opposite directions at the same time the result of which you perceive as an altered frequency.

Your suggested ENV 1 loop mode would require a completely new envelope design that wouldn’t be compatible with the envelope’s default behaviour anymore. But the envelope’s default behaviour – that defines when the single stages of the envelope (hold, attack, decay, sustain, release) take effect in relation to when a key was pressed and released – is also the basis for the envelope’s behaviour in loop mode. Maybe it helps to think about it from the opposite angle: How would your proposed envelope behave in default mode? If it doesn’t respond to when a key was released, you’d be at least stuck in the sustain stage. Also: The gate signal generated by a pressed key, i.e. the duration for how long a key is held, defines when an envelope starts and stops. This is the way envelopes behave on all synthesizers. If you want to utilize periodic modulation irrespective of when a key was pressed and released, you usually use an LFO.

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Thanks for your response and clarification about LFO LR Phase, good to know it isn’t a bug but by design. Wasn’t sure if the LFO rate was decoupled from LR Phase.

Regarding ENV1 loop decay behaviour, as it is not feasible without a redesign I guess there is nothing that can be done. Just wanted to check if it was possible.

On that note - I’d still like to propose addition of ENV2 looping, via SHIFT + ENV1 loop switch. :slight_smile: Two looping envelopes at the same time would be a very powerful and welcome feature. Hopefully this can be added to the feature wishlist.

Thanks again!

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It would be incredibly useful if we had some kind of way to gainstage into the filter. At the moment Filter Drive 2 is amazing with some mix settings, but with louder waveforms (especially DDS 1 in full super mode) you’re pushed to use a mix setting that favors DDS2 if you want to tame the more abrasive distortion. Those often occur just during the louder parts of the envelope(s) and it would be so great to have some level of control over this.

If I can make a suggestion, being able to both attenuate and boost the level going into the filters (or the VCA before them or whatever is overdriving) would make a lot of difference to dialing in the distortion sounds. This could maybe be done by SHIFT + MIX.

For a synth that overdrives so well, I wish I could just have that tiny bit more of control.

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