Pitch bend and cut off fader latency?

Yeah mine was working perfectly before 0.27, after it started to act very erratically so I can’t even use it properly now, it goes “crazy” when bent to the right, and to the left is a lag. I need to get a report off to UDO

I also find the temporal smoothing on the pitch bender to be far too slow on v0.30 firmware.

Overall the smoothing & fader resolution upgrade has been a massive improvement - great to have lovely smooth step free filter sweeps! But I do now find the pitch bend response too sluggish for lead line performances…

1 Like

I was actually going to start a topic and see if others were experiencing this. Definitely noticing a lot of latency when controlling the filter cutoff via midi cc.

Yeah, the smoothing is pretty unreal. It is noticeable on many controls but certainly most annoying on pitch bend.
@udo-audio and/or @DDS , do you know if there is anything in the forthcoming firmware that addresses this smoothing lag?

Thanks!

@DDS please add to uBugtrack “reduce time constant in pitch bend smoothing”. Cutoff has already been reduced I think/will check

As above, there was no lag (or much less) before 0.27. Now, on pretty much every control on the unit, there is a smoothing/slew applied. This is both the physical faders on the synth, or if you control with MIDI CC. It is most noticeable on obvious controls like Cutoff or Pitch Bend, but it is on pretty much every control. It makes it impossible to sequence any CC motion accurately, and makes the whole synth feel “floppy” when tweaking in the moment.

Apply a Square-wave MIDI LFO to Filter Cutoff and you can reproduce this issue instantly. Instead of jumping values, there is an audible slew between values.

Personally, I’d rather have 0-127 values and stepping controls as an option, rather than be forced into smoothing/interpolation that the synth’s hardware cannot apply at a musical speed.

5 Likes

So, again, I want to try to approach this with an open mind and ask the community here on this thread.

I have spoken with UDO support and they have been incredibly kind, clear and helpful, but this is maybe a matter that needs a little push from the user base. However, bad news - it sounds like at the current time the fix for the smoothing (which, in my opinion and the consensus from this thread is pretty wildly unmusical and stymies a lot of control styles, whether it is CC automation or my own Juno-filter-bend style of key playing) is not in the forthcoming firmware update.

Now, I hope I am not talking out of turn - UDO staff, you guys are a small and dedicated team and I absolutely love this synth. Full disclosure, I bought one - sold it due to heartbreaking bugs and have recently bought another. It stuck with me. It’s a kickass instrument made with real love and attention, but I have to say - this is the single biggest problem. I have spoken with users here and in real life, as well as some reviewers, and it’s just unreal. It gives the impression of latency, like you are stuck in a lagging DAW.

I implore you, and would like to encourage motivated users to reach out and email support. I would like to think something like fixing the smoothing - even just on things like cutoff, pitch bend and the CV input - would be a real show of solidarity to the early adopters. Delay freeze looks great, and I recognize that things like that sell more units and wow more Superbooth eyes then this kind of maintenance patch. But I love this damn synth. Please make it so I can play it as fluidly as the Juno it sits next to in the studio.

Users, I am curious to hear your thoughts. For you personally would you be open to being a little more patient on the forthcoming firmware to FINALLY get this ironed out? Is my squeaky wheel too squeaky? I would HAPPILY delay the firmware release to not have to wait another firmware cycle of 6-9 months to get this smoothing feeling less syrupy. I know George (@udo-audio) is on vacation right now, so I am not expecting any word on this for a sec, but I wanted to open a discourse with other users.

Big love,

AVERY

This one just requires a quantitative assessment of which channels, and by how much, the time constants should be reduced. Then I just change the number. Personally I quite like them how they are, but I see your point. I will make a table of what they are set at and we go from there. Changing them is very simple, but I just need to be sure it’s to the wishes of most people. For example, cc’s when sent from other hardware/daw are naturally “steppy”, so when using a poly at or mpe controller, the hardware should interpolate these for a natural sounding playing response (bend, cutoff, etc). The time constants are even real time reprogrammable, so could actually be set differently depending on different instrument settings (like mpe on/off etc). We just need feedback from users on which controls to tweak and by how much. For example within 3 time constants one is within 10% of final value, so pitch bend time constant of 0.1s would lead to a response time of 0.3s etc. I’m confident many controls have the right smoothing as they are, but there is no reason we shouldn’t change others

4 Likes

Instead of a vote/userbase consensus on how much to tweak by (which will make some users unhappy anyway), why not the original text file idea and allow users to choose between a range set by UDO?

We already have some candidates: voice panning for users that liked how it was before v0.27, smoothing, swing amounts, number as mod source, and modulation limit range. I saw keytracking on both envelopes being mentioned but I believe that’s already a SHIFT function. Honestly, to keep UDO’s workload lighter, I don’t think the text file should get more bloated than this but that is just my opinion.

The text file is perfect for those that perform and want to customize things based on their setlist.

If there are downsides to doing this, please inform us.

(Btw, off-topic, but please consider keeping legacy firmware versions somewhere for users to re-download.)

3 Likes

This is INCREDIBLY useful information. Thanks for clearing things up more. I agree, collecting the current smoothing values and going from there is smart. I think either the text file option or just a menu item would be great. And I would agree, there are plenty of things that have the correct value applied, most controllers that get really fast realtime input are just the ones I’m referring to the most (pitch bend, CV pedal, cutoff, etc).
Let me know if there is anything I can do to help once we have values collected and keep us posted!

Also, having posted and gotten user response here, on Gearspace, and on Facebook - it seems that MANY users share this opinion. I certainly appreciate not monopolizing the wishes of a few users, and customizability is always lovely, but I think it’s safe to say that it ranges from an annoyance for some to the reason that some folks say that they sold the S6.
Definitely worth exploring! :slight_smile:

I think the text file idea is a good solution. @udo-audio if you want an example of an implementation, the Makenoise Morphagene has a version of this.

That said, I’ve asked for full parameter ranges for modulation (which is more important, to me, than changing the smoothing), I think it’s sort of in the same category of decision.

I also imagine this is a compromise. If there was audible stepping on parameters, people would also be complaining, probably a lot. I’m not sure what the happy medium would be, but the current setting is consistent with their approach to make the synth as “all sweet spot as possible.” I’m curious how other manufacturers have solved this. Bigger bit depth on MIDI, audible stepping, or is there some other kind of magic slewing?

1 Like

So, I can agree on all of this - text file would be cool, but is there a reason why text file would be a better option that just a menu option? I’m sorry if I am missing a trick here, but I was thinking about how toggling or selection of a few preset time settings, maybe 8 of them using the patch select buttons (from quickest and most steppy to fully smoothed) would be cool! I also would be interested in a toggle for full parameter ranges.
Granted, I think approach of tweaking each individual control to optimize them individually would be perfect, but I’m aware that a menu setting/text file might keep the workload lighter (perhaps).
Either way is cool, if the outcome is these big QOL fixes.

Also - any idea how other manufacturers solve this @udo-audio ? I’m unsure, but I’m sure you could illuminate that.

If the time constants are easy to change, access to a simple setting with a few options (default smoothing / faster smoothing / fastest smoothing / no smoothing) would be very nice. I feel a shift function would make everybody in this thread happy, not compromising the aversion to menu diving embodied in the S6. Possibly use the spare buttons in tx/rx menu?

With all due respect, as you can see above, the filter cutoff and pitch bend feels very sluggish to myself and many others here. I normally don’t complain about quirks that give things personality, but in this case, it feels like it goes beyond personal taste. Especially knowing the functionality is available and not limited by the hardware.

Wonderful sounding synth, amazing capabilities, thanks for the great work so far. Very gracious of you all to consider those of us nagging on forums. It’s all out of love… :slight_smile:

2 Likes

yeah I notice it mostly with the pitch bend control, haven’t noticed it as much with the cutoff or other parameters. Agreed if possible a text document based change would be great!

1 Like

Man, you go to make a synth with no screen or menus and simple, real-time, hands-on controls, and next thing you know…

You’re creating a complicated shift function to modify the midi cc smoothing time constants :upside_down_face:

(that said, I agree with everyone here that it does feel sluggish, I’ve noticed it esp. with the filter cutoff control)

6 Likes

Lol I was kind of doubting my pitch bending ability, at least I know it’s not just me. It is a bit slow, imo

It is too much, it makes it pretty bad for performing live if you need fast moves, also when applying square wave modulations, it just doesn’t behave as it should. I would best would be at no noticeable lag, it’s the most natural feel for anyone. Right now just makes it weird and counter intuitive, which is the opposite the interface was marketed about.

The new firmware has addressed this, it’s pretty nice now!

2 Likes

the release notes mention improved response in all of the controls, and to me it was immediately apparent. Before, I struggled to get into any kind of flow with the S6 and now I realize that it was this specific issue. I’ve had it for six months and for most of that time it was just sitting unused. I had considered selling it, but wanted to wait for the next firmware update. Good thing I did. After the update it feels like a completely new instrument. Absolutely loving it now.

3 Likes