Tremolo that engages upon long notes?

[Burn Witch Burn]

Does anyone have any magic settings for a tremolo block that would be off when you play, and as soon as you sustained notes it would kick in?

Tremolo block would be on the whole time - I'm talking about the audible effect.

I assume a modifier would be the best bet, but I can't get the right settings so far.

Any suggestions?

 

[Poparad]

Isn't that sort of what the bias trem built into the amp block does?

 

[markmusicman]

Maybe its something you could control with an expression pedal, sounds like your best bet to me.

 

[MisterE]

try attaching it to the envelope of the input signal.
This decays rather quickly but you don't hear it because of the amp's compression.

 

[Burn Witch Burn]

try attaching it to the envelope of the input signal.
This decays rather quickly but you don't hear it because of the amp's compression.

Hey guys, thanks for the suggestions. Popard, I never used the Amp block's tremolo before. I looked it up. It's a crude type of tremolo based on what I would call "the electronics within the amp more than the audio output of the amp" ...if you know what I mean. The disadvantage according to the wiki is possible crossover distortion on some models and on a quick test, it wasn't a "deep" enough tremolo.

Mark, I don't want to attach this to a foot controller if I don't have to. Would like it to work dynamically.

Mr. E, I'm not understanding your suggestion. The TremPan block doesn't have an input.

Still open for suggestions. ...meanwhile I'm going to mess with Modifiers on the Depth control.

 

[Burn Witch Burn]

Okay, I think I got something...

Modifier on the Depth control of the Trem block. Envelope is the source.
The settings will depend on your situation, but mess with start mid and end and scale.

 

[6stringscott]

Try the Pan/Trem with the depth controlled by an External Controller tied to ADSR. Then make a funky ADSR envelope that stays very low in a long attack and decay, then a super high sustain. I haven't played that much with ADSR on AxeFx, but I did use it to create a violin-like synth. Not sure if you can really make the sustain part larger than the initial attack and decay.

An alternate would be to try making the attack part with a long duration to get that ramp up, so short notes don't have tremolo but it increases as time passes. Again, not sure how much we can tweak the ADSR envelope, if the initial attack and decay time can be made longer.


Edit: I did check the ADSR on my Axefx, and you can change the duration of the attack ramp to a long time, then decay doesn't matter, and set the sustain to 100% of the attack. That should give you exactly what you initially asked for. The only real limitation is you have a straight line function for the attack, so you can't for for a long dry sustain with the tremolo kicking in quickly after 1 second. It would be a gradual ramp up, controlled by the attack duration.

 

[mr_fender]

Envelope controller assigned to depth parameter of trem block will give you more of a reverse ducking effect unless you use the dampening control on the modifier screen to control how slowly the depth changes fade in and out. You can also adjust the envelope follower attack and release times separately in the control menu.

You can also try an ADSR controller in sustain mode to make the trem depth hold until input falls back below the trigger threshold. That way it wouldn't exactly mimic envelope level, but rather be triggered by it and sustain out more steadily.

It may or may not work the way you want on some notes and phrases depending on how you set the timing and threshold level. For the most control, your best bet would be to assign trem depth to a pedal and ramp it in as needed manually.

 

[Burn Witch Burn]

Envelope controller assigned to depth parameter of trem block will give you more of a reverse ducking effect unless you use the dampening control on the modifier screen to control how slowly the depth changes fade in and out. You can also adjust the envelope follower attack and release times separately in the control menu.

You can also try an ADSR controller in sustain mode to make the trem depth hold until input falls back below the trigger threshold. That way it wouldn't exactly mimic envelope level, but rather be triggered by it and sustain out more steadily.

It may or may not work the way you want on some notes and phrases depending on how you set the timing and threshold level. For the most control, your best bet would be to assign trem depth to a pedal and ramp it in as needed manually.

Mr.F, thanks. I'll try that. I must say I'm not well versed on the finer points of the envelope mod parameters, but it is really interesting to mess with.

I'll try the ADSR controller method.