[A6] re: A6: Tracking Generator?

[David Evans]

On Tue, Oct 14, 2003 at 05:08:54PM -0400, MelloT at aol.com wrote:
> You set it to receive a signal input - and then TELL it what level output 
> that will cause to happen. For example, you could say, "as they Mod Wheel level 
> rises, make the output go Hi, Low, Hi, Medium, Low, Meium, Low." That would 
> generate something that seems like a sequencer output with three levels. It's 
> almost like a Sample and Hold, but where you specify the output depending on the 
> input...
> 

  I'd caution thinking of it in terms of S&H, since S&H has some sort of
temporal assocation ("when the clock signal appears, you sample.")  The
tracking generator provides a simple mapping: "when the input control signal
is at this level, output this other level."  You can think of it as a graph,
with the input signal's value along the bottom and resulting output signal
shown vertically.

> My theory is that it gets used less, because it's response is less-like the 
> organic world; it ouputs in a non-linear manner (if you set it up that way). 

  Tracking generators typically provide a specifically linear mapping;
I can't recall whether the one on the A6 does anything more exotic as I
haven't used it in over a year.

-- 
David Evans          (NeXTMail/MIME OK)             dfevans at bbcr.uwaterloo.ca
Ph.D. Candidate, Computer/Synth Junkie     http://bbcr.uwaterloo.ca/~dfevans/
University of Waterloo         "Default is the value selected by the composer
Ontario, Canada           overridden by your command." - Roland TR-707 Manual