LFO Smoothing should be off by default

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#1

I always find myself turning it down to zero in all my LFOs, on all my patches.
I think 0 would be a more sensible default, just like the LFO delay parameter, but let me know if you agree or not.

#2

To kick things off, i will begin with a couple arguments in favor of this change.

  1. It just doesn’t offer many benefits as a default
    In the init preset the LFOs are not routed anywhere, so there is no need for any configuration. And, when you first assign them, it usually doesnt make much of a difference. But the problems start later.

  2. It messes up LFOs at high rates
    When cranking up the LFO rates, its practically a must to lower or disable the LFO smoothing.
    The way its implemented, the smoothing time stays constant across different rates, which isn’t a bad thing, but it makes lfo shapes played at fast speed way too smooth compared to when you play them in normal rates. This is most obvious in LFO keytrack mode, where it practically destroys the intended lfo shape.

  3. Lack of proper visual feedback
    We love visual feedback, to the point of looking at how the waveforms change in real time.
    Take for example the default attack / release times. They are represented on the envelope shape. However, you can’t see the shape of the LFO after smoothing. It also doesnt help that this shape would change according to the rate. It makes no sense to me that a feature you can’t visualize would be enabled by default.

To sum up, the shape you draw should be the default. WYSIWYG. Smoothing it by default is confusing and counterintuitive.

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#3

I think I’d rather see the ability to customize the initial start state. That might be more straightforward and address a greater variety of idiosyncrasies.

#4

Make your own ini patch and save it as default into your daw.

1 Like
#5

One of the more common use cases is modulating level amount with an LFO. Since level is audio rate modulated, if there is a discontinuity it causes a click which for many beginners doesn’t sound right. So I’m not going to change the default smoothing but I’ll probably put in a customizable init preset that @andrew suggested

2 Likes
#6

Thanks, I’ll do that!

#7

That’s a fair point. I’ll be looking forward to that feature :smiley: