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Future Impact now available!! WAS: deep impact reissue!!! interested?

#4,381
>> I would have assumed that the release would be triggered by a 'note off' command.

This is true.


>> The user could then adjust the note off parameter to a level before tracking became an issue.

This is not true. To decide when a note off should be issued is a very complicated process, not a simple decision based on the signal level. I cannot go into details here, but e.g. if you stop a loud, very short note then the signal level when the note off must be issued is probably 100 times larger than in a long sustained note.

I explained why a RELEASE is missing (or better, it is set automatical); retriggering is a completely separate issue. If I remember well it was a request from AKAI that during continuous play the attack should not be restarted. I did not mind, as it is quite natural for guitar playing, but technically it would not be complicated to implement. Of course I can think about this only as an optional possibility, so it would require new parameter in the data structure, this could be much more complicated, this is why also the flexi controllers are not yet released.

Andras Szalay
 
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#4,384
Andras Szalay said:
>> I would have assumed that the release would be triggered by a 'note off' command.

This is true.


>> The user could then adjust the note off parameter to a level before tracking became an issue.

This is not true. To decide when a note off should be issued is a very complicated process, not a simple decision based on the signal level. I cannot go into details here, but e.g. if you stop a loud, very short note then the signal level when the note off must be issued is probably 100 times larger than in a long sustained note.

I explained why a RELEASE is missing (or better, it is set automatical); retriggering is a completely separate issue. If I remember well it was a request from AKAI that during continuous play the attack should not be restarted. I did not mind, as it is quite natural for guitar playing, but technically it would not be complicated to implement. Of course I can think about this only as an optional possibility, so it would require new parameter in the data structure, this could be much more complicated, this is why also the flexi controllers are not yet released.

Andras Szalay
Click to expand...


Veeeeery interesting!

Thanks for taking the time to explain. So to summarise:

adding a release parameter would be too difficult
adding a retrigger option would be possible (YESSSSSSSSS! I think this would make a huge difference!)
- but what about a sustain parameter? Would this be possible?
 
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#4,386
hztjtao said:
Hi Andras, when will i be able to download the new firmware which contains the modulations update?
Click to expand...
@Andras Szalay I am also curious if you implemented the simple MIDI command that allows you to flip the bypass state of the pedal without specifically turning the pedal "on" or "off." That is, the same MIDI command turns the pedal on when it is off, and turns it off when it is on.
 
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#4,387
Hi all,

As a recent owner of the Future Impact, I wanted first to thank all of you for the
instructive contributions on this forum and the useful sharing thread.

Since it took me some time to figure out, I have a small tip for potential Linux users,
who might hesitate to purchase this pedal due to the lack of a Future Impact editor on
this OS. The available editor for Windows works in fact perfectly fine on Linux using
the wine emulator. The M-Audio Uno Midi cable is also recognized.

Here's another information that may be useful for horn players (are there any here?), as
I am playing the Future Impact with a baritone saxophone. It was very difficult at first
to obtain good pitch tracking because of the rich harmonic content of this instrument.
Thus I drilled a trumpet piezo pickup into a cheap sax mouthpiece, which allows to get
a smooth tone, and enable pitch recognition. Now tracking is pretty good, and I can get
the same crazy sounds as you guys!

Cheers,

Serge.
 
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#4,389
bassvirtuoso said:
FI owners who play it live: have you ran any effects AFTER the FI that sounded amazing? I recently used my flanger after it for some Prince tunes which really dialed it up perfectly.

Any other suggestions?
Click to expand...

I use a Digitech Bass Monkey (modified with extra bass) after the FI, although I assume every other 'tube overdrive' would do the same trick. It gives the default DI sounds (bank 0) a lovely makeover, it takes the digital synthy edges off the sound, and makes them sound like a 70s funk recording. I wouldn't count this as an improvement, since I also love the original sound, but more as a fresh and useful different flavour.
 
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#4,390
bassvirtuoso said:
FI owners who play it live: have you ran any effects AFTER the FI that sounded amazing? I recently used my flanger after it for some Prince tunes which really dialed it up perfectly.

Any other suggestions?
Click to expand...

I also like modulation effects after the FI, they bring life to the pedal, which can sound
cold otherwise. My personal favorite right now is the Dynaphase effect found in the
Bubbletron pedal from Keeley. It runs two phasers in parallel, leading to unusual and
organic modulations on long synth tones. One phaser is very sensitive to the attack,
and gives a bubbly articulation. The other phaser follows periodically a LCO. I guess
something similar can be reproduced with a regular phaser and a smooth autowah.
 
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#4,391
hztjtao said:
Hi Andras, when will i be able to download the new firmware which contains the modulations update?
Click to expand...

There are many new features in preparation. I think you think about the flexi controller options. The software is ready for the FI device, it works amazing, but it requires extended, enlarged preset files and a completely new editor. Also another feature that is ready is that you can use the three kind of effects simultaneously, but this will also require larger preset file, as in the current one a common set of parameters is stored for all effects, and also the editor will have to change. We ask for your patience, these features must be introduced all at once, and it is a lot of work.

Andras Szalay
 
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#4,393
Adamixoye said:
I am also curious if you implemented the simple MIDI command that allows you to flip the bypass state of the pedal without specifically turning the pedal "on" or "off." That is, the same MIDI command turns the pedal on when it is off, and turns it off when it is on.
Click to expand...

This is in the current implementation specification list, it will be part of the next release:
Effect on-off flip through MIDI: Control 69 (Hold 2) will be used for this. The third byte can be any value, a message will always flip between on and off.

Andras Szalay
 
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#4,394
Andras Szalay said:
This is in the current implementation specification list, it will be part of the next release:
Effect on-off flip through MIDI: Control 69 (Hold 2) will be used for this. The third byte can be any value, a message will always flip between on and off.

Andras Szalay
Click to expand...
Great, thank you so much @Andras Szalay!

I am also curious if you or anyone else could say more about this “flexi controller.” I do not know what it is or when it was announced. Is it hardware or something else? If it is hardware, how necessary will it be when the next firmware update comes out?
 
#4,395
SergeF said:
Hi all,
Now tracking is pretty good, and I can get the same crazy sounds as you guys!
Click to expand...

Very interesting! Does the pitch tracking of the FI cover the whole range of your instrument?
You can expect a very important improvement soon. The FI was created with the Deep Impact in sight, so that it must have every feature of the DI, no matter if it is good or not. Of course, it was a kind of funny to emulate the 8 bit microcontroller pitch tracking quality of the DI on the powerful 32 bit DSP of the FI. Now, after three years we do not need any more to prove that the FI is a clone of the DI, we can make it much better without any worry :) The next software will have a new pitch tracking, much improved, more stable quality, also extending the pitch range to much higher pitches. It will have a BASS/GUITAR global option, in order to use it optimally in different pitch ranges.
 
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#4,397
Adamixoye said:
I am also curious if you or anyone else could say more about this “flexi controller.”
Click to expand...
For a flexi controller you can select from a number of different sources. The sources can be: MIDI aftertouch, any MIDI controller, the bass envelope follower, the VCF envelope, the noise envelope or the Accent (note on amplitude). The destination can be any parameter of the editor. The result is like using the editor live with "virtually moving faders", where the faders are moved by the selected sources. The possibilities are really unlimited, I tried just a very few of the possible connections between sourced and destinations. There are two separate flexi controllers. Here is a short demo.
 

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#4,398
Andras Szalay said:
For a flexi controller you can select from a number of different sources. The sources can be: MIDI aftertouch, any MIDI controller, the bass envelope follower, the VCF envelope, the noise envelope or the Accent (note on amplitude). The destination can be any parameter of the editor. The result is like using the editor live with "virtually moving faders", where the faders are moved by the selected sources. The possibilities are really unlimited, I tried just a very few of the possible connections between sourced and destinations. There are two separate flexi controllers. Here is a short demo.
Click to expand...
So it is a virtual expression control of sorts?
 
#4,399
Andras Szalay said:
Very interesting! Does the pitch tracking of the FI cover the whole range of your instrument?
Click to expand...

Hi András,

people have told you this already, but I find it wonderful that you are checking
this thread and continuously proposing improvements to the FI !

I am mostly using the FI as a clean or dirty down-octaver, because the low end of
the bari sax is limited by the C above the 4-string bass low E. I have tried most
octavers on the market (POG2, Luminary...) with saxophone, they all have some
latency and muddiness in the sound which does not play great when stacking effects.
The tracking of the FI is much faster, and having pure waveforms cleans up also the
sound. However, I prefer to use modulation effects from other pedals after the FI, that
are easier to switch on or off on the fly, and that I find also warmer.

To answer your question, FI tracks indeed less accurately in the upper register of the
bari sax, and even in the low register, one has to play with very clean technique.
So if you can bring some update in the software that would be great!

Cheers,

Serge.
 
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#4,400
Andras Szalay said:
The software is ready for the FI device, it works amazing, but it requires extended, enlarged preset files and a completely new editor.
Andras Szalay
Click to expand...

Hi András and all,

I have a question regarding saving presets and using them in live situation.
It is very cumbersome to use a double tap to scroll down, and it could be more
practical to store only the 3 or 4 presets that one will really use at a gig, and to
scroll them in a circular way with the single switch of the FI. An extra midi footswitch
could be a solution, but if FI is the only midi pedal on the board, that would be
overkill (and expensive).

Clearly, the two storing modes of the FI are not very practical for this purpose (they
are of course useful in other ways). The first saving mode merges the N new presets
with all the previous ones. The second saving mode keeps only the wanted N presets
but duplicates up to the 99th slot **only** the lowest preset. I am not sure about the logic
of this second saving mode.

If possible, it would be much more useful to keep an adjustable number N<99 of presets
on the pedal. If not possible, why not simply repeating in a cyclical way the N presets when
using WRITE ALL? This is not perfect unless N divides 99, but that would be an improvement.

Right now, I am using a python script on my PC that automatically duplicates and renames
N presets in this cyclic way:

01_FirstPreset 02_SecondPreset ... N_NthPreset
N+1_FirstPreset N+2_SecondPreset ... 2N_NthPreset
... up to slot 99

which does the job with the current editor. Having this alternative saving option
directly with the editor would be easier for everyone.

Let us know your personal preferences for browsing presets!

Serge.
 

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