In short, if vactrols provide the characteristics unique to the first lowpass gates -- a nonlinear response, lovely plucky characteristics, unique timbres -- can you build just any module that combines high-frequency attenuation with volume attenuation and call it a lowpass gate?
Judging by the results of the Elephant people's Natural Gate, I'm assuming the answer can be yes, but is the answer necessarily (i.e. always) yes?
If you build a filter, put an internal VCA inside it somewhere and run an envelope in to control both, can you call it a lowpass gate? What if it has the true snappy response of a VCA, not the more rounded response of the original LPGs?
Case in point: I love my Steady State Lowpass Gate. With the included wave shaping, it provides more timbral options than my Instruo o-47. But is it really a lowpass gate, if a lowpass gate is more usefully defined as "a module that replicates the response and timbral characteristics of vactrol-based lowpass gates"? Probably not.
(I don't have a "real" lowpass gate to compare it with, having sold my Natural Gate still boxed, in a depressive state of feeling bad about how much money I'd spent on Eurorack.)
Judging by the results of the Elephant people's Natural Gate, I'm assuming the answer can be yes, but is the answer necessarily (i.e. always) yes?
If you build a filter, put an internal VCA inside it somewhere and run an envelope in to control both, can you call it a lowpass gate? What if it has the true snappy response of a VCA, not the more rounded response of the original LPGs?
Case in point: I love my Steady State Lowpass Gate. With the included wave shaping, it provides more timbral options than my Instruo o-47. But is it really a lowpass gate, if a lowpass gate is more usefully defined as "a module that replicates the response and timbral characteristics of vactrol-based lowpass gates"? Probably not.
(I don't have a "real" lowpass gate to compare it with, having sold my Natural Gate still boxed, in a depressive state of feeling bad about how much money I'd spent on Eurorack.)
Statistics: Posted by Heterodyning — Thu Aug 22, 2024 2:38 pm — Replies 1 — Views 14