I think I understand what you’re describing here. I wonder if the high resonance character of QPAS is what’s creating this. I was playing around with Ripples V2 last night, running the highpass and bandpass outs into the L and R inputs on Aurora, with the low pass out being fed back into the second input on Ripples. Switching between the two low pass slope options Ripples offers drastically changes the resonance character at higher settings, with the less steep slope (2-pole, 12dB/octave) having more pronounced effect. Aurora was having a wild time with the Atmosphere knob at the highest settings, and using any amount of Blur seemed to make a very distinct buzzing and noisy sound.
Before I say the next bit, I should clarify I have, at best, a very fractured and basic understanding of the principles of analog to digital audio conversion. I think that running a filter with high resonance into just about any digital module is trouble because that higher frequency content is running into the translation limits of whatever DAC is in use by the module. As I understand it, because of the exponential character of audio frequencies (i.e. one octave higher is always a doubling of frequency) smaller changes in a frequency with higher resonance are still really large leaps between individual samples a DAC has to process. This is always going to sound rougher to the ear than an equivalent change at a lower frequency as you get more accurate sampling at the lower signal value.
The closer to the actual processing rate of the DAC the frequency being analyzed is, the harder it is to get the complete cycle of that waveform. At least I think that’s how it works…
I was playing around with this more tonight and I swapped the DSP_ORDER setting on the USB drives options.txt file and I think that actually cleaned things up quite a bit. Default setting is 1 but changing it to 0 swaps the vocoder and the delay in the signal chain, and things got a lot more comprehensible with high atmosphere and any amount of reflect.
I love being able to hot swap the options without having to cycle the whole cases power too! Great idea whomever came up with that.
WHOA this is the coolest bit of help I’ve ever gotten. I was thinking it had something to do with the resonance setting on QPAS, especially when I was switching things things around with the “smile pass” output on there. Going to keep all of this in mind, fiddle around a bit, and see what happens - fwiw I’ve already had a great time messing around with various other combinations of knob positions and modulation etc, it’s a really unique sound, and I like it a lot.
OK I have a potentially dumb question… I need to add a dedicated REVERB module to my system - I have several multi effects units. Aurora sounds great for all of the etherial types of effects but how does it do with just NORMAL reverb effects. Although I want to use if for extraordinary reverb effects, I would also like to use it to create beautiful reverb spaces that don’t overpower but add depth to my lush chords coming from Harmonaig, Chainsaw and other modules. So far, most videos concentrate on the unique time and frequency stretching superpowers…but I have yet to see a review or video that also emphasizes its ability to just do plain reverb (how boring right?)
@Brainthrill No dumb questions here! When it comes to traditional reverb sounds, Aurora can get the job done with the Time, Reflect, and Atmosphere knobs. You can take a listen to what each of these knobs do on our homepage. Time in this case would act as your decay, Reflect would be your echos, and Atmosphere can act as your dampening!
We also have the first alternate firmware for Aurora finishing up development, which is a FDN reverb! This is a bread and butter reverb algorithm and will complement Aurora’s spectral reverb firmware quite nicely.
i have the same issue. except that no qpas is involved. Aurora is at end of my eurorack in stereo, and as soon as I turn mix up, white noise appears. It gives a style to the thing, but it’s a very plain white noise…
Just played with my new Aurora for the first time. It’s awesome, more so than expected. I also use a Qpas and did not have any issues. I did watch the input levels and attenuated them a bit. Running a reverb (tiptop zverb) into Aurora is spectacular and my favorite patch buddy for now.
Can you tell me if switching between firmwares will be easy due to the USB drive? As in, can you do it instantly if you have different firmwares on the drive?
I’d like to know the sample rate and resolution too, for the audio nerd in me.
My Aurora is due to arrive today (can’t wait!), and although I have an FX Aid, one of the first things I shall try will be running a sequence through the Disting Mk IV into the Aurora. The FX Aid may have more reverb functions, but I find the Disting’s two are better than any of them. There will be a YT vid in due course- I’ll post a link.
Hi there I have a question regarding the factory options.txt file available at the aurora website. Both options regarding quantization of the warp knob / CV Input, QUANTIZE_WARP and WARP_DEADZONES aren’t any longer in this file. Will these options be removed in a following firmware update or can you still put them in the .txt file manually (respectively they are written by the module when inserting the card)?
Regards Lucas
@LucasS I updated the file on the product page to include QUANTIZE_WARP and WARP_DEADZONES, as they are most definitely not being removed.
If you wanted to add those options to Aurora, and you do not have them in your current options.txt file, you can either download the file from our site, or power cycle your module and Aurora will automatically re-add a new options.txt file with the default settings to your inserted USB drive.
This may not be the right place for future firmware suggestions, but here I go. I’ve just finished three days of Aurora exploration for my new video. I absolutely love it, but it took me three days to get familiar with the module. It can do so much to a sound! One of the most beautiful modules I have ever heard. However! You can easily hit the brick wall frequency barrier of +2 octaves and then it becomes a DataBender doing a stuck CD player. Sure there’s a technical reason for it (green zones) but it just sounds terrible and often ‘off key’. My first suggestion would be to abandon the -2/+2 octave brick wall when ‘warp quantize’ is zero and only make 0V a green zone in this mode. Then, let the pitch go up/down over the full +5/-5 range and let the sequencer decide what sounds good or bad. Second - and I am aware I’ll walk the thin ice here - Aurora sounds best with an end of chain reverb, esoecially in the lower FFT modes. Maybe it’s possible to add a conventonal lush and big procedural reverb on top of the spectral processor in code that you can dial in with a shift-combo. It’s a bit like a ‘helper reverb’ but it will make Aurora complete and I am sure Daisy can handle it.
I completely understand if the answer here is “not a chance, for reasons that are very obvious if you understand the materials involved” - but as somebody who does not understand the materials involved, is there a chance there could be a silver (-ish) overlay, in lieu of a panel?
This may of course be a bad idea in practice. But! Putting it out there regardless.
(how boring right?)