Adventures in FDSP Tornado

By Brian Cowell Copyright 2000,2001 Produced for SONIKMATTER http://www.sonikmatter.com Sounds by Brian Cowell available from http://www.soundengine.com The TORNADO function brings to the EX-series some powerful aspects. Not only can it distort a sound, it can through careful programming, bring about some FMish sounding patches. While this won't be all that new to anybody familiar with the EXseries, getting TORNADO to actually do what you want it to do, will be. The sound of TORNADO is very FM in nature. There will be no "shimmering bright pads" done with this FDSP block. What you will get, is razor sharp lead sounds along with ground shaking basses. It essentially puts a burrrr effect onto a sound. Here are some of the sounds that come standard with the EX that use the TORNADO function.

Presets that use TORNADO:

P1-022 Pf : Tornado EP P2-023 Sc : Gronk P2-110 Pi : Metal Piper I1-070 I1-087 I2-008 I2-011 I2-012 I2-038 I2-051 I2-072 I2-084 I2-124 Sq : Pd : Ba : Ba : Ba : Ld : Pd : Fx : Se : Pc : Hard Groove Mr.Evolvo Hardsequence Bwacka Bass Talkin' Bass Mean Lead Oasis StarDrive Alien Rain Tornado BD

Take your time to go and play the Tornado EP sound. Play one of the notes above C4 and hold it for a long time. You will hear the sound decay away, while the noise floor of Tornado EP will rise steadily and suddenly shut off. These are the left over artifacts of TORNADO coming into an audible range. It is something to be aware of when using TORNADO, a small amount of the noise floor may be present.

Considerations when using TORNADO:

Waveforms in any instrument are considered one of two different types. They are either known as "complex" waveforms, or "simple". 1. COMPLEX : this type of waveform usually best describes the noises made by pianos, strings, brass and choirs. The waveform itself doesn't seem to have a repetitive nature on observation. 2. SIMPLE : these types of waveforms are like sine, sawtooth, triangle, pulse, organ waveforms, etc. Due to their short and simplistic cycles, they are referred to as "simple waveforms." Using a "complex" waveform as the source for TORNADO will result in distortion. Sometimes, it can be quite nasty. If this is what you are setting out to do, then thats fine. But if you are looking for results that are more predictable and a sound of an FM nature, then you need to use the "simple" waveforms. Most of the waveforms that fall into the "Wv:" (Material Wave) and "Or:" (Organ) are suitable for use in TORNADO. This by all means is not a rule, but a good guideline to keep in mind.

The components of TORNADO:

The input signal (your chosen waveform) is firstly put through a "Pre-gain" block. This raises the level of the sound and its frequencies. It is then passed through a "Lowpass" filter, which is designed to remove unwanted frequencies in the upper spectrum. This is then passed through the "Drive" block that actually shapes how deep this modulation waveform is (in terms of amplitude). Think of it as an amplitude control/distortion block. Just remember, its along the lines of FM synthesis. The selected waveform we are processing is currently the modulator. TORNADO will then use its own "sine" waveform as the carrier. The process then works along the lines of modulator times carrier equals tornado. Now, the modulation waveform is then further enhanced in that its processed by the "ceiling" block. This sets the upper limit on the frequencies that we want emphasized. It does not filter out sounds; it just tells the TORNADO modulator what the highest (harmonic) frequency that it can process. The sound then moves through the "overtone" block, which instructs the modulator as to how much of the even numbered harmonics will be processed. The TORNADO "sine wave" modulator armed with the "ceiling" and "overtone" settings now will process our original sound (the carrier). As our new sound now leaves, it is met by the "edge bias" block. This determines how much of the processed sound will be fed back again into the modulator. Finally, it is processed by a "highpass" and "lowpass" filter, which cut away-unwanted frequencies. The signal is then boosted once more from a gain stage amplifier. The final result is TORNADO !

The "default" setting:

When the "tornado" FDSP function has been selected for use in a VOICE, the following settings are what the EX-series will initially start with. As you will find later, the settings YAMAHA starts off with are extreme, which will explain why many do not get the results they are after, when programming with it.

Pre Gain = 120 Pre LPF = 64 Drive = 10 Drive K.Flw = +40 EG Depth = +52 EG Depth Vel = + 0 Decay Time = 70 ReleaseTime = 40 OverTone = 10 Ceiling = 80 Edge Bias = -24 Edge EGDepth= +40 HPF = 0 HPF K.Flw =+0 LPF = 106 LPF K.Flw = +16 Wet Gain = 60 Wet Vel =+0 Wet Level = 127 Dry Level = 0 Pan = cnt

Pre Gain: This amplifies the volume of the input signal. Increased to high, mild distortion can occur. The result is tied into how you set the Pre LPF setting. Pre LPF: This is the lowpass filter, which filters the results of the Pre Gain setting. When set to the maximum (127), the lowpasss filter is fully open. When set to the minimum level (0), the filter is considered to be nearly closed. The minimum filter setting will not totally filter out all the frequencies as in other lowpass filters on the EX. The reason is that you need some form of input signal in order to get TORNADO to work. No sound would mean no result. Drive: The manual says that it sets the depth of modulation. YAMAHA left a few words off this sentence; it should have said sets the depth of the amplitude modulation. The Drive parameter ties itself in with a few other parameters. While it can be used alone, using it wrongly with these other parameters can cause heavy distortion. You get results you may not be looking for. By itself, Drive takes the result of Pre LPF and adjusts the level of the amplitude of the input signal one more time. The other parameter tied into it is the EG Depth. TORNADO has its own envelope generator, which is used in conjunction with the Drive parameter. You can set the EG Depth to also modulate the amplitude of the signal after the Pre LPF (pre lowpass filter). Having high value settings for each can result in nasty distortion.

Drive K.Flw: This sets how much tracking the Drive parameter will follow the keyboard. A setting of 0 means that it will follow the keyboard evenly, i.e., every key is affected the same. A setting that is positive will make the Drive parameter affect notes higher on the keyboard only. A setting that is negative will affect notes that are lower on the keyboard more. By having these positive/negative settings, you can emphasis a range of keys more on the keyboard in respect to amplitude, so you can have higher or lower levels. EG Depth: This parameter ties directly to the Decay Time and Release Time parameters. There must be a setting in the two of them in order for this to work. The EG Depth is another parameter that can affect the amplitude. This is why it is crucial to be careful when using it with the Drive parameter. It can be used in place of Drive, or in combination with it. If EG Depth is in combination with the Drive parameter, the level may rise to a point of nasty distortion. Carefully balance between the two of them. EG Depth Vel: This ties the EG Depth to velocity played on the keyboard. Decay Time: This is the decay time for the EG (envelope generator). There is no attack parameter for the EG. It starts from decay to the sustain. (There is also no sustain parameter available to be programmed. It is basically the level which comes out of the Pre LPF if Drive is not used. If Drive is used, sustain is considered what this value is programmed to.) So Decay Time is the time it takes to reach the sustain level. ReleaseTime: This is the EG (envelope generator) time from when a key is released to when the sound actually ends. Overtone: This parameter controls the amount of even-numbered harmonic content. Most guitar effects distortion pedals affect sounds by emphasizing even-numbered harmonics in a sound. It is directly related to what is set on the Ceiling parameter. Ceiling: This will set the limit of the upper frequency content that will be used by the Overtone parameter. Essentially, it is a filter. High settings allow more frequencies to be processed. Edge Bias: This will specify how much of the FM type sound will be fed back into the signal to be reprocessed. High settings will result in heavy distortion of the signal. Edge EGDepth: This is the Edge parameter controlled via the EG in TORNADO. It is usually programmed in combination with the Edge Bias. Heavy settings will result in distortion. Again, this may be an effect that you are looking for. HPF: This is one of the final stages in which the TORNADO signal is processed. Its a HIGHPASS filter. Most programming in TORNADO wont normally require you to use it, But its there should you want to cut out higher frequencies. HPF K.Flw: This is the parameter that allows you to control how the HPF will track the keyboard. LPF: This is one of the last stages of TORNADO in which you can use a LOWPASS filter to remove unwanted frequencies from the signal. LPF K.Flw: This is the parameter that allows you to control how the LPF will track the keyboard.

Wet Gain: This boosts the amplitude of the final signal of the TORNADO process. If the sound is not loud enough, turn this parameter up. Use it in conjunction with the Wet Level parameter. Wet Vel: This ties how hard you play the keyboard and what you have set in Wet Gain, into one parameter. Wet Level: This sets how much of the TORNADO signal that will appear at the outputs. There must be an amount set in the Wet Level in order for the TORNADO effect to be heard. Dry Level: This where you set how much of the un-processed signal will appear at the outputs with the Wet Level. Pan: This sets the panning of the sound of both Wet Level and Dry levels. Adjusting this will adjust them in tandem. What can "blur" the panning settings is the use of either one of the GLOBAL or INSERT effects, i.e., auto-pan.

Using TORNADO:

Like Ive mentioned earlier, the default settings that YAMAHA uses for TORNADO are what I would call extreme. Lets look at making them a little more usable. What we will do is actually dial up TORNADO and look at what goes on and how we can make it more predictable. Be careful with your volume levels. Lower the MAIN VOLUME slider. 1. Dial up a blank VOICE and press [EDIT]. 2. Press [COM] and change the "Type" to 08. Now change "ElmSw" to ON. You have now turned on the FDSP and the TORNADO effect.. 3. Press [OSC]. Change the sound to 0228 Wv: MogBs1. 4. Now go back to the FDSP page by pressing [COM]. 5. You will notice when you play the keyboard that the sound is heavily distorted. The volume level on the upper regions of the keyboard is quite loud also. If you play the lower ends of the keyboard, you will notice that the TORNADO effect starts and seems to finish very quickly. Its like a very percussive type effect. This is due to the Drive and EGDepth, combined with what is set in the Decay Time and Release Time parameters. The volume problem on the upper regions is caused by the Drive K.Flw parameter. To get successful sounds out of TORNADO, we need to understand what is happening here as this will happen a lot when using it. We know that Drive affects the amplitude (volume). The Drive K.Flw parameter is not only tracking the Drive parameter, its compensating either the lower or upper or no regions at all in respect to volume. Because we have a positive setting, it is making the upper part of the keyboard louder. 6. Change the Drive K.Flw to +0. This is just for the moment until we can get a more stable level.

7. Change the EGDepth to +0. You will notice now that the sound has dropped to an extremely low level. This ok. We are ripping TORNADO apart and will build from the ground up. That way, you will understand how all the components are interacting. 8. We still have a small amount of Drive (currently set at 10), Turn this down to 0. 9. To make sure that nothing else is going to affect us, we will set the Edge EGDepth to +0, and the Edge Bias to 0. Disregard the other parameters at the moment; they are there to shape TORNADO. The parameters we will be working on create the guts of it. 10. What we are going to do now is have a straight out TORNADO induced sound without having the envelope generator (EG) having any sort of impact on it. Weve cut the volume (amplitude) of the sound to a degree where nothing is actually happening. If you look at the setting on the Wet Level, you can see it is set at 127. This means that we have 100% of the TORNADO effect coming out of our speakers. The Dry Level is set at 0. Therefore, we do not have any of the original sound-bypassing TORNADO. This is something I thought should be pointed out at this stage. Now to get some sort of TORNADO effect, we need to adjust the processed amplitude at the start of processing. For starters, we will adjust the Drive parameter. While holding a finger down on the keyboard, we turn the Drive parameter up to around 84. You will hear not only the sound get louder, but the sound change also. This value will vary from sound to sound. So let your ear be the judge. The TORNADO effect has its own EG (envelope generator). Adjust the Release Time to around 25. You can create pads by doing what we have just done. I referred at the start of the article to this brrrr sound. This is it ! NOTE: Its also worth knowing, that as with all the EGs in the FDSP functions, there is a tiny bug. When you have a setting of 48 in the Release Time, it will make a loud audible pop when the key is released. However, this has only happened under certain conditions (like turning a FDSP on).This may not be an issue with your EX. To get rid of it, you just adjust the Release Time if it happens to you. You may also notice that some of the noise floor may disappear also. I believe this has to do with the construction of the TORNADO FDSP parameter. 11. Before we move on, we will look at some parameters we have not looked at that can change the tone of the sound. These are the Overtone and Ceiling parameters. Play around with them by setting one of them to 0 and adjusting the other. Then try different configurations and various values to get a feel of what is happening to the sound. You will soon learn that the Ceiling parameter has some grunt about it. High values mean some heavy sounds. When you have finished playing around. Set the Overtone to 10, and set the Ceiling parameter to a value of 61. 12. Next, we have the Edge Bias and Edge EGDepth. These are the feedback parameters for TORNANDO. By now, you probably realize that you dont need these parameters to get a good TORNADO type sound. Depending on the complexity of the waveform, adding anything to do with the edge parameters is a matter of taste. They tend to add a nasty/raspy type of effect on the lower end of the keyboard. Menacing type bass sounds pop to mind. My preference has always been that if I use them, I use small amounts.

Now we will adjust the sound to take advantage of the EG controllers so the sound can be shaped further. 13. Adjust the EG Depth to around +17. The sound starts to get real nasty. 14. We now need to adjust the Drive setting. The high value in it at the moment is causing the nasty distortion that is present. Adjust it to around 69. You will hear that the sound is more stable. 15. Now we will take advantage of the Edge EGDepth. Adjust it to around +13. You will hear that the bottom end of the keyboard has a nice amount of distortion on it, but the upper end has lost volume, and frequency content. 16. Adjust the Drive K.Flw to +21. This balances the level on the upper end of the keyboard. The more you use TORNADO, the more you will find it is a balancing act with parameters. You adjust one, you may have to adjust another.

Advanced TORNADO:

The TORNADO allows a lot of scope for experimenting. By using one of the existing ROM wave sounds, you can get a lot of menacing synth type sounds. Using more than one wave will allow for even more experimenting. The results will be a little less predictable, but the possibilities will be endless. For instance, try using two wave sounds that are the same and detuning one in respect to the other. Turn TORNADO on for the two of them and tweak parameters from there. Also, try different combinations of wave sounds, and play around with their COARSE parameters. Its a great area for you to discover sounds that have never been thought of. As with all the FDSP functions, TORNADO is actually the final stage in the sound design. From which, Im referring that any Voice programming is actually before the FDSP stage. So things like filtering and amplitude envelopes (AEG) affect TORNADO. So take this tip into your programming: Try playing with the AEG.

Getting torn by TORNADO:

One question many would probably want answered is that on What do I program first? The Element or Tornado?. My suggestion would be to balance between the two of them. Program your filters along with TORNADO in order to get the right for feel for your sound. Your going to be switching between different pages on the EX balancing the sound. One other thing that may bother some people ; the noise floor in TORNADO. This is directly related to what you have set in the Wet Gain parameter.

The last word on TORNADO:

From my own personal experience in programming with TORNADO, it is important to reduce the levels of DRIVE and totally remove (make them 0) things like EGDepth and Edge EGDepth. By building the TORNADO effect slowly, it allows you to have control over what is going on in the

sound. If you follow the guidelines I have outlined, you should be on the path to mastering the power of TORNADO. Finally, after going over this tutorial a few times, take a moment to check out some of the programming of the ROM Voices that YAMAHA programmed which feature TORNADO in them. (They are listed at the start of the tutorial.) In some of them, you will find that TORNADO has been used to enhance frequencies rather than totally distort them, e.g., TORNADO EP). It can have some wonderful uses. So take the time to get TORNADO to work for you!

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