What exactly does the audio IN on my R3 do?

So i got myself a new Korg R3, and i was rather excited reading about it that i would be able to run any audio source into it and process that source as if it were a chosen waveform...

But now that i've plugged my guitar in, i'm a bit puzzled. Mainly, i'm dissapointed that i have to play keys on the R3 in order to get sound to come out. I was hoping that i could just play my old guitar and let the R3 process it.

But i notice that playing different keys on the R3 while playing guitar does change the sound. It sounds like the guitar is still controlling the fundamental frequency, but the keys still determine different tones.

So what exactly is going on here? Why do i still have to play the keys on the R3? I suppose i could just put something heavy on a key to hold it down, but then, which key would allow for the guitar to completely control the pitch? Middle C? the center of whatever key i'm playing in?

I haven't been able to find thiss in the manual, but is there a setting which will allow my guitar to be processed and heard without me having to hold down a key?

Thanks

Hmnn... I'm sure there is a way. One of the vocoder presets is straight audio in... meaning, you don't need to press the keys for your voice to be heard. Perhaps you can use that as a model?

Switch the sustain pedal polarity to -ve.

I hate this too, except I have this on my Kurzweil K2600rs. I wish I could just plug and play like an effects unit. Why do the companies do it this way, anyone know or understand why?

If you knew a bit about modular synthesizers, you wouldn't be surprised .

An oscillator makes a sound - all the time. When you hit a key, you don't actually "start" an oscillator; what happens is that the key signal opens a gate, which lets the sound of an oscillator through. While holding that key, the level is controlled by the volume envelope. Without that signal - no opening of the gate. On a modular this is not a problem since you don't actually have to wire the keyboard to the gate; on a fixed-structure synth it is, because you can't actually decouple anything.

Tusks' suggestion is a possibility - set the ADSR of the envelope to 0 max max max, and reverse the pedal polarity. This means that not pressing the pedal keeps the gate open indefinitely.

If you knew a bit about modular synthesizers, you wouldn't be surprised . An oscillator makes a sound - all the time. When you hit a key, you don't actually "start" an oscillator; what happens is that the key signal opens a gate, which lets the sound of an oscillator through. While holding that key, the level is controlled by the volume envelope. Without that signal - no opening of the gate. On a modular this is not a problem since you don't actually have to wire the keyboard to the gate; on a fixed-structure synth it is, because you can't actually decouple anything. Tusks' suggestion is a possibility - set the ADSR of the envelope to 0 max max max, and reverse the pedal polarity. This means that not pressing the pedal keeps the gate open indefinitely.

yep, i know very very little about modular synthesis.

i'll try out that suggestion when i get a chance though, thanks very much.

(one thing though, to those who do understand modular synthesis, do you know why it is that playing different keys shifts the pitch of my audio input? is it supposed to do that? or is it most likely that that patch also had another oscillator running that i didn't change to "audio in"... i'll check on that when i have the chance)

There is an Audio Thru function you can access by holding Shift and pressing the Vocoder button. This routes Audio In directly to the outputs without needing to press any keys. However, if you still want to use Audio In as an oscillator source or process it through the vocoder, you will still need to press a key to process it.

If anything, you can always set up a vocoder patch, crank up the amp release and set the arpeggiator to hold. From there, you can press one key and the input source will keep running itself through the synth engine.

Sorry to say it, but all the other responses have missed the point entirely. Enabling Audio Thru or setting the sustain to endless do not solve his problem: using the guitar to trigger the synth to modulate its sound, like to do an auto-wah, a common guitar effect that requires an envelope follower.

What he needs is the envelope follower of the Radias, which the R3 doesn't have. I read back on arcadesonfire previous posts and not once did he mention that he intended to use the synth for guitar effects, which if he had, I might have been able to tell him in advance that this was one of the cases where he needed the Radias instead of the R3. Actually, the R3 does have an envelope follower in the vocoder section, but it's divided into the 16 bands to modulate the vocoder amp envelope, not to track the overall amplitude envelope of the source to trigger a synth timber like the Radias Envelope Follower does.

So the real answer: trade your R3 for the Radias rack while you still can. Or trade it in for any other synth with an envelope follower. The point is that you absolutely need an envelope follower to do what you want.

So what does the envelope follower do? It tracks the level of an input source to create a control voltage (or level value) that can be used to modulate any voltage/value controlled synth element. In the Radias, the output of the envelope follower can be free assigned using vitual patches. This allows it to be used instead of the ADSR envelopes. ADSR are triggered by a keypress. The envelope follower tracks the level/envelope of the guitar output directly. The guitar audio envelope is used and not simulated using the ADSR. The R3 does not have an envelope follower output that can be free assigned using virtual patches.

To get an auto-wah effect on the Radias, you would assign the Env.F value to the cutoff value of one of the filters. The Radias envelope follower can also generate note on/off events, which can trigger an internal timbre or sent externally by midi.

Audio In sends all the commands from your audio to your mixer

Midi In sends all the Midi In commands to your mixer

Tanks for you infos. So what does da mixer do with all dem Audio and Midi In commands, mix them? To waht? Teh slushy muzic, boi?

What are you asking here? The audio in lets you put audio in.

Audio Commands are sent to your mixer so you can mix your audio

What audio commands? What the hell are you talking about?

Whew, that's a lot to swallow. Thanks for all the help. I got the R3 because i got it at a sizeable discount plus i'm getting the 200$ back... the Radias is quite outside my price range. If the guitar in doesn't work like i had hoped, it's not the end of the world. I still got the synth mainly to be a synth.

Still though, it seems to me that the suggestions above for the ADSR, setting the D, S, and R to 100%, might help me out. I've been working like a dog for 2 weeks coming home after work every night and recording trying to get a CD done.... and now the R3 is with my bassist, who's mixing all those tracks i laid down, but soon, hopefully, i'll get to actually sit down and play with the R3.

Thanks everyone for helping to educate me. I'm a guitarist, and even though i've rebuilt a classic tube amp, there are still quite a bit more parameters to learn about with all this synth business.

Right, but i was curious about why it is that pushing different keys on the keyboard affected the pitch of my audio input. I still haven't heard an answer to this question.

I had thought that the audio input determined both the wave form and the pitch. But then why would pushing different keys change the pitch at all? Did i have the wrong idea about what the audio input does?

The audio input routes the signal through filters and efx. Under circumstances (extreme resonance) filters and even vocoders can emit pitch sounds (or at least sounds approaching pitch). Not knowing how you had set up the patch, we didn't have enough information to tell you why it was doing what it was doing.

Speaking of not enough information ...

Envelope followers are very nice mod sources, particularly when you want your guitar strumming action to create the rhythmic content in a patch. However that is only one way to do things. If you set up an lfo to open and close your filter rhythmically, you will found an alternative source of rhythmic fun without envelopes.

Jerry

Ok, that makes sense. I don't understand what was going on so i can't explain it well enough to give y'all the right info. I was hoping i might have this thing figured out enough to have my bassist run through it on our gig this weekend, but alas, it can wait.

Thanks for the help though.

are you sure you have the 2nd oscillator turned off? in order to only hear the Audio In Osc, i believe you must ensure that the other oscillator is disabled, or at least turned down in the mix (if there is one). that's how my other Korg stuff works, anyway. i'm pretty sure only the 1st oscillator in the R3 can be assigned to the Audio Input; the other has to be turned down or off.

good luck!