ZynAddSubFX Part Volume Doesn't Seem to Do Anything

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RyanH
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ZynAddSubFX Part Volume Doesn't Seem to Do Anything

Post by RyanH »

I just came back to Zyn after messing around with a bunch of other synths, including Yoshimi. I never noticed this before, but it seems like, in Zyn, the Part volume doesn't do anything. Tweaking the pan knob right next to it does indeed alter pan, but turning the volume knob seems to have no effect (unlike the Master volume, which does). In Yoshimi it works normally.

This is Zyn version 3.0.5 I'm using, not Zyn Fusion.

Am I missing something here?

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Re: ZynAddSubFX Part Volume Doesn't Seem to Do Anything

Post by RyanH »

I'm not sure, but I think that maybe the Part volume is just broken in that version of standalone Zyn. In the plugin version, it works (and the UI is much nicer to look at!). Next time I boot into an old install, I'll see if an earlier Zyn has the same issue.

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Re: ZynAddSubFX Part Volume Doesn't Seem to Do Anything

Post by RyanH »

My previous install uses the same build of ZynADDSubFX, so this issue goes back a few years. I noticed, though, that this is indeed a build, as there is no .deb file. So not sure if the issue is due to an error in how Ubuntu Studio compiled it, or if it's an issue with the source code. I considered compiling it myself, but not sure if I'll take the time to do it (I've never compiled from source before).

Does anyone else reading this have an install of standalone Zyn version 3.0.5 that is not part of the Ubuntu Studio repo and can check if the Part volume knobs affect the sound?

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Re: ZynAddSubFX Part Volume Doesn't Seem to Do Anything

Post by folderol »

Last one I saw was V2.5.4 and it works OK on that.
(for obvious reasons I don't use it any more!)

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Re: ZynAddSubFX Part Volume Doesn't Seem to Do Anything

Post by RyanH »

folderol wrote: Wed Dec 07, 2022 2:08 pm

Last one I saw was V2.5.4 and it works OK on that.
(for obvious reasons I don't use it any more!)

Thanks for letting me know. Haha, I feel like I'm cheating on Yoshimi, but there's one sound that I've been chasing for months and have only managed to achieve on Zyn... and only the most recent, standalone version, at that. Go figure.

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Re: ZynAddSubFX Part Volume Doesn't Seem to Do Anything

Post by folderol »

RyanH wrote: Wed Dec 07, 2022 8:05 pm
folderol wrote: Wed Dec 07, 2022 2:08 pm

Last one I saw was V2.5.4 and it works OK on that.
(for obvious reasons I don't use it any more!)

Thanks for letting me know. Haha, I feel like I'm cheating on Yoshimi, but there's one sound that I've been chasing for months and have only managed to achieve on Zyn... and only the most recent, standalone version, at that. Go figure.

Interesting. They must have added or changed something. We don't change things, and any additions we default to 'off'.

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Re: ZynAddSubFX Part Volume Doesn't Seem to Do Anything

Post by RyanH »

folderol wrote: Wed Dec 07, 2022 8:45 pm

Interesting. They must have added or changed something. We don't change things, and any additions we default to 'off'.

Yes, I think you're right about that. When you try to open an instrument in Yoshimi that was created in this most recent Zyn, a box comes up that says,

"File from ZynAddSubFX 3.0 or later has paramater types changed incompatibly with earlier versions, and with Yoshimi. It may not perform correctly."

I have noticed, when opening one of these newer instruments in Yoshimi - and also in the Zyn plugin - that there is some distortion in the higher registers.

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Re: ZynAddSubFX Part Volume Doesn't Seem to Do Anything

Post by RyanH »

Seems like no one else had this issue, but I'll post this solution in case someone does in the future and comes looking for an answer:

What I was trying to do was midi learn the part volumes to separate knobs on the keyboard, so that I could be playing Part 1 and gradually bring up the volume of Part 2. I was able to midi learn my keyboard's knobs to the parts' volume knobs in Zyn's user interface, but turning them up or down had no effect on the sound.

At that time, I thought that midi parameter 7 (which is usually automatically assigned to volume) controlled the master volume for ALL parts. However, parameter 7 is actually assigned to part volumes... it just doesn't do anything to the knobs in the user interface. I had the Control 7 knob on the keyboard set as the global midi channel (00), so it was controlling all the parts and I thought it was Zyn's master volume.

So if you have, say

-part 1 assigned to midi channel 1
-part 2 assigned to midi channel 2

...you can assign one knob to Control 7, channel 1, and another to Control 7, channel 2 and POW, everything is great!

In short, the part volumes work fine, they are assigned to Control 7, and it's just the knobs in the GUI that don't do anything.

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