Crossfade feature in Timefactor

[almesy]

I'm not sure I understand this function.  Is this feature mainly aimed at allowing for smoothing out the delay change when changing from preset to preset, to prevent abrupt delay changes, or is it for within the actual repeats of a single patch (like when you maybe are changing tempo and "re-tap" the tempo on the footswitch)?  

I'm probably making this more difficult than it is, but I'm not really clear on what this does, and the manual explanation is a little vague.

Anyone able to clarify?

[baidie]

As far as I can tell the xfade affects the modulation  of the delay. If you play around with the xfade , mod depth and rate while playing you should hear it. Start around 50ms and go up in 20ms increments to hear the changes. It's pretty cool when you dial in your preference. I don't know of any other fx unit that does this, samplers probably. Hail to Eventide engineers for giving us more than we expected.

[almesy]

The manual doesn't say anything about it being tied to modulation – it references that it smooths out the delay when there are changes to the delay.  

Here's what the manual says "Xnob/Crossfade: When delays change, TimeFactor performs a crossfade function to prevent abrupt changes that could result in glitching or clicking. Xnob sets the speed of the crossfade. Small values result in fast crossfades, larger values more gradual crossfades. Xnob sets the crossfade rate (XFADE) from 2 ms to 200 ms. "

So, I guess my question is still, when would the crossfade actually be used / needed?

[timothyhill]

I believe, although I could be wrong, that crossfades happen whenever the time between repeats change. That includes almost all multi-tap delays, whenever any delay is modulated, anytime you change presets, anytime you change the delay time or the delay type, or anytime an expression pedal, aux switch, or MIDI CC changes the delay time or modulation settings.

[almesy]

Ok – That's what I was thinking it was for, but I never really had situation where I specifically heard what it was doing to confirm- makes sense that you would want it to smooth out delays when using, say, an expression pedal for delay time within a single preset.  

[zikamuricpe]

Don't know anything about the theory behind the xfade function, but what my placebo told me when I first dialed that function is that it kind of shapes the attack of the delay repeats. Bigger the value, smoother the attack. Right or wrong, but I love that parameter and very often use values above 100ms to make TF digital delay sound softer and smoother, somehow a bit less digital – if I may say so.

[baidie]

Modulating delay time is cycling(changing) delay time by a set rate and length. XFading on a sampler which I own allows you to smooth out the loop joins. In the early days of sampling memory was expensive so , samples were short with even shorter loops which were prone to clicks.Xfading was born .True modulating of delay uses short delay times of say 1ms (phasey jet flanging) to 30ms( wide chorusing} etc.Anything above 60ms starts to exibit strong pitch changing. Using modulation on top of long delay times is a little different. My reference tying Xfade to modulation is because when I change the xfade time the character of the modulation changes which leads me to believe the xfade time affects the section of delay time being modulated in a musical way.It should be noted that time factor has a  true modulation delay, allowing chorusing, flanging and phasing. The range of the modulation is limited but thats what my ModFactor is for. I use Tap Tempo for delay time changes, usually small changes at that.. I haven't tried but maybe if you use an expression pedal to change delay time, the Xfade might smooth it all out. The end game is to find the music in all this stuff and if your like me the more options the merrier. Just my opinion, hope it helps..He who has the most toys when he dies wins!

[Imerkat]

hmmm… i just got the TimeFactor and i still don't understand it. becuase what everyone has been describing is spill mode type of effect. I have mine's off so no matter what setting the XF is on the changes are always abrupt from presets. i WAS hoping it would be feeding the sound from delayA to delayB and visa versa but that's definitely not it. Why hasn't a staff member answered this yet?

[zikamuricpe]

Yesterday I checked my smooth-attack theory in studio situation and I found out that it was really just a placebo 🙂 Ok, my mistake. But now I would really like to hear some theory behind the xfade parameter, or even better, some real-life examples of using it. Anybody?

[Imerkat]

In all fairness that is still an awesome idea!

[DGillespie]

Hey Guys,

The crossfade parameter allows the Digital Delay to change delay time
without either clicking or changing the pitch.  This comes into effect
whenever you change the delay time, including via the knob, via the
expression pedal or aux switch, or via modulation.  Specifically it has a
very profound effect on the modulation, allowing you to get slight
pitch change at very low settings, to something like flanging at medium
settings to some much more similar to a natural doubling at high
settings.  In general it tends to give a more natural chorus sound than
pitch change type delays which can tend to sound very wet, especially
with feedback.

[Author]

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