Cherry Audio Forums

Hiya.
Been playing guitar nearly 40 years. Been messing around with synths for... a fortnight.
Okay, before I get to the point, a little background, so hopefully, you don't blind me with scirence or think I'm one step up from a drummer I'm not new to digital tech or MIDI - been uskng rackmounted MIDI switching amp and fx setup since early 90s and home recording for about 20 years, even basic use of midi/vstis, BUT never got involved with synths, until recently. FWIW, I was a research chemist before my eyes went bad.
So...
Set up a simple synth - oscillator, envelope generator, amplifier. Connect pitch to pitch CV on oscillator, gate to gate in on envelope generator, square wave output to amplifier input, ASDL out to CV in on amp... amp out to L out 1.
Problem is, no silence - like the gate isn't fully closing. Getting in the region of just 8dB level drop when note is 'off'. Whether in Cakewalk or Reaper, both using WASAPI driver on a laptop, whether using midi file or midi keyboard as pitch source.
Since the same thing happens on my 'grown up' computer - desktop/Focusrite 18/20/ASIO/Reaper - I'm assuming this is a 'something I'm doing wrong' issue.
Very grateful to anyone/everyone who can point me to the error of my ways.
Cheers.
PS. should have said, W10Pro, everything up to date - OS/drivers/softwares - optimised, but no whacky registry tweeks.No viruses, no suspect iffy free software or plugins.

Is the Gain knob on the Amp set to 0% i.e. fully to the left?

It wasn't.

That 'fixed' it. Thanks.
So, what is the gain knob actually for?

To be true, the "Amp" is rather an electronic potentiometer.
With 0 to +5 volts CV you can adjust ouput voltage between 0 and 100 percent of input level, when CV amount is turned to max CW direction.

GAIN adds an additional value 0 to +5 volts to CV. So with max GAIN and CV from 0 to +5 volts you will get a total CV of +5 to +10 volts and you can really amplify input voltage from 100 to 200 percent, when CV amount is turn to max CW direction.

When CV amount is turn to max CCW direction CV will act inverted. 5 volts CV will reduce output to 0 percent, because it is added to +5 volts GAIN.

Roland

Thanks for the explanation.

I'm sure I'm going to be asking many equally basic questions over the coming months.