How to locate a modulation target?

[josb]

Hi all,

Long-time Reason user here who has recently started to dabble with VSTs (using Ableton Live as the host). I purchased Zebra and ACE a week or so ago because of their fabulous sound quality and because of the great job Urs and others here are doing supporting his products. Thanks to you all

A question: I'm trying to figure out what the target is of LFO 1 in the "Lord of the Strings" patch and am not having much luck. Does Zebra offer some easy way to show modulation targets?

Thanks,
Jos

[mcnoone]

Lfo1 is set to vibrato setting by default, but you can set it to anything you like as well, but it still will go to the vibrato as well, so turn that off if you use it for something else, and don't want vibrato mixed in with it.
Try looking in the Matrix area, if you can't see a setting within the other modules. Sometimes Lfo's are used in the section below the Mod Grid as well.
Sometimes Lfo's are in the FX section too.

[josb]

Lfo1 is set to vibrato setting by default, but you can set it to anything you like as well, but it still will go to the vibrato as well, so turn that off if you use it for something else, and don't want vibrato mixed in with it.

Understood. So I set Vibrato to zero on all three oscillators, and the aftertouch-modulated vibrato is now gone. I also figured out that setting LFO 1's Amp level to 0 removed the vibrato, which now makes sense thanks to your explanation.

Try looking in the Matrix area, if you can't see a setting within the other modules. Sometimes Lfo's are used in the section below the Mod Grid as well.
Sometimes Lfo's are in the FX section too.

Yeah, I looked around but didn't see any other obvious targets there. I'm still working my way through the manual.

Thanks for your help, mcnoone!

Cheers,
Jos

[bmrzycki]

Does Zebra offer some easy way to show modulation targets?

Nope. Like Reason, you have to learn to read a Zebra patch if you want to get better with it.

There are 2 kinds of modulation in Zebra: direct and the modmatrix. Direct modulation targets are knobs that are initially labelled with "..." and can be found on almost all of the devices in the left *and* the right of the rack. Modulators can modulate other modulators.

After a while you'll start to notice what locations in modules contain modulation targets. It takes time but is well worth the effort. The good news is the Factory presets by Howard are (usually) few modules used to excellent effect and that makes learning their routing much simpler than if he used 6-10 modules per patch. Unfortunately Lord of the Strings is one of those that requires a few more than 1-3...

I've been using Z2 since 2006 and Howard's presets still amaze me. I have so much to learn.

[FarleyCZ]

Yes. Its just about getting used to it. Look to the left strip for name of the source, then to the right one and buttons with this name are modulated. And don't forget to check the matrix.

Yes, there could be any more celarer view of done modulations, like in Twin2, where you can se it highlited, if you hover mouse above a source, but I think it's Urses clever way to make people experimenting with their own presets instead of starting from others. ...which is always good.

[Urs]

Because it comes up often, we've put it on the ever growing to-do-list: at some point there'll be a pop up menu on each modulator that shows all of its modulation targets. Dunno if we can do it this year tho...

. Urs

[josb]

Does Zebra offer some easy way to show modulation targets?

Nope. Like Reason, you have to learn to read a Zebra patch if you want to get better with it.

There are 2 kinds of modulation in Zebra: direct and the modmatrix. Direct modulation targets are knobs that are initially labelled with "..." and can be found on almost all of the devices in the left *and* the right of the rack. Modulators can modulate other modulators.

Yep. I just finished reading about modulators in the manual so I understand this much better now.

After a while you'll start to notice what locations in modules contain modulation targets. It takes time but is well worth the effort. The good news is the Factory presets by Howard are (usually) few modules used to excellent effect and that makes learning their routing much simpler than if he used 6-10 modules per patch. Unfortunately Lord of the Strings is one of those that requires a few more than 1-3...

I've been using Z2 since 2006 and Howard's presets still amaze me. I have so much to learn.

Zebra2 is quite deep indeed, and sounds wonderful. Maybe it's just me but to me Zebra sounds better than Reason, even e.g. considering eXode's excellent ReFills. And I too have a lot to learn

Thanks!

Jos

[josb]

Because it comes up often, we've put it on the ever growing to-do-list: at some point there'll be a pop up menu on each modulator that shows all of its modulation targets. Dunno if we can do it this year tho...

. Urs

That would be helpful for newbies. Thanks for considering this, Urs. And thanks for creating these awesome tools in the first place

Jos

[Howard]

Lfo1 is set to vibrato setting by default, but you can set it to anything you like as well, but it still will go to the vibrato as well, so turn that off if you use it for something else, and don't want vibrato mixed in with it.

Understood. So I set Vibrato to zero on all three oscillators, and the aftertouch-modulated vibrato is now gone. I also figured out that setting LFO 1's Amp level to 0 removed the vibrato, which now makes sense thanks to your explanation.

Try looking in the Matrix area, if you can't see a setting within the other modules. Sometimes Lfo's are used in the section below the Mod Grid as well.
Sometimes Lfo's are in the FX section too.

Yeah, I looked around but didn't see any other obvious targets there. I'm still working my way through the manual.

Thanks for your help, mcnoone!

Cheers,
Jos

There's lots of "hidden" LFO modulation in that patch - look in the Phase/Sync and OscFX tabs of each oscillator. Also lots of detuning...

[josb]

There's lots of "hidden" LFO modulation in that patch - look in the Phase/Sync and OscFX tabs of each oscillator. Also lots of detuning...

Indeed, a lot is going on in that patch, which is in fact what sold me on Zebra, because it shows how awesome Zebra can be made to sound. Thanks much for creating it and of course for all your other great patches, Howard