Vibrato - mod matrix or sequencer?

[cyanogen]

What I'd like to do is have vibrato work according to the length of the note. Let's say if I hold a key down on my synth for half a second, the vibrato would start. Can I do this through the mod matrix, or would the wavesequencer be better? I know I could use a mod wheel, but when I'm writing I like to play lead and bass lines at the same time.

[Simon_Cann]

What I'd like to do is have vibrato work according to the length of the note. Let's say if I hold a key down on my synth for half a second, the vibrato would start. Can I do this through the mod matrix, or would the wavesequencer be better? I know I could use a mod wheel, but when I'm writing I like to play lead and bass lines at the same time.

Let me jump in here.

There are two ways you can achieve what you're after. With both you're going to have to use the modulation matrix. However, before we look at how you can achieve this, let's take a few steps back and look at first principles. If it helps, the patches to illustrate these comments are available at http://www.noisesculpture.com/msvib.zip

To add vibrato, you need to use the modulation matrix – select a mod LFO as the source and the O1 layer's "fine" pitch as the destination. You could choose "pitch" as the destination, but the modulation would be quite extreme and hard to control. Then set the minimum to zero and the maximum to 127 and adjust the amount to taste. If you listen to the "001 brass vibrato" patch, you will hear the effect – for this patch, I set the amount to 106.

To add some control over the vibrato, you need to double target the modulation – in practice this means you need to add another line in the modulation matrix. If you look at the patch "002 brass vibrato MW" you will see that I have added a second line to the modulation matrix: the source is CC1 (ie the modulation wheel), the destination (again) is O1 fine, the minimum and maximum are set to 0 and 127 and the amount is set to 127.

The effect of having both sources applied to the same target is that their effect is multiplied. Therefore, when the modulation wheel is set to zero, there is no effect and when it is set to its maximum, the full effect of the mod LFO (as set by the amount in the mod LFO matrix line) is heard.

You can set this effect much more quickly by using the "mod matrix tools" option in the configuration dialogue box.

So far, so good – I'm sure I'm just repeating stuff you already know.

You are right that you could use the wave-sequencer to control the vibrato. For this to work, you must remember to turn on the wave-sequence layer. If you don't want the layer to create any sound, you should select "silence" as the soundset.

If you look at "003 brass vibrato WSEQ" you will see that CC1 in the previous patch has been replaced as the modulation source by W1 Mod 1. In wave sequence layer one, I have selected "mod 1" as the destination in the first wave-sequence lane. You can see I have selected a step size of 1/4 – the first four steps are set to zero, steps five and six are set to the maximum. The sequence has also been set to loop steps five and six.

The result of this set up is that for the first four beats there is no vibrato. From the fifth beat onwards, the vibrato effect kicks in – in this case at its full amount.

"004 brass vibrato WSEQ2" takes this concept further. The wave-sequence is a simple four beat affair – the first step is set to zero, the second to the maximum (127), the third step to zero and the fourth to 45 (ie just over a third).

The effect of this sequence is that on the first beat there is no vibrato, on the second beat vibrato is heard to the full extent, on the third beat there is no vibrato and on the fourth beat, vibrato is heard by to a much lesser extent.

The advantage of using the wave-sequencer to control the vibrato is that you can relate the effect to the beat. However, if you want to control vibrato over time – for instance you want vibrato to fade in linearly – then you may want to use an envelope instead of the wave-sequencer.

"005 brass vibrato ENV" replaces W1 Mod 1 as the source with mod Env 1. In envelope one, the velocity knob has been set to zero (so that in this case keyboard velocity has no effect) and the attack time has been set to 70. When the note is struck no vibrato is heard. However, as you hold the note, vibrato slowly fades in. You could then fade out the vibrato – I have not done so in this example.

It would be possible to set up fades with the wave-sequencer, however, it would be quite fiddly to achieve smooth fades.

I hope this helps. Just shout if you want any further explanation.

Simon