Diva tutorial 05 - LFO recursion

The fifth bite-sized tutorial aimed at users of u-he's Diva, this one introduces the term "recursive modulation" (I already mentioned this technique in my old Access Virus programming tutorial). Here's the shortest dictionary definition I found:

recursion |ri?k?rZH?n| - see "recursion"

Even if you don't get that geek joke immediately, you probably will after watching the video. Due to Diva's fixed simple architecture, the only parts capable of recursive modulation are the LFOs...

First off, LFO2 is used to modulate oscillator pitch and filter cutoff. LFO2 is also used to modulate its own level... recursion! Note how the shape of the LFO (nominally a triangle wave) is affected.

Next, LFO2 is used to modulate its own rate, which not only affects the overall rate but also (again) the shape.

Normally there's no control for the pulse width of LFO square waves, but you can even do this via recursive modulation - in the 3rd experiment, LFO2 also modulates its own rate.

Of course the two LFOs can even modulate each other's rates and/or levels for a more complex type of recursion. The preset "HS Spacely Spice" is a good example of this.

Homework: Experiment further with both LFOs modulating each other until you have a sound you like. Instead of e.g. LFO1 modulating LFO2 rate directly, put LFO1 and modulation wheel into the "Add" processor and use that to modulate LFO2 rate instead. There are many more tricks to discover using those processors together with recursive modulation...