[A6] A very basic mod question

[Doug Pearson]

Hi Don,

I agree that a lot of things about the A6 are somewhat confusing until 
you've gotten used to the way the machine works ...

At 10:01 PM 5/9/03 -0500, "Don P" <bluage1 at attbi.com> wrote:
>Please forgive me for asking an elementary question, but I am frustrated
>trying to figure it out. I just created a patch that sounds like a wood
>wind instrument. I want to assign tremolo or vibrato to the key after
>touch. I have tried to use the LOF mod buttons and making keyboard
>aftertouch the source and all the different destinations. That doesn't
>work.

Actually, this should work for LFO's 2 & 3, but not LFO1.  The LFO1 
modulation destination can be assigned to LFO1's phase, pulse width, or 
offset, while the LFO2&3 modulation destinations can be assigned to those 
three attributes of their respective LFO or also LFO frequency, LFO start 
delay, or (the one you'd want) LFO amplitude.  But amplitude modulation is 
not available for LFO1.

>I have tried other mod buttons and made key aftertouch the source
>with various destinations. What am I missing here? If tremolo is created
>by making the LFO as a source modulate Envelope 3's level. How can I
>make aftertouch be a source that can make a second source (LFO) modulate
>an envelope. It just doesn't seem possible yet it is done on some of the
>patches that are pre programmed.

As Dave mentioned, the better solution than the one I offer above is to use 
Croutes.  Why?

1) If you use a Croute to control the LFO's amplitude, the LFO's modulation 
destination is still available to a different modulation source; if you use 
the mod input instead of the Croute, the LFO cannot be modulated any further.

2) If you control an LFO's amplitude from its mod input, then every 
destination that the LFO modulates will be affected an equal amount by the 
change in amplitude.  With Croutes, you can assign a different amount of 
change to each of the mod destinations that use that LFO.  For instance, 
you could use a small-amplitude keyboard aftertouch Croute for the 
LFO2->ENV3 path to create a subtle tremelo effect while simultaneously 
using a large-amplitude keyboard aftertouch Croute for the LFO2->VCF path 
so that big filter sweeps are introduced along with the subtle 
tremelo.  You could even use different modulation sources for the two 
Croutes, so that keyboard aftertouch still introduces the tremelo, but the 
LFO-controlled filter sweeps are introduced by the mod wheel or ribbon 
controller.

Using Croutes isn't really intuitive at first (at least to small-minded 
folk such as myself), so I'd encourage you to experiment with them, and 
using them will soon become second-nature.

The important thing to remember about the A6's modulation system is that 
it's controlled at the *destinations*.  You can think of it like a modular, 
where each modulation source's output can be plugged into as many multiples 
as you want (on the A6, it's certainly possible for every modulation 
destination to be controlled by the same single modulation source, although 
I can't imagine a reason for that), but each modulation destination 
(represented by the numerous MOD buttons on the A6) can only have one patch 
cord plugged into its input.  And that pressing a MOD button is analagous 
to plugging the *end* of a patch cord into that modulation destination's 
input, where the list of modulation sources lets you select where the 
*start* of that patch cord is connected.  And to continue the analogy, the 
Croute feature lets you put a "virtual VCA" in the middle of the patch cord 
you just connected (again, as mentioned by Dave).

Hope this helps things and doesn't confuse the issue ...

         -Doug
          jasret at mindspring.com