Adding life and expression with the modulation

So let's take a look at the modulation features of the EXS24. So in the center here we have a Modulation Router and that has 10 channels where we can assign sources and destinations. So a source is going to be the thing that's doing the modulating, so usually an LFO or envelope, and the destination is going to be the thing that's being modulated. So that might be filter cutoff or pitch, something like that. So we've got three LFOs, and then you can see that we've got two envelopes as well, and those can all be assigned in this Modulation Router to modulate any of these destinations.

So let's take a look at what we've got. So if I click on Destination, you can see that there's all of these choices: Sample Select, Pitch, we've got Filter Drive, Filter Cutoff, and a whole bunch of others. Then we've got our sources. That's down at the bottom here. So it can be any of the three LFOs or two Envelopes, Velocity, Pitch Bend. And then we have this Via control, and this is going to scale the amount of modulation. So if I don't have one of these, so if I set to the null, these three dashes, then we just have the slider, and the slider controls the amount of modulation.

So if I play a note on the keyboard, I just get the sine wave, and when I increase the Intensity, I get a wider range of pitch modulation. So now the way that this via parameter works--so I'll set this to Ctrl #1, the mod wheel--is you can see now it has this green portion and the orange portion. So I can set a range that the mod wheel is going to control the amount of pitch modulation. So I'll set the green portion down to basically around 0, and then we'll have the orange all the way up close to the top. So it's going to be an octave range.

And so now when I play, I have no pitch modulation, but I open up my mod wheel, and as I keep opening it, I get more and more pitch modulation, and it's being scaled. So that's how you can use this Modulation Router, and it's fun to try with all kinds of different sources and destinations. And really it's endlessly deep what you can do with it, because you could assign many different channels here to Pitch. So I could have the Pitch be the Destination on one of these other channels and I can use an envelope to modulate it, so you can get layers and layers of modulation.

So let's take a look at the LFOs and actually what's happening with them. So what I am going to do is I am going to disable this via the Scaling parameter, and so we'll just have a simple pitch modulation. I'll have it pretty wide, just so we can easily hear it. So with LFO 1, right now I've got the rate set to 4.8 Hz and I can increase that rate by moving this to the right, all the way up to 35 Hz. And when I take this into the center, it's not even going to be active.

And then when I go to the left, it's going to be in divisions of the beat. So I could have this pitch modulation happen at eighth notes, so you can hear that. And the other really neat feature about this particular LFO is that it has an envelope that's attached to it. So it can either decay or delay. So what that means is that we can have the onset of the modulation sort of be delayed, so you'll have to wait for it. So if I move this envelope to the right, so you can see I've got this set now to 2 seconds, so 2000 ms.

So the modulation is going to fade in over that time. So I'll play a note and you'll hear it fade in. (music playing) Right, so the modulation fades in. And so when I move this the opposite direction to decay, you'll hear it fade out. So it will start with a lot of modulation, and then the modulation will decrease. So let's set this to a shorter amount of time. (music playing) So that's pretty neat how that works. It's a good way to be able to add some shape to your LFO sound.

Also with this LFO we can choose a variety of different waveforms, and that's going to affect the characteristics of the modulation as well. So right now with this eighth note I've got this set to a Triangle Wave on this particular LFO, and I could change that to a Ramp Down. And if I make this slower, you can hear this a little bit more. And I'll increase the amount of pitch modulation too. So you can hear it's pitching down again and again and again. I can use the Ramp Up so that it will pitch up. (music playing) Or if I have a Square Wave, it's going to jump between two different pitches.

(music playing) And if I decrease the Intensity, it's a smaller range of pitches. And then we've got a Square Wave with the opposite polarity, so it's going to go down first. And then we have a Sample and Hold waveform here, so it's going to randomly step between different values. (music playing) So if I speed this up, you can hear it's randomly just jumping the different notes. And the last waveform is a Random Interpolated Waveform, so it's going to smoothly go to random pitches. (music playing) This almost sounds like a theremin with the sine wave.

(music playing) So one of the unique features of LFO 1 is that it's polyphonic. Each note is going to have its own LFO phase. So if I am playing a note now, I am actually going to slow down the speed of this. So if I play a note now, you'll hear the pitch modulation. And if I play another note, it's going to have pitch modulation as well, but it will be independent in its phase. So you can hear how they're pitching up and down at different times.

I can add in another note, and those are all independent. So that's the nature of a polyphonic LFO. The other cool thing about LFO 1 is it's also key synchronized. So every time I play a key on the keyboard, it starts from the beginning of its wave cycle. So here I have this pitch modulation. Every time I play this, it's starting at the same point. Now, to show you the difference, let's take a look at LFO 2, because this works a little differently. I can still choose the waveform and I can adjust the rate and have it synchronize to the beat, but this is a monophonic LFO, and it's not key synchronized.

So let's take a look at that Key Synchronize parameter so you can see the difference. So I'll set it to a similar kind of rate, and we'll just swap out LFO 1 for LFO 2 as our source for the pitch modulation. So when I play a note, I've still got pitch modulation, but now when I play it repeatedly, you can hear that every time I play it, it's in a different part of the phase of the modulation, so it's not key synced. It's also monophonic too. So if I play more than one note at time, so if I add in another note, their phases aren't independent.

You can hear it's synchronized. So sometimes that's useful for things, and sometimes you'll want to use a polyphonic LFO. So LFO 3 works in exactly the same way as LFO 2; it's monophonic and it's not key synced. The only difference is you can't choose the waveform; it's always just a triangle waveform. Now that we've explored an overview of the modulation router and we've seen the differences between the three LFOs, let's see how we can use the envelopes as a modulation source.