5.2
The Modes View
35
to the sum of the values specified by these two knobs. As the modulation knobs on the
Home
view can be assigned to external MIDI controllers, the total amount of modulation signal is in
fact equal to the sum of the values of these two knobs plus that associated with the value sent by
the mapped external controller. An orange line is displayed around the
Amount
knobs in order to
indicate the total amount of the modulation signal applied to destination parameters. Mapping of
Macro
modules to external MIDI controllers is described in Chapter 7.
One may wonder why there is an
Amount
knob both on the
Home
and
Synth
views. The reason
for this is that the
Amount
knobs on the
Home
view affect both layers of the synthesizers at the
same time while those in the same view only affect individual layers. The knobs in the
Synth
view
are useful when using saved layers to create sounds. A certain amount of modulation may then be
desired in a given layer and the corresponding
Amount
control would then be used. In this way
the
Amount
controls on the
Home
view, and eventually external MIDI controllers, would affect
the
Macros
of both layers differently. Note that macros for a given layers can be disabled at once
by using the controls in the
Layer Settings
window which is opened by clicking on the gear icon
located next to the
Split
button in the lower right corner of the
Play
view of each layer.
As a last remark on
Macro
modules, we mention that the list of destination parameters for
macros include
Pre
and
Post-effect Gains
. These two parameters are useful to control the overall
level of the sound when modulation is applied. Indeed the level of the sound may vary when, for
example, changing the cutoff frequency of a filter or modulating the depth of an effect. These gain
parameters can then be used to compensate the level variation and keep the volume constant.
5.2.6
The Vibrato Module
The vibrato effect is equivalent to a periodic low frequency pitch modulation. This
effect is generally obtained by using an LFO to modulate the pitch signal of an oscillator.
In
Ultra Analog VA-3
, a dedicated module is provided for this effect. The
Rate
knob
sets the frequency of the vibrato effect from 0.3 Hz to 10 Hz. The
Amount
knob sets
the depth of the effect, or in other words the amplitude of the frequency variations. In
its leftmost position, there is no vibrato and turning the knob clockwise increases the
amount of pitch variation.
The vibrato can be adjusted not to start at the beginning of a note but with a little
lag. This lag, in seconds, is set by the
Delay
knob. The
Fade
knob allows you to set the
amount of time taken by the amplitude of the vibrato effect to grow from zero to the amount set by
the
Amount
knob.
5.2.7
The Arpeggiator Module
The
Arpeggiator
module allows one to play sequentially all the notes that are played on the key-
board. In other words, arpeggios are played rather than chords. The modules allows one to produce
a wide range of arpeggios and rhythmic patterns and to sync the effects to the tempo of an external
sequencer.
