Access Virus Rack XL, User Manual

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146
CHAPTER 12
Tips, Tricks& Words Of Wisdom
fect signal without influencing the dry signal.
However, the dry signal is faded out in the final
third of the control range so that you can also
patch just the pure effect signal of a MULTI Part
through as you would it you were using a con-
ventional dry/wet effect knob.
01111111111111111112
1 DELAY
EffectSend 73≤
61111111111111111154
THE VIRUS AS AN EFFECT DEVICE
You’re free to install the Virus into your studio
environment and use it as an effect device or
signal processor. For example, simply connect
its external inputs to any available aux send bus
or effect send on your mixer or to the individual
outputs of a sampler or other sound generator.
This setup lets you mix sundry signals outside
the Virus and patch the mixed signals into the
Virus for further processing.
OSCILLATORS
PULSE WIDTH MODULATION
Pulse width modulation is a very effective meth-
od for producing beat oscillations without hav-
ing to resort to several detuned oscillators.
Dial OSC BALANCE to the far left so that only
OSC1 is audible, then select the waveform
Pulse for this oscillator (OSC1 Shape to the
right). Slowly turn the Pulse Width (PW) knob
back and forth. As you change its pulse width,
you’ll hear movement in the sound itself. When
its pulse width remains fixed, the sound will re-
main static. This to-and-fro pulse width modu-
lation can be automated by means of an LFO.
Select PWM for LFO1 Amount and set a rela-
tively high modulation amount. You can vary the
intensity of the modulation via LFO Rate.
Now when you play different sounds, you’ll will
find that the intensity of the modulation is con-
siderably greater with low-frequency sounds
than it is with higher-frequency sounds. This is
due to the fact that the LFO frequency does not
follow the pitch. You can compensate for this
effect by activating and adjusting the function
LFO1 KEYFOLLOW. When you set LFO1 KEY-
FOLLOW to a value of 127, the LFO rate will fol-
low whatever pitch you play precisely (in
octaves).
To come up with a fatter sound, you should also
dial in the second oscillator (set OSC BALANCE
to the center position) and use DETUNE to do
just that to its pitch (relative to the first oscilla-
tor).
Next to LFO1, LFO3 is also able to generate
pulse width modulation. However, unlike LFO1,
LFO3’s modulation algorithm was tweaked spe-
cifically to deliver what we consider hip pulse
width modulations. Note that LFO3 PWM often
delivers smoother results, particular a softer,
tighter sound for pads. Another advantage of
LFO3 is that it frees up LFO1 so that you can
use it for other sonic chores. By the way, KEY-
FOLLOW should also be activated for LFO3.
OSCILLATOR SYNC/FM
On the Virus, Oscillator 1 is always the compo-
nent that determines the frequency for the two
functions oscillator synchronization (SYNC) and
frequency modulation (FM). This means that
you can use both of these options at the same
time. With frequency modulation, you can cre-