Recording modulation wheel position

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Poptones
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Recording modulation wheel position

Post by Poptones » Sat Dec 13, 2014 3:12 pm

In the recently published video about modulation and sequencing, Amos mentioned that the modwheel position can be recorded per step. When I gave it a try, I had no success. Is there any specific way to go about this, or will this rather be a future feature?
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lushr
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Re: Recording modulation wheel position

Post by lushr » Sun Dec 14, 2014 5:04 am

I was wondering the same thing, I can't see how to do it with programming ...do we have to wait for the editor?

Is it dependent on having ties in the sequence perhaps?
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Petur
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Re: Recording modulation wheel position

Post by Petur » Sun Dec 14, 2014 7:17 am

I am pretty sure you have to select SEQ MOD as mod source (Controllers menu) in order to use the recorded mod wheel positions.

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Re: Recording modulation wheel position

Post by Amos » Mon Dec 15, 2014 12:18 pm

Petur wrote:I am pretty sure you have to select SEQ MOD as mod source (Controllers menu) in order to use the recorded mod wheel positions.
Yes, this is correct. The mod wheel position is always recorded per step any time you are recording a sequence.
To do something useful with this data, you need to set Mod source = PGM, set programmable mod source = SEQ MOD.
Also, make sure you don't have the Mod Wheel set as a Controller for the same mod bus, otherwise you also need to have the mod wheel all the way up during playback in order to hear the per-step modulation. You can use this as a feature (mod wheel fades in the recorded per-step modulation) but it's an additional source of confusion when you are first figuring out how things work.

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Re: Recording modulation wheel position

Post by Poptones » Mon Dec 15, 2014 3:24 pm

Thank you, Petur and Amos.

That explains why it didn't quite work the way I wanted. I guess my misconception was that you could record the depth of modulation as controlled by the modwheel, regardless of whether one would use SEQ MOD as a modulation source.

To be more specific, this is an example of what I had in mind: Let's say LFO 1 is using a triangle wave as a modulation source and its modulation depth is controlled by the modwheel. I then thought that it might be possible to record the intensity of the according modulation depth per step simply by means of using the modwheel as an input device. So in case one would like to record a four note pattern in which the third note is played with 100% modulation depth while all the other notes remain unmodulated, one would record it as follows: playing the first two notes, then moving the modwheel all the way up and playing the third note, turning the modwheel all the way down again and playing the forth note. But this is obviously not how it works. Which leads me to the question, whether the sequencer could be set up in such a way that it could also record the modwheel and, for that matter, any modulation depth controller data, like aftertouch and velocity. I assume, though, that this would technically require additional tracks for the sequencer.
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Re: Recording modulation wheel position

Post by Amos » Mon Dec 15, 2014 4:30 pm

I see what you're saying. I can think of a way to do it that doesn't require any new rows of data in the sequence; just an alternative mode for using the existing data. So you'd have the current mode, where the per-step mod value is used directly as a (selectable) mod source... and a different new mode, where the per-step mod value simply replaces the "real" mod wheel position on each new step. This way your mod source and destination can be set up however you like, and you are just sequencing the mod depth with each step.

Adding this to my ever-growing list of good suggestions for further development. Thanks! :)

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Re: Recording modulation wheel position

Post by Poptones » Mon Dec 15, 2014 4:45 pm

Thanks a lot for that reply, Amos!
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