The Modulation Matrix - CAKEWALK Z3TA+ 2.1 Bedienungsanleitung

The Modulation Matrix

Figure 18. Modulation Matrix section
Most synthesizers have some modulation sources hardwired in some way to a synthesizer
component. While this is a very simple and effective approach, most advanced sound programmers
might find it limiting, as it doesn’'t allow more complex control connections as, in the above example,
controlling the amount of keyboard scaling being applied to the filter with an envelope generator
triggered on Note-On.
Z3TA+ features a very powerful Modulation Matrix that lets you link any modulation source to almost
any synthesizer and effects parameter, and it allows you to assign a modulation range, curve, and
control.
Powerful modulation options
Users of any synthesizer with a modulation matrix (for example, the outstanding Oberheim Matrix
12), would remember the common modulation routing procedure:
SOURCE -> RANGE -> DESTINATION
This is very powerful indeed, and was totally adequate for most synthesizers at that time, where few
MIDI controllers with ribbons, knobs, and sliders were manufactured.
It allowed things like:
LFO1 -> 5% -> OSC1 PITCH
Nice and simple vibrato effect. Again, that was a very powerful method, but not really enough to
allow for expressive playing: what if we wanted to control the vibrato amount using the modulation
wheel?
That’' s the point when the “"control”" concept appears. Many synthesizers had different ways to assign
a control in the mod matrix, but the overall scheme would be represented as:
SOURCE -> RANGE -> CONTROL -> DESTINATION
Applied to our previous example:
LFO1 -> 5% -> MODWHEEL -> OSC1 PITCH
Now we can control the vibrato effect on Osc1 with the modulation wheel, from 0 to 5%.
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The Synthesizer