Using Modulators

• Aug 4, 2014 - 23:48

In creating soundfonts, I'm trying to make use of the modulators. No matter what editor I use, no modulators of any kind seem to have any effect as I can observe through the editors. Is there something I'm missing?

I have an instrument that simulates a modulated filter by having several samples of the same sound with different filter settings. I want to put them all into one instrument and have the modwheel cycle through all the different samples. How do I do this?


Comments

That's not the way it's done.

You need to assign the GM2 filter cutoff and resonance controllers to the sample.

You then may be able to assign the mod wheel to control one of them, but you would be better to use 2 knobs allocated directly to those controllers.

HTH

In reply to by blue_tronic

Are you trying to assign modulators to a preset?

If so, Modulators are assigned at Instrument level, not preset.

Also which soundfont editor are you using?

What you are trying to od is beyond the technical capablities of the soundfont as the modwheel will not trigger a sample. That will only happen by playing a note.

When you say bandpass filter - do you mean notch? Or something wider?

I'm struggling to imagine what you're trying to do here - band pass filters are normally used for eq and initial wave shaping, not for altering the waveform in realtime - nearly all the filter effects you hear on synths in recordings are done by moving the cutoff frequency of a low pass filter with or without induced resonance at the cutoff point.

Im not trying to make the modwheel trigger it, i want the modwheel to change which sample is played when the keys are pressed. Just like a regular modwheel except the samples are simulating cutoff without an actual filter

Listen to this track at 0:55 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yUGU_Zlf9tU
You can hear how the synth morphs in with a filter cutoff and I'm pretty sure its not a lowpass. Since the system didnt have filter capabilities, that effect was created by several samples at different cutoff points which i have obtained and want to put in a soundfont

I am putting the modulators on instruments. Ive used vienna, polyphone, and swami. None of the instrument modulators produce an audible effect or any sign that the modulator is working. Maybe i am formatting the modulator wrong? What are the steps to set up a modulator?

In reply to by blue_tronic

Ah OK I see what you're trying to do now :)

All the synth sounds that you can hear on that track are done using a low pass filter with varying degrees of resonance, except the engine noise which I'm almost certain is done using pitch modulation, and maybe modulating eq

How are you rendering the sounds? MuseScore will completely ignore any controller information you send apart from Velocity.

You need to be using a dedicated MIDI sequencer for this - your best bet is one of the Linux Audio ones unless you are prepared to spend money :)

Here is a screenshot of setting a Modulator for Filter Cutoff mapped to the Mod Wheel in Viena hope it helps :)
VienaModulators.png

Attachment Size
VienaModulators.png 46.68 KB

In reply to by ChurchOrganist

I am using a dedicated MIDI sequencer. I usually test a controller out using velocity or key number inside the soundfont editor

I set up the controller just like in the picture but instead of controlling the cutoff, it gives a pitch vibrato when I increase the modwheel! Why is it setting a pitch vibrato!? Ugh

Is there any way to break the link between velocity and volume in the soundfont settings?

In reply to by blue_tronic

Well the default modwheel functions is pitch vibrato, which suggests that you need to switch that off before you can use it for filter cutoff.

Which keyboard are you using?

It could be that the modwheel is hardwired into pitch modulation and won't send anything else.

I wonder whether you should head down to the Synthfont forums and ask the question there - the guy that wrote Viena should be around there - he wrote Synthfont so he should be :)

Because you are testing the limits of my understanding of how soundfonts work right now :)

You can find them here.

http://www.synthfont.com/punbb/index.php

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