Modulators

A modulator moves a control for you, over and over or in answer to something: an LFO that makes a filter breathe, an envelope follower that ducks a bass under the kick, steps that gate a pad, a note source that turns velocity into brightness, a macro that moves several things from one knob. Modulators belong to a channel — a track, a bus or the Stereo Out — and move that channel's own fader, pan, sends, plug-in parameters and Smart Controls.

A modulator is not the MIDI Modulator: that is a MIDI effect in a MIDI FX slot, which sends controller moves to the instrument (see MIDI effects and the arpeggiator).

Where modulators are

The selected track's modulators, and those of the channel it plays through, are in the inspector's Modulators section.

  • Click Modulators in the inspector's bar to open the section; it stays open or closed as you leave it, from song to song.
  • The Inspector on the right (when the Library is hidden) shows the same modulators in its Modulation tab, and its Params tab the track's sound and Smart Controls.
  • Track ▸ Add Modulator ▸ LFO, Envelope Follower, Steps, Note or Macro puts one on the selected track and shows it. Each item can have a key: give it one in the Key Commands window.
  • In the section, Add Modulator puts one on the channel shown. When the track plays through a bus, the buttons at the top choose whose modulators are listed.

Adding or removing a modulator is one undo step: Undo Add LFO Modulator.

The modulator card

Each modulator is a card: its handle and name, a bar showing its value as it plays, its settings and what it moves.

  • Double-click its name, or click the arrow beside it, to show or fold away its settings, to keep a long list short.
  • The power button turns it off: it moves nothing and keeps what it moves. The cross removes it.
  • Bipolar swings a control both ways about where you set it; Unipolar moves it one way only.
  • Right-click the card to turn it off or remove it.

Every setting is one undo step, and one drag of a slider is one step for the whole drag: Undo Set Modulator Rate.

LFO

An LFO is a wave. Choose its Shape — sine, triangle, saw, square, sample and hold or random gliding — and its rate in the song's bars and beats, so it follows the tempo; Free runs it at a rate of its own, in cycles a second. Retrigger says where the wave starts again: with the song (always at the same place at the same bar, in every playback and bounce), when you press Play, or on each note the track plays. Phase sets where in its cycle it starts.

Envelope follower

An envelope follower rises with a level. It listens to its own channel, or to another track as a side chain — the kick, to duck a bass or a pad. Attack is how fast it rises, Release how fast it falls back, and Gain how much it raises a quiet level so it can still move a control all the way.

Steps

A step modulator plays a row of values in turn at its rate. Set how many steps it has (2 to 32), and click or drag across the bars to draw them; one drag is one undo step. Glide slides each step into the next, from a hard step to a smooth curve.

Note and macro

  • A Note source reads the notes the track plays: their pitch, their velocity, or whether a key is held. Velocity on a synth's cutoff makes harder notes brighter.
  • A Macro follows one of the track's Smart Controls: turning that knob, or its automation, moves everything the macro moves.

Moving a control

  • Drag a modulator's handle onto a fader, a pan, a send or a Smart Control. A ring appears on the control: its range, and a dot where it is now.
  • Or choose Modulate on the card, and pick any control by name — a plug-in's parameters among them, which have no knob in the strip to drop on.
  • Drag the ring's dot up or down to set how far the modulator moves the control, or set it on the card's row for that control. Levels move in decibels, pan in pan, a plug-in parameter shown on a log scale in octaves.
  • Right-click the ring's dot, or the card's row, to stop it moving that control.

The control's own value and its automation stay as they are; the modulation is added and held to the control's range. Claude can do all of this too: ask it for "a pumping bass under the kick" or "a filter that breathes every bar".