Ultrasaw Modulation

[sahmb]

Hi everyone,

Recently I have encountered a problem where I can't seem to modulate the Ultrasaw on either of the two oscillators using any of the modulators available in the mod matrix. When the Ultrasaw knob is turned all the way down, no matter how much mod amount I add let's say to an LFO or envelope or mod wheel, nothing happens. Only if I turn up the Ultrasaw knob I start to hear some modulation which is not ideal... This behavior does not happen with the two other wave-shaping sources: PulseWidth and Metalizer. They can be fully turned down and adding modulation amount to any mod source will start modulation immediately. I've already started a support ticket with Arturia since yesterday with no response yet.

Meanwhile I'm starting to go a bit mad... What could possibly have caused this problem? Has it somehow always been like this and I've missed it even though I've made over 30 patches for myself and never noticed? Can any of you kind souls out there confirm that this is not normal behavior and that I'm simply not just embarrassing myself? I would appreciate it.

[SentientMachine]

Just tried and it looks like it's the same for me (and I also somehow haven't noticed this after many months!) I'm guessing its a bug related to the range of modulation, and somehow the Ultrasaw is scaled differently than the PW and Metalizer. Hopefully it's something that can be fixed with a firmware update.

[sahmb]

Just tried and it looks like it's the same for me (and I also somehow haven't noticed this after many months!) I'm guessing its a bug related to the range of modulation, and somehow the Ultrasaw is scaled differently than the PW and Metalizer. Hopefully it's something that can be fixed with a firmware update.

Hey SentientMachine(I like your username), thanks for checking that for me! How can I give you karma? (or am I not cool enough to do so yet? )

Anyways, that is really surprising for me. I've been using Ultrasaw quite often and have missed this problem. I get into a certain flow and headspace when doing sound design/ jamming and don't think too much about what I'm doing technically and somehow never really considered it. I still feel a bit embarrassed nonetheless. Anyways, one of my favorite things to do is using the envelopes to trigger some of these functions and this problem basically makes what I want to do with the Ultrasaw impossible (feel free to correct me). Like having no Ultrasaw at all while playing except when being triggered by the envelope or an LFO on single mode. Especially when it comes to using it on pad sounds or other sounds with long sustain/release. Can this please be fixed in the upcoming firmware update?

[SentientMachine]

After some brief experimenting, it looks like you can successfully modulate the Ultrasaw how you're describing, but not very conveniently.

What I had to do was use the assignable matrix slots. I assigned two slots both to VCO1's Ultrasaw knob, and used LFO1 at +99 on both of them AND on the regular LFO1->VCO 1 Ultrasaw assignable matrix slot.  It was working how I expected it would sound at that point, but it took 3 uses of the same LFO. Again, not very convenient, lol.

[sahmb]

Thanks for that, but considering I use all assignable mod slots most of the time (and still wish for more than the available 4) that is really not a good solution for me. I'm gonna wait and see what the Arturia team has to say about the issue.

[DrJustice]

Hi everyone,

Recently I have encountered a problem where I can't seem to modulate the Ultrasaw on either of the two oscillators using any of the modulators available in the mod matrix. When the Ultrasaw knob is turned all the way down, no matter how much mod amount I add let's say to an LFO or envelope or mod wheel, nothing happens. Only if I turn up the Ultrasaw knob I start to hear some modulation which is not ideal... This behavior does not happen with the two other wave-shaping sources: PulseWidth and Metalizer. They can be fully turned down and adding modulation amount to any mod source will start modulation immediately. I've already started a support ticket with Arturia since yesterday with no response yet.

Meanwhile I'm starting to go a bit mad... What could possibly have caused this problem? Has it somehow always been like this and I've missed it even though I've made over 30 patches for myself and never noticed? Can any of you kind souls out there confirm that this is not normal behavior and that I'm simply not just embarrassing myself? I would appreciate it.

It's normal behaviour. Confirmed when doing an analysis of the waveshaper modulation - all three waveshaper modulation functions are different:

Wave shape modulation (and other) enigmas (scroll down for inferred functional diagrams, some of which may be in firmware(?))

[sahmb]

It is normal behavior as confirmed by Guillaume from Arturia support. Here's his reply to my technical support enquiry on the subject:

"Through the pre-wired Osc1 or Osc2 destination, the amount defined on the modulation matrix is dependent of the amount defined by the Ultrasaw potentiometer.

It behaves differently than the Pulse width as in its particular case, its Gain isn't handled directly through the modulation matrix with the modulation amount but by the Ultrasaw knob directly.

With the Metallizer you should also observe a slight difference when defining the knob anti-clockwise or when defining it clockwise as well.

> So, if you want the modulation to happen, you must first turn the Ultrasaw button clockwise and then apply an amount of modulation in the Matrix."

I still wish it was so Modulation amount in the mod matrix triggered it so it would be more flexible. That way negative modulation would achieve the way it behaves now and positive modulation would do what I was trying to achieve with it.