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6. Activating ring modulation effects using VPS Philta XL

1 Philta XL comes with a built in ring modulator. We’ll use it to transform a simple sine wave lead into a metallic, bell like sound. Import Sine-lead.wav into an audio channel in a 124bpm project. Now drop in an instance of Philta XL and open up the ring modulator effect by clicking the Ring Mod tab in the main window.

2 Turn the Mix dial up to 100% so we can hear the effect. A ring modulator multiplies two signals together and outputs the sum and difference frequencies. Freq sets the frequency of the modulator – ie, the multiplier signal. Move the Freq dial up to 1169Hz. You can see and hear the new ‘sideband’ frequencies appearing.

3 Now, a little distortion. Click the Distortion panel and turn the Drv. Lvl up to 35%. The distortion is set pre-filter by default, so we can take off some of the ultra-high end by turning the Lowpass dial down to 3500Hz. We’ll take out the lowest parts by turning Highpass up to 120Hz. Try automating the Ring Mod Freq dial to get some crazy, atonal sounds!