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11. Using Voltage Modular as an effects processor
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If you've made it this far, you can consider yourself a bona fide modular synthesist! As a reward, we'll let you in on one of the less obvious features of modular synthesisers: they make great effects processors! Start by opening your DAW and importing the Guitar.wav file into an audio track. 2
Set your project tempo to 120bpm, and your DAW's transport to play the clip back in a three-bar loop. Now, open Voltage Modular Nucleus as an effects plugin on an insert on the audio track onto which you've put the clip. 3
If you engage your DAW's transport, you should see the audio signal's levels reflected on Nucleus' Audio In meters in the top panel. If you don't, retrace your steps to see what went wrong. Once you're confident that all is as it should be, we can begin building an effects processing patch. We'll start with an Amplifier module. 4
Route a patch cable from the Audio In's 1L jack to your Filter's Audio In jack, then run a cable from the Filter's Band-Pass Out up to the Main Outs' 1L(M) Input. If your DAW is still playing, you might not actually hear much of anything until you set the Filter's Cutoff knob to around the halfway mark. 5
Push the Filter's Resonance up to around 26% or so. Not bad, but it could use a little motion. Add a Mini LFO module to your rack. Run a patch cable from the top Triangle wave output to the Filter's Freq Mod 1 Input. Give the Filter's Mod 1 Amount a push – a value of around 25% should do. Set the Mini LFO's Rate 1 to 6.00Hz. Nice. 6
That's a neat effect, but it only hints at Voltage Modular Nucleus' capabilities. Let's ditch the LFO by selecting it and deleting it (use the Delete key on your QWERTY keyboard, or right-click on the module and choose Remove from the menu of available options). Let's go for the Eight-Step Sequencer. 7
As we did in our previous tutorial on sequencing, we'll also use a Sync Divider module. Set up your Sequencer and Sync Divider so that they sync to the DAW's transport as we showed you before. If you've not followed along with that tutorial, go back and give it a go now. This time, however, leave the Sync Divider's Note Value set to 1/16. 8
Grab an Amplifier module and route it between the Filter's Band-Pass Output and the Main Outs' 1L(M), replacing the current connection. Insert an Envelope Generator before the Amplifier, route the Sequencer's Gate Out to the Envelope's Gate In jack, and send the Envelope's Env Out to – you guessed it – the Amplifier's CV In. You're getting good at this! 9
Engage your DAW's transport to hear a sort of tremolo effect as the Envelope Generator is triggered by the Sequencer. That's not the end, though! The next step is to route the Sequencer's Ouput to the FIlter's Freq Mod 1 input. Set the Filter's Mod 1 Amount to about halfway, and the Cutoff to 380Hz, then have a play with the Sequencer's sliders and buttons!