Getting
Started with the AN1x Control Matrix August 9,
2000 ~ A good question found it's way to the AN1x mailing
list recently: How to use the AN1x Control Matrix? Well, as
usual, Gary Gregson was good enough to put in his two cents
worth so here it is for future reference: The Control
Matrix is perhaps one of the most powerful features of the
AN1x. Unfortunately
it appears to be overlooked by most people when creating
voices. This is a shame, as it can add so many dynamic
possibilities to a voice. The basic
purpose of the Matrix is to map incoming (CC) continuous
controllers (1 - 95) and other standard MIDI controllers
(e.g. After touch, Pitch Bend) and keyboard specific
controllers (e.g. Knobs, ribbon etc) to AN1x
parameters. In this way
you can configure a whole bunch of 'controllers' to control
a bunch of AN1x 'parameters' in real-time! What's more its
very flexible....so for instance you can have a single
controller affect multiple AN1x parameters
simultaneously....or a number of different controllers
affect a single AN1x parameter. Or different controllers
affecting different scenes etc... There are two
basic scenarios where the power of the function can be
realised: a) When
playing the synth live - you can have a set of foot
controllers etc (or the on keyboard controllers; knobs,
wheels, ribbon etc) configured to perform real-time voice
modifications. This can give you significantly more
expression, timbre and dynamic control over the
voice. b) When
playing the synth from a sequencer - you can setup a bunch
of standard controllers (which are easily edited by your
sequencers built in functions e.g. controller curves etc) to
edit the voice during playback in a reproducible manner.
Using this method is significantly easier (both for entry
and modification) than attempting to embed lots of sysex
data edits in the body of a song! In fact if you carefully
create a matrix for each voice, you can effectively dispense
with having to run AN1xEdit and your sequencer
together......just use normal patch select and controller
messages instead! If you are
using AN1xEdit (as you should be :-) you will find all
Control Matrix parameters laid out in the Matrix view. Each
scene has its own 16 controller mappings, together with
specific controls for setting pitch bend up/down ranges. In
addition their are a pair of Voice Common mappings that are
global to the whole voice (but are displayed in the scene
matrix for ease of access.) The Source
value determines which input controller is used (if you look
at the popup list, the selections should be self
explanatory.) The Parameter
value determines which AN parameter is affected by the input
controller. Again the popup list of possible selections
should be pretty much self explanatory. However it is worth
noting that not all controllers can be mapped to all AN
parameters. Where a parameter cannot be mapped it will be
shown in red within the list (you can select such
parameters...but they will have no affect in
use.) So for
example you could have the keyboard after touch response
increase the resonance of the voice filter: i.e.
SOURCE=AFTERTOUCH, PARAMETER=RESONANCE The Depth
parameter determines the actual scaling of input source
controller range to the range of the selected parameter.
Obviously, most standard CC's operate in range 0 - 127.
However, different AN parameters have different operating
ranges e.g. LFO1 Delay has a range of 0 - 127 whereas LFO1
Speed has a range 0 - 255. So in the first case you do not
need to scale the CC's values, but in the second case you
may wish to scale the input to achieve the full output
parameter range. Hence the Depth control allows you to set
the scaling...either positive or negative by some
value....or to leave as is (DIRect). The
possibilities available within the matrix are endless...so
no amount of examples will really do it justice or explain
all the possible nuances you can achieve. Therefore your
best option is just to experiment. As always a good place to
start is with some existing voices that have been configured
to use the Matrix (take a look at the Best Of Yamaha set.)
Check out the Matrix mappings in each voice, and experiment
with manipulating the controllers that are assigned as
sources! You should soon get the idea!! Also make
sure you check out the real-time parameter editing features
of the FreeEG and Step Sequencer! Regards Gary
By Gary Gregson from JDLX-Musique.com
Originally posted Summer 2000.
Email:
gary@yme.co.uk
http://www.yme.co.uk/yme