2009

Sculpture Tutorial: Modulations
The modulation options can be very important for the emulation of acoustic instruments,
such as with the introduction of vibrato into a trumpet sound over time.
Many classic synthesizer sounds also rely as much on modulation as they do on the basic
sound source components—the VCO, VCF, and VCA.
Here are a number of quick modulation tips:
• Imagine that you want to modulate the timbre of Object 2 with the LFO, for example.
To do so, click the LFO 1 or 2 tab, click the 1 or 2 button, choose the desired source
and target from the Source and Target pop-up menus, and drag the “amt” and “via”
sliders to the values you want. That’s it!
• To control any modulation with an external controller, such as your keyboard’s
modulation wheel, open the “via” pop-up menu and choose Ctrl A (1 ModWhl) or Ctrl B
(4 Foot) respectively. By default, the Mod Wheel is set to Ctrl A.
• The Bouncing damp type available to Object 3 affects the sound in a very interesting
way, but it cannot be run synchronously with the project tempo. To create a similar
effect to the Bouncing Object—but in sync with the project tempo—you could use a
Disturb object type, and move it by modulating its vertical position (Timbre) with an
LFO.
Breath control is available when you use Sculpture, even if you don’t own a breath
controller.
To use breath control without a breath controller
1 Record breath controller modulations into the recordable envelopes by using your
keyboard modulation wheel or another controller.
2 Reassign the recorded modulation path to either, or both, the CtrlEnv 1 and CtrlEnv 2
parameters.
3 Choose NoteOn from the Record Trigger pop-up menu. Incoming note-on messages will
trigger the CtrlEnv 1 and 2 parameters.
Advanced Sculpture Tutorial: Programming Electric Basses
This section concentrates on a single instrument type—the electric bass, including all of
its important variations and articulations. The physical nature of electric basses is not as
complex as their acoustic counterparts. This instrument is therefore an excellent choice
for the sound programming tutorial, the goal of which is to acquaint you with the art of
using Sculpture to accurately reproduce detailed sounds.
396 Chapter 14 Sculpture