User's Manual

5.2 The Modes Section 35
the mapped external controller. An orange line is displayed around the Amount knobs in order to
indicate the total amount of the modulation signal applied to destination parameters. Mapping of
Macro modules to external MIDI controllers is described in Chapter 7.
One may wonder why there is an Amount knob both on the Home view and Modes section of
the Editor view. The reason for this is that the Amount knobs on the Home view affect both layers
of the synthesizer at the same time while those in the Mode sections only affect the individual
layers. The knobs in the Modes section are useful when using saved layers to create sounds. A
certain amount of modulation may then be desired in a given layer and the corresponding Amount
control would then be used. In this way the Amount controls on the Home view, and eventually
external MIDI controllers, would affect the Macros of both layers differently.
As a last remark on Macro modules, we mention that the list of destination parameters for
macros include Pre and Post-effect Gains. These two parameters are useful to control the overall
level of the sound when modulation is applied. Indeed the level of the sound may vary when, for
example, changing the cutoff frequency of a filter or modulating the depth of an effect. These gain
parameters can then be used to compensate the level variation and keep the volume constant.
5.2.5 The Vibrato Module
The vibrato effect is equivalent to a periodic low frequency pitch modulation. This
effect is generally obtained by using an LFO to modulate the pitch signal of an oscilla-
tor. In Chromaphone 3, a dedicated module is provided for this effect. The Rate knob
sets the frequency of the vibrato effect from 0.3 Hz to 10 Hz. The Amount knob sets
the depth of the effect, or in other words the amplitude of the frequency variations. In
its leftmost position, there is no vibrato and turning the knob clockwise increases the
amount of pitch variation.
The vibrato can be adjusted not to start at the beginning of a note but with a little
lag. This lag, in seconds, is set by the Delay knob. The Fade knob allows you to set
the amount of time taken by the amplitude of the vibrato effect to grow from zero to the amount
set by the Amount knob.
5.2.6 The Arpeggiator Module
The Arpeggiator module allows one to play sequentially all the notes that are played on the key-
board. In other words, arpeggios are played rather than chords. The modules allows one to produce
a wide range of arpeggios and rhythmic patterns and to sync the effects to the tempo of an external
sequencer.