Automating a parameter in Play Series instruments

jakubpatok

A year ago I encountered a problem with automating specific parameters in Play Series instruments. I wanted to automate the pitch of a percussion sample inside 40's Very Own Drums, but couldn't find it in the list of parameters ready to be automated/modulated in Maschine. After some experimentation, I finally found out how to do it. I am sharing this tip below.

You need to "sacrifice" one of the big knobs prepared by Native Instruments (in 40s Very Own Drums, for instance, Saturation, Reverb or Delay). Only these parameters, prepared by Native Instruments, can be automated. However, it's possible to adjust them to your needs.

You load a kit, you have these parameteres ready to be automated:

You pick one of these and you "sacrifice" it for the parameter that you want to automate. For example, I'm choosing "Reverb" because I know that I won't add it to my drums anyway. Now, go to "Macros" tab at the top of the plugin:

You should see this menu:

I've decided to "sacrifice" Reverb in order to automate a parameter of the percussion sample. Therefore, I clicked on the "Reverb" tab in the Macros menu and deleted everything that is here (Pad 9 Send 1, Pad 10 Send 1, etc.). This way the parameters that are automatically pre-assigned to the "Reverb" knob won't be changed when you play with the Reverb knob.

Remember that sometimes there are two pages to clear. It should look like this afterwards:

Next, you go to the page with the parameter that you'd like to automate (for example, the pitch of a specific element of the kit) and colourful dots should appear next to the "big knobs" at the bottom of the menu. Click on the dot next to the knob that you would like to adjust (I picked Reverb so I click on the dot next to Reverb). The dot starts to flash. When it starts to flash, click on the parameter that you'd like to automate. The Reverb knob now controls the pitch of the percussion sample:

Well, now it's basically done! You can even change the name from "Reverb" to "Perc pitch" (or whatever your knob now controls) by the double-click:

Additionally, since you have several slots to fill in the Macros menu tab you can assign a few parameters to be adjusted and automated by the same knob at the same time. It could give some nice effects!

I hope you'll find it useful!