How to Assign Parameters to Mod Wheel?

I'm just getting started with Absynth 6. It seems like something as commonplace as assigning parameters to the Mod Wheel should be self explanatory. I've spent a good hour trying to figure out how to map the Master Filter to Mod Wheel, and no explanation I can find online makes it happen. Supposedly right-clicking controls should give you the option, but I'm getting nothing from that or control-clicking. The Assign page should have an easy solution, like setting the CC# of Master Filter to CC#01 (the Cubase setting for Mod Wheel), but again that brings no results. Also tried adding a parameter in the Mod Wheel sub-menu, but there's no Master Filter listed there. Has anyone else figured this out? Thanks for any feedback.

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blacklightmartin

Hey Brian,

I have just tried this and it seems to work flawlessly. Here are my steps:

1. I loaded preset Aarctic Drift.
2. Switch on Master Effect 2, which is set to Ladder LP.
3. Click in the middle of the ring that has "Hz" both above and below it. A popup menu should appear.
4. Select Modulation Settings.
5. Another overlay for Filter M2 Freq will pop up. Here should be an entry "Not assigned".
6. Click on that entry and from the list of sources, pick Mod Wheel, and set its depth.
7. If you now switch to the Assign page of Absynth, and select Mod Wheel, you should see two parameters for Mod Wheel.

I have attached screenshots for almost all the steps below. If this (and in particular step 3) doesn't work in Cubase, could you try it in the stand-alone version of Absynth? Maybe Cubase doesn't like the control-click? (not trying to blame Cubase here, just trying to figure out where the issue is 😉).

Hope this helps,
Martin

Brian Burman

Thanks, Martin. I went through the steps, and it does exactly what you described. But when I play the Absynth from my MIDI-keyboard, the mod wheel has no effect on the new slider on the assign page or on the Filter Frequency or sound itself. I can play it on the interface with the slider, but the whole point of having an effect assigned to the mod wheel is being able to play it with the mod wheel. I can play the pitch wheel from the keyboard to the Absynth, that works… but I can't find a way to make the Mod Wheel affect the Absynth. I tried setting different effects to Mod Wheel like that, with 3 different MIDI-keyboards. The Mod Wheel never affects the Absynth parameters.

blacklightmartin

Hmmm, OK… two questions:

- Do you have another soft synth that you know responds to mod wheel and that works in your setup with Cubase?

- Actually not so much a question: Absynth differs from most other synths in that if you set up the mod wheel (or any other modulation) to for example affect the filter frequency, the filter frequency itself must be set to the highest possible value you'd want it to have when the mod wheel is all the way up.

So in other words: If you want a lowpass filter to be opened up to 10000 Hz when your mod wheel is all the way up, you need to set the filter frequency to 10000 Hz and only then will you hear the mod wheel having an effect (for the sake of testing this I am assuming a mod wheel depth of 100 here). If the filter frequency is set to 20 Hz, moving your mod wheel won't make any difference, because you'll move between 20 Hz when it's all the way down and… 20 Hz when it's all the way up!

Oh, and because I just re-read your message: "the mod wheel has no effect on the new slider on the assign page" - it never will! You won't see the mod wheel (or the Macro knobs) visually affecting any parameter it is mapped to (and that slider on the Assign page is just for the modulation depth anyway), so don't expect to be able to "see" the effect.

One quick test that I would hope would rule out Absynth as the culprit (sorry, I should have used that from the beginning):

1. Go to the three vertical dots next to the Absynth logo at the top left and select "New preset".
2. Change the waveform in Channel A to Saw.
3. Switch on Master Effect 2 (should be Ladder LP) with a frequency of 2500 Hz.
4. Map the mod wheel to the frequency as described previously (Depth 100).
5. Play a C3 note and wiggle your mod wheel - if you don't hear any changes in the sound, my bet is that somehow Cubase filters out the modulation data.

Let me know if that got you anywhere!
Martin

Sunborn

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/49189/how-to-assign-parameters-to-mod-wheel

Just go to the Assign page → Mod Wheel tab, and click Add.

But there no such thing as "Master" filter. Where did you see this?

Absynth has 3 Channels (A,B,C). Each channel has its own OSC, Filter, Modulators etc.

So, there are 3 Filters, but none of them is a "master".

blacklightmartin

Sorry, I got confused because you spoke of a Master Filter in your first post and I assumed you meant the Main channel!

In Absynth, the bottom row on the Patch page (above the Macro dials) combines channels A,B and C and is referred to as the Main channel. It gives you the option for two Main inserts (wave shapers, filters, etc) and one effect. This is what you see in the very first screenshot of my first reply to you.

On the Assign page, when you click Add after having selected the Mod Wheel, you will get a long list of destinations, among them two that have "M1" in their name (usually after the description of what they are). For the Aarctic Drift preset from your screenshot above, you will find "Mod M1 Balance" and "Mod M1 Feedback", right above a longer list where every entry starts with "Effect…".

What again might be confusing here for people new to Absynth: In this list you will only find the destinations for modulation that are actually available! So if M2 isn't even switched on, you will get no parameters for it listed here. Similarly if your patch only uses channel A and B, and channel C is switched off, you won't find any destinations for C in this list.

So in my last message, where I wrote:

3. Switch on Master Effect 2 (should be Ladder LP) with a frequency of 2500 Hz.

this should be

3. Switch on Main Insert 2 (should be Ladder LP) with a frequency of 2500 Hz.

Once it is switched on, you will find it in the list of modulation destinations with its two parameters ("Filter M2 Freq" and "Filter M2 Res").

blacklightmartin

Crumbs, it's late here… I didn't realise the last post wasn't from Brian, so any "you" in my last message refers to Brian! 😂

Either way, I hope it clarified my explanations above.

Brian Burman

Thanks, I really appreciate the thoughtful responses. Am I to understand that you can't automate the Macro Dials (that's where the Master Filter knob is on some presets, called Filter Cutoff in others)?

In any case, I've just discovered that my other VST synths aren't reacting to the MIDI-keyboard Mod Wheels either (otherwise it's always worked fine, no problem), and I'll have to figure out why that is first. Weird because the pitch bend wheel works as good as ever. Thanks for your tips, and I'm sure they'll help me solve these issues once I figure out the mod wheel connection problem…probably on a Cubase forum. :-)

Sunborn

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/250940#Comment_250940

Check your Midi configuration, mostly in your keyboard, in which channel transmits. Use channel 1 or All/Omni (if exist)

Brian Burman

Yup, it was a setting in Cubase filtering out the Mod Wheel. Weird, because it's always worked since around 20 years, and I didn't reset anything. Now I just have to get under the hood more in Absynth 6. Thanks again.

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