Just picked up a Modfactor. Can anyone explain S-Mod to me?

[digitalzombie]

As the title suggests, I’m 16 years late to the game and just picked up a Modfactor for my pedalboard. I was really excited at the somewhat unique ability to modulate the modulation, but I’m having a slightly difficult time understanding how the controls work in a way that I can quickly dial in a sound I have in my head.

The manual, in classic Eventide fashion, really doesn’t say much other than “controls the amount of modulation of the speed parameter”.

I get that Speed, S-Mod, and Mod Rate are all connected. Speed is registered in Hertz, that’s straight forward. S-Mod is then registered in numbers from 0-99 – I’m assuming this is a percentage of the where the Speed knob is set. Then there’s the Mod Rate which is registered in a multiplication of the Speed but this is where I get the most confused. Intuitively I would think that the higher I set this the more dramatic the effect would be, i.e. I turn this up and I would hear the effect go from slow to fast and back to slow, but it’s the other way around. I get the most action at the lowest settings, but after 1x the effect is so subtle it might as well not be there – and it goes to 8x!

Can someone who understands how this works please explain to me HOW I should think of these controls to get whatever desired sounds I have in my head? I love the concept but the application is proving to be a little frustrating.

[brock]

Somewhere in the manual, it does describe D-Mod & S-Mod as AM & FM, which may be obtuse, but it is perfectly descriptive of what is actually going on with the dual modulations.

The majority of the ModFactor controls are all interactive.  You didn’t mention D-Mod position in your description.  That’s crucial to the secondary LFO (bottom row) parameters.  It will modulate the primary Depth setting, and it is also tied to the Mod Rate.

I think it’s easier to hear the relationship between the two LFOs in Tempo Mode, at some standard BPM.  Set up a test patch in TremoloPan (as that algo is all about depth of amplitude).  Use matching sharp-edged LFO waveforms:

• Intensity / Edge – 99
• Type – Opto
• Depth – 99
• Speed – 1/4 … 1/16 ***
• Shape – Square
• Width – 0 (important to this test)
• D-Mod – 0
• S-Mod – 0
• Mod Rate – 8.000 x Speed … 0.125 x Speed ***
• Mod Source – Square

*** If you set up opposing Speed & Mod Rates (say 1/16 Speed with 0.125 x Speed as a Mod Rate for starters), it’s easier to hear what each LFO is doing.

All primary LFO (top row) tremolo; no secondary LFO (bottom row) influence.  Then …

• Dial up D-Mod, leaving S-Mod at 0.
• Adjust the Mod Rate multiplier.
• Dial up S-Mod, returning D-Mod to 0.
• Adjust the Mod Rate multiplier.

I’ll often start out with midpoint values in the secondary controls, and tweak from there:

• D-Mod at 50
• S-Mod at 50
• Mod Rate at 1.000 x Speed

The advanced test uses SLOW / FAST switch to drop the base Speed down to 1/8 of it’s indicated speed.  You may need to adjust the overall BPM with that toggle.

[Author]

Posts