Creating with the Seaboard RISE - 1.3: Expressive Synth Lead Using Ableton Live and Operator Video Lecture | Introduction to Seaboard Rise: Advance Music Production

a modulation matrix is a really common
interface for assigning modulation in a
software synthesizer and here in
Ableton's operator we can use the
modulation matrix to make our operator
preset respond to the dimensions of
touch from the Roli seaboard we'll see
in a modulation matrix multiple columns
the first column is going to be your
modulation sources and many of these in
the operator synthesizer correspond to
the MIDI messages sent by the dimensions
of touch from the Roli seaboard will see
velocity the strike dimension we're
going to see after touch which is the
MIDI that's created from the pressed
dimension we have pitch Bend which is
the MIDI message generated from the
glide dimension and we don't have
continuous controller or control change
74 that would be sent by the slide
dimension but we can use modulation
wheel and we might bring in the touch
faders to be able to do that so a lot of
this modulation matrix directly
corresponds to the dimensions of touch
generated by the Seaboard rise the first
one I want to look at is after touch
because we can get a really cool
response from the pressed dimension of
the Seaboard rise let's hear the sound
before I do any of this editing it's a
nice kind of distorted sine wave with a
bit of delay but it's not responsive at
all and so I'm gonna go to after touch
first I want this to respond to that
press dimension of touch so we have
after touch as a modulation source I'll
go to the destination column here and
I'll choose volume really common for
pressure to control volume in these
patches I think it just it just feels
right and we'll do that a hundred
percent let's try that out so right away
I can kind of lean into it and I feel it
gain energy just feels right but it's
not quite enough I noticed like with a
violin performance when they when they
bow harder it gets louder but it also
gets brighter and more more brilliant
and we can kind of achieve that by using
a second destination from the same
modulation source and a many modulation
matrices like the one here have multiple
destinations from a single source and we
can have press control multiple things
and so I'll also have it control
oscillator feedback
gonna give us a distorted character when
I push harder let's try this now I want
to hear it really well so I'm going to
turn my filter frequency up quite a bit
so we hear that high-end when I do push
harder I love how that kind of
brilliance response to reverb and delay
oh and bring to filter frequency down a
little bit now but will actually
modulate that with the modulator which
is which is really fun alright the next
one that I want to work on which I
really like is velocity so we have
velocity here as a modulation source
remember that the strike dimension of
touch on the Roli seaboard rise sends
velocity MIDI messages at least I always
did with when with standard control and
MIDI controllers or traditional MIDI
controllers was have velocity control
like volume right I hit a key hard it
was a loud note and that's fine for
percussive instruments where the energy
dust decays away naturally but if you
have a sustaining instrument like a
violin well you can change the the
volume over the course of the note right
and so controlling the volume of the
whole note just from that initial
message of velocity doesn't really makes
sense
and so what I like to do is have strike
which sends MIDI message velocity
control something having to do with the
attack portion of the sound right and
then I can use after touch or the press
dimension on the C board to control
volume over the course of the note I
think it works really well for kind of
sustaining sounds and so what I'll have
velocity to deal with I which I really
like is how to control the envelope time
so that if I hit the key wave hard the
sound comes in right away
and if I push on those key wave gently
the sound swells in to do that will
assign velocity to control time in a
negative direction let's try that out
I'll play gently on a key wave swells in
and then I had that press control I'll
hit a cue wave hard
sound starts right away right really
nice interaction I think you'll find
yourself wanting to sell all your
patches I love it alright and the next
thing I want to assign here and make
sure it's set correctly is pitch bend
the glide dimension left and right we
have to get that pitch Bend range set
correctly usually I'll just go to my
synthesizer and try to set it as high as
possible and then set that same number
in the Rolly dashboard and this one goes
up to 24 semitones we'll just have to
set that in the Rolly dashboard in a
moment and then the last one is mod
wheel and we said that you know we don't
have something in operator that is a cc
70 for modulation source which is what
the slide dimension sends but we can
have mod will control something in the
synthesizer I'll have a control filter
frequency so we have a nice Tambor
control and I'll do that hundred percent
and then I'll also have that control
filter drive so it's really responsive
and you get a kind of a gritty character
when we turn that modulation way up now
we're going to go over to the Rolly
dashboard and configure it to send the
MIDI messages that we've just configured
the synthesizer to respond to mainly is
to set the modulation wheel so here in
the really dashboard I do have it set to
single mode we don't have the polyphonic
expression yet we'll do that in a future
video
we have pitch Bend range set to 24 which
is the same thing that we set in
operator and I'm going to configure this
first touch fader to send cc1 or
modulation now if we want to have access
to that cc1 we have to change our mode
button carefully in the expression mode
you'll see the icons lit for three of
the dimensions of touch if we click the
mode button again you'll switch over to
MIDI mode and your touch faders are now
assignable to send different cc's and
we've configured the first one to send
cc1 let's try it out that's nice and the
cool thing is we now have this
interaction between our dimensions of
touch in that when this is really low I
don't really notice much of a difference
with pressure in fact I know I do but
it's really only that volume that I
noticed right but if I turn this up
then I really notice how when I push
hard it gets really bright and so we're
getting this interaction between our
dimensions of touch just like we would
get on a violin or any other acoustic
instrument as we add in all these
expressive dimensions it really starts
feeling responsive and all these inter
relations just come alive I love that
I'm gonna do a little performance I got
a plan
you