Modulation arrives with v1. In the beta, the moving is done by the sketch itself, one that reads the audio contract reacts to the music on its own.
Select a parameter and the right-hand column shows what is moving it.
Base and reach
base is where the value rests when nothing is pushing it. That is the value you set by hand with the fader.
reach appears once something is modulating it, and is the two ends of where the value can be carried. It is expressed in the parameter's own units, so a rotation's reach is in degrees, and a scale's reach is in scale. You are not converting anything in your head mid-set.
The pair is the whole idea:
You set where the value rests. Something else decides where it goes.
A fader at 0.3 with a reach up to 0.8 lives at 0.3 and visits 0.8. Take the modulator off and it is at 0.3 again, exactly where you left it.
A reach of 14.00 - 34.30 rings means exactly that.
Modulators
Add as many as you like. They are summed, and the order does not matter.
+ audio - follows the sound in the room
| source | level, bass, mid, high, onBeat, beatPhase |
| polarity | unipolar pushes from the base upward; bipolar pushes either side of it |
| curve | linear, exponential, logarithmic. Exponential ignores quiet passages and reacts to loud ones; logarithmic does the opposite. |
| depth | How far it carries the value. Negative depth inverts it. |
+ LFO - follows a shape in time, with no audio needed
| shape | sine, triangle, saw, square, random |
| rate | Synced to the tempo Sialk hears: 1/1 down to 1/32. Until a tempo has been detected it runs on an assumed one, so it moves from the first second. |
| retrigger | free runs continuously; on beat restarts its cycle on each beat, so it stays locked to the music. |
| depth | As above. |
Smoothing
Appears once there is something to smooth. attack is how fast the value is allowed to rise, release how fast it may fall, both 0-1000 ms.
At 0 it follows exactly. Raise the release and a kick leaves a tail, which is usually what you wanted when you thought you wanted a slower LFO.
If nothing moves
An audio modulator in a silent room is correct and completely still. The
pane says no input beside the reach when that is what is happening, and the
meter at the top of the window is the same fact.
Check that Sialk is hearing something before assuming a modulator is broken. It is the single most common confusion.
An LFO is the test instrument. It needs no audio and will move regardless, so when something is not moving and you cannot tell whose fault it is, put an LFO on the parameter. If the LFO moves and audio does not, the problem is the input, not Sialk, go to play music into it.
That is worth remembering before a show rather than during one.