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what is cross modulation?


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When Roland refers to cross modulation, it's a little bit like FM -- you're using one tone (or multi-sample) as a modifier to modulate another tone (or multi-sample), which is the carrier tone. It's only useful and interesting if you think carefully about what kind of modifier tone you're applying to your carrier tone, and if you have a carrier tone that will make interesting sounds when modulated that way. The easiest way into understanding cross-modulation is to start with the simplest thing, in other words, set up your two Tones as sine waves, pure and simple, and then listen to what happens as you change pitch on your modifier sine wave as it cross-modulates your carrier sine wave. That's -- basically, at least -- FM. More often than not if you use complex tones/samples, you'll get buzzy, noisy, waspy kinds of sounds, not particularly musical in a conventional sense. rt
Posted
[quote] Description Is an unwanted effect which can occur when two or more (sound) signals which are present in an amplifier modulate one another, giving additional outputs which are the sum and difference between the signals. In particular, a type of distortion peculiar to variable area optical recording. Explanation When the modulated light beam from the recording galvanometer is reflected onto the film emulsion, the image of each wave is not confined to the area exactly under the beam because the crystalline structure of the emulsion allows the light to scatter and the image spreads slightly (hence the phenomena has come to be termed 'image spread'). This raises the transmission of the negative, and produces lower-frequency components corresponding to the envelopes of groups of waves. The result is a very unpleasant type of distortion especially noticeable in sibilants, which sound as if two pieces of sandpaper were being scraped together. (11) [/quote] http://www.screensound.gov.au/glossary.nsf/Pages/Cross+Modulation?OpenDocument
Posted
I think I understand now how cross modulation works basically, but how can I emulate it on a modular synth (I'm using synthedit and fx2)? raudakind :confused:
Posted
Patch oscillator A's audio output into the pitch input of oscillator B. The output of oscillator B would be [i]frequency modulated[/i]. Some manufacturers called it cross modulation only when both oscillators were modulating each other (i.e. the cabling forms an X or a cross). So for that you would take the audio output of B into the pitch input of A as well. The outputs of both oscillators would be [i]cross-modulated[/i]. The fun in both these scenarios is when you sweep the pitch knob of one or both of the oscillators. Jerry

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