Opening up forbidden automation

    Whilst trying to automate the LFO and filter behaviour of a patch last night I ran up against the issue that certain perameters are not eligible for automation. I was attempting to automate the influence an LFO had over filter cutoff. Right clicking on the relevant knob in Virus Control I was told that it could not be automated. I thought this a bit odd/limited and checked the manual. It explained that certain perameters were not automatabe due to them potentially causing problems with the synth engine. The manual was pretty clear about why this had been implemented, some parameters just aren't suitable for automation and may cause problems with the engine, but I didn;t really see how this was any more dangerous than tweaking the filter directly.


    Not wanting to admit defeat I attacked the issue a different way. I assigned the LFO as the source in the matrix and the LFO influence over the filter as the destination. I then assigned a soft knob to control to this assign slot. I then added the soft knob to automation...


    Hey presto! Delicious forbidden automation!


    Looking through the options in the matrix there are a load of these 'forbidden' perameters that could be automated via other controls such as soft knobs or the mod wheel. This leads me to my request...


    Given that I can automate many forbidden values via proxy of a soft knob (or other control), why not expose them directly to the sequencer?

    It's not obvious what the difference is between hooking up the LFOs directly to something or going via the mod matrix aside from precision (pitch variation, for instance, is much more precise directly from the lfo). Maybe that is an important difference, or maybe the LFO direct modulation is a legacy structure (perhaps unchangable to maintain compatibility) whilst the mod matrix is new and thus better capable.


    Although, having said that, I would need to be near my virus to fully understand the problem you have. I assume what you mean is you wish to vary the range of modulation of the cutoff from the LFO(?)
    I thought some of those were automatable, but I will have to look when I'm near the virus...

    I don't have a problem really. As I said; I managed to automate what I wanted. It's not just the LFO either (that was just an example), quite a few automation roadblocks can be passed this way. I was just highlighting that some parameters 'not suitable for automation' can, in fact, be automated via proxy.



    Anyway it's either a loophole that needs closing (please no), a feature that needs adding (please yes) or a tooltip that needs changing.


    You are right though by the way. I was attempting to automate the amount the filter was modulated by the LFO...and succeeded through dirty tricks!

    the question by the OP is totally legit.


    I remember that older VAs used to read modulation changes at different speeds. for example the micro q reads fm mod at 48khz and has its mod matrix divided in fast mod (which is slower than fm mod) and regular mod (which is even slower). they did that in order to prioritize processing power, because faster mod changes use up a lot more processing power.


    maybe this has something to do with why certain mods can be used directly and others have to be routed thru ‘proxies’ (think of them as slow modulation proxies).