Modulation Effects Simulator

A touch-screen, mouse click or even keyboard playable version of this simulator allow you to route a bright tone through a series of flange, chorus and phaser circuits. The signal path is displayed on interface together with resulting audio. In the main grid, you get three choices for a signal route. The chorus route is a combination of two medium delays that add width. The flanger route use a short delay with feedback to sweep harmonic peaks. The phaser route uses four all-pass stages to rotate phase. A single click on one of these buttons make it the active circuit.

To hear the effects you need a source signal. There are four source button labelled A2, E3, A3 and C4. These is notes. Press one of these buttons down and it will play sound whilst held down. You could press more than one button simultaneous to listen to how they affect various frequency ranges. While holding down the button(s) you can then tweak parameters.

How to Use the Simulator

There are two character/fader per each route. For the flanger route, there is a flanger return fader which controls amount of feedback fed into itself. There is also a wet/dry fader which balance the wet/dry signal. There is also a travel fader which controls how deep the modulation go. Then there is a fader called sweep speed which control the frequency of modulation (Hertz). The same thing goes for how you can shape the source material. There is a low-pass filter, called the source brightness fader. Before it get into the circuit, you can alter cutoff frequency and shape the timbre of your signal.

Then there are global controls that let you isolate character of the effect. The monitor level fader control the total output level. The dispatch button will fire up an A/B run where it cycle through all three routes one after another. It plays a test tone along with it. No need for you to hold down any keys, just listen and hear difference. The same button is clicked again to bring back the convoy so you can contrast different textures from each topology.

There are also buttons for the topology recipe cabinet that will load one of several quick presets. A slow-vowel recipe loads a mix with a deep phaser sound, while the jet comb recipe load an aggressive flanger and the glass-choir recipe sets up a wide chorus. Each one fires off a quick tone to let you hear it in action right away.

You’ll have full control over mix, speed, depth and route. The modulation speed is synced to a musical tempo. Click the clock sweep button, enter a BPM number into the session field, then the system will calculate a rate from that tempo. This results in a moddern modulation cycle that lasts for one dotted quarter note, which syncs the effect to a certain rhythmic feel.

Full keyboard control are supported by the widget. For example, you can use the keys Z, X, C, and V to fire the four source notes: A2, E3, A3, and C4. The number keys, 1,2,3 select three different routes (phaser, flanger, chorus). The key A fires up the comparison convoy and Escape recalls it. All of the buttons and faders is navigable using Tab.

You can watch what’s going on within the circuits visually. On the scope canvas, the topology that’s active play out in an animated way. For chorus, you see two delay voices orbiting in opposite directions. With a flanger you see the comb filter response moving across the spectrum. For phaser, you see non-harmonic notch fields shifting around. As you move the faders these animations updates in real time.

Expand the widget into fullscreen To get a better view of the readouts and scope, click the fullscreen button at the top right corner. To exit back out, do it again. Whether on desktop or mobile, the layout will adapt to your screen size.

If you want further details, click on how to play button. This will open a help panel explaining what the effects sound like and the keyboard mappings. It also shows how to interact with it using either your mouse or touch. There’s a description of the clock, recipe cabinet etc too. Clicking on the button again closes the panel.

With the A3 hold down the chorus route then listen to how two delays create an ensemble width. Go back up into the flanger route and pull up on the flanger return fader and you’ll hear feedback build up. You should of tried it earlier. Then go down to the phaser route and move the travel fader. You’ll notice that the notches is shifting across the spectrum. Launch the A/B run and hear them side by side. Adjusting the source brightness will help reveal the modulation as it goes in and out.