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Topic starter
Are you having serious difficulty getting your Control Assigns to work?
Are your Sliders not controlling volume?
Is there still sound, even when you've turned the volume down ?
The chances are you have ran into (probably) the most common cause of befuddlement on the Montage/MODX.
That is Control Assigns (or the Modulation Matrix).
Now you could spend the next few months picking through old posts, or sellotaping various pieces of the various manuals together in order to get a cohesive and contiguous view of what's going on.
Or... you could just DELETE all pre-existing Control Assigns, and build your own custom Control Assigns from a "Blank" starting space.
Let's face facts, the Control Assigns are very powerful, but they are a complicated as heck to all but the most seasoned veterans.
Problems mostly arise when Users try to "customise" a Factory Performance, or build a Performance from Factory Parts.
The usual underlying issue is that the "Custom" Control Assign you are trying to make, has already been Assigned in some other Area of the Mod Matrix.
Now, you could start picking apart the existing Mod Matrix, strand by excruciatingly painful strand.
Or, you could just delete the whole rotten lot, and build afresh. At least building your own, you have the benefit of following your own needs and logic, as well as getting valuable "hands-on" building experience.
Once you have learned "How to Build", then understanding "How to Modify" becomes easier.
If you are new to MODX/MONTAGE, my advice is do not try to follow somebody else's logic, you will fail. Delete everything and start over.
Here is how:-
First - STORE/Rename your Performance with Suffix "Ver1". Then immediately
STORE/Rename your Performance again with Suffix "Ver2". Your "Ver1" will provide a back reference if you need it.
HOW TO DELETE ALL CONTROL ASSIGNS
PER PART>>
1) Go To:-
[PERFORMANCE (HOME)] [EDIT] Part selection Element [Common] [Mod/Control] [Control Assign]
2) In the top left of the Screen, make sure Auto Select is off (Grey)
3) In the top left of the screen, click on "Display Filter" box to get a drop-down Menu. In that Menu select "ALL".
4) All Control Assign Destinations for that Part will now be displayed in the centre of the screen. There are 4 Destinations per Page. NOTE:- The "Page Select" box in the top Right of the screen, there may be up to 4 Pages (4 × 4 pages = 16 Assigns).
5) Page 1 will show Destination 1, Destination 2, 3 & 4. Page 2 is 5, 6, 7 & 8 etc.
6) On Page 1, select Destination 1, and click the DELETE box in the lower right hand side of the screen. Keep pressing the DELETE button until all Control Assigns are deleted from that PART.
7) Repeat for PART 2, PART 3 etc.
PER PERFORMANCE (COMMON/AUDIO)>>
1) Go To:-
[PERFORMANCE (HOME)] [EDIT] [Control] [Control Assign]
2) Make sure Auto Select is OFF.
3) Set Display Filter to ALL
4) DELETE each Destination
Well Done! You now have a "Clean" Performance without any BS Assigns to give you a nervous breakdown.
Posted : 19/06/2022 4:23 am
Topic starter
Now what? Now you can build your own Control Assigns with a 100% probability they will work. However, that of course means you need to know how to build them... so start reading the Reference Manual. You will find a "Control Assign" section in each of AWM2 Edit, FM-X Edit, DRUM Edit and COMMON/AUDIO Edit.
SUPER KNOB
For the Super Knob to work you must:-
1) Make a Control Assign to the PART level parameter (AWM2, FM-X etc)
2) Make a "Common" Control Assign at the Common/Audio Level, linking to the PART Level Control Assign in 1).
3) Assign (Link) the SuperKnob to the "Common" Control Assign made in 2).
NOTE:- It will be far easier to make the Control Assigns in each step to one of the Assign Knobs. There are other options, but I highly recommend you use the Assign Knobs, particularly if your final intent is to use the Super Knob.
The Super Knob can control multiple "Common Assigns", but it cannot directly control "PART Assigns". That is why you must follow these steps 1), 2) & 3).
Regarding "OFFSETS"
What is never made very clear in the Manuals, is that Control Assigns DO NOT change (edit) the actual Parameter Values in the "Edit" Menu's.
What the Control Assign actually does is ADD or SUBTRACT a "number" from the actual Parameter Value. This "number" is referred to as an "OFFSET" and the OFFSET Value is determined by the position of whichever Controller you have assigned, AND whatever Multiplier or Divider you have defined by setting the Curve "Ratio" in the Control Assign menu.
It is very easy to "pin" an OFFSET past minimum or maximum Parameter values. For example, an Assign Knob is turned fully clockwise, and due to a High Ratio is generating a very high OFFSET (in excess off 255 for arguments sake). Now when you "edit" that particular Parameter Value, from maximum 127 down to minimum 0, nothing happens, because the OFFSET is still pinning the parameter value to its maximum of 127 (0 + OFFSET 255 = 127 parameter max value).
This is such a common cause for frustration for new users, when they add or replace a Part and cannot get it to either "Switch On" and become audible, or "Switch Off" and become inaudible. This is usually because the Volume or Level has been assigned to some (as yet) unidentified controller that is pinning the Volume.
This is why I delete all Control Assigns. It saves me a lot of messing about.
Good Luck!
Posted : 19/06/2022 4:57 am
Topic starter
From my experience, it is very often easier to give instruction on building from scratch, rather than weaving out a solution to an existing build.
What I have found on MODX Factory Presets is a lot of redundant Control Assigns.
My guess is that the Sound Designers also used "stock" Presets to build new ones, and any surplus Assigns were just nullified or "pinned open" rather than deleted.
Without a similar wealth of Yamaha OS knowledge, unsurprisingly this leads to a lot of confusion.
I recall on several occasions, being unable to identify the source or turn off a sound.
One example is a seemingly "zeroed" Element (Element Level =0), yet when you press a key you can see it's VU meter hit the yellow, which is the only "clue" you have. Then after some dismantling you will find a Control Assign that is permanently pinning the Level to Max (an "Off" Assign Switch with a negative polarity can do this).
Even then, the association may not be obvious, for example some Elements are only "switched on" by a Control Assign on Filter Envelope Depth, so even if you go looking for a "Level" Assign you won't find it.
To be honest, creating new Control Assigns is a lot quicker and simpler, than picking through and debugging a Performance.
Also, there is no danger of losing the original "design". You cannot overwrite Factory Presets, so the original will always be there as a reference Template if you want to check and compare.
So there is nothing destructive about deleting all Control Assigns. It's a methodology that presents you with a consistent "datum" point to build from, and learn in the process. This is how I eventually "learned" Control Assigns. Reading countless threads of other Users issues/solutions wasn't helping me, because their scenarios did not match mine.
Posted : 21/06/2022 8:27 pm
I suspect a lot of the presets are made with Yamaha's in-house sound design software. This is part of the reason for the detritus. In that software some top level control facilities are easier/at-hand, and much more immediate than on the device. So what is tedious to reincorporate on device is instant in their sound design software.
This is most easily observed by the number of deactivated Elements in many sounds. To exploit these bits that seem like left overs we, as end users, have to go in and try to guess whether to turn them on and turn others off, of if they're complimentary additions, and then assign accordingly to some kind of way of turning them on and off without menu diving.
Posted : 22/06/2022 12:21 am
