Close your eyes and imagine a classic modular synthesiser, perhaps a Moog 55, or Roland 100M, or even a shiny new eurorack system (blip blop). Its got two oscillators with FM and hard sync, a filter with 15 modes, five multi-shape LFOs with sample and hold input, 5 advanced DADSR envelopes, five more ramp envelopes, and 3 things called trackers, and, whilst the audio path is fixed, anything can be plugged into anything else.
Nice. That’s a complex synth.
Now imagine 12 of them! Hook them all into one keyboard, or six, with different triggering modes and arppegiators for each and you’re getting close to what a Matrix 12 can do.
Matrix 12’s audio path is quite simple and fixed. You can see it in blue at the top of the centre screen’s Flow view.
Two VCOs feed into a filter, which in turn runs through two amplifiers in series. I’ve underlined that because it trips lots of people up, both amps need to be up to hear anything. Usually you keep one on full and have an envelope modulate the other.
Matrix 12’s complexity comes from the modulation possibilities, each continuous parameter can be modulated by up to 6 different sources at once, and modulation sources themselves can be modulated and manipulate one another.
There’s a big button at the top to set the global mode of Matrix 12 to either Single or Multi mode.
When in Single mode Matrix 12 acts like a 12 voice polysynth. You’re given one set of voice controls and all 12 voices sound (approximately) the same. In all honesty, this is the mode we expect Matrix 12 to be run in most of the time, and it’s definitely the best mode to start with. To learn how the voice and modulation system work.
Multi mode opens up Matrix 12’s multi-timbral and zone features. Each individual voice can be accessed via the tabs and be entirely unique. We provide tools to manage the editing and management of voices.
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For more on this: Single vs Multi Mode.
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The upper panel controls controls that affect Matrix 12’s global features.
