Staying Relevant

Time moves quickly, and so do industry standards.

In the competitive landscape that is software engineering, it can feel like a daunting task to compete in such a fast moving industry.

For example, modern interface design has drastically improved over the years, moving from pixels in code to professionally edited images woven into projects.

But that’s really just the tip of the iceberg.

Understanding how moving averages can be used to low-pass a sound is a good starting point, but musicians, craftsmen, and consumers don’t just want that. 

We want more.

More features. More presets. More ways to use it. More modes. And more ways to go hard.

So, the next natural step in this progression is how to modulate with class and style.

There are two common techniques when it comes to modulation. 

The ADSR, which is an envelope based off a trigger, such as a midi note, and the LFO, which is a low-frequency oscillator.

We don’t have to stop modulating.

Another technique is sidechaining. The technique of sidechaining works by tracking the voltage of another signal to modulate (commonly known as ducking) to modulate a control.

To sidechain, we will need to access the audio buffer from a side channel, process the voltage, and apply that voltage to a corresponding control.

The process seems daunting, and it somewhat is, but to go to that next level, we need to have the joy of being able to duck anything via the sidechain.