Program Modulation. What does that mean? How it works?

I know the basics of Program Modulation inside Program mode, but I was wondering what does this particular sources or destination means. I have no clue where to start. So here I go:
SOURCE:
Aftertouch - was trying something with it. Don't know what it does.
Modwheel - just dunno...
Bend up/down - I've seen this also on Program/F3 - Misc.
Tilt Velo - Velo must be velocity but I don't know what is Tilt.
Off Velo - Offset Velocity? And what is it?
Keyboard - ...
Controller - ...
DESTINATION:
Amplitude - ...
LFO 1 Rate - ...
Zone Select - ...

Oh for god's sakes, child!
RTFM!
The best manual to read is the Ak.Sys User Guide, which is very well written.
It explains all this stuff.
(well, mostly)
And in fact it is all just basic MIDI stuff (how can you not know what a MOD WHEEL is for crying out loud!? Even my grandmother knows what a mod wheel is! And she died 10 years ago!)


What it won't tell you is:

- there is a bug in the OS which means that even if you set the Program to respond to POLYPHONIC aftertouch,
it won't save this, and next time you load up, it will be set back to CHANNEL aftertouch. Doh!

- Note Off velocity is buggy too. I remember setting up Note Off > Pitch, and you'd quite clearly hear notes swooping off in pitch depending on how fast or slow you released a key, but setting it to the most useful one, Note Off > Release Time, didn't f*cking work! ARRRGH. There seemed to be some bug in the code ... I imagine it had to do with the logic of when a "note off" event occured and when the envelope made the transition between "Sustain" and "Release".

- Tilt Velocity - I never saw the meaning of this documented anywhere, but I was told it means a "bipolar" implementation, where v=64 gives no extra modulation, v > 64 gives +ve mod, v < 64 gives negative mod.

feline1 wrote: Tilt Velocity - I never saw the meaning of this documented anywhere, but I was told it means a "bipolar" implementation, where v=64 gives no extra modulation, v > 64 gives +ve mod, v < 64 gives negative mod.

UMM WHAT????

MIDI Note On Velocity goes from v=1 (a feather) to v=127 (a meat-fist hammer)


If u set the modulation matrix to (say)

VELOCITY >>> +100 >>> AMPLITUDE

It will take (note on velocity), multiply it by the scaling factor (+100 in this example), and multiply the sample amplitude by the result. (Of course, we all know the whole architecture is so banjaxed that the amplitude will probably hit a ceiling when v=30 or sthg, and so not get any louder, but let's ignore that for now). (And actually, does it multiply by the scaling factor +100? Or does it add or subtract that number as an off-set? I forget. Gah!)


I think (although I could be wrong),
that if you instead set the modulation matrix to (say)
TILT VELOCITY >>> +100 >>> AMPLITUDE

then v=64 is taken as the "zero point" of velocity. (i.e., the MPC effectively subtracts 63 from your Note On Velocity before feeding it into the modulation matrix)
So if you play v=64, it will not change the amplitude.
But if you play lightly (between v=1 to v=63) it will make the sample QUIETER.
You need to play harder than v=64 to make the amplitude LOUDER.

(As you can see, the exact maths of what goes on depends on whether, numerically, the modulation matrix works as an OFFSET (adding/subtracting values) or a SCALING FACTOR (multiplying values).
It's not documented and I can't remember how it does it right now.

Whichever it is, you can see it's gonna be a bit wierd, because most incoming MIDI values for modulating with a 7-bit numbers (0 to 127) whereas a lot of the modulation destinations are shown in the Akai GUI as ranges from 0 to 100.
And the 'modulation amount' in the matrix goes from -100 thru 0 to +100.

I emailed Akai Unprofessional Support about how this actually worked pretty much once every few months from mid 2002 until when I finally gave up in about 2006. I never got an answer.

TBH. I've never red ak.sys manual, but I've red normal manual twice so this is why I ask this. I don't have computer when I'm working with my MPC so I thought I won't need this manual.

The normal manual is dry as dust because it was translated from Japanese to English by a translation house rather than by a musician.

The Ak.Sys was written by a native English-speaking musician who'd been using Akai samplers for years,
and it explains a lot of things very nicely - give it a try!

feline1 wrote:I emailed Akai Unprofessional Support about how this actually worked pretty much once every few months from mid 2002 until when I finally gave up in about 2006. I never got an answer.

I can understand why but thanks for trying. I hate to admit when shit it beyond my real but here I am. Im going to play with these numbers a little and see if I can get a better understanding of what is going on. Thanks for the post