Modulation — LFOs

A static sound is a starting point; movement is what makes it musical. Each track carries two LFOs, and either can drive any parameter of that track's sound (machine params and the shared voice chain).

You don't author an LFO in a separate panel — you open it right on the picture. Alt-drag any handle on the Bench and an LFO grows on that parameter: a translucent capsule shows how far it will sweep, and a bright dot orbits the handle showing the value being heard right now.

**It all adds up.** Every source — the two LFOs, plus per-hit [p-locks and breathe](per-hit-sound-design.md), the [macros](macros.md) and velocity → timbre — sums into the *same* value the machine finally reads. Point an LFO and a macro at the same cutoff and they simply combine; the engine then clamps to the parameter's range. That single base-plus-offsets rule is the whole modulation model.

LFOs — cyclic movement

A low-frequency oscillator sweeps a parameter up and down on its own. Two per track.

• Destination — the parameter it moves (the handle you alt-dragged).
• Shape — sine, triangle, saw up, saw down, square, or random (sample-and-hold).
• Rate — free-running (roughly 0.01–50 Hz) or tempo-synced to a musical division so the sweep locks to the grid at any BPM.
• Depth — bipolar (−100 … +100%): how far, and in which direction, it pushes the destination (the size of the capsule).
• Trigger — how it relates to a hit: FRE (running continuously), TRG (restart on each hit), HLD (latch the value at the hit), ONE (a single cycle), or HALF (half a cycle).

On a drum the trigger mode is the setting that changes the most: FRE drifts underneath the kit, so no two hits are alike, while TRG restarts the contour on every strike, which makes the same LFO read as part of the hit rather than as something wandering behind it. ONE and HALF turn the LFO into a per-hit envelope — a single shaped move fired by each strike (a pitch blip on the attack, a filter that opens once and closes).

The chip

Where an LFO reaches a parameter, a small three-part chip hangs off that parameter's own handle, so its movement is described where the movement happens rather than in a separate panel:

A non-default trigger mode is highlighted, so you can see at a glance which LFOs restart with the hit and which run free.

Reach for an LFO when you want continuous, repeating motion — a slow filter wobble, a panning tremolo, vibrato on a tuned voice — or, in ONE / HALF mode, a shaped per-hit move.

Which source do I want?