Hi there! I’ve been playing around with Cubase 14 and I’m really impressed with the new features. Lots of stuff that was high on my wish list and it really makes me fall in love with making music in Cubase again. I’m especially happy that modulators are finally here. There’s just one thing I can’t seem to figure out.
Unless I am really thick there is no way to modulate or automate the modulation depth. When right clicking the modulation depth, what I would expect is a menu with options to modulate or automate it (for example using a macro knob to scale the overall strength of other modulators, or using automation to increase it over time). Instead, I only get options for the original parameter it modulates. This seems like a major oversight / wasted opportunity. I’m curious if I’m just silly and there’s a way to do this or if there are any plans to implement it. As a side note, I’m still not sure if it’s a bug that Midi CCs like pitch bend can’t be modulated. Some people claim it works but I only get an error. I really love this feature otherwise and I’m excited to start using it more, so I’d love it if these two things were addressed.
I think the same. I have noticed that it is not possible to control the amount of modulation applied from the automation track or assign it to another modulator. It seems to me that it is something fundamental and that it could add a lot by giving a more modular logic to all the modulations environment.
This is a serious flaw! It is necessary to add the possibility of automation, and even better, so that the modulation depth could be modulated by another modulator!!!
Agree to all above. If one cannot automate the modulation depth, this is a worthless feature as far as I’m concerned. Most disappointing.
I just wanted to come back with a very practical example of the limitations of the modulators as they are. I’ve been working on a piece where the stings are supposed to do aleatoric glissandi, i.e. they are to glissando up and down within a certain range at an arbitrary rate, and the range is to vary over time. Theoretically, the modulators are perfect for this and a much better solution than doing manual automation. In practice however, I would need to be able to:
- Assign an LFO to the pitch bend CC in Kontakt
- Modulate the LFO frequency with a second modulator (this is already possible – great!)
- Modulate or automate (ideally both) the modulation depth of the first Modulator to control its range over time.
Just one example of the great potential this feature could have with some improvement!
They’ll do it in the 15th and say, now the modulator has become even cooler. Flaws are always needed so that there is something to sell later ))) All these requests are usually useless. They already know very well what cool features can be made in Reaper and other DAWs. But marketers will not allow this to be done, it is purely business.
I’m upvoting that too 
BTW if someone knows how to code script for the ModScripter, I started in the forum a topic named: “ModScripter LFO script in progress”
You could try using the ModScripter with the Intensity preset. You could then modulate the knob it provides to change the modulation range. Maybe that works for you already.
Yes that kind of working, thank you
Great suggestion, thanks! It definitely yields the right result. I massively appreciate you figuring this out. I didn’t even realise there was such a hidden preset and I doubt I ever would have looked for it there (I think the UX of finding these presets could really be improved). I still hope we get the option to modulate the modulation depth directly. As much as this solution works, it’s a little backwards and counterintuitive from a workflow point of view (and it requires knowing what you are going to do beforehand – ideally when you’re in the creative flow you’d want to chuck on a modulator of you choice on the parameter and then worry about it’s intensity modulation later on rather than connecting a blank ModScript, finding the preset and then modulating that with the actual modulator later on). It’s also extremely easy to miss these presets even being there. The ModScripter otherwise seems like a super powerful feature which I really wish they provided better documentation for.
I also think most people will likely be too intimidated by the script thing to even go anywhere near it, so I doubt many people will ever come across this option. So I think it would be good to have a more explicit, directly exposed feature for this stuff.
While I will not argue against your feature request of having the modulation depth be a modulation target I would like to make a case for the ModScripter.
When i first came across the modulators I looked at the ModScripter and was extremely discouraged by it. I am not a programmer and programming seemed to be the only way to get this thing to work.
I needed another person to point out the presets to me and ever since there is no holding me back anymore.
I think we need to spread the word about this modulator and its presets (more will be implemented with an upcoming maintenance release) as this is really the star of all the modulators.
Some of the presets are of the kind as Intensity is - to work on a modulation signal from another modulator. Others are just working by themselves, so instead of having six type of modulators we have actually 10 or more. And then there is a category of modulators that use incoming MIDI data, like the one that turns the Frequency EQ (and the stock channel EQ) into a dynamic frequency equalizer.
On top of that somebody has already figured out that you can train ChatGPT to write the scripts for you. So if you want to have a certain kind of modulation try telling an AI about it. It might even create a script that produces an LFO with modulatable modulation depth.
ModScripter is not the small “uh, yes, there’s that one, too”, it is actually the best of the modulators.
Increase the abilities of ModScripter by copying some ready-made scripts and save them as a preset:
Oh, don’t get me wrong, I am incredibly excited about the possibilities of ModScripter (once actually get around to learning the syntax). Having used PureData for code-based composition in the past, I am all in favour of more scripting capabilities in DAWs so I am in full agreement with everything you’re saying. 
I think it can also make a lot of things possible that have previously only been possible with third party plugins like FabFilter and the like, so I very much commend the direction Cubase is going in here and I don’t want to be understood as minimising the potential and the great work that went into the ModScripter.
I do think that often, when we’re just jotting down some ideas, it’s best to be able to stay inside the creative brain rather than having too much friction that forces us into our technical brain, so I think we should definitely do both: Make a strong case for the ModScripter and try to reduce the discouragement people feel (by also pushing for extensive, easy to understand documentation), and advocate for the inclusion of more extensive but straightforward features in the standard modulators to decrease friction in the creative process. But I think we probably agree here
I am most certain that we do. 