Ambient, expanding and complex patches
 

The TI is a machine. I can't say I've dived too deeply in the Matrix, and never have had all 3 LFO's running. I have a friend who plays and records ambient music. I've been able to make some great drones and filter pads that build and build, but I want more. The amount of assignable knobs is ridiculous, as is modulating a modulator with multiple modulators. I have a couple ideas as far as making pads evolve, but I'm curious if any users here have dived into this much further than I have, and would care to share some tips, or basic starting points for complex modulation that is sonically pleasing, not random and dissonant. Thanks!

interesting. having an envelope slowly rising the amount of one modulation while lowering the other (these two can have different lfos), while one lfo is speeding up the other while the other one is making the first slow down, sort of thing - this kind of relationships can bring nice complex results. the destinations and amounts will determine if it's pleasant or not, that's where the creativity is!

some destinations are quite obvious, like the filter. wave select is another interesting one, specially if osc 1 is set to wave in an FM patch, or modeled in and out (or different degrees of) fm throughout... on the ti you can use the arpeggiator to introduce some interest in your patches, random is also another interesting source in the virus that can provide surprisingly evolving stuff...

Hey cool thanks! I've been away for a bit but will put all this to the test!

I think it's a really cool feature that the Matrix can assign LFO amount as a modulation destination. In this way, you can for example use a very long envelope to modulate how much an LFO in turn modulates a parameter. Couple this with modulating the speed of said LFO and you can get some really cool swells, depending on what parameter the whole mess is actually directed at. I suck at explaining these things... Try assigning a slow LFO to oscillator pitch, and then assign a slow envelope to modulate both the speed and assign amount of said LFO - you should hear the effect immediately; try to apply it to a more subtle parameter.

With the wavetable, grain and formant modes, so long as the interpolation parameter is set to its default, moving the index parameter smoothly crossfades between wavetable start positions - apply an envelope or oscillator to this.

Off the top of my head (why am I never in front of my synth when posting these replies?), some other things I'd experiment with modulating: Oscillator detuning (or Unison detuning if it's on) modulated by a long, slow envelope. Experiment with the Sample & Glide (S+G) mode of the LFOs - technically it's 'random' but it can yield some cooler results than a plain ol' sine or triangle LFO. Turn the delay to Tape Doppler and manually modulate the delay time for a really effective Doppler pitch-shift like a classic space echo. Remember that you have THREE envelopes with the latest Virus OS, and also that the LFOs can be turned to Envelope mode - you can use this to point envelopes with slightly different curves at different parameters, which can make things more interesting than using one Filter Env to move a handful of parameters.

I've got a huge boner for the Virus' FM engine, because it's very simple - not like FM8 for example, which is easy to get lost in. You will very quickly learn exactly how FM works by using a pair of sine or triangle waves. Turn your Oscillator Balance all the way to Osc 2, start with both oscillators as sines an octave apart, and modulate the FM amount. This is the basis for the famous 'donk' sound and other swells popular in garage, dub, deep house etc., but (again with the long, slow envelopes) if you apply a slow modulation you can get a nice harmonic evolution - especially if you start to experiment with different intervals between the two oscillators, or put the whole thing through a (subtly) moving bandpass filter.

Lastly, the analog filter self-oscillates. This is cool as fuck. Try turning your oscillators off entirely, turn up the Noise oscillator, set Filter 1 to Analog mode, and crank its resonance. Add reverb and delay (try that Tape Doppler thing again) to taste and you can get some very cool whistling wind or bubbling, chirping ambient textures.

Word salad. I'm really good at that. Sorry, it's a lot to take in. I find the most absolutely important thing when trying to create ambient, evolving sounds is subtlety (there's that word again). Modulate these parameters over a very small part of their range. Have fun!

^technically speaking, you'd need to select "wave" mode for the FM, to get the DX style kind of patches using a sine wave. hard sync also works great for some fm patches.