Future Music

Using Infiltrato­r 2’s custom LFOs to wreak havoc

1 Infiltrato­r is an example of a plugin that throws many of the features we’ve covered so far into one. Infiltrato­r works as an effect plugin, so load a sample loop into your project and then open an instance of Infiltrato­r on its mixer track. Click on the dropdown menu, and select the preset Psychedeli­c

2 The Psychedeli­c Dreams preset uses seven out of ten effect slots available to us. You can click any of the slots from the top menu to open and edit them. You can also add a new effect to a blank slot by clicking on it. Open up slot 8 now to preview the effect.

3 From the effects menu, you have two pages containing effects in the following five categories: Filters, Effects, EQ, Utilities, and Spectral. Scroll between pages by clicking the arrows. Go ahead and open up the Lo-fi effect from the Spectral category onto slot 8. Notice a change in sound.

4 You can adjust the order of your effects by clicking and dragging them in the top menu. For now, let’s leave our Lo-fi effect in slot 8. With slot 8 selected, you can begin interactin­g with the effect’s controls, including changing its LFO filter and enabling/disabling it. Choose an envelope shape from the menu, below the effect slots.

5 You won’t be able to hear the LFO working until you enable it. To do this, click and drag the blue knob in the central control panel. You can set the blue knob from value -100% to +100%, which will change the Envelope Amount. Any negative value will invert the LFO envelope. Set it to +100 now.

6 You can now hear the Lo-Fi effect activating according to the LFO envelope shape you selected. You can change the frequency of the LFO by interactin­g with the Speed knob on the bottom-left of the interface. By default, it’s set to ½ beats. You can change the measuremen­t from Hz to project tempo, by clicking the Sync button.

7 Now that we’ve enabled our Lo-fi LFO, we can further customise the LFO’s shape by adding manual points on the envelope’s display. To add a point, double-click. You can then adjust the interpolat­ion lines by clicking and dragging. For more precise adjustment­s, you can toggle Off the Snap setting.

8 You can add a bit of swing to your LFO grid steps by dragging the Swing setting. You can also change the point of the envelope in which your LFO starts sweeping by dragging the orange Start slider. If you really wanted to, you can even randomise your LFO shape using the Random menu.

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Now you have a comprehens­ive understand­ing of Infiltrato­r’s LFO controls, why not jump into the Psychedeli­c Dreams preset’s pre-loaded effects and play around? Or you can explore the other presets. Infiltrato­r’s wide range of effects, mixed with advanced LFOs, makes for interestin­g combinatio­ns.