Creating a Sample and Hold Effect in Kontakt 2

This one is easy and fun, though you should have a working knowledge of the Kontakt 2 sound engine before we start. If you’ve done any editing in Kontakt 2, you know there are a number of LFO shapes, of which the sine wave is most typically used to produce a vibrato (pitch) or tremolo (volume) effect. The other LFOs are rectangle, sawtooth, and random, each of which has its own fairly simple interface. To get started, load up a basic synth-type sound. Now, enable the Retrigger mode, so that every time a key is struck, the LFO starts again from the beginning. Next, select the Random LFO module. This produces a randomly varying LFO waveform that is controlled by specifying a frequency. Now assign the LFO to modulate the filter cutoff frequency, then strike a note to hear the effect. You should hear something that sounds quite animated and very much like the original sample-and-hold effect available in the original analog modular synthesizers. It can also be assigned to modulate pitch. Beyond this, you can click on the Modulation tab in the lower left corner. This makes it possible to actually modulate the original modulator!