Introduction - Wolfgang Palm

Transcript

VERSION 1.0.1 Introduction Thank you for purchasing the PPG iOS Phonem. You now own a highly sophisticated speech/vocal synthesizer, with the power and scope to create tonally rich, complex sounds. This manual explains the concept of Speech synthesis and will help you to understand every parameter available within the synthesizer. 1 Key Features • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Create your own singing style and expressions Large Phoneme inventory - 46 english/american plus 5 german plus 4 french phonemes Versatile excitation generator/oscillator Working with typical voice source or wavetable and time-corrected-samples (TCS) Extreme time stretching, freezing and reversing Pitch track - let your robots sing Control track - let it cry and shout Song mode - making it easy to compose your synthesized text Wave page - create your own wavetables and modify time-corrected-samples Import WTS and TCS files from the iPad WaveGenerator and WaveMapper All internal parameters available to the user - give your voices a special dialect or individual character Versatile matrix system – allowing 19 sources to contril 40 parameters Two X/Y control pads freely routable to 40 parameters 6 Envelopes, for control of filter sweeps, waveform, noise and many modulations 4 LFOs plus Vibrato, Flutter and Growl generators Fully programmable resonator filter - allowing production of new sound effects Delay/Reverb effect Overdrive/Distortion effect A/B compare your edited sounds AU extension - run multiple Phonem instances in AU hosts IAA - inter-app audio support Audiobus 2 with statesaving 10 min audio recording and AudioCopy Redesigned browser with new listing filters Directly accessible context help for each module Freely configurable schematic keypad, with extremely expressive modulation options 4 Keypads play modes: Poly, Mono, Legato and Multitrigger 4 MIDI modes: Poly, Mono, Legato and Voice-Per-Channel 2 Table of Contents Introduction..................................................................................................1 Key Features.................................................................................................2 The User Interface......................................................................................4 The Top Bar.................................................................................................................... 4 The Browser Page............................................................................................................7 Audiobus, IAA & AU...................................................................................................... 12 The Schematic Keypad................................................................................................... 16 The Timeline Page.....................................................................................18 The Phoneme Timeline...................................................................................................22 The Resonator Editor.....................................................................................................23 The Excitation Editor..................................................................................................... 24 The Phoneme Module.................................................................................................... 24 The Tracks Page........................................................................................27 The Marker Bar............................................................................................................. 28 The Wave Page..........................................................................................31 The Parameter Page.................................................................................34 The LFO module............................................................................................................39 The Envelope.................................................................................................................42 The Effects Panel............................................................................................................44 The Setup Page..........................................................................................46 The Global Module........................................................................................................ 46 MIDI..............................................................................................................................47 3 The User Interface Let’s take a look at the overall view of the app and after that explain the usage and meaning of all the parameters that can be changed. Notice: No matter which section of the app you are in, the global upper menu bar with the main modules will always be visible. The Top Bar In the top bar of PPG Phonem you find the most important functions. On the left are the page navigation buttons, the program handling block, the PRG menu and the A/B compare button. 4 After you make changes to your program, the A/B knob lights up. Now you can switch back and forth between the to the original preset and the edited version. Before you switch to another program, you should save your changes using the Save or SaveAs function. Please note that the original PPG presets are write-protected. When you want to save them, you are asked for a new name to enter. Loading Filter The program loading filter makes it possible to change certain parts of the program. 5 If you set this menu to + Phnm and step through the programs, it will only change the Phonemes and leave the rest of the program unchanged. If you select - Wave, it will not change the waves resource but all other parameters. As you see above, the name of the resulting program gives a hint on the merging. The Pages The Timeline page This is where you arrange the phonemes to setup a "utterance" or effect and work with Wavetables. The Parameter page Here you control the various parameters and modulations of the synthesizer. The Effects and Setup page This is the page where you control the Effects and global settings. Here you also import wavetables or TCS resources from other PPG instruments. The Browser page This is the management page where you arrange your programs, exchange them between banks and setup new banks. You find help texts for every module and page in the context menus, which open when you tap on these symbols. 6 The Browser Page The browser page offers a number of easy ways to manage your programs. The page is divided into three parts: The Programs browser, The Program manager and The List Manager. The Program Browser In the PPG Phonem iPad version, all your programs are located in one pool. To group a selection of programs in a browser list, you have several filters and modes available. You can create a new list and then copy single entries from the browser list into the target list. If you create a new program or use the SaveAs command from the main menu, then that program is added to the pool and also added to the current browser list. The LED on the top right corner always shows if a list has been changed. When finished working on the list, you should save it. If you have started with a PPG list, you will be asked for a new name because the PPG lists are protected. 7 Applying Filters If you have a big list, like Factories, it might be helpful to show selected parts of it. You can, for example, use the a Category as filter. The default setting is All, which means that all programs are displayed as they are ordered inside the list. When you select a category as filter, the browser only displays programs from that category. You can set the category for the preset on the Setup page. Please note that the browser always shows the last saved state of the programs. Sorting the list Besides filtering, there are several ways to sort the list. On the top left you can sort the programs for titles in alphabetic order. Another way is to sort the programs for Created or Updated dates. You do this with the selector on the right side. Please note that you only can sort the list with one criterium. For example, you cannot sort for alphabetic and date at the same time. There also is the possibility to freely order your presets in your list without the filters. You achieve this by setting the last selector on the right side to Statistic. The last column then shows a running number for the presets. Tap a number and move it to the left or right to a desired position. When you lift the finger, the preset will be moved to that place. Don't forget to save the newly ordered list. The Program Manager The top-left module contains tools to manage the programs inside the active list and a target list. You may select these lists from the popup menus, which open if you tap on the small triangles. 8 This menu has three zones: System, PPG and User. The two System entries are temporary generated lists and are based on all the programs in the pool. List new programs sets a time limit, so you have an easy way to list your latest created presets. The PPG lists are the ones from our sound designers and are write protected. Your own lists will be displayed in the User zone. The REMOVE button deletes the active program from the Browser list. You will be asked if you just want to remove the preset from the list or if you want to delete it from the pool as well. Be careful when doing this because the program might be used in another list. 9 ADD TO TARGET appends the program to the destination list. That is the list you have selected below as TARGET LIST. The text input field in the active list allows you to write a comment for your list. The Target List Here you administer your lists. To create a new list, click NEW. Then you have an empty list as destination. Now you may copy programs from your active list into the new one. SAVE AS makes a copy with a new name. DELETE removes the list from the file system. Please note that the comment field here is only for display, not editing. Import/Export of Bundles 10 The Export Functions Using the Export functions, you can save the current list together with the programs in a bundle file. This file is then sent via e-mail or placed in the documents folder of the Phonem app for File sharing. The Import functions do just the opposite. Please note that these functions overwrite existing programs with the same name. The Freeze function creates a new bank with the current content of the browser. This means you can use a filtered or sorted list, and transfer it into a new list with just this content. In order to record and export audio, Phonem has a built in audio recorder. A tap above the recorder display opens the record panel. Tap the record button and play some notes. When you tap that button again the recording stops and you may enter play mode. The mini display shows the recorded material. Please note that the area of the Recorder display is used as the Hold function. Exporting audio There are two ways to export audio. One is via the iOS Pasteboard the other is via file-sharing in iTunes. In the context menu, you find the Copy function, which moves the audio into the iPad's Clipboard, and you can Paste it into another app. You may record up to 10 minutes stereo audio at 44.1 kHz. Please note that copying a long recording to the clipboard may take a short while. Please note that the sample rate in Phonem has to be set to 44.1 kHz to playback the audio with correct pitch. 11 File-Sharing To use file sharing, do the following steps: • • • • • • • Save your recording to a temporary file, using the Save command. Open iTunes on your computer. Under Devices, click on the iPad Go to the Apps tab Scroll down until you see File Sharing. Select Phonem from the list and you see temprec.wav You can Save the file to your computer from here. Recording MIDI If your Host sequencer supports MIDI recording, you may first record the MIDI notes, then do quantization and other editing, and then Freeze the track to save processing power. To record MIDI, you have to set the KEYS selector on the Setup page to Extern. Audiobus, IAA & AU Using Phonem with Audiobus Phonem supports Audiobus 2 with StateSaving, but there are some things to note. We found that performance is drastically reduced when using Audiobus. This results in a smaller number of voices you may play with Phonem. You can improve this a bit by setting the Latency Control to 512 samples. 12 Using Phonem with Inter-app Audio (IAA) PPG Phonem supports Inter-app audio (IAA). When you use Phonem in a Host app that features IAA, connect the Host with Phonem. Below you can see PPG Phonem(Inst) available within The DAW Auria. 13 Now you can play Phonem from inside the Host. You also can control the sequencer from inside Phonem. When you switch to the Phonem app, you find the IAA Transport panel. It has four buttons: Rewind, Play, Record and Host. You always can hide and show the panel by tapping on the recorder label. If your IAA Host supports MIDI recording, you have to set the KEYS selector to Extern. AU Extension The PPG Phonem AU Extension has the same audio engine as the full app, but due to the limited screen space only the most important editing capabilities. We recommend that you first get familiar with the full app and arrange the programs that you want to use in the sequencer project. The AUv3 host will always save the Full State of Phonem. Thus your last edited sound will automatically get saved with the host project. Besides that you still have the possibility to save the presets and the browser list, so you can load them back in the full app. 14 An example of using the AU extension can be seen below in the Host GarageBand. 15 The Schematic Keypad PPG Phonem comes with a schematic keypad that can be configured and used in various ways. Basically the keypads can be configured in two styles: the single row and the double row style. Additionally you may setup your own scales, like Pentatonic or Lydian or totally free. Setting up your own scales has some benefits: 1. Swiping your finger while in Multimode gives nice arpeggios on a predefined scale. 2. Playing in Legato mode, you can pitch bend the notes to certain intervals which you cannot do with a Pitch Wheel. 16 To design your scales, start with the full 12 key scale and then delete the notes you don't need. Use Reset to get all 12 notes back again, then select Edit from the mode menu and delete the keys you want by tapping on them. When finished, switch back to one of the play modes (See next page). To shift the keyboard up or down in octaves, use the +/- transpose buttons. Using copy and paste, you can easily change the keyboard for other presets. On the right side of the keypad you find the Audio recorder and a context menu. The recorder field also acts as a hold button. There are four play modes for the pads, which you select on the setup page. 17 The Timeline Page This is the page where you setup your speech utterance or filter effect. For normal speech you use the default excitation, which simulates the human speech organ. However, we found it very interesting to allow the use of wavetables as audio sources, which adds a whole new dimension to the system. Therefore the first page has two subpages, which you access using the TRACK and WAVE buttons (These subpages have their own help texts, but for now we'll stay on the PHONEM page). Speech synthesis basics In the PPG Phonem speech is synthesized by concatenating (or sequencing) short time frames of sound. These basic elements are called phonemes. Each phoneme is defined by a set of parameters, which you can setup by hand or select it from a library. Phonemes have standardized names like /aa/ in father and /oy/ in toy. 18 The signal flow of the synthesizer is basically a sound generator (Excitation) followed by a filter (Resonator). This filter simulates the vocal tract system. The vocal tract is the inner shape of our mouth, from the lips down to the throat, combined with the nasal tract. Different phonemes are articulated by changing the shape of the tract. This is done mainly by the tongue body, but also by other articulators like lips and velum The filter inside the PPG Phonem is a multi resonator, with 12 resonances. The lower resonances are known as formants, which mainly de ne the phoneme (/aa/, /uw/ etc) that we recognize. The upper resonances are unique to each person and are typical for that voice. In addition to the standard phonemes you can setup totally unnatural resonances or combine the resonances to form any kind of spectral shape. This gives interesting new sounds. The PPG Phonem has a very flexible sound generator (Excitation) for the voiced sounds (like /aa/, /uw/ and /nn/) and another one for the unvoiced (like /sh/ or /ff/). Different kinds of modulations make it possible to synthesize very natural sounding speech and vocals, but also new sound effects. The Excitation and the Resonator editors have context menus with extra help texts, which appear when you double-tap on them. Voices The PPG Phonem comes with several female and male voices. Each of these has its own directory and a library of phonemes. The phrase VOICE stands here for a character which is originally based on an analyzed voice of a human being. 19 Text To Speech There is a built in TTS (Text To Speech) system, which is based on the CMU Dictionary. This transfers the text into a phoneme string for American English. However you may generate the speech of other languages by using the GO PHON function (more on that later). First select the voice you would like to use (e.g. M1, see above), then click the NEW TXT button and enter a short text. When pressing the Return key, this text is translated into a string of phonemes, which is displayed in the second row. You also see the single frames in the timeline, separated by the blue lines, which show the merging curves from one phoneme into the next. Of course all these things can be altered and adjusted to get a certain style or expression. Note: the quality of the text to speech system depends mostly on the size of the library. Some voices like M2 are based on singers, which are more useful for different pitches of vowels and not so much for speech. The F1 and M1 voices are most appropriate for speech. Tap on a frame to see the underlying parameters in the Resonator and Excitation editors as well as the numeric values. These are: • • • • • • • LENGTH changes the length of the frame. If you want to move all the following frames as well, activate the SHIFT button. BLEND changes the blend time of the current frame to the next. STEEP changes the curve of the blend. CUTOFF changes the cutoff frequency of the phoneme. The frequencies below the cutoff are synthesized by the voice source (Excitation), the upper part by noise. For unvoiced phonemes the cutoff is set to 0, means that the complete spectrum is generated by noise. For voiced frames it is set to 1, resulting in a tonal spectrum. ASPIR (aspiration) gives the phoneme some roughness. FRICTV (fricative) de nes the gain of the noise part for unvoiced sounds. TRACE switches to a mode where you see the actual movements of the resonators and excitation curve, while playing a note. To insert a frame before the selected frame, or to delete the current frame from the string, use the context menu in the timeline. 20 To select different phonems from the library, the ACCESS MODE needs to be in another mode than Envelope, as then you see the PHONEMES panel. There is an extra help page on PHONEMES. Phonemes to speech directly You may edit the PHONEM string directly and synthesize speech with the GO PHON button. The example shows a German text featuring special phonems like /cx/ and /hx/. Transformation into another voice To do this, first select the target voice with the VOICE selector, then tap the TRANSF button. Access Mode and Markers 21 The ACCESS MODE determines how the material is synthesized and played. • • • • • • • • • Envelope - controlled by the Time Envelope. Markers - between markers. Complete - the complete utterance. Head - from beginning up to the selected frame. Tail - from selected frame up to end. Frame - the selected frame only. HostA - stops at each anchor point and waits for a host trigger. HostAS - like HostA but with speed control related to the BPM. HostAY - plays each marker interval in sync with the host. For details on the sync features, please read the information about The Marker Bar. The Phoneme Timeline In the Phoneme Timeline you select single or multiple phonemes for further processing. Tapping inside a frame selects a single phoneme. The parameters for a single frame are already explained in the Timeline help. You also can select multiple frames by sliding your finger to the right. A double-tap opens the context menu with the following functions: • • • • • Insert new - inserts a new empty phoneme before the selection. Delete - deletes the selected frames. Copy - copies the selection into the clipboard. Paste - pastes the clipboard content before the first frame of the selection. Help - shows this help text. 22 The LENGTH parameter changes the length of the selected phonme(s). When the SHIFT button is active, all following frames are moved as well. In the case of multi-selection, you also may change the excitation parameters, thus editing the gain and brightness of the selected frames. The Resonator Editor The most important part of the PPG Phonem is the Resonator Filter. It simulates the human vocal tract spectrum. Since this changes with time, all parameters of the resonator are controlled in realtime. The resonator bank consists of 12 single spectral peaks, which are totally independent. Each peak is controlled by 3 parameters: • • • Frequency (F) Gain (G) Quality (Q) You edit these by dragging the peaks around. When you touch a peak inside its body, you change the frequency and the gain. To change the quality, touch it above the peak and move. To get a feeling for these parameters, set the ACCESS MODE to Frame and select a Vowel (e.g. a /aa/) on the timeline. Now play and hold a note and move the control points around. For speech sounds the first two formants are the most important (These are the first two peaks on the left side which are connected with the white lines). The higher peaks are typical for each individual and thus for the selected voice. The white lines show the normal frequency positions of a average human being (not the gains). Note that these are different for female and male voices. There is one extra peak at a low frequency, which is added to give the voice more richness in the low spectrum. To adjust all peaks in gain at the same time tap on the scale (on the left side) und adjust to your needs. You may also note that the frequency scale is not linear, but has a warped scale which is more useful when editing speech phonemes. To get a feeling for the dynamics inside of an utterance, set the ACCESS MODE to Complete, activate the TRACE and play a note. Also try the other modes to understand how they work. In Markers mode, the synthesizer sustains on the second point. You may move that around while holding a note and check out more of the dynamics. It should be noted that the resonators effectively work on the sound for the voiced part only (not for the unvoiced). So it depends on the CUTOFF control of the frame, as to how much is tonal and how much of the spectrum is noise. 23 The Excitation Editor The Excitation Editor controls the spectrum and thus the sound of the generator which is fed into the resonator filter. This changes in realtime as the utterance is synthesized. The editor has three control points: Loudness, Tilt and Steepness. To get a feeling for these parameters, set the ACCESS MODE to Frame and select a Vowel (e.g. a /aa/) on the timeline. Then play and hold a note and move the control points up and down. The Phoneme Module This module is displayed in all ACCESS MODES, except the Envelope mode. All actions work on the currently selected frame in the timeline. With the PHONEME selector you select a phoneme for the frame or just change the name. This depends on the LOAD/NAME button. When it is set to NAME, only the name is changed and the reference points in the resonator editor (but not the phoneme itself). When it is set to LOAD, the system selects the best item from the library and loads it into the phoneme sequence. In the picture above, the diphthongs are shown. Note that these are double phonemes which fade into each other. Two frames are used to realize this. Similar to this are are the plosives. They consist of two parts: the closing and the opening. To change a plosive, you only select a new item in the first part. UFricative stands for unvoiced fricative. VFricative is the voiced version. The same with UPlosive and VPlosive. 24 We have added some special phonemes from both german and french languages. In French there are some nasals: /on/ /an/ and /en/, shown in the picture above. German and French have some special vowels: /oh/ /uy/ and /oe/ and semivowels /ly/ /ry/ and in german two more fricatives: /cx/ and /hx/. You find some examples in the Tutorial and Sound designer banks demonstrating that. There is a lot information available on phonetics on the internet. To change the phoneme of the active frame, use the LIBRARY ITEM selector. It brings up a dropdown list with all available items in the library. The second line of each entry shows in which context this phoneme is used in the original utterance. 25 E.g. "w-ah-n" means that the left partner of the /ah/ was a /w/ and the right one was an /n/. Usually items in the same context, that you need in your utterance, are the best choice. C3 is the pitch of the original utterance of that phoneme. (L20, 4) means that this item originates from the 20th utterance in the library and from the 4th frame in that utterance. You may also load a phoneme from a different library than the active one. To do this, first select the voice in the VOICE selector in the header bar. This loads that library and then you may select an item from there. Improving An Utterance When you create an utterance with the NEW TXT or the GO PHON function, you have a default which may or may not fulfill your needs. Natural sounding speech or vocals will always need a some manual adjustments. This is simply due to the complex nature of speech and hearing, and the feeling we get when we hear someone speak or sing. Here are some tips to improve your utterance: • Check the gains - set the ACCESS MODE to Frame and check the loudness of the voiced frames. Adjust the gain and the curve of the excitation control. • Adjust the formants of the vowels - the next important thing is the position of the first 3 formants. The first 2 are most important for the perception of the speech. These are the peaks with reference lines. The lowest peak (without reference) is not a formant. It is used to improve the low spectrum of the voice, which is most important for nasals. • Exchange single frames - If certain frames are too soft or do not fit in the word, try to select another one from the library using the phoneme selector (as described above). • Adjust the timing - the timing is very important for a natural sounding utterance. • Delete fxp pauses - in some cases it may be useful to remove a fxp frame, to make the speech more fluent. This is often the case when the pause is before or behind a plosive. • Adjust the blend curves - This will also improve the naturalness of the speech. e.g. if a new word starts with an /aa/ it is better to use a hard onset, by making the blend short. If it starts with a /v/ soft onsets are preferable. The blend inside a diphthong should be slow and linear. Do not try to make your speech too fast. If you need fast speech, use the envelope to control the speed or sync it with your DAW using the anchor points. 26 The Tracks Page This page features two track controllers, which can be used to give your utterances more naturalness. The first one is used to control the pitch. The second one can be routed in the matrix (on the parameter page in the matrix row TRACK) to give many interesting effects. The pitch controller can be disabled on the parameter page with the PITCH TRACK button. The points can be edited by moving in X and Y direction to change intensity and timing. The pitch controller has a touch bar on the right side, to shift the whole track up or down. Both controllers have context menus. 27 Some notes on pitch control When working in a AU host environment, you normally control the pitch by simple KeyOn/Off messages. This is quite inflexible for a vocal system. Even when you use a lot automation to modify the sound dynamically, it is hard to create interesting vocal melodies. In PPG Phonem you have some options to overcome this problem. • Using MONO mode. Select MONO in the keyboard controller and turn up the PORTAMENTO knob to get some smooth transitions between the notes. Use a proper ACCESS MODE, so that the note gets some sustain. You can switch the pitch track off if it doesn't fit to your needs. • Using HOST mode. In this mode you can use the pitch track but also get control from the host. This is already described on the timeline help page. • Adding Vibrato. The vibrato controller on the parameter page is designed to work in a suitable range for vocals. It has a delay control (the fourth parameter), to let it start some time after the KeyOn event. The Marker Bar The marker bar features three types of marks, depending on the ACCESS mode chosen. • • • Access marks - You use them when the ACCESS mode is set to Marker. Anchor points - These can be edited when you are in Host A or Host AY modes. Quarter bar scale - This is a scale which is displayed when in Host A or Host AS modes. Access marks There are two points which you can position on the bar. When playing the synthesizer, only this range of the phonemes are synthesized. This is quite helpful when adjusting only a part of the whole utterance. Anchor points These marks serve as points which help you synchronize your text and melody with the host timing. There are three host modes available in the ACCESS mode menu: • • • Host A - stops at each anchor point and waits for a host trigger. Host AS - like HostA but with speed control related to the BPM setting. Host AY- plays each marker interval in sync with the host (details below). Please note that all three modes only work in MIDI MONO mode. 28 Host AY mode (anchor sync) We'll start with this mode because it is the easiest to work with. Each marker interval is played with a speed that is needed to run in sync with the host quarter-bars. So it doesn't matter how long the distances between the anchors are, it will always take the Q-BAR time to play it. The start again depends on the timing of the KeyOn event. Since many utterances start with a soft onset, it is necessary to set the KeyOn point before the start of the first bar. In this case it is useful to set a first anchor short behind the start. This first small interval is ignored by the system. To check this out, please try the Sync test preset from the Tutorials bank. In Host A mode the first KeyOn starts the utterance and plays up to the first anchor point. It stays there until the next KeyOn event comes from the host. In this mode, the host also may change the pitch of the single segments. This depends on the setting of the P-TRACK switch (on the parameters page). When the pitch track is enabled, the synthesizer plays the pitch of that controller and ignores the key of the trigger. When disabled, the pitch track is ignored and the host keys are played. 29 Quarter bar scale A scale is displayed which you can adjust with the BPM setting for the utterance. This is useful when your utterance is already musically aligned. When playing in your DAW, the Q-bars of the host will control the speed of Phonem and thus plays in sync. The start of the audio is always triggered by a KeyOn event. Finally, one note on programming fast speech with PPG Phonem. It is not recommended to make the phoneme times too small. Instead set them up in normal size and use the speed control to get the desired timing. The Pitch Controller lets you setup a pitch curve that can be used to control the pitch track of the utterance. You switch this On/Off with the P-Track button on the Parameters page. The points can be edited in X and Y direction to change pitch and timing. You can alter the shape of the transitions by using the BLEND and STEEP knobs. Use the CENT knob to fine tune the pitch points. Please note that the editing of the timing also depends on the state of the SHIFT button. When active, you change the overall length of the utterance. The pitch controller has a touch bar on the right side, to transpose the whole track up or down. There is a context menu in this controller, which you activate with a double-tap. 30 The Wave Page To give the PPG Phonem more flexibility in the excitation signal, we added a basic wavetable system. Similar to the PHONEM page, the WAVE page has a timeline which shows the content of a wavetable or TCS (time corrected sample) like we have in the PPG WaveMapper. You can construct your own wave resources on this page and also use resources from the WaveGenerator or WaveMapper. 31 Phonem works with wave resources. You can save them and collect your favorites in a folder to use them in different presets. But you don't have to do that. If you don't save them manually the system saves it together with the program. You have the BASE selector for the directory and a selector for the resource. You can create new wavetables using the NEW WAVE button. The ACCESS MODE for the Waves is similar to the one on the PHONEM page. On the right side you find the context menu with the standard tools. The wave display has three functions which react in different parts of the display: • • • Marker - you set and move two markers by tapping in the top third of the display. Scroll / Zoom - you do in the middle strip of the display. Frame select - can be done in the lower third. The Spectrum Editor Below the timeline the most important controller is the Spectrum Editor. It shows 64 bars which represent the harmonic content of a single wave. The editor has two EDIT MODES • • Pick - you always stay on the harmonic with which you started. Draw - allows you to draw multiple bars. You can alter the sounds in two ways, according to the MODE. The modes work as follows: • • Frame - the changes you make only affect the selected frame. All - all frames of the resource are changed. 32 Importing resources You may use your resources from PPG WaveGenerator or WaveMapper in Phonem. Go to one of these apps using the GO WG or GO WM buttons. Select a wavetable or TCS you like to transfer to Phonem. In WaveGenerator you find a new entry in the tools menu on the wave page: Export. In WaveMapper on the OSC page you find the same in the context menu. Tapping on it brings you back to Phonem and the new resource is loaded and can be used. 33 The Parameter Page Whilst the timeline page works mainly on the resources, this page edits the program parameters. The Main parameters 34 Here you find the most important parameters grouped in modules. • • • • • • • • • • • • • PORTAM - portamento time OCT - octave switch BEAT - simulates the beating of 3 oscillators SPEED - the speed of the beating S-LOW - the speed in the low pitch range COLOR - the noise color MIX - balance between noise and tonal gains BEND - the resonances of the filter are compresses or widened Q - the Q (quality - which is the width) of the peaks DRIVE - overdrive/distortion at the end of the audio path VOLUME - total volume of the synthesizer PITCH TRACK - use the pitch track of the resource or the ROOT KEY SONG MODE - in SONG mode the synthesizer plays multiple utterances in sequence It should be noted that all parameters react finer on the vertical finger movement, when you move the finger more to the right. The opposite is also true when you move to the left. A double-tap resets the parameter to its neutral position. Noise in Phonem To understand the noise related parameters, you have to understand how noise is generated in Phonem. Basically each Phoneme (each frame in the timeline) has its own noise event. For Fricatives and voiceless Phonemes, this is defined by the internal phonemes library. For the vowels (who normally have no noise) this is undefined in the library. However you may generate noise in that parts also, by using the Calc Noise function from the context menu on the PHONEM page. When that is done, you can use the Voice Cutoff columns (marked with C) in the matrix to generate sounds like whisper or noise effects. As examples, please have a look how these presets are setup: Pure Breath or Noise or F1 hohuahou and changing the X-position of the top XY controller. The Song mode When SONG mode is switched on, the synthesizer plays the utterances of the following presets one after the other, enabling you to play a whole song. We recommend setting up a browser list for one song. As an example, see the list from Bjoern Eilertson. 35 The Envelope controller The PPG Phonem comes with 6 envelopes. The Time Envelope can be used for time-stretching, forward/backward playing, freeze effects or just playing portions of the material. To use this envelope the ACCESS MODE on the PHONEM page must be set to Envelope. The Gain Envelope controls the loudness contour of the synthesizer. The Wave Envelope is similar to the Time Envelope, but works on the wave material. To use this envelope the ACCESS MODE on the WAVE page must be set to Envelope. The Envelopes Mod1 - Mod3 are general purpose envelopes, which you may route through the matrix to achieve various effects. More on that below. The LFO controller The PPG Phonem comes with 3 vocal related and 4 general purpose LFOs (low frequency oscillators). There is an extra help page on this, which you reach through the context menu. The Matrix The Matrix is the main routing device in PPG Phonem. You can modulate all important parameters of the synth-engine by all possible controllers. On the left side you have the matrix inputs and on the top are the outputs with a gain slider for each output. 36 Moving your finger horizontally inside the matrix field selects a column and shows a tooltip with the full name of the control. Moving your finger vertically inside the labels selects a row and sets the connection. To erase a connection, move all the way down or up. Moving inside the slider area sets that slider value. A double tap on in the fader area resets it to the neutral position. Description of the matrix inputs (which are the control sources) • • • • • • • CONST - This uses a constant value as source. PITCH - The Pitch Wheel of your MIDI controller. MOD - The Modulation Wheel of your MIDI controller. CX - X-Sensor of the schematic keypads + MIDI Aftertouch. CY- Y-Sensor of the schematic keypads + Velocity + MIDI-Breath. KEY- The MIDI key. This allows you to balance the desired effect over the keyboard. TRACK - The TRACK controller signal of the TRACK page. • • • • XY1-X : X direction of the first XY controller (top). XY1-Y : Y direction of the first XY controller (top). XY2-X : X direction of the second XY controller (bottom). XY2-Y : Y direction of the second XY controller (bottom). • • • • ENV M1 : The Mod1 envelope. ENV M2 : The Mod2 envelope. ENV M3 : The Mod3 envelope. ENV WV : The Wave envelope. • • • • LFO1 : The LFO 1 signal. LFO2 : The LFO 2 signal. LFO3 : The LFO 3 signal. LFO4 : The LFO 4 signal. 37 Description of the matrix outputs (which are the control inputs of the synthesizer engine). Most of them have two faders, so you can use two signals to modulate them. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • B = Bend : This spreads the Formants up and down O = Offset : Offsets all Formants Q = Quality : The sharpness of the resonator peaks 1-2 = F1 - F2 spread : only F1 and F2 are spread C = Cutoff : The voiced/unvoiced cutoff frequency G = Glottal : controls the dynamic of the glottal/generator F = Fry : controls the vocal fry effect A = Aspiration : The aspiration of the voice M = Mod : a frequency modulation R = Rough : controls the roughness of the voice U = Utterance position : an additional position control W = Wave position : an additional position control V = Volume : The overall output volume S = Stereo : The panning of the stereo output N = Noise : The noise intensity P = Pitch : The pitch L1 = LFO1 : i=intensity, f=frequency L2 = LFO2 : i=intensity, f=frequency L3 = LFO3 : i=intensity, f=frequency L4 = LFO4 : i=intensity, f=frequency The best way to check out the various effects of the control parameters is to set all columns to CONST and play with the faders. You find a macro in the tools menu Set Const. 38 The X/Y controller These two controllers help you to change the various parameters in an effective way. The header bar shows the current values and the active routing of the X and Y directions. A double-tap resets this controller. The LFO module In PPG Phonem you may use up to seven independent LFOs. In the dropdown lists you find short descriptions on how each LFO is used as default. The special vocal oriented devices Vibrato, Flutter and Growl are always routed internally to achieve the appropriate effect. The 4 LFOs are general purpose and can be routed in the matrix. 39 The Vibrato generator Here you have the following parameters: • • • • Gain - controls the intensity of the vibrato. S-Var - adds a variation to the speed, which makes it more natural. Speed - controls the vibrato speed. Delay - delays the onset of the vibrato. The Flutter generator Flutter adds some irregularity to speech which makes it sound more natural. You can check it out e.g. in the preset F2 aa. It is controlled by three parameters: • • • Gain - controls the intensity of the effect. S-Var - adds a variation to the speed, which makes it more natural. Speed - controls the average speed. 40 The Growl generator Growl is another effect which is inserted into the matrix at various points. Here you have the following parameters: • • • Gain - controls the intensity of the effect. S-Var - adds a variation to the speed, which makes it more natural. Speed - controls the growl speed. The LFOs (Low Frequency Oscillator) Here you have the following parameters and modes: • • • • Gain - controls the intensity of the LFO. Shape - adjusts the pulse width or a equivalent depending on the shape selection. Speed - controls the vibrato speed. Offset - defines an offset to the waveform. 41 Most parameters can be controlled directly in the LFO display. The area is divided into a left and right half in which you can move horizontally and vertically. A double-tap in the left area opens the SHAPE menu, in the right area the SYNC menu. Thus the SPEED can be synchronized with your DAW or host software. The Envelope In Phonem you may use up to six independent Envelopes. In the dropdown lists you will find short descriptions on how each envelope is used as default. The envelope types The envelopes can be configured as normal ADSR type envelopes or as an endless looping type. In the loop mode, the envelope goes into decay and then rises again to a second peak level, where it decays again and so on. However not all envelopes have this feature. e.g. the gain envelope must always decay to zero after some time, so it doesn't have the loop mode. For the wave controls, a loop can be very useful, as it creates a lively sustain sound, like a sampler does when it loops. You can activate the loop via the context menu, in the envelope module. The control points The envelope has 3 to 5 control points, dependent on its mode. If you select the Gain envelope, you see only the normal three control points needed for an ADSR envelope. With the peak you control the Attack time. The second point controls the Sustain and the decay time. The third point controls the release time. If you look at the Time controller envelope, you have 4 points, as long as it has no loop. 42 Additional to the normal ADSR, you have a point at time zero. This point shifts the base level of the envelope up and down, which is very important for the wave control because you don't have an extra base parameter there. You may even move this point higher than the peak! Which then inverts the envelope. The 4th point behaves differently to the usual ADSR. You may move this point up and down, but it acts somewhat different to the usual zero point. Now if you are in loop mode, you have 5 points. The 4th point controls the width of the loop and the 5th point offers a random component to the loop. If you move point 5 up, the random effect increases. Move it down and you get more regular periods. Just try it out. Besides all this, there are control points between the main points which let you bend the envelope curves. Notice the active point is always highlighted. In addition to the control points in the envelope graph, numerical value inputs for high-precision setup of the parameters are available. These controls are connected to the current active point in the envelope display. The envelope time scale automatically changes according to the release endpoint. The end time of the scale is shown in the little TIME field in the top right corner. Each envelope has its own velocity attenuator, which you may adjust in the frame of the envelope display. The velocity is controlled either by external MIDI keyboard or by the vertical position where you tap the key. The Curve Controller lets you setup a control curve that can be used to control various modulations and will be routed in the matrix on the Paras page. The points can be edited by moving in X and Y direction to change intensity and timing. There is a context menu in this controller, which you activate with a double-tap on the curve. 43 The Effects Panel Here you find 3 effects which are located at the end of Phonems' audio path. The Reverb and the Delay can be bypassed with the blue buttons. The master panel includes an overdrive effect at the very end. The Reverb You setup the characteristics of the reverb with the SIZE, DAMP and WIDTH parameters. The MIX controls the ratio between original signal and reverb. The Delay The Delay is very useful when you sync Phonem to your host. To do so, select a quarter-bar ratio from the SYNC MODE drop down list. 44 The Keys/Pads Panel Here you find the Pitch Wheel Interval (PWI) and the keypads settings. The PLAY MODE defines how the synthesizer react on the keypad touches. There are four modes: • • • • • PoIy - all voices can be played polyphonically. MIDI ModWheel (CC1) is routed to all CY modulations and BreathController (CC2) to the CX mods. Mono - works in a monophonic mode, like on vintage synths which had only one voice. This gives interesting effects when you setup your oscillators with PORTAMENTO. In this case only one voice is used. MIDI CCs work the same way as in Poly. Legato - the played notes can be individually bend to other notes by moving in X-direction. Multi - here all voices are triggered while you swipe over the Pads. VPC - this stands for Voice per Channel, and is quite special but very versatile. In this mode each voice may use a different MIDI channel and reacts only on this channel after the trigger. Some hardware controllers use this mode. The Properties Panel Here you setup the Category and Rating of the current preset. To edit the program name use the PRESET NAME button. Please note that these changes are reflected in the browser list only after you save the program. 45 The Setup Page The Global Module This module lets you setup your basic system parameters, like total tuning and number of voices. You should also enter your personal signature, which will be shown in the sound programs you create. VOICES The maximum number of voices you can play is limited by the system power. If you experience dropouts or clicks in the audio signal, please lower this value. We also recommend to use audio buffer sizes not less than 512 samples. HAND You can change the behavior of some controllers with this mode. It also sets the keyboard orientation. The octave buttons move to the other side of the keyboard, when you change the handed mode. In the context menu you find a warning switch, which lets you enable or disable the warning messages when an unsaved program needs to be saved. After installation this mode is set to display the warning. When you got familiar with this you may prefer to get rid of this message. 46 MIDI MIDI input PPG Phonem has two MIDI inputs. One is exposed to other apps, the other is active only if you select a MIDI source with the PORT selector. It depends on the other app you use, which method is best and possible. Some sequencer apps show a list of MIDI inputs and you can select which one should play the sequence. Other apps just expose their MIDI out and you must select that one in Phonems' SOURCE selector. MIDI mode Here you find 4 modes: Omni, Mono, Poly and VPC. • • • • Omni - this is the simplest one. It reacts on any channel and uses all available voices. Mono - uses only one voice on one channel, and works like an analog monophonic keyboard does. It only has a gate (no multi trigger). This means that if you play legato, you don't get a new trigger for the note. This gives some nice possibilities, especially when combined with sounds that use portamento (see the Osc. Glide parameters). Poly - uses all voices, but only on one channel. Use the Channel control for that. Note that 0 means off. VPC - this stands for Voice per Channel, and is quite special but very versatile. In this mode each voice may use a different channel, and reacts only on this channel after the trigger. This can be very interesting in sequence, where you could setup tracks with different channels and use the pitch wheel and CO1 and CO2 controllers to individually form the sounds. There are also some hardware controllers supporting this, and some iPad apps. The MIDI mode is contained in Phonems' programs. For users with hardware controllers it may be more convenient to have the MODE fixed for a session. In that case you may activate the GLOBAL switch. Then the MODE stays as it is, independent of the preset. MIDI receive channel Use this setting to filter incoming MIDI events. This works only in Mono and Poly mode. When in Omni or VPC mode, all channels work on all voices. MIDI Mod-wheel is routed to the CY control and channel aftertouch to CX. If you use MIDI via the Network, ensure that the iPad is connected (settings -> bluetooth), not forgetting your host as well. MIDI output PPG Phonem features 2 MIDI outputs. One is virtual and may be connected by another app. The other one can directly be connected through the TARGET selector. The SEND CHANNEL defines the channel on which Phonem will send out MIDI data. 47 The KEYS switch determines the keyboard and controller action. Intern - the keyboard controls only the internal synthesizer. No MIDI is sent out in this case. Extern - the keyboard and the controllers are sent through MIDI, there is no internal connection to the synth. Both - the keyboard controls the internal synthesizer and also sends out MIDI. The CY selector defines what will be sent out on the CY sensor. Please note that MIDI is only send when the Keys switch is set to Extern or Both. MIDI control values (CC = continuous controllers) are sent when the KEYS selector is set to Extern or Both on the Settings page. They will be received always. Due to the limit of 127 and the many predefined CCs, only a small set of Phonem parameters could be routed to CCs. When the MIDI mode is set to VpC, there are some special routings, which are very useful for controlling Phonem from the Linnstrument or the Seaboard. You have the following connections: • • • CC #1 -> CY CC #74 -> CY Aftertouch -> CX Please note that CC's will change the current program parameters. Performance Controllers CC# DESTINATION 001 CY controller 002 CX controller 003 004 005 006 007 Master Volume 008 009 010 011 Expression 012 013 014 Reverb Mix 015 Delay Mix 016 XY Pad 1 – X 017 XY Pad 1 - Y 018 XY Pad 2 - X 019 XY Pad 2 - Y 48 Main Parameters CC# DESTINATION 020 Portamento 021 OSC Octave 022 OSC Beat Speed 023 OSC Beat Intensity 024 OSC Beat Intensity Low End 025 Noise Color 026 Noise / Tonal Mix 027 Formant Bend 028 Formant Q 029 Overdrive 030 Reverb Freeze Vibrato CC# DESTINATION 070 Speed 071 Intensity 072 Speed Variation 073 Intensity Variation Growl Generator CC# DESTINATION 074 Speed 075 Speed Variation 076 Intensity Variation LFO 1 Parameters CC# DESTINATION 085 Intensity 086 Shape 087 Speed LFO 2 Parameters CC# DESTINATION 088 Intensity 089 Shape 090 Speed 49 LFO 3 Parameters CC# DESTINATION 091 Intensity 092 Shape 093 Speed Time Envelope CC# DESTINATION 102 A 103 D 104 S 105 R 106 Base 107 Peak Gain Envelope CC# DESTINATION 108 A 109 D 110 S 111 R Wave Envelope CC# DESTINATION 112 A 113 D 114 S 115 R 116 Base 117 Peak 50 Manual by Nick Trass © 2016 PPG, Wolfgang Palm, Hamburg, Germany PPG on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PPGWavegenerator Wolfgang Palm website: http://www.wolfgangpalm.com 51