Symptohm Reference Manual

Transcript

Symptohm Reference Manual Symptohm Manual v1.14 c OHM FORCE 2000-2005. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MANUAL IS COPYRIGHT NO PART MAY BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION. VST TECHNOLOGY BY STEINBERG MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES AG. ALL TRADEMARKS ACKNOWLEDGED. CHAPTER 1 Getting Started Thank you for purchasing Symptohm. An Audio-Unit host is required to operate the plugin, like Logic, Digital Performer, Live or Garage Band. [ PC Requirements ] Contents 1. 2. 3. 4. Structure of this book . . . . . . . Features and Requirements . . . Installing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1. Installing on Windows . . 3.2. Installing on MacOS X . . 3.3. Installing Audio Unit Presets First Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 1. Structure of this book This manual is divided into 7 sections: I Getting Started explains how to install Symptohm and get it working, I User Interface Features rounds up the user interface features of Symptohm and covers Automation and MIDI topic, I Using the Effect shows you how to operate Symptohm, I Settings File Reference explains the syn- tax and use of a Settings File, I Symptohm Default MIDI Mapping gives the informations necessary to control Symptohm using MIDI, I Version Notes summarize the difference from one version of Symptohm to another, I FAQ gives you some helpful informations on how to troubleshoot your plugin. 2. Features and Requirements Symptohm is the award-winning multiband compression and distortion effect. It is available in two interfaces, the Classic Skin and the Funky Skin. You will need at least 64 MBytes of RAM, 25 MBytes on your hard-drive and a G4-compatible CPU. It requires MacOS 10.1 or higher, but MacOS 10.2 at least is strongly recommended. 3. Installing 3.1. Installing on Windows Run the installer, a .exe file whose exact name depends on the version you got. Follow the on-screen instructions carefully. First, you will have to choose between two interface skins. Please choose one; it will be possible to change it later by installing the software again. You will be prompted to enter both your User Name and Key Code. They have been sent to you by email or can be found on your printed manual if you bought a boxed version. Please enter those two fields carefully, preferably using copy/paste to avoid typos. Then you will be prompted to choose one or more installation path, depending on the plug-in version you are installing. 3.2. Installing on MacOS X The plugin is delivered as a downloadable .dmg file. Almost every internet browser will open the file right away, mounting a disk on your desktop. If not, please locate the .dmg file and double click it. The disk contains: I This manual, I The installer named Symptohm Installer, I A folder containing a collection of presets to the Audio Unit presets formats for the Audio Unit installer only. To install Symptohm, double click the installer icon. Before the installer can copy its file, it needs to have the right administrative permissions to do it. Therefore the first window coming up ask for your password if you have admin rights on the machine as follow: 2 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 Installing them depend on the host you use. Please refer to your host manual to install them manually. 4. First Use If you don’t have admin rights on the machine, please contact your administrator. The next screen is the plugin installer. Please follow the on-screen instructions carefully. You will have to choose between Classic Skin and Funky Skin (they cannot be both installed), and you will be prompted to enter your User Name and Key Code. Open your favorite audio host and put Symptohm as an insert effect on an audio track. A good way of getting a feel for Symptohm is to try the factory presets. You will find a frame with numbered buttons in it. Click on each button to audition a factory preset. Turn the knobs by clicking on them and dragging the mouse vertically. If your mouse suddenly goes mad, don’t call the cat, stay calm and locate teh Setup button. Click on it to open the menu and unselect Enhanced Mouse Mode. This may happen with some mice, graphic tablets or trackball devices. They have been sent to you by e-mail or can be found on your printed manual if you bought a boxed version. Please enter those two fields carefully, preferably using copy/paste to avoid typos. 3.3. Installing Audio Unit Presets You will find a folder containing a collection of presets in the Audio Unit format. 3 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 CHAPTER 2 User Interface Features Each Ohm Force plug-in shares several common features. These are explained below. Contents 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Preset Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1. Presets / Memorise . . . . 1.2. Transition time . . . . . . . 1.3. Load / Save Bank . . . . . Using Knobs and Faders . . . . . 2.1. Direct action . . . . . . . . 2.2. Side-clicks . . . . . . . . . 2.3. Linked Knobs . . . . . . . Parameter Information and Modulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1. Parameter . . . . . . . . . 3.2. Tempo Control . . . . . . . 3.3. LFO (Low Frequency Oscillator) . . . . . . . . . . . Automation . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1. Support . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2. DirectX Limitations . . . . 4.3. VST and AU Limitations . . MIDI Support . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.1. Selecting MIDI Ports . . . 5.2. Binding Parameters to MIDI Controls . . . . . . . 5.3. Saving and Loading the MIDI Configuration . . . . 5.4. About Control Change (CC) Messages . . . . . . 5.5. Unbind . . . . . . . . . . . 5.6. Old erroneous NRPN behaviour . . . . . . . . . . . 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 7 7 8 8 8 9 9 9 9 1.1. Presets / Memorise To activate a Preset simply click on any of the eight Preset buttons. Having edited the on-screen parameters you may wish to memorise your new settings. To do so, click once on the Store (or M) button; it will light up. Clicking on the Preset button in which you wish to store your settings saves your Preset. To return to Preset select mode, turn off the Store (M) button by clicking it once. 1.2. Transition time This knob enables you to vary the time the plug-in will take to Morph between two Presets. The time, measured in seconds, is displayed beside it. By default, the duration is set to 1 second. Set it to 0 if you want the Preset applied instantaneously — without Morphing. The Melohman plug-ins will not morph between presets when using the Presets buttons. The morphing between Presets is done using the Melohman octave instead. 1.3. Load / Save Bank 1. Preset Panel There are eight Preset memory allocations. A group of eight Presets can be saved as a Preset-Bank to your hard disk. These Preset-Banks are multi-platform, thus enabling you to load your Presets into any sequencer, or even on another computer. You can also adjust the speed at which the knobs and sliders move from the current setting to the new one. Use these two buttons to Save and Load your PresetBanks to and from the hard disk. A Preset-Bank contains eight Presets. Loading a Preset-Bank will not modify the current settings until you select a new Preset. There are many Presets bundled with your plug-ins. Use the Presets as the basis from which to create your desired sound. 2. Using Knobs and Faders All the knobs and the faders work the same way. There are two modes: direct action and slide-clicks. 4 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 2.1. Direct action You can move a Knob by clicking on it (click on the slider part of a Fader) and then keeping the button pressed while moving the mouse up or down. Each button has a preferred direction for the mouse movement: vertical for Knobs and, according to orientation, for the Faders. If you move the mouse in the preferred direction, the Knob will turn quickly. However, if you move your mouse in the perpendicular direction i.e. horizontally for Knobs, the movement will be slow and very accurate. Some Knobs have notches which lock to certain values. It is possible, however, to set the Knob position between two notches by moving the mouse in the perpendicular direction, as mentioned above. 2.2. Side-clicks The Knob is divided into two zones on which you can click to turn it to the right or to the left. For Faders, the two zones are on either side of the slider. For Knobs, they are positioned at 4:30 and 7:30 on dial. The Knobs will move slowly if you click and hold on these zones without moving the mouse. This enables you to make very small adjustments to settings with ease. If you click on this zone then move the mouse without releasing it, the Knob will move automatically, and keep moving even after you have released it. The further you move the mouse, the faster the Knob will move. To stop the movement, just click on the Knob again. This is especially useful during live sessions, as you can have many parameters shifting at the same time without having to use the Preset Morphing feature. 2.3. Linked Knobs Most Ohm Force plug-ins allow some Knobs to be linked as they control similar parameters. For instance the parameters of the two OhmBoyz’s delay lines can be linked. This means that you can alter a parameter in both Line 1 and Line 2 at the same time — with a single click. To do so, you have to click on the parameter with the right mouse-button (click while holding the Control key on Macintosh systems with a single-button mouse). The Knobs in both channels will now move in unison. If you hold the Shift key and click on the right mouse-button, both Knobs move at the same time but keep their own original gap. For instance, if the original value of the first Knob is 10% and the original value of the second Knob is 50%, when you increase the value of the first Knob to 30%, you will increase the value of the second knob up to 70% at the same time. You can undo the movement of the slave Knob(s) by performing a right mouse click while holding the Control key (the Command key on Macintosh). 3. Parameter Information and Modulation 3.1. Parameter This contextual display shows details of the selected parameter. I Name Name of the selected parameter. I Value This is the parameter value ex- pressed in the selected unit (BPM or Hz). You can edit this value by clicking on it. Press Return to validate your change or Escape to cancel it. 3.2. Tempo Control Because many plugin applications are related to music and 5 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 therefore rhythm, it is necessary to be able to synchronise with the tempo of the host application. Some host programs can automatically synchronize the plug-in’s internal tempo with their own tempo. Alternatively, you can change the tempo by clicking on the buttons to the right of the numeric display. You can also type into the numeric display itself. Note that when the host controls the tempo, you won’t be able to set the plug-in tempo by yourself. Tempo control is available on most Ohm Force plug-ins. Frohmage and Predatohm have no time-sensitive parameters therefore there is no requirement for this feature. I Waveform This parameter defines the shape of the oscillations. Seven of the shapes are classic, the three others are random oscillators. I Sine It is the default waveform. LFO sweeps smoothly back and forth. I Triangle LFO travels linearly between two extreme points. I Square LFO stays for one half-period at the maximum point, then for the other half-period at the minimum point. I Ramp up Travels from the minimum point to the maximum one in a linear fashion. I 3.3. LFO (Low Frequency Oscillator) Ramp down Like Ramp up, but in the other direction. I Cos up A bit like Ramp up, but the LFO goes and arrives more gently at the extreme points (a kind of shelf). I Most of the Ohm Force plug-ins come with a modulation unit: the LFO. This is an oscillator producing a signal usually below the audio frequency range. This signal additively modulates the parameter with which it is associated, causing it to oscillate around a central value. This is useful for creating vibratos, tremolos or panoramic rotations, along with more unusual effects. Like the Parameter display, the LFO display is activated when a parameter that has an associated LFO is selected. direction. I Period This is the time taken for one LFO oscillation (the length of the wave). LFOs are synchronised to the tempo value to keep them in time with the music. I Amplitude This is the amplitude of the oscillations (the height of the wave). A 0% setting means that the LFO will not affect the sound. Random steps When a period starts, the LFO generates random values which it keeps constant until the end of that period. I Brown noise LFO value changes ran- domly, combining wide, slow moves with small, fast oscillations. With a very long period, this kind of LFO is perfect for giving a parameter a natural, nervous, random variation. I I Cos down Like Cos up, but in the other Red noise Somewhat like Brown Noise, but fast variations are damped, generating even smoother random walks. 4. Automation 4.1. Support Every parameter, including modulation settings (LFOs, etc. . . ) is potentially automatable on the RTAS, MAS, VST and 6 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 AudioUnit platforms. However depending on your host’s capabilities, you may be restricted to only 16 fixed parameters, or even have no automation capability at all. Check the host’s reference manual to find out how to automate a parameter. Digital Performer and ProTools display on the plug-in interface itself which parameters are currently automated. A green triangle on a Knob indicates that the automation is playing, and a red disc shows automation being recorded. 4.2. DirectX Limitations If unhappy with the provided configuration file, you can make your own: first save the current plug-in configuration using Settings/Save (eg. my settings.cfg.txt). Then load it into a text editor, along with easy vst automation.cfg.txt so you can take have a reference to work with. You can see that a configuration file is made of keys. They have a name and a content, which can be made of other keys, a recursive structure known as a tree in scientific circles. Key name and content are separated by an equals sign (=), and complex key contents are enclosed by brackets. The DirectX version does not support automation and DXi features yet, please use MIDI automation instead. 4.3. VST and AU Limitations Some host applications, such as Apple’s Logic Audio or earlier versions of Steinberg Cubase VST, have several limitations regarding VST plug-in automation. They can handle only a few parameters, which is unfortunate as some Ohm Force plugins have hundreds. As a consequence, some important parameters cannot be automated. It is possible to get around this by using MIDI commands. To alleviate this problem, we give you the option of changing the order in which the VST parameters are presented to the host. We should warn you that this section is rather technical. You have two ways to proceed: you can either use the provided configuration file or make your own from scratch. To load the provided configuration file, activate the Settings/Load item in the Setup menu. Locate the file easy vst automation.cfg.txt in your effect’s installation folder and open it. This configuration file was made to move the most important parameters to the top of the VST list so that they can be automated. The provided configuration file will be a lot smaller than your own one. This is because it is a partial configuration, whereas yours is a complete one. Suppress some irrelevant subkeys (the MIDI section, for example) in order to make the two files look more alike. Yours will inevitably remain longer. Let’s focus on the parameter reorder mapkey. You’ll see several parameter names as the file you have just saved contains all potential plug-in parameters. Move the parameters you want to automate to the top of the list. You can specify a particular order for the other parameters if you want to, or you can simply suppress them. This does not mean that they will not appear any more, or become unavailable for automation. When loading the configuration file, the plug-in will automatically find the best mapping for the suppressed parameters. Once you have finished sorting the parameters, save your work and load your configuration file into the plug-in. Activate Settings/Autoload so that the settings file you just load is automatically loaded each time the plug-in is opened. 7 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 If you created settings before applying the Mapping file, you should save them into an internal Preset, as described in the Preset section of this manual. You should not use the VST host’s presets anymore because they will be completely reordered after the change. Instead, apply your saved internal Ohm Force Preset to restore your sound. Fortunately, new Presets you make after the change can be stored in VST format and reloaded. 5. MIDI Support You can also use MIDI commands to control the plug-in parameters. MIDI can even replace automation, because not only can the plug-ins receive MIDI commands, they can also transmit them. The effects are in “Omni”mode, meaning they can receive MIDI commands from any channel. However, all commands are sent via Channel 1. Commands can be regular CC (Continuous Controllers), or RPN and NRPN (NonRegistered Parameter Numbers). The decision as to whether to use CC or NRPN will depend upon the capabilities of your MIDI device. CC is commonly used by hardware devices, but NRPN has a higher resolution. The factory MIDI settings use NRPN, but it is possible to change the mapping at any time. The default mapping for Symptohm is listed in the Symptohm default MIDI mapping chapter of this manual. 5.1. Selecting MIDI Ports Depending on your host, your MIDI devices and your system settings, you may have more than one MIDI port available for MIDI input and output. It is possible to select which ‘virtual’ port you wish to use for receiving and sending MIDI events. To choose the input port — the one from which MIDI data is received by the plugin — click on the Setup button, go to the MIDI/Input device menu and select the one you want. Do the same thing to select the output port, except, of course, you will need to click MIDI/Output device. The selected MIDI port will be ticked in the menu. You can only use one input and one output port at any one time. Only one MIDI Input device is available for Audio Unit plug-ins. No MIDI output device is available for Audio Unit plug-ins. If the connection fails, it is usually because the port you selected is already in use by another application — most likely the host itself. In this case, check your host’s operating manual to see if it is possible to free up the port. 5.2. Binding Parameters to MIDI Controls The easiest way to Bind a parameter with a specific MIDI controller knob or fader (or any MIDI Control Change) is to use the Auto-bind feature. First, activate the Auto-bind mode by checking MIDI/Autobind in the Setup menu. If you have already selected a parameter its name will be displayed in brackets in the menu, like this: Auto-bind [target: Volume]. If not, click on the Knob you want to bind to a MIDI control message. Only the last one selected will be taken into account for Binding. Once you have chosen the parameter, send a MIDI event to the plug-in (for example, turn a knob on your external MIDI controller). It can be a simple CC, an RPN or an NRPN command. As soon as the event is received, the connection is created automatically, and the MIDI command will remain associated with this parameter. Only one parameter can be bound to each MIDI command, and visa versa. If you want to 8 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 Bind more parameters, repeat the procedure: select another parameter, and send another MIDI event. Do not forget to exit the Auto-bind mode, by un-checking the corresponding entry in the Setup menu, when you have finished. 5.3. Saving and Loading the MIDI Configuration If you have numerous parameters to Bind each time you want to use the plug-in, you can save the configuration for later use. Currently selected ports will also be saved. To do so, select Settings/Save in the Setup menu. You can restore the settings at any time by selecting Settings/Load. the MIDI configuration is not stored in Presets, and therefore is not saved with the host song. You will have to load the settings manually after having loaded a song on your host application. The true tech freaks among you will notice one can open the saved file in a text editor and tweak the configuration from there. It is also possible to build partial configurations by only keeping a couple of the ‘keys’. The content syntax is covered in the Settings File Reference chapter of this manual. (97), nor you can use RPN and NRPN Parameters 98, 99, 100 and 101, because they are used for RPN and NRPN coding. I It is possible, but not advisable, to use the fine tuned section at the lower end of the controller range (32 to 63). This will work, but if plug-in parameters are assigned to coarse parts of the low controller range (0 to 31), the plug-in will also output the fine commands, resulting in possible interference. For example, if you assigned Knob A to CC 20 and Knob B to CC 52 (= 20 + 32), twisting Knob B would output CC 52 messages, whereas twisting Knob A would output both CC 20 and 52! Trying to record automation in this manner could result in a host of unnecessary complications. 5.5. Unbind Select the paramater you want to unbind. Open the Setup menu. You can see that the Un-bind menu item shows which MIDI control the parameter is binded to. To unbind it, simply click on the Un-bind menu item. The Un-bind menu item is handy to know which MIDI control is currently binded to the selected parameter. 5.6. Old erroneous NRPN behaviour 5.4. About Control Change (CC) Messages Although you can assign most of the CC numbers to plug-in parameters, there are things to consider: I You cannot use certain CC numbers like Data Entry (6 and 38), Data Button Increment (96), Data Button Decrement This option is checked by default, and exists for historical reasons. Our plug-ins used to interpret RPN and NRPN controls erroneously. As a consequence, automation recorded using old versions cannot be interpreted by the recent versions unless this option is checked. You are advised to uncheck this option if you are a new Ohm Force user. 9 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 CHAPTER 3 Managing the Settings Contents 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Preset and Meta-patch . . . . . Meta-Patch section . . . . . . . . 2.1. Presets / Memorize . . . . 2.2. Rename . . . . . . . . . . Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Browser’s Content . . . . . . . . . 4.1. Root Directory . . . . . . . 4.2. Refresh . . . . . . . . . . . Browser’s File Operations . . . . 5.1. Load . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2. Save As . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3. Save . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4. P.C. Auto-assign . . . . . . 5.5. Preset Load Exclusion Filter 10 10 10 11 11 11 11 11 12 12 12 12 12 12 Meta-patch as a file on your hard drive, or load a given Meta-patch as the current Meta-patch. 2. Meta-Patch section The Meta-patch section shown here represents the current Meta-patch the synthesizer is using. On the funky skin, this section can be hidden. Therefore you might need to use the Melohman octave control to display it. This section allows you to : 1. Preset and Meta-patch A Preset is what you get when you tweak the Symptohm knobs: a given configuration of the sound engine. The Melohman technology adds the concept of Meta-patch: a Meta-patch should be considered as a single virtual instrument. It contains 12 Presets which are variations of this instrument, giving different timbres or behaviours. You can change the preset while you play, using your MIDI keyboard or your mouse through the Melohman octave. The Symptohm configuration is actually composed of: I I The current Meta-patch, you can manipulate through the Meta-patch section (see below). The current Preset of the Symptohm (all the parameters values that define the sounds you can hear playing the Symptohm). Using the Meta-patch section, you can ‘activate’ a Preset from the current Metapatch, or memorize the current Preset in one of the current Meta-patch slots. Using the Browser, you can save the current I activate one of the twelve presets by pressing the corresponding Preset button. I memorize the current Preset in one of the twelve slots I memorize the current Preset in all the slots at once Those Meta-patches are multiplatform; therefore, you can use your presets on another computer or with another sequencer. It’s important to understand the data you’ll save on your hard drive and you access through the integrated browser are in fact Meta-patches 2.1. Presets / Memorize To apply a Preset, make [ classic skin ] sure the STORE button is off. To turn it off, click it once. Then click on the Preset button corresponding to the Preset you want to activate. To memorize the current [ classic skin ] Preset in one of the current Meta-patch slots, click once on the STORE 10 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 button; it will light up. Then click on the Preset button corresponding to the slot you wish to overwrite. When you store a Preset in the current Meta-patch, the sample set and MIDI mapping will be changed for the whole meta patch. You can memorise the current Preset in all slots simultaneously by clicking on STORE, then on the ALL button. In this case, a dialog will warn you that you are going to erase the whole Meta-patch. 2.2. Rename Once you have stored your [ classic skin ] Preset, you can rename it [ funky skin ] by clicking on the display screen. Press Return to validate your change or Escape to cancel it. Note that the name applies only to the last selected or memorized Preset. (not shown on the funky skin) You can check the names in the preset menu by clicking on the small down arrow. This menu acts exactly like the Preset buttons; you can apply or memorize a preset by selecting an entry in the menu. 3. Browser 4. Browser’s Content The browser’s main window shows you the Meta-patches files on your local disc. They are shown as a tree with their containing directories. Directories are displayed with a small triangle at their left. Click on it to expand or shrink the directory content. You can also browse the Meta-patches content (each Meta-patch is shown as a directory containing the 12 Presets). 4.1. Root Directory This is the base directory for the browser. Click on the box to change it. The plugin will scan the disk; the operation usually takes a few seconds but may take longer if you located the browser directory at the root of your disk. 4.2. Refresh The browser is the place where you can manage your Symptohm Meta-patch. Browser controls can be found in the BROWSER tab. If you have manually changed, deleted or added files or directories while the plug-in is active, it is wise to click this button to 11 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 scan the disk again and refresh the display. Again, it may take seconds or minutes depending on the tree size. 5. Browser’s File Operations 5.1. Load You can either load an entire Metapatch or a single Preset. To load a Meta-patch you can either: 5.3. Save This button saves the current Metapatch into the selected Meta-patch in the tree. If you select a Preset instead of the whole Meta-patch, then the current Preset replaces the selected Preset in the Meta-patch file. 5.4. P.C. Auto-assign I I Double click the Meta-patch name (The first Preset will be selected, the sound is immediately modified) Select (single left click) the meta-patch, and press the Load button (the Metapatch is simply loaded, but the sound is not modified). Both result in having the selected Metapatch loaded as the current Meta-patch. Additionally, the first method will result in the first Preset of the Meta-patch becoming the current Preset. To load a Preset you can either: I double click the Preset name, I select (single click) the Preset and press the Load button. When you load a single Preset, the Preset is applied as the current Preset (so that the sound changes immediately), but the current Meta-patch is not modified. 5.2. Save As This button opens a file selector to let you save your Meta-patch. The browser content is automatically refreshed. This button automatically assigns the meta-patches contained in the browser directories to MIDI Program Changes. The directories are scanned recursively in the background, so stay cool, there is no need to press 100 times on the button. You can see the exact assignation by saving a configuration file in the SETUP menu and opening it in a text editor. You will find the prog_change_to_metapatch_file section at the end of the file. Each meta-patch is given a MIDI program number that follows the list order. 5.5. Preset Load Exclusion Filter It is possible to load only parts of the selected metapatch. Thus you can for example extract the MIDI configuration from a meta-patch without altering the current oscillator settings. You have the choice to exclude the synthesis parameters (oscillators without samples, and mixing), the samples, the filter bands settings and the MIDI configuration. 12 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 CHAPTER 4 Melohman Contents 1. 2. 3. 4. Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . Using Melohman . . . . . . . . Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1. Melohman Mode . . . . 3.2. Octave . . . . . . . . . . 3.3. Time . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.4. Sensitivity . . . . . . . . . 3.5. MIDI Channel . . . . . . 3.6. Density . . . . . . . . . . Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1. Preset Morphing . . . . . 4.2. Morphing Back & Forth 4.3. LFO Modifier MW . . . . 4.4. LFO Modifier Note . . . . 4.5. Multi-parameter Control 4.6. Mutation . . . . . . . . . 4.7. Partial Mutation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 13 13 13 13 13 14 14 14 14 14 14 15 15 16 16 17 which mode you are in. If some keys have the same colour, it means they have similar action on the sound. The LEDs on the keyboard are used in some Melohman modes, we’ll get back on this matter later. 3. Parameters 1. Overview This is probably the most innovative part of the Symptohm. With Melohman, you can assign an octave of your MIDI keyboard to control the sound of your synthesiser. There are many modes available, such as preset morphing or parameter mutation. 2. Using Melohman This is the simplest part: when you play the MIDI notes corresponding to the coloured keys on the synth, you will vary the sound in various way. You can assign the Melohman octave to a particular MIDI channel, so that you can use the whole key range on another channel to actually play the synth. This octave is velocity sensitive, and some Melohman modes also use the mod wheel. The colour of the keys vary depending on the mode. This is useful to remember Here is a list of the basic controls. 3.1. Melohman Mode This big knob allows you to choose the current Melohman mode. We will explain later the functioning of each mode. 3.2. Octave Select the Melohman octave with this knob. It should appear on the virtual keyboard if it is in the displayed range. Note that clicking on the Melohman keys on the virtual keyboard make Melohman work. 3.3. Time This is the time parameter for Melohman functions. Its effect may vary from one mode to another, but generally it sets the maximum time it takes to morph between different settings. The meta-patch section also uses this parameter to set the transition time, i.e. when you want to change presets manually. 13 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 3.4. Sensitivity This parameter is located in the SETUP menu. It sets the sensitivity of the Melohman to key velocity. 3.5. MIDI Channel This parameter is located in the SETUP menu. It sets the MIDI channel for the Melohman feature. 3.6. Density This parameter is located in the SETUP menu. It sets the smoothness of the DSP based morphing. A high value can result in very CPU hungry morphing, particularly if there is a lot of parameters that are varying. Be careful when you change a Melohman parameter while playing notes; some of them may become stuck. If it happens, use the MIDI PANIC button on the top of the interface. 4. Modes 4.1. Preset Morphing Each key is assigned to one of the twelve presets of the current Metapatch. When you press a key, the sound starts to morph toward the preset corresponding to the key you press. You can play with more than one note: if you press a second key, the synthesiser morphs to the newly selected preset, but morphs back to the previous one if you release this second key while keeping the first one pressed. When all the keys are released, the morphing stops. The TIME knob controls the morphing speed. The morphing time can vary with the velocity depending on the SENSITIVITY setting. When SENSITIVITY is null, the morphing occurs at a constant rate — the value of the TIME parameter. When sensitivity is not null, the morphing is quicker if you press the key stronger. When SENSITIVITY is set to 100%, maximum velocity will lead to instant morphing. This minimum morphing time increases as the SENSITIVITY decreases. There are dozen of ways to use preset morphing. For example you can press a long time on a key to morph smoothly to a preset, or repeat rapid key hits. In this case, morphing will slow down as current settings approach the destination preset. Or you can start a morphing, interrupt it and morph to another preset, circulating between presets without reaching them completely. The LEDs give a feedback of the position in the morph. The brighter is the LED, the closer you are from the corresponding preset. The morphing does not change the sample or MIDI configuration. So that you can simply test the whole meta-patch with the new samples set/MIDI mapping. However, the meta patch is not modified. So don’t forget to store the current Preset in the current Meta-patch before saving it on disk. This will overwrite the sample set and MIDI config of the meta patch. If you want to go back to the original meta patch sample set/MIDI config, press one of the preset buttons on the meta patch section. 4.2. Morphing Back & Forth This mode is quite similar to the previous one, excepted that the synthesiser will morph back to the state it was in when the first key was pressed. This means you will 14 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 not play this mode exactly the same way: if you have chosen a long morphing time, releasing all the keys will result in a morphing back to the original state. Now, if you press again a key while this morphing is happening, the current settings will be memorized when you hit again a key (a kind of double-hit), which could not be the original one. 4.3. LFO Modifier MW This mode uses the Melohman keys and the Modulation Wheel (MW) to control some of the synthesiser LFOs. Each white key corresponds to a group of LFOs. You can select more than one group by pressing simultaneously several white keys. The black keys are used to change the rate of the selected LFOs. The middle black key is a switch (depressed: factor 2, pressed: factor 3), the two lower black keys slow down the LFO, the two upper ones increase the rate. If the middle black key is not pressed, the factors are 4, 2, 12 and 41 ; otherwise they are 6, 3, 13 , 16 . The modulation wheel is used to increase or decrease the amplitudes of the selected LFOs. Since there are 7 white keys, 7 groups were made: I C - Oscillator VCA I D - Oscillator VCF I E - The frequencies of the four band filters I F - The slave pitch of the two SyncGrain oscillators I G - Brightness of the Sub Oscillator I A - SGO Spread, Sub Oscillator and IVRM mix I B - The panning position of the four band filters [ Schema to do ] The color of the keys reflects the keys functions: violet keys are selectors, the green key is a switch, the red keys are the active keys. The Modulation Wheel is not ‘captured’ by the Melohman, which means that if some parameters are assigned to the MW, they will still respond to it. 4.4. LFO Modifier Note In this mode, you control the Symptohm LFOs as in the previous mode, but here only using the keyboard. We have 5 LFO groups, corresponding to the 10 first keys. Each group has two control keys. The keys are grouped this way: the two first white keys, the two first black key, the two next white keys, the two next black keys, and finally the two remaining white keys. If you press the upper key of a group, you will increase the corresponding LFOs frequency, and lower the LFOs frequencies if you press the lower key. There are two more free keys on the keyboard. The upper white key is a switch to change the LFO amplitude instead of the frequency (displayed in orange on the screen). The upper black key is a switch to change the LFO frequencies by multiples of 3 instead of multiples of 2. The group keys respond to the velocity: the harder you press, the more the value will change. The five groups consist in: I C/D - Oscillator VCA (violet keys) I C#/D# - Oscillator VCF (‘pink’ keys) 15 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 I E/F - The frequencies of the four band filters (green keys) I F#/G# - The slave pitch of the two SyncGrain oscillators (‘red’ keys) I G/A - SGO Spread, Sub Oscillator mix and brightness, and IVRM mix (yellow keys) I A# - Mix (all) LFO Period I B - Mix Bus 4 (IVRM) to Bands 1, 2, 3 and 4 [ Schema to do ] The color reflect the global action on the sound: violet keys act mainly as spectral modifiers, while green keys act as volume and pan modifiers. 4.5. Multi-parameter Control This mode is quite straightforward: each key corresponds to a group of parameters. Use the Modulation Wheel to change (relatively) the value of the selected groups. This mode is equivalent of grabbing a group of knobs and turning them simultaneously. The groups are defined this way: I C - VCF cutoff frequency + Band filter frequencies I C# - VCF cutoff frequency ADSR amount I D - SGO slave pitch I D# - VCF cutoff frequency ADSR amount + Sub Oscillator Brightness ADSR amount I E - Sub Oscillator Brightness I F - Mix Bus 1 to Bands 1, 2, 3 and 4 I F# - SGO Spread and Balance LFO amount I G - Mix Bus 2 to Bands 1, 2, 3 and 4 I G# - Mix (all) LFO Depth I A - Mix Bus 3 (Sub Osc) to Bands 1, 2, 3 and 4 4.6. Mutation This mode is a kind of preset randomisation that stays around a given reference preset. This means that newly generated presets are more or less variations around the original one. When you select this mode, the current Preset is saved internally as the reference Preset. You can resave later on the new current Preset at any time by pressing the A# (green) key. The nine lower keys of the Melohman keyboard — violet — are dedicated to the mutation process. When you press a key, a new Preset is computed, and the synthesiser morphs to it, as it would do in the Preset Morphing mode (with optional velocity sensitivity). If you release the key, the morphing stops. The higher the mutation key is, the more mutated the preset will be. Also, a given parameter has more chance to be mutated if the key is higher. If you press low mutation keys, some parameter will never change, for example all the discrete parameters (as this could induce glitches in the sound). You can also go back to the reference preset by pressing the B (red) key, then morph back to the last mutated preset by pressing the A (pink) key. 16 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 [ Schema to do ] Parameters are intelligently managed. For example, LFO and ADSR timed parameters are always bound to tempo values. If an LFO or an ADSR amplitude is set to 0, its chance of being mutated are smaller. However, use the morphing function with care, it can lead to high output levels sometimes. I C - the Sync Grain oscillators parameters I C# - the Sub oscillator parameters I D - the noise generator parameters I D# - VCA and VCF parameters I E - mix parameters, spread, balance I F - QF filter bank band 1 I F# - QF filter bank band 2 I G - QF filter bank band 3 I G# - QF filter bank band 4 4.7. Partial Mutation The Partial Mutation mode is quite close to the Mutation mode. The only difference is that each mutation key corresponds to a specific group of parameters. Here is the list: [ Schema to do ] 17 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 CHAPTER 5 Using the effect: Synthesis I Contents 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Overview . . . . . . . . . . . Routing . . . . . . . . . . . . SyncGrain Oscillators . . . 3.1. Sample . . . . . . . . 3.2. Master Pitch . . . . . 3.3. Slave Pitch . . . . . . 3.4. Sync Position . . . . 3.5. Sync Speed . . . . . 3.6. Pitch Link . . . . . . . 3.7. Speed Link . . . . . . 3.8. Type . . . . . . . . . . 3.9. Mode . . . . . . . . . 3.10. Auto Gain . . . . . . Noise Generator . . . . . . 4.1. Gain . . . . . . . . . . 4.2. Colour . . . . . . . . 4.3. Stereo . . . . . . . . . Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.1. Cutoff . . . . . . . . . 5.2. Resonance . . . . . . 5.3. Type . . . . . . . . . . Sub Oscillator . . . . . . . . 6.1. Transpose . . . . . . 6.2. Brightness Amount . 6.3. Brightness Type . . . VCA Stage . . . . . . . . . . Inter-voice Ring-modulator Mixing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.1. Spread . . . . . . . . 9.2. Balance . . . . . . . 9.3. Sub Oscillator Gain . 9.4. Noise Balance . . . . 9.5. Mix Faders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 18 19 19 20 20 20 20 21 21 21 21 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 23 23 23 23 23 24 24 24 24 25 25 25 Filter Bank The polyphonic synthesis core is made up of two SyncGrain oscillators, a SubOscillator and a stereo noise generator, feeding a VCF and a VCA. The filter bank contains four identical modules, known as bands. Each one has a one-tap delay (synchronisable to the song tempo), a multimode filter and optional distortion. It is described in detail in the next section. The Mixer is a kind of bridge between the two main parts; it routes oscillator outputs into the bands. The deep integration of the Quad Frohmage filter bank, which is not polyphonic, can characterize Symptohm as part of the paraphonic synthesizers familly. Strictely speaking, a paraphonic synthesizer has polyphonic capabilities (usually, the oscillators), and a monophonic part (usually the VCF). Some Moog synthesizers are made this way. [ ask chris or mike metlay for more info one paraphonic synthesizers ] 2. Routing 1. Overview Symptohm is a complex instrument, combining SyncGrain synthesis and the Quad Frohmage filter bank. The SyncGrain oscillators are part of a polyphonic substractive synthesis engine that composed of an oscillator section, a VCA and a VCF stage. The Quad Filter bank is connected to the synthesizer engine through a mixer. Hence, we can distinguish three stages: I Synthesis core I Mixer Symptohm routing is pretty unusual, hence can seem a bit cryptic at first. That’s probably why you’re reading this part of the manual! We will try to make it clear with a top-down approach and focus on the synthesis core. Most of its logic blocks are part of the Single Voice generation; they are virtually duplicated for each note played by 18 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 the synthesiser. Then all voices are combined together to compose the Mixed Voice signals, which is output from the Synthesis Core. [ here we can insert some schemas from the tutorial #1 ] First, let us overview the Single Voice architecture. The main sound sources are the two SyncGrain oscillators SGO1 and SGO2. Their signal is mixed depending on various parameters; giving two channels, C1 and C2. The Noise Generator is also mixed into C1 and C2. These channels are filtered and give M1 and M2. The Sub-Osc is coloured by SGO1 and is routed directly as the MSub channel, although it is optionally mixed with C1 in order to be filtered. The scheme in Annex 1 shows a more detailed view of the processing. generated by a SyncGrain oscillator with only a single sample. 3. SyncGrain Oscillators Basically, a SyncGrain Oscillator (SGO) is a cross between hard sync analogue synthesis and sample playback. It produces a waveform from a sample file. Part of it is looped very quickly to make a tone. You can achieve a similar effect by looping a sample that’s a few milliseconds long in your favourite audio editor. The content of the loop is the waveform output by the oscillator. The frequency of the note is determined by the loop rate (we call it the Master Pitch). The faster the loop rate, the higher is the pitch. One can vary the timbre by changing the playback speed (the Slave Pitch) within the sample, keeping the loop rate constant. In the analogue synthesis world, this is a same effect as changing the frequency of the slave oscillator in a hard-sync couple. Another way is to move the loop starting point (the Sync Position) within the sample. Actually there are many combinations possible to alter both timbre and pitch. Below are some examples of signals 3.1. Sample Click on the box to [ classic skin ] select a sample for the oscillator. You can click with the right mouse button to remove it; thus the oscillator becomes inactive. The LED indicates the sample status: I Green: sample ready to use I Yellow: sample currently loading I Red: sample failed to load, or missing [ change this : four states, with funky pictos ] 19 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 Sometimes, when you load a preset, the sample cannot be found. The plug-in will ask you if you want to find the directory manually, and if you want to reuse it to find other missing samples. Actually when a preset is loaded, samples are looked up in the following directories: I The original directory, where the sample was loaded from I The one containing the metapatch file I /samples/ in the installation folder I Then the user-defined folder. You can change the userdefined folder in the Setup menu. There is one single sample for the whole Meta-patch (there is no sample morphing). As a consequence, when you store a Preset in the Meta-patch, the sample set is changed for the whole Metapatch. 3.2. Master Pitch This is the main tuning control, automatically linked to the keyboard current key. You can adjust the oscillator pitch with the COARSE knob, and tune it accurately with the FINE screw. This parameter is related to the time rate of the loop. 3.3. Slave Pitch This parameter, again divided in COARSE and FINE tunings, controls the playback speed of the sample. At 0 semi-tones, the sample is played at its original rate. At +12, the sample is played twice the speed, the loop covering twice the data. Unless you specify it explicitly with the PITCH LINK parameter, the keyboard does not control the SLAVE PITCH. 3.4. Sync Position This controls the loop [ classic skin ] starting position within the sample when a note is played. This parameter is taken into account by the engine only at the beginning of the note. During the note, the sync position may change, shifting the loop (see SYNC SPEED). This parameter is expressed as a percentage of the total sample length. Because the sample is implicitly looping, a setting of 100% has exactly the same result as 0%. The position helps to select the timbre of the note, because each portion of the sample gives a different harmonic content. 3.5. Sync Speed This parameter animates the loop point within the sample, so it is shifting at the indicated speed. The speed is a ratio of the natural playback speed of the sample. For example, if the speed is 50%, the loop point will move in the sample at half the speed. If the speed is 1% and the sample duration is 1 second, the sync point will cover it fully in 100 seconds. Again, you have to remember that the sample is implicitly looped; therefore once the sync point has reached the end, 20 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 it starts again at the beginning (and vice versa). The speed can be negative, making the sync point go backward. There are two uses for the SYNC SPEED. First, you can alter the timbre, making it change slowly. In this case, Sync Speed should remain very low. You can also use it near 100%, to get a time stretching effect, because the Sync Pos advances globally at the same speed as the playback position (controlled by the SLAVE PITCH). 3.6. Pitch Link We said previously that the loop playback speed (SLAVE PITCH control) is not related to the played note. Actually it is true only if this parameter is set to 0%, which is the default. At 100%, the Slave Pitch follows exactly the MASTER PITCH. At −100%, it goes in the opposite direction. Effect Keyboard-resampled Playback Pure Time Stretch Pure Pitch Shift Keyboard-independent Sample Playback The Sync Speed must be actually tuned with the Slave Pitch. Set it to 100% for 0 semi-tone of transposition, 200% for 12 semi-tones, 400% for 24, 50% for −12 and 25% for −24. For other transpose values, you need to apply a mathematical formula; see Annex 3. The diagram in Annex 2 shows how the control signals are routed to the oscillator core. There are other interesting controls: 3.8. Type This switch selects the SyncGrain type. The Hard algorithm makes a straight discontinuity when looping, giving a lot of high frequencies (especially on bass 3.7. Speed Link With this parameter set to a non-null value, you can also make the MASTER PITCH control the SYNC SPEED. The neutral value for the MASTER PITCH is the Middle C. The link is multiplicative, meaning that if SYNC SPEED is null, the MASTER PITCH will not have any effect, whatever the SPEED LINK value. If SYNC SPEED is 15% and SPEED LINK is 100%, a note one octave above Middle C will double the speed to 30%, and one octave below Middle C will halve the speed to 7.5%. At this point, you may ask yourself what the link parameters are for. Their use isn’t the most intuitive, but they can achieve interesting effects on sample playback patches; they’re not really connected to typical SyncGrain sounds. Pitch Link 100% 0% 100% 0% Speed Link 100% 100% 0% 0% Sync Speed 100% 100% 100% 100% sounds). The Fade algorithm is smoother because both parts of the loop are crossfaded. Generally, the Hard type is better adapted for unpitched sound sources or monophonic pitched sounds. For chords as source sample, time stretch or pitch shift effects; the Fade type is preferred. Actually you should check both types for each sample you load into the oscillator to find the one matching best your needs. 3.9. Mode This parameter selects if the oscillator uses the SyncGrain algorithm or if it performs traditional sample playback. In 21 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 the latter mode, almost all controls are disabled, except for Autogain and Master Pitch. You have to remember that the sample is always looped; therefore it keeps on playing as long as a key is depressed. 3.10. Auto Gain Because the SyncGrain loop may encounter randomly loud parts or very quiet parts during its travel across the sample, the oscillator output level may vary in a way that is not wanted. This parameter helps to keep the same overall level whatever the played part. The drawback is that it may produce slight clicks when the moving loop suddenly reaches a very loud part after a very quiet part. 4. Noise Generator To add life and produce more natural or atonal sounds, you can use the noise generator. It can generate a broad range of noise styles from blue to red via the traditional pink and white noise. Below is the description of the controls you have to this generator: 4.1. Gain This is the amount of noise injected into the voice. It may be useful to add an ADSR envelope to it (see the Modulation chapter for more details). 4.2. Colour This knob controls the colour of the noise, its global spectrum shape, and the distribution of low and high frequency components. The left settings, close to Red (−100%), are full of low frequencies. Pink noise, at −50%, is considered to have a natural spectrum distribution. At 0%, White noise is uniformly spread across the spectrum. At the other extreme, Blue noise (+100%) has only high frequency components. 4.3. Stereo Traditionally, noise generators are mono, outputting only one stream. With this switch you can produce two streams (in stereo if routed appropriately), that dramatically enlarges the stereo field. 5. Filters Filters are one of the most important parts of a synthesizer. They attenuate the surplus of harmonics produced by oscillators, add crisp and make the sound evolve in a natural way through modulation. In the VCF section, you will find three controls: 5.1. Cutoff This is the main control over the filter settings. It determines the critical frequency of the filter. Spectral components are attenuated below or above this frequency, depending on the filter type. 5.2. Resonance It is possible to boost (or attenuate to a lesser extent) spectral content at the cutoff frequency. The resonance knob allows controlling this peak, which is measured in dB at this frequency (approximately). 5.3. Type You can choose over three filter types, which are 12 dB/octave-slope ones: I Low Pass: Attenuates the spectral content over the cutoff frequency, leaving the lower part untouched. 22 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 I I High Pass: Attenuates the spectral content below the cutoff frequency, leaving the higher part untouched. Band Pass: Attenuates the spectral content on both sides of the cutoff frequency, leaving only the part around it. Although it is enough for most use, a slope of 12 dB/octave may seem weak for some sounds. If you need to attenuate the sound more, you can use the filters of the effect section. 6.3. Brightness Type This parameter indicates which part of the SGO1 output spectrum will influence the brightness. LP will keep only the lowest frequencies, HP the highest and BP the ones around the cutoff. The Sub Oscillator does not pass through the voice filter. However it is possible to mix it back with the C1 channel; see details in the Mixing sub-section. 6. Sub Oscillator This is the weirdest oscillator of the group. It starts as a sine wave, the simplest waveform ever. Then it is distorted to produce extra harmonics — the brightness. Actually, all the magic lies in the distortion amount regulation. This amount is controlled by SGO1. Its output is filtered, and its volume analysed. This results in a certain value, which is combined with the Brightness setting to form the distortion amount. This is usefull to compensate automatically the lack of richness of the SGOs, or at the opposite reinforce the richness variation. 6.1. Transpose This knob, along with the fine one, allows tuning the oscillator. 6.2. Brightness Amount This controls how SGO1 influences the brightness of the Sub Oscillator. Set to 0%, the output remains always the same quasi-sine wave. Set to 100%, the harmonic content depends completely on the SGO1 output. If SGO1 is not loaded with any sample, the parameter directly controls the brightness. The SGO1 detection filter is related to the main filter described below; they have the same cutoff frequency. 7. VCA Stage As with the filters, the VCA stage is an important part of the synthesis process: the VCA knob let you define the overall amplitude of the oscillators. Then, with the use of the VCA ADSR, you can model the loudness of the produced sound over time, changing the Attack, Decay, Sustain time, etc. Refer to the ADSR section 6.1.3. All the oscillators go through the VCA stage. Even if the graphical interface shows an Amp parameter for the xADSR, this parameter is ignored. There is always an active ADSR on the VCA. 23 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 Do not choose a null attack, decay, sustain or release time unless you know what you are doing, because this may produce unwanted clicks. As we saw before, both SGOs are mixed to channels C1 and C2 before filtering. There are two parameters to control how each oscillator is routed to each channel. 8. Inter-voice Ring-modulator Inter-Voice Ring Modulation (IVRM) is another tricky use of the Sub Oscillator. Indeed, for all simultaneously played voices, oscillators are virtually duplicated to generate all the necessary signals. Within a voice, signals may interact together as we saw in the Sub Oscillator section. But they can also interact over the polyphony, and this is precisely the way the ring modulation works in Symptohm. The IVRM produces a single output signal from the Sub Oscillators of each voice. Note that the process needs at least two inputs to work, hence two voices; therefore IVRM produces nothing during monophonic play. The result is a signal combining all the Sub Oscillator base frequencies. It gives a slightly aggressive touch if played chords are composed of octaves, fifths or major thirds. It may give a more dissonant result on more complex combinations. Large chords may create a very loud IVRM output. 9.1. Spread 9. Mixing The four oscillators and generators we described above produce the audio for a single voice. However, their routing is not trivial. Also, all voice signals are mixed together to feed the effect section. We will review the routing parameters at the voice level first. Usually, SGO1 is routed to C1 and SGO2 to C2. However, this parameter makes possible to invert SGO1’s and SGO2’s routing gradually. At 0%, routing is straight, neutral. At 100%, it is completely inverted. At 50% both are routed equally to C1 and C2. 9.2. Balance 24 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 The balance works just after the SPREAD, on SGO outputs. It accumulates all the signal on C1 if set to 100% Left, or on C2 if set to 100% Right. At the neutral position (0%), the SGO signals are spread just by the first parameter. 9.3. Sub Oscillator Gain As we said previously, the Sub Oscillator does not pass through the voice filter. However it is still possible to filter it by mixing part of it into the C1 channel. This parameter is the amount of the Sub Oscillator entering C1. 9.4. Noise Balance This parameter directs the noise generator output to C1 and C2, before filtering. 9.5. Mix Faders Once the C1, C2 and Sub Oscillator channels are constituted at the voice levels, they are mixed with the other voices’ channels, making three signals. Add the Inter-Voice Ring Modulator and then you have four signals. On the other side, we have an effect made of four bands. So we have a 4x4 matrix mixer to control exactly what goes into what. It is represented by the 4 sets of 4 faders located at the bottom of the routing frame. The funky skin version gives much more visual feedback to the user. You can notice that the cables transparency will vary depending on the settings. The funky skin also features more vu meters: the vu-meters next to the VCA knob indicate measure the presence of a signal at the output of the various synth sections (SGO oscs, sub osc, intervoice ring modulation). The 4 vu-meters at the full right of the funky skin are a replication of the vu-meters that are available on the filter pane. The show the signal that is present at the input of the 4 filter bands. Note that it is possible to have a signal shown in those 4 vu meters even if apparently one are not sending anything using the mix faders, if some bands are in serie (see section ?????). [ insert the correct reference at the end of the note ] 25 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 CHAPTER 6 Using the effect: Filter Bank 15.4. Hold Mode . . . . . . . . . 33 Contents 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Routing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Modulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . Band’s Delay . . . . . . . . . . . . Band’s Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . Frequency Filters Type . . . . . . 6.1. Low Pass . . . . . . . . . . 6.2. High Pass . . . . . . . . . . 6.3. Band Pass . . . . . . . . . 6.4. Peak Resonator . . . . . . 6.5. Notch Band Cut . . . . . . Frequency Filters Type Flavours . 7.1. Standard . . . . . . . . . . 7.2. SVF . . . . . . . . . . . . . Harmonic Filters Type . . . . . . 8.1. Moog-like . . . . . . . . . 8.2. Comb . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.3. Ring Modulator . . . . . . Primary filter parameters . . . . 9.1. Cutoff Frequency . . . . . 9.2. Resonance . . . . . . . . . Fatness, Color and damping . . 10.1. Fatness . . . . . . . . . . . 10.2. Color . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.3. Damping . . . . . . . . . . Linking bands . . . . . . . . . . . 11.1. Frequencies . . . . . . . . 11.2. Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.3. Ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . Distortion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.1. Gain . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.2. Shape . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.3. Fatness . . . . . . . . . . . Mix and Activity . . . . . . . . . . 13.1. Volume . . . . . . . . . . . 13.2. Pan . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.3. Power . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.4. Vu-Meter . . . . . . . . . . Interface Top . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.1. Setup Menu . . . . . . . . 14.2. Note / Hz Mode . . . . . . 14.3. Midi Panic . . . . . . . . . 14.4. Slide Time . . . . . . . . . 14.5. Polyphony . . . . . . . . . 14.6. Polyphonic Mode . . . . . 14.7. MIDI Channel . . . . . . . 14.8. Master Volume . . . . . . 14.9. Limiter . . . . . . . . . . . . Virtual Keyboard . . . . . . . . . 15.1. Pitch Bend . . . . . . . . . 15.2. Pitch Bend Range . . . . . 15.3. Modulation Wheel . . . . 26 26 27 27 28 28 28 28 28 28 28 28 29 29 29 29 29 29 29 29 29 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 31 31 31 31 31 31 31 31 31 31 31 32 32 32 32 33 33 33 33 33 33 33 33 1. Overview The filter bank is based on the Quad Frohmage effect. The four bands are fed by the four outputs of the mixer section. You will find the band configuration in the FILTER tab. 2. Routing First, let’s review the signal path and routing; probably the most complex part of the filter. The four bands can be arranged in parallel, in serial, or in one of the 8 possible combinations. Whatever the configuration is, every band input can be fed by the mixer and every band output can be mixed into the final output. The bands themselves will be described later. The filtering bands are connected in parallel. The filtering bands are connected in serial. Detail of a band. 26 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 It is important to understand that each band is always monophonic. The following table sums up all the possible routings: All bands are in parallel. This is the default mode, and the most obvious, since each band is only fed by the mixer. In this mode, you have two blocks in serial: first block is made of band 1 and 2 in parallel. This block feeds another block, made of bands 3 and 4 in parallel; they use a mix of band 1 and band 2. In this case, all bands are fed by the mixer, and band 3 feeds band 4. This mode is close to previous one, excepted that the second block is made of band 3 and 4 in parallel. This is very close to previous mode, bands 1 and 2 are in serial. Band 1 uses a sum of the left and right inputs. Bands 3 and 4 are fed by the band 2. In this mode, two blocks are in parallel. First block is made of band 1 and 2 in serial, second block of bands 3 and 4 in serial. This is the ‘all serial’ mode, each band feeding the next one. You can get a 144 dB/octave low-pass filter using a 36 dB/octave LPF on every band! Set the bands 1, 2 and 3 volumes to 0 so that only band 4 goes to the output, link the bands cutoff frequencies, with a ratio of 0%, and you are done. You can also get a 16 beat delay using the same configuration and setting the delay of each band to maximum (4 beats). 3. Modulation Traditionally in Ohm Force plug-ins, parameters can be modulated by LFOs. But in Symptohm things have changed; we added ADSR generators and MIDI controllers to the modulation options. These modules produce signals, which are added together to define the final modulation that will be applied to the parameter. They will be deeply described in the Modulation chapter of this manual. 4. Band’s Delay Before entering the filter, the sound can be optionally delayed. Delaying parallel bands differently allows you to achieve spectacular rhythmic effects, especially when complex modulation enters the arena. Please note that it’s a simple tap delay; there is no feedback involved. This fader controls the amount of delay. Although it can be specified in beats or in seconds, depending on the state of the Beats/ms button, the effective delay time will always be tempo-dependent. The maximum delay time is 4 beats, meaning 4 seconds at 60 BPM. An amazing use of the delay is the reverse playback. First, set a 1 beat delay. Then activate the delay LFO: a 1-beat period, a Ramp-up waveform and an amplitude of 100%. Deactivate the S&H and the smoothing effect by setting them to 0%. And voil`a ! You can decrease the playback latency by lowering both delay and LFO period. However it may reveal small pops and a ring modulation effects if set to extreme values. 27 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 It is possible to automatically link the delay time of the four bands. When linked, only one knob is controllable, and the others become transparent. The delays are then equally spaced on every band; for example if the knob is set to the time T, band , band 3 has 1 has a T4 delay, band 2 has 2T 4 3T and band 4 is delayed by T . This is a 4 bit unconventional, as the Band 1 Delay Time parameter is not the actual band 1 delay but the band 4 delay, but very handy. When Delay Link is activated, the Link LED is lit. course there are many combinations possible, but you’ll get a better idea by experimenting yourself with the different filters included in the effect. It is also possible to boost a specific frequency band to make it prominent. This boost is called resonance, and is useful for adding color and character to sound. In fact, these filters are so extreme that, when you push the resonance into the red zone, they can produce a plethora of tones and whistles, even without any signal input. Most of these filters are carefully modeled from their analogue counterparts. We also added two essential tools which can be assimilated with filters: a Comb and a Ring Modulator. 6. Frequency Filters Type The first group of buttons let you choose the primary type of filter. The five leftmost are classical filters. 6.1. Low Pass It passes the frequency components below the cutoff frequency and rejects other frequency components. 6.2. High Pass When the delays are linked, the various times are computed taking in account delay 1 time with its modulation. The band 2– 4 times and modulations are ignored. It is the exact inverse of the low-pass filter, removing low-frequency content. 6.3. Band Pass It passes only a band of frequency components centered on the cutoff frequency. The resonance knob determines the bandwidth. 5. Band’s Filter 6.4. Peak Resonator The Filters are the main sound-sculpting element in Symptohm, the kernel of the bands. A filter attenuates and removes some frequencies from the spectrum. For example, it gives muffled sounds when high frequencies are attenuated, or aerial sounds when low frequencies are missing. When removing both low and high frequencies, you can achieve phone-like sounds. Of This filter increases the loudness of a particular frequency range leaving the rest as it is. It is most commonly used for whawha effect. 6.5. Notch Band Cut This removes the frequency content around the cutoff frequency. 28 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 7. Frequency Filters Type Flavours 8.2. Comb These five filters are declined into two flavours: This rich filter produces several peaks regularly spaced in the spectrum. At low resonance, your audio will sound as if it is being packed down a steel tube with a plunger. Turn the dial, and your drums transform themselves into plucked strings. With an LFO on the cutoff you get a flanger. Again, two modes can be selected on the screen below: positive or negative feedback. this changes the peak distribution across the spectrum. 7.1. Standard Offering high resonance capabilities, these are the preferred choice to start with. 7.2. SVF These filters can also self-oscillate when the resonance is set high, over about 80%. In this case they produce nice whistles even with silent input. SVF also sound a bit different from the classic filters and have their own character. For stability reasons, the SVF filters have their input hard-clipped to 0 dB. Be careful to feed them with properly leveled signal to ensure maximum quality. 8.3. Ring Modulator Essentially, this inter-modulates the input with a sine wave whose frequency is tuned on the cutoff. It shifts and mirrors the spectrum, detuning the sound to produce bell-like tones. Summary of the possible filter combinations: Type Sub-type Classic SVF Classic SVF Classic SVF Classic SVF Classic SVF Order 6,12, 24, 36 12, 24, 36 6,12, 24, 36 12, 24, 36 6,12, 18 6,12, 18 2, 4 poles 2, 4 poles N/A Notch N/A Positive Feedback Negative Feedback Ring Modulator N/A N/A LP HP For LP, HP, BP and Peak filters, you can choose the steepness of the slope. The steepness determines how fast the frequencies are attenuated when moving away from the cutoff frequency. The steeper the slope, the closer to ideal the filter is. For the LPF and HPF, you can choose a slope ranging from 6 dB/octave to 36 dB/octave. BPF can achieve from 6 dB/octave to 18 dB/octave on each side, while Peaking filter has no such measurement. Instead, you can choose if it is a 2-pole or 4-pole filter. BP Peak Notch Moog-like N/A N/A 9. Primary filter parameters 8. Harmonic Filters Type Having selected the filter type, you can play with the parameters to modify the filter effect. Then the last three types of filter: 9.1. Cutoff Frequency 8.1. Moog-like This is the main filter control. The knob lets you set the frequency in the 20 Hz - 20 kHz range. However it is limited to 11 kHz for comb filters if the host sample rate is set to 44.1 kHz. This is a replica of the famous analogue Moog filter, a self-oscillating low-pass filter with a 24 dB/octave slope. 29 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 9.2. Resonance When available, it controls the amount of resonance in the system. At low values, the filter is not colored, whereas at high values a small band of frequencies is highly amplified, giving ringing tones. On the BPF, the resonance controls the bandwidth of the filter. Low values means low selectivity, therefore wide bandwidth — almost the whole spectrum. High values make it very selective, especially if a steep slope is selected. 10. Fatness, Color and damping Depending which filter is selected, the same button can be either the Fatness, Color or Damping. 10.1. Fatness On filters, the resonance dramatically increases the volume of a given band. This can increase the overall sound energy, sometimes more than desired. You can always adjust the final volume manually, but it can be painful if resonance changes often, or is modulated by a LFO. To deal with this issue, it would be useful to have an automatic gain control, keeping constant the volume loudness. This is exactly what the Fatness knob is intended to do. Low values make the volume quite constant while resonance is changing. High values do not affect the sound, thus the ‘pass-band’ signal has a constant volume. The pass-band signal is the part of the spectrum, which is not filtered, for example the band below the cutoff frequency for a low-pass filter. A high fatness value with a high resonnance will result in a very high output level. is a pure Ring Mod, and at 0%, the filter is bypassed. 10.3. Damping 6 dB/octave LPF and HPF are actually shelves: you can adjust the minimum stop-band level with the Damping button. When Damping is set to 0%, the filter has a real 6 dB/octave slope. At 100%, the filter is bypassed. 11. Linking bands It is possible to automatically link the frequencies of the four filters. Thus you can turn one knob to modify every cutoff frequency. This is useful when the ratio between frequencies has to remain fixed to get a particular timbre. 11.1. Frequencies Push this button to link or unlink the frequencies. In Link mode, only first filter frequency (and its modulation) is taken into account for the group, other bands filter frequency (and modulations) are ignored. 11.2. Mode This switch determines how the frequencies are linked: Linear the frequencies are spaced, in a linear way. regularly Harmonic the frequencies are exponentially spaced, meaning there are always the same number of semi-tones between two adjacent filters. 11.3. Ratio 10.2. Color This parameter is active only for the Ring Modulator. It sets the amount of ring modulated signal, so at 100%, the filter output This indicates the amount of space between two bands. At maximum ratio in Harmonic mode, the spacing is one octave between bands. A ratio of 0 indicates that all the 30 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 bands have the same value, whatever the mode is. 12. Distortion To really get things buzzing, an optional distortion can be added after the filter stage. This comes in two distinct flavours, Classic Overdrive and Puncher, with the option of morphing between the two. The latter adds a lot of low harmonics, excellent for fattening up the puniest of sounds into a ravening audio monster. The distortion stage is always followed by a dynamic limiter, reducing the louder peaks caused by extremely high resonance. The threshold is set to about +6 dB RMS, so you have a lot of headroom before limiting. 12.1. Gain This sets the amount of distortion you want to apply. It works like a volume control, amplifying the signal. Then it is clipped. The clipping threshold depends on the gain. It is high at low gain to let high dynamic signals pass without distorting them too much. As the gain increases, the threshold decreases to keep the sound at a reasonable volume. 12.2. Shape This knob morphs the clipping curve between the Overdrive and the Puncher. Overdrive is a classic soft-clipping algorithm, producing rich harmonics and high frequency content. The sound remains clear and recognizable. Puncher is a ‘foldback’ shaper, giving fewer harmonic at low gain, and probably a warmer sound, especially for bass. High gain generates a lot of harmonics, turning into noise if pushed to extreme limits. 12.3. Fatness Usually distortion makes the sound a lot louder, reducing the dynamics and the punch of the attacks. This is not always desirable, so we included this fatness control. Turned to the right, it gives full-distorted sound. To the left, the volume is adapted from the non-distorted sound. 13. Mix and Activity In this part of the panel you can control and monitor the band activity, and choose how it is mixed with the final output. 13.1. Volume This controls the amount of band signal injected into the final effect output. It is important to note that this volume does not affect the band chaining. For example, if bands 1 and 2 are chained in serial, band 1 volume will not have effect on the amount of signal feeding band 2. 13.2. Pan Select the panoramic stereo location of the band output in the final mix. Like the Volume setting, this button has no influence on the signal transiting between bands. 13.3. Power Switches the band on or off. When the band is deactivated, it feeds nothing to the final mix. It acts like a bypass on serially connected bands. For example, if band 1, 2 and 3 are serially linked, and band 2 is switched off, the processing becomes: band 1 followed by band 3. The connected probes are also disabled. For information about probes, see the Modulation section. 13.4. Vu-Meter This monitors the band activity. The vumeter analyses the pre-mix signal, meaning that the Volume setting does not influence it. 14. Interface Top 31 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 14.1. Setup Menu You will find some functions to configure your plug-in or interact with the Ohm Force website here. They are described in detail in the sections of this manual referring to these very functions. However, you will find below a brief summary of them: I About: Information on your plugin (current version) I Ohm Force on the web: Lets you access the Symptohm pages on the Web. I Product info: tohm. Information on Symp- I Register: Register your plug-in I Updates: Access to the latest versions, for registered users I Documentation: the latest electronic version of this document I Presets: patches Submit or download meta- I Settings: to manage the current plug-in configuration I Load: Load a configuration file I Save: Save the configuration I Autoload: Select a configuration file to load at plug-in start-up I Enhanced Mouse Mode: Disable it if you encounter mouse problems I MIDI I Autobind: Toggles the MIDI-learn option to affect CC to parameters. I Input device: Select here the MIDI-In device I Output device: Select here the MIDIOut device I High Quality: Toggles higher quality mode. It uses more CPU. I Select Sample Directory: A user-defined directory for sample lookup. I Melohman Settings I Sensitivity: How the morphing time is sensitive to velocity. I Density: Selects how smooth is the Melohman morphing. I Channel: Allows selecting a specific channel for Melohman commands. 14.2. Note / Hz Mode This mode controls the [ classic skin ] display of the frequencies. When set to Note mode, the corresponding note is displayed instead of a frequency in Hertz. Also the knobs are notched to match notes accurately. 14.3. Midi Panic Sometime you may en- [ classic skin ] counter stuck notes for whatever reason (MIDI keyboard unplugged while a key is being pressed, for example). This button is helpful for stopping any stuck note and starting again on a safe base. 14.4. Slide Time This is the time it takes for the pitch to glide from the previous note to the new note, giving a tied note effect when set to a non-null value. 14.5. Polyphony Select here the maximum [ classic skin ] synthesiser polyphony, i.e. how many voices can play simultaneously. The polyphony is preset-dependent. The Symptohm uses a voicestealing algorithm in which, if there is not any free voice, the latest played note is re- 32 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 placed by the new one. Thus it is possible to hold a long chord and play a solo at the same time without affecting the chord. 14.6. Polyphonic Mode In Polyphonic mode, you can play multiple notes simultaneously. In Monophonic, the synthesiser can play only one note at a time. If you press many keys and release one, the synthesiser will automatically trigger again the lowest pressed key. Monophonic mode bypasses the polyphony. Legato mode is similar to monophonic mode, but if you press a key before releasing previous one, it will not trigger the new note and it will gently change the pitch to match the newly pressed key. This is the amount of limiting you want to apply at the output. At 0%, there is no limiting at all. Limiting prevents the output signal from becoming too loud. The vumeter monitors the output peak level. The clip LED lights up when the signal jumps over 0 dB. It does not mean it actually clips — most plug-in standards support floating point data format and volume can still be lowered on the mixing console of the host. Also, even with limiter set to maximum, signals may jump over 0 dB. 15. Virtual Keyboard You can play on the keyboard on the bottom of the plug-in interface by clicking on the keys. The note is played as long as you hold down the mouse button. 14.7. MIDI Channel Selects the MIDI channel filter for the synthesis engine MIDI input. You can set it to Omni if you want the Symptohm to react to notes and controllers coming in on any channel. The Melohman section MIDI input is also selectable, but is independent from the audio engine. You can set it in the Setup menu. The coloured octave indicates the position of the Melohman keys, which are described in the Melohman chapter. 15.1. Pitch Bend This is the pitch bend wheel, which is mapped to the pitch bend MIDI signal. It transposes played notes by the amount given in the PITCH BEND RANGE. 15.2. Pitch Bend Range Selects the range of the pitch bend in semitones. You have the choice of ±2, ±12 or ±24 semi-tones. [ funky incorrect ] 14.8. Master Volume Controls the master volume, which is the result of the band mix. 14.9. Limiter 15.3. Modulation Wheel This wheel is mapped to MIDI Continuous Controller #1. It is often used to add vibrato of some form to the sound. The exact effect depends on how CC #1 is mapped to parameters in the current settings. 33 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 15.4. Hold Mode When this mode is active, keyboard be- haves differently: clicking on keys acts like a toggle instead of having an effect only when mouse button kept clicked. 34 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 CHAPTER 7 Using the effect: Modulation Contents 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Overview . . . . . . . . . . Workflow . . . . . . . . . . LFO . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1. Period . . . . . . . . 3.2. Amplitude . . . . . 3.3. Waveform . . . . . 3.4. Sample And Hold . 3.5. Smooth . . . . . . . LFO Waveform . . . . . . . 4.1. Sine . . . . . . . . . 4.2. Triangle . . . . . . . 4.3. Square . . . . . . . 4.4. Ramp Up . . . . . . 4.5. Ramp Down . . . . 4.6. Cos Up . . . . . . . 4.7. Cos Down . . . . . 4.8. Random . . . . . . 4.9. Brown Noise . . . . 4.10. Red Noise . . . . . ADSR Envelope Generator 5.1. Amp . . . . . . . . . 5.2. A. . . . . . . . . . . 5.3. D. . . . . . . . . . . 5.4. S-Level . . . . . . . 5.5. S-Time . . . . . . . 5.6. R . . . . . . . . . . . 5.7. Velo Sensitivity . . 5.8. Copy & Paste . . . MIDI Modulation . . . . . 6.1. MIDI Parameter . . 6.2. MIDI Source . . . . 6.3. Curve . . . . . . . . 6.4. Sensitivity . . . . . . 6.5. Easy Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 35 36 36 36 36 36 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 39 39 39 1. Overview The Symptohm is packed with modulation effects. Without them, the sound it produces would remain somewhat static. The Symptohm modulations include a LFO, an ADSR envelope for almost every parameter. Parameters and their LFO/ADSR sub-parameters can also be modulated by MIDI signals. Like the Parameter zone, the Modulation controls are activated when a parameter has been selected, and when it can be modulated. When it cannot, for example the filter type, the knobs are hidden from the panel. The three modulation generators are streamed together to generate the final modulation value, which modifies the parameter. You can monitor the different modulations and the final value on the oscilloscope screens. You can also quickly check if a parameter is modulated by looking at the small green LED at the bottom-left of each knob or fader. If it is lit, the parameter is currently being modulated. On the funky skin, the knobs glow a red halo instead. The whole following section is illustrated with screenshots taken from the classic skin. The funky skin behaves exactly the same. Here is a screenshot of the modulation section on the funky skin: From left to right, you find the LFO section, the main parameter section, the ADSR section, the oscilloscope (that shows the action of the LFO and the ADSR on the parameter as a curve), and the MIDI section. If the oscilloscope display looks jagged, try to decrease the buffer size in the audio settings of your host application. Generally a buffer size of 1024 samples at 44.1 kHz sample rate is enough to get a smooth display. 2. Workflow It’s very easy to manipulate the modulation parameters. Say you want to modulate the VCF cutoff, and you’ll surely want that at one point ! Right now, the cutoff knob should look like this: 35 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 Note that a green led lit next to the main parameter knob, indicating that the parameter is modulated. The parameter zone shows the value of the previous parameters you modified. On this example, this is the Osc 1 transpose parameter. Once you’ve clicked on the knob here is what happens: 3. LFO Most of the Ohm Force plugins come with one kind of modulation: the LFO, which stands for Low Frequency Oscillator. It is an oscillator producing a signal usually below the audio frequency range. This signal additively modulates the parameter which it is associated with. It makes the parameter oscillate around its central value. 3.1. Period This is the time taken by an LFO oscillation. LFOs are synchronized to the tempo value to allow them to stay in sync with the music. Note that the knob is modified, a golden ring surrounds it. Also, the parameter control section content is modified, it shows now the value and the modulations of the VCF cutoff. Add an LFO, and ADSR, or a MIDI modulation, using the AMP knobs of the LFO and the ADSR sections, or the ‘sensibility’ slider of the MIDI zone. Here is what happens then: 3.2. Amplitude This is the amplitude of the oscillations. 0% means that the LFO does not affect the sound. There is a special value for pitch parameters such as Oscillator Transpose and Filter Cutoff: 24% corresponds to 1 octave (therefore the signal oscillates between −1 and +1 octave). 3.3. Waveform This parameter affects the shape of the oscillations. Seven of the shapes are classic, the three others are random oscillations. Each shape is explained after. 3.4. Sample And Hold This function slices the waveform periodically and holds the LFO value on each slice, making steps. The knob controls the ratio 36 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 of the S&H period over the main LFO period. Thus 0% disables it, and 25% samples the LFO each quarter period. Like Ramp up, but in the other direction. 3.5. Smooth A bit like Ramp up, but LFO go and arrive more gently at the extreme points (a kind of shelf). This knob allows you to smooth fast transitions of an LFO signal; it occurs after the Sample And Hold. The smoothing factor depends on the main LFO period; therefore the final shape does not change when the period is changed. Again, 0% disables the smoothing and leaves the waveform untouched. The phase of each LFO can be reset and synchronized with the help of MIDI NRPN commands. See the MIDI Factory Settings section for more information. It is also automatically reset to 0◦ when the LFO amplitude is null. You can generate a random constant value changing only at Note On by choosing one of the noises, the longest period possible, Sample And Hold to 100% and Sync to whatever value but Off. 4.6. Cos Up 4.7. Cos Down Like Cos up, but in the other direction. 4.8. Random This waveform is a chaotic oscillator. It is based on a sine wave, sometimes slowing down, sometimes accelerating, or even going back and forth. Anyway, whatever these random variations, it always keeps the same average phase. This waveform is ideal for organic, live and human beating. 4.9. Brown Noise LFO value changes randomly, combining wide but slow moves with small and fast oscillations. With a very long period, this kind of LFO is perfect to give a parameter a natural and nervous random variation. 4. LFO Waveform 4.10. Red Noise 4.1. Sine This is a bit like Brown Noise, but fast variations are more damped, giving even smoother random walks. It is the default waveform. 4.2. Triangle 5. ADSR Envelope Generator Oscillation goes and returns linearly between the two extreme points. 4.3. Square LFO stays a half-period on the maximum point, then the other half period on the minimum point. 4.4. Ramp Up Oscillation goes linearly from the minimum point minimum to the maximum one. 4.5. Ramp Down The Note On event triggers the ADSR envelope, which generates the modulation signal. The ADSR envelope is a piecewise segmented curve made of four parts: A Attack, D - Decay, S - Sustain and R - Release. 37 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 This parameter modulates directly the amplitude of the envelope depending on the latest played note velocity. At 0%, the velocity is totally ignored. At 100%, the amplitude is proportional to the velocity. 5.8. Copy & Paste 5.1. Amp This is the amount of ADSR output, which is added to the final modulation. For pitch parameters such as Oscillator Transpose and Filter Cutoff, 24% corresponds to 1 octave when envelope reaches the top of the attack stage. 5.2. A Duration of the Attack stage. This is the time it takes to reach the maximum envelope amplitude. Attack begins at the detection of a Note On event. Use the COPY [ classic skin ] button to copy the whole modulation settings of the currently selected parameter into the internal clipboard. Use PASTE to apply them on another parameter. This is very useful to quickly duplicate the modulation settings on a large range of parameters and mutate them afterwards. 6. MIDI Modulation Once you have selected a parameter — i.e. clicked on the corresponding knob — you can affect it by MIDI modulation. 5.3. D Duration of the Decay stage, during which the envelope goes to the sustain point. Decay occurs right after the Attack. 5.4. S-Level 6.1. MIDI Parameter Time taken for the envelope to reach 0, after the Decay stage, starting from the sustain point. It is the currently selected parameter for the MIDI modulation. Actually it may be different from the main parameter. Indeed, it is possible to MIDI-modulate the LFO and ADSR parameters — just click on the desired knobs. This feature is not enabled by default. To allow it, click on the lock at the right of the display. 5.6. R 6.2. MIDI Source Duration of the release stage, during which the envelope fades out. The Release stage occurs as soon as the Note Off event is detected. You can select here from a list of MIDI CC for the modulation. You can select only one CC per parameter, but it can modulate as many parameters as you want. Select ‘No Modulation’ if you do not want the parameter to be MIDI-modulated. Level of the sustain point. Sustain level can be negative. 5.5. S-Time 5.7. Velo Sensitivity 38 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 These are MIDI sources: I Key velocity: This is the velocity of the latest pressed key. Note Off velocities are not taken into account. I Key pitch: This is pitch value of the latest pressed key. I Highest key pitch: This is the pitch value of the highest pressed key during a chord. I Lowest key pitch: Guess what this is. . . 6.3. Curve It is possible to change the intensity mapping — for example to correct the response curve of a control device; or to obtain specific effects. There are several curves; some are strictly positive, while others are bipolar and can generate negative modulation values. Here are some special curves: I 4- and 16-steps: The 128 MIDI values are divided equally into 4 and 16 steps, I Octave: This curve is dedicated to Note Key modulation. There is a step for each octave of the keyboard (from C to B), I Note: the modulation value is the same for each key regardless of the octave. For example, G3 and G5 generate the same value. I On Oscillator Transpose parameters, amplitude of 128% doubles the pitch, so the value −128% cancel it completely. I On Filter Cutoff parameters, 64% modulation gives exact key tracking if you tune the filter on E 5 (330 Hz) 6.5. Easy Mode This menu selects a preset of the full MIDI configuration. Choose one of the Easy Modes to instantaneously map a bunch of parameters. If the configurations do not exactly fit your needs, you can customize them afterwards. As you may have noticed, there are two kind of parameters (global and per voice) and two kind of MIDI signals (per channel and per voice), per voice meaning that the value depends on which note is played. There is one single MIDI configuration possible for the whole meta patch (there is no MIDI config morphing). As a consequence, when you store a preset in the meta patch, the MIDI config set is changed for the whole meta patch. 6.4. Sensitivity This parameter controls the intensity of the modulation. At 0%, the modulation is off. There are special kinds of sensitivity settings if note pitch is used as input: Channel Signal CCs, Channel Pressure, Mod wheel Voice Signal Velocity, Pitch, Aftertouch Depending on what modulates what, the behaviour is different: Global Parameter Voice Parameter Master, Mix, Filter bank Synthesis, Spread, Balance Standard Modulation All the active voices are modulated The parameter is modulated by the last sent value The signal is sent to the corresponding voice if it is active 39 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 CHAPTER 8 Tips & Tricks Contents 1. 2. 3. Sync Grain Oscillators . . . . . . 1.1. Classic Sample Playback 1.2. Time Stretching Only . . . 1.3. Pitch Shifting Only . . . . 1.4. Sample Layering . . . . . 1.5. Wavetable Samples . . . Post Synthesis Filter Bank . . . . . 2.1. Delay Playing Backward 2.2. Be careful with the SVF filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3. Be careful with the filter fatness parameter . . . . 2.4. Control the pitch of the filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . Various Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1. Generating Random Constants . . . . . . . . . 3.2. Bringing Life to Sound . . 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 1. Sync Grain Oscillators 1.1. Classic Sample Playback Classic sample playback is obtained by setting the Speed to 100%, Pitch Link to +100, Speed Link to 100% and mode to Sync. 1.2. Time Stretching Only Pure time stretching: Sync Type to Fade, Speed to 100%, Pitch Link to 0% and Speed Link to 100%, or any value actually. 1.3. Pitch Shifting Only Sync Type to Fade, Speed to 100%, Pitch Link to +100% and Speed Link to 0%. 1.4. Sample Layering Oh, yes, you can do multisampling with Symptohm, but basic: you cannot loop a part of a sample for instance. How to do that ? Create a sample that contains all the sampled elements playing separately in a raw at exact interval (generally playing one each bar with silent before next sound. Tempo does not matter). For example, if you plan to have one sample per octave, make it eleven samples. Then load it into a SGO, choose sync mode, speed 100 for normal playback. Turn Pitch Link and Speed Link to 0% for constant pitch playback. Then select pos and apply a Midi modulation to it via Keynote and the ‘octave monopolar’ curve with a sensitivity of 100. Instead of that, if you want one sample per key, looping on octave, use a twelve elements sample instead, and the ‘Note monopolar’ curve. The system is pretty flexible and allows using as well a ‘one sample per octave piano’ for instance, that will play at correct pitch, or a simple drumkit. There is a drum template given with the Symptohm, the only thing to do is to make the sample! Thus, do not forget that in a general way, SGO does not recognise any loop points. That is where you will use the Sustain Time VCA parameter to make sure the sound shuts down before the SGO reaches the next sample. 1.5. Wavetable Samples You might want to get the SGOs to behave like simple oscillators, with a given periodic waveform. You simply need to create a sample of one period of the signal, tuned on C4 (MIDI note 60, 261.6 Hz). Depending on the sampling frequency your waveform, the number of samples describing the whole period will vary. For example, the basic waveforms delivered with the Symptohm are highly oversampled (268 kHz) and 1024-sample long. Then set your oscillator as for the classic sample playback, but with the speed to 0%. You can also create a long loop of, say, a waveform morphing in another and morphs back after (always at 261.6 kHz). Set the speed at 100%. 40 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 2. Post Synthesis Filter Bank 2.1. Delay Playing Backward An amazing use of the delay is reverse playback. First, set a 1 beat delay. Then activate the delay LFO: a 1-beat period, a Ramp-up waveform and an amplitude of 100%. Deactivate the S&H and the smoothing effect by setting them to 0%. And voil`a ! You can decrease the playback latency by lowering both delay and LFO period. However it may reveal small pops and create ring modulation effects if set to extreme values. 2.2. Be careful with the SVF filters For stability reasons, the SVF filters have their input hard-clipped to 0 dB. Be careful to feed them with properly leveled signal to ensure maximum quality. 2.3. Be careful with the filter fatness parameter When set to high values, it can leads to very hi output if used with resonance. 2.4. Control the pitch of the filters You can easily control the pitch of the filters with various MIDI, ADSR or LFO signals: using LFO or ADSR on a cut-off frequency, the maximum value of the signal corresponding to one semi-tone of the amount is set to 2%, which means you can shift the frequency by ±1 octave if you set the amount to 24%. You can also control the pitch using MIDI note events: select as MIDI source a note pitch event in the drop down menu. Depending on the response curve, set various amount: I One-pole linear curve (the default one) −128% (choose a low E as base frequency) I Bipolar linear curve: 64% (choose a mid E as base frequency) I One-pole note curve: 12% (choose a C as base frequency. The filter freq will remain in one octave) I Bipolar note curve: 6% (choose F# as base frequency, the filter freq will remain in one octave) 3. Various Tips 3.1. Generating Random Constants You can generate a random constant value changing only at Note On by choosing one of the noises, the longest period possible, Sample And Hold to 100% and Sync to whatever value but Off. This is useful to have some parameters changing slightly at each new key, as the pitch. . . 3.2. Bringing Life to Sound The noise waveforms of the LFOs are useful to give the sound a little life: if you do not use the LFO on a given parameter, it may be a good idea to add a little noise on it — particularly on the oscillators pitches and the cut-off frequency of filters. On delays, a sine or square LFO is probably better than noise. 41 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 CHAPTER 9 Settings File Reference 2. Practical Use: Reordering Parameters Contents 1. 2. Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Practical Use: Reordering Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 42 This chapter is very technical. For now, settings files only contains MIDI parameter mapping, if available. To create a settings file, select Save Settings from the Setup menu. Locate the file and your system and open it using a regular text editor, like NotePad on Windows, or TextEdit on MacOS X. 1. Syntax Its modular structure allows you to suppress, add or move the ‘keys’ constituting the file. Each key is a particular property of the plug-ins. Just respect the syntax (key names are case sensitive) and the structure, and you’ll be fine. The keys work with a simple syntax: KeyName1 = key value KeyName2 = key value ... Or KeyName3 = { KeyName4 = key value // Some comment after the "//" KeyName5 = key value ... } The second example shows a hierarchy, where a key contains other keys. Thus, it is possible to load partial configurations and to merge it with the current one. Only the keys in the file will be taken into account. However, saving will store all the keys into the file. One thing you will want to do is to reorder parameters to be able to automate parameters with host that can only automate a limited numbers of parameters. Settings file for the parameter reorder map look likes: parameter_reorder_map = { 0_Stereo_Boost 1_Fdbk_Freq 2_Fdbk_Amnt 3_Tone_Freq 4_Tone_Shape 5_Master_Vol ... } You may reorder the parameters to change the way they are exposed to the host. Suppose that in the last example, the host would only be able to automate 4 parameters. Then 4 Tone Shape and 5 Master Vol would not be automable. If you want to make them automable to the detriment of, let’s say, 2 Fdbk Amnt and 3 Tone Freq, you would produce the following file: parameter_reorder_map = { 0_Stereo_Boost 4_Tone_Shape 5_Master_Vol 1_Fdbk_Freq 2_Fdbk_Amnt 3_Tone_Freq ... } Simply cutting and pasting the lines will permit you to reorder the parameters. 42 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 CHAPTER 10 Symptohm Default MIDI Mapping 1. What is NRPN ? It’s a way to send 14 bit data to a MIDI device. There are 16384 possible NRPN, each one corresponding to a 14 bit value (i.e. a value between 0 and 16383). This system uses 4 predefined CC. You have to send to the MIDI device the NRPN number, and then the NRPN value. CC 99 and 98 are used to send the NRPN number. The value conveyed by CC 99 represent the 7 first bits of the value, the one being conveyed by CC 98 the 7 last bits of the NRPN number. Then, you use CC 6 and 38 to send the required value. If you want to only send a 7 bits value, simply send the CC 6. So, for example, to send NRPN #831 value 257, you have to send: CC CC CC CC \#99, \#98, \#06, \#38, value value value value 6 63 2 1 If we go on with the example above, if you want to set NRPN #831 to value 0 and NRPN #832 to value 127, you would have to send the following: CC \#06, value 0 CC \#38, value 0 Now, NRPN #831 is 0. CC \#98, value 64 Now, the NRPN number is 832. You don’t have to send the MSB number if it did not change. CC \#38, value 127 You don’t have to send the NRPN number each time, as the Symptohm remembers the current NRPN number selected. As we already sent [CC #06, value 0], we don’t need to send it again The following tables help to match parameters and NRPN numbers. 43 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 2. Generic parameters NRPN 0 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 Parameter Tempo Voice Filter Type Voice Filter Cutoff . . . LFO Period . . . LFO Depth . . . LFO Waveform . . . LFO Sample & Hold . . . LFO Smoothing . . . LFO Resync . . . ADSR Amount . . . ADSR Attack Time . . . ADSR Decay Time . . . ADSR Sustain Time . . . ADSR Sustain Level . . . ADSR Release Time . . . ADSR Velocity Sensitivity Voice Filter Resonance . . . LFO Period . . . LFO Depth . . . LFO Waveform . . . LFO Sample & Hold . . . LFO Smoothing . . . LFO Resync . . . ADSR Amount . . . ADSR Attack Time . . . ADSR Decay Time . . . ADSR Sustain Time . . . ADSR Sustain Level . . . ADSR Release Time . . . ADSR Velocity Sensitivity Sub Osc Brightness Type Sub Osc Brightness Amount . . . LFO Period . . . LFO Depth . . . LFO Waveform . . . LFO Sample & Hold . . . LFO Smoothing . . . LFO Resync . . . ADSR Amount . . . ADSR Attack Time . . . ADSR Decay Time . . . ADSR Sustain Time . . . ADSR Sustain Level . . . ADSR Release Time . . . ADSR Velocity Sensitivity NRPN 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 Parameter Sub Osc Gain . . . LFO Period . . . LFO Depth . . . LFO Waveform . . . LFO Sample & Hold . . . LFO Smoothing . . . LFO Resync . . . ADSR Amount . . . ADSR Attack Time . . . ADSR Decay Time . . . ADSR Sustain Time . . . ADSR Sustain Level . . . ADSR Release Time . . . ADSR Velocity Sensitivity Sub Osc Transpose Coarse . . . LFO Period . . . LFO Depth . . . LFO Waveform . . . LFO Sample & Hold . . . LFO Smoothing . . . LFO Resync . . . ADSR Amount . . . ADSR Attack Time . . . ADSR Decay Time . . . ADSR Sustain Time . . . ADSR Sustain Level . . . ADSR Release Time . . . ADSR Velocity Sensitivity Sub Osc Transpose Fine . . . LFO Period . . . LFO Depth . . . LFO Waveform . . . LFO Sample & Hold . . . LFO Smoothing . . . LFO Resync . . . ADSR Amount . . . ADSR Attack Time . . . ADSR Decay Time . . . ADSR Sustain Time . . . ADSR Sustain Level . . . ADSR Release Time . . . ADSR Velocity Sensitivity 44 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 NRPN 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 Parameter Noise Gain . . . LFO Period . . . LFO Depth . . . LFO Waveform . . . LFO Sample & Hold . . . LFO Smoothing . . . LFO Resync . . . ADSR Amount . . . ADSR Attack Time . . . ADSR Decay Time . . . ADSR Sustain Time . . . ADSR Sustain Level . . . ADSR Release Time . . . ADSR Velocity Sensitivity Noise Color . . . LFO Period . . . LFO Depth . . . LFO Waveform . . . LFO Sample & Hold . . . LFO Smoothing . . . LFO Resync . . . ADSR Amount . . . ADSR Attack Time . . . ADSR Decay Time . . . ADSR Sustain Time . . . ADSR Sustain Level . . . ADSR Release Time . . . ADSR Velocity Sensitivity Noise Stereo Osc Spread . . . LFO Period . . . LFO Depth . . . LFO Waveform . . . LFO Sample & Hold . . . LFO Smoothing . . . LFO Resync . . . ADSR Amount . . . ADSR Attack Time . . . ADSR Decay Time . . . ADSR Sustain Time . . . ADSR Sustain Level . . . ADSR Release Time . . . ADSR Velocity Sensitivity NRPN 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 Parameter Osc Balance . . . LFO Period . . . LFO Depth . . . LFO Waveform . . . LFO Sample & Hold . . . LFO Smoothing . . . LFO Resync . . . ADSR Amount . . . ADSR Attack Time . . . ADSR Decay Time . . . ADSR Sustain Time . . . ADSR Sustain Level . . . ADSR Release Time . . . ADSR Velocity Sensitivity VCA . . . LFO Period . . . LFO Depth . . . LFO Waveform . . . LFO Sample & Hold . . . LFO Smoothing . . . LFO Resync . . . ADSR Amount . . . ADSR Attack Time . . . ADSR Decay Time . . . ADSR Sustain Time . . . ADSR Sustain Level . . . ADSR Release Time . . . ADSR Velocity Sensitivity Portamento Time Polyphony Mode Master Volume Limiter Amount Delay Link Frequency Link Frequency Link Mode 45 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 NRPN 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 Parameter Frequency Link Ratio . . . LFO Period . . . LFO Depth . . . LFO Waveform . . . LFO Sample & Hold . . . LFO Smoothing . . . LFO Resync . . . ADSR Amount . . . ADSR Attack Time . . . ADSR Decay Time . . . ADSR Sustain Time . . . ADSR Sustain Level . . . ADSR Release Time . . . ADSR Velocity Sensitivity Band Routing 1-2 / 3-4 Band Routing 1/2 Band Routing 3/4 3. Oscillators NRPN For Osc. 1 2 1 117 2 118 3 119 4 120 5 121 6 122 7 123 8 124 9 125 10 126 11 127 12 128 13 129 14 130 Parameter Master Transpose Coarse . . . LFO Period . . . LFO Depth . . . LFO Waveform . . . LFO Sample & Hold . . . LFO Smoothing . . . LFO Resync . . . ADSR Amount . . . ADSR Attack Time . . . ADSR Decay Time . . . ADSR Sustain Time . . . ADSR Sustain Level . . . ADSR Release Time . . . ADSR Velocity Sensitivity NRPN For Osc. 1 2 15 131 16 132 17 133 18 134 19 135 20 136 21 137 22 138 23 139 24 140 25 141 26 142 27 143 28 144 Parameter Master Transpose Fine . . . LFO Period . . . LFO Depth . . . LFO Waveform . . . LFO Sample & Hold . . . LFO Smoothing . . . LFO Resync . . . ADSR Amount . . . ADSR Attack Time . . . ADSR Decay Time . . . ADSR Sustain Time . . . ADSR Sustain Level . . . ADSR Release Time . . . ADSR Velocity Sensitivity 46 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 NRPN For Osc. 1 2 29 145 30 146 31 147 32 148 33 149 34 150 35 151 36 152 37 153 38 154 39 155 40 156 41 157 42 158 43 159 44 160 45 161 46 162 47 163 48 164 49 165 50 166 51 167 52 168 53 169 54 170 55 171 56 172 57 173 58 174 59 175 60 176 61 177 62 178 63 179 64 180 65 181 66 182 67 183 68 184 69 185 70 186 Parameter Slave Transpose Coarse . . . LFO Period . . . LFO Depth . . . LFO Waveform . . . LFO Sample & Hold . . . LFO Smoothing . . . LFO Resync . . . ADSR Amount . . . ADSR Attack Time . . . ADSR Decay Time . . . ADSR Sustain Time . . . ADSR Sustain Level . . . ADSR Release Time . . . ADSR Velocity Sensitivity Slave Transpose Fine . . . LFO Period . . . LFO Depth . . . LFO Waveform . . . LFO Sample & Hold . . . LFO Smoothing . . . LFO Resync . . . ADSR Amount . . . ADSR Attack Time . . . ADSR Decay Time . . . ADSR Sustain Time . . . ADSR Sustain Level . . . ADSR Release Time . . . ADSR Velocity Sensitivity Sync Position . . . LFO Period . . . LFO Depth . . . LFO Waveform . . . LFO Sample & Hold . . . LFO Smoothing . . . LFO Resync . . . ADSR Amount . . . ADSR Attack Time . . . ADSR Decay Time . . . ADSR Sustain Time . . . ADSR Sustain Level . . . ADSR Release Time . . . ADSR Velocity Sensitivity NRPN For Osc. 1 2 71 187 72 188 73 189 74 190 75 191 76 192 77 193 78 194 79 195 80 196 81 197 82 198 83 199 84 200 85 201 86 202 87 203 88 204 89 205 90 206 91 207 92 208 93 209 94 210 95 211 96 212 97 213 98 214 99 215 100 216 101 217 102 218 103 219 104 220 105 221 106 222 107 223 108 224 109 225 110 226 111 227 112 228 113 229 114 230 115 231 116 232 Parameter Sync Speed . . . LFO Period . . . LFO Depth . . . LFO Waveform . . . LFO Sample & Hold . . . LFO Smoothing . . . LFO Resync . . . ADSR Amount . . . ADSR Attack Time . . . ADSR Decay Time . . . ADSR Sustain Time . . . ADSR Sustain Level . . . ADSR Release Time . . . ADSR Velocity Sensitivity Link Pitch . . . LFO Period . . . LFO Depth . . . LFO Waveform . . . LFO Sample & Hold . . . LFO Smoothing . . . LFO Resync . . . ADSR Amount . . . ADSR Attack Time . . . ADSR Decay Time . . . ADSR Sustain Time . . . ADSR Sustain Level . . . ADSR Release Time . . . ADSR Velocity Sensitivity Link Speed . . . LFO Period . . . LFO Depth . . . LFO Waveform . . . LFO Sample & Hold . . . LFO Smoothing . . . LFO Resync . . . ADSR Amount . . . ADSR Attack Time . . . ADSR Decay Time . . . ADSR Sustain Time . . . ADSR Sustain Level . . . ADSR Release Time . . . ADSR Velocity Sensitivity Auto Gain Sync Type Playback Mode Loop (unused fo far) 47 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 4. Mixer NRPN For Dest. Band 1 2 3 4 406 420 434 448 407 421 435 449 408 422 436 450 409 423 437 451 410 424 438 452 411 425 439 453 412 426 440 454 413 427 441 455 414 428 442 456 415 429 443 457 416 430 444 458 417 431 445 459 418 432 446 460 419 433 447 461 462 476 490 504 463 477 491 505 464 478 492 506 465 479 493 507 466 480 494 508 467 481 495 509 468 482 496 510 469 483 497 511 470 484 498 512 471 485 499 513 472 486 500 514 473 487 501 515 474 488 502 516 475 489 503 517 Parameter Bus 1 . . . LFO Period . . . LFO Depth . . . LFO Waveform . . . LFO Sample & Hold . . . LFO Smoothing . . . LFO Resync . . . ADSR Amount . . . ADSR Attack Time . . . ADSR Decay Time . . . ADSR Sustain Time . . . ADSR Sustain Level . . . ADSR Release Time . . . ADSR Velocity Sensitivity Bus 2 . . . LFO Period . . . LFO Depth . . . LFO Waveform . . . LFO Sample & Hold . . . LFO Smoothing . . . LFO Resync . . . ADSR Amount . . . ADSR Attack Time . . . ADSR Decay Time . . . ADSR Sustain Time . . . ADSR Sustain Level . . . ADSR Release Time . . . ADSR Velocity Sensitivity 48 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 NRPN For Dest. Band 1 2 3 4 518 532 546 560 519 533 547 561 520 534 548 562 521 535 549 563 522 536 550 564 523 537 551 565 524 538 552 566 525 539 553 567 526 540 554 568 527 541 555 569 528 542 556 570 529 543 557 571 530 544 558 572 531 545 559 573 574 588 602 616 575 589 603 617 576 590 604 618 577 591 605 619 578 592 606 620 579 593 607 621 580 594 608 622 581 595 609 623 582 596 610 624 583 597 611 625 584 598 612 626 585 599 613 627 586 600 614 628 587 601 615 629 Parameter Sub . . . LFO Period . . . LFO Depth . . . LFO Waveform . . . LFO Sample & Hold . . . LFO Smoothing . . . LFO Resync . . . ADSR Amount . . . ADSR Attack Time . . . ADSR Decay Time . . . ADSR Sustain Time . . . ADSR Sustain Level . . . ADSR Release Time . . . ADSR Velocity Sensitivity Intervoice Ring Mod . . . LFO Period . . . LFO Depth . . . LFO Waveform . . . LFO Sample & Hold . . . LFO Smoothing . . . LFO Resync . . . ADSR Amount . . . ADSR Attack Time . . . ADSR Decay Time . . . ADSR Sustain Time . . . ADSR Sustain Level . . . ADSR Release Time . . . ADSR Velocity Sensitivity 49 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 5. Filter Bands NRPN For Band 1 2 3 4 652 793 934 1075 653 794 935 1076 654 795 936 1077 655 796 937 1078 656 797 938 1079 657 798 939 1080 658 799 940 1081 659 800 941 1082 660 801 942 1083 661 802 943 1084 662 803 944 1085 663 804 945 1086 664 805 946 1087 665 806 947 1088 666 807 948 1089 667 808 949 1090 668 809 950 1091 669 810 951 1092 670 811 952 1093 671 812 953 1094 672 813 954 1095 673 814 955 1096 674 815 956 1097 675 816 957 1098 676 817 958 1099 677 818 959 1100 678 819 960 1101 679 820 961 1102 680 821 962 1103 681 822 963 1104 682 823 964 1105 683 824 965 1106 684 825 966 1107 685 826 967 1108 686 827 968 1109 687 828 969 1110 688 829 970 1111 689 830 971 1112 690 831 972 1113 691 832 973 1114 692 833 974 1115 693 834 975 1116 694 835 976 1117 Parameter Delay Time . . . LFO Period . . . LFO Depth . . . LFO Waveform . . . LFO Sample & Hold . . . LFO Smoothing . . . LFO Resync . . . ADSR Amount . . . ADSR Attack Time . . . ADSR Decay Time . . . ADSR Sustain Time . . . ADSR Sustain Level . . . ADSR Release Time . . . ADSR Velocity Sensitivity Filter Type Filter Cutoff Frequency . . . LFO Period . . . LFO Depth . . . LFO Waveform . . . LFO Sample & Hold . . . LFO Smoothing . . . LFO Resync . . . ADSR Amount . . . ADSR Attack Time . . . ADSR Decay Time . . . ADSR Sustain Time . . . ADSR Sustain Level . . . ADSR Release Time . . . ADSR Velocity Sensitivity Filter Fatness . . . LFO Period . . . LFO Depth . . . LFO Waveform . . . LFO Sample & Hold . . . LFO Smoothing . . . LFO Resync . . . ADSR Amount . . . ADSR Attack Time . . . ADSR Decay Time . . . ADSR Sustain Time . . . ADSR Sustain Level . . . ADSR Release Time . . . ADSR Velocity Sensitivity 50 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 1 695 696 697 698 699 700 701 702 703 704 705 706 707 708 709 710 711 712 713 714 715 716 717 718 719 720 721 722 723 724 725 726 727 728 729 730 731 732 733 734 735 736 NRPN For Band 2 3 4 836 977 1118 837 978 1119 838 979 1120 839 980 1121 840 981 1122 841 982 1123 842 983 1124 843 984 1125 844 985 1126 845 986 1127 846 987 1128 847 988 1129 848 989 1130 849 990 1131 850 991 1132 851 992 1133 852 993 1134 853 994 1135 854 995 1136 855 996 1137 856 997 1138 857 998 1139 858 999 1140 859 1000 1141 860 1001 1142 861 1002 1143 862 1003 1144 863 1004 1145 864 1005 1146 865 1006 1147 866 1007 1148 867 1008 1149 868 1009 1150 869 1010 1151 870 1011 1152 871 1012 1153 872 1013 1154 873 1014 1155 874 1015 1156 875 1016 1157 876 1017 1158 877 1018 1159 Parameter Filter Resonance . . . LFO Period . . . LFO Depth . . . LFO Waveform . . . LFO Sample & Hold . . . LFO Smoothing . . . LFO Resync . . . ADSR Amount . . . ADSR Attack Time . . . ADSR Decay Time . . . ADSR Sustain Time . . . ADSR Sustain Level . . . ADSR Release Time . . . ADSR Velocity Sensitivity Distortion Type . . . LFO Period . . . LFO Depth . . . LFO Waveform . . . LFO Sample & Hold . . . LFO Smoothing . . . LFO Resync . . . ADSR Amount . . . ADSR Attack Time . . . ADSR Decay Time . . . ADSR Sustain Time . . . ADSR Sustain Level . . . ADSR Release Time . . . ADSR Velocity Sensitivity Distortion Level . . . LFO Period . . . LFO Depth . . . LFO Waveform . . . LFO Sample & Hold . . . LFO Smoothing . . . LFO Resync . . . ADSR Amount . . . ADSR Attack Time . . . ADSR Decay Time . . . ADSR Sustain Time . . . ADSR Sustain Level . . . ADSR Release Time . . . ADSR Velocity Sensitivity 51 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 1 737 738 739 740 741 742 743 744 745 746 747 748 749 750 751 752 753 754 755 756 757 758 759 760 761 762 763 764 765 766 767 768 769 770 771 772 773 774 775 776 777 778 NRPN For Band 2 3 4 878 1019 1160 879 1020 1161 880 1021 1162 881 1022 1163 882 1023 1164 883 1024 1165 884 1025 1166 885 1026 1167 886 1027 1168 887 1028 1169 888 1029 1170 889 1030 1171 890 1031 1172 891 1032 1173 892 1033 1174 893 1034 1175 894 1035 1176 895 1036 1177 896 1037 1178 897 1038 1179 898 1039 1180 899 1040 1181 900 1041 1182 901 1042 1183 902 1043 1184 903 1044 1185 904 1045 1186 905 1046 1187 906 1047 1188 907 1048 1189 908 1049 1190 909 1050 1191 910 1051 1192 911 1052 1193 912 1053 1194 913 1054 1195 914 1055 1196 915 1056 1197 916 1057 1198 917 1058 1199 918 1059 1200 919 1060 1201 Parameter Distortion Fatness . . . LFO Period . . . LFO Depth . . . LFO Waveform . . . LFO Sample & Hold . . . LFO Smoothing . . . LFO Resync . . . ADSR Amount . . . ADSR Attack Time . . . ADSR Decay Time . . . ADSR Sustain Time . . . ADSR Sustain Level . . . ADSR Release Time . . . ADSR Velocity Sensitivity Dry / Wet . . . LFO Period . . . LFO Depth . . . LFO Waveform . . . LFO Sample & Hold . . . LFO Smoothing . . . LFO Resync . . . ADSR Amount . . . ADSR Attack Time . . . ADSR Decay Time . . . ADSR Sustain Time . . . ADSR Sustain Level . . . ADSR Release Time . . . ADSR Velocity Sensitivity Gain . . . LFO Period . . . LFO Depth . . . LFO Waveform . . . LFO Sample & Hold . . . LFO Smoothing . . . LFO Resync . . . ADSR Amount . . . ADSR Attack Time . . . ADSR Decay Time . . . ADSR Sustain Time . . . ADSR Sustain Level . . . ADSR Release Time . . . ADSR Velocity Sensitivity 52 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 1 779 780 781 782 783 784 785 786 787 788 789 790 791 792 NRPN For Band 2 3 4 920 1061 1202 921 1062 1203 922 1063 1204 923 1064 1205 924 1065 1206 925 1066 1207 926 1067 1208 927 1068 1209 928 1069 1210 929 1070 1211 930 1071 1212 931 1072 1213 932 1073 1214 933 1074 1215 Parameter Pan . . . LFO Period . . . LFO Depth . . . LFO Waveform . . . LFO Sample & Hold . . . LFO Smoothing . . . LFO Resync . . . ADSR Amount . . . ADSR Attack Time . . . ADSR Decay Time . . . ADSR Sustain Time . . . ADSR Sustain Level . . . ADSR Release Time . . . ADSR Velocity Sensitivity 6. LFO Phases With the following NRPN, you can set the current phase for each LFO. 0 sets a phase of 0◦ , and 127 (or 16383 if you use 14-bit NRPN values) is about 360◦ . NRPN 1216 1217 1218 1219 1220 1221 1222 1223 1224 1225 1226 1227 1228 1229 1230 1231 1232 1233 1234 1235 1236 1237 Parameter Osc 1 Master Transpose Coarse Osc 1 Master Transpose Fine Osc 1 Slave Transpose Coarse Osc 1 Slave Transpose Fine Osc 1 Sync Position Osc 1 Sync Speed Osc 1 Link Pitch Osc 1 Link Speed Osc 2 Master Transpose Coarse Osc 2 Master Transpose Fine Osc 2 Slave Transpose Coarse Osc 2 Slave Transpose Fine Osc 2 Sync Position Osc 2 Sync Speed Osc 2 Link Pitch Osc 2 Link Speed Voice Filter Cutoff Voice Filter Resonance Sub Osc Brightness Amount Sub Osc Gain Sub Osc Transpose Coarse Sub Osc Transpose Fine NRPN 1238 1239 1240 1241 1242 1243 1244 1245 1246 1247 1248 1249 1250 1251 1252 1253 1254 1255 1256 1257 1258 1259 Parameter Noise Gain Noise Color Noise Balance Osc Spread Osc Balance VCA Mix Bus 1 To Band 1 Mix Bus 1 To Band 2 Mix Bus 1 To Band 3 Mix Bus 1 To Band 4 Mix Bus 2 To Band 1 Mix Bus 2 To Band 2 Mix Bus 2 To Band 3 Mix Bus 2 To Band 4 Mix Bus 3 To Band 1 Mix Bus 3 To Band 2 Mix Bus 3 To Band 3 Mix Bus 3 To Band 4 Mix Bus 4 To Band 1 Mix Bus 4 To Band 2 Mix Bus 4 To Band 3 Mix Bus 4 To Band 4 53 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 1 1261 1262 1263 1264 1265 1266 1267 1268 1269 1270 NRPN For Band 2 3 1271 1281 1272 1282 1273 1283 1274 1284 1275 1285 1276 1286 1277 1287 1278 1288 1279 1289 1280 1290 Parameter 4 1291 1292 1293 1294 1295 1296 1297 1298 1299 1300 Delay Time Filter Cutoff Frequency Filter Fatness Filter Resonance Distortion Type Distortion Level Distortion Fatness Dry / Wet Gain Pan 54 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 CHAPTER 11 Version Notes v1.10 (2004.12.25) Contents v1.14 (2005.10.10) . v1.13 (2005.06.23) . v1.12 (2005.05.13) . v1.11 (2005.01.07) . v1.10 (2004.12.25) . v1.07 (2004.12.25) . v1.06 (2004.03.xx) . v1.05 (2004.03.xx) . v1.04 (2004.02.20) . v1.03 (2004.02.16) . v1.02 (2004.02.02) . v1.01 (2003.12.22) . v1.00 (2003.12.16) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 56 56 56 56 56 57 I Funky skin added. I Random engine improved. I modulation pane is cleaned up when the selected parameter is not modulated. v1.07 (2004.12.25) I Legato and Mono modes updated. I Changing the GUI keybord pitch bend range is taken in account when receiving external MIDI pitch events. I Double-clicking a knob resets it to its default value. I A dialog warns the user when he presses the store ‘all’ button. I If a sample cannot be found, it’s name is displayed on the message box asking for its location. I Melhoman led synced with sub-preset and meta patch loading. I GUI morphing removed for consistency. I Bug fix: the default NRPN automation and LFOs phases control was not working correctly. v1.14 (2005.10.10) I autobind is possible using NRPNs. I un-bind is now possible. This is a new entry in the setup menu, which also displays the current cc binded to the selected parameter. v1.13 (2005.06.23) I Corrected a bug that crashes the AUValidation tool. v1.12 (2005.05.13) I DP crashes correction. I Bug fix: LFO phase saving I AUValidation fixes (mono to stereo problems). I Bug fix: the melohman leds where not displaying when reopening songs where the melohman octave was moved. I Automation to host fix. I Wave shaper correction. v1.11 (2005.01.07) I AU plugin version sync to code plugin version. v1.06 (2004.03.xx) I Can receive program changes via MIDI. I Simplification of the meta patch paradigm: only one MIDI configuration and sample set is allowed. 55 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 I Melohman morphing LEDs added. I I Portamento behaviour modified in Legato mode: the first note is always in tune. Bug fix: Automation problem with Cubase SX 2 in VST I Bug fix: Resonance with the VCF in band-pass mode. Bug fix: Stuck notes occuring when changing the polyphony mode. I Loading a Meta-patch via the browser is now instantaneous (no morphing, as it used to be). I I No more click when changing filters types of the filter bank. v1.04 (2004.02.20) I A double mouse click on a knob sets it to its center position. I Fixed denormal bug occuring only in high quality mode with low VCA Sustain Time. I Turning on an ADSR do not force the trig anymore if a key is pressed. I Fixed potential crash/bug while modulating the Dry/Wet parameter of the filter bands. I Fixed compatibility issue with Logic PC 5.5.x : the plugin was not showing up. I Bug fix: under Win98, the browser was empty. I Bug fix: under win98, changing the browser root directory several times lead to crash. v1.03 (2004.02.16) v1.05 (2004.03.xx) I Fixed Melohman MIDI channel problem. I Fixed retrig inconsistency in Mono mode when releasing keys. I ADSRs trig behaviour changed when not in poly mode. I Morphing efficiency improved. I Mac installers now check the code at installation time. v1.02 (2004.02.02) I Bug fix: volume with the Mo0g filter set to minimum resonance and high fatness. I VST versions for Macintosh systems. I Hold and sustainuto pedal are now supported. I Clearer labels on ADSR and LFO displays. I Fixed bug on Release Time knob. I Audio routing display bug fixed. I I I I Bug fix: graphic glitches when using Steinberg Cubase and Propellerheads Reason via the ReWire protocol. Bug fix: AudioUnit automation has been fixed, and works in latest Emagic Logic and MOTU Digital Performer. Bug fix: AudioUnit plugin can be put in any AU folder supported by the host. Bug fix: on Mac, when saving a preset file, plugin will not prompt twice for overwriting any more. v1.01 (2003.12.22) I Slowness problem fixed; it appeared when oscillator panel was displayed. 56 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 I Sustain Time and Level knob were inverted for the xADSR parameters. curves were incorrect. I I I Problem with the demo timer fixed. Now, it just counts the time elapsed when playing notes. Some displays of the MIDI modulation Minor internal bug fixes. v1.00 (2003.12.16) I Initial release 57 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 CHAPTER 12 FAQ Contents 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Website . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I’ve lost my password. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . How can I update my plug-ins ? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . How can I register my plug-ins ? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I’ve lost my plug-in registration key. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Plug-in installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . When I try to install the plug, the installer tells me that my key is invalid. . . . . . . . The installer reports an error while installing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . When I double click the installer .bin file, it opens Toast. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . My host does not let me automate some parameters. What can i do ? . . . . . . . . My plug-in does not seem to receive MIDI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . When I load a preset from the Load button, the sound does not change. . . . . . . What’s the best way to save my presets ? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I’m finding that the VST-AU wrapped versions (using FXpansion’s VST-AU wrapper) of the plug-ins seem to change presets when I do a save in Logic 7.1 and logic 6.4.3 — usually to some extreme setting that creates a horrible noise and endangers my speakers ! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Can I share my presets with the other customers ? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . How can i get the Muse Receptor version of the plugins ? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Macintosh Specific . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Will the plug work in MacOS X Tiger ? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The plug-in does not pass AU validation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The plug-in crashes validation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The plug-in crashes the host. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I have bought Ohm Force Experience boxed version, and the AU plug-ins won’t work. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The plug-ins make Digital Performer crash while using them in mono to stereo mode. Hosts Related . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Under Tracktion, the plug-ins settings change when i save my project ! . . . . . . . My plug-in installed fine, but Cubase SL3/SX3 does not recognize it (the plug-in is not in the plug-ins list). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I experience clicks in EnergyXT while morphing presets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . OhmBoyz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Can i synchronize one of the LFOs to my song ? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . QuadFrohmage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I experience clicks in EnergyXT while morphing presets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ohmygod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The plug-in makes no sound. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Melohman Synthesizers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The plug-in uses too much CPU when morphing using the Melohman octave. . . . 1. Website I’ve lost my password. Click on the Login button at the top right of the website main page, leaving the name and password fields blank, and follow the instructions. Alternatively, click here. 58 58 58 58 59 59 59 59 59 59 59 59 59 59 59 59 59 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 61 61 61 61 How can I update my plug-ins ? Open the plug-in you want to update, and select Update in the setup menu. You will be directed to the update page, where the new versions will be highlighted. Alternatively, you can log on the site and go to the My Software section, Download Files. 58 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 How can I register my plug-ins ? Open the plug-in to register, and select Register in the setup menu of the plug-in. I’ve lost my plug-in registration key. Log on the site, go to the My Software section, and click on the Mail Personal Key button. 2. Plug-in installation When I try to install the plug, the installer tells me that my key is invalid. Be sure to enter username and keycode as they were sent to you. If you received authorization by e-mail, please copy/paste those two informations. If you are using a boxed version, check for letter ‘O’ and number ‘0’, as well as letter ‘I’ and number ‘1’. The installer reports an error while installing. Please find the installer log for the plugin located in your ∼/Library/Logs/ folder. Then send this log here. When I double click the installer .bin file, it opens Toast. Please drag’n’drop the installer .bin file on Stuffit Expander. In the plug-in setup menu, check the MIDI input device. It should be set to VST (or AU) MIDI in if you want to receive MIDI from the host. You can choose any other MIDI device as long as it’s not used by another application (or the host). When I load a preset from the Load button, the sound does not change. Our preset files are in fact bank presets files. Use the 1-8 buttons to activate a particular preset. What’s the best way to save my presets ? Using the Ohm Force sytem to save your presets will allow you to: I Save them by banks (so that you can then morph between related presets) I Use them on any other platform (be it AU, VST, DirectX, Mac, PC. . . ) I’m finding that the VST-AU wrapped versions (using FXpansion’s VST-AU wrapper) of the plug-ins seem to change presets when I do a save in Logic 7.1 and logic 6.4.3 — usually to some extreme setting that creates a horrible noise and endangers my speakers ! 3. Product Use the native AU versions. My host does not let me automate some parameters. What can i do ? Can I share my presets with the other customers ? Some host limit the number of automatable parameters but you can reorder them so that the most important to you are shown. Please read the section about reordering parameters in the plug-in manual. Also the file easy vst automation.cfg.txt is an example of basic configuration (and most likely the one you’ll need). This file will work on VST, AU and RTAS. Yes, simply write us a mail along with the presets (under the Ohm Force format). We’ll add them to the presets section of the site. My plug-in does not seem to receive MIDI. How can i get the Muse Receptor version of the plugins ? You can buy those on the Plugorama website. In case you already own a Pack version of some plug-ins, or a bundle with multiple platform support, you can get those for free, also on the Plugorama website. 59 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 4. Macintosh Specific Under Tracktion, the plug-ins settings change when i save my project ! Will the plug work in MacOS X Tiger ? This may happen when two Ohm Force plugins are following each others in on a track. This is because Tracktion connects the two plug-ins via MIDI. When you save your project, the upstream plug-in sends MIDI controls to the downstream plug-in, changing it’s setting ! So, what can you do ? Disable the MIDI output of the plugin by default. First select None as MIDI out device in the setup menu, then save your configuration (Settings → Save), and set this file to Auto-load. Please download the demos. That way you can easily check that everything will work fine with your audio environment. The plug-in does not pass AU validation. Please download the latest version of the plug-in. If it still does not pass validation, please send the validation report here. The plug-in crashes validation. Please download the latest version of the plug-in. If it still crashes validation, please send the validation report and the crash log here. The crash log can be found in your ∼/Library/Logs/Crash Reporter/ folder. The file to send is the file which name contains something about auval. The plug-in crashes the host. Please download the latest version of the plug-in. If it still crashes the host, please send the crash log here. The crash log can be found in your ∼/Library/Logs/Crash Reporter/ folder. The file to send is the file which name contains the host name. I have bought Ohm Force Experience boxed version, and the AU plug-ins won’t work. Please download the latest version of the plug-in. You will have to create an account on our site (http://www.ohmforce.com), and then register your OFE on our site here. The plug-ins make Digital Performer crash while using them in mono to stereo mode. My plug-in installed fine, but Cubase SL3/SX3 does not recognize it (the plug-in is not in the plug-ins list). It seems that Cubase does not always scan properly the VST plug-in folder, and ‘forget’ some plug-ins. Re-install the plug-in in a new folder (for example ‘tempVSTPlugin’), and in Cubase register this directory as a VST plug-ins directory. This is done in the Device → Plug-in information menu of Cubase. Then restart Cubase and check the plug-in is correctly listed. Otherwise, contact us. I experience clicks in EnergyXT while morphing presets. Disable the plug-in MIDI output in the plug-in setup menu (select none instead of VST). This happens only with Quad Frohmage as far as we know. 6. OhmBoyz Can i synchronize one of the LFOs to my song ? Please download the latest version of the plug-in. Yes, this is possible by sending a specific MIDI NRPN to the plug-in. It’s also possible to change the MIDI mapping, and assign a Control Change for this. Refer to the documentation for more information. 5. Hosts Related 7. QuadFrohmage 60 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 I experience clicks in EnergyXT while morphing presets. Disable the plug-in MIDI output in the QF setup menu (select none instead of VST). 8. Ohmygod something if you send it MIDI notes. Set it to ‘Classic’ or ‘MIDI mono’ to hear something without playing. 9. Melohman Synthesizers The plug-in makes no sound. The plug-in uses too much CPU when morphing using the Melohman octave. Check the playing mode of the filter. If it’s set to ‘MIDI poly’, it will only output Lower the Melohman density in the setup menu of the plug-in. 61 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14 CHAPTER 13 Credits and thanks 1. Credits I Product design: Laurent de Soras, Gregory Makles, J´ erˆome No¨el I GUI design: Rapha¨ el Ding´e, Gregory Makles I Code: Laurent de Soras, Rapha¨ el Ding´e, J´erˆome No¨el I Team managment: Franck Bacquet I Support: Vincent Birebent and all the crew I Web: Franck Bacquet, Vincent Birebent, Eric Cestari, Vincent Frison I Web graphics: Gregory Makles I Sound design: Tim Conrardy, Celmar Engel, Fritz Hilderbrandt, Gregory Makles, Jaime C Newman, J´erˆome No¨el, Guillaume Perillon I Documentation: Laurent de Soras, J´ erˆome No¨el, Bruce Satinover and Eric Wistrand I Tutorials: J´ erˆome No¨el, with the help of Bruce Satinover and SARcazm 2. Thanks Ohm Force would like to thank all the beta testers for their involvment, and the following people for their advices, help and ideas: I Nicolas Lacoumette I Steve Duda I Kasper T. Toepliz I Ian Finney I Dave Spiers I Chris Macleod I Eric Gougaud I H´el`ene Zanni I Fr´ed´erique Boeuf 62 c 2000-2005 Ohm Force Copyright Symptohm Manual v1.14