This section contains tips and tricks for most VST plugins and Audio Units on the market.

How MIDI works

Audio Units and how they are used

VST plugins and how they are used

Using a VST adapter with non-VST compatible hosts

Creatic synthetic choirs with Voxynth

Processing an electric piano using Flex FX

Mixing and effects - which to use and how

An introduction to unison mode in Fatsondo

Processing a drum loop using the Space Effect

Programming patches for the Space Synth



How MIDI works


MIDI was developed over 20 years ago and can be used to connect 16 music-machines (synths, samplers, mixrs, effects, computers etc) on a bus. The MIDI specification was based on earlier work done by for example Sequential Circuits and Roland, such as the DCB technology. Later on, the standard MIDI sample dump was added to the specification and then General MIDI came in, which specified more or less a basic set of patches that a synth could, but didn't have to support.

When MIDI was developed, 16 synths seemed more than enough for most purposes. Today, 16 machines are in some cases a limit, not the least if VST plugins or Audio Units are used. In that case 16 MIDI channels are very limiting, because users often have several instances of the same VST or AU plugins running. But the limitation can easily be overcome. External hardware synths may use several MIDI networks, and for example a computer with more than one MIDI in/out. And VST plugins can easily use several logical MIDI networks in the host applications, because the software synths are not limited by a physical MIDI network and its limitations.

MIDI transfers control signals

It's a common misunderstanding that MIDI transfers the actual audio. MIDI doesn't. Instead it transfers information about the audio that you hear and not really the audio itself. MIDI is an interface for sending control signals to synths, effects, VST plugins or whatever is used. The signals contain messages, such as play note 64 on channel 7 with velocity 100 or change patch on channel 5 to patch number 1 etc.

As you hit a key on a synth, the MIDI protocol informs other machines that are connected to the MIDI network that you hit a key, which key you hit, how hard etc.

So if you move the pitch bend wheel on a synth, the synth sends MIDI messages through its MIDI out, to indicate that you moved the bend wheel. The messages contain information about the wheel's position. The same applies to the modulation wheel and knobs in general. The position of the knobs can be transferred over MIDI. The sounds that they produce are never transferred over the MIDI bus.

It's the same with Audio Units and VST plugins in a computer. They use the MIDI protocol, but instead of a network the computer sends messages internally to the VST or AU plugins. The advantages are many. You're not limited to a physical network hooked up using cables. Instead, the computer communicates with the synth in the software, but the principles are still the same. MIDI has moved into the computers and now all the disadvantages of MIDI are gone.

Lag

A physical MIDI network network of hardware synths used to have a lag. The MIDI protocol communicates using a relatively low speed and it's serial. Serial means that only information can only be sent to one synth or effect at the time. So if several synths are supposed to play a note at exactly the same time, not uncommon at all, then the computer will first send a message to one of them and then to the next etc, so there will be a slight delay between each of them and they won't play at exactly the same time.

But if you use VST plugins, then the computer doesn't have to use the bus speed as specified in the MIDI specification, because everything is done in software. That haves a very nice consequence; it's possible to get zero latency. The VST and AU plugins play at exactly the same time, because the plugins render a small buffer of audio and these buffers are mixed, so the output of each synth of effect sounds at exactly the same time, as opposed to a single hardware MIDI network, where the hardware synths cannot play at exactly the same.

MIDI channels

Each MIDI network has 16 channels. Each channel plays a sound. It can be a drum kit, a piano, bass sound or whatever you prefer. MIDI channels work more or less the same as channels on a mixer. Each channel plays a particular sound. You set the synth to respond to one or several MIDI channels and for each MIDI channel you choose a sound. In software, the host often uses several logical MIDI networks to overcome the 16 channels limitation. VST and AU plugins may then play at the same channel but on different logical MIDI networks.

Connecting your equipment

If you're use hardware synths, then a common problem is how you should hook up your equipment to a MIDI network. Which machines should be connected and how?

It really depends on what you're trying to achieve, but in general most people want to connect a number of synths to a computer. A synth may have a keyboard and there may be synths, which don't have a keyboard, e.g 19 inch rack mounted modules. The following picture illustrates a common configuration; one computer, one keyboard and two modules.

MIDI out on the keyboard should be connected to MIDI in on the computer. Then the computer will be able to record your fantastic performances on the keyboard. But if the keyboard also has onboard sounds, which you want the computer to play, then you should also connect MIDI out from the computer to MIDI in on the keyboard.

But wait a minute... you have all these modules as well. How should they be connected when you have used MIDI in and MIDI out on the computer and as well as the keyboard? That's when the MIDI through connections should be used.

MIDI through

If you check your keyboard, then it should have a MIDI through connection. This connection echoes the MIDI messages that are received on the MIDI in. And since MIDI in on the keyboard is connected to MIDI out on the computer, then MIDI through on the keyboard will echo the MIDI out messages from the computer. That's perfect because the computer sequencer should play the modules, so let's connect MIDI through on the keyboard to MIDI in on your first module. And connect MIDI through on that module to MIDI in on your next module etc.

Now you should have a basic MIDI network, which allows you to play the keyboard and record your performances and play your modules using your keyboard and sequencer software. The sequencer software receives your MIDI signals from the keyboard and then echoes them on the computer's MIDI out, so they will go back to the keyboard via its MIDI in and then further on to the modules via the MIDI throughs.

A problem that arises using this configuration is that when you play the keyboard to control one of the modules, then the MIDI signals will go from the keyboard's MIDI out, into the computer's MIDI in and the sequencer will echo them to the computer's MIDI out and consequently they will go back again into the keyboard. In this case you might get double notes and then you need to switch of local mode.

Local on/off

If you are using a computer setup as the one described here, then you should switch off the keyboard's local functions. Most keyboards have this function and it allows it to be used as a controller at the same time as its internal sounds can be replayed by a computer via MIDI signals coming in via the keyboard's MIDI in.

Thus with local set to off, the keyboard's onboard sounds won't be heard when you hit the keys. Instead the keyboard will send MIDI signals via its MIDI out (to the computer). The computer might echo them back to the keyboard though, if you have set the keyboard to respond to the same MIDI channel as the sequencer software sends on.

That gives you the flexibility to set the MIDI channel in the sequencer software, to play either your keyboard or the modules as you hit the keys on the keyboard.


Hardware synths and VST plugins

You may use a combination of hardware synths and VST/AU plugins. In fact, most professionals work like this. They often have a favourite set of VST/AU plugins and hardware synths. It's not uncommon to have a set of analog synths, such as a MiniMoog or Prophet 5, and use a sound card with multiple inputs, which allows you to mix them with your VST or AU plugins. Creamware have developed a set of high quality sound cards, which have multiple inputs. Mark of the Unicorn have some high end cards as well. There's a wide range of sound cards available depending on how many inputs and outputs you need. If you just want to mix a couple of external synths with your plugins, then you don't need more than 2 outputs (stereo) on your sound card. However, you'll need at least 2 inputs for each hardware synth.


Audio Units and how they are used


Audio Units were introduced by Apple when they released Mac OS X. Thus Audio Units are available only on Mac OS X, and not on OS 9 nor earlier versions of the OS. Audio Units can be used in hosts, such as Emagic Logic Platinum, Spark XL, Rax, SynthTest etc.

Effects

Audio Units can be effects that process any number of channels, for example mono sources, stereo sources or even multiple channel sources.

All Audio Units on Mac OS X are implemented as so-called components. Audio Unit components can either reside in the /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/ directory or they can be accesible by a single user who has logged on. Then they reside in the /Library directory for that particular user, e.g. .../Carl/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/.

Music Devices

A music device is an Audio Unit components, which can receive note on, note off and MIDI data in general. Thus it's basically the same type of plugins as an Audio Unit effect, but with these additional features.

Presets

Audio Units on Mac OS X can include any number of presets and you can edit these presets and save them to disk. The presets themselves cannot be edited.

Using AUs

Each host handles Audio Units a bit differently and it depends on whether it's an effect or a music device. But in general, AUs are not handled more different than other plugins. Music devices end up in your host's menu for instruments and effects can be accesssed in your insert slots of send effects panel.


VST plugins and how they are used


VST plug ins are applications which run in your ordinary MIDI sequencer or in your audio editor. They can be instruments or effects.

Synths

A synth is called a VSTi (i = Instrument), but often people just refer to them as VST plugins and omit the i, no matter if they are instruments or effects.

The VST Technology

The VST technology was developed by Steinberg Soft- und Hardware GmbH. You might have used some of their software, such as Cubase, Cubasis, Cubase SX or Cubase SL. Nowadays almost all audio and MIDI sequencer software can handle plugins of any type.

Support

And if the software you use doesn't support plugins in the VST format? Software packages which do not support them usually support the DXi standard for plugins and in those cases you may insert an adapter. The adapter "wraps around" plugins and makes the sequencer think they're DXi plugins (that's why this kind of adapter is sometimes called a wrapper).

A couple of good and affordable adapters on the market are Cakewalk's adapter, Tonewise's DirectiXer and VST-DX from FXpansion. FXpansion's adapter was called Amulet in earlier releases.

Mixing with Plugins

VST plugins can be used as insert effects, when you're mixing, or as send effects. The beauty of plugins is that you may allocate any number of instances of the plugins, as long as your computer's power can cope with it. The same applies to instruments, allocate as many instances as you need and as your computer can deal with.

Latency

You will notice a slight latency on all systems, when you work with plugins. All sound cards have a certain latency, on some it's low, very low, but it's there. It's dependant on how fast the sound card (and computer) is. The host sends small buffers of audio to the sound card and the card plays the audio buffer. The smaller this buffer is, the shorter latency you will get. But if the buffer is small, then the card has to work harder, because it will receive more buffers per second. That's why low latency requires a fast sound card.

Hosts

So ... which hosts can be used with MHC's plugins ? They have been tested on a number of different MIDI sequencers and audio editors. They have also been tested with software that doesn't support VST plugins, but DXi plugins, for example SONAR 2.0. In that case the above adapters were used.

The following MIDI sequencers and audio editors were used to test the MHC plugins on Windows: In addition, users have reported that the synth- and audio plugins work fine on the following software: Basically, if the manufacturer says VST plugins are supported, then it should work.


Using a VST adapter


There's hope for all of you out there, who use a host which is DirectX and DXi but not VST compatible. Cakewalk have their VST adapter and FXPansion have an adapter called VST-DX (was previously named Amulet). ToneWise have created a VST to DirectX adapter, which transforms VST plugins to the DX and DXi format.

With a VST to DirectX adapter, it's possible to use say the Space Synth with a DXi host, such as Cakewalk SONAR 2.0. Here's a short description about getting the Space Synth up and running in Cakewalk SONAR 2.0 using Directixer from ToneWise.

Tonewise's DirectiXer

First you need to configure the VST plugins, in this case let's pick one, the Space Synth. Start ToneWise's Directixer. You will see the DirectiXer Management Console.



Now click on File and choose "Create Plugin...". Browse to the folder where you installed the Space Synth. That's your VST plugins folder. Select the Space Synth DLL and click on OK. A menu pops up where you can do some fine adjustments. In most cases you can click OK here, without doing any changes. The management console should now look like this.







As you can see, DirectiXer recognizes synthesizer plugins as VSTi plugins, here showing a keyboard to the left. In addition, you can see that the Syn (Synth) column is marked as Yes. This type of plugins has zero inputs (it's a synth) and two outputs (stereo). To the right you can see the path to the plugins.





When you start SONAR 2.0, you will find the Space Synth in the menus as it was a DXi rather than a VSTi.



Choose insert, DXi Synth and "MHC Space Synth 1.2". A dialog will popup. It looks like this.













You can just click on OK here. The synth will then by put in the synth rack.









The editor will also pop up in another window at the same time. Now you can play the Space Synth in SONAR 2.0 and edit its sounds.




Creating synthetic choirs with Voxynth


Voxynth is one of our Audio Units and VST plugins, which uses formants to synthesize vocal sounds, such as choirs. It features 20 formant filter types. You may use the plugins envelope to modulate the formant filter to create true morphing timbres, which vary over time.

This short tutorial explains how a synthetic pad/choir sound can be programmed. The nice thing about this one of our plugins is that it does more than provide a framework for choirs and voices. It has some additional qualities. You can also create sounds, which sound just weird or have a vocal character.



First we shall set the overall parameters, such as envelope settings, vibrato, oscillators. Then we'll add some delay and finally choose and adjust the actual formant settings.

The Envelope

Choir sounds usually have a medium attack, full sustain and medium release. The release, though, can be emulated using the delay. So in our case the attack is set at around 9 o clock, the decay settings doesn't matter, the sustain is set to max and release is small to medium, around 11 o clock.

The release is very short, because we'd like the choir sound to stop immediately as we release the keys, but still there should be echoes, like it was performed in a medium or large sized hall.

Vibrato

Choirs usually have a slight vibrato, because people don't sing with perfect pitch and some vibrato also reduces the tension of the sound making it a bit friendly in character. The rate is set to 11 o clock, which is a medium setting, because the vibrato should not be too fast and not too slow. If it's too slow it'll sound as if the choir sang out of tune. Too fast will make it more strange. That may be a desirable effect sometimes, so experiement with the settings.

Solo voices seem to have a slightly faster vibrato. The pitch modulation shouldn't be too deep, only subtle, so the depth is set to only slightly above zero.

Oscillators

We're programming a rich sound, so let's use all 3 oscillators, two of them set to pulse and one set to dist, which is a slightly distorted waveform. The dist waveform can add interesting timbres to the sound, because it has noise components. Thus, it's very useful to create breathy choir sounds. Some semitone detuning will be used. Oscillator 1, the dist waveform, will play an octave above the other two.

The volume is the same for all oscillators, but the fine tuning is the most important setting in the oscillator section.

The plugins should produce a beating chorus-like effect, so the oscillators should be detuned slightly. The first oscillator's fine knob points slightly to the left, the second slightly to the right and the third oscillator points at the top. This means that oscillator 1 will be slightly down-tuned, oscillator two will be tuned up slightly and oscillator 3 will play the exact pitch and won't be detuned at all. When all the three oscillators play slightly out of tune, the beating effect is created and it sounds very rich in character, almost like a chorus effect and that's perfect for choir sounds.

Delay

The Delay will add a slight amount of ambience for the sound. Choirs usually perform in a room, so the stereo delay helps to simulate echoes. The left time is set to 0.28 seconds and the right time to around 0.39 seconds. They're not set to the same time and that creates a very nice stereo effect.

The Formant Filter

Finally, the most important settings of all need to be programmed, the formant filter settings and its envelope. The sound should have a slighy attack and then fade into an "aaah". Then formant type number 19 (Shifted Alto A) is perfect. It morphs from an interesting synthesized sound into an alto "A" as it's modulated by the envelope. Filter type 19 sounds like the vocal "A" when the envelope is at zero, so we can use quite a long attack and decay, which fades to zero sustain. Then the filter will start with a fantazy sound and morph into the "A".

That's it!!!

Now the sound's complete and here's a sample of it. It wasn't too hard, was it? Try different settings on the amount and formant envelope and you'll notice how much the sound changes. This is preset number 61. You can listen to more MP3s of some presets by clicking on Voxynth in the left column and scrolling down to the bottom of the page.

Don't forget that you can modulate the formant filter the same way as the envelope modulates it, by playing the Performance Keys on the lowest octave on your keyboard. Note that if you play some of the presets and the sound doesnt change although you play the performance keys, you might need to adjust the amount, sustain and glide knobs in the formant filter sections. You might notice that you can get a wide range of cool sounds out of this patch by playing the performance keys, and we've only used one (1) of this one of our plugins 20 formant filter types. The remaning 19 have different characters, which you can experiment with. Or if you don't like to experiment, you may just be satisfied with the 64 factory patches. You can listen to some of them by clicking on the Voxynth bullet to the left on this page. Anyhow, good luck and happy music making!!!


Processing an electric piano using Flex FX


Flex FX is a set of 6 VST and AU plugins, the Amplitude Modulator, the Chaotic Lowpass Filter, the Chaotic Highpass Filter, the Ensemble effect, the Stereo Feedback Delay and the Fat Resonator.

The purpose of this tutorial is to give you an example on what the effects can be used for. We'll use the Chaotic Highpass Filter and the Fat Resonator to create an interesting effect, which is a combination of the two. This can be achieved using any sequencer or audio editor, which supports audio inserts. Cubase SX does. So does Musyz, Orion Pro, Logic 5, Magix Music Maker, Cubase VST and many other sequencers.

About the Effect

Does your song have enough of drums, but you have a feeling that it would benefit from more rhythm? In that case, you can use the type of effect, which is described in this short tutorial. To make the effect even more interesting, we'll make sure that the sound changes over a long time period. The Fat Resonator is a perfect choice to achieve that.

The Signal path

The audio should first be processed by the resonator and then it should send its output to another of the Flex FX plugins; the Highpass Filter. So we need to use these effects as inserts on an audio track, in the following order.

Audio Flex FX Fat Resonator Flex FX Chaotic Highpass Filter Output


Of course, it's possible to use these plugins as send effects as well, but in this case we chose to use them as inserts on a single audio channel only.

The audio first enters the Flex FX Fat Resonator, because that effect is put in the first slot, insert number 1. Insert number 2 holds the Highpass Filter and it receives its input from the output of insert number 1, the Flex FX Fat Resonator. Finally the output from insert effect number 2, the Highpass Filter, is fed to the main output.

Adding a Sound to the Audio Track

A simple wave file is replayed by the audio track. Note how simple the sound is and compare with the result, which will be completely different. Here's an MP3 of the sound we used: wurlie1.mp3.

Adjusting the Fat Resonator

Now it's time to adjust the Fat Resonator. Its editor is opened in different ways, depending on which host you use, but many hosts have an edit button next to the effects rack. Click on it. We'll use the following settings.

The frequency slider is pulled to the bottom and the depth is set to max, which means that the the sweep will go from the lowest frequency to max. Thus the sweeping range is the maximum possible. If the depth had been pulled down a bit , then the sweep hadn't reached the top frequencies.

The LFO's shape has been set to Sine and the rate is quite slow. The basic idea is that the first of the plugins, the Fat Resonator, should provide a slow sine shaped sweep and the result should be chopped up by the second of the plugins; the Highpass filter.

The phase knob doesn't have to be adjusted, because we're not syncing the Fat Resonator's sweep with the sequencer. If we would like to sync the effect with the sequencer, then sync should be selected and the phase knob would adjust the lag with respect to the sequencer.

Adjusting the Highpass Filter

Now it's time to edit the Highpass Filter.

To provide the type of effect we wat, a bit similar to a gating effect, the filter will be swept up and down, alternating between fully open and slightly filtering. The filter's LFO could use either the Sine or the Pulse shape. The pulse shape will give you a more prominent effect.

The Cut slider is pulled to the bottom and the depth slider is pulled slightly above zero, so the effect is not too dominant but works just as a spice.

That's it!!!

And now it's time to hear the result. Here's an MP3: wurlie2.mp3.

We have only used a couple of the functions and there are 4 additional ones in Flex FX, which can be chained to create interesting effects.

Good luck with the sound mangling using Flex FX!!!


Mixing and effects - which to use and how


This tutorial is meant to highlight some of the most common problems when mixing and suggest solutions to these problems. Note that although technology and tricks like those presented in this tutorial can help you, the end-result of course depends on your taste, creativity and ears.

Compression

Lack of compression is probably the most common mistake when people mix and cannot make it sound like a professional mix. Listen to commercial music, which has been released on CD or played on the radio. Each instrument has a constant level, although the musician plays softer and harder notes. The variation in dynamics is very small.

In the days when there were no such things as plugins, then you'd have to buy one or more compressors to achive this effect. Today, it's simpler. You may use a VST or AU compressor to reduce the dynamics in software and if you need more than one, you just allocate several instances of the plugins. In the days of hardware mixing you had to buy several compressors if you wanted to apply different amounts of compression to different instruments.

So when you record an instrument, it usually fluctuates in volume and it doesn't sound good in the final mix. Even jazz music, which often contains dynamic playing with a mix of soft notes followed by agressive chord progressions need at least some compression. However, the most noticable application of compression of probably heard in dance music. Sometimes these tracks are compressed enormously, almost squashed to the degree of sounding distorted.

MIDI and audio compression

There are two ways to compress your instruments. Either using MIDI compression or an audio compressor. You can add MIDI compression by adjusting the velocity sensitivity. A good rule of thumb is to record all your MIDI instrument with as little velocity sensitivity as you possible can. You'll probably want some velocity sensitivity to be able to express yourself, but try to reduce it as much as possible, at least if the velocity affects the volume.

Another trick is to set the volume velocity sensitivity to zero and let the velocity affect the filter only. The Fatsondo synth contains such a function, which makes it ideal for easy mixing. The volume velocity sensitivity can be turned down to zero (programmable for each patch) and instead velocity can affect the filter to any degree.

Audio compression, on the other hand, can be applied to audio material, such as drums, guitars or recorded synths. Audio compressors require a good ear and some experience. They can be a bit hard to understand for the newbie, so check out its presets. There are usually presets for vocals, drums etc. A good VST and AU compressor should have dozens of presets and there are lots of high quality compressor plugins on the market which have.

Using references

Another trick to use when you are mixing is to use references. Try to compare your mix, on the fly, with songs in the same genre. For example, you could collect a number of reference MP3 files and put them on your hard disk so you can A/B them with the mix you are working on. The reason is that when you are mixing your ears get tired after a while and it's harder for you to judge whether the snare drum should be higher or lower, the bass is too high and so on.

Volume levels are very hard to set when the ear is tired. Compression helps to keep the instrument on a constant level, but it's not enough. It should have the right level as well. Then it's good to have a number of reference files, which you can compare with. Usually the bass drum, snare drum and the bass are hardest to get right, so focus on these.

If you have an AUX connection on your amp, then it can be a good idea to burn a reference CD and put it on repeat. Then just switch between the AUX and line (mixer) signals on your amp to compare the levels on your track and the reference CD.

EQ

How much EQ you need depends on which mixing desk you own or which software you use. Filters (EQ) have different slopes. Some are 12 dB/octave filters and there are filters, which have a 24 dB/octave slope. The latter has a greater impact on the sound and require less adjustment. Filters which have a 6 or 12 dB/octave slope might require more tweaking to color the sound.

In many cases when you don't know why a sound "isn't right" you might have to change the volume rather than apply EQ. If a sample is just great, but still doesn't sit right in the mix, then try changing the volume rather than applying EQ.

Try EQing using the Flex FX plugins or/and the Vox FX plugins. They should not be used for subtle effects though, because they are supposed to color the sound.

Hall reverbs

Hall reverbs have a long tail, which usually last for seconds. Remember that this length should be matched with the tempo of your song and the melody (if any). If you change chords and the sound has a hall reverb applied to it, then the reverb tail might not match with the new chords. And that might result in so called dissonances (unpleasant chord combinations). The general rule of thumb is to reduce the time of the hall reverb the faster tempo the song has.

And don't forget that hall reverbs have a tendency to muddy the mix. They should be used with care and should mostly be used on percussive sounds, such as plucked instruments or drums. A pad sound, such as synth strings, doesn't benefit much from a hall reverb. Instead it might create a muddy mix, which sounds unpleasant. Try different settings and listen to the result.

If you have tried different reverbs and cannot find a good setting, which doesn't make the mix sound muddy, then you might want to consider a delay. A delay can sometimes replace a reverb, not the least in cases where the only thing you're after is a barely noticable echo and not really a large hall reverb. You might want to try the Flex FX plugins and its delay. It's easy to use and works fine for echoes rather than reverbs. Echoes are easier to get right in the mix. So you should ask yourself: do you really need a reverb and not an echo?

Chorus

Cymbals and hihats almost always benefit from a small amount of chorus added to them. They sound more "polished" and less harsh when they are processed by a chorus. In some rare cases, you might want to add a bit of flanging, just for fun.

Chorus can be added to many sounds. However, bass sounds usually have the purpose to sound thick and punchy. Since chorus creates a soft and polished sound, that effect is not ideal for bass sounds. Try flanging instead if you feel that you need to add a cool effect to the bass sound.

Sometimes the chorus doesn't create the effect you're after. Perhaps you want to widen the sound and make it sound richer and bigger, but the chorus doesn't seem to do the job. Then you might want to try en ensemble instead. The Flex FX set of plugins contains an ensemble effect. It makes the sound wider and richer as opposed to a chorus effect. While a chorus makes an instrument sound more "polished", ensemble plugins, like the Flex FX ensemble, create slightly different effects. In addition the Flex FX may add a slight vibrato, which often adds warmth to the sound.

Vocal doubling

Vocals often need doubling to sound powerful and punchy. That can be achieved by The idea is that it should sound as if the vocals had been sung by more than one person. Adding a very short delay plus pitch shifting an audio track can make it sound like a second person is singing the same lyrics. Adding an ensemble effect makes the effect even more pronounced.


An introduction to unison mode in Fatsondo


The Fatsondo synth has so many features and we won't go into details in this short tutorial (click on Fatsondo to the right to get more details). Instead, we'll show you how the synth's Polyphonic Unison Mode can be used to fatten up sounds.



The Polyphonic Unison Mode simply multiplies the number of oscillators used per voice. In addition, it allows you to adjust the detuning between all the oscillators. In fact, the Polyphonic Unison Mode in Fatsondo can be used to create patches, which use up to 33 oscillators per voice!!!

If you're used to plugins, which sound thin and not too exciting, you'll be glad to hear about this feature. It makes the synth sound fatter, bigger and better.

The Oscillator Settings

First you might start with adjusting the 3 oscillators. A patch doesn't have to use all 3 oscillators, but if you're aiming for thick and fat sounds, it can be a good idea to use all three. For example, you can use the pulse waveform on all 3 three. Oscillator 1 and 2 are slightly detuned to create a beating effect and oscillator 3 might play an octave below these and work as a suboscillator. Now the sound's already quite fat, because we have 3 oscillators per voice playing slightly detuned and they are all modulated by the fat lowpass filter and the processor. But let's move on to the unison section and check out its settings.

Unison

There are only two sliders here. The first one is marked "Detune" and the second "Oscillators / Voice", meaning total number of oscillators per voice. Thus, as you pull the latter slider, you get more oscillators per voice. In the above paragraph we set the 3 oscillators and now as you pull the slider to the right, you can see that the display varies between 3 and 33. Thus, the three oscillators in the oscillator section are multipled by this factor. And you can decide how much these new oscillators should be detuned with the three oscillators in the above oscillator section.

Using 33 oscillators per voice is not recommended, although it's possible. You'll loose polyphony the more oscillators you use. 3 or 6 oscillators per voice usually creates very fat sounds and that's more than enough. You can experiment with the detune slider as well. Almost no detuning creates a very thick sound, because the oscillators play at almost the same frequency. Pulling the detune slider more to the right creates a wider and layered type of effect.

Here's a sample of preset number 1. It uses the unison unit to obtain 6 oscillators per voice. In this case oscillators 1 and 2 have been used and the unison mode triples them making a total of 2*3=6 oscillators per voice. Different settings on the detune slider will produce slightly different effects. You might want to check out the factory patches in Fatsondo. Go ahead and download the free trial version and check them out!!!


Processing a drum loop using the Space Effect


The Space Effect can be used on wide range of audio tracks, such as vocals, analog synths and guitars. This short tutorial will show you how it can be used to process a drum loop.

Find a use for that old drum loop!

Do you have an old sampling CD, full of loops you have heard just too many times? In that case, the Space Effect can enhance them, in many cases dramatically. It can easily be used to transform drum loops into unrecognizable percussion tracks with a new and fresh sound.

So find a drum loop, which sounds dull and could be improved, and follow this tutorial to try it. We used this loop. At the end of this page, you can listen to how it sounds when it's been processed by the Space Effect. You can also download the patch (right-click save as).

Thickness, Stereo Effects and Modulation

A trick to make the drums sound thicker is to increase the amount of ensemble, so let's do that.

The amount is set to appriximately 40%. Drums usually don't need more than that.

Remember that this effect should be subtle. In general, vibrato doesn't work too good on drums, because vibrato changes the pitch and drums are usually pitchless. So those sliders are pulled to the far left. In this example, we don't use the sequencer, so the "Seq Mod" knobs all point at the neutral 12 o clock.

However, the drums still sound a bit static and not wild enough (!) so let's add some additional beats. The delay comes handy then.

The following settings were used for the stereo delay.

First we make sure that the drum loop match the sequencer's tempo, that's 120 BPM. The basic idea is to sync the left delay to this tempo and to let the right delay run free. The right channel is used to introduce a couple of extra drum hits and to make that effect noticeable, we need to use the highest feedback setting, 100%. The left channel has 80% feedback.

Now the loop is processed by the ensemble and the stereo delay. Let's add some filtering. The following filter settings were used.

The cutoff should be quite low, but the modulation should be deep so the LFO will vary between low values (the cutoff) and high values (cutoff + depth).

To make the filtering effect more interesting, a reasonable amount of resonance is applied. The filter's LFO has to be synchronized with the sequencer, so the sync button is selected. Shape is set to S as in Sine, so the LFO will have a sine shape. The sequencer is not used, so all of the "Seq Mod" knobs point at 12 o clock.

Note that because the sync button is selected, the rate slider will work as a tempo divider.

Finally, the resonator will modulate the sound using a pulse wave.

To achieve that, the shape is set to the Pulse waveform. The resonator's LFO is also synchronized with the sequencer's tempo. Freq is set to its lowest value, which means that the sweep will vary between the lowest frequency to a slightly higher frequency, determined by the Depth slider. Feedback is quite high, which means that the resonator will have more than a subtle sound.

That's it!

Now click here to hear the result. Compare with the original loop... quite different and far more interesting. And we didn't even touch the analog style sequencer.

The Space Effect can boost your creativity by transforming dull audio tracks into completely new sounds. Why don't you check out the 64 "factory" patches to get new ideas.


Programming patches for the Space Synth


At a first glance, programming the Space Synth might seem to be a difficult task. After all, it's quite different compared to many other VST plugins. However, there are a few things you should know to get jump started with this beast.

As you probably already know, the synth is divided into a number of sections. From the top left to the bottom right are the left delay, evolving waveform, right delay, filter, patch controls, resonator, sequencer and finally the ensemble.

Reset Everything

Start with clean settings by resetting all controls. The left and right delay controls should all be pulled to the left. Set the evolving waveform's "seq mod" knob to zero (pointing at 12 o clock). Pull the cutoff slider to the top, the reso slider to the bottom and the filter depth slider to the bottom. Click on the resonator's mute button and pull the ensemble's amount slider to the far left.

Continue with the Oscillator

Consider which type of sound you want. Do you want a sound, which slowly changes into something completely different or do you want a sound, which is almost the same all the time, but has a slight amount of change?

Fixed oscillator waveform

If you need a "stable" sound, which does change, but not too much, then don't use the sequencer to modulate (change) the evolving waveform. Then you should make sure that the evolving waveform's "seq mod" knob points at 12 o clock. Otherwise, you'll get either negative (pointing to the left) or positive (pointing to the right) modulation. Now you can just choose a waveform with the waveform slider.

Modulating the oscillator waveform

If you want to create changing sounds, then you can let the sequencer change the evolving waveform. The sequencer has 16 steps, which means that the waveform can change into 16 different waveforms if you want to. In that case, first adjust the evolving waveform's "seq mob" knob, by turning it either to the left or to the right. Now move the mouse down to the sequencer section and turn some of the sequencer's 16 steps. As you can see the waveform display changes when you pull the sequencer step knob. This is so you can see which waveform the value of the sequencer step corresponds to. If it doesn't change too much, then pull the evolving waveform's "seq mod" knob even more, effectively increasing the amount of modulation.

Don't forget to set the length of the sequence and the speed. In addition, you need to decide if the waveforms should change abruptly or if you want a smooth transition between each step. This property is adjusted with the porta (as in portamento) knob. The more you turn it to the right, the smoother the change between each step will be.

Adjusting the Filter

If everything sounds too raw for your taste, pull the cutff slider down a bit. You might also want to experiment with the resonance slider at this stage. Often when the cutoff is adjusted, you might want to add or remove just a slight amount of resonance to change the character of the filter.

Thin or Thick?

If the sound is a bit thin at this point, then pull the ensemble's amount slider a bit to the right. If it gave you a slighly thicker sound, but there's still something, which is missing, then it's time to adjust the delays.

The delays can be used to add an extra dimension to the sound. The mix sliders can be set to 50% and the feedback sliders to say 90%. To get a great stereo effect never set the left and right time sliders to the same value. Neither should one be set to a multiple of the other . For example, if the left delay time is 0.2, then don't set the right to 0.2, 0.4, 0.8 etc because you will then reduce the stereo effect. Instead choose almost the same value, for example 0.24, 0.47, 0.9 etc for the right delay.

Spacey Sweep?

Finally you should decide if you want to use the resonator. If so, make sure that the mute button is deseleceted. In many cases the resonator can be used to add a sweeping, very nice, sound to the patch. This is done by setting the SRP switch to S as in Sine. Adjust the depth slider until you have the amount of sweep you desire. The rate might have to be adjusted as well. The character, or strength, of the sound can be adjusted with the feedback slider.

More to Explore

This is the basic work flow to get to know the Space Synth. Try to work like this if you just want to learn the basics of the synth. When you are prepated for more advanced proramming methods, you could check out the following.

Sequencer Modulated Filter Settings

The sequencer can not only modulate the evolving waveform, but also for example the filter. Extremely weird sounds can be created by using the sequencer to modulate for example the filter LFO rate or the filter resonance. Some of the "factory" patches do. Check them out.

Random and Pulse LFO Modulating the Resonator

Modulating the resonator with the LFO's random or pulse shape can create wonderful machine like effects. Experiment with these settings to hear for yourself and don't forgot that you can let the sequencer modulate the LFO rate (!!!). Then the effect speeds up and slows down in an unpredictable (or predictable, it's up to you) manner.

Using the mute Waveform to Create Beats

The last tip for you to explore is to let the sequencer modulate the evolving waveform and at the same time make use of the last waveform, which is silent (mute). If you program the sequencer, then you can use this waveform as a rest and you will be able to program rhythmic patches.

Good luck!!!