USER MANUAL
Information in this manual is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of Applied Acoustics Systems DVM Inc. The software described in this manual is furnished under a license agreement. The software may be used only in accordance of the terms of this license agreement. It is against the law to copy this software on any medium except as specifically allowed in the license agreement.
Contents 1 Introduction 6 1.1 System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 1.2 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 1.2.1 From a CD-ROM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 1.2.2 Electronic Delivery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Authorization and Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 1.3.
CONTENTS 4 Parameters 19 4.1 General Functioning of the Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 4.1.1 Knobs and Sliders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 4.1.2 Switches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 4.1.3 Drop-down Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 4.1.4 Modulation of Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 4.1.5 Synchronisation .
CONTENTS 5 6 7 5 Utility Section 37 5.1 The MIDI LED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 5.2 Polyphony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 5.3 Tuning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 5.4 History and Compare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 5.5 Reverb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Introduction 1 Introduction Chromaphone is a synthesizer dedicated to the creation of acoustic instruments. It is based on the combination of acoustic resonators to create drums, percussion, string and hybrid synth-like instruments. Membranes, bars, marimbas, plates, strings, and tubes form pairs that are excited by a mallet and a flexible noise source.
1.2 Installation Keep in mind that the computational power required by Chromaphone depends on the number of voices of polyphony and the sampling rate used. These computer configurations will enable you to play the factory sounds with a reasonable number of voices but performances will vary depending on your specific computer configuration. 1.2 1.2.1 Installation From a CD-ROM Mac OS Insert the Chromaphone program disc into your CD-ROM drive. Open the CD icon once it appears on your desktop.
Introduction After starting the application, a message will appear telling you that the application needs to be authorized. After clicking on the Authorize button, a pop-up window will appear as shown in Figure 1. Enter your serial number and click on the Authorize button. The program will then connect to the AAS server and complete the authorization process. Figure 1: Online Authorization.
1.3 Authorization and Registration Figure 2: Offline Authorization. Your serial number as well as the automatically generated challenge code are displayed but you need to obtain the response code. To do so, take note of your serial number and challenge code and proceed to an internet connected computer. Launch your browser and go to the unlock page of the AAS website located at: http://www.applied-acoustics.
Introduction • Outside North America: 1-514-871-8100 • Fax Number: 1-514-845-1875 1.4 Using Chromaphone as a Plug-in Chromaphone integrates seamlessly into the industry’s most popular multi-track recording and sequencing environments as a virtual instrument plug-in. Chromaphone works as any other plug-in in these environments so we recommend that you refer to your sequencer documentation in case you have problems running Chromaphone as a plug-in. 1.
1.7 About this Manual 11 Our online support pages contain downloads of the most recent product updates, and answers to frequently asked questions on all AAS products. The support pages are located at: www.applied-acoustics.com/support/ 1.7 About this Manual Throughout this manual, the following conventions are used: • Bold characters are used to name modules, commands and menu names. • Italic characters are used to name controls on the interface.
2 Bank and Program Management Bank and Program Management Chromaphone comes with several factory presets, called programs, covering a wide range of sounds. This collection of programs lets you play and familiarize yourself with this synthesizer without having to tweak a single knob. Soon, however, you will be experimenting and creating your own sounds and projects that you will need to archive or exchange with other users. In this section, we review the management of programs. 2.
2.3 The Bank Manager 13 Figure 3: Bank and program manager window. A new bank can be created by clicking on the New button below the bank list. This opens the Create New Bank window in which the name of the new bank can be entered. A bank can be deleted by first selecting it in the bank list and then clicking on the Delete button. Be careful, this command erases a bank and all the programs it contains; this operation is permanent and can not be undone.
Bank and Program Management program list. Programs can be deleted from a bank by first selecting them and then clicking on the Delete button. This will move the programs to a special bank called Trash which is located below the regular list of banks. This means that deleted programs can always be recuperated as long as they are not deleted from the Trash bank. The content of the Trash bank is viewed by clicking on its name; the different programs can then be moved to the other banks as explained above.
2.7 Restoring the Factory Library 2.7 Restoring the Factory Library 15 If necessary, it is possible to restore the original factory library of banks and programs.
3 Architecture of Chromaphone Architecture of Chromaphone Chromaphone is synthesizer built around the combination of acoustic resonators. The resulting instruments are played using a mallet or the signal from a noise source. It is very simple yet the range of sounds it is capable of is surprisingly wide, from realistic reproductions of acoustic percussion instruments to creative and innovative tones simply not possible with traditional synthesizers. Its graphical interface is shown in Figures 4.
3.1 General Organization and Signal Flow 17 Figure 5: Signal flow of Chromaphone. Resonators in parallel mode. Figure 6: Signal flow of Chromaphone. Resonators in coupling mode. by Resonator B, it starts to vibrate which in return influences the motion of Resonator A. The modeling of these complex interactions results in tones and timbres that reproduce the richness of sounds from real acoustic instruments.
3.2 Architecture of Chromaphone Preset Management and Master Controls The top part of the interface includes the About button, polyphony and general pitch settings. This part of the interface also includes the preset manager, undo, redo and compare commands, a master volume, a simple reverb control, the MIDI led and a level meter. 3.3 Modulation Sources Many parameters of the synthesizer can be modulated by different signals. These modulation controls are grouped with the corresponding parameters.
Parameters 4 19 Parameters This section can be used as a reference on the different controls appearing on Chromaphone’s graphical interface. We begin by describing the behavior of the different types of controls appearing on the interface and follow with general notions of acoustics which allow for a better understanding of the parameters of Chromaphone. We then describe the parameters of each module of the synthesizer. 4.1 4.1.
Parameters A modulation can be viewed as the variation of a parameter around its current value controlled by a modulation signal. The different modulation controls act as gain knobs which multiply the modulation signal by a certain factor. The amount of modulation is adjusted by click-holding on a modulation dot and and moving the mouse (or the finger on a track pad) either upwards and downwards or leftwards and rightwards.
4.2 General Notions of Acoustics 21 As an example, the vibration motion associated with two normal modes of a rectangular plate is illustrated in Figures 7 and 8. In the first figure, one can see the vibration motion associated with two different normal modes of the plate (modes [1,1] and [3,2]). Over one period of oscillation, all the points go up and down in phase. The principle remains the same for all mode, the motion pattern only becoming more and more complex as the order of the mode increases.
Parameters Figure 8: Contour plot corresponding to normal mode [1,1] and [3,2] of a plate. nodal line of a mode (a line where amplitude of the motion associated with a mode is zero) does not allow the transfer energy to that specific mode and its corresponding partial will not be excited.
4.3 The Mallet Module 23 of the string; most of the energy will be reflected back into the string at the bridge resulting in a standing wave in the string and a long decay. Now let’s imagine that the soundboard becomes much less rigid. The string can now set it into motion more easily at the bridge. This implies that more energy will be able to flow from the string to the soundboard resulting in a shorter decay as less energy is reflected back into the string.
Parameters Vol Stiff High High Medium Medium Low Low Time Time Figure 9: Effect of the Stiffness and Volume knob on the output from the Mallet module. amount of noise. The frequency content of the noise can be adjusted with the help of the Color control. Turning this knob clockwise increases the cut-off frequency of a high-pass filter. 4.4 The Noise Module The Noise module is an alternate way to excite the resonator.
4.5 The Resonator Module 25 to become continuous. This parameter can be used to produce interesting effects by exciting the resonators randomly. This parameter can be modulated with the the pitch or velocity signal from the keyboard or with the output from the Noise Envelope or LFO module. The Direct slider linking the Mallet and Noise modules is used to mix signal from the Mallet and Noise sources with the signal from the resonators in the final sound of the instrument.
Parameters • Manual: In this mode, one can adjust the frequency of one to four different partials (see Quality control). The Quality control is located just below the resonator selector and is represented by big dots. It allows one to adjust the number of modes taken into account in the synthesis and therefore the richness and complexity of the sound. This control has four positions corresponding to 4, 16, 30 and 70 modes.
4.5 The Resonator Module 27 The Release parameter is used to simulate the effect of dampers on the object when a note is released. The release time is calculated as a percentage of the total decay time of the object as set by the Decay parameter. The Material control allows one to fix the decay time of partials as a function of frequency with respect to that of the fundamental. This is a parameter characteristic of the material of the object.
Parameters The Hit Position controls where the excitation signal is applied on a resonator. This is an important parameter as it affects the relative amplitude of the different partials of the resonator and therefore the spectrum of the sound it radiates as explained in Section 4.2.1. This position is indicated as a percentage of the total size of the object.
4.7 The Vibrato Module 29 is divided into four phases, the Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release controlled by the A, D, S and R controls respectively. During the attack phase, the envelope signal goes from a value of zero to a value of 1 in a laps of time controlled by the A knob. The decay phase then begins and the signal goes from 1 to the sustain value of the signal in a laps of time controlled by the D knob. The level of the sustain portion of the modulation signal is adjusted using the S knob.
Parameters position, there is no vibrato and turning the knob clockwise increases the amount of pitch variation. The MW modulation entry is used to determine the effect of the keyboard modulation wheel on the depth of the vibrato. When this modulation is set to zero, the modulation wheel has no effect but when it is increased, the depth of the vibrato increases as the modulation wheel is moved up. The increase is always relative to the position of the Amnt control.
4.9 The Multi-Effect Module 4.9 The Multi-Effect Module 31 The Multi-Effect module allows one to process the signal from the synthesizer before sending it to the output. There are two identical sets of effects which can be applied in series. These effects are switched On or Off by clicking on the switch located in their top left corner. The effects are selected from the drop-down menu at the top of the module.
Parameters The effect is controlled with the three knobs appearing at the bottom of the module. The Mix knob is used to adjust the ratio of “dry” and “wet” signal in the output signal from the module. When the knob is adjusted in the left position, only the original or “dry” signal is sent to the output while in the right position only the processed or “wet” signal is sent to the output.
4.9 The Multi-Effect Module 33 around the value fixed by the Freq knob while with the Auto Wah effect, the setting of the Freq will fix the starting point value of the varying center frequency. The Depth knob controls the excursion of the center frequency of the filter. In the case of the Wah Wah effect, this excursion is applied around the value fixed by the Freq knob while in Auto Wah effect the value of the center frequency increases from the value fixed by the Freq knob.
Parameters center frequency of the filter. Turning this knob clockwise increases the rate of the modulation if the Sync function is off. 4.9.7 EQ The EQ provides equalization over the low, mid, and high frequency bands. It is composed of a low shelf filter, a peak filter, and a high shelf filter in series. The functioning of the low shelf filter is illustrated in Figure 12. The filter applies a gain factor to frequency components located below a cutoff frequency while leaving those above unchanged.
4.9 The Multi-Effect Module 35 Gain = 30 dB, Q = 20 Amplitude (dB) Gain = 30 dB, Q = 50 Gain = 20 dB Gain = 10 dB 0dB Gain = 30 dB, Q = 20 Freq Frequency (Hz) Figure 13: Peak filter. asymmetrical resulting in the introduction of even and odd harmonics in the signal. The Solid State distortion applies an aggressive symmetrical clipping to the signal thereby adding high frequency harmonics and resulting in a harsh sound. The Pre control is a gain knob acting on the input signal.
4.9.10 Parameters Reverb The Reverb effects are used to recreate the effect of reflections of sound on the walls of a room or hall. These reflections add space to the sound and make it warmer, deeper, as well as more realistic since we always listen to instruments in a room and thus with a room effect. The Multi-Effect module includes three different reverbs, RVB Club, RVB Large and RVB Hall reproducing spaces of different volumes.
Utility Section 5 37 Utility Section The utility section is located at the top of the Chromaphone interface and it includes important parameters and monitoring tools. For information on Banks and Programs please refer to Chapter 2 5.1 The MIDI LED The MIDI LED is located on the left of the level-meter. The LED blinks when the synthesizer receives MIDI signal. If the application is not receiving MIDI signal, make sure that the host sequencer is sending MIDI to Chromaphone. 5.
Utility Section version. When in Compare mode, edition is blocked and it is therefore not possible to modify any parameter. The Compare mode must then be switched off by clicking on the Compare button in order to resume edition. 5.5 Reverb Chromaphone is equiped with a simple reverb which can be used to add ambiance to your sound. The Reverb knob is used to set the amount of wet signal in the mix, turning the knob clockwise increases the amount of reverberation in the signal. 5.
Using Chromaphone as a Plug-In 6 39 Using Chromaphone as a Plug-In Chromaphone is available in VST and AudioUnit formats and integrates seamlessly into the industry most popular multi-track recording and sequencing environments as a virtual instrument plug-in. Chromaphone works as any other plug-in in these environments so we recommend that you refer to your sequencer documentation in case you have problems running it as a plug-in.
6.6 Using Chromaphone as a Plug-In Performance Using a plug-in in a host sequencer requires CPU processing for both applications. The load on the CPU is even higher when multiple instances of a plug-in or numerous different plug-ins are used. To decrease CPU usage, remember that you can use the freeze of bounce to track functions of the host sequencer in order to render to audio the part played by a plug-in instead of recalculating it every time it is played.
License Agreement 7 41 License Agreement IMPORTANT! CAREFULLY READ ALL THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS AGREEMENT BEFORE OPENING THIS PACKAGE. OPENING THIS PACKAGE INDICATES YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS AGREEMENT, PROMPTLY RETURN THE UNOPENED PACKAGE AND ALL COMPONENTS THERETO TO THE PARTY FROM WHOM IT WAS ACQUIRED, FOR A FULL REFUND OF ANY CONSIDERATION PAID.
License Agreement 5. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY.
License Agreement 43 rendered inoperative but the remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect. 9. ENTIRE AGREEMENT.
Index about, 38 adsr, 18 architecture, 16 authorization, 7 auto-wah, 31, 32 backup, 14 bank, 12 backup, 14 create, 12 delete, 12 factory library, 15 rename, 12 sharing, 14 bank manager, 12 challenge code, 7 chorus, 31 mono, 31 stereo, 31 clipping, 38 clock, 20 coarse, 19 compare, 37 contact, 10 cpu load, 37 delay, 31 digital delay, 31 distortion, 34, 38 drop-down menus, 19 effect synchronization, 20 effects, 31 envelope, 18, 28 EQ, 34 factory library, 10 fine tuning, 19 flanger, 31, 32 mono, 32 stereo, 32
INDEX reverb, 36 synchronization, 20 tremolo, 35 wah wah, 32 noise, 24 envelope, 28 noise source, 24 notch filter, 31, 33 numerical displays, 19 output effect, 18 overdrive, 34 parameters, 19 peak, 38 performance, 6 phaser, 31, 32 ping pong delay, 31 plug-in, 10 audio configuration, 39 automation, 39 MIDI configuration, 39 MIDI program change, 39 multiple instances, 39 performance, 40 saving projects, 39 polyphony, 7, 18, 37 presets, 18 programs, 10, 12 backup, 14 bank manager, 12 copy, 12 factory library,