Panstation User’s Guide Audio Damage, Inc. Release 1.
The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of Audio Damage, Inc. The software described by this document is subject to a License Agreement and may not be copied to other media except as specifically allowed in the License Agreement. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced or otherwise transmitted or recorded, for any purpose, without prior written permission by Audio Damage, Inc. © 2011 Audio Damage, Inc.
License Agreement BY INSTALLING THE SOFTWARE, YOU ARE CONSENTING TO BE BOUND BY THIS AGREEMENT. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO ALL OF THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT, THEN RETURN THE PRODUCT TO THE PLACE OF PURCHASE FOR A FULL REFUND. Single User License Grant: Audio Damage, Inc.
been subjected to abnormal physical or electrical stress, misuse, negligence, or accident, or (d) is used in ultrahazardous activities. DISCLAIMER. EXCEPT AS SPECIFIED IN THIS WARRANTY, ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED CONDITIONS, REPRESENTATIONS, AND WARRANTIES INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NONINFRINGEMENT OR ARISING FROM A COURSE OF DEALING, USAGE, OR TRADE PRACTICE, ARE HEREBY EXCLUDED TO THE EXTENT ALLOWED BY APPLICABLE LAW.
Introduction Once upon a time, before the advent of computer-based recording, when the mere act of recording more than two channels of audio involved specialized hardware costing tens of thousands of dollars, panning effects were difficult. Dynamic panning meant someone had to twiddle the pan pots on the mixing desk, usually at mixdown time since track counts were finite.
System Requirements To use Panstation, you'll need a Steinberg VST-compatible host application which conforms to the VST 2.0 specifications, and a computer capable of running it. For the Audio Unit version of Phosphor, you’ll need an application capable of hosting Audio Unit plug-ins, and an Apple computer with an Intel CPU capable of running it. We support the use of Panstation under Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7; and Apple OS X version 10.5 or newer.
How It Works While the notion of an automatic panning plug-in may seem simple enough, Panstation adds a number of special tricks which bear some explanation. Since Panstation’s roots go back to studio hardware processors of yesteryear, we’ll explain Panstation’s operation in the context of a hardware mixing desk.
Operation Panstation can be used in a mono-in/stereo-out or stereo-in/stereo-out context. Since Panstation’s raison d’être is creating stereo panning effects, it won’t work in a mono-in/mono-out context. Most of Panstation’s onscreen controls are numbers which directly represent the current value of the parameters. To change these controls, simply click on them with the mouse and drag up to increase the value, down to decrease it.
Sum Input Panstation is a stereo-in/stereo-out plug in; the two channels of audio are processed independently. If you click the SUM INPUT switch, the left and right input signals are added together, creating a mono input. This can be handy if you’re processing material with complete channel separation, since for example panning a left-only signal to the hard right will produce silence.
SHAPE you’re using. For instance, if the Sine shape is active, and PHASE is set to zero, the panning position will be at the center of the stereo field at the beginning of a measure. If PHASE is set to 90, the panning position will be at the far right at the beginning of a measure, and at the far left for a setting of 270. In tremolo applications, changing the PHASE changes the peaks and valleys of the tremolo relative to the position of the beat.
apparent loudness and distance of the sound as it moves back and forth. Since Panstation is intended for creating special effects, none of its pan laws is necessarily better than the others. Try different settings in different situations and let your ears choose. The following panning laws are available: Equal Power – this setting uses a panning law similar to the panning controls on hardware mixers and software mixers present in DAWs.
Sine – a sinusoidal wave which rises and falls smoothly with no corners or sudden jumps. Use the Sine shape to create basic back-and-forth panning effects or smooth tremolo. Duo Sine – a combination of two sinusoidal waves of different frequencies, one faster than the other. Like the Sine wave, this shape moves the sound back and forth smoothly but gives it an extra wobble as it approaches either side. Tri Sine – similar to the Duo Sine shape, but the extra wobble is faster.
Diverge – somewhat similar to the Ramp shapes, the Diverge shape makes the sound move smoothly from the center to one side, jump back to the center, move smoothly to the other side, and jump back to the center. When used for tremolo effects, the Diverge shape makes the sound fade out to silence then jump back to full volume. Converge – like the Diverge setting, but the sound moves smoothly from one side to the center, jumps to the other side, and moves smoothly back to the center.
MIDI Note Trigger – This setting causes Panstation to be triggered by any MIDI Note-On message it receives, regardless of pitch or MIDI channel2. Contrary to the Audio Trigger Source, a subsequent MIDI Note-On message will retrigger Panstation. The idea is that while you may not have exact control over the levels of the audio material entering Panstation, you can exert exact control over the MIDI notes you send to it.
Trigger Time, Attack and Decay Once Panstation is triggered, a synthesizer-style envelope generator controls the intensity of the panning/tremolo. You can use the envelope generator to make panning effects that grow in width and stop abruptly, tremolo that starts instantly and fades out, and so on. The maximum effect of the LFOs is still controlled by the DEPTH control. The ATTACK control determines how quickly the effect starts after being triggered. It has a range of 1msec to 10 seconds.
Meters Panstation has several horizontal level meters at the top of its window. From top to bottom, these meters display the level of the input signals, the gain of the channels as set by the LFOs, and the level of the output signals. The meters indicate higher levels as they move outwards from the center. When the Audio Trigger Source is active, the top meter has a pair of marks indicating the setting of the Trig Threshold control.
MIDI Controllers Panstation responds to MIDI continuous controller messages. You can use hardware MIDI controllers, such as MIDI slider boxes or the knobs found on some MIDI keyboards, to adjust Panstation’s parameters. Panstation has a simple ―MIDI Learn‖ mode for assigning its controls to MIDI controllers. To assign a control to a MIDI controller: 1. Hold down the SHIFT and CTRL keys on your PC’s keyboard, or SHIFT and CMD keys if you’re using a Mac, and click once on the control.
use at once, any MIDI assignments you make will not be propagated to the other instances until the next time that your host loads the plug-ins. Automation All of Panstation’s parameters can be automated using your host's automation features. Consult your host's documentation for information on how to use these features. And Finally… Thanks again for purchasing Panstation. We make every effort to ensure your satisfaction with our products, and want you to be happy with your purchase.
