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9/26/2018

Thyme Manual

https://bastl-instruments.github.io/thyme/manual.html#/Introduction

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Introduction

This document is intended as a complete reference manual of Thyme’s functionality.

 

Look here if you are searching for explanations of speci c features or if you are one of those
persons who like to read through manuals before they use stuff. If you just want to know the
bare minimum to get started, check out the short manual which gets shipped with the device.

What is Thyme

Thyme is a versatile sound processing unit: It takes an audio input signal, modi es it and
sends it to the output . The digital sound processing performed by Thyme can be summarized
as a “Sequenceable Robot-Operated Digital Tape Machine”. Here you see a greatly simpli ed
illustration of its core functionality.

Imagine the tape moving from left to right (motor turning clockwise). The signal that is written
to the tape by the write head will be read by multiple read heads after certain time periods.
These signals are summed, sent to the output and also added back to the input signal,
creating a feedback loop.

All signal processing parameters can be tweaked live; either manually or by modulation
sources which we call "Robots". Robots are similar to LFOs but go much further. On top of
that, you can switch between different con gurations at the push of a button or with the
integrated sequencer.

Functionality Overview

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Summary of Contents for Thyme

Page 1: ...he digital sound processing performed by Thyme can be summarized as a Sequenceable Robot Operated Digital Tape Machine Here you see a greatly simpli ed illustration of its core functionality Imagine t...

Page 2: ...we took a brief look in the previous section Its operation is de ned by 9 parameters which can be tweaked manually or each by their own dedicated Robot All settings of all parameters and all Robots c...

Page 3: ...of 20dB factor 10 It is the only parameter that cannot be controlled by a Robot and is constant for every Sound Set and Forget The white LED indicates that some signal is detected at the input the red...

Page 4: ...ead heads is scaled by this factor before it will be fed back to the input signal On full you get a loop gain of exactly one provided Levels is off Filter Next to scaling you can also lter the feedbac...

Page 5: ...cable into the audio input it would normally be interpreted and output as a stereo signal with one channel being silent To avoid this activate Mono Input Mode which uses the single channel of the inpu...

Page 6: ...b being equipped with a dimmable LED that indicates the current value of the knob from 0 to full amount A knob can be frozen meaning the value it holds indicated by the LED does not match the physical...

Page 7: ...behavior of the signal processing chain You can activate them independently from each other with their dedicated buttons Delay Sync The position of the main read head de nes the time between writing t...

Page 8: ...rder to compensate for any effect on the delay time In other words Tweaking the tape speed will not affect the nal delay time Freeze Mode The Freeze Mode turns Thyme into a looping device To achieve t...

Page 9: ...the loop is controlled by the FEEDBACK knob When it is on full there will be a steady loop if it is lower the signal will fade out over time The signal from the three extra read heads is not mixed int...

Page 10: ...additional ltering This will cause interesting aliasing effects Furthermore the upsampling process is intentionally made less accurate with low tape speeds emphasising this character even more HiFi Ta...

Page 11: ...les the corresponding setting on off The current state of each setting is shown by the knob LED Sounds There are eight Sounds and one Bypass Sound to switch between The regular Sounds are pre con gure...

Page 12: ...e Manual https bastl instruments github io thyme manual html Introduction 12 48 Switch Sounds You can switch between the Sounds by pressing one of the 1 8 buttons or BYPASS The active Sound is indicat...

Page 13: ...ttps bastl instruments github io thyme manual html Introduction 13 48 Robots All parameters except for input gain each have their dedicated modulation source called the Robot This is indicated by the...

Page 14: ...All other parameters will display the output of their Robot To select a Robot for a different parameter simply move the corresponding knob slightly The selection change is directly indicated by full...

Page 15: ...ontrols have a speci c meaning but in general you can say that Rate refers to how fast the waveform changes and Shape changes its decoration The Modes can be divided into two groups oscillators and no...

Page 16: ...d off half of the time at regular intervals during one period On top of that parts of the waveform are inverted due to a XOR modulation Stepped Ramp Like the Stepped Triangle but with a ramp as basic...

Page 17: ...dulate any parameter with the dynamics of the input signal in the bass low mid high mid or high frequency region It will quickly react on peaks and then settle fast or slowly depending on the Shape yo...

Page 18: ...instruments github io thyme manual html Introduction 18 48 Change Robot Mode You can select the Mode by holding down ROBOT SELECT and pressing the 1 8 button corresponding to the Mode symbol The sele...

Page 19: ...ers Rate and Shape are set by the same knob hold down ROBOT SELECT to adjust SHAPE release it to adjust RATE The AMOUNT knob like all other knobs is always active regardless of the ROBOT SELECT button...

Page 20: ...s is indicated by the LED The possible multiplications divisions of the tempo are 1 32 1 16 1 8 1 4 1 3 1 2 1 2 3 4 6 8 12 16 32 48 56 and so forth Robot Polarity A Robot can modify a parameter in thr...

Page 21: ...While ROBOT SELECT is being pressed the current polarity is indicated by an LED Robot Phase When activating a Sound all Robots are setup according to the settings stored for this particular Sound Robo...

Page 22: ...y When you activate stereo polarity on a Robot it will in uence the left and right channel in the opposite direction For oscillator type Robot Modes this means phase shifting the waveforms for both ch...

Page 23: ...by setting their Robots to CV Mode the voltage is not interpreted linearly but as volt per octave This means that when a steady voltage of 1V is applied to the jack the tape speed or delay length wil...

Page 24: ...tivated is de ned by a Pattern The speed of the play head moving through the pattern is de ned by the active clock source Pattern A Pattern is 8 steps long with each step being divided into 4 substeps...

Page 25: ...s indicated by a blink on the WRITE LED At the start of the sequence when the rst step is being activated all PATTERN LEDs blink together once Playback will always start from the rst step Change Patte...

Page 26: ...he Write Mode lets you precisely view the current position of the sequencer and set individual steps Switch Between Live and Write Mode You can switch between the two modes by pressing WRITE The curre...

Page 27: ...ning you temporarily overwrite Sound changes by pressing and holding the corresponding 1 8 button or BYPASS Once you release the button the sequencer will continue playing the active pattern You can p...

Page 28: ...llow edits while the sequencer is not running Playback The 1 8 buttons and LEDs now indicate the eight steps of the pattern When you start the sequencer in write mode you will see a blinking LED trave...

Page 29: ...l Introduction 29 48 Select A Sound to Write Press and hold down SOUND The 1 8 LEDs and the BYPASS LED will now indicate the selected Sound Press the corresponding button to change the selection There...

Page 30: ...he substeps holds the selected Sound By shortly pressing the corresponding button set all substeps to Bypass When the LED is off all substeps are set to a different Sound another regular Sound or Bypa...

Page 31: ...set to the selected Sound Pressing the button will set the substep to Bypass If a PATTERN LED is off the corresponding substep is set to a Sound different from the selected one can be a regular Sound...

Page 32: ...e FREEZE LINK SYNC in the order indicated below the TAP button The signal of the selected clock is permanently shown on the TAP LED For each clock source there are four divider options Tap Analog Cloc...

Page 33: ...lock signal is shown by the PATTERN LEDs Tap Tempo When Tap is selected as a clock source the speed of the sequencer can be set by the TAP button The average time between two button presses will be ta...

Page 34: ...ative option is to manually overwrite one or multiple parameters This means they will not be controlled anymore by the sounds of the pattern but directly by their knob Overwrite a Parameter Parameter...

Page 35: ...ese independent Banks Please note that although switching Banks is usually fast it can temporarily disturb syncing of delay time and oscillator Robots The sound processing however is guaranteed to be...

Page 36: ...d To copy the active Sound hold down FN and press WRITE To paste the stored copy top the active Sound hold down FN and press PLAY Clear Sound or Pattern You can reset Sounds and Patterns to their defa...

Page 37: ...nd press a 1 8 button The corresponding LED will blink once shortly to indicate success Clearing a Sound is not possible in Write Mode because the 1 8 buttons indicate Steps not Sounds Clear Pattern T...

Page 38: ...ve all changes in the current Bank all eight Sounds and all 4 Patterns hold down FN and press SOUND The 1 8 LEDs will blink three times to indicate a successful operation Persistent Settings A few set...

Page 39: ...w level adjust 3 5mm stereo Footswitch Input 3 5mm mono attach passive switch that connects sleeve and tip CLK Input 3 5mm mono 100k input impedance trigger threshold at 0 5V rising edge maximum 5V Co...

Page 40: ...ape machine parameters and all Robots but only within a limited range around current values MIDI Practically everything you set on the device itself can be achieved with MIDI commands Routing All rece...

Page 41: ...indicated right away as described above Control Change With Control Change Messages you can control all parameters of the selected Sound The data byte of any midi control message is interpreted in one...

Page 42: ...CC5 Select Robot Mode CC6 Select Robot Phase CC7 Select Robot Polarity CC8 Switch Robot Stereo Polarity CC9 Switch Robot Sync CC10 CC18 Multiple Wet Dry Settings Block CC19 CC27 Multiple Tape Speed Se...

Page 43: ...er Dump the settings of the current Sound to MIDI output Pitchbend Modify Tape Speed in range to 3 relative to current value Notes Note On Off 0 Select Deselect Bypass Sound Note On Off 1 8 Select Des...

Page 44: ...notes the feedback is reduced for low notes This feature can be enabled disabled by CC89 Realtime Messages In general all realtime messages are forwarded like any other message Depending on the active...

Page 45: ...SysEx messages which are unpacked by the device bootloader and written to the internal ash memory To upload a new rmware you rst need to boot the device into Bootloader mode Enter Bootloader Mode To...

Page 46: ...four PATTERN buttons while powering up the device The four PATTERN LEDs indicate that you have entered test mode There are six different hardware tests which can be run in a row to perform a general...

Page 47: ...Knob LEDs fade in one after another Smooth Fading None 3 Buttons Press button closest to the LED that lights up Pressing the wrong button is an error None LED closest to button that trigged unexpecte...

Page 48: ...and Persistent Settings are reset None None Changelog List of major changes made to this manual Date Changes 9 April 2018 Initial release 11 May 2018 Improved rmware update section Added Parameter Ov...

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