13
E
Gated Reverb
: Phil Collins song In the air tonight made this effect famous: a reverb is cut off
abruptly after a certain time.
VARIATION
determines the cutoff time,
EDIT A
controls the reverb
intensity and
EDIT B
the threshold above which reverb comes in (a kind of noise-gate before the
reverb signal input).
+
If used for rhythmical signals (snare) adjust the length so that the reverb is cut off just before
the next quarter note (e.g. bpm = 120, quarter note = 0.5 s, length less than 0.5 s).
Reverse Reverb
: A reverb program with an inverted amplitude envelope, i.e. the effect starts softly
and then increases in volume. This effect used to be created by playing a tape in reverse direction,
recording the reverb signal, and then playing back the tape in forward direction again, with the result
that the reverb signal was played back before the actual input signal.
VARIATION
controls the length of
the signal,
EDIT A
the delay, and
EDIT B
the threshold above which the effect responds.
1.4.2 Special effects
Vocal Distortion
: A clearly up-to-date program for lo-fi effects applied to vocals or drum loops, com-
bined with a delay.
VARIATION
determines the degree of distortion in 32 steps,
EDIT A
controls the
delay from 0 to 200 ms.
EDIT B
governs the delay mix. As a little extra the distortion circuit also
includes an LFO-controlled notch filter which audibly wanders back and forth with maximum distortion
(VARIATION 32).
Rotary Speaker
: Simulation of the legendary rotary speaker effect produced by speakers rotating at
slow/fast speed within a bulky cabinet. The effect uses the physical principle known as Doppler effect.
VARIATION
changes the frequency response (higher value = less high frequencies). Settings of 30 and
higher also simulate the tube distortion that was produced by the original cabinets in the 70s.
EDIT A
controls the speed of the horn-loaded speaker (treble range),
EDIT B
that of the rotor (bass range).
Vocoder
: Another all time favorite that has gained new popularity during the disco music renaissance of
the past few years (Around the World by Daft Punk or California by TuPac). Basically, a control signal
(usually vocals) in the right channel is used to modulate another signal in the left (e.g. synth sound),
which sounds as if the synth was talking (robot voice).
VARIATION
determines the type of vocoder,
EDIT A
the degree of distortion, and
EDIT B
the effect sensitivity.
1.4.3 Modulation and pitch shifter effects
Pitch
: This effect transposes the input signal either in cents (
EDIT A
producing a light detune effect)
or semi-tones (
EDIT B
up/down to one octave). Settings can be made independently for both chan-
nels, so as to create harmonies or simply to widen the sound of a single voice. The pitch effect can also
be used to produce a cartoon character type voice effect.
Flanger
: An LFO constantly modulates the effect signals pitch by a few cents up and down. The LFO
speed is controlled by
VARIATION
, the amount of pitch modulation by
EDIT A
, the portion of the effect
signal fed back to the effect block (=feedback) can be determined with
EDIT B
. By the way, you can
separately control the channels modulation depth and feedback, which allows for highly complex
modulations. Flanger effects are primarily used for guitars, but there are also lots of other useful applica-
tions: voices, cymbals, bass, remixes, etc.
Chorus
: Though similar to the flanger, chorus uses a delay function instead of feedback. Combined with
the pitch shifting feature, the delay produces a very pleasant detune effect.
VARIATION
changes the
modulation frequency,
EDIT A
controls the delay and
EDIT B
the modulation depth. Chorus effects are
used so often and in such a variety of applications that any recommendation would mean a limitation of
their use.
1. INTRODUCTION
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