FXPANSION DCAM SYNTH SQUAD Operation Manual Download Page 1

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Summary of Contents for DCAM SYNTH SQUAD

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Page 3: ...audio rate modulation 27 Audio rate modulation implementations 27 4 2 Frequency modulation 28 Oscillator FM in Cypher 29 Filter FM 29 Envelopes and LFOs 29 Programming hints 30 4 3 Wave modulation 30...

Page 4: ...evices that can be modulated 80 Using the FuseMod system 80 FuseMod modulation sources 81 Using FuseMod modulation within synths TransMod slots 82 8 9 Animator global controls 82 Architecture overview...

Page 5: ...Kris Giampa Roy Queenan Andreas Beisler Alice Bernier Special thanks to Zimon Drake at French Kiss Films frenchkissfilms com www fxpansion com About this manual It is beyond the scope of this manual...

Page 6: ...range within a single voice 3 vintage chorus models and a formant filter Amber is installed as an instrument and as an effect for processing audio through its circuit Fusor Fusor is an environment fo...

Page 7: ...simultaneous notes within a single voice However multiple voices can be used for programming more unconventional sounds TransMod modulation Common between all the DCAM Synth Squad instruments is the...

Page 8: ...s button launches a system Save As dialog directed at the user preset location It is recommended to save your presets into this folder so that they are easily accessible within the preset loading func...

Page 9: ...button re reads the contents of the preset folder Searching and filtering The preset browser contains additional functions to filter and search the available presets Click in the Search field at the...

Page 10: ...ouble click to type a value and press ENTER or RETURN TransMod slot selected Setting initial value Drag the initial part of the slider cap without the arrow The initial value and the modulation depth...

Page 11: ...Rotary selector drop down menu below Click on the display that shows the setting and select the relevant setting from the drop down menu that appears Fusor contains some rotary selectors that are ess...

Page 12: ...persist independently all tuning controls within each synth possess their own mode and all filter controls possess their own mode Just Uses perfect pitch ratios rather than imperfect equal tempered p...

Page 13: ...result is 4 note polyphony with each note comprising 2 unison voices Strobe is designed for powerful analogue style bass lead and pad sounds The filter section features a large variety of modes leadi...

Page 14: ...ain osc and sub osc mixer The main osc mixer contains level sliders for Saw Square Sqr and Noise Nse gaussian white waveforms The sub osc mixer features level siders for Sine Sin Triangle Tri Saw and...

Page 15: ...is reduced as you turn up the Drive control Mode A large variety of filter modes are available by adjusting the Mode control Note that filters denoted as T feature 2 or more filters with an octave bet...

Page 16: ...e position of the voice in the stereo field Try modulating this control with the TransMod system using a Voice modulation source this leads to a rich stereo spread of the voices when playing chords Le...

Page 17: ...p ModEnv Song Ramp Direct routings none Gateable by Poly PolyOn Mono ModEnv LFO Song Mod Envelope Direct routings Osc Pitch Pulse Width Filter Cutoff Gateable by Poly PolyOn Mono Ramp LFO Song Amp Env...

Page 18: ...18 2 7 Strobe signal flow The following signal flow diagram represents a single voice of Strobe Only direct modulation is shown there are many further possibilities when using the TransMod system...

Page 19: ...M which allows musical digital FM style sounds with an analogue style circuit Some examples of analogue synths that feature FM are the SCI Prophet 5 and Roland Jupiter series which allowed one osc to...

Page 20: ...Osc2 using the WM from 2 control FM from 3 WM from 2 Audio rate modulation refers to modulating a parameter at the very fast speeds of audio waveforms as opposed to the slower speeds of LFOs and envel...

Page 21: ...output of the osc If the oscs frequencies are harmonically related the result is a musical sound if not the output may be dissonant The ring modulation process occurs after the Blend control in the si...

Page 22: ...ter 1 filter 2 Spread The Spread control sets the amount of stereo spread between the filters when using parallel routings Filter 1 Filter 2 Shared filter controls Filter Power FM from 3 3 5 Filter se...

Page 23: ...arameter is directly modulated by the Amp Envelope Its value represents the amplitude at the maximum value of the AmpEnv at the end of its attack stage In order to achieve velocity sensitivity for amp...

Page 24: ...ide Cypher is capable of smoothing both velocity and pitch control signals For further details on the Pitch Glide and Vel Glide functions see sections 6 3 and 7 6 Keytracking modulation from keyboard...

Page 25: ...following signal flow diagrams represent the Osc section and the Shaper Filter Amp sections of a single Cypher voice Only direct modulation is shown there are many further possibilities when using th...

Page 26: ...26 Shaper Filter Amp sections...

Page 27: ...ny analogue synthesizers Many classic poly and monosynths feature FM capabilities with one osc typically modulating another osc or the filter Some examples include the Roland Jupiter series SCI Prophe...

Page 28: ...set to 0 semitones set the Osc3 Scale con trol to 3 Leave the Osc2 Scale control unchanged 1 3 Set the Gain controls of Osc1 and Osc3 to 0 and fully turn up Osc2 s Gain 4 Set the Wave parameter of bo...

Page 29: ...ted in real time without using wavetable lookup techniques which cannot offer the same sound quality as a modelled analogue style oscillator Filter FM Another classic use of analogue FM is to modulate...

Page 30: ...es between the waveforms For example a square wave contains only odd harmonics but as the pulse width is changed as the waveform changes towards a pulse more even harmonics are introduced Changes in h...

Page 31: ...H position of the Blend control is not comparable to the FM from 2 and WM from 3 amount controls elsewhere in Osc2 Osc3 and the filter section The S H process is always active with the Blend control...

Page 32: ...Cypher In Cypher Osc1 is the sync master and Osc2 and Osc3 are the sync slaves Both Osc2 and Osc3 can be synced to Osc1 s frequency their phase can be reset on each cycle of Osc1 You will notice that...

Page 33: ...3 Play a key you ll hear a simple saw wave tone Now increase the Osc2 Scale control to 15 and play a key You should hear a 2 note minor chord 4 Increase the Osc2 Sync to 1 control As the setting goes...

Page 34: ...441 Hz from Osc2 When this osc frequency plays at the same time as Osc1 at exactly 440 Hz the difference between each osc s frequencies is the rate of beating However if you were to play the A5 key th...

Page 35: ...or polysynth In fact most implementations of this technology involved using a final chorus stage to thicken the output and create the illusion of many string instruments playing at once to create an e...

Page 36: ...phonic stage which features a noise generator is summed to a single signal before the polyphonic resonant multimode filter Ensemble section The Ensemble section is summed to a single signal before the...

Page 37: ...e Synth section possesses its own dedicated ADSR envelope to control its amplitude over time the envelopes are internally connected to VCAs for each note The shape of all these envelopes is dictated b...

Page 38: ...featured additional filters within the chorus circuit in order to produce these types of effects The formant filter is polyphonic monophonic for each voice All paraphonic notes in the Ensemble section...

Page 39: ...er settings it leads to a subtly gritty and slurring character while higher settings create a more unstable and noisy sound 5 7 Perform controls These controls allow you to change the playing behaviou...

Page 40: ...architecture means that one voice actually generates all notes on the keyboard within a single voice This paraphonic portion of the synth actually contains 192 envelopes and VCAs one for each note it...

Page 41: ...from 0 to 1 over the defined Atk Attack time If the Sus Sustain button is enabled the output stays at 1 while the key is held down If it is disabled or when the key is released during Sustain mode the...

Page 42: ...42 5 10 Amber signal flow The following signal flow diagram represents a single voice of Amber Only direct modulation is shown there are many further possibilities using the TransMod system...

Page 43: ...e order in which you play the notes set the Priority control to Newest This way the first note you held down will always be the first in the arpeggiator sequence the second note you play will always p...

Page 44: ...stealing priority if more notes are played than the number of voices available The default setting is Newest which means that new notes get priority If you have a single voice active playing a note wh...

Page 45: ...ttings allow voice stealing functions are applied the behaviour of which is specified by the Priority control in the Keying section See section 6 2 for details of this control Active voices and unison...

Page 46: ...her settings result in longer render times Setting the performance controller 1 assignment via the Perf 1 drop down menu in the preferences panel Perf Controls Performance controllers The Perf 1 and P...

Page 47: ...ntext sensitive operation Parameter value display The scope area also includes the context sensitive parameter value display This shows parameter values as you move the mouse over their controls and i...

Page 48: ...Click the MIDI Learn button to the left of the on screen keyboard to enter MIDI Learn mode the interface is locked controls cannot be manipulated all controls that can be MIDI controlled are highligh...

Page 49: ...re channel aftertouch Host automation All synth parameters can be automated via host automation when running the DCAM Synth Squad plugins in a host Host automation generally features higher resolution...

Page 50: ...persist for the current session but can be saved for future use using the Save PC List function in the PC panel Loading a program change list using the PC List picker Loading a program change list All...

Page 51: ...earn and automation There two further ways of affecting parameters direct MIDI Learn and parameter automation which are discussed in section 6 8 These are not to be considered as synth modulation but...

Page 52: ...specially when using MIDI or host automation the TransMod system opens up infinitely more possibilities Cypher and Amber in particular feature very few direct modulation functions the TransMod system...

Page 53: ...able controls Virtually all synth parameters can be modulated using the TransMod system The only exceptions are the following buttons gate source controls for Gateable Modulators LFO Envs etc all para...

Page 54: ...TransMod slot selected Setting initial value Drag the initial part of the slider cap without the arrow The initial value and the modulation depth are adjusted together You can also double click to typ...

Page 55: ...current initial values using the Main view Clear Mod The Clear Mod function clears the modulation depths in the current TransMod Slot Clear All Mod This function clears all current modulations depths...

Page 56: ...seful morphing parameters and clicks through button modulation It is still possible to experience clicking during TransMod modulation the main possible cause of this is modulation of the following par...

Page 57: ...sing a very accessible polyphonic performance modulator keyboard velocity See sections 6 3 and 7 6 for more details Performance controllers Performance controllers are monophonic they are applied to a...

Page 58: ...played without releasing all keys do not re gate the modulator This mode is especially useful when using the arpeggiator to use an envelope or LFO over the sequence of notes rather than on each note I...

Page 59: ...e signal is on Whenever the gate is released when the gate signal returns to an off state no matter which stage has been reached the envelope s level falls to 0 over the time defined by the Release pa...

Page 60: ...of the previous point This process then repeats The end result is a series of sharp stab shapes SnH White SnH Pink SnH Brown These modes are sample hold values taken from noise sources They create st...

Page 61: ...period of sustain These are the main intended uses for the Ramp A delay before the LFO is triggered set the LFO Gate to Ramp and use the Ramp s Rise time to set a delay time A simple fixed decay envel...

Page 62: ...s that voice based pitch glide is not possible during conventional 1 voice paraphonic usage This is because all notes in the keyboard range are constantly generated at exact pitch However you can stil...

Page 63: ...tes are heard when the keyboard gates each note s individual envelopes and VCAs If you re using more than 1 voice keytracking can be used polyphonically monophonic for each voice by using the Pitch so...

Page 64: ...of defaults Performance controllers are covered later in this section Mod Modulation wheel MIDI CC 1 Breath Breath controller MIDI CC 2 Expr Expression MIDI CC 11 MonoBend Pitch bend MnPress Mono pre...

Page 65: ...elocity The Vel Glide control creates glide times to new notes OnVel modulation values allowing a further expressive element to your playing OffVel Key off velocity Pitch Derived from keys played on t...

Page 66: ...This source is especially suited to panning voices across the stereo field Unison1 As above but uni polar Unison2 As Unison1 but distributed in a different order This distribution can be more suitabl...

Page 67: ...rces derived from its specialised oscillator functions Note While the oscillators feature certain hard wired audio rate modulation functions all of the TransMod sources derived from the oscillators ar...

Page 68: ...veral analogue polys monos and maybe even an analogue sequencer or a modular like an ARP 2600 alongside other keyboards and various FX units FuseMod FuseMod is Fusor s modulation system which is essen...

Page 69: ...useMod sources can control multiple destinations Edit page buttons The Edit page buttons provide access to each part of Fusor click a button to display the associated page in the Edit workspace The Gl...

Page 70: ...owser while the Tools button displays the Tools menu Power Edit Edit and Power buttons Edit shortcut buttons are available on the interface to allow quick access to Edit pages for all elements that fe...

Page 71: ...any of the following positions note that the channel level faders are in the Mixer area Setting the Aux 1 send routing OFF No signal is sent to the destination Pre FX The signal is sent to the destina...

Page 72: ...t of the key map s range not the lower limit Transpose Each key map features the ability to transpose incoming notes up or down by up to 36 semitones with this control Vel Scale This control enables y...

Page 73: ...play through your host project Please see section 7 5 for details of the synths LFOs Audio inputs for MonoMod envelope followers These inputs are hard wired and cannot be adjusted Env Follower Source...

Page 74: ...arded to use Fusor s on screen keyboard with a synth MIDI channel 1 must be routed to the synth in the Global page either directly or through a key map or Animator engine Note that the synth s own pre...

Page 75: ...s 8 6 Aux FX and Master FX pages The aux FX and master FX pages are identical in appearance to the synth channel FX pages see above Aux FX page Fusor features 3 aux FX slots to which audio can be sent...

Page 76: ...so features the Rel Abs Dif Rnd edit modes of the X4 quad effects see below for details Bands 1 and 4 feature a control for switching between shelf and bell modes LF Bell and HF Bell which is replaced...

Page 77: ...Bits control and the sample rate with the Freq control The Dirty control sets the amount of the distorted signal that is heard at the output while the Clean control sets the amount of the signal that...

Page 78: ...rall difference of parameters values between the 4 bands Rnd Randomizes parameters across all bands Common parameters As well as the WetMix control which operates on all bands simultaneously each band...

Page 79: ...l pre delay which is turned on off using the PrePwr control and set using the Pre parameter whether this parameter is set in seconds or tempo based values depends on the state of the Sync control The...

Page 80: ...rk identically to TransMod slots Therefore FuseMod slots sources and scalers are selected in the same way with the same highlighting and mouseover indicators This functionality is described in section...

Page 81: ...using Fusor s mixing and effects capabilities It s like having 3 analogue synths with far more CV i o than costs would usually allow alongside a versatile effects and step sequencing rig with its own...

Page 82: ...erview Animator has 4 engines each essentially being an independent step sequencer arpeggiator in its own right Each engine features patterns which contain step events arranged on a number of Graph la...

Page 83: ...ences of different lengths and or speeds for interesting polyrhythmic effects Steps This control sets the length of the pattern in steps from 1 to 128 The default setting is 16 steps Step Duration Thi...

Page 84: ...to 1 2 6 or 12 levels Note that the number represents the resolution allowed both above and below the center zero line Therefore a setting of 6 gives you 13 values six above the centre line six below...

Page 85: ...can create interesting rhythmic and glitch effects Mod Value All modes The Mod Value modulation value Graph sets parameter modulation values for each step Unlike note sequencer and arpeggiator events...

Page 86: ...always the first in the arpeggio Here is a summary of the arpeggiator behaviour for each possible Arp Mode setting Fwd Plays sequentially forward through the note priority queue Rev Plays backwards th...

Page 87: ...e Fusor LCD You can switch to the Advanced engine type in order to change this behaviour by adjusting the Trigger Mode control and then switch back to the Note Sequencer engine type Sync is the defaul...

Page 88: ...Mod Value events do not have any effect on any parameters unless routed into a synth via its TransMod slots or into any Fusor device using its FuseMod slots the Mod Sequencer engine type feeds note in...

Page 89: ...Modulation Graph values 5 Complex arpeggiator sequencer functions Very deep and complex behaviours are possible in the Advanced engine type such as polyphonic arpeggios and many other permutations not...

Page 90: ...t modulation depths on the Graph offset controls Each Graph also features the following controls that operate on the respective Graph in all patterns in the current engine Mute Engaging the Mute butto...

Page 91: ...t plays steps See NoteScale and NoteWrap section below Ext Mod The sequencer is clocked from an FuseMod source chosen by the Clock Source control The transport must be running for sequencer note event...

Page 92: ...nd on some arpeggiators Key Input section Priority This control sets the order of the notes in the arpeggiator queue notes that are held down Held notes are sequenced in the order dictated by the Prio...

Page 93: ...E1 and G1 held down Advance Oct First off G3 E3 C3 G2 E2 C2 G1 E1 C1 Advance Oct First on G3 E3 C3 G2 E2 C2 G1 E1 C1 Reverse Oct First takes effect only when both Arp Mode and Oct Mode are set to FwdR...

Page 94: ...94 8 14 Fusor signal flow The following signal flow diagram represents Fusor s signal flow FuseMod modulation inputs outputs are shown where appropriate...

Page 95: ...e to achieve very good results using the ASIO4ALL free universal ASIO driver which can be downloaded from www asio4all com On Mac OSX all installed CoreAudio devices are shown in the menu Audio Channe...

Page 96: ...sor channels To assign the other channels follow this procedure 1 Create a stereo Aux channel 2 Set the input of the Aux channel as the relevant stereo output from Fusor after it is inserted into the...

Page 97: ...for example Strobe 1 1 Setting up additional output monitoring 1 Add a new aux track 3 Assign the aux track s input to one of the Fusor Bundles in the New Stereo Bundle menu which shows Fusor s stereo...

Page 98: ...ou can add the required plugin to the project by selecting Channels Add one and then selecting the plugin 4 Assign the plugin to an FX track using the Channel Settings window This FX track plays its o...

Page 99: ...e plugins are installed If you cannot find the VST plugins you can copy them into the VST plugins folder of your choice from the following folders C Program Files FXpansion instrument for example C Pr...

Page 100: ...00 500 1000 Hz 40 30 20 10 0 10 20 dB N2L2 T 10 20 50 100 200 500 1000 Hz 40 30 20 10 0 10 20 dB N2H1L1 T 10 20 50 100 200 500 1000 Hz 40 30 20 10 0 10 20 dB P2N2 T 10 20 50 100 200 500 1000 Hz 40 30...

Page 101: ...Cypher waveshaper modes 2 1 1 2 Input V 1 0 0 5 0 5 1 0 Output V Diode 2 1 1 2 Input V 1 0 0 5 0 5 1 0 Output V OTA 2 1 1 2 Input V 1 0 0 5 0 5 1 0 Output V OpAmp 2 1 1 2 Input V 1 0 0 5 0 5 1 0 Outp...

Page 102: ...Spread parameter Spread Controls the duration of the initial contour of the reverberation envelope Low Spread settings result in a rapid onset of reverberation at the beginning of the envelope with l...

Page 103: ...z Sets the frequency under which the reverberation is attenuated High kHz Sets the frequency over which the reverberation is attenuated Breverb Plate Time Sec Sets the duration of the reverberation ta...

Page 104: ...b osc Saw Level 32 SubSawOct Sub osc Saw Octave 33 SubPls Sub osc Pulse Level 34 SubPlsOct Sub osc Pulse Octave 35 Pw Pulse Width main pulse 36 PwEnv Direct Pulse Width modulation from Mod Envelope 37...

Page 105: ...hpr2Lp Shaper 2 LPF 42 Shpr2Type Shaper 2 Type 43 Shpr2Post Shaper 2 Post 44 Shpr2Pwr Shaper 2 Power 45 Osc1Wave Osc1 Wave 46 Osc1Scale Osc1 Scale 47 Osc1Low Osc1 Low 48 Osc1Beat Osc1 Beat 49 Osc1Beat...

Page 106: ...Mod Envelope 2 Loop 121 Env2Linear Mod Envelope 2 Linear 122 Env2Sync Mod Envelope 2 Sync 123 Env2Gate Mod Envelope 2 Gate 124 AmpA Amp Envelope Attack 125 AmpD Amp Envelope Decay 126 AmpS Amp Envelo...

Page 107: ...velocity sensitivity 39 SynRoute Syn Route route Synth section to main form ant filter chorus 40 Ens8 Ens section 8 level 41 Ens4 Ens section 4 level 42 Ens2 Ens section 2 level 43 EnsInv Ens section...

Page 108: ...reserved reserved for future use 65 LFO4 MODE MonoMod LFO4 Mode 66 LFO4 FREQ MonoMod LFO4 Rate 67 LFO4 SYNC MonoMod LFO4 Sync 68 LFO4 SWING MonoMod LFO4 Swing 69 LFO4 ASYM MonoMod LFO4 PW 70 LFO4 PHAS...

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