TC Electronic FireworX User Manual Download

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FireworX

STUDIO EFFECTS PROCESSOR

USERS MANUAL

Summary of Contents for FireworX

Page 1: ...FireworX STUDIO EFFECTS PROCESSOR USERS MANUAL...

Page 2: ...2...

Page 3: ...ercises p 26 Layout page p 28 Tool page p 28 Layout Exercises p 29 MODIFIERS PAGE 30 MOD P 30 Modifier display p 30 The flow of the Modifiers p 30 Matrix page p 30 Link page p 32 Dials page p 32 Modif...

Page 4: ...th 24 bit AD DA converters AES EBU S PDIF Toslink and ADAT interfaces About this Manual Many people in the music business and elsewhere have an aversion to reading manuals We understand that So if you...

Page 5: ...including Ring Modulator Digital Cruncher Sweeping Filters Formant Filters Chaos Noise generation and many more Nine external and eleven internal Modifiers that can be tied to numerous parameters Up t...

Page 6: ...gain reduction of one of the Dynamics blocks LED s The three LED s indicate MIDI activity Preset Edited and Digital lock The Digital Lock LED blinking indicates lack of external clock POWER Press and...

Page 7: ...nfirm The Exit key is used to exit a menu or to cancel an action 7 INTRODUCTION The Front Panel EFFECT MUTE The twelve effect keys are dedicated to mute bypass any of the twelve effect blocks These ke...

Page 8: ...S standards External control jack can use momentary alternating and continuous type pedals The FireworX power supply is capable of operating at any line voltage from 100 240 Volts 50 60Hz INTRODUCTION...

Page 9: ...lanced Input Gain Channel select ADAT OPTICAL Channel select ADAT OPTICAL Con Pro Levels Con Pro Levels Input Selector Bypass Output Gain Digital Output Analog Outputs balanced INTRODCUTION The Signal...

Page 10: ...pen to be used as Vocoder or Ring Modulator Carrier input Group insert Connect the left right insert send from your subgroups to the FireworX left right input Connect the FireworX left right outputs t...

Page 11: ...11...

Page 12: ...Edit and press Enter Press Exit to leave the Edit display Routing Changing the order of the effect blocks is done in the Routing display Press the Effects key and select the Routing display using the...

Page 13: ...rs 1 8 Master Volume Global Tempo Overall Bypass Effects block bypass Level page Sets Digital In Out levels and displays Analog In Out levels Signal page Sets Input source Insert loop I O Sample rate...

Page 14: ...r Preset number Preset page selected The Preset page containing the block Reverb The List Page The List page shows the FireworX presets on a continuous list starting with the 200 Factory Presets marke...

Page 15: ...led Press the Enter key to Recall the Preset Exercise 2 How to search for Presets containing a specific effect Press the Recall key Press the Enter key to Recall the Preset Exercise 2 How to search fo...

Page 16: ...pace indicator The Free space indicator tells you how much room there is left in the FireworX internal RAM bank The FireworX can hold a maximum of 200 User Presets however the actual number depends on...

Page 17: ...ard Preset copy to or from card is done in the Utility Card page see Utility for further description Card types S RAM Type 1 PCMCIA cards with a minimum of 64Kbytes maximum of 2Mbytes S RAM The Store...

Page 18: ...uilt from Press the Store key to access the Store display Use the Arrow keys to select the Name page Now use the Parameter wheel to move the cursor in the name the Value wheel to select a letter in th...

Page 19: ...cise will describe how to delete a single Preset The FireworX also has the ability to clear the whole User Preset bank instantly please see the Reset page for further instructions Press the Store key...

Page 20: ...ne displays the sub algorithm running in the current highlighted block The second way is to double click the key of the block you want to edit In case you have more than one of a specific block the fi...

Page 21: ...lay Use the Parameter wheel to change the cursor position and the Value wheel to change values In case the Preset contains more than one of the blocks you want to edit a second double click on the blo...

Page 22: ...the Mute mode of each block The full Routing grid can be up to 8 by 8 spaces and you can place any effect anywhere in the grid however the FireworX will not scroll through the last row unless a block...

Page 23: ...ause serious changes in the sound due to phase cancellation Feedback The Feedback block can feed the sound back from one point to another in the signal chain Place the Send block where you want to tap...

Page 24: ...nfirm You now have a Dual delay algorithm where you are able to set different delay times in left and right channels remember to set the panning of the two delay taps Exercise 7 Inserting an Effect Th...

Page 25: ...e settings of the block are still being remembered Move the cursor to position 1 2 using the Value wheel Double click the Delay Mute key on the front panel Dial the Value wheel until you see Delay 1 D...

Page 26: ...if the FireworX is set to Effect mute Off in the Utility Config page see Recall Recall Mode for further description Here is the description of what the five modes will do when the front panel mute key...

Page 27: ...e insert a Synth block in a Routing See exercise 7 Press the Effects key and use the Arrow keys to select the Routing display Place the cursor on the Synth block Press Enter Select Out L by using the...

Page 28: ...carry out the selected function The Tool page The Tool page offers a number of different readouts and shortcuts to parameters that can be used in the Edit page on each block Select the information fun...

Page 29: ...tput Off No output line indicates that the block is using the Off setting on the current output Mute Effect Makes it possible to bypass each block individually using the Value wheel This can be very u...

Page 30: ...Matrix page features a powerful tool for setting up modulation connections for External or Internal Modifiers The Modifiers page contains setups of all Internal Modifiers The flow of the Modifiers Th...

Page 31: ...e Set middle value Set highest value Change curve Set reaction time Dial Parameter wheel to move Ext Modifier 1 Press Enter and dial Value to change Ext Modifier press Exit to simulate Dial Value whee...

Page 32: ...Modifier is in minimum position Mid input Sets the value that the controlled parameter will have when the Modifier is in middle position High input Sets the value that the controlled parameter will ha...

Page 33: ...page Dial Parameter wheel until the cursor points to the parameter to be controlled Dial Value wheel to choose Modifier Exercise 13 How to use the Link display This exercise gives an example on how th...

Page 34: ...ribed on page 39 Pitch detector The Pitch detector senses the pitch of the incoming source signal and converts it to control information that can be used to control the parameters of the Modifier Matr...

Page 35: ...ra gate ADSR 1 2 ADSR is an abbreviation of Attack Decay Sustain Release ADSRs are used to play short control signal sequences triggered by the audio input You set up a number of terms to describe the...

Page 36: ...mout of time set by the Speed parameter E g if Speed is set to 1Hz the defined number of samples will be played back once every second Tempo Sets the Freeforms relationship to the global tempo The def...

Page 37: ...1 Note to Synth Freq The Note to Synth Type converts control values to notes This can be used to convert Pitch detector or MIDI note information to Synth control information Feed 2 is used for Pitch...

Page 38: ...to the input of a Freq parameter of the Filter Resonator or Resochord The Resonator will now follow the pitch of the incoming source material Example 2 Set up Ext 1 to be controlled by MIDI Note On k...

Page 39: ...can be used as a realtime modifier and has several setup possibilities The Alpha Mod can be connected to several parameters simultanuously It can be controlled externally or work as an external contro...

Page 40: ...ick on until you press the Tempo key again or it can disappear automatically Choose whether the Tempo should be Sticky or not in the Utility page The Tempo display will read out the tapped BPM Beats p...

Page 41: ...und the External loop not both Here is a couple of setup examples on how to avoid phase cancelation Example 1 The External loop contains a Reverb set to 100 effect an additive effect All of the Dry si...

Page 42: ...e Block Mute keys etc The Level page contains the Analog the Digital In Out level and displays the incoming sample rate when using external clock The Signal page contains the source select of the Fire...

Page 43: ...the incoming clock NOTE The six unprocessed channels are not passed through the FireworX Ch Channel The Channel parameter selects which channels the FireworX are using for Input The four possibilitie...

Page 44: ...the Control page Basic Channel The basic MIDI channel of the FireworX This is the channel that you should transmit Program changes on to change Presets in the FireworX The FireworX outputs the on off...

Page 45: ...is responding to To make it easy for you to set up an External controller we designed a Learn function Place the cursor on the parameter you want to control press Enter to activate Learn and move you...

Page 46: ...pha Mod is set up in the Modifier Matrix The controller set up as to control the Alpha Mod externally is also used for transmitting the Alpha Mod movements This makes it possible to record the modulat...

Page 47: ...47 SYSTEM MIDI I O Setup...

Page 48: ...ncer or any other MIDI recordable device Press Enter twice and the FireworX will perform a MIDI bulk dump of all User Presets MIDI to User Bank Connect the storing device to the FireworX s MIDI In and...

Page 49: ...r Bank Card Bank Preset start This parameter determines where the copy action should start in the Card Bank Number of Presets This parameter sets the number of Presets to be copied Copy Select whether...

Page 50: ...changes in the sound due to phase cancellation Feedback The Feedback block can feed the sound back from one point to another in the signal chain Place the Send block where you want to tap the sound a...

Page 51: ...is present in the Routing this parameter determines which one will be displayed by the Gain reduction meter on the front panel Soft Compressor A Compressor is meant to reduce the dynamic content of t...

Page 52: ...er responds to the peak level whereas the Compressor responds to the RMS average level Peak compression in general is a bit more aggressive sounding The parameters available in the Modifier Matrix are...

Page 53: ...resonate more than 2nd order filters Locut Freq Sets the frequency of the Locut Resonance filter Range 20Hz 5kHz Hicut Freq Sets the frequency of the Hicut Resonance filter Range 150Hz 15kHz Lo Resona...

Page 54: ...f you set it to 1 4T you will get quarter note triplets of the tapped tempo 1 4 equals the BPM tapped Tempo The subdivisions available are 16 1 16 bars for performing one period 8 1 4 1 2 1 1 1 and 1...

Page 55: ...evel Controls the output level of the block THE BLOCKS NOTE The peak of the filters can get very loud and can easily hit the internal ceiling and thereby cause distortion To prevent that turn down the...

Page 56: ...e in the Modifier Matrix are marked with an asterisk DISTORTION filter is relative to the Frequency of the corresponding Resonator voice The slope of the filter is 12dB octave Range 0 100 Levels Voice...

Page 57: ...ommon in the early days of the digital world In the FireworX this artifact is magified into an effect Sound wise the Aliasing appears as an unharmonic fairly high frequency distortion The Quantizer pr...

Page 58: ...ty fifty mix of the upper and lower sideband equals the sound of a traditional ring modulator Note that the dynamic range of the sideband outputs is the sum of the dynamic ranges of the two inputs so...

Page 59: ...ols the output level of the Ring Modulator block Ring Mod Internal This variation of the FireworX Ring Modulator provides an internal carrier sine wave generator with user controllable frequency That...

Page 60: ...use this block as a mini synthesizer See Modifiers Functions for further details Curve Selects the curve being generated Choose between Square Sine Triangle and Sawtooth Square PW Controls the divisi...

Page 61: ...el of the block Pitch Number of blocks 1 Processing power 17 20 per block The Pitch block contains two different sub algorithms Single Voice and Dual Voice The parameters available in the Modifier Mat...

Page 62: ...1 4 equals BPM beats per minute If you select Ignored the current parameter will use the Preset value and will not be affected by the Global Tempo Depth Adjusts the modulation depth of the Chorus als...

Page 63: ...control over the Flanger Speed lets the Flangers internal LFO handle the modulation Speed The modulation speed of the Flanger also known as Rate Tempo The Tempo parameter sets the relationship to the...

Page 64: ...ote that the Cross feed can be negative i e Cross feed in reversed phase LFO Curve Sets the curve of the LFO Choose between Sine or Triangle The most commonly used waveform in Flanging is Sine See Cur...

Page 65: ...Modifier Matrix are marked with an asterisk DUAL DELAY Time 1 Sets the delay time of the first Delay tap Maximum delay time is 675 ms Time 2 Sets the delay time of the second Delay tap Maximum delay...

Page 66: ...the two Delay taps Lowcut 1 2 3 Cuts off frequencies lower than the selected frequency The slope of the filter is 12dB octave Highcut 1 2 3 Cuts off frequencies higher than the selected frequency So...

Page 67: ...the highcut filter down The slope of the filter is 12dB octave Lowcut Cuts off frequencies lower than the selected The slope of the filter is 12dB octave Highcut Cuts off frequencies higher than the s...

Page 68: ...part of a natural reverb which is experienced as prolonging the sound and creating some depth behind the source or direct signal but integrating it in the spatial characteristics of the hall or room...

Page 69: ...When set to Auto it is linked to High color Auto Wool Warm Real Clear Bright Crisp Glass Color Factor Emphasizes or reduces the character set by Color Range 50 Predelay Allows adjustment of the prede...

Page 70: ...essing power 4 7 per block The Pan block contains five sub algorithms Simple Tremolo Advanced Tremolo Simple Panner Surround Panner and Stereo Enhance A Panner is basically a change of the level oppos...

Page 71: ...ing beyond normal stereo image by changing the phase of the signal while panning The parameters available in the Modifier Matrix are marked with an asterisk PAN TREMOLO Mod Link Only in Simple Panner...

Page 72: ...block 90 phas change EQ Number of blocks 1 Processing power 19 22 per block The EQ block contains two different sub algorithms Fixed five band parametric EQ and modulatable four band parametric EQ Bot...

Page 73: ...trix are marked with an asterisk MODULATABLE EQ Freq 1 4 Use the freq parameter to set the target frequency of the current band BW bandwidth 1 4 Bandwidth adjusts how broad the bell filters are Gain 1...

Page 74: ...aning all parameter settings of Utility I O Setup except analog in out levels Tempo Alpha Mod Load setup from card Insert the pc card containing your FireworX setup Press Enter twice to confirm that y...

Page 75: ...ter Connect AES EBU output to AES EBU input Connect S PDIF output to S PDIF input Connect ADAT output to ADAT input PPM must show 0dB to pass test Press Exit to leave Digital I O test Midi I O test Se...

Page 76: ...is phasing with your direct signal You are running the FireworX in a parallel setup but the Mix function in I O Setup Signal menu is set to Wet The Insert loop is causing phase cancellation See Insert...

Page 77: ...X Altered Note Number X 1 127 True Voice X 1 127 Velocity Note ON X O Note OFF X O After Touch Key s X X Ch s O O Pitch Bend O O Control Change 0 119 0 119 Prog Change O O True 0 127 0 127 System Exc...

Page 78: ...ighted 106 dB A 95 dB 0 0018 1kHz 6 dBFS FS 16 dBu 10 Hz to 20 kHz 0 0 2 dB 80 dB 10 Hz to 20 kHz typical 100 dB 1 kHz XLR balanced pin 2 hot 100 ohm active transformer 22 dBu balanced 10 dBu to 22 dB...

Page 79: ...d and used in accordance with the instructions may cause harmful interference to radio communications However there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation If thi...

Page 80: ...25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 Factory Presets Nr Name Description PRESETS 80 Very ugly guitar sound Ring modulator combined with a slap back delay Ring...

Page 81: ...40 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 Nr Name Description Phaser Ring Modulator and Pitcher Turn up the Panner speed with the Mod Wheel Advanced panner thing with Pitch Phaser Chorus and Delay Bu...

Page 82: ...Intensity Brightness Brightness Tonality Resonance Feedback Brightness Locut Pitch Pitch Pitch Distortion Distortion More Wind Stronger Wind Surround Position Approaching Old School Vox Little Dist Li...

Page 83: ...37 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 Nr Name Description Less Cheese In A Can Oxygen Content Bright Dark Centers Signal Bring It Close Adds Detune Width Surround Position Alters Mix...

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