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Modular

ynthesizer

user guide

version 1.1.1

19. Nov 2020

u-he • Heckmann Audio GmbH • BERLIN

Summary of Contents for Bazille

Page 1: ...Modular PD FM Synthesizer user guide version 1 1 1 19 Nov 2020 u he Heckmann Audio GmbH BERLIN ...

Page 2: ...1 Overview 11 Directory Panel 12 Presets Panel 14 Patch Info 15 Drag Drop Functions 16 Tagging 17 Search Functions 18 Oscillators 20 Pitch 21 Phase FM 22 Phase Distortion 23 Fractal Resonance 24 Outputs 24 LFOs 25 Filters 27 Envelopes 29 Outputs 30 Processors 31 MIDI More 32 Noise 32 MIDI Control Sources 32 Internal Control Sources 33 CV Inputs 33 Multiplex 34 ...

Page 3: ...g Generators 44 Envelope Extras 46 Filters 3 and 4 47 Ramp Generators 47 Effects 48 FX Control 48 Distortion 48 Delay 50 Phaser 51 Spring Reverb 52 Configuration 53 MIDI Learn 53 MIDI Table 54 Preferences 55 Tips Tricks 57 General Tips 57 Oscillator Tricks 58 LFO Tricks 60 Filter Tricks 60 Stacking Tricks 61 Mapping Tricks 62 Processor Tricks 62 Multiplex Tricks 63 Sequencer Tricks 64 Envelope Tri...

Page 4: ...aller CPU usage and audio quality As a polyphonic modular synth Bazille can be quite CPU hungry Monophonic operation without voice stacking should be fine even on older computers Activating Multicore which distributes voices evenly across all available CPU cores can help maximize the number of playable voices Note Due to inherent technical limitations of the synthesis method Bazille s PD based osc...

Page 5: ...es For downloads news articles and support go to the u he website For lively discussions about u he products go to the u he forum For friendship and informal news go to the u he facebook page For video tutorials and more go to our youtube channel For soundsets and bundles go to u he soundsets For 3rd party presets go to Patchlb Team 2020 Q4 Urs Heckmann big concepts big code Jayney Klimek office m...

Page 6: ...he bottom left is a panel called MIDI MORE containing several modulation sources wheels key velocity etc plus two noise sources Although most of the patching is achieved with virtual cables several parameters have a fixed set of modulation sources which are available in drop down menus see Selectors on the next page That s where the pair of CV control voltage inputs come into play Anything you plu...

Page 7: ... a list of options Note that some of them also serve as labels for the accompanying knob Click on a selector to open the list or roll your mouse wheel to scroll through the options Sockets and cables Bazille s modules are connected together patched using virtual cables The sockets are colour coded inputs are grey while outputs are red To make a connection drag and drop between an output socket and...

Page 8: ... Osmose that can send each note via a separate MIDI channel For Bazille to respond correctly your host must be able to route multiple MIDI channels to a single instance of a plug in Each voice note will then react individually to the performance controls pitch bend Channel Pressure aftertouch Modulation MIDI CC 01 Control A MIDI CC 02 by default and Control B MIDI CC 11 by default See About MIDI C...

Page 9: ...ance of Bazille save this under the name default into the Local root directory Undo Redo Use the UNDO REDO arrows to fix recent mistakes Although the number of undo steps is limited to 10 you can even undo a change of preset So switching presets before saving doesn t mean losing your work Save Stores the preset into either the currently selected folder or the User folder depending on the Save Pres...

Page 10: ...eed to waste CPU for little or no gain These two elements are in the oscilloscope panel because there wasn t enough room for them in the control bar where they arguably belong Oscilloscope Oscilloscopes were always useful tools for synthesizer sound design and that s reason enough to include one in Bazille You can check and adjust waveforms monitor the effects of audio rate modulation or filtering...

Page 11: ...entre and information about the currently active preset on the right If you can t see the folders 01 to 10 click on the triangle to the left of Local If you can t see the PATCH INFO pane click on the button in the top right and activate Show Preset Info The Local root directory contains a representative selection of presets copied from the subfolders but without the tags Immediately after loading ...

Page 12: ... switched via MIDI Bank Select messages CC 0 preceding the Program Change message The MIDI Programs folder itself is bank 0 sub folders are addressed in alphabetical order starting with bank 1 When Bazille receives a program change it will display the bank and program numbers to the left of the preset name e g 0 0 for the first preset in the first bank In certain hosts however the first bank prese...

Page 13: ...sets context menu on the next page Presets dropped onto this folder will be junked and will therefore disappear from the rest of the browser unless made visible see Show Junk in the Presets context menu All Junk marks can be removed at once by right clicking on the Junk folder and selecting Remove All Junk Marks If hidden previously junked presets will reappear in the browser Tags Smart folders fo...

Page 14: ...eselect See Multiple Selection below Rename Change the names of presets using this function Only the most recently selected preset can be renamed i e you can t rename multiple files at once Copy to User Folder Duplicate This entry depends on the preference Save Presets To and whether the source presets are in Local or User Selected presets are copied with a number appended which increments so that...

Page 15: ...click Win Presets can be moved to a different folder via drag drop see below To deselect either click on an unselected preset or choose Deselect from the context menu Patch Info The panel to the right displays information about the selected preset If you can t see this panel click on the triple bar button in the top right corner and tick Show Preset Info You can enter DESCRIPTION and USAGE text im...

Page 16: ...ent computer for instance via drag drop onto the Favourites folder or anywhere within Favourites Note Importing uhe fav files from another computer will only work 100 correctly if all patch names and locations are identical on both computers Installing soundsets Any soundsets we distribute ourselves will have the extension uhe soundset and third parties are encouraged to use this format for their ...

Page 17: ...ories Features and Character tags Tagging via smart folder You can tag multiple presets by drag dropping them onto Tags smart folders To remove all tags drag drop presets onto the Tags Untagged folder INTR PATCH OSC LFO FILT ENV PROC MIDI MULT SEQ TWEAK MAP FX CONF TRIX 17 IMPORTANT Tags are updated automatically clicking on the SAVE button isn t required The main advantage is that presets don t h...

Page 18: ... me presets tagged with any subcategory Selecting the top left subcategory which has the same name as the category means show me presets tagged without any subcategory You can select multiple categories without specifying subcategories if you hold cmd Mac or alt Windows while clicking on the category button Try that with the Keys button Completed category subcategory tags appear below the subcateg...

Page 19: ...he search path The button to the left moves it up one level in this case to Local The X button to the right sets the search path to the default Local plus User i e all Bazille presets and the preset folders become visible again Alternatively you can navigate directly to any higher level by right clicking on the path Try a text search Enter three or four letters then hit Return For instance star wi...

Page 20: ... to aliasing than those in our other synths The amount is noticeably less than in the original hardware however and we believe the compromise between CPU usage and aliasing is close to optimum 5 different types of modulation one for each of the 5 sections The main oscillators are very powerful signal generators which can even be used as LFOs as the frequency range starts at zero Hertz The oscillat...

Page 21: ...ead of a regular LFO Hertz 0 to 24Hz but can be greatly extended via multiply see Modify below Note that selecting just one PD waveform or setting a pure sine wave will double that frequency See the Wave selectors description a few pages down Clocked sync to host division factor 1 00 mean a whole note 4 00 a quarter note etc For technical reasons the synchronization isn t 100 perfect so you might ...

Page 22: ...ion round robin Phase modulation with mode selector The bipolar knob on the left adjusts the amount of phase modulation or frequency modulation depending on the modes from a signal connected to the socket The first 3 options are for regular phase modulation DX type FM with different depth ranges As modulation in these modes only affects phase the overall pitch of the oscillator is preserved PM fin...

Page 23: ...led knob The bipolar knob on the left sets the amount of modulation from whatever signal is connected to the socket Wave selectors upper 2 selectors The selectors below the PD knob specify a pair of alternating see below non linear phase functions The first five modes Saw Square Impulse 2pulse Halfsaw are simple they need no explanation In the 3 Res modes multiple sine waves are packed into differ...

Page 24: ...mall selector specifies the shape of that window Off Saw Tri and Max roughly correspond to none Res1 Res2 and Res3 waveforms see the previous page The bipolar knob on the left sets the modulation depth of a signal connected to the socket Outputs There are two signal outputs at the bottom of the oscillator The upper one is always at full volume while the lower one can be attenuated and modulated Vo...

Page 25: ...e absolute times measured in seconds 0 1 1 or 10 all the others are synchronized to host tempo The five options with dot in the name are dotted 50 is added to the cycle length and those with trip in the name are triplets 3 cycles occupy the space of 2 0 1s to 10s absolute times 1 10th 1 or 10 seconds at Rate 0 00 1 64 to 8 1 synchronized to host tempo To set up a vibrato rate of 5Hz for instance u...

Page 26: ...r a non legato note is played random restarts at a random phase whenever a new note is played Delay Fades the LFO in from zero with ramp times ranging from immediately to about 20 seconds Amp Mod This knob adjusts the amount of LFO level modulation from a source specified in the selector That higher values result in lower LFO output may be counter intuitive but you are actually controlling the deg...

Page 27: ... audio inputs Note Bazille s filters have not been tamed Cutoff Filter 1 Cutoff frequency is measured in semitones from 0 00 to 150 00 for a total range of about 12 octaves The modulation range is also 150 semitones Filter 2 Instead of a simple positive only cutoff filter 2 has a bipolar control with 3 modes Cutoff like filter 1 except that you can set cutoff below zero to be modulated upwards Off...

Page 28: ...ave 2 pole lowpass LP6 6dB per octave 1 pole lowpass LP18 18dB per octave 3 pole lowpass BP6 6dB per octave 1 pole bandpass HP12 12dB per octave 2 pole highpass inverts the signal Tip The BP6 and HP12 signals are generated by adding or subtracting parts of the basic 4 pole lowpass model and unprocessed signal When Gain is set too high filter distortion scuppers the simple addition subtraction intr...

Page 29: ...r that envelopes can even modulate their own rates and amplitudes This recursive modulation can deliver some unusual envelope shapes Fall Rise This causes the normally flat sustain stage to either fall with negative values or rise positive values Fall Rise values closer to the centre mean a slower rate Note There s a parameter in the TWEAKS FX page called F R Range which limits how far the sustain...

Page 30: ...panels Parallel inputs Each output channel has two signal inputs which are summed together Like in the filters having dual inputs here saves the multiplex units for more worthy tasks Volume A level control with envelope selector Choose any of the envelope generators Env 1 to Env 4 or Gate a simple maximum sustain envelope with short attack and release Note that the ultimate volume control is actua...

Page 31: ...ves Of course you should immediately patch noise to the input an LFO to the trigger and the output to either oscillator pitch modulation or filter cutoff Lag Generators Similar to Glide the lag generators can be used for smoothing out any signal The attack A and release R knobs give you independent control over positive and negative transitions To familiarize yourself with these controls try proce...

Page 32: ...pitchbender PitchW and a general purpose modulation control ModW These two are usually implemented as a pair of wheels but some have joysticks touch ribbons etc instead More fully featured MIDI keyboards also send aftertouch i e channel pressure or poly pressure Press Ctrl A Ctrl B These are user definable MIDI performance controls set by default to Breath MIDI CC 02 and Expression MIDI CC 11 see ...

Page 33: ... will always be 5V and 5V Alt Alternates i e toggles between 5V and 5V for each successive note Map 1 Map 2 See Mapping Generators in the TWEAKS FX page Ramp 1 Ramp 2 Additional simple envelopes LFOs See Ramp Generators in the TWEAKS FX page CV Inputs Although control rate modulation targets LFO and envelope rates levels pan would normally only accept control rate sources Bazille includes a pair o...

Page 34: ...lation RM fade in Ring modulation as audio effect is traditionally used for bell like sounds robot voices etc In the above example the signal connected to input 1 is being ring modulated multiplied with the signal connected to the Mod modulation input Note Swapping the regular input signal with the Mod signal will make no audible difference Whenever a cable is connected to the Mod input the leftha...

Page 35: ...signals out Whatever you connect to the righthand inputs can be faded out by whatever you connect to the Mod input Try e g using the modulation wheel to fade out the amount of Ramp controlling oscillator pitch Unipolar crossfade crossfade using a unipolar modulation source In this example the modulation signal green controls the mix between inputs 1 and 3 If e g the modulation wheel is connected t...

Page 36: ...velopes directly see the instructions on how to trigger envelopes Divide Time and Trigger The controls in the top left of the panel determine the speed and how the sequencer is triggered Divide The Divide knob accelerates the sequencer by dividing the Time Base by up to 16 Time Base Specifies a time base like in the LFOs but with only the 1 16 1 1 and 1s options Trigger This parameter specifies ho...

Page 37: ...nterpolate Right clicking in the centre of the dial gives you an Autoselect option When this is switched on moving the snapshot position control also selects the closest snapshot Rotate Rotate lets you morph through the 8 snapshots in one of two ways If a signal is connected to the socket it will cause the dial to rotate and the Rotate value specifies by how much If the socket is left empty howeve...

Page 38: ... be 4 up a fifth 7 semitones would be 14 down an octave would be 24 etc 4 tap outputs The four output sockets let you divide the sequencer into shorter sections which can then be used to modulate different target parameters Each section can run at a different speed 4 tap speed factors The lengths of steps in each tap can be multiplied by setting this number higher than 1 Note that the speed factor...

Page 39: ...t ModSeq2 only uses 4 steps to oscillator pitch to anywhere e g lag generator pitch modulation gates velocities unused Gates and velocities When envelopes use ModSeq positive values are interpreted as GATE ON including velocity while zero and negative values are interpreted as GATE OFF without velocity Note that envelope velocity now comes from the sequencer instead of from incoming MIDI notes Of ...

Page 40: ...cation and or tuning with the oscilloscope Multicore and HQ switches retained from the SYNTH page in the centre In the second row down are the two mapping generators The third row contains the extra envelope parameters filters 3 and 4 and two ramp generators The bottom row contains four effects panels with the effect configuration switches to the left The effects are described in a separate chapte...

Page 41: ...occurs Mainly used to guard against audio glitches while playing CPU intensive patches Note that in practice the maximum number of playable voices is less when the amp envelopes have longer release times and or if you are stacking multiple voices Stack Sets the number of unison voices In Poly mode higher Stack values will not only seriously reduce maximum polyphony but will also eat your CPU for b...

Page 42: ...ds for wheel Vibrato LFO 1 Adjusts the amount that LFO pitch modulates all 4 oscillators For typical performed vibrato set the LFO1 amp modulation source to ModWhl and turn its depth up to maximum Transpose Fine The Transpose selector shifts the overall pitch in semitone steps with a range of 24 and the Fine knob adjusts it in cents within a range of 1 semitone Note that neither Transpose nor Fine...

Page 43: ...or subtle intonation effects Stack Voice Tuning The 8 knobs set a pitch offset for each stacked voice range 2 octaves See stack above Stacking and detuning voices against each other can be used to thicken up sounds or for creating one note chords For fine detuning hold down the SHIFT key before adjusting values Note The modulation source StackV can be used for any per voice offsets you like e g pa...

Page 44: ...ey follow Short maps will repeat e g use only 12 values for consistent offsets across all octaves Map Smooth modulator values interpolated for smooth transitions Map Quantize modulator values no interpolation for more immediate transitions Increment consecutive notes step through all values in the map Note The two Map modes aren t active unless you define a modulation source Source The righthand s...

Page 45: ...md Mac key before clicking in the edit window Selection applies functions to the current selection invert shift left shift right every 2nd 3rd 4th If nothing is currently selected only the three every options will appear in the submenu Reverse flips the current selection horizontally Invert flips the current selection vertically Randomize adds a random offset to all selected values Soften removes ...

Page 46: ...er way 25 between the value of Sustain set to 80 here and maximum 100 or minimum 0 Trigger Envelopes can be triggered gated by sources other than incoming MIDI notes Gate Gated by incoming MIDI notes only Loop Like Gate but automatically restarts at the end of the Release stage LFO1 2 Gated by an LFO Wave adjust the gate length Phase positions it in time For more details see Envelope Triggering vi...

Page 47: ...p generators which can fulfill either of those roles and a bit more Up Hold Down Rest The ramp is not a simple linear attack release AR type envelope but an attack hold decay AHD with an off time Its closest rela tive is the trapezoid envelope in the EMS Synthi A and VCS3 Up is the attack time after which the signal stays at maximum for a period set by Hold followed by is the release time Down Res...

Page 48: ...an emulate a complete guitar amp including the speaker cabinet Tip You can use the Distortion effect as a fairly clean EQ if you keep the input level down The basic signal flow is input amp pre tilt filter distortion post tilt filter post filters output amp Input Sets the gain decibels at the input and therefore how hard the input amp is driven Output Sets the gain at the output and therefore how ...

Page 49: ...reasing the gain doesn t slam the signal against the ceiling Listen out for strange intermodulation effects in this mode Pre Tilt A low and high shelving combination EQ is applied to the input and Pre Tilt makes the distortion frequency dependent at zero the response remains flat Negative values tend to strengthen the bass and weaken the treble while positive values have the opposite effect Post T...

Page 50: ...me Level controls for the center tap and for the left right taps together Wow Emulates slow tape wobble ranging from subtle spacey to almost seasick HP LP These are separate cutoff controls for the highpass and lowpass filters within the feedback path For the damping effects typical of tape delays increase HP and decrease LP Feedback The amount of regeneration within the delay circuit 100 00 will ...

Page 51: ...or even static effects LFO Phase Offset 0 to 360 for the LFO Especially useful for positioning the curve of the phasing effect when the LFO is synchronized see Sync above Wet Balance between the unprocessed and processed signal Sync Synchronizes the Phaser s LFO to the host tempo Note When switched on only very low Sync values will give you a fast motion LFO See also LFO Phase above Center Offsets...

Page 52: ... high frequencies Decay Controls the amount of natural damping occurring at both ends of the springs as well as at the junction in the middle Of course minimum Decay means maximum damping Drive Transducers are non linear devices so they can be overdriven Drive simulates the inherent non linearities of real spring reverb units Tension How tightly the springs are mounted in the reverb tank Looser sp...

Page 53: ...utlines Controls that are already assigned appear filled like the Filter 1 cutoff and resonance controls in this image and the currently active control is highlighted like Filter 2 cutoff here Note that the SYNTH and TWEAKS buttons remain active you don t have to exit the configuration pages to access all parameters Try it Click on Filter 1 cutoff and send some MIDI CC data move a knob or slider o...

Page 54: ...ions MIDI Table Click on the configuration button and select the MIDI icon button to open an editable list of all current MIDI CC assignments Parameter The first field displays selects one of Bazille s many parameters which are sorted into sub menus Click on the Add button at the bottom and experiment with this option Channel Controller The next two fields are for MIDI channel and CC number Mode S...

Page 55: ...e GUI size for each new instance Default Skin Selects one of currently 2 skins and sets this as the global default Bazille experts are likely to favour the GearPorn skin as all parameters appear in a single window Gamma Controls overall brightness Oscilloscope Sets a default effect See Oscilloscope Text Antialiasing Smoothing of labels and values In rare cases switching off improves readability Au...

Page 56: ...ly reduces the CPU load and memory usage of all our plug ins For example if the number of samples to be processed is 41 Bazille will process the first 32 and keep the remaining 9 in a small buffer 16 samples is big enough Those 9 samples are then processed at the start of the next call and so on The extra buffer is only necessary if either the host or the the audio driver processes unusual buffer ...

Page 57: ...pressure driven mapping generator modulates the rate of an LFO multiplied with the oscillator s output Or similar Keeping it clean Before calling your patch ultimate final and while you still understand the spaghetti you have just cooked it s a good idea to remove unused cables and even set unused parameters back to their defaults if you re so inclined Neat and tidy patches are much easier to unde...

Page 58: ... and Max is perhaps surprisingly the most subtle option when applied to a sawtooth turn the amount up a tiny bit for some grit Alternative Instead of or as well as using fractal resonance try setting the lower PD waveform to something other than Same PWM 1 tip by 3ee xh3rv adrian b Bazille s oscillators don t offer Pulse Width Modulation directly but you can get there using a Mapping Generator Sel...

Page 59: ...ch Res II also delivers a triangle wave However low notes sound buzzy and even moderately high notes will seriously alias Other waveforms 1 tips by xh3rv First there s the classic FM method of turning the sine wave into a kind of sawtooth by making an operator phase modulate itself Perhaps more useful in Bazille is the triangle ish to square ish waveform you can get by rectifying the oscillator s ...

Page 60: ... and Key Follow both to maximum and Cutoff fairly low e g 12 00 Experiment with all 6 filter types Caution self resonating filters can get very loud so it s best to turn the volume down first Especially the lower notes are slow to self resonate and a short impulse is often necessary to kickstart the resonance Patch an unused envelope into one of the filter inputs and pull all the sliders down to m...

Page 61: ... boost low frequencies Set Cutoff to minimum Key Follow to maximum Resonance to about 30 then adjust the Cutoff Negative cutoff For extra punchy filter envelopes take the cutoff below zero first by connecting 5V to a cutoff modulation input remember that the main filters have up to 4 cutoff modulation inputs Stacking Tricks Height You can make huge one finger chords by stacking a couple of voices ...

Page 62: ... value to minimum right click the map and select shapes triangle for example Right click again and select quantize 8 Also try make unipolar then Quantize 4 If you wish to bit crush the regular waves select the cosine instead of the triangle Additive synthesis spectralize Load init set OSC1 to TapMap then right click in Mapping Generator 1 and select Reset Right click again and select e g 9 Raise j...

Page 63: ...verter tip by urs If you have already used up both inverters but still have a free multiplex try this Connect 5v to the Mod input and the signal you want to invert to one of the righthand inputs Multiplex gain tip by justin3am To boost weaker signals try feeding the output of a multiplex back into one side with the signal you want to boost connected to the other side Be careful with the feedback l...

Page 64: ...other from the Quantizer to Rotate Set the Rotate and Quantizer values both to precisely 7 00 Play and hold a note move your modulation wheel and watch how the realtime position indicator moves Now try LFO 2 instead of the modulation wheel tricky isn t it Using a Mapping Generator This method has the advantage that you can jump between snapshots in any order you like Load init drag a cable from Ma...

Page 65: ... Phase of one of them for interesting rhythms Tip Process LFO waveforms using mapping generators then modulate e g pitch and cutoff Note All factory presets with LFO triggered envelopes have been checked and adjusted to suit the new behaviour but you might find that one or two of your own LFO triggered patches no longer work as expected If a previously repeating patch no longer repeats try setting...

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