tracktion F-em User Manual Download

Page: 1 / 61

F-em

Frequency Modulation Synthesizer

USER GUIDE

TRACKTION COMPANY | www.tracktion.com

Summary of Contents for F-em

Page 1: ...F em Frequency Modulation Synthesizer USER GUIDE TRACKTION COMPANY www tracktion com...

Page 2: ...rogramming David Rowland User Interface Design Sasha Radojevic Sound Design and Sample Content Alessandro Cardinale Ed Ten Eyck Jay de Miceli Klaus Peter Rausch KPR Stranjah Vasil Ivanov The Editor Yu...

Page 3: ...oard Section 13 4 3 Master Section 14 4 4 Arpeggiator Master Section 14 4 5 Working with Layers 15 5 The Main Edit Section 16 5 1 Basic Sound Editing Operations 16 5 2 The FM Matrix 17 5 3 Noise Gener...

Page 4: ...at offer typical analog waveforms and separate pitch and level LFOs as well as pitch and level envelopes There are two additional sample oscillators and a white and pink noise generator Followed by tw...

Page 5: ...orithm one or more operators is usually routed directly to the audio output Some FM synthesizers offer predefined algorithms F em uses a completely free programmable FM matrix The primary operator is...

Page 6: ...lick F em 1 0 0 pkg file to launch the installer for F em In this example 1 0 0 refers to the current version number of the file which most likely differs from this example 2 Follow the on screen inst...

Page 7: ...2 4 Authorisation F em uses a software based copy protection and can only run with an activated license After installation please load F em as instrument within your DAW The plug in is currently lock...

Page 8: ...author click on the corresponding name in the left window section Same is valid for Category Style or Character search You can also combine search attributes To set back a search click on the correspo...

Page 9: ...ce on the Level envelopes and Effect levels of all Layers Why are these parameters located on the Loading page Because If you load a sound and want to change some important settings directly you do no...

Page 10: ...or the right to change the value Some faders need to move vertically to change values Graphical Elements Click on the corresponding graphic and move the mouse vertical or horizontal to change settings...

Page 11: ...Filters the Arpeggiator Effects etc In this section 5 you find An EQ page includes a four band equalizer the Arp page offers a powerful arpeggiator the Effects page offers four effects for each layer...

Page 12: ...a name for the actual instrument Category Here you can enter an instrument category e g Lead Author Here you can enter the name of the sound designer Style Here you can enter a sound or music style o...

Page 13: ...recommend to switch Open GL off only if you experience incompatibilities or odd behaviour Locations Click on the corresponding button e g User Sounds to open the folder where the sounds or samples ar...

Page 14: ...rnal When enabled the arpeggiator s and all clock based parameters LFOs Envelopes Clocked Delays etc are synchronized to the tempo of your host application If disabled you can specify a desired tempo...

Page 15: ...te button again to deactivate the solo mute function Layer Volume slider Controls the output level of the corresponding Layer Layer Panner dial Controls the panning of the corresponding Layer Copy Pas...

Page 16: ...m and the corresponding modulation sources for Operator 8 as Pitch LFO Level LFO Pitch Envelope Level Scaling and Level Envelope Click on the selection fields of the other operators O1 to O7 to open t...

Page 17: ...ain to activate the operator In our example see picture above we have set up O1 as a carrier for Operator 8 This can be done by clicking on the intersection of O1 and O8 in the matrix Keep in mind tha...

Page 18: ...the current settings of the operators The first two waveforms show the Pitch and Level LFO for each operator The next graphic shows the Pitch envelope and the last one the Level envelope To navigate d...

Page 19: ...pes frequency of the filter If Comb is selected the frequencies near the cutoff frequency are emphasized If Redux is selected the outgoing sample rate of the signal is reduced The Cutoff value is show...

Page 20: ...piano doubling the coarse tuning value raises the frequency by an octave and lowering the value by half produces a frequency that is an octave lower For example a value of 2 00 is an octave higher tha...

Page 21: ...less of its Layer Sample Oscillator On Off Click on this button to activate deactivate the corresponding Sample Oscillator Sample Selection Click on this button to open a window where you can select a...

Page 22: ...t points but not the velocity of a sample map Most samples are single zoned but the drum kits and some bowls use multisample mappings Loading Samples To load samples into a Sample Oscillator you can e...

Page 23: ...d has its own Pitch LFO starting at the selected Start Phase and running with its rate If activated the sound appears to only have one LFO for all voices The first voice of any overlapping notes deter...

Page 24: ...Noise Saw Up 4 and 8 steps down The actual waveform is displayed below the waveform button Mono If deactivated each voice of a sound has its own Level LFO starting at the selected Start Phase and run...

Page 25: ...e pitch but you can freely assign it to other modules as well The Copy Paste buttons lets you copy all settings from this envelope and paste it to any other regardless of its Layer Click on the Magnif...

Page 26: ...Normally an envelope is triggered by an incoming MIDI note If you play more than one note every voice contains its own envelope This is called Poly You can also set an envelope to a monophonic behavio...

Page 27: ...ly You can speed up or slower the expiration speed of the envelope Decay only available in maximized view This is an offset parameter that affects the decay envelope rates simultaneously You can speed...

Page 28: ...ardless of its Layer Click on the Magnifying Glass symbol in the upper right corner to maximize the envelope curve display Here you can find additional parameters To close the maximized view click on...

Page 29: ...yed note Last triggers on envelope which acts for all played voices It means that the envelopes of all voices of a Sound layer behave like a single envelope This common envelope starts as soon as the...

Page 30: ...are played The higher the value of this number the greater the difference will be between the lower notes and the higher notes All Rates only available in maximized view This is an offset parameter t...

Page 31: ...serial wiring The Copy Paste buttons lets you copy all settings from this envelope and paste it to any other regardless of its Layer Filter On Off Click on this button to activate deactivate the corr...

Page 32: ...duced Resonance Controls the resonance of the filter if set to any of the 12 dB or 24 dB filter types On 6 dB filter types this control does nothing On band stop types it narrows the stop band which i...

Page 33: ...his parameter can have a range of up to 200 That means if you place the Layer fully to the left and modulate it e g with LFO 1 with 100 the sound wanders from 100 left to 100 right and vice versa Keep...

Page 34: ...dial to the left results in a lower frequency of the band s cutoff or center frequency to the right increases it Quality Q Controls the quality or width of the band When using a bell type moving the d...

Page 35: ...up Menu Sets the direction that is used to play back the arpeggio If Up is selected the note list is played forward and the octaves are transposed upward The arpeggio starts in the original octave and...

Page 36: ...rn starts at 0 i e song start The neutral time base is 16th but the sequence can contain arbitrary notes like 32th 64th quarter or half notes or anything else The pattern notes are read in with the po...

Page 37: ...s Sets the maximum notes that are played within an arpeggio We recommend to set this value to 3 or higher if you want to play regular chords Key Limits Off means that the arpeggiator only plays notes...

Page 38: ...sed on the selected effect type different editing parameters are available Distortion This effect offers an overdrive also known as saturation or distortion It affects the sum of all voices routed int...

Page 39: ...e Feedback Controls the level of the signal that is fed back into the chorus With a small setting of Delay and Depth and a high positive or negative setting of Feedback you can create a typical flange...

Page 40: ...on Modulation Spread Controls the deviation between the left and right stereo side Compressor The Compressor reduces signals which exceed a certain Threshold level in volume by an adjustable Ratio The...

Page 41: ...4 HP 6 12 24 BP12 24 BS 12 24 Comb Redux Ladder LP6 24 Sallen Key LP Cutoff Controls the cutoff on low pass or high pass types or center on band pass or band stop types frequency of the filter Resonan...

Page 42: ...n the feedback stage High Damp Removes high frequencies in the feedback stage of the delay meaning that each repetition has less and less high frequencies Pan Determines the stereo panning of the dela...

Page 43: ...wer values let the reverb decay slightly while higher values result in an inverse reverb which gets louder over its time Density Controls the initial density of the reverb Lower values result in audib...

Page 44: ...source in the Source 2 pop up menu that influences Source 1 e g Mod Wheel This is not necessary for a regular modulation Now select a destination e g Pan Mix Op 8 Finally set amount to a desired valu...

Page 45: ...on the current Layer The saved Layer contains the file extension fmsound Pitch Bend Here you can determine the bend range for the Pitch bend The range goes from 60 to 60 semitones Unison Detune Contro...

Page 46: ...oming sostenuto controller data MIDI CC 66 Similar to sustain it holds only notes that were played when the pedal was pressed Use it to hold chords and play melodies over the held chord MPE Click on t...

Page 47: ...uts off the closed hi hat sound in a different part and vice versa Other typical percussion instruments might include an open and closed triangle a slowly and quickly stroked guiro a brushed and strok...

Page 48: ...anner as by changing the pitch in semitones Legato If activated a continuous glide is performed only when notes are played legato Staccato played notes start on the exact pitch of their note 5 13 The...

Page 49: ...rameter with the added functionality of being able to control its modulation depth The formula for this is like this destination source x depth However just assigning one modulation source to a destin...

Page 50: ...is now ready for destination selection and amount setting 3 Move the Filter 1 cutoff knob to set up the modulation amount As an orientation the original position of the cutoff knob is also shown The...

Page 51: ...s contain a unique functionality Both Flow LFO provides up to 8 slots with independent parameter settings This means that you can set up a complex LFO arrangement based on 8 completely different LFOs...

Page 52: ...speed in Hz when Clock is off Changes are continuous and Rate can be modulated If Clock is activated Rate can be set in musical values e g 1 16 Start Phase Controls the phase in degree with which the...

Page 53: ...eters as well for example Filter Cutoff to make higher notes sound brighter or envelope Decay or Release to shorten the sound slightly on higher notes Another interesting modulation assignment is Redu...

Page 54: ...option of F em Controllers sources The Pitch Bend wheel or some similar control found on most MIDI keyboards Most of the time it has a spring attached to it to reset the wheel to its center position a...

Page 55: ...u can control every desired parameter to change your sound from subtile to massive Random sources RND 1 2 3 4 Upon playing a note F em generates 4 random values for this voice that you can use to crea...

Page 56: ...e modulation assignment Moreover you can use it as source for yet another modifying process Click on the Modifier 1 2 or 3 buttons to call up the corresponding modifier section Up to 30 different modi...

Page 57: ...thmetic modifier the multiplication Other basic arithmetics like addition subtraction and division are ommited This is because adding or subtracting a second modulation to a parameter means to just as...

Page 58: ...Approximation returning typical volume levels with roughly 3 5 dB change per 0 1 Very low values deviate to 0 Examples LinLog Approximation of the inverse LinExp function Quadratic Returns the quadra...

Page 59: ...owing operation y y1 1 b a b y1 y Lag Returns a linear ramp reaching value a with a rate of b The ramp goes up or downwards depending on the value of a If y reaches the value of a it stays there Perfo...

Page 60: ...s Sample Hold Delay Performs the following operation b b b n x 0 a y x b b is multiplied by itself to allow finer adjustments in the lower value range n is the maximum buffer size of 1 second Delay Cl...

Page 61: ...us by email support tracktion com or write a request via our support form on https tracktion zendesk com hc en us requests new Tracktion Software Corporation 11644 NE 80th St Kirkland WA 98033 USA ww...

Search results

Summary of Contents for F-em

Reviews:

Related manuals for F-em

Brands by name

Popular brands

tracktion F-em, User Manual

Search results

Summary of Contents for F-em

Reviews:

Related manuals for F-em

Brands by name

Popular brands