Home

Spectralis 2

1. Time Attack Time The first Time parameter sets the attack time of the pitch envelope the time between the note trigger and reaching the keyboard pitch The second time parameter adjusts the time between releasing the note and reaching the endpitch EndP Endpitch sets the end pitch of the pitch envelope 3 4 VCO Keyboard Pitch Scaling Osc1 12 Osc2 12 oXexexel g 12 Osc4 0 OscX Sets the keyboard pitch scaling 12 is the default value and gives 12 halftones per octave on the keyboard 4 4 VCO Pitchbend Range 0Osc1 2 Osc2 2 Osc3 2 Osc4 0 PMod sets the pitchbend range of the oscillators in halftones SPecTRatisS Hybrid Synthesizer reference Oscillator glide menu 4 2 3 VCO Glide Menu Turning the glide encoder sets the glide time for oscillator 1 Holding shift while turning the Glide encoder changes the glide time for all oscillators at once Pressing the Glide Encoder opens the oscillator glide menu vco 1 4 Glide Speed 0 no Glide Osc1 0 Osc2 0 Osc3 0 Osc4 0 Oscl Osc4 Sets the individual glide times for VCO 1 4 4 3 The Master LFO section 4 3 1 LFO Wave Menu The LFO WAVE encoder controls the waveform of all master LFOs at once Holding Shift while turning the encoder assigns a modulation wheel dependency to the waveform selection Positive values will allow to change the waveform with the modulation wheel Pushing the LFO Wave encoder opens the LFO Wave menu
2. FMW ve filterfrequency modulation LFO waveform The first encoder selects the desired waveform You can find an overview of the waveforms in the description of the master LFO waveforms FmRte Rate of the filterfrequency modulation At 0 value the LFO oscillates at it s slowest rate and at 255 value at it s fastest FmDpt Frequency modulation depth This parameter controls the Modulation depth of the LFO Pressing Page Up one time in both filters opens the second section LFO edit page 2 9 24dB Lowpass LFO Depth Envelope FmED1 0 FmEDa 0 FmEDr 0 FmEDp 0 The filter section LFO s have a delay and an envelope parameter to control the modulation depth of the LFO FmEDI Cutoff frequency modulation delay At value 0 the modulation takes effect immediately when hitting a key at higher values the modulation starts with a delay FmEDa Cutoff Frequency Modulation Depth Envelope Attack Time FmEDr Cutoff Frequency Modulation Depth Envelope Release Time FmEDp Cutoff Frequency Modulation Envelope Depth Oscillator Section LFO s In the oscillator section there are also additional sections LFO s Each oscillator has its own LFO for frequency modulation You will reach these LFO s in the oscillator pitch menu which can be selected using the OSC Detune encoder button On the first menupage you will see the following parameters In this menu you can set the finepitch of the oscillators Looking at the small indic
3. Osc1 0 Osc2 0 O0sc3 0 Osc4 0 The four encoders visible now are so called macro encoders They allow you to change virtually the whole envelope with just one encoder The little upward arrows you see in the display show that you can also use the push button function ofthese encoders to access additional sub menus Please push the first encoder button Osc1 0 You will see the following Display message 1 5 VCOl Volume Envelope Generator Pagel Att 0 Dey 00 Stn 255 Rls 0 Looking at the envelope setting it s easy to tell why your audio signal disappeared when you let go of the key only sustain shows as open attack decay and release time are set to 0 value Right from this page you can also access the envelopes of the other oscillators 45 46 SePecTrRatliS Hybrid engine Multimode filter and filter routing All you have to do is push the Page Up button repeatedly One after another you will now see oscillators 2 4 appear as well as the fifth sound source Noise Working with these oscillator envelopes alone provides you with an extensive playground which you will start to appreciate more and more the longer you work with your Spectralis TIP If the attack time or the release time are set to 0 it is possible that an annoying click sound might pop up at the start or end of the sound This may be a result of the oscillators operating in free oscillation mode when you are playing a key the oscillator s
4. 29 30 SPecTRatiS Saving of patterns 2 5 System USB HIGH DSnd Yes Sync Dis Play Yes The first Parameter is of no interest for this purpose The second parameter DSound Yes turns the default sound on YES or off DIS DIS stands for Disable which in this case means deactivate 3 1 11 Deactivate the Pattern changed Save First messages Occasionally it is quite helpful to get a reminder not to forget saving your changes however it can also be a nuisance when it starts to affect the flow and fun of jamming When selecting another pattern the following display message will appear when changes are being made to the current pattern Sxx lt Song0 Pattern Changed Save first C Funky NO YES If you chose to ignore this message without answering NO or YES via the encoder buttons the pattern won t be changed NO Confirming NO will enable the Pattern to change and your changes will be lost YES Ifyou confirm YES the changes are being saved into the active Pattern This is the equivalent of saving a pattern with the option Current in the previous chapter Even if you have not selected any of the options it doesn t mean you have lost your pattern changes however you will then have to save them via the Save function If you don t the next pattern change will definitely have the same result If you can t keep an eye on the display during LIVE operation a
5. TIP Changing numeric Button assignments temporarily When you are pushing the Part Section Button the corresponding function kicks in and the assignment is permanent Holding the Part Section Button down however and pushing a numeric Button at the same time activates the function only temporarily Once you release the button you ll return to the previously selected Menu 2 5 2 Num Button Assignment section upper left above the encoders 1 16 This is the section where you can determine the assignment of the numeric buttons 1 16 Any function activated in the part section can be turned off with these buttons Only one of the Num Button Assignment buttons can be active at a time Song By using the Song button you can select one of the 16 current songs via the numeric buttons 1 16 Pattern When using the Pattern button you can select patterns of the current songs by using the numeric buttons 1 16 in combination with Shift 1 16 The patterns you ve selected will start playing instantly once you push the numeric buttons There is no need to push the Play button in the transport field You will find a separate chapter How to Jamming with patterns starting on page 25 Drum Groove Using the Drum Groove button you can simultaneously change the motifs 1 11 of the patterns in order hear a selected pattern with a diffe rent drum rhythm by pushing the numeric buttons 1 16 or rather
6. If this parameter is set to SONG the parameter changes will become audible for all patterns that have no individual settings If you set Mode to PATT the changes will only become audible at the current pattern Don t forget to save the settings for the pattern by using the save pattern function in the save menu PrDI 1 8 The second parameter controls the time of the predelay By pressing the encoder button you can toggle between entering the delaytime with note values or by ms Time 1 4 The third parameter is the delaytime of the main delay By pushing the encoder button you can toggle between note value and milisecond parameter value view Feed 82 Feed controls the feedback of the main delay Higher Feedback values result in more echoe repeat as the FX signal will be fed into the delay input Push the Page Up Button for the second Edit Page Sprd 255 This parameter controls the placement of the echoes in the stereo field If you set this parameter to a value of 0 all echoes will appear in the center position 101 102 SPecTRaUIS FX program storaging of the stereo field Values above 0 result in left and right repeats of the echoes PdFb 0 The Predelay of the FX algorithm has a feedback loop as well That allows more complex delay FXs Especially Chorus and Flanging FXs will benefit from the second feedback loop Rate 0 The delay algorithm of the Spectralis sports a LFO for Delay
7. Master LFO Wave Menu MLFO1 0 MLFO2 0 MLFO3 0 MLFO4 0 MLFOx Master LFO 1 4 waveform The waveform selection of the LFOs gives a smooth transition from sine 0 over triangle 64 over sawtooth 128 over rectangle 196 to random 255 Pressing any ofthe display encoders opens the submenu for setting the startpoint phase of the LFO wave 1 4 Master LFO 1 Waveform Control LWve 0 LPhs 0 LWve LFO WAVE again the waveform selection LPhs Phasestartpoint The phase position of the waveform when the note gets triggered 0 selects freerunning mode Every notetrigger starts the LFO then at another phase position Values above 0 will set a fixed startpoint for the LFO wave 4 3 2 LFO Depth Menu Turning the LFO DEPTH encoder changes the LFO DEPTH of all Master LFOs at once Holding Shift while turning the LFO DEPTH encoder assigns a modulation wheel dependency to the LFO depth 119 120 SPecTRatiS Hybrid Synthesizer reference Master LFO Pushing the LFO Depth encoder button opens the Master LFO Depth menu aster LFO Modulation Depth MLFO1 127 MLFO2 127 MLFO3 127 MLFO4 127 MLFOI MLFOA control the LFO modulation depth Targets for the LFO modulations have independent modulation depths The resulting modulation depth is the product of the LFO depth and the target modulation depth If a LFO is not assigned to any target the modulation will not become audible Possible modulation targets
8. Accordingly you won t have to worry during LIVE performances about value changes frequently encountered with traditional potentiometers To make sure that you won t miss out on real potentiometer feeling these encoders have a high resolution and in most cases can cover the whole value range of a parameter with one turn of the encoder When turning the encoder fast a larger value range is covered with the same segment move as with a slow turn ofthe encoder All of the encoders have an additional push button function This allows for the direct call up of menu pages in the display menus which are in direct correlation with the selected assignment of the encoder For instance if you are pushing the encoder button CutOff LP of the 24dB lowpass filter you will see parameter pages in the display which offer particular parameters for adjusting the cutoff frequency of the filter All menus addressed via one of the encoder buttons can also be exited by pushing the Exit button Additional special functions of the encoder buttons are explained in the descriptions of the individual sections of the Spectralis 2 6 3 Display The 2x40 characters display of the Spectralis will provide you with lots of useful information while you are jamming and programming It s easiest to illustrate the structure of the display info with two specific examples Let s start with the display notice you will find right after turning on your Spectralis Once powered u
9. Connect the external inputs with the audio outs of external instruments if you wish to process their audio signals with the Spectralis 11 SPecTRaLIS MIDI The shortcut MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interfac and is used for unified digital control of different electronic musical instruments Before MIDI was inven ted it used to be very difficult to connect electronic sound gene rators by different manufacturers 12 MIDI connections 2 3 2 MIDI connections The MIDI port enables the communication between different synthesizers serves to synch up various music machines synchronizing tempos and the start stop process and is used to connect to a computer No audio signals are transmitted via the MIDI port only control data The control data are uni form for all manufacturers and make it possible to use instruments by a variety of companies together I Connect the MIDI OUT ofa keyboard or a MIDI interface with the MIDI IN on your Spectralis to play Spectralis sounds via an external controller keyboard II Connect the MIDI OUT of your Spectralis with the MIDI IN of another MIDI device such as another synth MIDI interface and the like to control any such external devices soundsources with the Spectralis You can find ad ditional information in the manual of the respective MIDI instrument III Connect the MIDI THRU port of the Spectralis 2 with other soundsources in case you want to transmit
10. EgAm envelope generator amount confirms that you have reached your target Play a note on your keyboard hold the key down and first turn the CutOff LP encoder to the left until you hear no more change to the filter frequency in other words until the sound does not get any duller Now when you are also turning down the EgAM encoder the filter is being closed further and the bass sound begins to pump If you want to hear the full Domph ofthe filter all you have to do is to additionally reduce the resonance ofthe filter To do so use the Reso LP encoder and turn it to the left Depending which key on your keyboard you are playing you can now subject your monitors to a real test Because of the reduction of the filter feedback resonance it is not the overtone structure around the cutoff frequency that is being emphasized now but the funda mental is getting louder Ifyou increase the resonance further the lowpass filter almost takes on the character of a bandpass filter emphasizing the range of the overtones around the cutoff frequency creating the perception of a more synthetic sound If you are increasing resonance to maximum level the feedback will be so strong that the filter will start oscillating at the adjusted cutoff frequency The term envelope of course has already been explained in the DSP synthesizer chapter earlier To complete the basic overview here is one more tip how you can access the envelope ofthe lowpass f
11. Gatetime This parameter controls the duration of the resulting notes Velo Velocity This parameter allows to control the velocity of the notes the arpeggiator generates The Velo encoder button toggles between an adjustable velocity level range from 1 127 and the original note velocities one has played on the keyboard AsPlayed If AsPI is selected rotating the encoder does nothing But if one presses the encoderbutton the display will change from AsPI to a value between 1 127 representing the velocity level of the generated notes Now the encoder controls the velocity level Rep Repeat This function repeats the single notes of an arpeggiator motif between one and four times 3 3 Arpeggiator Settings Hold Off Len 4 This function keeps all notes in the arpeggiator memory and plays them until you release all keys and press another chord or note By pressing down and holding one key one can add more and more notes by touching them one after another In combination with the direction setting asPlayed one can define complete melodies If one wants to delete one of the notes from the arpeggiator motif one can press down the shift button and play this note The arpeggiator will delete that note from the arpeggiator motif then The arpeggiator will not stop even if you release all keys But don t worry Just hit the stop button to erase the arpeggiator motif and stop the arpeggiator Hold SPec
12. May we will find a better name for this special recording mode in the future This mode allows to specify some notes and chords and tap the rythm for these notes and chords independent afterwards Select a new patterm and the part which you d like to record in step by chord recording mode and hit the RECORD button The following display dialog will appear Motif Record Menu ChordRec StepRec Realtime lt Overdub gt SPecTRavisS Chord Trigger Recording Instead of realtime recording next select ChordRec You will see the following display message Step Record Arm Part DSynl Notes Tapping lt Grid gt Exit When using Chord Record mode notes and chords will be recorded indepen dent of the rhythmic play First push Notes to prompt the following display message Note and Chord Input 0 16 Bwd Clear You have 16 chord note memories for your later tapping session Once you play a couple of notes on your keyboard or the spectralis mini keyboard you will notice that the counter with each keystroke is moving forward by one number If you made a mistake simply press Bwd to decrease the memory location for the next chord note entering Once you have specified all desired notes and or chords the Spectralis of course does not have any information yet regarding touch sensitivity time position or the length of the notes This information is being input in the next step the Tapping dialog Once you re finished de
13. SAVE extern Song Current Exit As you can see you will have three options available The option Extern is not available yet but will be part of a future firmware revision Song Once you select Song using your soft button you will be able to save the current pattern to multiple memory locations at the same time This option also provides the possibility to save the changed pattern to a dif ferent slot than the one containing the original pattern Confirm by pushing Song and you should see the following display message Choose Pattern Number s and Save Have a look at the numeric buttons Memory locations already in use will be lit Select the numeric button 1 16 with which you would like to be able to select your new patterns at a later stage Please keep in mind that each song can have up to 32 patterns You can reach the second bank of 16 patterns by using the Shift button during selection Flashing numeric buttons will indicate your memory slot selection You can also remove a selected memory slot by pushing the flashing button once more Once you re done with your selection confirm the save procedure by pushing the Save button once more Current Current just updates the current pattern memory with the changes you have programmed This is a very useful function if all you want to do is to make your changes permanent for the currently selected pattern You will automatically leave the Pattern Save menu
14. The target of the analog send bus can be determined on the next menu page Once again you can reach it by pushing the Page Up button 3 4 Digital to Analog Feed FB 194 LP 0 MM 0 This menu cannot be set for each part individually as there is only one bus which connects the DSP parts with the analog synth In this menu you can determine which modules the bus is routed to In our example the track s target is the fixed filterbank at a level of 194 With this pattern the analog synth plays a bass motiv which in turn uses the 24dB lowpass filter In other words the envelopes of the lowpass filter are being triggered by the analog synth motif If you are opening up the second encoder LP the chord motif of the DSP synth will additionally be processed by the lowpass filter You can turn the se cond encoder clockwise to route the chord motif into the low pass filter Doesn t that sound cool 3 16 2 Routing external signals to the analog synth The Spectralis has two external signal inputs which can be routed to the sound engine The inputs have a line level sensitivity This means you cannot for instance plug in microphones directly If you want to plug in electric guitars or your microphone you will have to use an external pre amp first to adjust the signal to a line level that can be handled by the Spectralis The Spectralis also has a channel strip for the external inputs You can access it with a little detour by pushing the L
15. while the Pattern Button light is turned off Tip The buttons of the Num Button Assignment section and the buttons of the Part section change the assignments of the numeric buttons This is why only one of these function can be accessed at a time As a rule this will be the most recently selected function Using the numeric buttons 1 15 you are now able to mute individual parts After you re done muting once again push the Pattern button If one ofthe parts is still muted when you push the button you will see the Mute button blinking signaling that you are not currently hearing all ofthe tracks When you are selecting a new pattern the settings ofthe new pattern will override your current mute settings Sometimes you may just want to selectively mute a few parts without losing the previous assignments ofthe numeric buttons That is definitly possible Tip If you are currently in Pattern Jam mode you can also select the mute function on a temporary basis Hold down the Mute button in the Part section and push the numeric button of the parts which you wish to mute Once you release the numeric button the Spectralis will automatically revert to the Pattern Select mode This tip will also work with the Select and the Solo button 25 26 SPecTRatiS Pattern Jam mode Tip What actually happens during muting if you are pushing numeric button 16 Drums Pushing that button will actually mute the whole
16. 16 different sounds can be used in a song from external MIDI instruments Instead of sending a program change you simply select another MIDI channel for the new sound If you are using multimode sound devices this limitation should not pose a problem For each MIDI channel you can define a program change a bank change the part volume and the panpot position These settings are called MIDI definitions The selectable MIDI definitions 1 16 are equivalent to MIDI channels 1 16 The Spectralis will send these settings everytime you are selecting a song with memorized MIDI definitions Sending the data during a song performance is not necessary anymore The song will play without any timing problems caused by program changes or truncated release phases 6 1 1 Assigning a part to MIDI Assigning a part to an external MIDI instrument is straightforward Just hit Select to enter the part select mode and push and hold Shift followed by the desired part number with the numeric buttons 1 15 The following display menu will appear MIDI Redirekt for Part DSynl MDef The first encoder allows you to select a midi definition MDef between 1 and 16 which represents the MIDI channel If you change your mind and decide to assign the part back to the internal synthesizer engine just hit the MIDI Defi SPecT ric UIS 2 Controlling external MIDI gear nition encoder button Instead of a channel number the display will show a dotted line indica
17. 16th which means that every step is equivalent to a 16th note The resolution can be set from 1 192th to 13 1 Len Linelength Each sequence line has an independent length in multiples of steps The length of a sequence can vary between 1 and 192 steps As soon as a line has a length above 16 steps the tempo shuttle encoder allows for shifting the visible segment of a sequence Menupages 1 and 3 to 7 are showing the selected line segment in the upper left corner of the display The tempo shuttle encoder toggles between tempo control and segment shifting by pushing the encoder button Skip function The third page of the sequence menu assigns the skip function to the numeric buttons Press and hold Function and press numeric button 2 Skip to access this page directly 3 8 Fnc Skip gt FBV 390 Hz Stp 01 16 Seq L03 The function is self explanatory Just keep in mind that a sequence line with skipped steps differs in length from a line that has no skipped steps and the same defined sequence length Instead of creating a pause like with the mute function the skipped step will force the sequencer to jump ahead to the next step reducing the linelength defined with the resolution parameter Step glide The next menupage allows to activate a glide function for selectable steps 4 8 Fnc Glide gt FBV 390Hz Stp01 16 Seq L03 LG1d 20 If you enter value offsets for the steps the sequencer normally plays aprupt valuechanges between th
18. DSP synthparts with the help of the numeric buttons You can now play this part with your MIDI keyboard Once you ve selected the part the encoders of the Spectralis frontpanel are assigned to the selected synth part You might want to select a multi sample with lots of overtones Waveform multi samples like SFSaw or Puls70 both part of the downloadable multis SLC soundbank are perfectly suited for this task Using the buttons 12dBLP 12dBHP and 12dBBP you can activate the desired filter function The Cutoff LP knob changes the frequency of the selected sound directly When you are activating the filter you will immediately hear a sound change as we have set the filter approximately to a medium frequency in the factory settings so there is an audible signal with all filter functions When switching on one ofthe 12dBXX buttons you will definitely be able to hear the sound changes You should experiment with different resonance settings to get an idea of the frequency changes possible 3 2 10 Envelope control of the filter frequency The envelope allows automatic frequency control ofthe multimode filter In order to make the envelope control ofthe filter audible the filter should not be completely opened When the envelope amount is set to a positive value and the filter frequency is already set to it s highest frequency the envelope will not affect the sound at all a For your first try use the 12dB LP button to activate the
19. Device for Browsing Flash ClrSnd SD Card Press the encoder button next to the memory location Flash when you want to edit the sample set loading mechanism After pressing the encoder button under the Flash entry the display will show up the first file on that medium together with the creation date and the memory usage of this file Analogie SSB 2005 09 24 18 57 63584 The file Analogie has been changed for the last time at the 24th of september 2005 at 6 57pm and contains 63584 bytes With the Page Up button you can browse thru the file list As soon as you reach a slc or sli file you will notice additional information in the display CR78SSSPEC SLC FIX loaded 2005 05 27 15 27 298880 By hitting the Enter button you can now toggle between Fix and Dynamic loading Leave the menu with the Exit button TIP You can switch samplesets from dynamic to fix loading by changing the archive bit of the files in your yomputer If the archive bit is cleared the sampleset is set to dynamic loading You can change an entire sampleset by selecting multiple files and clearing the archive bit on multiple files at once That is much quicker than using the browse function of the Spectralis SPecTRavisS E Help needed The integrated Spectralis Help System 9 0 Help needed The Integrated Spectralis Help System The Spectralis is a very deep and complex machine Especially the analog synthesizer has countless features to create
20. Lowpass FX Sends FX1 0 FX2 0 FXI FX1 send level controls the 24dB lowpass filter send level for FXI FX2 FX2 send level controls the 24dB lowpass filter send level for FX2 123 124 PecTRaAauIS Hybrid Synthesizer reference Multimode filter 8 9 24dB Lowpass exp Filter FM Osc1 0 Osc2 0 Osc3 0 Osc4 0 9 9 24dB Lowpass lin Filter FM Osc1 0 Osc2 0 Osc3 0 Osc4 0 Both edit pages control the filter frequency modulation The first page 8 9 offers exponential FM and the second 9 9 linear FM All oscillators can be used for filter FM with independent depths OSCI OSCA Filter FM depth control the depth of FM modulation from oscillator 1 4 4 4 2 Multimode Filter The red MM Filter Cutoff encoder CUTOFF MM controls the cutoff frequency of the Multimode Filter directly Holding SHIFT while turning the knob controls the multimode filter and the 24dB lowpass filter frequency in opposite direction If filter 1 opens the other one closes The resonance encoder RESO MM controls the the Resonance of the multi mode filter Holding down the SHIFT button while turning the resonance knob adds a keyboard dependency to the cutoff frequency of the multimode filter Dependent on the note number the filter frequency gets increased or decreased depending on a positive or negative value The multimode filter is a special filter design that has independent outputs for lowpass bandpass and highpass filter
21. Pressing the TLM encoderbutton opens the menu for further Timelinearity modulation settings n VCO1 Wavetable Modulation Srcl None Dph1 0 Src2 None Dph2 0 Two different modulators can be assigned as modulation sources for low frequency wavetable modulations Src1 and Src2 select the modulation source The following list shows the available modulation sources They are available in other modulation menus of the hybrid synth as well MLFOI 4 Master LFO1 4 MMLFO Multimode Filter LFO LPLFO Lowpass Filter Modulation VLFO1 4 Oscillator Vibrato LFOs Vel Velocity Aft Aftertouch Wheel Modulation wheel Brth Breath control Pitch pitchbender Dphl and Dph2 Depth controls the depth of the wavetable modulation for the selected modulation source VCO1 Time Linearity Modulation PWM Srcl None Dph1 0 Src2 None Dph2 0 Two different modulators can be assigned as Timelinearity modulation sources Please refer to the modulation sources listing in the wavetable modulation menu description above Dph1 and Dph2 Depth control the depth of the timelinearity modulation 2 2 VCO1 Phase amp FM Modulation 03PM 0 O4PM 0 O3LFM 0 O4LFM 0 The second page of the Waveform modifiers submenu controls the Phase modulation and FM Modulation depth 03PM Phasemodulation with oscillator 3 as the modulation source 04PM Phasemodulation with oscillator 4 as the modulation source 03LFM linear FM with os
22. Recorded Events Replace DISCARD REPLACE Replaces an already existing motif with the new quantized recording DISCARD Discards your most recent recording and reverts to the previous version If you are noticing during recording that your performance is not quite up to snuff or you made a mistake playing you can push the Rec button while the sequencer is still playing This will immediately discard the bad recording in process and will keep the sequencer in record mode V Current Limitations Version 1 5 For now all you can record are notes Pitchbender and Modulation wheel By assigning the Modulation Wheel to the cutoff frequency filter frequency automation can be easily recorded 3 9 7 Start Realtime recording during playback If the pattern is already running the realtime recording starts direct by pushing the record button Pressing play or selecting another part after your recording opens the Keep recorded events dialog automaticly without stopping the sequencer When ending the realtime recording by selecting another part the realtime recording for the latest selected part starts immediatly after pressing the Replace or the Discard button If you press overdub instead of record the realtime recording starts in overdub mode Recorded events will remain and new played notes will be added to the recording 87 88 SPeciT Rallis Step by Step Input 3 9 8 Step by Step Input Select a new patterm and
23. Step sequencer advanced II Parameter control lines 3 8 Step sequencer advanced II You already have learned how to manage tonal sequencerlines and some of the features we are describing in this section have been discussed already in the first advanced step sequencer chapter However while tonal sequencerlines offer gate length probability velocity and pitch in parameter control lines you have to deal with step envelopes and value offsets 3 8 1 Parameter control lines Push the sequence edit gt Function button to enter the step sequencer edit menu The sequencer menu contains 7 edit pages Most of them can be reached by press and hold Function and selecting the desired page with the numeric buttons 1 5 corresponding to the labelling under the numeric buttons By hitting Page Up and Page Down you can reach all available edit pages one after another Menu page 1 This menu works in the way that you are adjusting parameters for one or multiple sequence steps and hit the numeric buttons of the steps you want to activate with the settings afterwards If you hit a stepnumber that already is activated with a diffe rent parametersetting the step gets updated with the new values If you hit an already activated step with a similar parameter setting again the step gets deactivated again Seq Sequence line selection Choose the sequencer line for editing with the first display encoder Typ Step envelope type selection atta
24. Using your OWN SAMples 6 1 Controlling external MIDI gear cscsscssssssscrsessscrsecessseecssssssssssesssscssssssssssssecssesssessesseeseeesees 6 1 1 Assigning a part to MIDI 7 1 The USB port and storage media eee eese esee enses ntis stas ttn stas tn stas tn sensn neta 7 1 1 Safe file operation e eeeeeeeeee ee eese eese enses tense tn ttn stn sitas osano sense tns tn setas srb suns 7 1 2 USB Troubleshooting 8 0 Spectralis Realtime Clock 4 eee eee esent seen eese tnn tn natns tuns tn shone sabi sobs e sobre oo tbros eta soa 8 1 Filetypes and the directory structure of the Spectralis flash memory eere 145 8 2 Restoring the factory patterns songs sounds and samples eeeeeeeeeeee eee tnnn 147 8 3 Switching the Sample Set file type from fix to dynamic loading eren 148 9 0 Help needed The integrated spectralis help system eere eene entente entes nntntnnann 149 9 1 Final comments RR 150 9 2 Spectralis ACCESSOTIES 150 SPecTRavisS Warranty 1 1 Warranty 1 1 1Term Radikal Technologies warrants all electronic und mechanical components of this product subjects to the conditions herein described for a period of 12 months from purchase If any covered malfunctions arise during the warranty period the unit
25. VCO1 Pitch Modulation Srcl None Dph1 0 Src2 None Dph 0 Additionally the pitch of an oscillator can be modulated by selectable modulation sources Src Src2 Modulation source selects the modulation source for the additional pitch modulation Dph1 Dph2 Modulation depth controls the modulation depth of the selected additional modulation source The following modulation sources are available MLFO1 4 Master LFO 1 4 MMLFO Multimode Filter cutoff LFO LPLFO Lowpass Filter cutoff LFO VLFOI 4 VCO frequency LFO 1 4 117 118 SPecTRatiS Hybrid Synthesizer reference Oscillator pitch menu Vel Velocity Aft Aftertouch Wheel Modulationwheel Brth Breath Control Pitch Pitch Bend The parameter pages for oscillator 2 4 follow after page 2 8 The coarse tune menu offers oscillator tuning in halftone steps 2 4 VCO 1 4 Coarse Tune Osc1 0 0sc2 0 0sc3 0 Osc4 0 OscX Oscillator 1 4 coarse tuning changes the pitch of an oscillator in halftone steps By pressing one of the display encoder buttons the pitch envelope submenu gets opened VCO Pitch Envelope Preset Osc1 0 0sc2 0 Osc3 0 Osc4 0 Oscl Osc4 select preset envelope shapes for pitch modulation By pressing one ofthe encoders the pitch envelope edit page gets selected i 1 4 VCOl1 Pitch Envelope StPt 0 Time 0 Time 0 EndP 0 StPt Startpitch sets the start pitch of the envelope
26. and the noise source As these two sections don t utilize pitch and have no parameter which could be controlled by standard MIDI controllers only their level envelopes are being triggered You might ask yourself why we re going into such detail to describe this subject Basically most of it sounds like normal MIDI multimode There are distinct differences though For one it is up to you how you are assembling a voice and additionally a trigger group does not automatically determine the routing of the audio signals When you are assigning an oscillator and the low pass filter to a trigger group you have to make sure that the output signal of the oscillator is being inserted into the lowpass filter Otherwise you might experience that there is no audible signal even though you have assigned both sound components to a group No need to panic We already have programmed a number of finished useful examples of multimode sounds which you can use right away to get started You will locate these sounds in the category Multi For sounds in this category multiple trigger groups are being used to generate multiple sounds simultaneously and independently 3 7 1 Playing the triggergroups If you select the analog Part in part select mode Part Select numeric button 12 you in fact are selecting Part 12 If you want to access another analog Part and to change the trigger group hold down numeric button 12 for a little longer You will then
27. be found after the export function The created file can now be copied to the Spectralis flash memory or onto one smart media card and will be loaded during the next Spectralis bootup or after selecting the Browse function Refer to the DSP Synth Editing section of this manual to create new sounds with the new sample instruments 6 1Controlling external MIDI gear We already covered the assignment of individual stepsequencer lines to MIDI targets in the target selection chapter of the step sequencer description Chapter 3 6 1 page 80 In this chapter you will learn how to assign any of the Spectralis pattern sequencer parts to external MIDI gear Both synthesis engines of the Spectralis are optimized for fast programchanges without delays even when using complex sounds The ability to switch from one pattern to another without any timing issues is a speciality of the Spectralis Unfortunatly not every synthesizer out there is capable of changing patches as fast For this reason we decided against allowing program changes at each pattern change Even if your external synth would follow program changes in time you might experience truncated release phases of long sounds or other frustrating side effects Still being able to use multiple sound from your external sound sources based on your selected patterns in a song is a very essential feature We implemented a different process making this possible without dealing with program changes Up to
28. complex modulation waves As this cutoff frequency is controlled by the envelope as well the cutoff frequency will be be increased with an overlaying modulation wave from the oscillators For the following experiments you can either hold down a key on your keyboard so the effect does not end early and you can make sound changes audible directly or alternatively you can use the note hold function of the Spectralis which the Spectralis MINI keyboard has available This second option works as follows I Push the PLAY button in the parts section II Use one of the numeric buttons 1 13 and hold down the selected button down III While holding the selected button down push the Hold button numeric button 15 IV Even when you release both buttons now the sound will still be audible TIP This hold function can be a useful feature quite frequently when editing the synthesizer You must remember though that you can turn off SPecTRaUtIS Hybrid engine The fixed filterbank the sustained note simply by playing another key on your keyboard or the MINI keyboard of the Spectralis without simultaneously pushing the Hold Button At this point you should play around some with the Modulator oscillator 4 To do so push the OSC Detune encoder button and by using Page Up button select the menu for adjusting the tuning Coarse Tune Make changes now with the fourth encoder under the diplay and you can hear modulation
29. cutoff frequency of the multi mode filter Reso resonance controls the resonance of the multimode filter EgAm envelope amount controls the depth of frequency automation by the envelope generator Kscl keyboard scaling adds a keyboard dependency to the cutoff frequency of the multimode filter Dependent on the note number the filter frequency gets increased or decreased depending on a positive or negative value 4 8 Multimode Cutoff Modulators Srcl None Dph1 0 Src2 None Dph2 0 Src1 Src2 Modulation source selects the modulation source for the additional cutoff frequency modulation Dph1 Dph2 Modulation depth controls the modulation depth of the selected additional modulation source The following modulation sources are available MLFOI 4 Master LFO 1 4 MMLFO Multimode Filter cutoff LFO LPLFO Lowpass Filter cutoff LFO 125 SPeciTrRatliS Hybrid Synthesizer reference Multimode filter VLFOI 4 VCO frequency LFO 1 4 Vel Velocity Aft Aftertouch Wheel Modulationwheel Brth Breath Control Pitch Pitch Bend Src1 Src2 Modulation source selects the modulation source for the additional resonance modulation Dph1 Dph2 Modulation depth controls the modulation depth of the selected additional modulation source The following modulation sources are available MLFOI 4 Master LFO 1 4 MMLFO Multimode Filter cutoff LFO LPLFO Low
30. direct and quick acces to your favorite sounds and drumsets The quicksound function creates a new file on the internal flash rom called FAVORITS SBK This is a special mixed format soundbank that holds 32 Hybrid synth sounds 32 DSP synth sounds 16 drumsounds for each category kick snare closed hihat open hihat clap tom and percussion 16 complete drumsets and 16 FX programs How it works The implementation of this functionality is straight forward Just select the part you want to change a sound for Press QUICKSOUND Transpose at Spectralis 1 synthesizer in the Num Button Assignment section and press any of the NUM buttons 1 16 or the SHIFT button the NUM button to recall the favorite sounds To store a sound into the quicksound bank just press SAVE the NUM button 1 16 If you have selected the subpart drums instead of a normal part quicksound let you recall complete drumsets The quicksound bank is global and can be used in all songs It is easy to copy for example the drumkit of a song to another song by using the quicksound function SPecTRatisS Storing sounds 5 1 Storing Sounds The Spectralis stores its sounds in banks on its flash rom A bank can contain up to 100 sounds The Spectralis has thre different types of soundbanks banks fordrum percussion sounds banks for DSP Synth sounds and of course banks for the Analog Synth For each type of bank the Spectralis can handle 8 files simultaneously
31. filter being open because the amplifier behind the filter is at the end of the signal path To avoid this from happening you should set the release time of the 24dB lowpass level envelope to a value of around 100 If you re hitting another key now with high expectations you will still not hear a change in the duration In case you are now confused and start questioning the usefulness of this chapter you might want to re read the introduction to the chapter It ll take you to a small Sidebar 3 3 3 Short Excursion oscillators and envelopes Corresponding to the introduction each oscillator has its own amp with envelope control Ifthe sound stops right after releasing a key on your keyboard it indicates that the envelopes of the oscillators are active and have a short release time setting Let s test that theory In the following drawing you can see a simplified sketch of the inside of one oscillator Pitch EG AMP EG 24dBLP 12dBMM Filterbank Waveform Generation EG Bypass Directly next to the sound source Waveform Generation there is an amplifier triangle symbol which is controlled by an envelope The level controls for the individual filters come after it Below the amp you will see the EG bypass signal path This one routes the signal ofthe current waveform directly to the output volume pots just bypassing the volume envelope Corresponding there are two ways to make the release phase of
32. filter bus Level controls the Bus level of the multi mode filter LP 24dB lowpass filter bus level controls the bus level ofthe 24dB lowpass filter FB Filterbank bus level controls the bus level ofthe fixed filterbank The FB Balance Filterbank Balance encoder controls the output volume of the two anolog filters and the fixed filterbank in opposite directions Turning the encoder to the right decreases the filterbank volume and increases the ana log filter volumes Pushing the FB BALANCE encoder opens a menu for pan control of both analog filters Filter Pan MM C LP C The stereo position of both filters can be controlled independently The stereo position of both filters become only audible at the sum output or the hybrid synth direct output The EG BALANCE encoder controls the envelope bypass of both filters at once Whenever one wants to use the analog filters without triggering or playing 131 132 SePecTRatliS Hybrid Synthesizer reference VCA section notes of the Hybrid synthesizer these controls passes signal through the engine even if no envelope generator gets triggerd By holding down the SHIFT button while turning the EG BALANCE encoder all volume envelopes will get macro controlled Turning to the left shortens the sound and turning to the right adds more attack time Pushing the EG BALANCE encoder encoder opens the edit menu for all volume envelopes 1 8 VCO1 Volume Enve
33. have selected current or 1 15 after pushing the numeric button in case of 1 15 or after selecting current you will see the following menu Select Memory Location and press SAVE C A Synth S Effects F Analogie49 DeepAtm Ofcourse the display message will differ from the above example depending on the currently selected category and soundbank In case you have not even created a soundbank yet and have not selected a category either the display message will look like this Select Memory Location and press SAVE C A Synth S F SNDBANK C category Using the rotary encoder you can selecte a main category from a list This main category can only be selected in case of drum parts The Ana log Synth always has the main category A Synth and the DSP Synth sounds always the main category D Synth In the drumparts category you will find subcategories for Kick Snare Tom etc to chose from in which the drumsounds are contained S Subcategory The subcategory is available for all parts The subcategory list will vary depending on the main category that has been selected F File Using the third encoder you can either select a soundbank by turning the encoder or generate a new soundbank by pushing the encoder button xx soundnumber and name Using the fourth rotary encoder you can select a storage slot in the soundbank where you d like to save the sound Next to each slot already used you will see a soundnam
34. hitting one the mixer section sequencer sequencer and beatmatrix grid editor be assigned to sequencer functions drum instrument of the encoder buttons 1 15 SPecTRaLIS Transposing Transposing is the shifting of the pitch of a 16 motif of tones by a musical interval Panel overview Part section 2 5 Frontpanel overview The following is a first overview of the assorted sections of the frontpanel The enclosed picture and written descriptions are provided for easy orientation and to help you easily understand the basic structure of the Spectralis Once you re done reading this chapter and are moving on to the section dealing with practical tips for the use of the Spectralis you will find this basic orientation helpful 2 5 1 PART button section upper left Just like the Num Button Assignment Section the Part Section also can be used to change the assignments of numeric Buttons 1 16 Select The Select button assigns the part selection to the numeric buttons A part selected with a numeric button can be edited using the encoders and buttons of the Synth Edit Section LFO VCO VCF VCA Section A real time recording of the sequencer starts the recording of the motif always for the selected part Any keyboard sending data on MIDI channel 1 will always be assigned to the currently selected part In addition to the part numbers the part names are also printed on the panel right above the corres
35. in the sequence edit section and hold it down While holding it down push numeric button 2 Skip You can now release both buttons The Skip function has now been assigned to the numeric buttons Accessing this function prompts the following display menu 67 68 SPecTRaAaviIS The step sequencer basics Tonal sequences 3 8 Fnc Skip gt TGrpl Stp 01 16 Seq L11 With the numeric buttons you can select the steps you want to Skip TIP You have just learned that you can access various edit pages in the Sequence Edit menu directly with the help of the Function and numeric buttons This functionality exists parallel to the usual selection mode using Page Up and Page Down buttons For instance you can access the page for activating triggerpoints by pushing the Page Down button repeatedly but also alternativly by pushing Function numeric button 1 Trig Using the Mute function You can access the Mute function by holding down the Function button and simultaneously selecting numeric button 4 Mute Once you ve accessed the function you ll be able to mute individual single steps using numeric buttons 1 16 Contrary to the skip functions the muted steps are not being skipped but will create pauses Changing the resolution Most presets when no sequencer line has been edited have the resolution of the sequencer line set to 16 notes However the Spectralis sequencer allows for a wide range of ste
36. let s look at another one You ll see that the 12dB HP button on the frontpanel is lit This indicates that the highpass filter output is active Yet when you are turning the cutoff frequency of the multimode filter Cutoff MM nothing happens WHY Among other things in our Spectralis each oscillator has its own level control for each filter Could it be that these controls are turned down It s best to check better safe than sorry To do so you ll have to push the OSC Wave encoder button in the oscillator section This will take you straight to the oscillator menu From menu Page 3 onwards 2x Page Up you will find all the oscillator level menus The first one controls the level for the filterbank for each oscillator On page 4 you will find the levels for the multimode filter SPecTRaUtIS E Hybrid engine Multimode filter and filter routing As suspected all of them are set to 0 No wonder there was no audible signal from the multimode filter We definitely need to up the oscillator level for the multimode filter You can generously set all levels to a value of 230 and then turn the CutOff MM encoder again Depending how high the cutoff frequency ofthe lowpass was set you should now definitely hear a sonic change However if the 24dB filter is completely closed you won t be hearing any signal from the multimode filter either anymore Go ahead and open the CutOff LP encoder some more so that the multimode filter
37. like Sound Name Category Coll Samples Size SoundID x NordKickl unknown 1 1M 154kB FE67D5A7 x NordKick2 unknown 11M 123kB ASCDD998 In front of the sample list entries is a field where you still can decide whether you want to include the sample to your Sample Set or not You will realize that the samples still don t have a category and subcategory selected You also see the memory usage of the samples and the unique sample identifier SoundID which will be created automaticly All you have to do now is to specify the category for all samples You can select multiple entries by holding down the Shift or Ctrl button of the computer keyboard while selecting multiple entries To specify the category press the right mouse button to open the category selection tree This selection tree lets you automaticly only select valid category subcategory combinations After selecting the categories the program window list will look like Sound Name Category Coll Samples Size SoundID x NordKickl KE Electro Kick 1 1M 154kB FE67D5A7 x NordKick2 KE Electro Kick 1 1M 123kB ASCDD998 When you have selected categories for all samples you can export the Sample Set as Single Sample Instruments or as an Instrument collection For both options 139 140 SPeci Ra LIS 2 Using your own samples the program has a dedicated button Pressing one of those buttons pops up a dialog to select the folder where the Sample Sets can
38. lowpass mode b Set the cutoff frequency to a value which either will make the sound appear filtered heavily or not audible at all c Turn the EG Depth encoder clockwise until the envelope control takes control d Push the EG Depth encoder button to prompt the envelope parameters in the display You should see the following menu Cutoff Envelope Att 0 Dey 90 Stn 0 Rls 90 You can now change the assorted envelope parameters to create the desired envelope shape for your frequency control 3 2 11 Filter frequency keyboard scaling When a Sound is played in different regions of your keyboard the frequency of the fundamental and all overtones are being shifted right along When the cutoff frequency is set to a fixed value for the whole keyboard the resulting tone will not sound the same in different areas on your keyboard because some transposed overtones will already be affected by the cutoff frequency setting at higher notes on the keyboard where the same sound beeing played two octaves down still is audible with the complete overtone structure To avoid this from happening it is possible to shift the filterfrequency dependent on the MIDI note number This kind of control is called Keyboard Scaling 37 38 SPecTRaUIS Editing DSP synth sounds LFO section Keyboard Scaling settings can be adjusted as follows Push the Shift button and turn the Reso MM knob The value of the keyboard scaling will be displayed whi
39. memory during the tapping procedure directly By holding the Shifi button you can trigger the chord memories 1 16 directly by the corresponding num buttons 89 90 SPecTRaUIS Beatmatrix programming of new rhythms 3 9 10 Programming new rhythms with the beat matrix For the Spectralis realtime access to all functions was a top priority When we were discussing the step sequencer you surely have noticed that there is no function for which you will have to stop the sequencer It s no different with the beat matrix For easier orientation here is a brief survey over the possibilities of the beat matrix The beat matrix has 11 tracks The length ofa bar can be set between 1 8 and 10 8 This means an ordinary 4 4 bar has a length of 8 8 Of course the bar measure can be set separately for each of the drum tracks If you are curious what happens when you are playing a 7 8 beat against a 9 8 the Spectralis will provide you with the necessary tools to find out Thelength of the various beat matrix tracks is completely indepen dent of each other and can be set from one to sixteen bars The beat matrix grid for the rhythmic motifs can be adjusted across a broad range The highest resolution of the grid is an amazing 192th note which allows for very detailed editing not only of the rhythm but also for the creation of special effects Upto 16 are visible in the beat matrix at a time Further steps or bars can always be
40. more than 128 soundprograms are usually supporting bank change controllers to make all programs selectable from MIDI messages Most synthesizers are executing bankchange commands only if they are followed by the reception of a programchange message The exact handling ofbankchanges should be described in the user manual of the synthesizer you are planning to use Sound Selecting the soundprogram Here you can select a programchange number between 0 and 127 Vol Setting up the volume Here you can set the volume for the MIDI instrument Pan Adjusting the Panorama position The fourth encoder controls the panpot position of the MIDI instrument 141 142 crecIir roa LS 2 Controlling external MIDI gear If you want to erase a setting simply push the encoder button of a parameter to set it s value to undefined indicated by a crossed line Alternatively the MIDI definitions can be set up in a dedicated menu inside the song edit section as well Pushing the Song Select button opens an editpage This editpage contains an entry MIDI Pushing the MIDI encoderbutton opens another menupage with the MIDIDEF menu entry Sequencerlines and parts assigned to MIDI definitions are sharing the available MIDI resources Make sure you are not using the same MIDI channel from multiple sequencer sections or parts unless you want to control some synthesis parameters with the step sequencer parameter control lines while the patternsequenc
41. motif by random for all parts DRM randomizes the drumparts only TON randomizes tonal parts Hybrid Synth and DSP parts only DSP randomizes the polyphonic parts 13 15 only Beside these randomize functions you can also randomize one or more part by pushing any of the number buttons Pushing the kick drum button makes a kick suggestion pressing the DSP synth part 1 chooses any of the DSP synth motifs etc If you like a selected motif just go for the next part Snd CUR Setting CUR current Selects a new motif but keeps the current sound Setting ORI selects the motif and loads the original sound for this motif Make sure to set this parameter to ORI in case you started with an empty song Otherweise the Spectralis loads no sound into the DSP part 93 94 SPecTRaUIS Randomize Sound Song ALL Here you can choose a song you want to take the motifs from or ALL if you are happy with motifs from all songs Grp DRMS Groups allows to select complete groups of motifs by accident That often makes more sense than loading single motifs with different keys or scales DRMS selects any of your complete drumgrooves into the current pattern TON loads the motifs of part 12 15 from any pattern as a group into the current pattern DSP loads the motifs ofthe DSP synth parts from any pattern into the current pattern If the motif suggestion is already OK you maybe want to randomize the sound as the next s
42. new sounds and to control every single detail of the timbre you are creating Sometimes you may need some help Just the oscillator section comes with hundreds of parameters Sometimes you are may wondering what a parameter name shortcut mean For these situations we developed a help system that allows to show up desriptions for all parameters Just try the following to get familiar with the integrated help system 1 Press Level inside the filterbank edit section to assign the encoder row to the filter bank parameters 2 Now press any of the 10 Filterbank Level encoder buttons to open the filterbank configuration editor 3 The following display dialog will apear 1 4 Filterbank Configuration Morph 10 Morph 10 FbQ 130 FbFs 15 4 You may would like to know what the parameter FbQ controls in the filterbank Just press and hold down the Shift button and press the encoder button underneath FbQ This will open the following message Filterbank Q adjust 5 Now you already know that FbQ controls the Q factor of the fixed filterbank filters But you may would like to know more about the filterbank itself The word filterbank is marked with edged brackets That shows you that there are additional informations available for the subject Filterbank You can show up this info by pushing the encoder button next to the entry Filterbank Press the second encoder button now A new help system message will appear The fixed filter
43. of the late 60s and early 70s were available only with two different behaviors either the highest note played had priority or the lowest one This determination definitely was not the result of choice but rather a result of the technology used The keyboards at the time used key contacts and a resister chain Depending on which way tone recognition was set up the outcome was either highest note priority or lowest note priority Early analog keyboard scanning circuits had another problem too Overlapping notes played on the keyboard didn t retrigger the envelopes a problem especially for flashy but somewhat less than precise soloists A popular modification for Synthesizers at that time was to fix this problem with a multitrigger system To reset the trigger logic it was now not necessary anymore to release all keys instead it was sufficient to change the pitch These kinds of systems detected a new note by comparing the keyboard voltage with the last triggered note As soon as a difference between the old and the new voltage was detected this keyboard logic created a new gate impulse triggering the envelopes The Mini Moog for instance didn t have a retriggering feature for legato notes to begin with a severe limitation especially in light of the MM s outstanding percussive sounds With the emergence of digital key control an additional note priority became popular the so called last note priority Now the pitch of a note wasn t the
44. set the step resolution anywhere from 1 192th notes all the way to 12 bars We already have described how to change the resolution in chapter 3 4 2 The preset setting for step resolution is 1 16 per step Use the menu to select the desired note length and then push all numeric buttons which you want to assign the new length to Using the encoderbutton SET ALL you can assign the new value to all notes at the same time Changing the velocity On menu page 4 4 you will find the menu for changing velocity of all steps 4 4 Velocity gt TGrpl Stp 01 16 Seq L11 Vel 100 SET ALL Here as well you can adjust the desired value in the display When you re done use the numeric buttons to set the trigger points which are supposed to output the newly set velocity Using STEP ALL you can assign the same velocity value to all steps simultaneously By the way you can leave the menu level for the editing of the parameters pitch probability gate length and velocity any time using the EXIT button If you are exiting the sequencer menu by dialing up another function and plan to return to the step sequencer again later you will find yourself back on the lower level of the step sequencer menu 3 5 4 Option 3 Input and editing of notes in the single step editor If you have closed the step sequencer menu already please push the sequence edit Function button once again as we are going to demonstrate the third input mode for notes Once the mode opens y
45. single step editor is opened the Spectralis has a MIDI learn function If you want to assign a new pitch to a step via MIDI simply push the control button 1 16 of the according step hold it down and play the desired note on your connected MIDI keyboard 3 5 6 Line rotation In chapter 4 13 3 we already have explained many basic functions such as change of direction skip resolution and others When you use these functions extensively you may end up with a sequence which sounds terrific but somehow doesn t match up well with the current drum groove Often you won t even notice until the sequencer is stopped and restarted It suddenly becomes obvious that the sequence isn t starting together with beat 1 but possibly beat 5 This can cause real problems especially when changing from one pattern to another To deal with this issue the Spectralis has a function which allows you to rotate the sequencer line step by step If you move the line rotation by one step to the right the 16 step position will skip to 1 and the remaining events will also move to the right by one step The line rotation function can serve as a nice source of inspiration when you have created a number of tonal lines and start shifting them relative to each other This can generate completely new and unexpected rhythmic structures which you might like even better than the originally planned one You can access the menu for rotating lines by using the Iterati on butto
46. the connected MIDI keyboard won t be transmitted to the Hybrid Synth but to the selected MIDI instrument This allows you to hear immediately how the sequencer line will sound on the selected MIDI channel Tip Please make sure when editing a sequencer line that the used controllers don t mute your instrument For instance if you are setting the step values of a line to 0 and transmit the line to controller 7 the synth in all likelihood will remain quiet the Spectralis doesn t send default values for the MIDI controllers used after the end of such a sequence After all the Spectralis has no way of knowing 3 7 Creating triggergroups multiple analog synth parts In this chapter we will explain how you can use the Hybrid Synth sound generation to play multiple sounds Assuming you paid attention to the previous chapter you will already know about the extensive routing capabilities inside the Spectralis hybrid synth sound engine Of course you will use sounds once in a while which are only using one or two oscillators Considering the Spectralis sonic power it would be nice if the unused sound components could be used to play back multiple Hybrid Synth sounds at once The Spectralis offers that possibility In so called trigger groups you can determine which envelopes and oscillators are assigned to which of the trigger groups You can set up a maximum of three trigger groups in the Spectralis which will allow you to play three differ
47. the corresponding step positions You can leave this special single step editor by pressing Exit 3 8 4 Single parameter editor All step parameters have additionally a special edit menu that allows a very fast updating of sequence parameters A SetAll function allows to initialise one parameter for a complete sequence line with a selectable value This special single parameter editor can be reached from the first and the seventh menupage of the sequence edit menu Select the sequence menu by hitting Function and select the 1st or the 7th menupage You should see the following menu 1 8 Fnc TrigMod gt FBV 390Hz Stp 01 16 Seq L03 Typ Decay Len 4th Depth 63 Encoderbuttons 2 4 under the display are entering the single parameter editor 1 4 Offset gt FBV 390 Hz Stp 01 16 Seq L03 OE p 0 SETALL With Page Up and Page Down all other single parameter edit pages become available The editor works in the way that you are setting a value with the display encoder Afterwards you can hit all numeric buttons corresponding to the steps you want to update with the new value If you want to set the value for the entire sequence line simply press SetAll with the display encoderbutton Menupage 1 is assigned to the step offset values page 2 selects the envelope type page 3 the length of the step envelope and page 4 the depth of the step envelope modulation SPeci Ra UIS 2 Exchanging motifs 3 9 Editing motifs and patt
48. the end of the list it starts to create new sounds KEEP saves the current sound into a temporary memory RECALL inserts the sound from the temporary buffer to this position of the random sound list Please remember the list has a maximum of 16 entries Sounds you have created with that function will get lost if you press NEXT or PREV more than 15 times after the creation of the sound Cat Lead allows for selecting a category If for example lead is selected the randomize function mixes only sound parameters of lead sounds together The results are mostly lead sounds Choose the desired category with the third encoder Rand Both The fourth encoder controls the level of randomisation At the hybrid engine you can select whether only the filtersettings only the oscillator parameters or both groups of parameters are affected by the randomize function At the DSP synth engine and drum sounds you can decide whether only the samples only the parameters or both sound elements of the current timbre get randomized Shortcuts Pushing the numberbuttons randomizes the part directly Button for example controls the NEXT button of the kick drum random menu Button 16 randomizes the whole drumset Pushing one of the encoder buttons 1 15 selects the according part in the randomize menu Turning any of the encoders 1 15 changes the category setting of the according part Shift RANDOM in the VCA edit section calls rand
49. the latter it is advisable to reduce the level of your monitor system before starting any filterbank routing experiments Tip In case you forgot about the above advice and all of a sudden after moving some parameters around you are confronted with some unexpected and annoying squeaking noises chances are it is the result of the multitude of routing options which as mentioned above can be used to generate feedback You already know a number of possible sources for feedback both of the analog filters are resonating up to self oscillation something also referred to feedback It will be fairly easy to differentiate this noise source from routing feedback as the frequency of the selfresonance oscillation will change according to the cutoff frequency The pitch of feedback caused by routing does not change when the cutoff frequency is altered It might get louder or softer but that s it You should have no problem differentiating the two sources of squeaking sounds When using the Pan button in the filterbank section encoders 1 10 are functioning as panpot controls for the individual filterbands You can set a separate panorama position for each filterband which allows the creation of pseudostereo effects We will now explore some additional parameters of the filterbank First we should select another soundsource with more spectral content than the basic oscillator waveform we used so far An ideal source is white noise Please pus
50. the part which you d like to record in step by step recording mode and hit the RECORD button The following display dialog will appear Motif Record Menu ChordRec StepRec Realtime lt Overdub gt Instead of realtime recording next select StepRec You will see the following display message 1 2 Step by Step Recording 0 16 Bwd Pause Len Done If you d like to change the resolution of the steps or the number of the possible bars use the Page Up button to call up the second menu page of the Step by Step Editor 2 2 Step by Step Recording 0 16 Reso 16th NumBar 1 CLEAR When done return to the first menu page using Page Down 1 2 Step by Step Recording 0 16 Bwd Pause Len Done Play a couple of notes or chords on your connected Midi Keyboard or the num buttons mini keyboard After each note you re playing the Spectralis will move forward by the selected note value Using Pause will let you program a pause in the next position instead of a note using Len allows you to extend the length of a note by one step Using Bwd enables you to go back one or more steps The number of steps you are going back by will be erased Once you are happy with your pattern confirm using Done you will be asked if you wish to convert the pattern into an actual Motif Transform Push Transform then the Play button to listen back to your pattern 3 9 9 Chord Trigger recording independent note and rhythm input
51. the progression of the volume envelope for the two filterbank outputs R and L On the next menu page the envelope will be available for editing with the obligatory attack decay sustain and release parameters FBBP This is the previously mentioned bypass control which allows you to pass the filterbank signal through an additional envelope controlled amplifier This menu entry is definitely the most important one in the filterbank menu if you start routing external signals into the filterbank For that process you should definitely turn up the bypass control so that you can hear the external signal even if the analog part is not being played More about this in a chapter later on Turn this encoder up for the upcoming experiments to ensure constant sound from the filterbank output FbQ This parameter changes the resonance of all filterbands It changes the sound of the filterbank quite dramatically just turn the encoder and hear for yourself how much the noise mix can be twisted around 61 62 SPecTRatiS Hybrid engine The fixed filterbank FbFs The individual filterbands of the filterbank consist of cascaded filterstages The bandpass filter response curve which is the result of all cascaded filters can be changed by adjusting the frequencies of the cascaded stages This parameter decreases the lower stages frequency and increases the higher stages frequency By using both parameters quality and spread of the par
52. the targets 2 2 Bypass Settings MM 0 LP 0 FB 0 Nse 0 MM LP FB Nse Filters and Noise signal bypass bypass the envelope dependent amplifiers of the filters and the noise signal and feed the signals directly to the outputs 4 7 Fixed filterbank section Pressing the LEVEL button in the filterbank section assigns the encoders 1 16 to the filterbank volumes Pressing the PAN button assigns encoders 1 11 to the filterbank stereo position You can check the labels above the encoders The filterbank has ten filters one lowpass one highpass and 8 bandpasses with fixed frequencies The first ten encoders control the volume panning of the ten bands Encoder 11 controls the filterbank main volume panning controller 12 and 13 controls the direct FX Sends 1 and 2 of the filterbank With encoder 14 and 15 the filterbank output can be fed into the 24 dB Lowpass and the multimode filter Pressing any of the 15 encoder buttons opens the filterbank edit menu Morph Filterbank volume envelope morphing this is a macro control for the volume envelope of the filterbank FBBP Filterbank envelope controlled amplifier bypass This parameter is essential for getting a sound out of the filterbank even if the hybrid synth is not played by a keyboard or by the sequencer If you feed some noise into the filterbank and start wondering why controlling the levels of the filterbank gives no sound this parameter is proba
53. to the trigger groups of oscillators 1 4 If you are assigning oscillator 2 to trigger group 3 the Master LFO2 will also be controlled by trigger group 3 Keep in mind that even though trigger groups have been defined no sound has yet been created Once you have assigned oscillator 1 and the multimode filter to a trigger group you will have to route the oscillator into the multimode filter and then assign the multi mode filter to an output to generate a sound More on this subject in chapter 3 3 4 Tip1 All filters the low pass filter the multimode filter and the filter bank allow for routing of the output signal not only to an output but also additionally into the effect section This means you can even add some effect to the three parts separately from each other select menupage 7 9 of the 24dB Lowpass filter menu or page 7 8 of the multimode filter menu Tip 2 Fans of phase modulation frequency modulation or oscillator synchronization will be happy to hear that the independent routing can be used to control the modulating oscillators independently Just assign one of the two phase modulators VCO3 and 4 to their own trigger group and use it to modulate VCOs 1 and 2 It will become apparent why it makes sense to be able to determine the routing completely independent of the trigger groups Tip3 You have direct access to the trioggergroup definition menu by pushing the SET ROUTING button in the filters section SPecTRavisS
54. turning the encoder to the right the sound should become brighter and more sparkling turning the encoder to the left should make the sound darker and duller You will notice however that turning the encoder further to the left is not closing the filter fully Don t be alarmed This results from the fact that the filter is being controlled by the encoder however the resulting control voltage is being added to the control voltages of the other modulators As mentioned earlier the cutoff frequency of the sound is being controlled by the envelope Obviously in this case the sustain level of the controlling envelope is opened to a point where the filter won t close completely This means of course if you were to change the amount of the envelope dependency it should be possible to close the filter further We ll give it a try If you have paid close attention during the earlier chapters of this manual you will remember how to access a parameter Just use the CutOff LP button SPeciTRatlis The analog filter section to access the parameter pages which allow you to change the filter frequencies You should see the following menu in your display 1 9 24dB Lowpass Cutoff Modulation LFO FMWve 0 FMRte 0 DmDpt 0 It is plain to see that this menu does not deal with envelope amount EG depth So push the Page Up Button two times to access the following page 3 9 24dB Lowpass Filter Control Exp 37 Reso 238 EgAm 63 Kscl 4
55. with a variety of frequencies In order to keep the results clearly audible throughout set the filter frequency to middle position with the help of the CutOff LP encoder in other words set it to a value of 127 This is important as the filter envelope in a matter of seconds will pitch the filter frequency way down After raising the filter frequency you should be able to hear the modulation loud and clear again and a change of the modulation frequency will show off the advantages of the oscillator modulation as compared to the LFO modulation Pitch the coarse tuning way down just once let s say to a value of minus 120 You will now hear your typical LFO modulation speed You can experiment now with a variety of waveforms To get there push the Ose Wave button Using the fourth display encoder you can shift the waveform of the modulator continuously and seamlessly from a sine wave 0 to a triangle wave 63 to a sawtooth wave 127 all the way to a rectangle 255 Of course all other adjustment possibilities that change waveforms have an effect on the filter frequency modulation as well Why not give the ringmodulator a try Once you activate the ringmodulator its signal will take up the output of oscillator 4 instead of the usual oscillator signal Oscillator 3 and 4 are being routed into the ringmodulator Activating the ringmodulator can be done as follows Use the Shift button hold it down and push the RingMod button at the bott
56. you might have stored a particular sound In order to avoid nerve racking searches the Spectralis allows you to set the subcategory to AII to view sounds independantly oftheir soundbanks in alphabetical order Once you have found the sound you were looking for and have confirmed your selection using the push button the corresponding category will appear in your display The category filter will only be active now once you use the subcategory encoder again SPeciTRatlis This chapter deals with Essentials You should definitely take the time to work through this chapter undisturbed The reward for such effort is one of the most complex Analog Synthesizers ever unleashed on the public Differences to other synthesizers You may have noticed during playback of the sounds that the main voice ofthe Spectralis the Hybrid Synth is very flexible and is free of compromises in its soundquality Originally we were planning to make this a true analog section During the design process we did find however that many Spectralis features were impossible to implement without breaking the bank The two filters however a 24dB lowpass filter with discrete circuitry and a 12dB multi mode filter are fully analog still As these two play a major part in shaping the overall sound the Spectralis has a truly amazing analog sound Combining the best of both worlds digital technology for maximum flexibility and analog technology for perfect fi
57. 0 3 3 1 Differences to other synthesizers eeeeeeeeeee eese esee enitn seen tenth tnn tn sensns tuse tns nn 41 3 3 2 Let s go Getting familiar with the analog filters eese 42 3 3 3 Short excursion oscillators and envelopes eee esee teet ntes 44 3 3 4 Back to analog technology the multimode filter and filter routing 46 3 3 5 The LFO section of the analog synth 3 3 6 Oscillators the improved LFO S eeeeeeee eee esee eee ee eene ense tn etna tns tn seins 58 3 3 7 The fixed filterbank eere ee eee etie estes ees eene tn stent tn sten stas ts etas tn stas tn sensn sen 59 3 3 8 The envelopes of the Spectralis analog synth eese esee eene 62 3 3 9 Note priority and multitrigger settings eeeeeeeeee eee eee eerte eene tente ntn 63 3 4 Step sequencer DaSiCs E 65 3 4 1 Filterbank rhythms esee eee eee eee eene n nennt stes sins ts sta seta sense tassa seinen 65 3 4 2 Tonal SCQUuence 69 3 5 Step sequencer advanced I 3 5 1 Tonal Sequences 69 3 5 2 Option 1 Adjusting preset values and entering steps eere 70 3 5 3 Option 2 Setting pitch length probability and dynamic value separately 71 3 5 4 Option 3 Input and editing of notes in the single step editor 72 3 5 5 MIDI learn fun
58. 1 External synchronisation and metronome settings eee eee esee eee eee en nennen ntn tn nennen nn 99 3 11 1 External synchronisation eee eese esee eese etnies tn st ts tnnt tst ta sta seta sense tasas ossosa ravvisi 3 11 2 Metronome settings 3 12 Part activity MOMITOTING ccccssesccteescessssssessssssessssssessecesessecesecsscesecssscsssessessesssessecesesseessesees SM xa m ecl e DES 3 13 1 Editing the FX settings eere eese eee eee eene eene sentia sita stas tn stas tn sta senae 3 13 2 Storing of FX programs eese esee eese eene tn stunts sa sitse ta stessa sensn 3 14 The arpeggiator 4 eeeeeseee esee eerte enne nennen nsns tn nennt enata 3 15 Keyboard Transpose 3 16 Signal routings foreword 3 16 1 Routing DSP parts to the analog synthesizer eese eene 107 3 16 2 Routing external signals to the analog synth eee entente 108 3 16 3 Feed parts to individual outputs eere eee esee esee eene tenen tnann 109 4 0 Hybrid Synthesizer reference manual eese eese eene eene ttn sno tnnnn 110 4 1 Edit Menus general usage esee eese tn netus tns tissus sensns essa son 110 4 2 The Oscillators section of the hybrid engine eese eee eene enenatis sns ts sna snn 110 4 2 1 The oscillator wave menu eere eee einen einen t
59. 15 is the currently selected partnumber assigned to the knobs and the masterkeyboard and S 10 is the current songstep number SPecTRaUtIS Editing a song chain Stop The Stop button stops the song at the current songstep If you restart the song by pressing Play the song will automaticly start at the beginning of the current songstep If you press Stop twice or if you press Stop when the songs was already stopped the sonstep number will be resetted to songstep 1 Play Always starts the song at the current songstep 3 10 2 Jumping into pattern jam mode As mentioned above you can leave the current song chain without stopping the sequencer Just press the Pattern button in the num button assignment section and start jamming If you want to jump back into your song chain press Song again and press Page Up one time to play back the rest of the songsteps of your song chain This handlling is very robust You can for example jump into the pattern mode select another pattern edit some drum groove steps on the fly save the pattern and still are allowed to jump back into the song chain that already will play then your edited patterns in case they they are in use inside the songchain 3 10 3 Editing a song chain Editing a song chain is very easy and can also be done on the fly without stopping the sequencer Select Song inside the num button assignment section to get the following display message S04 Ambient PA09 Filt
60. CO noise and the filterbank for the third voice By defining trigger groups you instruct the system which part 12 13 and 14 triggers which envelopes In the example above you would create three triggergroups Trigger group 1 would trigger VCO l and the LP Filter envelopes trigger group 2 VCO 2 and 3 and the MM filter envelopes and trigger group 3 would trigger the VCO 4 noise and filterbank envelopes Trigger groups can use independent sequen cerlines and pattern sequencer motifs You ll find more on this later in this manual 64 LOW Lowest Note Priority without retriggering of envelopes during legato play LO TR Lowest Note Priority with retriggering of envelopes during legato play HIGH Highest note priority without retriggering of envelopes during legato play HI TR Highest Note Priority with retriggering of envelopes during legato play You will find the menu for setting the assorted note priority choices and retrigger options in the expanded part select menu for the analog synth Use the Part gt Select button and then push and hold the numeric button 12 button until you reach the expanded menu 1 4 S01 Bass2Ass PA01 BasicBass PA 12 Part12 Part13 Part14 current Push the Page Up button three times This will open the menu for setting the notepriority and triggerswitches 4 4 Trigger Group Note Priority TG1 HIGH TG2 LOW TG3 HI TR Using the Encoders 1 3 under the display the
61. Groove The Parts 1 11 Kick Perc3 can be treated as a Group independent of the Parts with tonal Instruments and are referred to jointly as Drum Groove 13 14 SPeciT Rallis The Step Sequence originated at a tim when the possibilit of recording musica Motifs simply b playing them wa just a fantasy Th classical Ste Sequencer consiste of one or more row of potentio meter which were read i sequential order sending an indi vidual value pe Step If you applied th control frequency t the pitch modulatio input o an VCO the Sequen cer changed th pitch ac cording t the potentio meter Settings Explanations of terms 2 4 6 Pattern Consists of up to 17 parallel parts Patterns can be changed in real time sonically and musically by selecting and swapping songs motifs and drum grooves The pattern is also the most important storage level of the Spectralis When you add a new motif to a part the contents of the motif will be automatically copied to the Pattern Slot In short the Spectralis automatically creates a copy ofthe motif The same applies for the sound parameters Rather than administering a program number in the pattern the pattern always contains the complete set of parameters for the sound Due to this form of storage management you never run the risk to lose a setting for instance in pattern xy when making changes in pattern yz 2 4 7 Song You can combine up to 32 Patterns in a song whic
62. Kick The first encoder let s you select the category from which the sample has to be taken from S TR Alike The second encoder allows to select the subcategory for the sample selection 808Phatt With the third encoder the sample can be selected The selection must be confirmed by pushing down the encoder button Samples not already loaded will be loaded after confirmation Init The Init function allows to initialize the synth parameters to default values 3 2 3 Tuning the sample set The standard pitch of the sample oscillator can be adjusted in the oscillator section as well The oscillator standard pitch can be transposed by octaves using the Oct Up and Oct Down buttons The sample oscillator can also be transposed by halftones by turning the OSC DETUNE knob 3 2 4 Further Sample Oscillator parameters A sample normally sounds very static Every triggered note does sound exactly the same That is a limitation of the sample based tone generation On real synthesizers like the hybrid sound engine every note sounds slighly different resulting in more liveness in the sound character Some samples of the current spectralis sample library are created by sampling real synthesizer waveforms Some of them are two oscillator samples where you can hear the typical phase cancellation shifting 33 34 SePecTRatliS Editing DSP synthesizer sounds sample oscillator that makes a synth sounding phatt However at real synthesiz
63. Lowpass Resonance Modulators Srcl None Dph 0 Src2 None Dph2 0 Multimode filter frequency and resonance modulation 1 Push the Cutoff MM encoder button in the filter section 2 Using the Page Up button select menupage 4 7 to prompt the following menupage 4 8 Multimode Cutoff Modulators Srcl None Dph 0 Src2 None Dph2 0 The resonance modulators page for the MM filter follows at page 5 8 LFO sections By now you should be somewhat familiar with some key details of the LFOs However we have not yet discussed the 6 additional LFOs which can be found in the edit sections of the individual sound creation banks For many of you 4 LFO might be enough If you want to liven up sounds in a more detailed and subtle fashion you can never have enough LFOs The section LFO s don t quite have the range of parameters as the master LFO s They still should be sufficient to basic tasks as they do have the same wavetable waveforms as the master LFO s The section LFO s always are always set to freerunning operation Filter section LFO s When using the 24dB Lowpass and the Multimode filter the parameters of the section LFO s can be found directly on the first 2 edit pages You ll get there by pushing the Cutoff encoder button 24dB Lowpass section LFO menupage 55 56 SPecTRatiS Hybrid engine The LFO section Multimode filter section LFO menupage 1 8 Multimode Cutoff Modulation LFO FmWve 0 FmRte 0 FmDpt 0
64. MIDI Controller Device gt Parameter which affect all parts such as FXParameter not available yet Mixer gt Mixer parameter not available yet crecIir ric US 2 Creating triggergroups multiple analog synth parts Group Divide the section further into logical subgroups For instance you will find the groups VCO1 VCO 4 in the AVCO section Parameter The place to select the target parameter The selection flashes until you have pushed the parameter rotary controller Only then the line has been assigned to the parameter 3 6 1 Special features for MIDI targets We already have listed some of the possible MIDI targets such as MIDI Controller Notes and Aftertouch The selection of these targets will require more detailed specification When you confirm the selection of MIDI controllers MIDI notes or aftertouch with the control button it will prompt an additional menu page on which you can enter the MIDI channel number for the three potential targets and in case you have selected the MIDI controller also the MIDI controller number You re sure to find information about the use of MIDI controllers in the MIDI implementation of any connected sound generator or the selected soft synth Most of the important sound parameters of modern synthesizers can be controlled via simple MIDI controllers The Spectralis is likely to tease brand new patterns out of your existing arsenal of instruments When editing a MIDI sequence line the MIDI messages of
65. MIDI data received by the Spectralis 2 to other instruments Generally you should not connect more than 3 instruments serially via MIDITHRU and MIDI IN because you might encounter data transmission lost depending on the quality of the optocopplers used in the instruments It is advisable to centrally connect your studio equipment using a MIDI interface For this purpose you will need MIDI interfaces with multiple outputs or MIDI THRU boxes which can distribute an incoming MIDI signal to multiple MIDI THRU ports SPecTRaUtIS Formatting power and explanation of terms 2 3 3 Formatting Media internal Flash and SD Cards In case something goes wrong after all or when using a SD Card for the first time it will be necessary to format the media The formatting should have to be done in the Spectralis 2 To start formatting use the Shift button and hold it down while simultaneously pushing the Browse button All two of the media in the Spectralis will now show up in the 2x40 character display of the Spectralis When pushing any of the encoders assigned to one of the drives showing in the display drive information will be displayed Using the Page Up and Page Down buttons you can browse the selected medium To begin formatting use the Record button after selection of the desired medium You will need to confirm your intent to format by pushing the Enter button Use the Exit button to leave the browse menu Once you re done formatt
66. NUI Em RS X9 usas hsnre Of The level setting affects all Songs time to select the desired part here pushing a parameter encoder button reach different segments of a motif patterns and sounds SPECT RALIS 2 LFO vco TX TERN RO CTRL A OFF LP RESO LP VCA HEVEL PATTERN INFO MOD DEPTH EG BA ANCE EG RELEASE TRANSPOSE cReaTivaToR TRANSPORT MasSTeR LJ LJ OD RATE y C 7 EG DEPTH R RANDOMIZE ARPEGGIATOR Ld RE VOLUME FILTTeRBANI lt K e LJ amp ae LEVEL FB LEVEL he encoders 1 16 can be assigned Numeric buttons 1 16 Sequence Edit Groove Edit Filterbank Mixing Desk ieye hisiiaseu scrm SA The function of the numeric buttons is This section opens the display menus for Opens the menu for the beatmatrix These buttons assign encoders 1 15 to Volume stereo panning and FX sends S23 TES SI eye elpile y y Selected in the part and num button the editing of the step sequencer By drumgrid editor This menu assigns the filterbank level and stereo panorama can be controlled with encoders 1 16 ere alive om te e IS TEES ST assignment section Additionally they are entering this menu the encoders 1 16 numeric buttons 1 16 automaticly for control Further parameters will appear in according to the selection you made inside also as step controls for the used for the rhythm programming in the and the numeric buttons will automaticly entering trigger points for the selected the advanced edit section by
67. RaUtUIS Filetypes Song INI The songdata file The songdata file contains the name of the song the tempo setting for the song and the programmed song chain Pattxx SPT The pattern data file This file contains all motifs and sound data of a pattern xx is the pattern number under which the pattern can be recalled inside the song chain editor or the pattern jam mode Patterns can easily be transfered with the computer by copying a pattern from one song folder to another But take care to not overwrite an existing pattern in the target folder The best way to do the transfer is copying the desired patterns onto the computer harddrive checking which pattern numbers are not in use in the target songfolder renaming the patterns at the computer and copying the files to the target songfolder All other filetypes are at the root directory of the Flash memory anyname SLI and anyname SLC The SLC and SLI files are sample data files for the Spectralis SLI files contain one single sample or multisample and SLC files contain a collection of samples or multisamples These files can be set to dynamic loading or fix loading in the browse menu of the Spectralis Sample Sets set to dynamic loading will only be loaded if you select a song or a sound preset that uses this sample set Sample Sets set to fix loading will always be loaded at startup automaticly independent from their usage Sample Sets can be provided via the Smar
68. SPEecTRaliS 2 SPecTRatl S Spectralis 2 manual Vers 2 for Spectralis 1 2 Versions above 1 5 Jorg Schaaf Radikal Technologies Deutschland GmbH http www raditec de Copyright 2009 Radikal Technologies Deutschland GmbH Mariahilfstr 8 81541 Miinchen Germany Maintaining the highest quality standards is the top priority for Radikal Technologies GmbH This is why the design process for any of our new products continues even after they are released to the public Technical changes are implemented at any time without prior notification if we feel they serve to improve the product According to this statement the technical specifications and or the look of the instrument might vary from the specs and pictures shown in this Manual Any duplication of all or parts of this manual in any form and for any reason requires prior written permission from Radikal Technologies GmbH 2009 Radikal Technologies Deutschland GmbH SPeci Rallis Declaration of Conformity We herewith confirm that the following product SPECTRALIS 2 conforms to the requirements of the council Directive 89 336 FWG for radio frequency interference It also complies with regulations for radio interference of electronic devices EMVG dated August 30th 1995 The following standards have been used to determine conformity EN 50082 1 1992 EN 50081 1 1992 EN 60065 1993 This declaration has been made solely on behalf of the manufacturer Radikal Techno
69. Send FX2 Send The FX1 Send and FX2 Send buttons assign the control over effect intensity for the two effect processors to encoders 1 16 Encoders 1 15 control the effect intensity for the Parts 1 15 and encoder 16 for the subgroup drums Using one of the encoder buttons functioning as FX sends will open the menu for changes to the effect programs 2 5 7 Master section to the far right about half way up on the Panel Using the master volume control you can change the output level of the sum output and the headphones output The Spectralis saves the most recently selected volume level when the unit is being turned of so you won t experience any disadvantage compared to having a volume potentiometer 2 5 8 Creativator section right in the middle of the panel In the Creativator section you will find possibility to apply the arpeggiator to a selected part having it create new patterns randomly or letting it create new sounds in random fashion Randomize The Randomize button opens a display menu for the selection of assorted randomize functions S rPecT roa L l S Overview Filterbank section mixer section Arpeggiator The Arpeggiator button opens the display menu for editing the arpeggiator settings A typical classic arpeggiator is a setting which breaks down played chords a polyphonic sound consisting of multiple notes into individual notes and plays these notes corresponding to a variety of instructio
70. Shift 1 16 Quicksound The quicksound button gives access to a special soundbank with your favorite sounds for drums DSP synth and analog synth parts This bank holds 32 Hybridsynth sounds 32 DSP synth sounds and additional 16 sounds for each drumpart Patches 17 32 can be recalled by holding down shift and pressing numberbuttons 1 16 Press and hold SAVE and touch the desired memory location on the num buttons to save a patch into the quicksound bank 17 18 SPecTRaUtUIS Overview Sequence and groove edit section 2 5 3 Sequence Edit section to the right next to the NUM BUTTON ASSIGNMENT Section Edit Section of the step sequencer with the following control elements Function The use of the Function button opens the display menu for the editing of the step sequencer The step sequencer menu has a number of pages which can be accessed via the Page Up and Page Down buttons After pushing the Function button the value data for the individual steps will be assigned to the encoders 1 16 By holding down the Function button you can access a number of useful functions with the numeric buttons directly These functions are printed on the frontpanel between numbers 1 10 Trig Skip Glide Mute Last FWD BWD F amp B RND Please take note that all of these functions for each sequencer line can be adjusted differently True step sequencer afficinados will be thrilled with this information and make th
71. Spectralis has to offer What s the purpose of such totally flexible routing For one while you can t get around establishing all of the connections with cables in a modulation matrix all of the possible connections are already set up in the Spectralis This allows very dynamic control over the sounds It basically enables you to cross fade between different routings 3 3 2 Let s go Getting familiar with the analog filters Enough with the preamble I m sure you re dieing to finally hear the synthesizer by now As with all the examples in the How to section we will be assuming that you have already connected a MIDI Keyboard to your Spectralis and have it set to send on MIDI channel 1 Now push the Part gt Select button and select part 12 Analog Synth For this example we are also going from the assumption that the original factory presets are still present in your Spectralis Next select the Song button in the Num Button Assignment section and chose song 6 with Numeric button 6 Also in the Num Button Assignment section now push the Pattern Button and last the numeric button 1 Playing a key on your MIDI Keyboard you should now be hearing a pretty fat synth bass sound This sound uses the 24dB lowpass filter The filter frequency is being controlled via the envelope of the 24dB lowpass filter You can now turn the CutOff LP encoder while playing your keyboard You should hear some definite sound changes If you are
72. This means that in each of the three bank types a maximum of up to 800 sounds can be available a grand total of 2400 sounds that can be used without having to swap banks between flash rom and the computer When booted up the Spectralis searches for available banks in its flash rom and loads them This is a rather fast process as most of the contents of the Soundbanks contain mostly small files compared to the sample banks which are also stored in flash rom If you plan to store a particular long cymbal sound in one of the soundbanks such a sample along could easily take up more storage space than all 24 soundbanks combined In case you are running out of storage capacity it is advisable to erase unused samples or copy one of the sample banks to a smart media card which you can leave in one of the smart media slots when booting Proceeding in that fashion should ensure that all your soundbanks will fit in flash rom We will be posting new sounds regularly on the Spectralis User Webpage If you wish to use one of these soundbanks in your Spectralis just download the bank to your computer and then copy it to the Spectralis internal Flash Rom after downloading This works much quicker than the oldfashioned MIDI dump process for soundbanks which is why we didn t use that process in the Spectralis design In this chapter you will learn how you can create new soundbanks and how to save new sounds into these soundbanks 5 1 1 Saving a new soun
73. ailer etc is authorized to promise or perform warranty services Services other than ones specified herein are not covered under this warranty 1 1 4 Liability Claims for additional damages of any kind including all claims of financial damages as a result of malfunction of a product are specifically excluded hereunder The liability of Radikal Technologies Deutschland GmbH in all cases is expressly limited to the purchase price or the adjusted value ofthe product only All warranty services and shipments are performed subject exclusively to Radikal Technologies Deutsch land GmbH general business terms and conditions SPecTRatiS Safety notices 1 2 Safety notices CAUTION Please do not open the instrument s case at any time to avoid the possibility of electric shock There are no functions or features inside the unit intended for the user Do not ever make any attempt to repair the instrument yourself Any technical problems should be addressed with qualified service personnel only WARNING Do not expose the unit to rain or humidity to avoid electric shock or shorts Before using your unit please read the security and user instructions carefully Store the safety and user instructions in a readily accessible place Never use the unit close to water i e bathtub sink swimming pool Do not to set your unit up too close to heat sources heaters Amps etc To ensure proper air ventilation it is important not to obstruct the unit
74. ample playback At the second page of the oscillator sample playback menu one can activate a reversed sample playback mode for oneshot samples like drumsounds or FXs Press the page up button to open the following menupage 2 2 Oscillator Sample Playback mode VDir Norm Simply set VDir to REVERSE to activate the reversed playback algorithm SPecTRatiS Editing DSP synth sounds Volume envelopes 3 2 6 Changing the volume envelopes Envelopes make it possible to change a volume progression of a sound Some sounds resonate percussively like the noise of a hammer being hit on a metal plate or may take a couple of seconds to reach maximum volume like for instance a Philicorda Organ when a volume pedal is pressed slowly Sounds can end apruptly just after releasing a key on your keyboard or can end slowly like the Sound of a piano wire when the sustain pedal is used When changing the envelope ofthe DSP synth it is important to note The maximum duration ofthe sound with non looped samples is dependent on the length ofthe sample There is no point to set the release time of an envelope to a high value if you re using the sound of a champagne cork or a click as your sound The sound won t get any longer no matter how hard you try Similarly shortening the attack time ofthe envelope will not speed up a sample with a slow fade in at the beginning Tip In order for you to hear the changes of an envelope directly just start any p
75. and duration for each step ofthe sequencer can be different Independent envelope triggering for each filterband amplifier provides an excellent option to create complete drum grooves from simple white noise The following Parameters can be found on the first sequencer edit page SEQ This is where you can select the Sequencerline which you would like to work on in the Editor The stepsequencer has 24 sequencerlines with free assignable routing targets you can choose from 65 66 SPecit ro LS 2 Step sequencer basics Filterbank rhythms Type Here is where you can select the basic envelope shapes The following are at your disposal Decay Hard Pulse Soft Attack Len Allows you to adjust the length of the envelope The range goes from fractions of a step 8 4 2th up to a length of 13 steps Depth Determines the depth of the envelope direction We are now ready to input the first Steps The sequencer lines 1 10 have been assigned to filterband volumes 1 10 Select a medium frequency band such as line 5 800 Hz set the envelope shape to Decay the Length to 4 steps and the Depth to a value of 20 Next push any of the numeric buttons 1 16 to set a trigger step You should now be hearing the envelope control at least if the sequencer is playing already All additional steps which you are about to input will have the same envelope shape and length until you change their parameters After such change the follow
76. and select successively menu pages 3 7 with the Page Up button to set the levels of the oscillators for all filters to 0 IV Now select menu page 23 where you can use the first display encoder to adjust the filterbank volume FB for noise to a value of 200 V In the Filterbank section you should now push first the Level button and then one of the encoder buttons 1 to 10 to open the Filter bank menu VI Set the Parameters FbQ and FbFs to 0 VII As a final step in your preparations set the bypass parameter FBBP at the this menu page of the filterbank menu to a value of 255 We will now use the step sequencer to automate the gain control of the various filterbands Select the Function button in the sequence edit section You will see the following display message If the Sequencer is already playing you can now set the levels for each 16 note of the running sequencer using encoders 1 through 16 We won t do that right now though but we will deal with an even better option for Level Control the step envelopes The step envelopes of the Spectralis are a somewhat unusual feature for a step sequencer They permit the triggering of tempo based mini envelopes which are independent ofthe note triggering ofthe synth work in addition to the already existing envelopes in the synthesizer parameter section What makes this feature even more special is that the envelope direction curve shape
77. are Oscillator Pitch Oscillator Wavetable modulation Oscillator TLM 24dB Lowpass cutoff frequency and resonance Multimode Filter cutoff frequency and resonance Each modulation target can be controlled by up to two Master LFOs at once Pressing any of the display encoders in the LFO Depth menu opens the submenu for the LFO depth modulation 1 4 Master LFO1 Depth Control LDpt 127 LEDp 0 LPpt LFO Depth just added the depth parameter again to control the envelope dependent depth and the basic depth in one page LEDp LFO Envelope Depth controls the strength of the enveloped depth control Pushing the LEDp encoder button opens the envelope edit page 1 4 LFO1 Depth Control Envelope LED1 0 LEAt 0 LER1 0 LEDp 0 LEDI LFO Envelope delay sets the time between the note trigger and the start of the modulation depth envelope LEAt LFO Envelope Attack time sets the attack time of the modulation depth envelope LERI LFO envelope Release time sets the Release time ofthe LFO depth envelope LEDp LFO Envelope Depth controls the strength of the enveloped depth control SPecTRaUtIS Hybrid Synthesizer reference Filter section 4 3 3 LFO Rate Menu Turning the LFO Rate encoder sets the rate of the master LFOs 1 4 at once Holding SHIFT while turning the encoder assigns a modulation wheel dependency to the LFO rate parameter With a positive value the rate increases if
78. ase you should not find it difficult to make the multimode filter audible by itself There are two ways to achieve that goal You can either set the oscillator level for the 24dB lowpass filter to 0 or you can set the sum out level of the 24dB lowpass filter to 0 The second choice appears to be the more sensible one as it requires fewer parameters to be edited to accomplish the goal and also because you stand to get a better signal noise ratio by simply removing an analog filter not being used from the sum out Operation is very simple You probably still remember which menu page provides the needed parameters Simply push the CUTOFF LP encoder button and dial up menu page 6 LP Feed via the Page Up button You can now lower the output level of the 24dB lowpass filter allowing you to hear the multimode filter by itself This would be the perfect time to extensively test the multimode filter Contrary to the multimode filters of the DSP section this analog version has a number of additional features For instance you can not only toggle the different filter outputs but you can also route the various filter types simultaneously to the output Any activated output will light up the corresponding button 12dB LP 12dB HP and 12dB BP You can now try out the various filter types change the cutoff frequency CUTOFF MM and the resonance RESO MM and hopefully memorize the effect of the various settings SPecTRaUtIS Hybrid engine Multim
79. ated arrows you can see that it is possible to jump to an additional menu section from here The sub menu under this edit page has 12 sections 3 for each oscillator Each one of these 3 pages is reserved for the control of the corresponding section SPeciTRatisS Hybrid engine The LFO section LFO s Using the finepitch encoder of the first oscillator will tkae you to the first menu page of this level using the encoder of the second oscillator will take you to menupage 4 of the sub level If you re looking to work with the sections LFO of the third oscillator you need to use the third encoder button instead of the first This will take you directly to the parameters affecting the pitch of the third oscillator Push the OSC finetune button of your choice The following function is available for allofthe oscillators equally 1 8 VCO1 Pitch LFO LWve LRte 0 LDpth 0 LWve LFO wave Using this parameter allows you to adjust the waveform for the oscillator section LFO A description of the available waveforms can be found in the previous paragraph on master LFO s LRte LFO Rate Used to adjust the frequency of the LFO LDpt LFO Depth Used to adjust the modulation depth of this LFO As you ve seen in the description of the master LFOs the section LFO s can also be used for multiple modulation targets at the same time This is very useful when two or more parameters have to be modulated with the same frequency Sometimes a desire
80. ated velocity control for your selected sound or you may have it set to a very low value Access the corresponding part using the Select button and turn the VCA Level encoder while holding down the Shift button Setting a value of 127 will give you the highest possible dynamic range TIP You have direct access to the different drum matrix resolutions by holding down Groove Edit gt Step Accent and pushing num buttons 10 13 for resolutions 12th 16th 24th and 32th 91 92 SPecTRatiS Swing and Shuffle quantize 3 9 11 Swing feeling and shuffle quantisation The Spectralis sports a Shuffle function that allows for bringing some nice groove feeling into your tracks The Shuffle function can be assigned to 8th 12th 16th 24th and 32th notes The shuffle function always delays the second and the fourth note of a 4 note group by an selectable amount between one and nine 192th notes The Shuffle Function can be enabled for different tracks independently and you can assign the groove quantize function to step sequencer lines as well Please select a pattern and start the sequencer We will check the Groove Quantize function now Push the FUNCTION button in the Groove Edit section of the frontpanel The following edit menu will appear S01 Bass2Ass PAO0l1 BasicBass Groove MODE SONG Reso 32th 19 192 MODE selects whether you want to change the groove setting for the whole song or for the selected pattern only The set
81. attern select the desired part as described above and solo it While solo ing is not necessary it makes it much easier to hear the full range of the soundchanges Next push the encoder button EG Balance in the VCA section on the front panel This will open the following menu Volume Envelope Att 0 Dcy 90 Stn 0 R1s 90 You now are able to control the envelope curve ofthe sound Att Attack Time Here you can determine how fast a Sound will reach maximum volume Dcy Decay Time Adjust how fast the volume decreases to sustain level Stn Sustain Level The parameter Sustain has nothing to do with timing input but rather is the level sustained after completion of the decay phase while a key is being held down This parameter is meaningless for short One Shot samples as the sample often has decreased too much in volume by the time it reaches the sustain level For drum sounds it is usually best to set the sustain level to 0 and to control the envelope with the attack and decay phase Rls Release Time The release time is the time elapsed between letting releasing a key and the complete disappearance of the sound 35 36 SePecTRatliS Editing DSP synth sounds digital multimode filter Note If you are playing a DSP Synth that no Sample has been assigned to the selected Part will have no Sound or the default sound only We have described in chapter 3 1 7 how to assign Multisamples to a Part 3 2 7 Velocity Sens
82. bank The fixed filterbank has 8 BANDPASSES 6 While this message is opened you see a flashing Page Up button The flashing Page buttons are informing you that there are additional text lines selectable by pushing the Page buttons multiple times A fter pressing the Page Up button a second time both Page buttons start to flash indicating that you can now scroll in both directions inside the text window The fixed filterbank has 8 BANDPASSES plus a highpass and lowpass filter 7 Now you see 3 subjects in brackets Bandpasses is written in uppercase letters and has edged brackets and Highpass and Lowpass is written in lowercase letters with sharp brackets The subject in edged brackets and uppercase 149 150 SPecTRatliS Final comments characters is the highlighted parameter Pushing an encoder button underneath the display will always display informations on the parameter that is currently highlighted You select another subject by pressing the Page buttons As soon as there are multiple links in a description the page buttons will highlight one subject after the other before scrolling through additional text lines We are sure you like this kind of integrated reference manual The reference manual will grow with future versions We are also planning different language versions The help file on the flash medium that holds all these help messages can be edited with standard text applications lik
83. bank section In between the transport field and the encoder row 1 16 In this section you have access to the fixed filterbank Level By using the Level button you can adjust the levels of the filterbank amps with the help of the encoders 1 15 as well as insert the output of the filterbank into the various sections of the Spectralis The assignment of the encoders when the filterbank Level button is active is printed just above the encoders The filterbank has 10 filter bands Encoder 1 LP controls the output level of the lowpass filter which lets all frequencies below the lowest bandpass pass through Encoders 2 9 control the levels of the individual bandpasses The bandpasses are factory set to the following middle frequencies 265Hz 390Hz 550Hz 800 Hz 1200Hz 1770Hz 2650Hz 3900Hz Encoder 10 HP changes the level ofthe highpass filter which only lets frequencies above the highest bandpass pass through Using encoder 11 FB Level you can adjust the sum volume of the filterbank to the level of the overall signal of the Spectralis Using encoder 12 FB gt FX1 und 13 FB gt FX2 you can determine with what level the output signal of the filterbank is fed into the two effects With encoder 14 you can feed the output signal of the filterbank into the 24dB lowpass filter With encoder 15 you can feed the output signal of the filterbank into the analog multimode filter Pushing one of the rotary encoders 1 15 buttons allows you to c
84. bly the solution If you set this parameter ta volume of 255 the filterbank works independent from the envelope and gives a steady output signal FbQ Filterbank Qs this parameter controls the Q factor resonance of all 10 filters of the filterbank FbSp Filterbank partial filter spreading The Spectralis fixed filterbank creates the high slope of the filterbank filterbands by using multiple partial filter for each filterband Just imagine one bandpass filter as a configuration of multiple filters with slight different frequencies that form together the slope of the filter By changing the spreading parameter you can control how close the filterfrequencies of the partial 133 134 SPecTRaUIS Hybrid Synthesizer reference Filterbank section filters are That has an impact on the sound of the filterbank Both parameters FbQ and FbSp should be used together because the resulting frequency response is dependent on both parameters PAGE UP shows up the volume envelope generator parameters Att Attack Time controls the attack time of the fixed filterbank volume envelope Dcy Decay Time controls the decay time of the fixed filterbank volume envelope Stn Sustain Level controls the sustain level of the fixed filterbank volume envelope RIs Release Time controls the release time of the fixed filterbank volume envelope 5 0 Quick Sound Function The quicksound gives a
85. c function of the Spectralis But let s start to explore the Arpeggiator a little bit Select a part you want to arpeggiate select a cool sound for the arpeggiator and enter the edit menu by pressing Arpeggiator Now you can activate the arpeggiator and explore the different settings State Here one can activate the arpeggiator of the selected part Dir Direction The playback order of the resulting notes can be controlled here The following directions are available Up Upwards Plays the notes with increasing pitch from the lowest to the highest note of a chord Dwn Downwards Just the opposite of upwards plays all notes with decreasing pitch from the highest to the lowest note U D Up and down Toggles between upwards and downwards U D2 Up and Down 2 Equals with up and down but plays the upper and the lower note twice RND Random This setting plays the notes in random order AsPI As Played The arpeggiator plays the notes in the same order one plays them on the keyboard 103 104 SPecTRavIS The arpeggiator Reso Resolution The resolution of the notes can be set from 192th up to 12 whole notes Oct Octaves The octaves function repeats an arpeggiator motif in different octaves You can choose values between 1 and 4 octaves Page Up selects the second menupage 2 3 Arpeggiator Settings Gate 25 Velo asPl Rep 1 Gate
86. can be heard clearly Increasing the resonance of the multimode filter even more RESO MM makes the highpass filter effect even more apparent Still you will only hear the signal ifthe 24dB lowpass is open as well You can easily find out why this is the case by looking at the current routing At this time all four oscillators are being routed both to the 24dB lowpass filter and the multimode filter While the output ofthe lowpass filter is connected with the output ofthe Spectralis this doesn t appear to be the case with multimode filter Otherwise we d obviously be hearing the ighpass effect even when the lowpass is closed The multimode filter is only sending its signal to the 24dB lowpass filter To clarify this even more we have created a diagram which is intended to illustrate the signal flow for the selected sound We hope that the drawing is somewhat helpful to you rather than confusing you even more In the diagram you can see the individual modules To make things a little simpler we did leave oscillators 3 and 4 off We also didn t include any non relevant part of the routing The sum bus for instance is shown in Mono mode while the original is actually in stereo It is of no particular consequence though for now It s basically a simplified diagram of the routing All Encoders shown in grey are open All the ones shown in white are set to 0 As you can see in the drawing the signal is being sent by all oscillators both to t
87. change the length within a range of 16 steps In case you have selected more than 16 steps you can move the displayed section with the help of the Tempo Shuttle encoder like a window along the complete line Please note that the assignment of this encoder can be changed from tempo change to section change using the encoder button In case you wish to change the tempo from within the Sequence edit menu all you have to do is push the Tempo Shuttle Button Adding a filtermodulation By now you should be familiar with a number of options for controlling the settings of the step sequencer Still our little Melody will become truly interesting once you start to animate the sound parameters in the next step employing the help of another line We ll give this a try right now I Let s select the part Analog Synth by pushing the Select button in the Part section plus numeric button 12 The synthesizer edit controls are now assigned to the analog synthesizer Turn the frequency of the 24dB lowpass counterclockwise to 0 using the Cutoff LP encoder You will hear very little of the original sequencer as the lowpass is almost completely closed II In the sequence edit section chose sequencerline 16 LpFreqEx2 This sequencer line allows for the exponential control of the filter frequency III Use a suitable step envelope for the filter frequency modulation For instance you might want to chose a decay envelope with a length of 4
88. cillator 3 as the modulator 04LFM linear FM with oscillator 3 as the modulator 2 27 VCO Volume Envelope Macro Osc1 0 0sc2 0 0sc3 0 Osc4 0 111 112 SPecTRaUIS Hybrid Synthesizer reference Oscillator wave menu Page 2 of the Oscillator VCO Menu gives access to the oscillator volume envelopes Rotating OscX encoders changes all envelope parameters at once with a little macro function Pressing the Encoderbutton OscX x 1 2 3 or 4 opens the envelope individual parameters edit menu 1 8 VCO1 Volume Envelope Generator Pagel Att 74 Dcy 127 gdtn 160 RIS 127 Att Attack Time Dcy Decay Time Stn Sustain RIs Release Time Tip pressing the EG Balance encoder button is a shortcut to the all volume envelopes menu Pressing the display encoder button for the Decay parameter opens the second page of the envelope settings menu A A 1 8 VCO1 Volume Envelope Generator Page2 Hld 0 Byp 0 Hld Hold controls the time the envelope sticks between the attack and the decay phase BYP BYPASS allows for bypassing the enveloped amplifier of the selected oscillator 3 27 VCO Filterbank Volume Osc1 0 Osc2 0 Osc3 0 Osc4 0 Osc Osc4 oscillator Filterbank Level Controls the oscillators level for fixed filterbank 4 27 VCO Multimode Filter Volume Osc1 0 Osc2 0 Osc3 0 Osc4 0 Osc1 Osc4 Oscillator multimode filter level Controls the o
89. ck decay puls hard and soft The envelope type can be selected independently for each step you want to enter Len Step envelope length You can define the length of a step envelope in multiples or fractions of steps 4 means the envelope has a duration of 4 complete steps and 1 4 means the length is only a quarter step Depth The step envelope depth Depending on the depth the envelope will control a parameter value more or less Negative values are decreasing the value and positive values will increase them Additionally to the step envelopes you can define an offset value per step Encoders 1 16 are controlling the offsets of the corresponding steps directly The encoder buttons 1 16 call up an additional single step editing menu we are describing in a dedicated chapter below 79 80 SPeciTrRatliS Step sequencer advanced II Parameter control lines You may already have noticed the upward arrows left to the parameter names They are indicating that further edit pages can be reached by pushing the corresponding encoder button A later chapter will cover these menu pages which allow to change a single parameter for all steps simultaneously Resolution and sequence length Page Up opens the second page of the sequence edit menu 2 8 Resol LastStep Style Start Rslt 16th Len 16 Rslt Sequence line resolution Each sequence line in the Spectralis has it s independent resolution By default the resolution is set to
90. corresponding to the sequence position and you can turn individual notes on and off using the numeric buttons 1 16 If you would like to change the pitch of a note you can do so by adjusting the corresponding encoder 1 16 to the desired pitch Once you have created a melody line you like the step sequencer will allow you a host of options to make changes You can change the direction of the melody skip single or multiple steps mute steps and determine the length and the resolution ofthe line By holding down the Function button in the sequence edit section you can access all ofthese sequencer functions directly via the numeric buttons Changing Playback Direction Push the Function button in the sequence edit section hold it down and push one ofthe numeric buttons 6 9 These have corresponding descriptions right under the numbers FWD The selected line will be played forward BWD The selected line will be played in reverse F amp B The selected line will be played back alternating in forward and backward mode RND The tones will be played in random fashion If you don t notice any impact on the note sequence you may have selected the wrong sequencer line by mistake the direction can be set differently for each line The note line is line L11 TGrp1 Using the Skip function The Skip function allows for the skipping of single steps or a whole sequence of steps Select the Function button
91. cted The following parameters are now available LEDI controls the delay until the LFO depth envelope gets triggered after a key has been pressed down on your keyboard SPecT Rais Editing DSP synth sounds filter modulation LEAt controls the attack time of the depth envelope LErl Controls the release time ofthe LFO depth envelope LEdp Controls how much the depth envelope affects the modulation depth By hitting Page Up you reach the second menupage 2 2 LFO 1 Depth Modifier Menu Dsyn1 LMWD 0 LMWD controls how much the modulationwheel controls the LFO depth 3 2 13 Assigning LFO and MIDI modulation to the cutoff frequency The LFO and MIDI controls can be assigned to the cutoff frequency for filter modulation The filter cutoff menu ofthe DSP engine comes with three menu pages You can reach these menu pages by hitting one of the cutoff encoder buttons Entering the menu followed by hitting Page Up opens the assignment dialog 2 3 Filter Cutoff Modulators Dsynl Srcl None Dph1 0 Src2 None Dph2 0 On the second menupage you can choose between different modulation sources for the Cutoff Frequency the two LFO s aftertouch breath controller and the pitchbend wheel Are you may missing velocity and the modulation wheel in this dialog Don t worry these very essential modulators can be adjusted independently from the modulation routing options on page 3 3 3 3 Filter Cutoff Modulators Dsyn1 C
92. ction for pitch 3 5 6 Line rotation eese ete 3 6 Target Selection Rec 3 6 1 Special features for MIDI targets scssscsscssssssssssesssessecsssessesssesscsssessesesssesses 75 3 7 Creating triggergroups multiple analog synth parts essei eee eene eene nete ennt tenent tn nenne 75 3 7 1 Playing the triggergroups eere eee eee enean nn stas ta stas tn sensn san 76 3 7 2 The definition of triggergroups eese esee eene eee eene en nennen natns sns tns sta sina ann 77 3 8 Step sequencer advanced II 3 8 1 Parameter lines 79 3 8 2 Triggerpoint muting and overwriting sessesessesereeserereeeseeoeseeeoesesonsesonsenseeoeseeeeeeeee 81 3 8 3 Single step editor cssssecscessecssessecssecsssesssesssssesscsssessssscsseessssessesseessessessseesesenees 81 3 8 4 Single parameter editor 4 eere ee eee eee eene tenen testen enses sins ta sun 82 3 9 Editing motifs and patterns eese eee eee eese essent entes tn stant tn stas tn s S 83 3 9 1 Exchanging motifs eee esee eese esses tenent senta staat tn stas ta stas tn stus en seen 83 3 9 2 The motif edit menu esee eese essen sees enean n sta sits tasse ta setas ta setas tuse tn sn 84 3 9 3 Initialising motifs and part parameters esee eese seen eene ene enne tnt tnn tnsn 85 3 9 4 Exchanging drum grooves eeeeeeee eese s
93. d in an existing soundbank If you already have soundbanks loaded in flash rom you can easily overwrite sounds or store new sounds in unused storage slots To prompt the sound storage menu first push the Save button You should see the following message in the display What do you want to save sound pattern song lt creativ gt Using the first encoder Sound will take you to the first page of the sound storage menu Save Sound Menue 1 15 current EXIT You can now either save the sound of the currently selected part current or the sound of an part which you are about to select using the numeric buttons by pushing down one of the control buttons 1 15 Here are two small examples 135 136 SPecTRaUIS Storing sounds Let s assume you have just programmed a great new sound on the Analog Synth If you have already selected the Analog Part you can initiate the Save provess by selecting current In our other example you may be playing a sequencer pattern and you notice that the bassdrum sound is so fabulous that you want to be able to use it in the future also in other patterns You may not actually remember which pattern you have currently selected but you do know you want to save the kick sound In that case push 1 15 keep the button pressed down and use numeric button 1 for the kickdrum part Sound Save in that case refers to the kick parts independent of the currently selected part Irregardless whether you
94. decisive factor in pitch determination but the last note played With the introduction of digital key control the retrigger problem became a thing of the past Still not everyone was happy with the new system It became obvious pretty quickly that no matter the limitations of the old key controls they also offered possibilities which could be used creatively especially during solos When holding the highest note while playing a solo a lower key rhythmically automatically created a two note trill which was much easier to play than actually playing both notes rhythmically Even the lack of retriggering had its bright sides It made it possible to control the sound and to set accents by playing deliberate legato and staccato In our opinion it wouldn t be right to eliminate the possibility to emulate these vintage note priority and trigger features As a result the Spectralis features the following trigger and note priority settings for all three of its trigger groups LAST Last Note Priority without retriggering of envelopes during legato play LS TR Last Note Priority with retriggering of envelopes during legato play 63 SPecTRatliS Hybrid engine Note priority amp multitrigger settings What the hell are trigger groups The sound engine of the analog synth can be divided into subparts For example one can create 3 different voices by using one VCO and the LP filter for voice 1 2 VCOs and the MM Filter for voice 2 and I V
95. diting Acomplex subtractive synthesizer with 4 digital oscillators and analog filters Sample DSP based sound engine with 32 stereo voices sound processing with 128 MB RAM 4 GB internal flash rom for data storaging A32 track analog style step sequencer which not only plays notes but can also modulate most of the soundparameters of the Spectralis A filterbank with ten bands 8 bandpass plus one high and one lowpass filter controllable with the help of the step sequencer A DSP based effect section and an internal audiomixer with various In and Outputs SD Card slot for data backups sample import and firmware upgrade transfers As you spend more time with your Spectralis you re sure to realize and master its full potential Hopefully this manual will prove to be a valuable companion SPecTRatiS Unpacking Set Up Firmware Update Firmware The Firmware is the program operating the Spectralis hard ware platform Contrary to the hardware which is fixed the firmware can be updated to add new functions or to improve 10 functionality on your path to enlightenment In case you do come across questions not sufficiently addressed in this guide it is probably something we overlooked In any such case we invite you to visit the spectralis user forum at our Spectralis website http www spectralis de phpBB2 We will be posting additional tips and tricks FAQ entries and example patterns re
96. dition to the envelope edit pages in the VCO fixed filterbank and VCF sections we have created duplicates for all volume envelope edit pages in a special envelope edit menu located in the VCA section Pushing the EG Balance button opens the envelope edit page duplicates You may instantly notice an arrow symbol close to the decay parameter label This arrow indicates you can select an additonal menu page with the corresponding encoder button Depending on the selected envelope the message might look something like 1 8 VCO1 Volume Envelope Generator Page2 Hld 0 Byp 0 Using the additional parameter Hold forces the envelope to remain at the maximum level of the attack phase before entering the decay phase for an SPecTRavisS Hybrid engine Note priority amp multitrigger settings adjustable period of time This is a valuable parameter if you are trying to emulate the inconsistencies of analog envelopes The typical Minimoog envelopes for instance have a slight delay between the attack and the decay phase which can be simulated rather well with a hold value of about 14 with the Spectralis envelopes 3 3 9 Note priority and multitrigger settings Monophonic synths like the Spectralis analog synth can only play one note at a time Depending on which note is played the pitch can be higher or lower This is certainly not news to anyone What happens however if two notes are played at the same time on your keyboard Early monophonic synths
97. ditional modulation source The following modulation sources are available MLFO1 4 Master LFO 1 4 MMLFO Multimode Filter cutoff LFO LPLFO Lowpass Filter cutoff LFO VLFOI 4 VCO frequency LFO 1 4 Vel Velocity Aft Aftertouch SPecTRaUtIS Hybrid Synthesizer reference 24dB Lowpass filter Wheel Modulationwheel Brth Breath Control Pitch Pitch Bend Src1 Src2 Modulation source selects the modulation source for the additional resonance modulation Dphl Dph2 Modulation depth controls the modulation depth of the selected additional modulation source The following modulation sources are available MLFO1 4 Master LFO 1 4 MMLFO Multimode Filter cutoff LFO LPLFO Lowpass Filter cutoff LFO VLFOI 4 VCO frequency LFO 1 4 Vel Velocity Aft Aftertouch Wheel Modulationwheel Brth Breath Control Pitch Pitch Bend 6 9 24dB Lowpass Output Volumes BusV 255 Pan lt C gt FB 0 MM 0 BusV 24dB Lowpass filter direct output volume controls the level of the filter at the Hybrid Synth output Pan stereo position of the 24dB lowpass filter panpot control of the 24dB lowpass filter Works only for the direct output of the filter FB Filterbank send level Controls the 24dB lowpass filter output level for the Fixed Filterbank MM Multimode Filter send level Controls the 24dB lowpass filter output level for the multimode filter 7 9 24dB
98. dmodulation effect can sound much better and intensive when additional parameters have to follow the control signals slightly at the same time For instance you may want to modulate the filter frequency with the same LFO as the resonance the oscillator waveform and the frequency of one of the oscillators to generate a phat detuning effect at maximum setting of the modulation It certainly sounds much more interesting than to modulate the filter frequency only Once you ve created a super atmo with the help of generous LFO use you may want to try to add a special touch to the result by feeding all signals into the filterbank rather than routing directly from the analog filters to sum A particular nice example of this process is factory preset Deepatmo in the Effects category Starting with a low rumble which has been intensified using the lowpass of the filterband an unusual effect sound evolves which is primarily controlled with the lowpass filter section LFO In one of the next couple of chapters you will find more info regarding the filterbank 57 Sreci rmi Hybrid engine Oscillators the improved LFO s 3 3 6 Oscillators the improved LFO s The frequency range of the LFO s is limited compared to real oscillators As a consolation we d like to introduce you to something even better than LFO s oscillators which can be tuned from subaudio all the way beyond the audible range and can be used as modulators This is why w
99. drum section 3 1 4 Solo mode The Solo Mode allows you to activate individual tracks for closer analysis Of course the Solo function is also a popular gimmick when jamming with a pattern Push the Solo button in the part section then push one or more of the numeric buttons which will solo the tracks you d like to hear by themselves Tip The Solo mode can also be activated temporarily The process is exactly the same as the one described for the Mute function Tip Of course you can also use the Solo function to hear the sub group Drums all by itself 3 1 5 Adjusting levels to your liking You re not happy with what you re hearing The balance of the Sounds just isn t quite right and individual sounds are too loud or soft Let s change that now First push the Volume button in the Mixer section Now adjust the levels corresponding to your taste using encoders 1 15 Additionally you can use encoder 16 to adjust the overall level of the whole drum group 3 1 6 Editing panorama and FX sends Now that you re happy with the level settings you can also adjust the FX sends and pan position in the same way Push the Pan button in the mixer section Using the encoders 1 15 you can now move each part between the two speakers until you re perfectly happy with the stereo balance Push the FX1 Send or the FX2 Send button Using encoders 1 15 you will now be able to adjust the FX level for each part individ
100. e ve opted to refer to the Oscillators as VCO s VCO stands for Very Cool Oscillator in our case Similarities to terminology used in older analog synthesizer are purely accidental and not intentional OK all kidding aside in the filters you can use up to four oscillators simultaneously as modulators for the filter frequency Doing so allows for rather complex sound changes and effects Please select song 5 of the Spectralis factory presets and select pattern 1 Playing a key on your keyboard you will now hear a pretty nice filter self oscillation effect with modulation which should make you forget the missing LFO s for the moment As the oscillators also have pitch envelopes the modulation speed can be modulated as well Let s not forget that even FM and PM or time linearity modulated waveforms can be the source of the filter modulation etc Just a little Bag of tricks for modulation freaks Sooo Let s make a few changes to the sound to get an idea of the depth of the modulation possibilities First push the CutOff LP encoder button and select menu page 8 of the filter menu with the help of the Page Up button You will see the following display message You can now see the menu for setting the exponential filter frequency modulation The four parameters represent the modulation depth of oscillators 1 4 If you are adding additional oscillators the various modulations will superimpose each other resulting in more
101. e You can recognize unused slots by the display message After selecting the storage slot push the fourth encoder which will prompt the menu for input of the sound name Enter Sound Name In this menu you can input titles directly using the two lower rows of buttons Each new letter will shift the write cursor by one position to the right If you ve made a mistake you can erase the mistake using the control lt DEL gt By turning the lt DEL gt encoder button you can move forward and backward in the name you are working on Using the encoder button abe lets you determine upper and lower case letters The button has an automatic toggle function between three options abc automatically uses smaller case letters Abc will always capitalize the first letter of a new word and ABC will input all letters in upper case Once you have entered the Name you can confirm saving the sounds by once more pushign the Save button or using the ENTER button The Spectralis will then automatically leave the naming dialog It will revert to a spot two menulevels above for the start of the next sound storage Of course you can also leave the save menu by pushing EXIT 5 1 2 Creating a new soundbank If you wish to create a new soundbank proceed exactly as before Use the SAVE button to prompt the Save Menu What do you want to save sound pattern song lt creativ gt Use the Sound encoder button to prompt the Sound Sav
102. e now 1 2 Record Arm Part Dsynl Len 8 8 NumBar 1 Cycle On Quant 16 The individual display entries have the following functions Len 8 8 Bar Length Here is where you can set the bar length for your recording NumBar 1 Number of bars for this motif Allows you to set the number of bars between 1 and 16 which you d like your motif to have Cycle Cycle Recording Mode On Off When the cycle mode is active On the Spectralis will record a new version in each cycle SPecTRatiS Start Realtime Recording during playback Quant Quantize Grid Setting Here you can select a quantize setting for your recorded notes Directly after finishing your recording you can check different quantize setting of your recorded notes The quantize function will be audible during changing the setting IV Start Recording As soon as you push the Play button the metronome will start to click with the precounter and jump into recording after the precount By looking at the numeric buttons you will be able to tell in which bar you are currently recording The num buttons are acting like bar and beat counters during the recording Once you re finished recording you may want to change the quantize setting As soon as you stop playing the keyboard the Spectralis will playback the recorded notes with the selected quantize setting Satisfied with the reult Then simply push the Stop button You will see the following display message Keep
103. e Menu Save Sound Menue 1 15 current EXIT Select now either current or 1 15 and the corresponding numeric button of the parts for which you want to create a soundbank This will take you to the storage slot select function you should see the following display message Select Memory Location and press SAVE C A Synth S F SNDBANK Push the third encoder SNDBANK This will prompt the menu for creation of a new soundbank 137 138 SPecTRaUIS Using your own samples Manipulate Sound Banks UNLOAD CREATE EXIT In this dialog page use the third control button CREATE to prompt the following display message Enter Name for new Sound Bank lt DEL gt abc The name assignment works exactly the same way as with soundnames That s why we can skip repeating the resulting explanations you can leave this menu by using the ENTER button As this moment the Spectralis has not created a new soundbank yet In order to write the soundbank to flashrom you will need to store at least one sound in this new bank That s why after setting a bankname the already familiar dialog for the setting ofthe Sound storage slot will appear The set bankname is already selected You may now store the current sound into an empty slot of this new bank Once you have completed the saving process of the new sound the new bank will be created as a file in flash rom You can verify the save process on your connected computer or w
104. e Spectralis 2 ability to load motifs or complete drumgrooves from any song into the currentsong you are working on Sometimes you would like to get some new ideas by selecting these motifs just by accident You press Kick and the Spectralis 2 suggests a kick motif If you don t like it you can just hit the buttom again and a new suggestion becomes audible The Spectralis 2 has this functionality for all parts You can even randomize multiple tracks at once with this function Before trying this function please select an empty song If you still have the factory set loaded select any of the songs 27 31 After loading the song choose the pattern mode by pressing PATTERN in the num button assignment section and press select in the part menu Now press Randomize in the creativator section The following menu opens S27 PAO1 Randomize Menu SOUND PATTERN Select PATTERN in this menu If you press that button for the first time after booting the Spectralis 2 the firmware starts enumerating available motifs That takes some seconds but is important to avoid selections of empty motifs After the enumeration the display should look like that 27 PAO1 Randomize Pattern RND ALL By pushing the encoder button the Spectralis 2 randomizes the whole pattern if the parameter is set to ALL This randomize function mostly creates something not really usable For that reason you have multiple choices for this randomisation ALL selects a new
105. e defined steps Sometimes a smooth transition from one step to the next gives much better sonic results The glide function creates SPecTRaUtIS Step sequencer advanced II Parameter control lines these smooth transitions Just hit the steps you want to get smooth results for with the buttons 1 16 and change the transition time with the LGld Lineglide parameter Step mute The mute function not only disables the step envelope trigger points but also the offset values will be suppressed for muted steps as well 5 8 Fnc Mute gt FBV 390 Hz Stp 01 16 Seq L03 Numeric buttons 1 16 can be used for the mute function if this menu page is active Line length We already have described the menu for defining the line length You may be wondering why we are adding a second page for that We did that to improve the workflow a little bit Just memorize that you can select the line length definition by holding down the Function button and pressing the numeric button 5 This menu has some advantages compared to the other one because it does not have to handle multiple parameters That allows to show some other important info like the current sequence segment information here 01 16 and the line selection 6 8 Fnc Mute gt FBV 390 Hz Stp 01 16 Seq L03 Len 17 3 8 2 Triggerpoint muting and overwriting Menupage 7 is another dialog we added for improving the workflow a little bit This menu allows you to mute unmute triggerpoints and to ent
106. e display message just serves as orientation so you can see that you currently have selected the analog synth S Subcategory Using the second encoder S SynBass you can select your sound category of choice to narrow down your search for the kind of sounds you re looking for Sound Finally with the third rotary encoder you can select the desired sound and confirm your selection with the rotary encoder push button You might to try to change the selected sound As an example select the category SynBass and chose the sound Classc1 In case you can t find this sound or instead of the sound name all you see is in your display it is likely that the soundbank HybBnk1 SSB is not stored on the Spectralis flash rom You will need to download this file in the user area of our website or at the spectralis user forum at http www spectralis de phpBB2 Once dowloaded you can copy the data directly to the flash rom of the Spectralis The sounds can now be selected easily inside the Spectralis To start the file transfer connect your Spectralis to your computer via USB The flash rom of the Spectralis should show up at your desktop as a harddrive Just move the file HybBnk1 SSB to the flash rom drive After the transfer the sounds should be readily available To make sound searches as easy as possible we have sorted them alphabetically by name within each category Even though you might not remember at times in which subcategory
107. e fixed filterbank The first oscillator of this preset has been fed into the filterbank The remaining oscillators are not in use for this sound Triggering notes from your midi keyboard will produce notes with a peculiar sound character as a result of the filterbank spectral filtering Next push the Level button in the filterbank section This button assigns the volumes of the individual filterbands to the encoders 1 10 Above the rotary encoders 1 16 you can check the encoder assignment corresponding to the activated filterbank section Adjusting the volume settings of the individual filterbands 1 10 results in strong spectrum variations Rolling back all levels to 0 creates silence no signal will pass the filterbank anymore This behaviour is the most significant difference compared to a normal graphic EQ The Spectralis allows feeding the filterbank signal either into the two analog filters or directly into the FX processors or the output bus For the preset sound VoiceSng the filterbank signal has been fed into the multimode filter By turning the CutOff MM encoder you can tweak the sound further We have kept the routing options as flexible as possible Due to the fact that the analog filters can be fed into the filterbank as well it is possible to generate feedback loops in the Spectralis sound engine Used diligently you can create totally off the wall special effects or of course kill your speakers if you overdo it To avoid
108. e most of it As a basic overview though this may be information overkill at this early stage On page 66 you will find a practical How to chapter for this powerful tool The step sequencer menu itself also has a number of display pages which can be accessed by using the Page Up and Page Down buttons Iteration The Iteration button opens a menupage for changing the playback of a sequence line The lines can be rotated by steps Target The Target button opens the menu for the change of sequencer line targets Sequencer lines can control parameters of the analog synth trigger note events for the DSP and the analog synth and can control external MIDI equipment 2 5 4 Groove Edit section in the middle of the panel directly above the encoders I 16 In the groove edit section of the Spectralis you can create new rhythm motifs for your patterns Step Accent The Step Accent button opens the beatmatrix menu in the display The Beatmatrix is a powerful grid editor which enables you to create and edit new drum grooves fast and easily in the style of vintage drum computers The Beatmatrix uses the buttons 1 16 for creating new rhythms A practical lesson for the input of new rhythm motifs can be found on page 78 of this manual S rectT roa L l S Overview Filterbank section mixer section Function The Function button opens an additional display menu with the swing and shuffle quantisation 2 5 5 Filter
109. e notepad textpad or any others 9 1 Final comments We hope that this manual has helped you to get to know the Spectralis a little better Surely there will be other unexplored areas you will come across as you start playing with your new Instrument We will definitely continue to update this manual and to expand the How to section Of course there will also be a full reference manual available for the Spectralis before long which will have more details regarding sound creation Of course we are always available for your questions and comments Just send us an e mail to j schaaf raditec de Have lots of fun experimenting with your new music machine For now we thank you for your confidence in our product Further informations firmware update notifications sounds tips patterns can be found here Spectralis User Forum http www spectralis de phpBB2 9 2 Spectralis accessories We are offering rackears and smartmedia adapters xD Cards combinations for the spectralis Please drop us a note if you are interested in this products Our sales office can be reached via email at sales raditec de I am offering a special sampleset for the Spectralis DSP Synth engine These samples and sounds are a nice addition for the Spectralis synth Further informations and demo samples can be found at the http www spectralis de website
110. ecTRatiS Beatmatrix programming of new rhythms The value of the third encoder under the display the velocity is always in effect until the next value change for all Step Inputs following the most recent change If you want to change the velocity value for an already existing Step simply enter the desired value and push the corresponding position in the matrix once more If you want to erase a step you can also just push the numeric button once more If there is no new velocity value entered when you are pushing the button the step will automatically erased On the second page of the Beat Matrix editor you can determine the resolution of the Beat Matrix grid the bar length the number of bars in the new motif and the pitch of the corresponding note Push the Page Up button to access this menu page Reso Allows you to adjust the resolution of the grid from between 192th notes and 12 full notes Len Enter the bar length of the motif You can set the bar length anywhere from 1 8 to 10 8 NumBar The number of bars can be set between one and sixteen bars Pitch Adjust at which pitch the sample will be triggered Now you know pretty much everything there is to know about the beat matrix at this time The whole thing is very easy to program yet it still offers different motif length bar length and so on TIP If you are not happy with the result of the velocity control it could be the result of you not having activ
111. ees enses testen tns tn natns sn nsns enses siesta ann 85 3 9 5 Recording your own motifs eese eee eee eene eene enses tn ntn ttn sts ta sins ta sense ta snn 86 3 9 6 Realtime recording eee esee eee eee eese ensis ntes tinta seta sta setas tasa tn stas en sen 86 3 9 7Start Realtime Recording during playback eese eee ettet 87 3 9 8 Step by Step Input eese eee eee eee eese eene sensns tensis tinta seta is sosise 88 3 9 9 Chord Trigger recording independent note and rhythm input 88 3 9 10 Programming new rhythms with the beat matrix e sesesseseeseseeseeeesoeeoeseeoeseeoeeeese 90 3 9 11 Swing feeling and shuffle quantisation 4 esee eese eene nennen nenne 92 3 9 12 Randomize patterns eeeeee e eee esses eene ee stessa stent tns tn seen sense tns sinerent ssns 93 3 9 13 Randomize sounds eere rece eene eee nennen nne haee etae e tee ee tensa sanas sese sees esses eee on 94 SPecTRaLIS 3 10 The song chain mode scssccssscscessscsersecssssscsssssesessssssssssssscssessssssesssesscssessesesessecesscsssesscesscseeees 96 3 10 1 Playing a SONG ess 96 3 10 2 Jumping into pattern jam mode ccecscccccsecscsssecscsssssssessssssesssesscssseseseseees 97 3 10 3 Editing a song chain esee eee eerte eene nennen ennt n tnnt tn sistens insta sensn 97 3 1
112. elected push the Shape encoder button under the display You should see the following display message 1 2 VCO1 Wave Shape 100 Pwm 1 Sync 0 3 Push the PWM encoder button in this menu You should now see the following already somewhat familiar display message VCO1 Time Linearity Modulation PWM Srcl None Dph 0 Src2 None Dph2 0 VCO pitch modulation 1 push the OscDetune encoder button You should see the following menu 1 4 VCO Fine Tune Oscl1 0 Osc2 0 Osc3 0 Osc4 0 Now push the Oscillator finetune encoder buttonof your choice The following function is available for each of the Oscillators 1 8 VCO1 Fine Tune Modulation LWve 0 LRte 0 LDpt 0 2 Pushing the Page Up button twice will direct you to the Edit page of the Modulator Assignment 2 8 VCO1 Pitch Modulation Srcl None Dph 0 Src2 None Dph2 0 SPecTRaUtUIS Hybrid engine The LFO section In this menu you can select and edit the modulation sources and pitch modulation depths 24dB Lowpass filter frequency and resonance modulation 1 push the Cutoff LP encoder button in the filter section 2 Use the Page Up button to select menupage 4 8 to choose the following menupage 4 9 24dB Lowpass Cutoff Modulators Srcl None Dph 0 Src2 None Dph2 0 You now can adjust the desired modulation sources and modulation values Pushing the Page Up button again will take you to the filterresonance control page 5 9 24dB
113. encoder to change a parameter value the arrow however indicates that the encoder has also a button function usually to call up a submenu connected to this parameter 23 24 SPecTRatiS It s finally time to get started 3 0 How to chapters It s finally time to get started We wouldn t be at all surprised if this is actually the first chapter in this manual which you are reading After all we re already on Page 24 of the manual and so far we haven t even addressed getting your Spectralis to make noise It ll get much more entertaining from here on in 3 0 1 Preparations You should make the following preparations before you start working your way through the How to part ofthe manual 3 0 2 Establishing audio connections a Make sure that all your equipment mixer amplifier active speakers Spectralis etc are turned off b Connect the sum outs of the Spectralis with the input ofthe audio system you are using whatever that may be c One by one turn on your other gear Ideally start with the Spectralis This eliminates any chance that any sound from switching on power will reach your speakers Turn the mixer on next then the amplifier and in case of self powered speakers turn them on last d Once everything is powered up first lower the master volume ofthe Spectralis e You can now use one of the numeric buttons to start a pattern and can start raising the volume SLOWLY Try to avoid r
114. ent sounds simultaneously or play them back via the built in sequencer The one thing being determined in the trigger groups is which envelope is being assigned to each trigger group From here in a trigger group can be played as a Part The long and short of it is that now you don t have just one single analog Part available as in the original release version of the Spectralis but a total of 3 analog Parts with numbers 12 13 14 75 76 crecIir ric LS 2 Creating triggergroups multiple analog synth parts Oscillators When you assign an oscillator to the trigger group the following happens If the trigger group is being triggered via MIDI notes the built in Mini Keyboard the step sequencer or by a Motiv of the pattern sequencer the trigger group transmits the received pitch information to the oscillator and triggers its envelopes pitch envelope and level pitch This oscillator can now not be accessed by the other trigger groups Pitch bend after touch or modulation wheel data of course are also transmitted to the selected oscillator 24dB LP Filter and Multimode Filter The process works similarly with the two analog filters The cutoff and level envelope of the filter are being addressed by the selected trigger group Its pitch information controls a possible keyboard scaling sensitivity and all other MIDI data are being processed as expected as well Filterbank and Noise Things work a little different with the filter bank
115. er you should set the time manually Especcially when you are living in a different time zone from from the Middle European Timezone MEZ setting the time is essential Press and hold the Shift button and push the System button to enter the system menu The following display dialog will appear 1 5 System SN 00xxxxxx V1 5x Drum OFF Contr 100 Save Yes lLoad ASK Press Page Up multiple times to reach the fifth menu page 5 5 System SN 00xxxxxx V1 5x SetTime SvAck YES OvlTm 15 LMenu DIS Push the SetTime encoder button to open the Set Time dialog The following display message should appear 2005 Okt 12 18 36 05 Year Day Time You can dial the date and the time with the first three encoders until the time equals with your computer realtime clock You can leave the menu with the Exit button 8 1 Filetypes and the directory structure of the Spectralis flash memory The Spectralis Flash Memory holds usually all data the Spectralis reads during startup We have different file types which are also mentioned inside the How to chapters of the manual We just want to give you an overview about everything you will find at the flash memory Song Folders and patterns On the flash memory you will see a number of folders named SONGO1 SONG02 etc The songfolders make it very easy to manage all files of an entire song If you open a song folder you will find the following file types 145 146 SPecT
116. er is playing the motif on this MIDI instrument TIP The Spectralis has a softthrough function If you are using a MIDI keyboard to play a selected part and if this part is assigned to a MIDI instrument the masterkeyboard will become assigned to this MIDI instrument as well If you activate the sequencer function menu and if you select a sequence line assigned to a MIDI instrument the sofithrough function will work in the same way Sr ecirraeults zz USB Stands for Universal Serial Bus All Modern Computers come fitted with this useful con nection port which enables simple and problem free con nection of peripheral instruments to a Computer The USB port and storage media 7 1 The USB port and storage media Using the USB port on your Spectralis you can easily exchange data with your computer save your data Transfer new samples do firmware upgrades The Spectralis uses generic drivers for data transfer which are integrated in the firmware This eliminates the need for driver installations Once you ve made a successful connection additional drive icons will appear on your computer s desktop which can be used to exchange data with Normally you should now see three different drives a SPECTRALIS this drive represents the internal 4GB resident memory drive which can be re written multiple times and saves its contents when the instrument is being powered down This is where you want to store all your fi
117. er new triggerpoints in one single edit page Numeric buttons 1 16 are assigned to the triggerpoint mute unmute function Shift Encoder button 1 16 copies the display settings to the corresponding step Aside from the combined button and encoder functionality the menupage is largely identical to the first edit page 7 8 Fnc TrigSet gt FBV 390 Hz Stp 01 16 Seq L03 Typ Attac Len 4th Depth 63 3 8 3 Single step editor Encoder buttons 1 16 activate a special single step editor mode in the sequencer menu This menu allows for selecting steps and editing them You can use this dialog to check the step values of a sequence line as well Edit Step 1 gt FBV 390 Hz Stp 01 16 Off 0 Typ Decay Len 4th Depth 0 The upper row of this menu displays the current selected stepnumber and the line assignment By hitting encoder buttons 1 16 other steps can be selected directly Page Up and Down allows to jump for and backwards in your 81 82 cr ecirrmeulz z Step sequencer advanced II Parameter control lines sequence to edit one step after the other Press and hold Shift and Page Up and Page Down to reach other sequencerlines without leaving the singlestep edit mode If you want to copy the settings of the current step to other steps in the sequencer line just press and hold Shift and hit the encoderbuttons you want to copy the settings to Hitting the numeric buttons activates the triggerpoints for
118. er octave on the keyboard 16 27 VCO2 Glide amp Keyboard Scaling Glide 0 Centr A3 Scale 12 17 27 VCO3 Glide amp Keyboard Scaling Glide 0 Centr A3 Scale 12 The same parameters like at page 15 27 but without the Sync parameter as only oscillator 1 can be synchronised 18 27 VCO4 Ringmd Glide amp Keyb Scaling Ring OFF Glide 0 Centr A3 Scale 12 The same parameters like at page 15 27 but instead of sync this page has the Ring parameter Ring Ringmodulation On Off activates the ringmodulation of oscillator 3 and 4 The signal of the ringmodulator replaces the output of oscillator 4 when activated Pages 19 27 22 27 controls the bitcrusher phase startpoint the Modulationwheel dependent FM depth from oscillator 4 and the pitchbend range The pitchbend range can be edited at page 4 of the oscillator pitch menu for all oscillators at once SPecTRaUtIS Hybrid Synthesizer reference Oscillator wave menu Crush Bitcrushing reduces the bitrate of the oscillator signal This parameter also reduces the sampling frequency and adds some aliasing to the oscillator signal at higher values If you are running an oscillator at a very low frequency high crush values create nice modulation patterns Phs Phasestartpoint sets the position of the waveformstart at a note on event If set to zero the phase start is freerunning Every note starts the oscillator at another position of the waveform However s
119. ergroup 1 VCOI VCO4 select the triggergroup assignment for oscillators 1 4 129 130 SPecTRatiS Hybrid Synthesizer reference Triggergroups 2 3 Trigger Group Filter Noise MM TG1 LP TG1 NSE TG1 FB TG1 MM Multimode Filter selects the triggergroup for the multimode filter LP 24 dB lowpass filter selects the triggergroup for the 24dB lowpass filter NSE Noise selects the triggergroup for the noise source FB Fixed Filterbank selects the triggergroup for the fixed filterbank 3 3 Trigger Group Note Priority TG1 HIGH TG2 HIGH TG3 HIGH IGI TG3 Triggergroup x note priority mode select how the hybrid synth handles mutliple notes Possible options are HIGH highest note priority the highest note of multiple notes has priority Notes below the highest note will be ignored HI TR highest note priority with retrigger a new highest note retriggers the envelopes even when the former highest note is still held down LOW lowest note priority the lowest note of multiple notes has priority Notes above the lowest note will be ignored LO TR lowest note priority with retrigger a new lowest note retriggers the envelopes even when the former lowest note is still held down LAST last note priority the last played note has always priority independent from the pitch LS TR last note priority with retrigger A new n
120. ern Sometimes it is handy to exchange the entire drum groove of an pattern You can do that by hitting the Drum Groove button in the Num Button Assignment Section The following display menu will appear S08 PA15 Exchange Drumgroove 8 08 123 ALS In the first display row you see the current song and patternnumber S Song Selection The first encoder selects the song from which one wants to load a drum groove into the current pattern P Pattern Selection The second encoder selects the drum groove corresponding to the pattern number you are selecting The selection must be confirmed by hitting the Pattern Select Encoder As soon you hit the encoder button the following menu appears Load Drumgroove of S08 PA15 No Yes The num buttons can be used for the drumgroove selection as well The buttons 1 16 and Shift 1 16 are directly assigned to the drum grooves of pattern 1 32 PA01 PB16 of the current song Although the confirm dialog is already opened you still can switch from one groove to another by hitting the num buttons YES If you found the desired drum groove you can press Yes to load the drum groove into the pattern No By pressing No you leave the confirm dialog and the drum groove selection menu will appear again to give you the opportunity to select another song as the source for drum grooves Pressing any other num 85 SPecTRaUIS Recording your own motifs button assignment or part bu
121. erns In this chapter you will learn how you can change the motifs of the parts The chapter starts with a rather simple exercise exchanging existing motifs with the goal of creating new patters and it ends with instructions for realtime recording and the use of the beatmatrix for the creation of new rhythms 3 9 1 Exchanging motifs You can replace the Motifs of the Sequencer to create new Patterns Of course you can make your selection while the Sequencer is playing Exchanging Motifs can be done as follows I First chose the part in which you want to replace the motif II In the Part section upper left gt push the Select button Select the desired part in the numeric button row below III Opening the motif selection menu Push the MOTIF button in the Num Button Assignment section You will see the following display message Using the encoders right under the display you can now handle the following functions S 01 Use the first encoder to chose the song in which you want to select a motif P 01 Use the second encoder to select one of the patterns 1 32 from which a motif is to be extracted M KICK use the third encoder to select the part from which the motif is to be selected For easier orientation the motifs are named corresponding to their part designation If all you are seeing is the Symbol instead of a part name you will know that the selected motif number of this Pattern does not actua
122. ers the oscillators are freerunning Every note you are playing opens the VCA at another position of this oscillator phase shift beating The sample oscillators of the Spectralis can simulate that by shifting the sample start point resulting in a sample based sound with liveness Additionally you can add rhichness by trigger up to 8 DSP voices simultaneously with detuning Please push the MACRO CONTROL encoder button inside the VCO section to open the Oscillator sample playback mode menu 1 2 Oscillator Sample playback mode Start 0 StartM 0 Mode Poly Detn 0 Start Sample Startpoint Start lets you truncate the sample startpoint StartM Sample Startpoint Modulation This encoder sets the speed of the sample startpoint Modulation A setting of 0 disables the Sample Startpoint Modulation Mode Playmode Selection Offers different sample playback modes Poly Standard polyphonic playmode Mono Monophonic Playmode Uni2 8 Unisono 2 4 and 8 are the different unisono playback modes that can create very rhich sounds and flanging FX depending on the settings Unisono modes are using multiple sample voices per note Uni sono 8 will need 8 voices per tone The maximum polyphony for such a sound is limited to 4 Detn Detune parameter for unisono voices The detune parameter sets the amount of detune for the unisono voices Settings around 1 3 are resulting in deep flanging effects especially on using Unsisono 8 mode 3 2 5 Reverse s
123. ers3 Pa 15 S 6 Edit UNDO RENAME MIDI Please press the Edit encoder button to open the songchain editor page 1 2 Ambient Step 8 of 8 Filters8 Ofst 0 4 Repeat 1Trnc 0 4 The display always shows the information about the current songstep The songstep plays in cycle mode while editing Selecting the pattern for the current songstep Select the pattern for the current songstep by pressing a num button or a shift num button combination All patterns of your songchain should already be placed inside the songfolder of the selected song Setting the Mutings of the current songstep Press and hold the Mute button and press the num button of the part you want to mute or unmute The current setting will become visible at the num buttons LED s 97 98 SPecTRatiS Editing a song chain Setting the transpose settings for the current songstep Press and hold the Transpose button and select the desired transpose setting with the Spectralis Mini Keyboard Pressing the CFlat will play the original pitch Setting the Solo Settings of the current songstep Press and hold the Solo button and select the parts with the num buttons to specify the solo seting for the current songstep Set repeats for the current songstep With the encoder underneath the display you can set the number of times a songstep will be played The length of a single songstep is dependent on the pattern length you specified in the edit pattern sect
124. ery time during each sequence Glide The parameter glide is being used to determine if a note glides to the next note or if the next note pitch is reached directly The glide function can be turned on and off for each step The glide effect of the note lines works in connection with the settings prepared in the oscillator section corresponding to the note lines There are a number of variations concerning input of notes available which we will tell you about now Sometimes you may want to set all steps to the same pitch other times you may want to change the velocity of individual steps At times it may be preferable to adjust the pitch with the help of encoders 1 16 other times you may prefer to enter the notes via MIDI The following will provide a complete overview of the input options By selecting the right option for the respective purpose you will get to the desired result quickly Before we get started you need to select an empty pattern Also you ll have to select a sound which is suitable for use in a sequencer line How about the sound Moogish from the Sequencer category 3 5 2 Option 1 Adjusting preset value and entering steps Push the Function button in the sequence edit section and select page 1 7 of the sequence edit menu by hitting the page down button if not already selected SPecTRaUtIS Step sequencer advanced Tonal sequences Next select a note line TGrp1 with the first encoder and se
125. es above and below 0 will add a envelope shaped cutoff frequency control Holding SHIFT and rotating the EG DEPTH encoder controls a macro based control over both Multimode and 24dB lowpass filter cutoff envelopes Pressing the EG DEPTH encoderbutton in the filtersection opens the envelope generator edit menu Each filter sports two envelope generators one for the volume and one for the cutoff frequency control Att Attack Time controls the attack time of the multimode filter volume envelope Dcy Decay Time controls the decay time of the multimode filter volume envelope Stn Sustain Level controls the sustain level of the multimode filter volume envelope RIs Release Time controls the release time of the multimode filter volume envelope Pushing the Dcy encoder button opens the submenu for the hold time The hold time defines a ramp just between the attack and decay phase of the envelope That simulates the curves of some vintage envelope generators and gives more sonic flexibility 127 128 SPecTRaUtUIS Hybrid Synthesizer reference Filter envelopes 1 4 Multimode Volume Envelope Page2 H1d 0 MMBP 3 2 4 24dB Lowpass Volume Envelope Page2 H1d 0 LPBP 3 Ai 3 4 Multimode Cutoff Envelope Page2 Hld 0 4 4 24dB Lowpass Cutoff Envelope Page2 H1d 0 With the page buttons one can navigate through the submenus of all 4 filter envelope generators The two volume envelope sub
126. esee eene eene tn sistat en etn snn 24 3 0 3 Connect MIDI keyboard eeeeeee esee eee entes nennen tnnt n sts sa stessa sinn 24 3 1 Select play and adjust patterns the Pattern Jam mode eese eee 25 xS BID 3 1 2 The first Pattern Jam session 3 1 3 Mute function Muting individual parts esee eerte 30 3 1 4 Illu A 26 3 1 5 Adjusting levels to your liking eese eese eee eene entente enn sensn sitne tn nnn 26 3 1 6 Editing panorama and FX sends eese eee eee eene tenentes tensa inan 26 3 1 7 Sound selection for your parts eee e eese eee ee etes eene tte n tnn s tensa sina sn 26 3 1 7a The pattern transpose function eee eese eerte eene tenente enn tn nennt tenens tna snn 27 3 1 8 Saving Patterns 28 3 1 9 What data are saved inside a pattern cssccsecssessccsecesssssssscsssssessssseesesssesees 29 3 1 10 Turning off the Default sound 3 1 11 Deactivating the Pattern changed Save Firsi mess ses ee CT ees 30 3 2 Editing DSP synthesizer sounds ssesssssescecssssescssssssscssscsssssessscesesssssessessesssessesssessssessessscsseees 32 3 2 1 Imtroduction nS 32 3 2 2 Selecting a sample or multisample for the sound eese 32 3 2 3 Tuning the sample set se
127. evel button in the Filterbank section and next the encoder button 16 This will prompt the following display menu The first menu page controls the level of the left input and the second page the level of the right input signal SumL You should adjust at which level the signal is being output directly to the sum out This option is useful if you are using a second tone generator for a live gig and don t have a mixer handy L gt LP Controls at which level the signal is being routed into the 24dB lowpass filter L gt MM Controls at which level the signal is being routed into the multi mode filter L gt FB Controls at which level the signal is being routed into the fixed filterbank SPecTRaUtIS Signal routings Keep in mind when inserting external signals that the analog filters and the filterbank of the Spectralis have post signal amps which may have to be by passed if you want to process an external signal without triggering the analog synthesizer If you don t you may not hear anything at all of the inserted signal You can find more details about this in the section How to Playing the Analog Synthesizer on Page 36 You will find the bypass controls of the individual filters on the following menu pages I Push the filterbank Level button in the filterbank section FBLBP controls the bypass for the left filterbank output and FBRBP for the right one II 24dB push the lowpass EG Dept
128. ey of the transpose region StdKy C4 This parameter selects the key where the motifs will play with the original pitch 105 106 SPecTRatiS Keyboard Transpose As soon as you have activated the transpose function all motifs get transposed if you press a key in the transpose region You can toggle the transpose receiption for parts independently for each pattern Please select the pattern mode now S01 Bass2Ass PA04 LFO Filter Tempo 101 T BRIDGE EDIT Choose now the pattern for which you want to change the transpose settings Now switch into part select mode to select the part you want to change the transpose settings for S01 Bass2Ass PA04 LFO Filter Pa 15 T101 C DSynth S Pad JX Stri lt Vol gt For our example we have selected D Synth 1 Part 15 Next press Motif S01 PA04 Exchange Motif for Part Dsynl 8 01 P 04 M EDIT Now press the encoder button EDIT 1 2 Pat LFO Filter Line Dsynl Motif Edit Len 2 4 Loop Cont Trans ON RevPt G8 Trans ON The third parameter toggels the transpose function for this part RevPt G8 Here you can set the upper note for upward transposing Above this note all notes of the motif will be shifted one octave down This parameter is essential to keep a bass motif in the bass region even if it gets transposed heavily The same parameters can be found in the stepsequencer edit menu on page 8 for all tonal sequencerlines Press the Sequence Edit Function but
129. f frequency envelope Dcy Decay Time controls the decay time of the multimode filter cutoff frequency envelope Stn Sustain Level controls the sustain level of the multimode filter cutoff frequency envelope RIs Release Time controls the release time of the multimode filter cutoff frequency envelope 4 4 24dB Lowpass Cutoff Envelope Pagel Att 74 Dcy 127 Stn 160 R1s 127 Att Attack Time controls the attack time of the 24dB lowpass filter cutoff frequency envelope Dcy Decay Time controls the decay time of the 24dB lowpass filter cutoff frequency envelope Stn Sustain Level controls the sustain level of the 24dB lowpass filter cutoff frequency envelope RIs Release Time controls the release time of the 24dB lowpass filter cutoff frequency envelope 4 5 Triggergroup edit menu Pressing the Set Routing button opens the triggergroup definition edit menu Triggergroups are available to split the sound engine into up to three indepen dent synthesizer subparts Each triggergroup can be controlled by an indepen dent motif or sequencerline If one for example builds a triggergroup assigned to one oscillator and the lowpass filter and feeds the signal of that oscillator exclusivly into the lowpass filter this subpart can be controlled independent from the rest of the engine By default all synthesizer elements filters oscillators noise filterbank are assigned to trigg
130. fining the pitch of the notes use Exit The following Display message shows the option Tapping not in pointed but square brackets as this function has now been activated after the definition of chord memories Use Tapping to get to the following display StepbyStep Tapping Part Asynl Len 8 8 NumBar 8 Rnd Quant 16 The dialog here is very similar to the real time record dialog You can now define the measure format and select the number of bars you want to tap with your chord memories When done push START You will hear the metronome and you now can record the rhythmic pattern for the chord memories using your keyboard or the Spectralis Mini Keyboard again It does not matter which keys you now are playing only the rhythmic pattern matters What is being recordedare the values ofthe touch dynamics the time position and the length of the keystrokes With each recorded key the next available note chord will be played back A special creative tool is being done by the button Rnd It arranges that chord memories are not recalled while tapping successively in order but in random order Each use ofthe Rnd function creates a new random order Once you re finished recording you can change the quantisation in this menu and then end the recording process using Stop You will then see the menu replace or discard These option operate the same way as in the realtime record process TIP Sometimes you would like to trigger a desired chord
131. functions With the three buttons 12dB LP 12dB BP and the 12dB HP one can mute and unmute the three filter outputs independent from each other By selecting the lowpass and the highpass output together the filter creates a notch characteristic Pressing either the CUTOFF MM or the RESO MM encoder button opens the multimode filter menu FmW ve Filter frequency modulation LFO waveform changes the waveform of the filter section LFO from sine 0 over triangle 64 sawtooth 128 rectangle 196 to random 255 FmRte Filter frequency modulation LFO rate changes the speed of the filter modulation SPecTRaUtIS Hybrid Synthesizer reference Multimode filter FmDpt Filter modulation depth controls the depth of the cutoff frequency modulation 2 8 Multimode LFO Depth Envelope FmEd1 0 FmEDa 0 FmEdr 0 FmEDp 0 FmEdl Filter modulation delay sets the time between the note trigger and the start of the modulation depth envelope FmEda filter LFO depth envelope attack time controls the attack time of the filter modulation envelope FmEdr filter LFO depth envelope release time controls the release time of the filter modulation envelope FmEdp filter LFO envelope depth controls how much the modulation depth gets controlled by the envelope generator 3 8 Multimode Filter Control Cue 127 Reso 0 EgAm 1 Ksc1 0 Cut cutoff frequency controls the
132. ge file on a CDR Also the CDR that ships with the Spectralis contains such a image file to give you the opportunity to reset the machine to the factory defaults 8 2 Restoring the factory patterns songs sounds and samples The image restore function can be activated from the file browser of the Spectralis Please follow the step by step instruction below 1 Backup all files of the internal flash memory to your computer 2 If not already done copy the SFI File to a formatted SD card 3 Select the Browse function by holding down the Shift button and pushing the Browse button underneath the 4 display encoders The following display message will appear Select Device for Browsing Flash ClrSnd SD Card Select the slot where you have inserted the smartmedia card with the SFI File by pushing the rotary encoder button Slot1 or Slot2 4 Use the Page buttons to select the SFI file The display should now look like this 147 148 SPecTRaLIS Switching patterns from fix to dynamic loading 1 5Set SFI 2005 10 06 08 16 858154496 5 By hitting the Enter button the restore function will start automaticly with the formatting procedure When the restore function is done please reboot the Spectralis 8 3 Switching the Sample Set file type from fix to dynamic loading At the Spectralis 2 panel press and hold the Shift button and press Browse The file browser dialog will appear in the display Select
133. ging the trigger probability Using the Page Up button will get you to the next menu page 2 4 Probability TGrpl Stp 01 16 Seq L11 Prob 100 SET A11 In this menu page you can adjust the probability for the triggering of a note separately for each step At 100 the note will be triggered during each pass The lower the set value the less the probability that the note will actually be triggered Use the numeric buttons to copy the value displayed to additional steps You will also be able to see in this menu as well which steps conform with the value shown in the display by looking at the blink lit indicator of the numeric buttons If the step value conforms the button will be lit light on Using the button SET ALL the probability for all notes can be set to the same value simultaneously 71 72 SPecTRaUIS Step sequencer advanced Tonal sequences Setting gate times On the third menu page you will be able to adjust the length of notes As above you can set the values you chose in the display and then use the numeric buttons to select the steps which you want to assign the new length to 3 4 Gate Length gt TGrpl Stp 01 16 Seq L11 Len 1 SET ALL The length of notes can be entered in multiples of steps The range goes from 1 8 Step to a maximum of 13 steps If you want to create really long notes in the step sequencer simply set the resolution of the sequencer line to a higher note value After all you have the option to
134. gularly in the beginning probably quite frequently 2 2 Preparations 2 2 1 Unpacking You should find the following contents in your shipping box Spectralis 2 the power cord this Spectralis 2 manual abackup DVD with the current patterns and samples factory presets Please contact your retailer right away if any of the above items are missing You may also contact Radikal Technologies GmbH j schaaf raditec de If you do notice any physical damage to the Spectralis 2 after shipping please immediately contact the shipping company with your complaint We will be happy to assist you with further documentation if needed 2 2 2 Set Up Place the Spectralis on a level clean and sufficiently spacious surface or a suitable Keyboard stand Make sure that there is no obstruction to the ventilation slots Avoid operating the Spectralis close to technical equipment which generates heat In case you wish to install the Spectralis 2 in a 19 rack you can order the optional rack ears available at your retailer or directly from Radikal Technologies The Spectralis will take up 5 rack spaces plus a little extra head room room for the cables connected to it Make sure to follow the instructions described in the rack setup instructions 2 2 3 Firmware update We currently are working full steam on adding more and more features to the Spectralis firmware For this reason we advise you to update your Spectralis whenever new firmware versions are annou
135. h envelopecontrol This parameter has a push button function which leads to the envelope menu of this LFO When pushing the encoder the following display message will appear 1 4 LFO1 Depth Control Envelope LED1 0 LEAt 0 LER1 0 LEDp 0 LED 0 LFO Envelope Delay Here you can adjust whether the use ofthe envelope is started immediately upon the start of playback of a sound or after an adjustable delay period LEAt 0 LFO Envelope Attack Lets you adjust how quickly the modulation intesity will increase LERI 0 LFO Envelope Release Allows you to adjust how quickly the modulation intensity will decrease after release of the keyboard key LEDp 0 LFO Envelope Depth Is used to adjust the intensity of the modulation control via envelope As this parameter frequently only receives its final value when setting the envelope control we have repeated the parameter in this edit menu for you The modulation depth which is dependent on the envelope will be added to the set LFO Depth value 51 52 SPecTRavIS Hybrid engine The LFO section Page button Using the Page Up Down buttons you can address the other three Master LFO s directly LFO Wave Waveform selection for LFO s This encoder changes the waveformselection of all four Master LFO s simultaneously The LFO s of the Spectralis provide non detent waveform selection If set to value 0 you select a sinewaveform If set to value 63 you select a triange waveform If se
136. h button select menu page 5 The bypass control can be found on display encoder 4 LPBP III Push the multimode EG Depth encoder button and select menu page 7 The bypass control can be found on display encoder 4 MMBP 3 16 3 Feed parts to individual outputs You can output random parts via a single channel output We can illustrate how to do it very simply using the example of a kick drum In the Mixer section chose the Volume button Next push the encoder button 1 Kick This will open the channel strip for the Kick Drum Part 1 4 S01 lt Song 01 P15 Chords Part01 Vol 0 Pan C FX1 0 FX2 0 Pushing the Page Up button will take you to the second page of the channel strip 2 4 S01 lt Song 01 gt P15 Chords Part15 Dirl1 2 0 Dir3 4 0 AnSNnd 0 Drums 127 In this menu set the parameter Drums to 0 to take the kick part out from subgroup control You can now assign the Kick part to a different output using the encoders DIR1 2 or DIR3 4 If you only want to assign the kick drum to one output simply set the panorama on the first channel strip to left or right Of course you can also use the same process for any other parts As the signals can be separated from the sum outs this way it is fair to look at the sum outs as individual outs as well However they will always contain the FX signal In addition it is possible to use the individual outs simultaneously with different levels a
137. h can be played back either in a predetermined order which can be accessed changed varied or transposed during LIVE operation 2 4 8 Sequence With the Spectralis a sequence is a succession of notes or sound parameter changes which are generated by the internal quasi analog step sequencer This means you can not only control the note output but also the sound of the Spectralis rhythmically Contrary to the data of the drum grid and the realtime sequencer the settings of the step sequencer are stored within an analog synthesizer sound 2 4 9 Fixed Filterbank In recent years it s become a bad habit to refer to any instrument with more than one filter as a filterbank This can be rather confusing for the user which is why we would like to describe what actually constitutes a fixed filterbank There are very few musical instruments which don t have at least some kind of filter Most feature a lowpass filter which cut off overtones upward of a predetermined frequency more or less steeply You may be used to decreasing or increasing the cutoff frequency to create the typical synthetic sounds However it is not possible with this kind of filter to selectively boost multiple different frequency bands simultaneously while other bands above below or in between these bands are being limited In nature this kind of behavior is quite common Your oral cavity serves as a prime example Different vocal sounds can be shaped by unconsciously cha
138. h the Ose Wave button and then use the Page Up button to select menu page 3 27 There you need to set the volume of the oscillator 1 to Zero Now select menu page 24 27 Noise Direct Volume You should see the following display message SPecTRaUtIS Hybrid engine The fixed filterbank Turn the first encoder and adjust the filterbank level for the noise source to a value of about 200 Push the filter bank Level button once more and make sure that the button is lit as this button can also alternatively be used to exit the filterbank If the button does not light up just push it once more Encoders 1 10 are now assigned to the level of the individual frequency bands If you set all filter levels to 0 beside the lowpass filter and if you rise up the volume for the LP filter output to a high volume the sound engine should produce a low rumbling noisefloor in case you have a speaker system that is capable of reproducing such low frequencies In case you are not hearing anything please check the routing once again Turn the encoder 12 15 to a value of 0 and turn the filterbank direct volume to a value of about 200 using the encoder 11 FB Level Now create a frequency band mix with encoders 1 10 Once you have set up a nice sounding spectral mix push one of the control buttons 1 10 to open the filterbank edit menu You have the following parameters available in this menu Morph Using just this one control you can change
139. hange additional parameters of the filterbank in the display menu PAN Pushing the Pan button you can set the stereo position of the individual filter outputs via encoders 1 10 You will find another How to chapter for filterbank use on page 64 of this manual 19 20 SPecTRaAavIS Overview Mixer section master section creativator 2 5 6 Mixing desk section to the right above the encoders 1 16 This section assigns the 16 encoder row to the Part Mixer of the Spectralis Volume Pushing the Volume button in the mixer section activates the volume control via encoders 1 16 Encoders 1 15 control the volumes of parts 1 15 and encoder 16 controls the volume of all drum parts relative to the set value In reality the activated volume controls in regards to drum parts 1 11 don t affect the part volumes but rather determine the level at which the parts are being routed into the subgroup drums This allows for smooth control of the whole rhythm group with just one controller the drums subgroup volume control 16 The use of one of the 16 encoder buttons opens a channel strip for the respective part In the corresponding mixer menu visible in the display all mixer parameters of a part can be edited directly This menu has multiple edit pages which can be accessed using the Page Up and Page Down buttons Pan The Pan button assigns the control of the stereo position of the parts to encoders 1 15 FX1
140. he multimode filter as well as to the 24dB lowpass filter keeping in mind that you have just opened the levels to the multimode filter yourself You can also see that only the 24dB lowpass filter is connected with the sum 47 48 SrPecTRatIS Hybrid engine Multimode filter and filter routing output For the multimode filter only the signal path to the 24dB lowpass is open In order to route the multimode filter directly to the output as well you will have to open the encoders to the right of this module as shown in the drawing At the same time you should reduce the signal feed level from the multimode to the 24dB lowpass filter You have located the problem To change the routing as described first push the CutOff MM encoder button You should see the following menu 1 8 Multimode Cutoff Modulation LFO FmWve 0 FmRte 0 FmDpt 0 We don t want to spend a lot of time here so please push the Page Up button a couple of times which will get you directly to menu page 6 6 8 Multimode Output Volumes BusV 0 Pan 0 FB 0 Let s set the bus level to a value of 230 Pan to center and the encoder LP to 0 6 8 Multimode Output Volumes BusL 230 BusR 230 FB 0 You will now hear the multimode filter always even when the 24dB lowpass filter is connected Both filters are now set to operate in parallel mode We re hopeful that you are developing a feel for the inner workings of the Spectralis by now In that c
141. i Ra US 2 Keyboard Transpose Len Length Length changes the length of the resulting arpeggiator motif The arpeggiator teaming with the sequencer If you have activated the arpeggiator the pattern sequencer does not record the arpeggiator motifs but the notes that control the arpeggiator During playback one has the opportunity to change all the arpeggiator settings in realtime That makes much more sense than recording a arpeggiator motif and keeping it as it is forever 3 15 Keyboard Transpose Motifs and sequencer lines can now be transposed by an attached MIDI keyboard For each song you can define a transpose MIDI channel and keyboard zone for the trasnpose function In each pattern you can activate the transpose function independently for each part and each sequencerline Preparing a song for the transpose function Please select the Song Mode S01 Bass2Ass PAO01 BasicBass Pa 12 S 1 EDIT undo RENAME MIDI Push the MIDI encoder button The first page of the MIDI menu pops up 1 2 S01 Bass2Ass MIDI Settings Edit Send Rev ctl MIDIDEF The transpose settings are located at the second menu page Please press the PAGE UP button 2 2 S01 Bass2Ass MIDI Transpose Setting Chn OFF LoKey C2 Hikey C6 StdKy C4 Chn OFF This parameter selects the transpose MIDI channel LoKey C2 This parameter selects the lowest key of the transpose region HiKey C6 This parameter selects the upper k
142. if Selection Menu 3 9 2 The Motif Edit Menu S01 PA01 Exchange Motif for Part Kick 01 01 P 01 M Kick EDIT Up to now we have not discussed the Edit command in the motif menu By pressing the Edit encoder button the edit menu will appear in the display This edit menu allows to change the way a motif will be played within the pattern 1 2 Pat BasicBass Line Kick Motif Edit Len 1 Loop Cont Len Motif Length The length of a motif can be set between a quarter note and 16 bars in steps of a quarter note Loop Motif Loop Mode Motifs can be played continuously independent from the pattern length can be restarted at the end of the pattern or can be played just one time at the beginning of a pattern Cont Continuous playing of the motif The motif repeats independently from the pattern length Once Motif will played one time only at the begin of the pattern Repeat The motif repeats continuously but resets to the start position on a pattern restart SPeciTRatiS Exchanging drum grooves 3 9 3 Initialising motifs and part parameters The second menu page lets you reset the sound or clear the motif 2 2 Reset Sound of Part Kick CIrSND ClrMotif CIrSND Clear Sound Pushing down the first Encoder Button intializes the sound of the selected part ClrMotif Clear Motif Pushing down the fourth encoder deletes the motif 3 9 4 Exchanging drum grooves Parts 1 11 are the drum parts of a Spectralis patt
143. ignal is output directly If the Waveform being output currently happens to be in maximum position a steep curve is being generated which you might end up hearing as a click This does apply to all involved envelopes You can however suppress these click noises which tend to show up primarily with dull sounds and could be annoying rather effectively by either setting the values for attack and release a little higher or by switching the oscillators from free oscillation to a start with fixed phase position The start phase position of the oscillators can be set individually for each oscillator on edit pages 18 21 A set value of 0 plays the oscillators in free oscillation mode and a value above 0 sets the position in the waveform from which the oscillator is being started once a key is being played Whichever waveform you are chosing they all will have a zero pass position If the waveform is started in the zero position of course you won t hear any click even if the attack is hard Depending on the selected waveform the zero position of the waveform can be found at a different value The clicking noise at the end of a sound cannot be avoided with the phase position In case of doubt always set the release time to a value of 10 so the click at the end of the sound is being eliminated with a soft fade 3 3 4 Back to analog technology the multimode filter and filter routing Now that we ve eliminated the first potential stumbling block
144. ilter Before openening the envelope menu you should increase the EgAM Parameter at the third lowpass filter edit page by pushing CutOff LP encoderswitch selecting the third page with Page Up and increasing the EgAm parameter and reduce the filter frequency CutOff LP as described before Now you can push the EG Depth button You will now see the first page ofthe envelope menus for the two analog filters This menu page is not the one showing the envelope ofthe lowpass yet but rather the volume envelope ofthe multimode filter Remember Each filter has two envelopes one to control level and one for the cutoff frequency By pushing the Page Up button three times you will arrive at your destination the cutoff frequency envelope of the 24dB lowpass filter 43 44 SPecTRatiS Hybrid engine oscillators and envelopes Now you can control the most essential functions of the 24 dB lowpass Just play around for a while with all the functions described so far This way you will get a good feel for the sonic capabilities of the filter Once you ve had your fill we can move on with this chapter In case you are wondering why the tone stops abruptly when you release the keyboard even with the Release Rls set to it s maximum value you may want to go back two pages in the menu Here is where you will find the level envelope for the 24dB Lowpass If the release time is set to a low value the tone will end despite the
145. ine The Spectralis Hybrid Synth Engine sports four oscillators two different analog filters a fixed filterbank 10 LFOs and a bunch of envelope generators The routing capabilities allow patches that were formerly only possible on large modular systems 4 2 The oscillator section of the Hybrid engine 4 2 1 VCO WAVE Menu Rotating the OSC WAVE encoder changes the waveforms of all 4 oscillators at once Rotating the Macro Control encoder controls the Timelinearity of the waveforms and creates pulswidth modulation on rectangles wave 255 Holding SHIFT and pressing OSC1 SYNC synchronises oscillator 1 to oscillator 2 Holding SHIFT and pressing RINGMOD activates the ringmodulation between oscillator 3 and 4 Press the OSC WAVE or Macro Control encoderbutton to enter the Oscillator Wave menu Encoders 1 4 control the waveform selection for oscillators 1 4 0 Sine 64 Triangle 128 sawtooth 255 rectangle Pressing the display encoder button 1 2 3 or 4 opens the submenu page for further waveform modifications SPecTRavisS Hybrid Synthesizer reference Oscillator wave menu 1 2 VCOl1 Waveform Modifiers Shape 255 T1m 0 Sync 0 Shape selects the waveform of the selected oscillator TLM changes the Timelinearity depth Sync is only available for oscillator 1 and syncs to oscillator 2 Pressing the Shape encoderbutton opens the menu for further wavetable modulation settings
146. ing finetuning 31 32 SPecTRaUIS Editing DSP synthesizer sounds 3 2 Editing DSP synthesizer sounds 3 2 1 Introduction In chapter 3 1 7 you already found out how you can exchange a sound for another For the truly impatient users we will now familiarize you with a number of tone generator parameters so you can tailor the sounds even more to your taste At this time the sample engine of the DSP synth already provides the following features a 12dB multimode filter with lowpass highpass and bandpass operation Modes b Separate envelopes for the multimode filter and the amplifier c Velocity sensitivity settings for amplifier as well as keyboard scaling for the cutoff frequency d Sample selection and tuning the sample oscillator In the upper part of the Spectralis frontpanel is the section which controls the sound edit functions The controls always affect the current selected part For instance if you d like to change the sound of the snare drum proceed as follows Chose the Select Button in the Part Section Select the desired Part Snare using the numeric button 2 The Control elements have now been assigned to the snare drum 3 2 2 Selecting a sample or multisample for the sound The DSP based synthesizer for the drums and polyphonic synthesizer parts are sample based The spectralis comes with a basic sample set that loads automaticly during startup from the 4 GB Flash Memory to the internal RAM memo
147. ing that this way and are only reporting an error message or nothing In this case you can set the Spectralis to USB1 1 Fullspeed mode manually in the system menu Press and hold the Shift button and push the System button to enter the system menu The following display dialog will appear 1 5 System SN 00xxxxxx V1 5x Drum OFF Contr 100 Save Yes Load ASK Press Page Up to reach the second menu page 2 5 System SN 00xxxxxx V1 5x USB FULL DSnd YES Sync DIS Play YES The first rotary encoder allows to change the USB communication speed USB FULL Fullspeed Mode USB 1 1 compatible USB HIGH Highspeed Mode USB2 compatible USB OFF USB turned Off the lowest available speed SrectT roa US 2 Realtime clock Filetypes 8 0 Spectralis 2 Realtime Clock When you browse the spectralis files at your computer you will recognize that the files created by the Spectralis 2 have a normal timestamp This functionality makes it necessary to supply the Spectralis 2 with a realtime clock The realtime clock runs even when you have turned off the unit The clock is powered by a goldcap a special capacitor with a very big capacity However after around three months without any power the goldcap will not have enough power to drive the realtime clock anymore In this case the Spectralis 2 will prompt a set time dialog on power up If your spectralis clock is running fine but shows a different date and time as your comput
148. ing the trigger groups 3 7 2 The definition of triggergroups The definition of the trigger groups is rather simple Select Part gt Select and hold down the numeric button 12 for a moment This will prompt a display message for the selection of trigger groups 1 4 S 6 lt Song 06 gt PA05 WetSolo Pal2 Part12 Part12 Part14 current Using the Page Up button will get you to the menu for defining the trigger groups 2 4 Trigger Group VCO VCO1 TG1 VCO2 TG1 VCO3 TG1 VCO4 TG1 The menu is largely self explanatory You can select the desired trigger group for each VCO in this menu The determination of the trigger group assigns the selected element to the according Part Trigger group 1 gt Part 12 Trigger group 2 gt Part 13 Trigger group 3 gt Part 14 On the next menu page you can assign the filter the filter bank and the noise source to a trigger group 3 4 Trigger Group Filter Noise MM TG1 LP TG1 NSE TG1 FB TG1 In this case MM stands for the 12dB Multimode filter LP for the 24dB lowpass filter NSW for the noise source envelope and FB for the filterbank sum envelopes This of course leaves one more question The Master LFOs have envelopes for the control of the modulation depth Which of the trigger groups will trigger the Master LFO envelopes To avoid complicating matters unnecessarily the 77 78 SrecT ric Ls 2 The definition of triggergroups triggering of the Master LFO envelopes is assigned
149. ing trigger steps will use the new values You may now chose different sequencer lines anywhere from 1 10 and use the above described method to set different step envelopes for all filter band gain stages The results will sound pretty cool and unusual right away If an individual step creates an unwanted clipping noise just lower the parameter Depth some and set the corresponding step again If you are not happy with one ofthe steps you have input it is very easy to erase it simply by pushing the same button again Following these instructions you should be creating interesting filterbank rhythms in no time TIP When you are playing back your noise grooves try different settings of the two filterbank parameters FbQ and FbFs The changes of the sound should provide an interesting effect especially during playback of a groove TIP The grooves will appear even more lively when you are adding a tempo based delay effect Use the FX1 Send control to add a little delay to the filterbank groove If you ve created something nice you want to keep save all of the settings using the Save Pattern function for details see Page 33 Chapter 3 1 8 Saving Patterns 3 4 2 Step sequencer basics tonal sequences In the second part of the step sequencer description we will attempt to pro gram a little melody sequence First we ll have to select an existing factory preset prepared for this purpose You can find one in song32 pattern 5 Sto
150. ing you might be looking at an empty display window Dont panic As soon as you push one of the select buttons on the Spectralis 2 text will appear once again in the Display 2 3 4 Power connection The Spectralis has a power connection on the back ofthe instrument right next to the power switch Please use the enclosed power cord to connect your Spectralis 2 with a wall socket or power strip The Spectralis has an internal switching AC Transformer which can be operated from 100 to 240 Volts and at 50 and 60 Hz 2 4 Explanations of basic terms To make this manual easy to understand we would like to explain a few frequently used terms which are of significance with the Spectralis 2 2 4 1 Sound A Sound Program ofthe Hybrid Synthesizer or a sample based Sound of the DSP Synth 2 4 2 Part A part is a track in the sequencer played by a particular instrument Each part of the Spectralis has its own sound parameters and a special set channel on the internal mixer of the Spectralis Due to the pre assignment of various part categories it becomes easy to create new patterns simply by swapping motifs You will find the following parts in the Spectralis Kick Snare Closed HiHat Open HiHat Clap HiTom MidTom and LoTom three Percussion parts the Analog Synth part plus three addi tional polyphonic DSP Synthesizer parts 2 4 3 Motif An exchangeable musical phrase consisting of a series of notes which can be assigned to a part 2 4 5 Drum
151. into the song chain mode The songs now can be selected by hitting the num buttons 1 16 with and without holding down the Shift button All patterns must be placed into these songfolders If you want to use a pattern from another song just copy this pattern from the other song to the computers harddisk rename the file in order to specify the memory location for this pattern and copy it to the desired song folder If you want to backup the songs to your computer simply copy the folders to the harddisk 3 10 1 Playing a song The Spectralis 2 comes with preprogrammed songs Just select one of these songs with the num buttons and press start If you don t interrupt the songchain by the commands below the selected song will be played back from the beginning until the end of the song Page Up and Page Down The Page buttons will jump to the next or the former songstep The pattern change will be done after the current bar is completed If you push the Page Up button multiple times before the bar end is reached the Spectralis will jump multiple songsteps The next songstep can also be checked at the upper right corner of the display message S03 EMbient PA08 Speckie Pa 15 S 10 Edit undo RENAME MIDI The first line ofthe display shows the following informations S03 is the selected songnumber followed by the songname PAO8 Speckie is the current pattern that plays at the selected songstep followed by the pattern name Pa
152. ion Changing the pattern length is described below You may should specify the lengths of all patterns before starting the song chain editing Otherwise you always have to jump between songchain editor and pattern editor It s much faster and easier to do the pattern editing as the first job By default all patterns are set to a length of 4 bars Truncate the beginning of a songstep pattern Sometimes you want a pattern play only a truncated version of itself The beginning truncate function allows to cut the beginning of a pattern in steps of quarter notes Truncate the end of songstep pattern Sometimes you want to truncate the end of an pattern in order to jump to the next songstep earlier than after a completed pattern The End truncate function allows to truncate the end of an pattern in steps of quarter notes Navigate inside the songchain Enter jumps to the next songstep At the end of a song chain the display reads New of XX That means that the end of the song chain was reached and the song chain editor added a new songstep at the end If you already have programmed some songsteps you can navigate back and forth with the Tempo Shuttle encoder By pushing the Tempo Shuttle encoder button the functionality of the encoder toggles between Tempo and songstep selection Specifying the pattern length Please select Pattern in the num button assignment section select the pattern you want to change and press the Encoder button next
153. iplay you can change the meter length and tempo settings The real recording process though will only start once the Play button is pushed Overdub This button starts overdub recording directly 21 22 S PecT ric L IS Overview Nummeric buttons control elements 2 5 11 Numeric buttons Corresponding to the selection in the num button assignment or the part section you can use the numeric buttons 1 16 to select songs patterns drum grooves or motifs as well as transpose patterns and select mute solo or play parts In addition the numeric buttons are used in various edit sections for direct input of rhythmical structures 2 6 Control elements The Spectralis has an abundance of buttons and encoders To make things a little easier we will introduce them in more detail 2 6 1 Buttons The buttons of the Spectralis have lighting elements so a selected function can be easily made visible or to draw your attention to events You can find details about this in the respective section chapters The Shift button in the upper right has a particular function It allows the selection of alternative functions for encoders and buttons The alternative assignment choices are also printed on the panel near to the respective control elements in a white circular field 2 6 2 Rotary encoders Encoder is the name for the rotary knobs on the Spectralis They allow you to control a parameter always from the currently memorized setting
154. ith the help of the browse function in the Spectralis The soundbanks have the file extension SSB 5 2 Using your own samples The Spectralis allows to import your own samples into the DSP sound engine Samples must be saved in a special format in order to be accepted by the Spectralis That maybe is annoying at the first seight but you will realize very soon that the special Spectralis sample format has a lot of advantages compared to the direct import of different sample formats and at the end you will benefit from our sample format The Spectralis ships with a little application called SmplImp exe and can be found on the Spectralis CDR that ships with the Spectralis The latest version can always be found at our Spectralis User Forum so you may want to check from time to time whether there is a new version available supporting more sample formats So far this application is only available for the PC but we promise to publish a MAC version soon What does this program do 1 Every sample you import will get an unique identifier This identifier is necessary to allow the Spectralis to identify samples even if there are multiple samples with the same sample name inside your Sample Sets The patterns are collecting the samples by using this identifier It is not possible to get unexpected results when loading an additional Sample Set with similar sample names 2 Each sample or multisample will be associated to a category and subcatego
155. itivity and adjusting the VCA level The maximum level depends on the VCA level setting of the sound You can adjust the maximum level with the VCA Level encoder inside the VCA section The level also can be controlled with the velocity sensitivity of your keyboard The amount of velocity dependent level control can be adjusted by holding down the Shift button and adjusting the amount with the VCA Level encoder 3 2 8 Using the digital multimode filter The Spectralis provides a stereo multimode filter for each of its 32 stereo voices This filter can be used as a lowpass highpass and bandpass filter A filter is a function which will let a frequency range of a sound pass through while suppressing another range of the frequency mix Depending on the selected basic tone color you can achieve dramatic results or subtle changes The sound character of a sinewave for instance will hardly be affected by turning down the cutoff frequency of the lowpass filter it will just get quieter when you re turning the cutoff frequency knob This is because the sinewave has no overtones and only makes the fundamental audible The most dramatic effect of the Filter can be heard when it is applied to a sawtooth or pulse waveform The descriptions of these filter functions are pretty self explanatary Lowpass The lowpass filter only lets the overtones above the selected frequency pass through It is the most frequently used type of filter as it offers the
156. keyboard level scaling Pushing one of the display encoder buttons opens a menu page with further level scaling parameters 1 4 VCO1 Keyboard Level Scaling KsLw C 3 KsMd C3 KsHi G8 KsSc 127 KsLw Keyboard Level scaling lowest note sets the lowest note affected by the level scaling curve KsMd Keyboard Level Scaling mid note sets the note where the scaling curve has no effect The curve will changes volumes above and under this note KsHi Keyboard level scaling highest note sets the highest note affected by the level scaling curve KsSc Keyboard Level scale setting controls the angle of the level scaling curve Values above 0 will increase the volume above the Keyboard level scaling mid note and the highest note Values below 0 will decrease the volume below the keyboard level scaling mid note and above the lowest note 26 27 VCO Velocity Level Scaling Osc1 0 Osc2 0 Osc3 0 Osc4 0 The velocity level scaling changes the volume of oscillators dependent on the keyboard velocity played OscX controls the depth of the velocity dependency of oscillator 1 4 This parameter is very essential for typical frequency modulation and phase modulation sounds 27 27 VCO Phase startpoint 0 freerun Osc1 0 Osc2 0 Osc3 0 Osc4 0 This is an additional edit page for setting the phase startpoint of all oscillators in one menupage Refer to page 19 27 4 2 2 VCO Pitch Menu Turning the Oscillator De
157. le the changes are taking place When you are pushing the Cutoff MM encoder button the KeyScaling Parameters will be visible continuously in the display 1 3 Filter Parameters Scale 12 Pitch A3 The parameter Pitch determines the key which when used will have no effect on the frequency during keyboard scaling With positive values set for the keyboard scaling the keys above the note selected here will raise the frequency of the filter up und keys below this value will lower the frequency downward 3 2 12 The DSP synth LFO section The samplebased DSP soundengine provides 2 LFO s for parameter modulations The three encoders LFO WAVE MOD DEPTH and MOD RATE in the LFO section allows for editing of these parameters direct for both LFOs Pushing these encoder buttons opens up the menu for independent parameter tweaking of both LFOs LFO WAVE opens the menu for the LFO waveform selection LFO Wave Menu Dsyn1 Lfol 0 Lfo2 0 Encoders 1 and 2 are selecting the LFO waveform for LFO 1 and LFO 2 from a wavetable MOD DEPTH opens the menu for independent mod depth control for LFO1 and LFO2 LFO Depth Menu Dsyn1 SNe Q ingeAg The little arrows to the left of the parametername are indicating that you can open further menus for LFO depth control 1 2 LFO 1 Depth Modifier Menu Dsyn1 LED1 0 LEAt O LErl 0 LEdp 0 Two additional edit pages can be found for both LFO s The first one has been sele
158. les samples songs and sounds which you want to have readily available to you after turning your Spectralis 2 on For now the Spectralis 2 loads all samples from this memory bank automatically into the sample RAM memory b SD Card Some computers will only make this drive visible if you already have inserted a SD Card You should only establish a USB connection if you are planning to copy data The USB connection is not necessary for the normal Spectralis operation Background It is rather unusual for operating systems to mount a hard drive which can rewrite itself When storing data in the flash rom the data on your media are being changed without notification of the operating system Only after use of the refresh function does the operating system know what it is dealing with and what changes may have taken place This could have dramatic consequences On the other hand the operating system constantly keeps busy with files You may not even have started doing anything yet your computer already has generated or changed data on your media even if it s only applying a timestamp documenting your most recent access All of this takes place without you even knowing Just mounting the drives is enough For this reason the Spectralis 2 switches into a special secure USB data transfer mode as soon as a USB connection is established The Spectralis 2 will switch back to normal operation after you unplug the USB cable 143 Srect r
159. lly contain a motif Towards the bottom of the list you will find an additional entry EMPTY This is to be used for erasing a motif while the current pattern is playing When you are turning the 3 encoders you will immediately be able to hear the respective motif The Num Buttons can be used as well to select a motif Pressing numbutton 1 for example loads the motif which was assigned to the same part at pattern number one In case that there can t be found a motif at the same part the spectralis automaticly selects another part as the motif source IV Executing the motif exchange To transfer your selection to the pattern push encoder button 3 83 84 SPeciT Rallis The Motif Edit Menu You will see the following display message Load Motif into Pattern Freaky with origSND curSND NO YES This message appears as well if you select a motif with the numbuttons Inde pendent from this menu you still can change the motif by using the numbottons In this display menu the encoder buttons have the following functions OrigSND Original Sound Loads the motif with the corresponding sounds curSND Current Sound Loads only the notes however plays the motif with the sounds contained in the pattern currently playing NO Ends the process Maybe the motif wasn t all that good YES Loads the motif to the pattern Using the Exit button you can leave the menu You will find yourself back in the Mot
160. lo settings of the pattern What s not saved For a number of reasons the samples of the DSP synth are not being saved within a pattern You will however receive a warning display message when accessing a pattern if the originally used sample set cannot be found in memory This message will only show up for a few seconds However you can recall this message by pressing Shift Page Up The message will resist there until another text info has been displayed Additionally the Spectralis if you want it to will play an alternative sound once you are starting a pattern the samples of which are not in RAM memory You will hear immediately that something isn t right with the pattern You can also turn off the Default sound if you wish 3 1 10 Turning off the Default sound As already mentioned in the previous chapter the Spectralis will play a standard sound whenever a motif tries to access a sound the samples of which are not in RAM memory of the Spectralis 2 if you want it to This of course could result in some unpleasant surprises especially during LIVE operation On the other hand at home while arranging a song it could turn out to be useful because you re more likely to notice a wrong sound than a missing part This is the way you can deactivate the Default Sound I Use the Shift button hold it down and push the Save System button II Push the Page Up button once This will prompt the following display message
161. logies Deutschland GmbH Mariahilfstr 8 D 81541 M nchen Munich Germany 01 04 2009 jani Jurgen Korduletsch Managing Director Declaration Of Conformity 1 1 rici iB EIU me 1 1 2 COVERAGE m 1 1 3 Transfer of warranty 1 1 4 Liability 1 2 Safety notices eese ee eee eee eee eene enne tenens tnnt tn sess tns sns tsn n pugiles 2 1 What is the Spectralis eee ee ee esee eee enne tn nens snas tns ss sensisse es eta snn 10 2 2 Preparations eese eee eese eee ee seen srine esis atus tn sense tust nasus NESES TEESE KNEE stes EVES se tassa se tassa ES 10 PANNI 10 PAPA nij E ET E E EEEE saeas cousuad E 10 2 2 3 Firmware update cccccsesscssscscsscscsssssscssescessessesesessescsesssesssssscsssessessecsseesesssesees 10 2 3 Connections and File operation eese eee eese seen en seen etes en tns sse tas tas tasa tns tasto tuse tn vastis 11 2 3 1 Audio connections eese ee eee eese ee sensn natn nsns tns en netus sns sn esta esses tease es eta snn 11 2 3 2 MIDI connections 2 3 3 Formatting Media eee eee ee eese essen seen tns en ns tn sensa tns sn netus sns estesa tss senses ann 2 3 4 Power CONNECTION 2 4 Explanations of basic terms esee eee ee
162. lope Generator Pagel Att 3 Dec 91 Stn 255 R1s 104 Att Attack Time controls the attack time of the module volume envelope Dcy Decay Time controls the decay time of the module volume envelope Stn Sustain Level controls the sustain level of the module volume envelope RIs Release Time controls the release time of the module volume envelope The first page starts with the volume envelope of oscillator 1 The other envelopes can be reached with the page buttons Page 2 8 are showing the envelopes for VCO 2 4 the noise source the multimode filter the 24dB Lowpass filter and the fixed filterbank Pressing any of the Dec Decay Time display encoders opens a second edit page for each envelope 1 8 VCO1 Volume Envelope Generator Page2 H1d 0 Byp 255 Hld Hold Time controls the hold time between the attack and decay phase of the envelope Byp Envelope controlled amplifier bypass controls the direct output signal of the selected sound source By pressing the EG RELEASE button one reaches the bypass envelope menu for all elements of the Spectralis that have this opportunity the oscillators the filters and the noise source 1 2 Bypass Settings Osc1 0 Osc2 0 Osc3 0 Osc4 0 SPecTRaLIS Hybrid Synthesizer reference Filterbank section Oscl Osc4 Oscillator signal bypass bypass the envelope dependent amplifiers of oscillator 1 4 and feed the signals direct into
163. lter technology is what really sets the Spetralis apart from the field and gives it is truly distinct character Of course itis not possible to describe the Analog Synth in every last detail in the first steps manual We re sure though that the info contained in these paragraphs will motivate you to experiment with the sound possibilites ofthe Spectralis even without a full reference manual 3 3 1 Difference to other synthesizers There are a number of distinguishing features the Spectralis has which we d like to point out right at the start to improve the success ratio for your initial programming efforts a Each ofthe modules generating a signal for sound creation oscillator noise has I it s own amplifier with envelope II independent level controls for the assorted modules changing the sound such as the analog filter the filter bank and the FX processors This not only allows for very flexible routing connection to other Modules and dynamic changes Such luxury has one downside though a large number of parameters which make the Spectralis extremely flexible but also somewhat complex Rather than scaring them we are hopeful that this disadvantage is likely to get an enthusiastic thumbs up from all real synth fanatics b Each sound processing module also has I it s own amplifier with envelope II independent level controls for the assorted modules changing the sound c The oscillators have a broad pitch
164. menus have one additional parameter MMBP and LPBP They control the envelope bypass function that makes the filter output volume independent from the volume envelope In all situations where one wants to feed a signal through the filter without triggering the soundengine the bypass function should be set to a value above zero Hld Hold Time controls the hold time between the attack and decay phase of the envelope LPBP or MMBP 24dB Lowpass and Multimode Filter Envelope Bypass control the direct output signal of the filters 2 4 24dB Lowpass Volume Envelope Pagel Att 74 Dcy 127 Stn 160 R1s 127 Att Attack Time controls the attack time of the 24dB lowpass filter volume envelope Dcy Decay Time controls the decay time of the 24dB lowpass filter volume envelope Stn Sustain Level controls the sustain level of the 24dB lowpass filter volume envelope RIs Release Time controls the release time of the 24dB lowpass filter volume envelope TIP All volume envelopes those for oscillators the noise source the analog filters and the fixed filterbank can additionally be found in one separate menu by pressing the EG Balance encoder button in the VCA section SreciTiTrRa LIS Hybrid Synthesizer reference Triggergroups 3 4 Multimode Cutoff Envelope Pagel Att 74 Dcy 127 Stn 160 R1s 127 Att Attack Time controls the attack time of the multimode filter cutof
165. most musical sound The reason is that we have a tendency to feel sounds as being warm when they strongly emphasize the fundamental The sounds of course can be glisteningly bright when the filter is opened however the fundamental will always be clearly audible The frequency of the filter at which the overtones of a tone colour are surpressed is called the cutoff frequency Highpass This Filter cuts off all overtones below a set frequency This results in a somewhat unusual hollow sound The highpass filter is very useful when trying to make a sound fit into an arrangement Once you start layering a bunch of voluminous sounds on top of each other you might end up with sound mush and some of the sounds start canceling each other out Using a highpass filter you can thin out sounds in the problematic bass or lower midrange With a high resonance setting though you can also implement a number of wonderful special effects Bandpass With this Filter the frequencies above and below ofthe selected frequency are dampened limited so that only a narrow frequency range remains audible This filter is also perfectly suited for the creation of special effects and for proper layering of multiple sounds SPecTRaUtIS Editing DSP synth sounds playing filtered sounds 3 2 9 Playing filtered sounds This might be the right time to actually give a first listen to the filters Use the Select button in the Part section und chose one of the three
166. n in the sequence edit section Rotate Line gt TGrpl Stp 01 16 Seq L11 ROT 0 ROT gt The menu is largely self explanatory The menu can be operated via the button fuction of the rotary encoders under the display lt ROT Enables the rotation of a sequencer line to the left by one step The numeric buttons will indicate the amount of the shift of the trigger points ROT gt Enables moving the whole sequencer line to the right by one step Again the numeric buttons will indicate the amount of the shift 73 74 SPecTRatiS Step sequencer advanced Target selection 0 Displays the actual value of the shift in steps and additionally enables you to return the sequence to the original position by pushing this button Please note that after a pattern has been saved the shift of the sequencer line will be memorized as the new original position Using encoder Seq L11 you can directly select another line for rotation Not only to nal lines can be rotated but also other parameter lines 3 6 Target selection The sequencer lines of the Spectralis can play notes affect parameters of the Analog Synth and send MIDI data In the Target Selection menu you can determine which target you want the sequencer line to control The line resulting from your selection will appear differently depending on the target Note lines for each step contain settings for the note length pitch velocity and probability Pure parameter lines co
167. n sins tn sesta sensa sense tns en seen 110 4 2 2 The oscillator pitch menu eese eee eee eene entente stn setas tn setas tn setas tn sensn 116 4 2 3 The oscillator glide menu eere ee eee eese eese esee eene setenta setas tn seen tn 119 4 3 Master LFO Section M 119 4 3 1 LFO wave MeN M 119 4 3 2 LFO depth Menu cccsscsssssssssssceesecsseeecsssssssssssssssssssesesssessesssessssssesscesenesees 119 4 3 3 LFO rate menu 4 4 Filter Section P 4 4 1 24d B lowpass filter aereis eese teneis estne tasa seta stas insta seinen 121 4 4 2 Multimode filter eee eee e eee eee esent teens etna sitse ta sonne ta sense tn sense tne 124 4 4 3 Filters envelope generator menu eeeeeeeee esee eee tenete tensa tns tn stas tn sense tn sun 127 4 5 Triggergroup edit menu 4 6 VCA SeCHION M 4 7 Filterbank Section 5 0 Quicksound function 5 1 Storing SOUNGS 5 1 1 Saving a new sound in an existing soundbank eee 135 5 1 2 Creating a new soundbank eeeeeee esee eese eese ene testen tantus tns en ss tns sn netus tn nsnuus 137 5 2
168. nced To check for and obtain the latest versions you can visit the user forum of the Spectralis website http www spectralis de phpBB2 In the section updates you can easily download the latest versions free of charge of course There are usually detailed descriptions available of the new features or differences to previous releases Please take time to read the information provided for the respective firmware expansions or updates The update process is rather simple However it is definitely recommended to read the update Info on the website first and to follow the instructions carefully to ensure a successful upgrade process SPectT roa US 2 Connection and operation MIDI outeurs m nuts POWER Usha OUT THRU ASYNTHR ASYNTHL ODIRECT4 ODIRECT3 DIRECT2 DIRECT SUM R SUM L PHONES EXTINR EXT INL SPecTRALIS e e e e AA 2 3 Connections and operation 2 3 1 Audio connections I Connect the outputs Sum R and Sum L with your audio monitoring system You can use the inputs of a normal stereo system the inputs of a mixer a soundcard with hardware monitoring or active monitors If you re connecting the Spectralis to a stereo system or a separate stereo preamp select inputs with suitable impedance In no case should you use the phono inputs of your stereo system Suitable inputs for the Spectralis are cd aux or line in All audio signals of our preset patterns from the various sections of
169. nd don t react to the messages the Spectralis just won t effect pattern changes That could become a problem In order to turn off the warning messages you will have to change the basic settings of the system menu Use the Shift button hold it down and push the Save System button This should prompt the following diplay message SPecT Rais Saving of patterns The first two parameters are currently not of interest Important are however the settings for Save and Load Save Save offers the following Options YES Memory Protection is turned off You can overwrite existing settings by executing the Save Process DIS DIS Disable prevents the overwriting of patterns sounds and settings The Memory is protected in this setting You now won t be able to save any data On the other hand you won t have to deal with the warning messages anymore Load Load provides the following options Ask The warning messages will appear when at the same time Save has been set to Yes Ignore The alerts won t appear again regardless whether the write protection Save is acticated or not Save This is a special mode which is currently not available yet When you have made changes to patterns and want to switch to another pattern the previous pattern will be automatically saved The mode is very useful when you re almost done with your patterns and don t want to dial up the Save menu all the time dur
170. ne eee tne ttn stunts sts ta stes tasas tns en se tns su seen stus en netu nn 2 5 Frontpanel 0yervieW M 2 5 1 Part button section eere ee eren eee 2 5 2 Num Button Assignment section 2 5 3 Sequence Edit section ess 2 5 4 Groove Edit section 4 eee eee eee eese eee en senes tn nennen stus tn sss s estan sits s enses ann 2 5 5 Filterbank section eee eese eee eese seen enne tn stus en natn sens tussis suntin senses sens ts ann 2 5 6 Mixing desk section 4 elei esee eese eese eee ene tn ntn sensa tn stus tn seus statis stessa sensns 2 5 7 Master section eese eee eeeee eene en een atn 2 5 8 Creativator section eese eese eene 2 5 9 Synth Edit section LFO VCO VCF VCA 2 5 10 Transport section the section with the green button eere 21 2 5 11 Numeric buttons eese esee esee ee teen tn ntes tn natn sensns tuse sn sense suse s sistens tasses tn ann 22 2 6 Control elements e 22 plui e 22 2 6 2 Orsi n c 22 PAROLA C D M 22 3 0 How to chapters It s finally time to get started eese esee 24 3 0 1 Pr par tionS M 24 3 0 2 Establishing audio connections e eeeeeeeee
171. nging your oral cavity s shape to form different types of resonance bodies which will emphasize some frequencies and dampen others The fixed filterbank of the Spectralis can effectively do the same thing For this reason they consist of multi ple parallel bandpasses fed thru amplifiers allowing you to emphasize or limit selected frequencies These levels of these amplifiers can be controlled by the step sequencer of the Spectralis This set up allows you to create quite unusual sounds which far exceed the sound repertoire of a normal subtractive synthesizer 2 5 Frontpanel Overview Part Section and Num Button ynth Editing Creativator Advanced Editing Master Assignment Section These buttons Tisi exe nr Belts lows usw Eisen The two buttons access functions intended Not all parameters of the synth edit section UNETE Were ts sss Ieesisi n nura IS used to adjust the volume of the sum are used to select the assignment SEW ers au xs je erc lisi ums to provide you with creative inspiration are directly mapped to a dedicated semel miele To ifa eI M UTE 100 ole outs directly The level setting is of numeric buttons 1 16 Only one EIMEWS een E TEST EEE The arpeggiator the random pattern and encoder Further parameters will pop up ESS 38 e la ef ifefele 3 Ms Isisin cias memorized even after switching the unit assignment can be activated ata VEJ ESES ET ejui the random sound creation can be found inside the advanced edit section by SI
172. ns sequentially 2 5 9 Synth Edit section LFO VCO VCF VCA This Section provides the encoders and buttons needed for editing sounds They always affect the currently selected part or in the case of subgroup drums always relative to the selected parameters of all drumparts available in Versi on 1 0 A more detailed description of these sections will be contained in the reference manual Suggestions on adjusting the DSP synth parts can be found in Lession 3 2 on page 36 of this manual Still we don t want to keep you completely in the dark regarding the analog synth which is why we ve also included a basic overview of this powerful synthesizer in a dedicated How to chapter on page 43 2 5 10 Transport section the section with the green button If we had to guess we d think that the transport section is probably the one section ofthe Spectralis which will generate the fewest questions m Stop Using the Stop button will stop the sequencer When restarted the sequencer will start with beat 1 of the song or the selected pattern Play p gt Pushing the Play button starts the Sequencer If the Play button is pushed while the sequencer is running the button doubles as a pause function Pushing the Play button again will start the Sequencer right at the position where it was stopped Rec Pushing the Rec button activates the record function for the currently selected part In the menu visible in the d
173. ntain settings for the step envelope its length and intensity of the envelope control MIDI control tracks have no envelopes Most of the demo patterns in the Spectralis RAM already have preset step sequencer targets These date back to the early design phase of the Spectralis when targets still remained set The Spectralis has a total of 32 sequencer lines which should be sufficient even for complex automations You can generate new sequencer lines in the sequencer functions menu The controller for the sequencer line selection at the end of the list has an entry Create If you push the line selection controller the Spectralis will create a new sequencer line and will directly display the menu for Target Selection for the sequencer line The menu can also be accessed via the Target button in the Sequencer Edit section Line Section gt Group gt Parameter Seq L01 Filter Volume FBByp Line Use the first rotary encoder to select the sequencer line for which you want to determine the target Section For better orientation the parameters have been set up in sections The following sections are available for the Target selection Filter gt Filterbank Parameter AVCF Analog Synth analog filterparameters AVCO Analog Synth oscillator parameter AVCA gt Analog Synth VCA parameter ALFO gt Analog Synth LFO parameter DSYN gt DSP Engine Targets notelines ASYN gt Triggergroup control notelines MIDI gt Notes Aftertouch or
174. o works faster than the rotary encoder function By selecting subcategory All in advance you can switch through the entire range of kick drums available on your machine lt Vol gt Using the fourth encoder you can determine the Volume of the new sound Currently version 097L this encoder has no function But you can adjust the volume in the volume mixer by hitting Volume in the mixing desk section and dialing the encoder of the desired part 3 1 7a The pattern transpose function How to The Pattern transpose function is enabled in pattern jam mode as well Just play a pattern hit and hold the SHIFT button and hit the PLAY button in the part section Now the pattern get gat transposed by pressing the num buttons 1 13 14 and 16 switch the whole transpose range one octave up or down 27 28 SPecTRaUIS Saving patterns 3 1 8 Saving patterns Now that you have made some changes to the patterns you re probably curious how you can actually save your changes especially since the Spectralis will remind you to do so after changes during each pattern change As soon as you have made a change the Save button will start to blink If you are pushing the Save button you will see the following display menu What do you want to save lt Sound gt Pattern lt Song gt lt Creativ gt Use the encoder button below the entry Pattern This should prompt the following display message Select Memory Location and press
175. oMw 0 CoVel 0 CoMw controls the depth of the modulation wheel cutoff tweaking and CoVel controls the velocity control over the filter frequency 3 2 14 Assigning LFO and MIDI modulation to resonance volume panpot position and DSP oscillator pitch The same two menu pages described in the chapter above can be found in the VCA Level OSC Detune FB Balance and VCA Level menu for the corresponding parameters The following encoder buttons can be pushed down to enter the menus OSC DETUNE modulation assignment pages for pitch modulation RESO MM or RESO MM modulation assignment for the filter resonance VCA LEVEL modulation assignment for the VCA Level Volume FB BALANCE modulation assignment for the panpot position 39 40 SPecTRaUIS Playing the Analog synthesizer 3 3 Playing the Analog synthesizer Before we discuss some of the special features of the analog synth you probably want to hear some of the sounds to get an idea of the sound potential of the Spectralis As with all examples in the practising in use section you ll have to have your Midi keyboard connected to the Spectralis and the Midi Channel set to send on 1 Push Part gt Select and chose Part 12 Analog Synth You will now see the sound selection mode of the analog synth in the display C Category In the analog synthesizer part the main category A Synth is of course fixed You won t need to use the first display encoder Th
176. oa US 2 Datatransfer USB Troubleshooting Safe file operation When Mounting a S Drive it becomes accessible for the operating system Once the operating system enses a new drive it will try to access it This process is called moun ting 144 During this process the drive is as signed to an identifying letter 7 2 Safe file operation I If you are working with an Apple Macintosh do not forget to unmount the drives after you re done copying data to flash rom ramdisc or a smart media card This is easily accomplished by dragging the drive icon onto the trashcan If you don t do it data will not be written completely In a worst case scenario incomplete data or interrupted data transfer can lead to data loss on your media 7 3 USB Troubleshooting In case you connected the USB cable to your computer and the computer is not mounting the Spectralis drives you should first make sure to connect the spectralis directly to your computer The Spectralis is a highspeed USB device A couple of USB HUB s can t handle these devices Older computers are maybe only running USBI 1 and are not configuring USB2 devices correctly that are trying to connect via Highspeed In the USB specification is exactly described how a host should handle that A 100 compliant host will set the client into USB1 1 mode automaticly if the host is not USB2 compatible However some older computers with outdated bios versions are maybe not handl
177. ode filter and filter routing The CUTOFF MM button opens the multimode filter menu On the second menu page you will find the envelope sensitivity EgAm Turn it up to experiment with the effect of the envelope on this filter The corresponding filter envelope can be found by pushing the EG Depth encoder button and by pushing the Page Up button twice Keep in mind that the effect of the envelope will only be noticeable when the frequency encoder CUTOFF MM is not completely open TIP Have you noticed that the EgAm encoder can also be set to a negative value Just imagine a mirror image of the envelope around the 0 level axis With the help of a negative value you will end up with a reversed envelope According to this statement the oscillation time will affect the frequency negatively rather than positively This is a very useful characteristic especially with an eye toward the highpass filter 49 50 ZrecI i rei z Hybrid engine The LFO section of the analog synth 3 3 5 The LFO section of the analog synth Since firmware version 93k the Spectralis Analog Synth has a very extensive LFO section No less than 10 LFOs in the Spectralis in the Analog section alone are at your disposal 4 of these LFO s have been designated as Master LFO s These LFO s have some additional features compared to the other 6 LFO s 1 The master LFO s have a central edit section 2 The 3 main parameters LFO wave LFO rate and LFO de
178. odulation intensity of the sources for this parameter Once you ve made these adjustments the display should show the following message 4 9 24dB Lowpass Cutoff Modulators Srcl MLFO1Dph1 34 Src2 None Dph2 0 Once you ve made changes to the Master LFO1 parameters in the LFO section you should be able to hear the effect of the changes to the Master LFO s The following modulationsourceare being offered in the modulation assignment section MLFOI MFLOA4 Master LFO 1 4 MMLFO Multimode filter section LFO LPLFP Lowpass filter section LFO VLFOI VLFO4 Oscillator section LFO1 4 Vel Velocity Aft Aftertouch Wheel Modulationwheel Brth Breathcontroller Pitch Pitch Bender 53 54 SPeciT Rallis Hybrid engine The LFO section This Display message is repeated in a number of sections of the Spectralis in slighty modified form Waveform Modulation 1 Push the Ose Wave encoder button in the oscillator section 2 Depending on the desired oscillator push the VCO Shape encoder button under the display You should see the following display message 1 2 VCO1 Waveform Modifiers Shape 100 TLM 1 Sync 0 3 Push the Shape encoder button in this menu You should see the following already familiar display message VCO1 Wavetable Modulation Srcl None Dph 0 Src2 None Dph2 0 Time Linearity Modulation 1 Push the OSC Wave encoder button in the oscillator section 2 Depending on which oscillator is s
179. om right under the oscillator section Set the coarse tuning of both oscillators to different values for instance at around minus 100 Both oscillators should have at least slightly different frequencies This will generate modulation patterns which are considerably more complex than pure LFO waveforms You can now modify them either by adjusting the frequencies or the oscillator waveforms You can add a little more spice by adding additional filter modulators You might for instance want to add oscillator 2 as an additional modulator and set it into audio range while setting its modulation depth in the filter menu to a lower value 3 3 7 The fixed filterbank In the chapter Descriptions The fixed filterbank on page 15 you already have received a brief introduction to the fixed filterbank At this point we re finally going to hear what it is all about To simplify matters we have saved a preset sound which allows initial contact without too many detours We are assuming that you are familiar with the basic information contained in the opening segments of the Hybrid Synth How to chapters and you should already know how to feed oscillators into the filterbank push the Osc Wave button and dial up menu page 3 then insert the desired oscillators into the filterbank Select sound category Voice in the selection menu and choose the VoiceSng preset contained in this category 59 60 SPecit Rallis Hybrid engine Th
180. ometimes especially at low sine basses or percussion sounds one needs a fixed startposition to avoid pops and clicks or to control the transients FmDp Frequency modulation depth of Oscillator 4 as the modulator the depth is dependent also from the Modulation wheel Allows realtime controllable Vibrato and FM FXs PMod Pitchbend modulation depth sets the Pitchbend range in halftones Tip Menupage 3 4 of the VCO pitch menu offers that parameter for all oscillators at once The noise source is an additional sound source of the hybrid engine You can use the noise as a continuous signal or as an enveloped signal triggered by note events Page 23 27 controls the enveloped noise source and Page 24 27 controls the continuous noise signal 23 27 Enveloped Noise Volumes EBI3255 LP 0 MM 0 Bus 0 24 27 Noise Direct Volumes FB 0 LP 0 MM 0 FB Filterbank level controls the noise level for the fixed filterbank LP Controls the noise level for the 24dB Lowpass MM Controls the noise level for the multimode filter Bus controls the noise level fed directly to the output bus The keyboard level scaling allows for changing the oscillators volume depending on the key played 25 27 VCO Keyboard Level Scaling Osc1 0 0sc2 0 0sc3 0 Osc4 0 115 116 cr ecirrmeuiz Hybrid Synthesizer reference Oscillator pitch menu OscX Oscillator Level scaling depth controls the depth of the
181. omize sound gt NEXT for the selected part If you want to keep a random sound permanently the sound must be saved either by saving the whole pattern or by storing the sound into a soundbank 95 96 SPecTRatiS The song chain mode 3 10 The song chain mode The pattern you have created can be chained to complete songs The song chain mode of the spectralis provides you great freedom During a live session you can always directly jump from song chain to pattern mode and back If you realize a songstep is not working for the audience just skip the songstep on the fly When reaching a pattern which drives your audience crazy just loop this pattern and start jamming with the mute and solo buttons After the jam session is over jump back to the song chain and let the song run until your end marker The Spectralis so far can memorize up to 32 songs with 32 patterns each and up to 499 songsteps That should be enough for your next rave event electronic mega festival or even your little brothers birthday party Songs inside the Spectralis memory are stored into the flash memory When browsing the flash rom with your computer you will notice songfolders They all have the same naming conventions The folders are named SONGXX where XX is the corresponding memory location on your spectralis Inside the folders are the patterns of the selected song By hitting the Song button in the num button assignment section you set the Spectralis
182. ote always retriggers all envelopes of that triggergroup even if the former note is still held down TIP Subpart Selection After assigning VCOs and filters to different triggergroups the resulting subparts can be selected in the part select menu by holding down the num button 12 The following subpart selection page opens 1 4 S01 Bass2Ass PA08 DSP Bass Pa 12 Part12 Part13 Part14 current SPecTRaUtIS Hybrid Synthesizer reference VCA section The parts can be selected by pushing the encoder buttons under the display The menu exits automaticly after the selection current leaves the menu without changing the selection Part 12 is assigned to triggergroup 1 part 13 to triggergroup 2 and part 14 to triggergroup 3 Each subpart has its own sequencerline target and sequencer part in the motif sequencer This submenu can also be used to change the assignment of triggergroups Instead of pressing the encoder buttons for a selection one can press the page up button and reaches the parameters of the triggergroup selection directly 4 6 VCA Section The VCA LEVEL knob controls the bus volume of both analog filters directly In most cases especially when using the filters in a parallel configuration or only one filter for the sound this control can be used as a premixer volume knob Pushing the VCA LEVEL encoder opens a menu for the BUS Level of all filtersections Filter to Bus MM 37 LP 237 FB 255 MM Multimode
183. ou can select any particular step by pushing one of the 16 control buttons Your should see the following menu Edit Step 1 gt TGrpl Stp 01 16 Pitch F 1 Prob 100 Len 1 Vel 100 In the upper left corner of the display you can see which step you have selected and what destination this step has been assigned to In the upper right the position of the section of the sequence you can currently select with the numeric buttons and control buttons is indicated You can scroll through sections of longer sequences by using the Tempo Shuttle encoder The adjustable parameters crecIir ric US 2 Step sequencer advanced Line Rotation in the lower display line during the edit process have an immediate effect on the sequence You may select other alternate notes at any time using control buttons 1 16 You can also scroll the steps into the display successively via the Page Up function Especially when multiple tonal sequences are active simultaneously you will welcome an option that enables you to scroll through all lines directly using the key combinations Shift Page Up or Shirt Page down This menu also contains a copy function It is possible to copy the settings of a selected step directly into other steps To do so use the Shift the control button of the step you want to apply the new settings to With the help of this function you can save a set note to random positions very quickly 3 5 5 MIDI learn function for pitch When the
184. p the Sequencer select song 32 and then chose pattern 5 The sequencer will start right away even though you won t hear anything yet as we have turned off all note triggers in sequence line 11 By adding a number of trigger points now more and more notes will be SPecT Rais Step sequencer basics Tonal sequences Trigger The trigger sends out control information which can initiate a predeter mined action In our case the trigger starts the envelopes which are part of a sound being played Doing this will open enve lope controlled amplifiers and filters generated To simplify these first steps we already have set the pitch information so you will get to hear decent results even without pitch changes when you are switching on individual trigger points The sequencer line responsible for the triggering of the synth voice which also allows the input of the pitch is sequencer line L11 Tgrp1 Push the Function button in the Sequence Edit section now and select sequencerline 11 with the first display encoder Press and hold the Function button in the sequence section again and push the numeric button 1 This shortcut selects parameter page 7 of the stepsequencer menu However this page can be selected by pressing the Page Up button repeatedly The page you have reached allows the activating deactivating of already defined triggerpoints in a sequence You will now see the indicator lights moving
185. p resolutions You can set the length of a single step from anywhere between a 192th note and 12 bars You will really appreciate the wide range of options when you wish to enter extended parameter changes controlled by sequencerlines For instance if you are setting the step resolution of a line toa value of 1 bar a 4 step long filter modulation decay Step Envelope will close the filter slowly over the course of 4 bars To change the step resolution select menu page 2 of the sequence edit menu Just chose the Function button within the sequence edit section select the desired sequencer line in the corresponding menu in our example line 11 AllOsc and push the Page Up button You will now see the following menu 2 8 Resol LastStep Style Start Reso 16th Len 16 Once you start changing the setting of the resolution with the first encoder Reso it will have an immediate impact on the currently playing sequence Changing the length of a sequenceline The length of each individual Sequencer Line can be set to anywhere from one to 192 Steps The number of the Steps can be adjusted on the same menu page page 2 of the sequence edit menu as the resolution SPecTRaUtIS The step sequencer basics Tonal sequences 2 8 Resol LastStep Style Start Reso 16th Len 16 Once again you can either use the Len encoder to change your setting or do it directly with the help of the numeric buttons 1 16 as long as the intention is to
186. p sequencer You can hear the effect a little better by pushing the Solo button in the Part section and using numeric buttons 12 and 13 to Solo the two parts Analog Synth and DSP Synth 1 You can also emphasize the Filterbank Signal with the processed DSP Part by pushing the Level button in the Filterbank section and raising the level of the filterbank signal using the encoder 11 FB Level Let s see how this routing was created Chose the Level button in the Mixer section and next push the encoder button 13 DSP Synth1 This will open a channel strip for the DSP 1 part 1 4 S01 lt Song 01 gt P15 Chords Part15 Vol 0 Pan lt C gt EXI 125 FX2 0 In this menu you can see the selected song the selected pattern and the selected part in the upper display row Using the 4 encoders you can now edit the sum out level the panorama position as well as the two FX sends of these parts Use the Page Up button now to select the second menu page 2 4 S01 lt Song 01 gt P15 Chords Part15 Dirl1 2 0 Dir3 4 0 AnSNnd 127 Drums 0 107 108 SPecTRaUtUIS Signal routings We re particularly interested in the third encoder in this menu the analog send encoder AnSnd This encoder controls to what extent the corresponding part is being routed into the Analog section This parameter can be individually adjusted for each part Where does the signal end up though The analog section obviously is a wide field
187. p the Spectralis will be automatically in pattern jam mode SPecTRaLGIS Overview Display section 1 9 24dB Lowpass Cutoff Modulation LFO FMWve 0 FmRte 0 FMDpt 0 In the upper row you will see the current information such as song number S01 current song name Song01 the name of the selected pattern and the selected song tempo in BPM beats per minute The lower row shows parameters which can be changed with the encoders located below the display The significance ofthe various parameters is explained in the respective chapters in this manual The type of entry will indicate the functionality of the encoders at the time For all display entries where the description is followed by a colon and a parameter value or a selection option turning the encoder will either prompt a selection list or change of parameters FMWve 0 FmRte 0 FMDpt 0 For all entries which are shown in square parenthesis the encoder only has a push button function C Funky NO YES There are additional encoder functions in the menus for editing of sounds Just push the encoder button OSCWAVE in the oscillator section right after turning on the Spectralis You will see the following display message 01 26 VCO Shape Osc1 100 Osc2 100 Osc3 100 Osc4 100 Here as well you will see a parameter description followed by a parameter value however there is also an additional up arrow right before the description In this case you can turn the
188. pass Filter cutoff LFO VLFOI 4 VCO frequency LFO 1 4 Vel Velocity Aft Aftertouch Wheel Modulationwheel Brth Breath Control Pitch Pitch Bend 6 8 Multimode Output Volumes BusV 255 Pan C FB 0 LP 0 BusV multimode filter direct output volume controls the level of the filter at the Hybrid Synth output Pan stereo position of the multimode filter panpot control of the multimode filter Works only for the direct output of the filter FB Filterbank send level Controls the multimode filter output level for the Fixed Filterbank LP 24dB lowpass filter send level Controls the multimode filter output level for the 24dB lowpass filter 7 8 Multimode FX Sends FX1 0 FX2 0 126 Zreci meum Hybrid Synthesizer reference Filter envelopes FXI FX1 send level controls the multimode filter send level for FX1 FX2 FX2 send level controls the multimode filter send level for FX2 The last edit page controls the exponential filter frequency modulation All oscillators can be used for filter FM with independent depths OSCI OSC4 Filter FM depth control the depth of FM modulation from oscillator 1 4 4 4 3 Filter envelope generators menu The Filter envelope generator menu contains parameters for both filters the multimode and the 24 dB lowpass filter Turning the EG DEPTH envelope depth encoder controls both envelope depth parameters of the filters at once Valu
189. ponding numeric buttons For instance you can access the ana log synth part by pushing numeric button 12 Mute The Mute button allows you to mute individual parts using the numeric buttons Once you ve muted one or more parts and are done with the Mute selections and want to move on to assign a different function to these buttons the Mute button will blink This is to remind you that you are not currently hearing all of the parts Solo The Solo Button enables you to Solo individual parts once again using the numeric buttons Once you ve Solo ed one or more parts and want to assign a different function to the numeric buttons the Solo button will continue to blink to remind you that you are not currently hearing all of the parts Play The Play Button also allows you to use the numeric Buttons as a Keyboard in case you don t have a MIDI keyboard handy TRANSPOSE By pushing PLAY while holding down the SHIFT button you can transpose the pitch of a selected pattern The pattern will be played in its original key when the C1 key is pushed Numeric buttons 1 13 shift the pitch of all tonal motifs in half tone steps the numeric buttons 14 and 16 transpose the key by full octaves In this case the PLAY button blinks crecIir ric US 2 Overview Num Button Assignment Whichever function you use last in this Section determines the assignment of the numeric Buttons It s all quite simple once you know
190. pth on these master LFO s can be adjusted using just simultaneously for all LFO s using just one Encoder 3 The master LFO s don t have fixed routing You can select in the edit sections of the oscillators and filters which parameters you want to be affected 4 The master LFO s have envelope curves for control over modulation depths 5 The master LFO s have a depth parameter which makes it possible to change modulation levels for multiple parameters simultaneously The master LFO s have three controls on the left side of the synthesizer edit section Encoder allows the selection of the LFO waveforms encoder 2 is used for adjusting the master LFO s modulation levels and encoder 3 controls the modulation rate of the four master LFO s The encoders on the control panel always simultaneously affect all 4 master LFO s When you are pushing the one of the encoders the corresponding parameters for all 4 master LFO s will be shown in the display LFO rate When pushing the encoder button the following display message shows Master LFO Rate Menu MLFO1 0 MLFO2 0 MLFO3 0 MLFO4 0 You now can either change the speed of each LFO individually using the 4 controls under the display or change the speed of all LFOs simultaneously using the encoder Mod Rate If you are adjusting all four parameters individually the Mod Rate Encoder will adjust the values of the individual LFOs in additive fashion LFO Mod Depth This Encoder change
191. r ecirrmeui Hybrid Synthesizer reference 24dB Lowpass filter 2 9 24dB Lowpass LFO Depth Envelope FmEd1 0 FmEDa 0 FmEdr 0 FmEDp 0 FmEdl Filter modulation delay sets the time between the note trigger and the start of the modulation depth envelope FmEda filter LFO depth envelope attack time controls the attack time of the filter modulation envelope FmEdr filter LFO depth envelope release time controls the release time of the filter modulation envelope FmEdp filter LFO envelope depth controls how much the modulation depth gets controlled by the envelope generator 3 9 24dB Lowpass Filter Control Cut 255 Reso 0 EgAm 91 Ksc1 6 Cut cutoff frequency controls the cutoff frequency of the 24dB lowpass filter Reso resonance controls the resonance of the 24dB filter EgAm envelope amount controls the depth of frequency automation by the envelope generator Kscl keyboard scaling adds a keyboard dependency to the cutoff frequency of the 24dB lowpass filter Dependent on the note number the filter frequency gets increased or decreased depending on a positive or negative value 4 9 24dB Lowpass Cutoff Modulators Srcl None Dph1 0 Src2 None Dph2 0 Src1 Src2 Modulation source selects the modulation source for the additional cutoff frequency modulation Dph1 Dph2 Modulation depth controls the modulation depth of the selected ad
192. range You can pitch them up all the way to a point where they become inaudible it might get your dog s attention though but also down low to a point where all you will hear is a slow cracking noise from your monitors rather than an actual tone This means you are able to use the oscillators as LFOs d Because ofthe flexible and dynamic routing you can even generate feedback For instance you could route an oscillator to the lowpass filter then route the 41 42 SPecTRaAatiS The analog filter section signal from there to the multimode filter and finally send the output signal of the multimode filter back to the lowpass Without fail this will prompt the Spectralis to create a sharp high pitched noise No pain no gain especially if you re not sure at which stage of the routing the feedback was generated Still Effect sounds especially can benefit from the feedback and produce beautiful noise When you consider the possibilities who would want to eliminate such features We certainly didn t e You ll be hard pressed to find a more impressive modulation matrix All of the possible modulation and signal sources are already connected with the modulation and signal targets You can determine with an encoder how much you want the respective connection to affect a parameter Just imagine a semi modular system where VCA s have taken the place of cables connecting the individual modules and you will have a pretty good idea what the
193. reached with the Tempo Shuttle Encoder Now let s get started First select an empty song and within the song an empty pattern Next push the Step Accent button in the Groove Edit section You will see the following display message 1 2 Part Sound Velo 3 3 1 1 Kick 127 20 The first encoder selects the part you want to edit the rhythm motif from The part selection is available at the encoder buttons 1 11 as well Just push the encoder button ofthe desired drum part to change the selection The third display encoder allows for the input of velocity values from 0 127 The velocity setting always is valid for all steps you are entering until you change the setting again If you just want to view a velocity setting of a step you already entered press the and hold Shift button and press the num button of the step you want to view The value instantly will become the default value for the following steps Start entering some steps by hitting the num buutons and hear the results instantly while the sequencer is still running Do you want to select another sound for the selected drumpart Just follow the following steps I Chose the Select Button and hold it down II While holding down the Select button you can select another category and or sample Don t forget to confirm your selection by pushing the Sound encoder button III After releasing the Select button it will automatically revert to the beat matrix menu SP
194. requency settings and acts therefor as a good source for lofi experiments ILMF Selects the modulation source for the Timelinearity modulation All four oscillators can be selected WaveF Sets the depth of the audio range wavetable modulation WaveF Selects the modulation source for the wavetable modulation All four oscillators can be selected Menu pages 15 27 18 27 offer oscillator synchronisation for oscillator 1 113 114 SPeciTrRatliS Hybrid Synthesizer reference Oscillator wave menu ringmodulation for oscillator 4 and sets the keyboard frequency scaling and the glide time TIP The glide Time can also be adjusted for all oscillators at once in the glide time menu press the Glide encoderbutton Sync Sync controls the oscillator synchronisation between oscillator 2 and 1 The second oscillator synchronizes the first oscillator The Sync value controls how close the waveform of oscillator 1 must stay to the Zero position in order to get synced At a value of 255 the oscillator syncs always if the oscillator 2 crosses the zero position At values below 255 the oscillator 1 gets only synced if the waveform is close to the zero line Glide Glide sets the glide time of the oscillators pitch Centr Center defines the tone where the pitch is not affected by the keyboard scaling Scale Sets the keyboard pitch scaling 12 is the default value and gives 12 halftones p
195. ring Sometimes one listens to a preprogrammed pattern and just would like to know which part is playing which instrument or effect in that pattern The Spectralis has a kind of part activity monitor function that lets the partnumber buttons flash corresponding to note events played on this part Activating this partmonitor is straight forward Just select the patternmode by hitting Pattern and press and hold Shift and push the volume button in the mixing desk section Now the partnumber buttons should flash corresponding to the motifs playing on that part If you push one ofthese flashing number buttons you will hear the corresponding part solo That makes it very easy to identify a part SPecTRatlisS 2 FX1 and FX2 3 13 FX1 and FX 2 FX 2 has been added to the soundengine and both FXs are now editable FX2 offers the same functionality like FX1 The FX s algorithm is at the moment a Digital Delay with some nice extra features Beside tempo synced delays and ping pong echoes the Spectralis FX section allows very cool moduation FX s like flanging and chorusing as well 3 13 1 Editing the FX Settings The settings of the FXs can be saved to FX memories and you can edit FXs for the whole song of for individual patterns independently Press FX1 SEND to enter the FX Editing page Both FX have the same edit pages 1 2 in the upper left corner indicates that you have two edit pages reachable with the PAGE buttons MODE SONG
196. rtphase At a value of 0 the LFO has been set to freerunning mode values other than 0 generate a fixed startphase for the LFO Using the Page buttons you can dial up the parameterpages for all 4 LFO s SPecTRaUtUIS Hybrid engine The LFO section By now you have learned quite a bit about the LFOs Depending on the selected sounds all of the LFO parameters may not affect any change at all You might be able to adjust the LFO velocity waveform and modulationfrequency to your liking however all of these parameters become audible once you have additionally increased the LFO Modulation for a modulation target Just imagine you want to modulate the filter frequency of the 24dB Lowpass using Master LFO 1 In the LFO section itself there is no possibility to assign the LFO to a target Such assignments can only be made in the individual sections which offer parameters that can be modulated In our example Master LFO1 is supposed to modulate the filter frequency of the 24dB filter proceed as follows 1 Push the Cutoff encoder button in the filtersection of the 24dB filter 2 Go to menupage 4 8 of the filter menu where you ll see the following display message 4 9 24dB Lowpass Cutoff Modulators Srcl None Dph1 0 Src2 None Dph2 0 In this menu you can select the modulationsource and adjust the modulation intensity for two modulationsources Src1 and Src2 Stand for Modulationsource 1 and 2 Dph1 and Dph2 Stand for m
197. ry That makes it very easy tolocate the sample even if you have thousands of them loaded into the Spectralis memory The category system is also nice to SPeci Ra UIS 2 Using your own samples keep the sample names short Most of the information about an sample is already specified in the category and subcategory The sample name itself can give additional info Just imagine you have sampled a kick drum with a 28 bassdrum and a neumann microphone You can now name the new kick 28MicNeu and select Kick as the category and Natural as the Subcategory Which sample formats are supported The Spectralis Sample Import Application reads the following filetypes WAV Files with 16 Bit 44 1 KHz Mono or Stereo Soundfont II Files with multisamples or collections of multisamples How does the import work First create a folder on your computers harddrive for the Sample translater and copy the 2 files from the CDR SpectImp exe and SpectImp ini onto the new folder An installation ofthe program is not necessary The registry informations will be added to the registry automaticly at the first startup Now start the application You will see a mostly empty application window Importing new samples just works via Drag and Drop Select a soundfont file or some wav files that are in the specified format and just drag and drop them onto the empty window area of the program The Spectralis will create a list then with multiple rows The list will look
198. ry Chapter 4 in this manual gives you detailed instructions on how to create your own samplesets at this moment we concentrate on using them for the DSP engine Samples in the Spectralis 2 can be loaded during startup or can be loaded dynamically on request At startup the Spectralis 2 reads all sample names from available samples in the internal Flash Memory For that reason the sample selection in the oscillator menu lists all samples also those which are not already loaded These will be loaded automaticly on selection This Memory Managment avoids any sample library confusion You must not care about loading samples The Spectralis does that for you automaticly When you for example select another song the Spectralis will load all necessary samples and will show up an error message for sample sets which are not available because SPecTRatisS Editing DSP synthesizer sounds sample oscillator of a missing sample on flash memory This missing samples message can be recalled by pressing Shift Page Up Just copy the missing sample onto the flash memory and select the browse function for giving your Speckie the chance to load the sample The sample selection can be found inside the VCO menu The encoders of the VCO section are assigned to the following targets OSC WAVE Turning Selects a sample from the current category and subcategory Pushing Opens the sample selection menu OSC WAVE C Kick S TR Alike 808Phatt Init C
199. s heat vents Make sure to place the unit on a solid surface strong enough to support its weight Connect the unit only with the correct and sufficient power sources Position the power cord carefully so nobody will fall over it Only use undamaged and fully functioning power cords Turn your unit off and remove the power cord before moving or transporting the unit Unplug the power cord before cleaning the unit When you re not using the unit for any extended period of time make sure to turn it off and to remove the power cord Clean the unit only with a dry or slightly damp cloth NEVER use cleaning solutions Make sure that no hard particles or liquid can get inside the unit As a result of rapid temperature changes it is possible that condensation canform inside the unit Make sure your unit has sufficient time for the condensation to dry off before reconnecting it to a power supply after such temperature change The unit needs to be checked by a qualified service technician in case The power cord or the plug has been damaged Hard particles or liquid have managed to get inside the unit The unit has been exposed to rain or humidity The unit has been dropped and or shows physical damage The unit is not functioning in the usual or described fashion SrecT roa US 2 Introduction 2 Introduction We first would like to thank you for purchasing the Spectralis 2 You have purchased a modern music instrument which not only sounds grea
200. s the modulation depth intensity of the 4 Master LFO s The modulation value of the Spectralis uses exponential scaling Close to the Zero setting you can effect subtle sound changes The furt her you move away from zero the more obvious the modulation change increases will become with each step At the upper end of the scale rat her dramatic modulations will take place The modulation range is from 127 to 127 Using negative values the modulation will affect the parameter values in opposite direction When using the Mod SPreciTRacliS Hybrid engine The LFO section of the analog synth Depth encoder you will see the following display message Master LFO Modulation Depth MLFO1 0 MLFO2 0 MLFO3 0 MLFO4 0 The arrows in front of the parameter names indicate that you can reach additional parameters by simply pushing of the 4 encoders Using the the first encoder under the display will promptthe following display message 1 4 Master LFO 1 Depth Control LDpt 0 LEDp 0 The message in the upper left quadrant indicates that there are 4 additio nal menupages that can be selected by using the Page Up button The successive menupages in this case will show the same parameters for the other LFO s LDpt 0 This parameter repeats the modulationdepth parameter of the upper edit section in other words controls the modulationdepth of the selected LFO s LEDp 0 This parameter controls the intensity of the modulationdept
201. s you can see Due to this flexibility the individual outs can also be used as FX sends for external effects units The outputs of the effect units of course can then be routed back to the external inputs and be added to the sum signal 109 110 cr ecirrmeitiz Hybrid Synthesizer reference Oscillator wave menu 4 Hybrid Synthesizer Reference manual 4 1 Edit Menus general usage The edit controls are always assigned to the selected part Encoders can be rotated for direct parameter control or can be pressed to open further parameter edit menus Inside the edit menus you have the following navigation features 1 The PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN buttons select different edit pages of the menu 2 If there is a mark at a parameter the display encoderbutton allows for reaching additional parameter pages belonging to that parameter 3 The edit menus memorize the last visited pages within an edit menu even after leaving a menu with the EXIT button If you enter a menu the second time you will always automaticly to the last visited page 4 You will notice that some parameters can be accessed by multiple edit pages That avoids sometimes additional button presses if one wants to edit some parameters together that have a relation to each other Hybrid Synth Edit Menus Select the Hybrid Synth Part by pressing SELECT followed by NUM Button 12 Analog Synth Now the edit section encoders are mapped to the Hybrid Synth Eng
202. scillators level for the multimode filter 5 27 VCO 24dB Lowpass Filter Volume Osc1 0 Osc2 0 Osc3 0 Osc4 0 Oscl Osc4 Oscillator 24dB lowpass filter level Controls the oscillators level for the 24dB Lowpass filter SPecTRaUtIS Hybrid Synthesizer reference Oscillator wave menu 6 27 VCO FX1 Send Osc1 0 Osc2 0 Osc3 0 Osc4 0 Oscl1 Osc4 Oscillator FX1 Send Level Controls the oscillators send level for the FX1 processor 7 27 VCO FX2 Send Osc1 0 Osc2 0 Osc3 0 Osc4 0 Osc Osc4 Oscillator FX2 Send Level Controls the oscillators send level for the FX2 processor 8 27 VCO Direct Output Volume Osc1 0 Osc2 0 Osc3 0 Osc4 0 Osc1 Osc4 Oscillator direct output level Controls the oscillators direct level for the hybrid synth output 9 27 VCO Direct Output Pan position Pan lt C gt Pan lt C gt Pan lt C gt Pan lt C gt Pan controls the stereo position for the oscillator direct output 10 27 VCO Volume Envelope Bypass osetio Osc2 0 Osc3 0 Osc4 0 Osc1 Osc4 allows for bypassing the enveloped amplifier of oscillator 1 4 with adjustable level 11 27 VCO1 Time Linearity Modulation TlmM 0 TlmF VCO4 WaveM 0 WaveF VCO4 The menu pages 11 27 14 27 present audio frequency Time Linearity and waveform modulation for oscillators 1 4 TLM sets the depth of the audio frequency time linearity modulation Creates harsh digital distortion and aliasing on high f
203. see another menu in the display for he selection of the Analog Parts 12 14 resulting from the trigger groups 1 4 S06 lt Song06 gt PA05 WetSolo Pal2 Part12 Part13 Part14 CURRENT Using the rotary buttons 1 3 below the display select the desired Part according to the trigger group You will see the currently selected Part in the upper right SPectT roa US 2 The definition of triggergroups Please note that the selection of a new sound will overwrite already prepared trigger group settings as these are sound parameters We spared ourselves from saving the trigger groups individually as a recombination of trigger groups makes no sense Many defined trigger groups won t be able to play in parallel mode due to the limited amount of oscillators and filters That s why you should select a sound in the category Multi for which sound creation is already separated into trigger groups Accordingly it is also not possible to save the sound settings of individual trigger groups separately A trigger group which has been selected in the display menu will of course be assigned to the connected MIDI keyboard or can alternatively be played back via the MINI Keyboard of the Spectralis by using the Part Play Function Simply select a sound from the category Multi in your sound selection You can use that sound to familiarize yourself with the selection and playing of the trigger groups You should now be able to play various sounds by select
204. sending MIDI Realtime messages Please press and hold the Shift button and push the Tempo Shuttle rotary encoder button to open the following display menu 1 2 Metronome Sync Settings Count 4 Rslt 4th Sync OFF Play YES If Sync is set to IN the Spectralis will start and stop when MIDI Start Stop Messages were received and will sync to external clock The transport bar of the spectralis will still start and stop the sequencer with it s internal clock If set to OUT the Spectralis will send MIDI clock to other MIDI devices If Play is set to YES a pattern selection will automaticly start the Spectralis sequencer That feature can be disabled in order to select a pattern without starting the sequencer Especially if synchronised to external equipment disabling the pattern Autoplay feature is very essential 3 11 2 Metronome settings The Spectralis comes with a built in metronome The metronome becomes audible in realtime recording and tapping mode At the first menu page see above you can select the measure format of the metronome 99 100 SPecTRatiS Part activity monitoring Count lets you decide after how many clicks a accent will be triggered by the metronome Rslt One further can select the metronome resolution between 24th and quarter notes At the second menu page the pitch for the counter and metronome beats can be specified and the metronome volume can be adjusted 3 12 Part acitivity monito
205. ssi esee eene enne tnter enne n stunts sns s seas tes senses ann 33 3 2 4 Further Sample Oscillator parameters eeeeeeeeeee eese eene eene tnnt en ntn tnann 33 3 2 5 Reverse sample playback csscscsssscssssssssssssssssssesesssssssssssssesssesscsssesssssessesesecesees 34 3 2 6 Changing the volume envelopes eese eerie eee eene entente tn sensit sinat tn an 35 3 2 7 Velocity Sensitivity and adjusting the VCA level eese eere eee eene 36 3 2 8 Using the digital multimode filter 4 cereis eese eee eee eene nenne 36 3 2 9 Playing filtered sounds eere eee eese eese eee ee sete tn sete tns tn natns tn netus enses stas tns ann 37 3 2 10 Envelope control of the filter frequency eese esee eerte eene nennen atten 37 3 2 11 Filter frequency keyboard scaling 4 eee eee eee eese nete tn nete tn ntn nn 37 3 2 12 The DSP synth LFO section eeeeeeeeeee sees eene eene testen tentus tns tn natns sns ess tn sts ann 38 3 2 13 Assigning LFO and MIDI modulation to the cutoff frequency 39 3 2 14 Assigning LFO and MIDI modulation to the resonance volume panpot position and sample oscillator pitch eere eese eene eese eene tn sts sns tn ta sna 37 3 3 Playing the Analog synthesizer eese eese eese eene eene ensis tasas tasas tassa setas enses sens sosis 4
206. steps and an envelope depth of 18 The Display will show the following message IV Now when you are pushing one of the numeric buttons you should be able to hear a significant change to the filter frequency During the course of the sequence the filter frequency will continue to shift relative to the note sequencer line To challenge you we have set the length of this line at 15 steps a little shorter than the actual sequence of notes 3 5 Step sequencer advanced I 3 5 1 Tonal sequences The previous two chapters have introduced some of the basic functionality of the step sequencer In the following chapters you will become familiar with some advanced features There are different types of sequencer lines available 69 70 cr ecirrmeuiz z Step sequencer advanced Tonal sequences in the Spectralis step sequencer We differentiate between tonal lines and parameter lines We will deal with the tonal lines first A tonal sequencerline has different parameters from the parameter sequencerlines Each step of a tonal sequencerline contains the following parameters Pitch Determines the note you will hear when the step is played Velocity Determines the velocity with which a note is played Length Determines the length of the played note Probability This step parameter determines the probability with which a note is being played This way a sequence will appear more lively because steps are not necessarily being triggered ev
207. t but also doubles as a powerful music machine which will provide new impulses for your future LIVE performances as well as production activities This manual is intended to help you to utilize as much of the Spectralis 2 potential right from the get go It should accompany you through the basic exploration period and introduce you to a number of its special features Beside the reference sections itis mostly of a practical users guide and workshop handbook which can provide you with a pretty extensive overview of the Spectralis potential The emphasis is on practical repetitive and repeatable lessons The Spectralis comes with an integrated help system which works a little bit like an additional on board reference manual If you need further information about the meaning ofan displayed parameter name just press the shift button and touch the encoder button of the assigned rotary encoder 2 1 What is the Spectralis 2 The Spectralis is a performance oriented music instrument with multiple sequencer sections optimized for LIVE operation In addition it is also an ex travagant and powerful sound design tool The Spectralis also doubles as a workstation and can handle complete music production jobs due to its sampling engine which comes with digital multimode filters What the Spectralis has to offer A pattern based 17 track sequencer with unique performance possibilities drum grid Step by Step and realtime programming e
208. t the values for pitch length and velocity in the display menu By hitting numeric buttons 1 16 you can copy the defined parameterset to the corresponding stepnumbers If you want to erase one of the steps simply push the according numeric button again If you want to change an existing step adjust the values in the display and push the desired numeric button again The step won t be erased but changed if it s values differ from the display parameterset In this mode you can additionally change the pitch of the steps with encoders 1 16 3 5 3 Option 2 Setting pitch length probability and dynamic value separately On menu page 1 7 you may already have noticed a little arrow pointing upwards in front ofthe entries Pitch Length and Velocity This arrow indicates that there is an additional menu page which you can access by pushing the according encoderbutton Changing the pitch Push the encoder button Note The following menu will open 1 4 Pitch gt TGrpl Stp 01 16 Seq L11 Pitch A3 SetA11 In this menu you can determine the pitch which you can apply to individual steps by pushing the according numeric buttons 1 16 or use as a global overwrite for all steps by using control button SetAII In the menu all numeric buttons with a parameter value different from the displayed value will blink Buttons with conforming value will be lit You will find this blink lit display in all ofthe following menus Chan
209. t to value 127 you select a sawtooth waveform If set to value 192 you select a rectangle waveform If set to value 255 you select random In between values create transitional forms between the major waveforms LFO Waveform start point The Spectralis allows both a freerunning mode in which the LFO s continue oscillating totally independent from your keypresses and a LFO fixed starting point mode where a played note will start the LFO on a desired phase starting point This starting point is also referred to as start phase In freerunning operation the LFO is not being stopped anytime Depending on when you push a key the waveform output will be at a different spot of the waveform As a result the amount of a parameter change using the LFO s will be different with each keystroke As a result a self oscillating LFO is a simple way to create lively sounds Push the LFO Wave Encoder to open the LFO Wave menu You will see the following diplay message Master LFO Wave Menu LWve 0 LWve 0 LWve 0 LWve 0 The encoders assigned to the display in this menu allow the editing of the waveform or all 4 Master LFO s individually When using one of the encoder buttons you will find yourself in the menu for setting the startphase 1 4 Master LFO 1 Waveform Control LWve 0 LPhs 0 While the first parameter will only repeat the waveform selection parameter the second parameter LPhs enables the setting of the sta
210. tep That works even without leaving the pattern randomize menu Just hold SHIFT press the desired part number button Randomize Sound The randomize function creates new sounds by taking different elements from a number of sounds and mixing them together into new sounds Furthermore the randomize function copies the new sounds into a list with 16 entries After creating some random sounds you can step backwards through the list to check always the last 16 random sounds you created Going forward into the list creates new random sounds as soon as you have reached the end of the list Additionally the randomize function comes with a buffer sound memory You can hold one of your best randomize results inside this buffer and recall this buffer later By pressing prev and recall you can compare the current selected randomized sound from the list with the one you have saved temporarily into the buffer Enter the randomize menu with the RANDOMIZE button S07 PAO8 Randomize Menu SOUND PATTERN Choose SOUND by pressing the assigned encoderbutton Now the Randomize sound menu opens S01 PAO1 Asynil Cat Lead Rand Both PREV NEXT KEEP RECALL PREV decrements the list pointer and loads the random sound of the list position When reaching the beginning of the list it starts to create new sounds SPecTRatisS Randomize Sound NEXT increments the list pointer and loads the random sound of the list position When reaching
211. terns the Pattern Jam mode 3 1 1 Introduction Patterns are connections of assorted musical motifs with a duration of 1 to 16 bars normally consisting of drums bass chords and melodies of a song segment Once you put a number of these patterns together you end up with a complete song Contrary to many sequencer programs the pattern sequencer of the Spectralis has a very different design While the goal of the average sequencer usually is the definite production of a piece of music the sequencer of the Spectralis was optimized with an eye towards LIVE use and LIVE On the Fly Editing That s the feature we would like to introduce to you first 3 1 2 The first Pattern Jam session In case it is not lit up already push the Pattern button in the Num Button Assignment section now Next use one of the numeric buttons 1 16 or Shift 1 16 which will start the corresponding pattern Use the tempo encoder in the transport section to set the tempo ofthe pattern corresponding to your personal preference and liking Up to 32 pattern can be holded by one song 3 1 3 Mute function Muting individual parts While jamming with the patterns it is likely you won t want to hear all ofthe parts all ofthe time Usually you will want to start by playing a few ofthe parts and continue adding more parts as you go along That s exactly what we will do next Push the Mute button in the part section next Now the Mute button will be lit
212. the Spectralis are output via the sum outs Signals can also be routed to the sum outputs just as well as to the individual outs In an extreme case you can even add the signal of a single oscillator to a sum output in order to modulate an external analog sound generator II Signals of the hybrid synth section can be recorded individually via the A SYNTH R und A SYNTH L Outputs Hybrid Due to the analog sounds and the analog filters we have are using the term P e analog synth on the frontpanel to create a clearer distinction between i Tcu samplebased tone generation and the hybrid synth From here on in and for where the resulting these same reasons we will use the term analog synthesizer instead of sounds consist of a hybrid synthesizer frequently even though a large part of the sound combination of creation was accomplished digitally digital and analog components Please keep in mind that direct outputs always deliver a dry signal Potential effects which you may have used in the other DSP for processing of the ana log synth sound will not be part of the signal on these outputs III You can add random signals of the DSP sample or the analog synthesizer section to the DIRECT 1 4 outputs with adjustable level IV Connect the PHONES Output with your headphones The signal is equivalent to the level of the sum out pair The level of the headphone signal can be controlled with the master volume encoder V
213. the modulation wheel is in use Pressing the LFO RATE encoder opens the LFO Rate edit menu Master LFO Rate Menu MLFO1 50 MLFO2 50 MLFO3 50 MLFO4 50 MLFOI MLFO4 controls the LFO rate of Master LFOs 1 4 4 4 Hybrid Synth Filter section The Spectralis Hybrid Synth engine sports two real analog filters the 24db Lowpass Filter and the 12 dB Multimode Filter 4 4 1 dB Lowpass Filter The red LP Filter Cutoff encoder CUTOFF LP controls the cutoff frequency of the 24dB Filter directly Holding SHIFT while turning the knob controls the multimode filter and the 24dB lowpass filter frequency at once The resonance encoder RESO LP controls the the Resonance of the 24dB lowpass filter Holding down the SHIFT button while turning the resonance knob adds a keyboard dependency to the cutoff frequency of the 24dB lowpass filter Dependent on the note number the filter frequency gets increased or decreased depending on a positive or negative value Pressing either the cutoff or the resonance encoder button opens the 24dB lowpass filter menu FmWve Filter frequency modulation LFO waveform changes the waveform of the filter section LFO from sine 0 over triangle 64 sawtooth 128 rectangle 196 to random 255 FmRte Filter frequency modulation LFO rate changes the speed of the filter modulation FmDpt Filter modulation depth controls the depth of the cutoff frequency modulation 121 122 c
214. the two filter envelopes audible I You can either open the EG bypass parameter so that the oscillator provides continuous sound regardless of the envelope setting or II You can set the release time of all involved oscillators to a bigger value SPecTRaviS Hybrid engine Oscillators and envelopes Version I is closest to what you may be used to from other synthesizers Having an additional envelope controlled amp for each oscillator is definitely pure luxury a luxury however that will show its benefits once we start dealing with phase modulation and frequency modulation Push the Osc Wave encoder button to once again open the oscillator menu Using the Page Up Button you should now select menu page 10 27 10 27 VCO EG Bypass Osc1 0 Osc2 0 Osc3 0 Osc 0 As you can see with this sound all EG bypass controls of the oscillators 1 4 are set to 0 value Set the EG bypass encoder for all oscillators to the maximum value 255 Now when you are playing a key on your keyboard and having set both filter envelopes to a high value for the release time the new sound will still continue even after you release the key TIP The bypass settings can also be reached by pushing the EG Re lease button in the VCA section Turn the VCO EG Bypass button back to 0 We still want to have a look at version II Push the OSC Wave button once again and use the Page Up button to select menu page 2 2 27 Volume Envelope Macro
215. thereafter Exit Exits the Pattern Save menu without saving any changes SPecTRaUtIS Saving patterns 3 1 9 What data are saved inside a pattern With many synthesizer workstations or grooveboxes you ll encounter a common problem which is that you have to know at all times what you want All you may do is change a sound and suddenly a dozen patterns sound different than before Another time you edit a rhythmic motif and the changes appear also in patterns which were perfectly alright This is mostly the result of the memory structure of these instrument In many cases a pattern is nothing else than a assigned selection of sounds and motifs which are being read from internal memory somewhere in the unit once selected To make things less confusing the Spectralis saves its data in a different fashion If you decide to save a pattern all of the current sound settings and musical motifs as well as the mixer settings become part of the pattern You can always count on the fact that a pattern will sound the way you heard it before saving it You won t have to concern yourself with any of the other storage slots during this process Here once again as a reminder a small List of the Data contained in a Pattern I The settings of the analog synthesizer including filterbank and step sequencer settings II The sound setting for the DSP synth incl all of the drum sounds III All motifs used IV The mixer settings V The mute and so
216. tial bands it is possible to vary the soundcharacter of the filterbank substantially Next push the Page Up button to go to the next menu page 2 2 Filterbank Main Volume Envelope Att 7 Dey 60 stn 204 R1s 65 Att attack Dey decay Stn sustain Rls release You are probably already familiar with the envelope parameters Menupage 2 shows the envelope parameters for the filterbank amplifier We won t need these parameters right now but you should memorize that the filterbank has an additional envelope controlled Amplifier for it s output If the envelope amplifier bypass is not opened and the filterbank is not triggered by the analog part the output of the filterbank will create nothing more than silence A later chapter will demonstrate how to create filterbank rhythms using noise the filterbank and the stepsequencer The settings already done in this chapter are a good starting point for this basic stepsequencer lesson You may want to have a look into the filterbank rhythms chapter in the stepsequencer section 3 3 8 The envelopes of the Spectralis analog synth In addition to the usual attack decay sustain and release parameters the envelopes of the analog synth have an additional parameter hold time which directly follows the attack phase You can get to the filter envelopes by pushing the EG Depth button The post filter VCA and VCF envelopes of both analog filters are distributed on four parameter pages As an ad
217. time modulation The Rate parameter controls the speed of the modulation Depth 0 Depth controls the depth of the delaytime modulation 3 13 2 FX program storaging If you have the FX Edit page opened it is very easy to save and recall your favorite FX settings Just press the QUICKSOUND button On Spectralis 1 units this button is assigned to the Transpose button in the num button assignment group Hold SAVE push NUM 1 16 saves the current setting to the selected number Pushing the NUM button recalls the program Memory slots in use let the LED ofthe button shine Empty memory locations are dark You can leave the Quicksound Menu by pressing Quicksound again You can leave the FX Editor by pressing FXn Send again or any other Mixer Function button SPecTRaUtIS The arpeggiator 3 14 The arpeggiator An arpeggiator extracts single notes from played chords and plays them in a selectable order The Spectralis sports 6 arpeggiators for each tonal line one independent arpeggiator The arpeggiator receives notes from the MIDI input the internal minikeyboard of the spectralis or by the pattern sequencer After recording some chords into the sequencer you can playback them with the arpeggiator activated and tweak the arpeggiator parameters in realtime during playback But the Arpeggiators work as well in case you are controlling parts via MIDI from an external sequencer In this case you should activate the MIDI syn
218. ting Songs allows to change the groove settings for all patterns at once very quickly The Mode parameter will be stored in the pattern memory If set to pattern the swing parameters get stored in the pattern as well Patterns where the mode parameter is set to song follow the swing parameters you have set in song mode RESO select the notevalue for the shuffle effect Most patterns in the Spectralis factory set work fine with a resolution setting of 16th notes 9 192 here you can set the delay for the second and fourth step in 192th notes 0 192 is the straight setting without any shuffle FX 9 192 is the max setting The settings will not become audible until you activate the shuffle effect for at least one part That is quite easy Just push the NUM buttons 1 15 for the parts you want to get shuffled Shuffle quantize is even available for sequencerlines Just press Sequence Edit gt FUNCTION to open the step sequencer edit menu 1 8 Fnc TrigMod gt FBV LP Stp 01 16 Seq L01 Typ Decay Len 4th Depth 63 Press the PAGE UP button multiple times until you reach menu page 8 8 8 8 Fnc TrigMod gt FBV LP Stp 01 16 Seq L01 Groove OFF Seq L01 choose the sequence line you want apply the shuffle function to Groove OFF The fourth encoder activates the shuffle quantize function for the selected sequence line SPeciT Rallis Randomize Pattern 3 9 12 Randomize Pattern You already learned about th
219. ting that the part is no longer assigned to an external MIDI instrument After selecting a MIDI channel number you will notice another softbutton in the display MIDI Redirekt for Part DSynl MDef MIDIDEF The MIDIDEF encoderbutton allows you to call up the MIDI instrument definition menu directly from within the part midi assignment dialog Please remember that you can t use multiple MIDI definitions within a song on the same MIDI channel number MIDI definitions are song parameters If you were ito select another program change number for a MIDI channel already in use in your song you would change all other patterns using this MIDI channel as well They all would play the sound you have selected lastl If you need a second sound from the same synth set the synth to multimode anduse a second MIDI channel for this instrument The second sound becomes available then by selecting the second MIDI channel Press the MIDIDEF encoderbutton to open the MIDI instrument definition menu 1 16 921 Song xx MIDI Defn Chn7 Bank Sound Vol Pan You can use any MIDI channel without creating a MIDI definition for it as well Just keep the values undefined if you don t want the Spectralis to control the program change the volume or the panning position Only MIDI definitions defined by the users will direct the Spectralis to send these data on song select Bank Defining a bank change number Synthesizers sporting
220. tmedia Cards as well The Spectralis automaticly browses all inserted cards during startup and loads fixed Sample Set directly into the memory and enumerates all sample names it can found in any dynamic loadable Sample Set files that allows to create a sample list for the DSP Synth Oscillator menu that shows up samples as well which are not already loaded into the RAM memory anyname SSB Soundbank files SSB files are Spectralis soundbank files and contain sound presets Up to 24 soundbank files are supported by the Spectralis 8 banks for Drum sounds 8 banks for DSP synth sounds and 8 banks for analog synth sounds Spec En hlp english Help System files The spectralis has a help system that allows to recall a helpstring for all spectralis parameters The file itself contains the help strings It s easy to create your own messages for the help system Just open the file into a writing application and produce your own helpfile Feel free to send us other language versions From Inside any of the parameter menus just press and hold Shift and the encoder button of the parameter you would like to get some infos about The strings will be dispalyed immediatly The help function can be left by pressing the Exit button or by pressing any other button SrecT roa LIS 2 Filetypes Restoring factory defaults Spectralis ini holds system settings of the Spectralis SpectralisXXX cod Firmware files for firmware updates From time
221. to the Edit entry of the diplay menue Now you see the following display menu SPecTRaUtIS External sync and metronome Len Measure format and resulting length of bar Here you can dial the desired measure format Bar Number of bars Here you can define the length of the pattern in bars Please don t forget to save your pattern after changing the the length and measure format Otherwise these settings will get lost by jumping back to the song chain editor Shortcut Just press Save gt Pattern gt Current Deleting and Inserting of songsteps Adding and deleting songsteps is a very important feature Just imagine adding a Break beween two songsteps without the opportunity to insert a step that would mean to edit all songsteps behind that position and adding a songstep at the end of the song chain The second edit page of the songstep editor offers the insert and delete songstep function 2 2 Ambient Step 8 of 8 Insert lt insBLCK gt lt cpyBLCK gt delSTEP Both functions always are acting at the current songstep Delete deletes the current songstep and Insert inserts a songstep behind the current songstep In a future version we will allow to specify blocks of multiple songsteps to be copied and inserted at any desired position within the song chain 3 11 External synchronisation and metronome Settings 3 11 1 External synchronisation The Spectralis can be synchronised to external MIDI gear capable of
222. to time you should delete former versions of the firmware files Three of these files are eating 1 MB of your Flash Memory default spt Default pattern settings This file is a default pattern If you delete a pattern or when you start your pattern programming with an empty pattern the sound and motif data will be read from this default pattern All the basic work you normally have to do like selecting sounds or samples for the parts setting measure formats and defining the pattern length can be preprogrammed in this default pattern You may want to overwrite the existing pattern with your customized version Just select an empty pattern change your settings and safe the empty pattern as current Hook the Spectralis up to the computer copy the file to the computers harddisk and rename the pattern to default spt After that simply copy the renamed file to the root directory of the flash rom anyname SFI Spectralis Flash Image The SFI files are backup files They are normally used to restore the factory sounds samples and patterns but may will be used in the future as well for updates containing samples songs and sounds These files should be saved on smartmedia cards only During the image restore operation the internal flash memory will be formatted Make sure to backup all your own data before starting the image restoring You may have received a Smartmedia Card from the service department with a valid image file or you received a ima
223. ton select a sequencerline assigned to note values and select menu page 8 with the PAGE UP button 8 8 Fnc Other TGrpl Stp 01 16 Seq L11 Trans OFF RevPt G8 Groove OFF You ll find the description of the parameters in the chapter above SPecTRatisS Signal routings 3 16 Signal routings Foreword We re sure you have noticed that the Spectralis on the one hand has two separate synth sections independent of each other the analog synth and the DSP sampling synth but also features two external inputs Additionally the Spectralis has numerous routing options mostly discussed in the chapters dealing with the analog synth descriptions up to now Routing inside the Spectralis however is not an exclusive feature reserved for the Modules of the Analog Synth Voice Additionally you can a Route individual Parts of the DSP section to the filter module of the analog synth b Route random input signals with line level to the analog synth or the effect section or add them to the sounds of the Spectralis Assign individual parts to the individual outputs In this chapter we want to introduce some of these possibilities to you 3 16 1 Routing DSP parts to the analog synthesizer Please chose song 1 and in this song select pattern 15 ofthe factory presets Are you noticing anything This pattern contains a DSP part with a played chord motif which has been processed rhythmically with by the filterbank and the ste
224. trigger and note priority settings for triggergroups 3 can be selected For most analog synth sounds of the soundlibrary triggergroup is in use If you have selected a solosound on the analog synth part and you want to explore these settings triggergroup is the one in use usually You should instantly hear the result if you change the settings there Please keep in mind that you can save the settings for note priority and triggersetting for each separate sound When you are choosing a different sound the original settings of this sound will be restored You have an additional direct access to the Triggergroup definition menu by simply pressing the SET ROUTING button in the filter section SrecT ric LIS 2 Step sequencer basics Filterbank rhythms 3 4 1 Step sequencer basics Filterbank rhythms The parameters of the step sequencer are an integral part of rhythmic modulated hybrid synth patches and are stored therefor inside the hybrid synth sound memory That is the reason why we have included it s description in thisAnalog Synthesizer How to chapter As a preparation for the first part of this Step Sequencer chapter you can either use the settings prepared in the preceding Filterbank chapter or your will have to make the following preparations now I Select an empty pattern in an empty song II Select the Analog synthesizer using the Select button plus Numeric Button 12 III Push the OSC WAVE encoder button
225. tton closes the drum groove selection dialog After selecting another motif or drumgroove you should save the new pattern Otherwise the next pattern selection will result in loosing these changes 3 9 5 Recording your own motifs If you are not satisfied with the preset motifs of the spectralis there is only one way to achieve happiness You will have to create some motifs of your own There are different ways to record or input new motifs into the spectralis sequencer It doesn t matter whether you want to record in realtime or step by step the recording of an motif always starts by pushing the record button in the transport field Currently recording motifs can only be started if the sequencer has been stopped before however very soon a new firmware will allow to start the recording on the fly 3 9 6 Realtime recording This is how you should proceed when recording a new motif I Selection of the desired part In the Part section in the upper left push the gt Select button II Select your desired part in the numeric button row below Num button 13 for example arms the DSP synth part 1 III Select the Pattern mode with the Pattern button in the num button assignment section IV Access Record menu by pushing the Rec button The following record mode selection dialog will appear Motif Record Menu ChordRec StepRec Realtime lt Overdub gt For realtime recording please press the encoder button Realtim
226. tune first sets the oscillator frequencies to equal pitch and and adds detuning when turning further At the end of the range the oscillators get detuned by musical intervalls By holding SHIFT while turning the encoder another function will be accessed Now the encoder shifts the pitch of all oscillators at once in halftone steps If glide is selected for oscillators the pitch shift works continuously SPecTRaUtIS Hybrid Synthesizer reference Oscillator pitch menu Pressing OCT DOWN decreases the frequency of all oscillators by one octave 12 halftones down Pressing OCT UP increases the frequency of all oscillators by one octave 12 haltones up Press the Osc Detune encoder button to enter the oscillator pitch menu The first menu page of the pitch menu sets the finetune of the oscillators If one decreases the fine pitch up to the next halftone the coarse tune parameter gets affected and the fine tune parameter starts at the lowest setting again 1 4 VCO 1 4 Fine Tune Osc1 0 0sc2 0 0sc3 0 Osc4 0 OscX Finetune value control By pressing any of the display encoder buttons 1 4 one enters the submenu for the fine tune modulation 1 8 VCO1 Pitch LFO LWve 0 LRte 13 LDpt 0 Each oscillator has it s own independent pitch LFO LWve LFO Wave changes the waveform shape of the LFO LRte LFO Rate changes the rate of the pitch LFO LDpt LFO Depth changes the depth of the pitch LFO 2 8
227. ually 3 1 7 Sound selection for your parts You re saying the Kick drum is too boomy the Snare doesn t have enough attack and the Hi Hat doesn t sizzle enough Well maybe you should try some different sounds Push the Select button in the Part section Use numeric button 1 to choose the Kick part You will now see the following message in the display of course song number and pattern names may vary SPeciTRatlis Pattern Jam mode C Kick Using the first Encoder you can now select the sound category If you want to stick with the Category Kick the Spectralis will offer you a selection of sounds in this case ONLY Kicks which are part of this category By setting the category to ALL you can select all drum sounds stored in the machine S TR Alike Using the second Encoder you can select another subcategory Subcategories allow to make a kind of preselection for your sound search If you for example are looking for TR 909 kicks select TR Alike and the Spectralis will list all sounds taken from the TR family of drumcomputers 808Deep The third encoder selects the sound itself The sound you are selecting will will not be loaded until you push down the encoder button That is necessary for all sample based sounds to avoid unnecessary sample loading during your sound search But you can overcome this by simply hitting the page up and page down buttons for selecting and activating a samplebased sound That often als
228. unning your system in the red all the time even if you like your music loud You should set your input gain at level that will only occasionally overdrive your LEDs rather than turning them into constant warning lights f Finally adjustthe playback level on your amplifier This should keep the distortion level under control and you can work at your desired volume level 3 0 3 Connect MIDI keyboard There are times when you will want to play your Spectralis via a keyboard for one of the included How to chapters Proceed as follows a Set your MIDI keyboard up in close proximity to the Spectralis and connect it with a power supply b Setthe MIDI channel ofthe keyboard to MIDI Channel 1 c Connect the MIDI Out of your keyboard with the MIDI In of the Spectralis using a MIDI cable d Once turned on the Spectralis can now receive the note information sent by your keyboard on MIDI channel 1 and will assign the notes to the analog synthesizer section In case you are playing your keyboard right now you should hear what you are playing Now that you re all set we re ready to GO SPecTRaUtIS Pattern Jam mode Shift allows to view the part activity during playback Just hold the Shift button down during muting or soloing parts to see which parts are play ing The corres ponding Num Button LEDs will It s much easier to identify a part you want to mute if the part activity is visible 3 1 Select play and adjust pat
229. will either be repaired or replaced at the Manufacturer s election The general business terms and conditions of Radikal Technologies GmbH Germany shall apply 1 1 2 Coverage Radikal Technologies Deutschland GmbH reserves the right to perform warranty repairs or product replacement only subject to prior warranty registration by the customer Such registration needs to be submitted together with a copy of dealer invoice or sales receipt The final decision concerning validity ofthe warranty is made by Radikal Technologies GmbH In case ofa justified warranty claim the submitted product will be repaired or replaced within 30 days of receipt at Radikal Technologies offices Any physical damage to the instrument or unauthorized attempts to open or fix the unit will render the warranty null and void Repair of non registered products or products with a lapsed warranty will be performed at customer s expense We strongly recommended that customers ask for an estimate of costs before sending in their instruments for repair Cost ofpackaging and shipping will be charged additionally In case ofcovered warranty claims the product will be shipped back to the customer free of charge Shipment to customers residing outside of Germany will take place at the cost ofthe customer 1 1 3Transfer of warranty This warranty is exclusive and personal to the original owner and may not be transferred Other than Radikal Technologies Deutschland GmbH no third party ret

Spectralis 2

Contents

Download Pdf Manuals

Related Search

Related Contents