GenX.manual 2/5 1900
Contents
1. 19 Creating tones in unrecorded regions cceeee cece ee teeta ees 19 Adding tones to existing audio eee cee ee eee eee eee teeta etna 19 CHAPTER 3 GENERATOR X APPLICATIONS 20 WEST LO TEST 20 Basic sound design eee dee ed dn ee ee eed dee ee tae eee eee 20 MUSIC enhancement eect I m senem nhe ren 21 Additional presets ice xa etna Rer dae mue emu ig ea e dia 21 An Introduction to Generator X Welcometo Generator X a Plug In for toneand waveform generation in AudioSuite or TDM capable audio workstations Every analog console has a tone generator built into it but until now that basic stu dio tool has been missing from the Pro Tools environment The Generator X plug in provides a high quality signal generator which puts a wide variety of waveforms impulses and white and pink noiseat your fingertips Applications range from the obvious test alignment reference tones to the sub lime simple additive synthesisfor sound design Theadjustabletrigger allows key ing the tone generator off the input or a sidechain perfect for adding a little extra whump under a kick drum The single impulse mode provides an ideal way to audition reverbs without coloration All this for less than one hundred dollars with no copy protection nightmares and compatibility across the board from PT M ix all the way back to 68k NuBus And an AudioSuite version too W hy Generator X Cool Stuff2. So is ours Why waste it with copy protection System Requirements Generator X requires a Macintosh platform which is either TDM or AudioSuite capable For TDM operation Generator X requires any of the following Pro Tools TDM hardware in a functioning configuration NuBusDSP Farm PCI dassic DSP Farm PT MIX coreor PT M IX farm A PowerPC system is NOT required for TDM operation as Generator X has been specifically engineered to maintain backward compatibility for 68k machines Pro Tools software version 4 0 or higher is recommended for optimal results A word about copy protection We don t believe in it Even the best intentioned implementation interferes with legitimate users trying to get work done It costs money and time to implement update and support and there s no evidence it is effective if anything the rapid availability of cracks on the internet indicates just the opposite So wedid something different Our software is cheap So cheap it s petty cash not a capital expense We re counting on you the user to do the right thing It s simple really If you useGenerator X and find it useful pay usfor it That will allow usto continue developing other cheap useful plug ins Pretty soon you ll havean arsenal of plug insthat cost you in total lessthan ONE conventional plug in And you ll never have to worry about being left in a lurch by copy protection that takes out your ability to work at 3a
3. or if it isa numeric value editabletext Theunitsfor Input Gain Frequency Amplitude and Threshold are all selectable as noted individually The sliders are quite obviously a unique curved design We ve taken this ap proach for a few functional reasons as well as the pure visual aesthetic Basic opera tion is as expected grab the knob of a slider and move it in the track to adjust the value We find an arc to be a much more natural movement than a straight line when utilizing a mouse It is possible however to alter the characteristic of the fader by the motion of the mouse For each of these examples begin with the slider knob in thelower left position First move the mouse in an arc approximating that of the on screen slider The motion islinear and tracks your movement directly Now move the mouse in a straight horizontal line directly to your right The motion of the knob is approximately logarithmic large initial change fol lowed by smaller and smaller incremental change Finally move the mouse in a straight vertical line directly up The motion is logarithmic but in the opposite sense small initial changefollowed by incremen tally larger and larger change Thecurved nature of the knob also lendsitself to a much larger resolution spectrum than a normal controls fine and coarse modes Becausethe movement of the knob isdependent on thechangein angle with thefocal point of thearc in thelower right corner the am
4. DAN ERE 9 M aking those annoying dialogs go aw ay sees 11 CHAPTER 2 USING GENERATOR X nennen nnnm nnn nnn 12 Basic mono operation sida tietadutets nest Deuce Da XR ea Rida ioa 12 Accessing Generator X cssssssssssssssssssseee eme ee eese ens nnn 12 eror ER 12 Basic Cotitro ls traer ease rS desi t ERE RUE n bre PERRUROE Fall ente RU ape 14 Generator ON OFF iret ciii ber eid ia ge vata aa te R Vae Vedaa neta nada tied 14 Rectifier ON O PE vuisceosisceretisaers iasinededia a eau Eder veli da cnra suit dd Fan 14 Inverter ON OFF ciciiecia eviter catt ca dva Cx Rok E Ven TY RRERY ED Cia NA eres 15 Waveform pop up menu cee cece cece eect tent eee teat m nen 15 IM PUL crie m 16 FREQUENCY cecs kenn trann iA tune OARE AE AA PE ad du alguna biaiedgjad tale gaa alies 16 ACM PEW occ rate D 16 Triggering Controls sicas orte DUREE REP Dine E reb EUR E eda iufe E DUE ale 17 Rude 17 Tires Told maa ata serait meuituledofiisa a E a tutt tinci tq 17 Dur du m 17 Release cope DEM Rete M Red bie DOR AE Oe eed Pie D Pi Deaf yes 18 How triggering wOrks sssssssssssessmIm memes sre 18 Using a sidechain input as a trigger sssesesssesee 18 Stereo operatiOn uoee cess dan aed sex bee x Ela c este deett Led ek e nee n dde ek 19 AudioSuite peculiarities 2 0 0 ccc cece eee eect eee eee teeta eee ena eeaes
5. GENERATOR Softw are User s Guide Version 1 0 536 VERA AVENUE REDWOOD CITY CA 94061 1707 HTTP WWW COOLSTUFFLABS COM Product development and engineering Frank Filipanits Jr M arketing and documentation design Frank Filipanits Jr and Paula Murray Artefact Design Cool Stuff Labs w ould like to thank Jon Goldstein M ikail Graham Gannon Kashiwa Colin M cDowell of M cDowell Signal Processing LLC The contributors to the DAW M AC and MUSIC DSP mailing lists Thedenizens of rec audio pro 1999 Cool Stuff Labs Incorporated All Rights Reserved Pro Tools Pro Tools PCI Pro Tools 24 Pro Tools MIX and Digidesign are trademarks or registered trademarks of Digidesign or Avid Technology Inc All other trademarks are the property of their respective ow ners C Oo N LI E N T S INTRODUCTION ennneeennmhhnnan manna hn nan rh hnunnuu aad ka uua uaa unu 4 An Introduction to Generator X ssssssssssssse em emen 4 Why Generator X iouis de ex RE ex da ob ipa e oux deed eu Ex ered a MOX RE rene 4 System Requirements ssssssssssssssssss eme eee mene 6 A word about copy protection sssssssI nere 7 CHAPTER 1 INSTALLATION esnenn ennemi nnn nnn 8 Running the installer eect eee eee eee eee me mne 8 Purchasing the softw AF icc teen e ree nnn 9 On Line Payment ocho eere poce d exce dete RO Dada e x a neice di 9 Off Line Paytment oec mpi REDE P os ene eta E Er REED
6. Labs has been making plug ins for a long time Frank Filipanits the founder and big kahuna has authored more TDM plug ins than any other single author In the past we ve written them for other folks Dolby Aphex and Aureal to name a few But we kept running into situations where there was something miss ing a way to generate simple tones inside Pro Tools Hence an idea was born GENERATOR During the years we ve been authoring plug ins we ve cometo know theindustry a bit And there s a perception that 1 Themarket isso small plug ins haveto be expensiveto recoup thedevelopment effort 2 There s only one way to sell software through a distribution channel which then sells it to retail stores which then sell itto the consumer 3 Musicians are a bunch of thieves therefore hard core copy protection is a must We ve also found that 1 Customers aretired of paying 1k plus for plug ins 2 Copy protection is frustrating and occasionally damaging for legitimate users 3 There s got to be a better way one that doesn t foster such an antagonistic rela tionship between the software manufacturers and the users That s why we decided to break with the pack and offer this software at a fair price which we can do because we re also abandoning the traditional distribution model theonly placethe softwareis available is from our web site http w w w coolstufflabs com And there s NO COPY PROTECTION HASSLE Your time is valuable
7. al generator on and off Because Generator X is set up to add the generated waveform to the input we figured you would like a way to turn it on and off HINT If you renot hearing the desired waveform makesurethis button is ON Rectifier ON OFF While we ve given you several basic waveforms to work with someone is bound to want one we haven t provided This button extends the existing waveforms by flipping the phase of any negative part of the generator output ONLY Any signal provided as input remains unperturbed Thiscan beuseful if for example you would prefer atrain of positive only impulses or need to rectify a square wave to get a DC offset The effects of this button should be obvious by observing the waveform display Inverter ON OFF Aswith theRectifier this button extends the existing waveforms by flipping the phase of the generator output ONLY Any input which is passed though to the output remains true to phase When used in combination with the Rectifier button the Inverter will result in a waveform which is entirely negative Again the effects of this button may bedirectly observed in the waveform display Waveform pop up menu Here s where you can pick from several provided waveforms The currently selected waveform is graphically displayed to the right of the pop up as modified by the Rectifier and Inverter controls Sine Square Triangle Saw tooth These waveforms are fairly self explanatory
8. and send it to the address shown on the form which is Kagi 1442 A Walnut Street 392 QLM Berkeley California 94709 1405 USA You can pay with a widevariety of cash from different countries but at present if you pay via check it must bea check drawn in US Dollars Kagi cannot accept checks in other currencies the conversion rate for non USD checks is around USD 15 per check and that is just not practical If you have a purchasing department you can enter all the data into the Register program and then select Invoice as your payment method Print three copies of the form and send it to your accounts payable people You might want to highlight the linethat mentions that they must include a copy of theform with their payment Kagi cannot invoice your company you need to act on my behalf and generate the invoice and handle all the paperwork on your end Please do not fax or email payment formsthat indicate Cash Check or Invoiceasthe payment method As far as we know thereis still no technology to transfer physical objects via fax or email and without the payment the form cannot be processed Payments send via postal mail take time to reach Kagi and then up to 10 days for processing Again if you include a correct email address you will hear from Kagi when theform is processed M aking those annoying dialogs go away At Cool Stuff Labs wedon t believein copy protection but we do believe even good people occasionally need reminders
9. erator X isN OT phase locked In fact stereo noise generators are completely uncorrelated channel to channel While this is a desireable and necessary feature for noise generation it is not necessarily an obvious or desireable behavior for waveforms such as sines We are working on a lock phase control for a future version of Generator X AudioSuite peculiarities At this time the AudioSuite version of Generator X does not support triggering All waveforms are generated at 100 of the Amplitude setting Creating tones in unrecorded regions It is frequently useful to create a signal with Generator X in a location which does not include existing audio creating a reference level toneis one exapmple For suc cessful operation it is necessary to ensurethe AudioSuite settings are set for entire selection rather than region by region As with theTDM version itisalso impor tant to ensure the Generrator control isON Adding tones to existing audio In some cases it is desireable to add signals to existing audio regions In this case region by region will leave unrecorded areas blank while entire selection will add the output of Generator X to all audio and create new regions in the gaps between existing regions When using Generator X in an area with existing audio the nput Gain controls how much of the existing audio is retained the Amplitude controls the amount of gener ated signal added in Experimentation and prev
10. iewing is the best way to acheive optimum results CHAPTER 3 GENERATOR X APPLICATIONS Test tones One of the most fundamental applications for Generator X is the creation of test tones For your convenience a number of standard test tones are provided with the Generator X package as presets Sinetones and noise at a number of standard levels are available immediately through this mechanism Also provided are settings for IM D testing alternating LSB and tape biasing Basic sound design Generator X s design provides the building blocks for basic additive synthesis Not only do the fundamental waveforms provide a great starting point for your own audio manipulations but they can easily be combined to form morecomplex textures Here s an example nstanciate a Generator X on an empty track Set the Frequency to 50 Hz and leave the others at their defaults Sine 6dB Amplitude Turn the Generator ON Now instanciate another Generator X in the insert immediately below the first Set the Frequency to 52 Hz with OdB Input Gain 6dB Amplitude Sine Turn itON 20 With barely any effort you ve just created a deep thrumming pulsating sound great for movie backgrounds or unique musical effects M usic enhancement Sure Generator X is a useful tool but what about musical applications That sthe whole reason we added thetriggering section Ever record a drum part with a wimpy kick Here s how to fatten it up wi
11. m on a Saturday Believe me the other plug in companies are watching They think we re nuts If you re tired of fighting with their copy protection and paying their prices the most effective thing you can do is provethat our way cheap plug ins and no copy protection works If you use it pay for it It s so cheap you have no excuse not to CHAPTER 1 INSTALLATION Running the installer Step 1 Run the installer Step 2 Launch your favorite audio app ie Pro Tools and have fun Honestly it s that easy Do pay attention to thelicensing agreement in theinstaller it delineates what your responsibilities are and points out thisis NOT public domain software If you useit beyond the first 14 days you must purchase it or removet from your system The installer will look for a Plug Ins folder in a DAE Folder in your currently active system folder and install the executable there All other files pertaining to the Generator X User M anual License Agreement READM E and the Register application will be placed in a separate folder at the location specified duringtheinstallation process defaulting to the current boot drive Purchasing the softw are Okay you say I want to buy it just don t know how Well either read the file called README or follow the instructions below Paying for Generator X isfairly simple You may either pay on lineor via mail or fax All our payments are processed through a se
12. om the Generator X A value may either be specified in dBFS or as a gain factor The exact setting of this control for the desired action is best accomplished by trial and error as it depends very much on the content of the signal used for the trigger Attack This control governs the length of time it takes the trigger to go from completely OFF to completely ON Short transition times result in very fast triggers but can also lead to clicks and pops if the triggered waveform has a large magnitude Conversely very long transition times can result in output amplitudes significantly below that set with the Amplitude control if the trigger falls below the Threshold beforethe gate is completely open 237 Release The complement to the Attack control Release establishes the decay time of the trigger or how long it takes the gate to go from completely ON to completely OFF Considerable asymmetry is often desireable with a fast attack and longer release in order to provide a more natural sound How triggering w orks Thetrigger uses a simple conventional gating mechanism much like those found in popular compressors T heinput selected in the Trigger pop up is routed through an averaging filter which creates an approximation of the signal envelope This enve lopeisthen compared against the Threshold setting if thetrigger envelopeis above the Threshold value the amplitude of the output is increased according to the rate established in theAttack
13. ount of movement necessary to effect a change in valueis dependent on thedistanceto that focal point In plain terms thefurther the cursor isfrom the lower right corner of the control being manipulated the more movement is neces sary to generate the same change in value Try this SettheAmplitude control approximately to the center of its range Click on the knob and drag the cursor inside the arc towards the value readout for this control Notethat very little movement of the mouse results in very large movement along the arc Again click on the knob but this time drag the cursor away from the control towardsthetop left of thescreen Notethat your precision isnow much higher as significantly more movement is necessary to cause a changein the control value While option clicking a control does reset the control to its default there is no provi sion for a fine adjustment mode accessible through the command key If finer con trol is required for nudging a control we recommend using the capabilities afforded by the editabletext values Simply click on the value display of a control and usethe up down arrow keys to nudge the value up or down by very small increments All controls are automatable and when controls are under control from either the automation system or an external control surface the control name will be under lined in the appropriate color Basic Controls Generator ON OFF This handy button turns the sign
14. parameter If thetrigger envelopeislessthan the Threshold value then the output amplitude is decreased according to the rate specified by the Release control TheAttack and Release mechanismsimplement a simple linear slope gate If amore complex gating or keying mechanism is needed we recommend using a dedicated compressor plug in astheinsert immediately following Generator X Our goal here was to enable triggering suitable for most uses within GenX without writing a so phisticated compressor that s a whole plug in of its own Using a sidechain input as a trigger When using a sidechain input as the trigger it is important to remember to specify that input If the Trigger modeis set to Sidechain but the side chain input pop up in the grey plug in header menu has not been set no key input there will be no triggering and Generator X will not add any signal to the input Besureto select an input or busin thesidechain input pop up before attempting to use Generator X in Sidechain Trigger mode Stereo operation Stereo operation is very much like mono operation At this time there is only one set of controls which are shared for both left and right channels To bring up a stereo version of the plug in simply select Generator X stereo from the inserts menu on a stereo channel IMPORTANT NOTE Whilestereo Generator X only has oneset of controls it truly is two independent waveform generators As a result output from a stereo Gen
15. rvice called Kagi On Line Payment Go to http www coolstufflabs com and follow thelinks under the products page You will be linked to a page at Kagi where a form for purchasing Cool Stuff Labs productsrunsthrough a secure server SSL for handling on line credit card payment Off Line Payment Open the Register program that accompanies Generator X Enter your name your email address and the number of single user licenses you desire for each program you wish to purchase or Site licenses Save or Copy or Print the data from the Register program and send the data and payment to Kagi More specifics on the Register program follow If paying with Credit Card or First Virtual you can email or fax the data to Kagi Their email address is sales kagi com and their fax number is 1 510 652 6589 You can either Copy the data from Register and paste into the body of an email message or you can Save the data to a file and you can attach that file to an email message Thereis no need to compressthe data file it s already pretty small If you have a fax modem just Print the data to the Kagi fax number Payments sent via email are processed within 3 to 4 days You will receive an email acknowledgment when it is processed Paymentssent via fax takeup to 10 daysand if you provide a correct internet email address you will receive an email acknowledgment If you are paying with Cash or USD Check you should print the data using the Register application
16. ssed to the output This allows for control over simple additive synthesis and other blending applications Theunitsareselectablefor whatever you are most com fortable dealing with dB or a gain factor Positive gain is permitted NOTE Input Gain does not affect the gain of the trigger signal even if the selected Trigger is Input Frequency This control allows adjustment of the waveform frequency not applicableto noise generation or single impulse mode The value may be specified either as a fre quency in Hertz or a wavelength in samples Amplitude Amplitude controls the size of the generated waveform As with Input Gain the units may be adjusted according to your needs dBFS dB below Full Scale gain factor 0 1 or quanta a hexadecimal value representing the number of quantiza tion steps 46 Triggering Controls Trigger Thetrigger pop up allows you to select the source used for Generator X s triggering mode None No trigger is used the tone generator is active whenever the generator control is ON Input The input pre gain is used to determine whether or not the Generator is creating any waveform The Input Gain control does not affect the level of the signal Sidechain The specified sidechain input from the gray plug in menu is used to key the signal generator Threshold Thethreshold control establishesthe level at which thetrigger switchesfrom OFF to ON resulting in output fr
17. th Generator X Insert Generator X on the kick drum track Set it to generate a 40 Hz sine don t forget to turn Generator ON Set the Trigger to Input e While playing audio adjust the Threshold control until the 40H z toneis audibly triggered by the kick s Adjust theAttack Release controls to give the desired punch and decay AT Adjust theInput Gain and Amplitude controls to balance the levels Say goodbyeto that wimpy kick A dditional presets We will provide additional preset packs for download on our web site in the future If you have developed a preset for Generator X you would liketo share pleasesend it to us at genx coolstufflabs com Well include it in our next posting with kudos to the contributors
18. the waveform display should eliminate any doubts regarding these shapes Im pulse Thiswaveform results in atrain of singleimpulses alternating positive and negative An impulse is all zero except for one positive and one negative spike per cycle Single Impulse SNAP Selecting Singlel mpulsein thewaveform pop up places Generator X in aspecial mode displaying an additional button labeled SNAP When in thismode the output of the signal generator is zero Pressing the SNAP button results in one single positive impulse very useful for auditioning reverbs or checking absolute or relative phase W hite Noise White noise is mathematically random noise with constant power density over a finite range equal power at every frequency It can be useful for performing room measurements EQ measurements or adding some spice to snare or cymbal hits Pink Noise Pink noise is musically random noise Sometimes called 1 f noise the power density decreases 3dB per octave with increasing frequency it contains equal energy in every octave Compared to white noise it sounds bass heavy and is equivalent to white noise filtered through a 3dB octave low pass filter Pink noise is also useful for room measurements EQ measurements and isroughly equivalent to a number of naturally occurring random broadband sounds such as ocean waves and freeway traffic Input Gain The input gain controls the amount of signal present at the plug in sinput which is pa
19. to do the right thing When we receive payment for Generator X we will tell you how to indicate to Generator X that you have paid the registration fee so it can stop pestering you to register In order to provide you with that code we must be able to contact you Email is the preferred method and if you have specified a valid e mail address during your payment process you will receive a registration code by email within a few days If you do not have an email address please enter your complete postal address and please remember we do not know what country you live in so please enter that into the postal address also oa CHAPTER 2 USING GENERATOR X Basic mono operation The primary mode of operation for which Generator X was designed is simply as a mono TDM insert Accessing Generator X 1 Create a session within your audio application of choice which supports TDM plug ins For mono operation 2 Click on an insert on amono track Generator X mono should appear as one of the available choices For stereo operation 2 Click on an insert on a stereo track Generator X stereo should appear as one of the available choices Controls The controls in Generator X are simple and can be broken into two main groups Basic Controls and Trigger Controls Thefollowing guidelines apply to all controls Buttons are red when active black when inactive All text which is contained in a box is either a pop up menu
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