User Guide - Soundtoys
Contents
1. n V j 3 a h A PHASEMIS RESS Analog Phase Shitter CONTENTS CONTENTS THANKS INTRO About PhaseMistress What and Who is SoundToys GETTING STARTED System Reguirements Installing PhaseMistress Registration USING PHASEMISTRESS What s a Phase Shifter Basics Knobs Toggle Switches LED Displays Accessing PhaseMistress Real Time Processing RTAS or HTDM Non Real Time Processing AudioSuite Using PhaseMistress Within Pro Tools The PhaseMistress Preset Library Compare Button Bypass Using Parameter Automation Locking PhaseMistress to Tempo and Down Beat Using the HTDM Version of PhaseMistress Optimizing CPU Usage The PhaseMistress Control Panel Analog Mode Switch Input and Output Level Mix Frequency Resonance Mod Rate Shape and LFO Style Menu Auditioning Styles Tweak Button Style Tweak voog uu U 20 20 21 22 22 23 24 24 25 25 25 26 CONTENT S continued Modulation Controls Choosing a Modulation Mode LFO Mode Rhythm Mode Envelope Mode Random S H Mode Random Step Mode ADSR Mode Summary FINAL PAGE Getting Help More SoundToys Products The UltraTools Product Line Trademark Info 32 32 33 35 38 39 40 41 43 EE 44 45 46 46 LuaNxs First off we d like to give you a loud THANK YOU for purchasing PhaseMistress We know there are an awful lot of plug ins for you to choose from and w2. Beat Clock When using MIDI beat clock the display will show the cur rent tempo Use the Tap Tempo as previously discussed 39 Rhythm The Rhythm pop up allows you to set the speed or rate at which the sample and hold will jump to a new value Smoothing The Smoothing knob works much the same as it does in the Rhythm Editor and can be used to smooth out transitions between the random values A setting of zero eguals no smoothing and the values will jump from one to the next The maximum setting will give you a smooth constantly changing random phase variation some times referred to as the drunken walk for obvious reasons Random Step Mode JE 3 Ebay MCC THING i b a F u W a i gt a F Frail Fal Fei RANDOM STEP The Random Step mode combines the sample and hold effect with an envelope fol lower Instead of changing to a new value at a specific set rate a new random value is triggered when you press the Trigger button in response to a MIDI note trigger or when the input signal exceeds the Threshold setting This works really great on drums and other highly percussive signals and can be used to create a creative dynamic effect that varies with each audio event Trigger Press this button to trigger a new random value The trigger button will also respond to any MIDI note event Threshold As previously discussed the Threshold knob controls the level at which the input will trigger a
3. Res Mode The Res Mode a totally new parameter not available elsewhere determines that number of resonant peaks independently of the number of Stages The Res Mode parameter has a significant affect on the overall character of the Resonance when the Resonance is turned up Various mixtures of Stage settings and Res Mode set tings will often impart really drastic changes in the overall tonal quality of the phase effect Setting the Res Mode to the lowest setting of Norm is the standard setting that you would find in most phasers and will automatically set the normal number of resonant peaks for the selected number of Stages As you change the number of Stages the number of resonant peaks are automatically set Setting the Res Style to a different number than the number of Stages allows you to create completely new and previously unavailable virtual phasing circuits and create a plethora big word of truly unique phasing tones There is no right or wrong setting You will for sure hear that there are a LOT of variations that can be achieved with different combinations of Stages and Res Style settings Add to these the other switches located in the Style Tweak menu and you will soon find yourself navigating new and uncharted sonic phasing waters Res Offset The Res Offset menu tunes the frequency of resonant peaks relative to frequency of the notches Decreasing the Res Offset displays a negative value tunes the reso nant peaks
4. be created by PhaseMistress In most phasers the only parameter that gets modulated is the Frequency PhaseMistress allows you to dynamically modulate the Resonance as well as the Resonance Offset at the same time each with a definable depth and definable direc tion polarity Please Note The Freq Mod parameter was set to a default setting of 8 00 Oct when we created the various Style settings and should be set to this value if you wish to hear the Style settings au natural The Res Mod Res Offset Mod and L R Offset were all set to O 12 o clock However in creating the full standard PhaseMistress presets as opposed to the Style settings these parameters will likely be set all over the place To accurately audition the Style settings set these controls as described above or simply select the STYLE AUDITION preset as previously described Freg Mod The Freg Mod determines both the direction of the modulation applied to the Freguency parameter as well as defining the maximum depth that can be applied when the front panel Depth knob is turned all the way up The knob is center justified with the 12 o clock position being O or no modulation Turning the knob clockwise or inputting a positive number into the numerical field will add positive modulation Turning the knob counter clockwise will also add modulation but in a negative direc tion The available values are 10 00 Oct to 10 00 Oct For example a setting of
5. more towards the bass frequencies relative to the notch frequencies Increasing the Res Offset tunes the resonant peaks more towards higher frequencies relative to the notch frequencies This is a totally new feature previously unavailable in any phase shifter to date The audible affect of tweaking this menu will be fairly obvious as long as the Resonance is turned up a bit on the front panel The setting of the Res Offset parameter is saved with a standard PhaseMistress preset It s also worth noting that PhaseMistress provides the ability to modulate the Res Offset under the Modulation Tweak menu discussed shortly Res Phase The Res Phase switch allows you to switch the polarity of the resonance either Positive most common or Negative In general a positive setting will provide more 27 bass in the effect where as a Negative setting will have less bass and sound thinner but not in a bad way The overall character of the phase effect will change rather drastically with a decent amount of resonance and significantly increases the types of sounds you can get with PhaseMistress Notch Phase The Notch Phase switch provides the same function as the Res Phase switch but affects the polarity of the notches Again and as a general rule the Positive setting will yield stronger low end in the overall phase sound where as the Negative setting will yield less pronounced bass Both sounds great and combined with the Res Phase switch greatly en
6. new random value To turn off audio based triggering if you re using MIDI or manual triggering turn the threshold knob all the way up 40 Smoothing The Smoothing knob controls how fast the filter will move from the previous value to the new random value once the input has passed the Threshold The minimum set ting will cause abrupt transitions to the new random value and at higher settings the filter will smoothly ramp to the new value ADSR Mode ADSR Mode is a recreation of the standard envelope generator found on most syn thesizers If you re new to synthesis technology ADSR stands for Attack Decay Sustain and Release which also happen to corresponds to the four knobs of this mode Funny how it works that way With the ADSR you can define a specific envelope shape that will be used to modu late the phaser each time it receives a trigger based on the level of input signal This is guite a bit different than the Envelope mode whose shape changes and responds dynamically to the input signal On a keyboard synth the ADSR envelope is triggered each time you press a key In PhaseMistress the ADSR is triggered either by pressing the Trigger button by receiving a MIDI note event or when the input signal exceeds the Threshold setting AL Trigger Press and hold the Trigger button to trigger the ADSR envelope As long as you hold the button the envelope will move through the Attack Decay and Sustain portions of
7. t have an iLok we ll be happy to sell you one at a modest price or you can purchase one from Digidesign or your favorite ProTools dealer Installing PhaseMistress Installing PhaseMistress is really pretty easy First make sure that you have your iLok hardware key connected to your computer and that you have the PhaseMistress license card handy Once you re ready simply pop the PhaseMistress CD into your computer s CD ROM drive and when the CD icon appears on your screen double click the PhaseMistress installer program to start the process Follow any instructions included in the installer and at the end of the installation process you will be prompted to authorize PhaseMistress To do this carefully detach the license chip from the license card and insert the chip into the slot in the rear of your iLok when prompted to do so by the installation program Once installed a copy of the PhaseMistress plug in will be located in your Digidesign plug ins folder along with a cool set of PhaseMistress presets Finally a SoundToys folder will be created in your Applications folder Please note that if you already have FilterFreak our totally cool analog filter box this folder will already be on your hard drive and PhaseMistress will be placed there The SoundToys folder con tains this manual as well as other useful documentation and tools that you can read or ignore depending on your level of patience or interest in reading babbling t
8. waveform will have a stair step appearance and will jump abruptly from point to point By increas B ing the Smoothing control you can decrease the abrupt changes between the points and smooth out the transitions between points by varying amounts When set to its maximum value the waveform will be completely smooth Smoothing Mode The Smoothing Mode determines the shape of the smoothing that will be used to connect the points This further increases the variety of waveforms you can create within PhaseMistress Mod section The Smoothing Mode choices are as follows Linear Points are connected using straight lines Sine Produces a sinusoidal like waveform which is very smooth Exp Produces a scooped curved waveform where the curve is not even but kind of rises quickly similar in shape to those used in an exponential analog ADSR envelope Sym Produces a curved shape that is even and symmetrical Naming and Saving Custom Waveforms Once you have edited a shape and created a new LFO waveform the Shape LED dis play will show the word custom indicating that a new shape has been created To keep your wave shape handiwork from going to data heaven you need to save it and give it a name Pressing the Save button allows you to name and save the waveform for future use Once saved the new shape will appear in the Shape popup menu under the Preset menu entry and can be selected as previously described Rhythm Mode The R
9. 8 00 Oct means that the modulation applied to the Frequency will modulate the frequency of the filters in a positive manner based on the front panel Frequency knob s center setting and that the maximum depth available when the Depth knob on the front panel is turned all the way up is 8 octaves This was used as the default setting when we created the various Mode presets but may be set quite differently as you create standard PhaseMistress pre sets Conversely if you set the Freq Mod to a negative setting of say 5 00 Oct the modulation applied to the Frequency will modulate the frequency in a negative man ner with the maximum modulation available being minus 5 octaves with the front panel Depth knob turned all the way up Again if you set the Freq Mod to O 12 o clock NO modulation will be applied to the Frequency regardless of the setting of the front panel Depth knob So it is really important to note that the Freq Mod parameter is highly interactive with the front panel Frequency and Depth knobs Freg Mod Polarity Switch The modulation polarity switch located directly under the Freg Mod knob can be used to quickly flip the direction of the Frequency modulation The Normal setting means that the direction of the modulation is in synch with the direction of the mod ulation signal it will increase as the modulation signal is increasing The Reverse setting switches reverses the direction of the modulation bein
10. M M waveform Auto P PE v mere VU LU ae e ae a a GOH Hit the process button to process the selected region with PhaseMistress and to write the result back to disk To hear the effect before committing to disk click on the preview button 12 Using PhaseMistress Within ProTools PhaseMistress is designed to be very integrated with Pro Tools supporting all of the standard Pro Tools plug in features and controls including parameter automation MIDI control etc Access to these functions can be found in the gray bar that Pro Tools attaches to the top of PhaseMistress The display below shows the real time version of PhaseMistress When using the AudioSuite version an additional gray bar will appear on the bottom with buttons to control previewing and processing Compare Button Bypass Automation Button Audio 1 b SndTys Phs i FatFaze compare safe FatFaze compare auto safe 2 P h as e Mli Stres S Analoc PHAsE SHIFTER Preset Librarian f FREQUENCY RESONANCE TERT af 5 Z A my ET I MAX STYLE MODULATION mec crim lee m L TWEAK The PhaseMistress Preset Library For your immediate listening pleasure and for those who just can t wait we ve included a bunch hundreds really of carefully crafted creative cool presets with PhaseMistress You might want to check these out as they not only provide a good example of the various type
11. N ANCE Now you ll see the automation control superimposed on the audio waveform From this you can click and drag to your hearts content creating all sorts of wild and crazy effects Audio Th eratum pne bypass m fe lt factory default Joompars h a s emi j S Ur eS 5 AnaLoa PHASE SHIFT FREQUENCY HRESONANCE Locking PhaseMistress to Tempo and Down Beat or How to Give PhaseMistress a Real Beating One of the coolest features of PhaseMistress is its ability to synchronize its sweep to the tempo BPM and downbeat the 1 of 1 2 3 and 4 in your music This is a total ly awesome way to make PhaseMistress hip hop and groove along with your tunes 16 How to Get PhaseMistress to Sync PhaseMistress uses MIDI clock to synchronize its LFO with your music To sync PhaseMistress to your tune 1 Select MIDI Beat Clock from the ProTools MIDI menu 2 From the dialog box make sure enable MIDI Beat Clock for is checked and that PhaseMistress and any other SoundToys plug in are also checked You will need to repeat this step every time you insert a new PhaseMistress plug in MIDI Beat Clock v Enable MIDI Beat Clock for 1x1 Port 1 v an Change Tempo Change Meter Renumber Bars Quantize xo Groove Quantize Restore Performance Flatten Performance Change Velocity Change Duration Transpose AGE Select Notes XP Split Notes o Inpu
12. O creates a repeating waveform usually with a selection of various wave shapes that oscillates at a rate between O and 20Hz This is why it is referred to as a Low frequency oscillator as 20Hz is still considered pretty slow in comparison to an audio signal However the PhaseMistress LFO has a slightly wider range and can go as fast as 100 Hz Rate The Rate knob controls the speed or rate of the LFO s sweep and is displayed in Hertz A sweep rate of 1 Hertz 1Hz means that the LFO modulation will repeat once per second As we mentioned the maximum setting of the LFO in PhaseMistress is 100 Hertz 100Hz meaning it will repeat 100 times per second Modulating the filter at this speed is pretty darn fast and can create weird side bands that are inharmonic making the sound kind of clangorous This is kind of like the sound created by a Ring Modulator and can be a useful effect Note that at this speed the sound of the original signal will often be totally warped out and unrec ognizable Shape The Shape nudge buttons are used to select from the list of available built in LFO wave shapes PhaseMistress includes all standard LFO shapes like sine triangle and square etc but also includes a method for you to create you own custom wave shapes which greatly increases the sonic modulation abilities of PhaseMistress The number of possible shapes you can create is virtually limitless 33 Triangle Ramplip Ramp Dowe Trapez
13. anges in the input signal As the input level rises above the threshold the enve lope follower follows the signal and will modulate the frequency accordingly The farther above the threshold level and the louder the input signal the more the filter will be modulated As the signal falls below the threshold level no modulation occurs It is important to adjust the Threshold based on the type of input audio and the amount of modulation you wish to achieve Setting the Threshold very high will only modulate the phase at loudest peaks of the incoming signal Setting it too low can cause the phase to be modulated like crazy and jump around following all the changes in the signal It all depends on the amount of modulation you wish to hear and there is really no right or wrong setting Gain The Gain knob works together with the threshold control and is similar to the ratio control on a compressor It determines the overall sensitivity of the envelope fol lower and is used to boost any signal that exceeds the setting of the threshold con trol This can be very useful when you are using either a very high threshold or slow attack settings At the highest gain settings the envelope follower will begin to func tion more like a gate turning on when the input goes above the threshold and turn ing off when the signal goes below At lower gain settings the envelope follower will be more touch sensitive and dynamic 38 Attack T
14. arameters Auditioning Styles The best way to hear what the Styles sound like is to set the front panel settings to some default settings and then step through the various Style settings You will hear the overall sound of the phased effect change as you step through the various Styles In regards to the names we used they are often descriptive of the Style Tweak parameter settings used to create the Style or were simply made up to describe what we thought the effect sounded like In any event here are the front panel parameter settings you should use to best audition the Style settings e Mix 50 or 100 depending on where you have PhaseMistress inserted e Frequency 12 O clock e Resonance 9 o clock e Depth 12 o clock e Select the standard PhaseMistress preset call STYLE AUDITION this will insure that the Tweak Menu settings described in a bit are set to default values Tweak Button Pressing the Tweak button will open the Tweak menu screen providing access to a new set of parameters that provide the ability to really get at the fundamental guts of PhaseMistress virtual phasing circuit In fact let s get this out of the way right now The parameters available in the Style Tweak menu are unprecedented and together with the Modulation Tweak menu and the variations available in the Modulation section makes PhaseMistress the most flexible and sonically vast phase shifter made to date At least that s what we
15. ay knob the faster the decay time will be Conversely the higher the setting of the Decay knob the longer the decay time will be and the longer it will take to reach the Sustain level S Sustain The Sustain knob controls at what level between O 100 the envelope will hold or sustain at as long as the Trigger button is held down or as long as the input sig nal is above the Threshold setting R Release The Release knob adjusts the time it takes for the envelope signal to move from the Sustain level back to a O level once the Trigger button is released or after the input goes below the Threshold 42 SUMMARY Hopefully this manual has provided enough of the information you need to have a basic understanding of how PhaseMistress works We could go on and on providing LOTS of picayune details but you probably would get bored throw the manual down and start tweaking anyway Which in all honesty is what you should do PhaseMistress and the whole series of SoundToys plug ins were MADE for tweaking There s nothing to break no parts to rust or replace and you really can t screw it up What you CAN do is screw up your sounds and that is what PhaseMistress is for cre ative sound mangling We sincerely hope you find PhaseMistress inspiring and useful in your musical endeavors Enjoy A43 FINAL PAGE Getting Help We offer free technical support for all registered users We love to hear from y
16. click on the knob To see the knobss title hold down control and click on the knob a second time Adjusting a Knob with Fine Control To get finer control over knob values hold down the apple _ key while dragging the mouse Toggle Switches ANALOG Lu OT AL In an effort to provide the feeling of real analog gear our toggle switches switch when clicked To change the state of a toggle switch like the analog digital con trol simply click on the switch it will change from where it was to the other set ting Click again to change it back Really simple LED Displays LED displays on PhaseMistress work in a couple of ways Nudge Buttons Most text readouts also include a pair of nudge buttons next to the display Clicking on the upper button will increase the value by one and clicking once on lower button will decrease the value by one This is useful for tweaking a value by small steps Numerical Readouts amp Entering Values from the Keyboard For numerical readouts like BPM you can enter exact values right from your com puter keyboard Clicking on the LED display highlights the field and makes it live Once highlighted you can enter a new value via the computer keyboard Press Return to submit the value and deselect the field You can also click amp drag the cursor to change the value Simply click on the value and drag the cursor up to increase the value or down to decrease the value similar t
17. dge of your computer and of Pro Tools If you don t we strongly suggest you make your self a strong cup of coffee or two get a comfortable chair and familiarize yourself with the ins and outs of your ProTools system before delving too much further into PhaseMistress Digidesign is really nice and provides lots of manuals for your reading pleasure Knobs FREQUENCY u E I F f 5 k i a You can use a mouse to control all of the knobs in PhaseMistress and they all work in the same way To turn a knob up to the right clockwise etc click on the knob with your mouse and drag the cursor to the right or slide the cursor up towards the ceil ing To turn a knob down to the left counter clockwise click on the knob with the mouse and drag the cursor to the left or down towards the floor Mousing around in a circle doesn t really work you ll just get frustrated and or dizzy neither of which is a lot of fun Jumping to a Value using Text Markings Some knobs have text markings showing minimum maximum or other values Clicking on one of these text markings will automatically move the knob directly to that value Returning a Knob to its Default Value To return to the knob s default value simply hold down the option key and click on the knob This will automatically move the knob back to its default value Viewing a Knob s Exact Value To view the exact numerical value of a knob simply hold down the control key and
18. e are truly grateful that you have chosen to spend your hard earned scratch old school for cash on our product We take a lot of pride in our work and we sincerely hope that you find PhaseMistress inspirational and musically useful We d also like to thank all the people that helped in the development of PhaseMistress and the whole new SoundToys line of plug ins Nick Caiano for his super cool demo sessions and guitar work Mikail Graham for letting us hijack his wonderful collection of guitar pedals we ll return them soon we promise and for all the help and feedback along the way Wendy Letven for her amazing design work on the SoundToys logo all the SoundToys packaging and much more Andrew Schlesinger for all of his help from the very start of the SoundToys concept from product names design ideas and presets to his witty and useful contributions to this user guide and other sage advice Christy Gustafson for coming through with the 11th hour layout of this manual Our whole crew of beta testers for PhaseMistress especially Arthur Alexander BT Jez Colin Andy Gray Fab Lars Fox Terry Fryer Peter Freeman Jon Goldstein Rich Hilton Michael James Pete McCabe Oliver Momm Allan Speers Morgan Page Michael Costa Andrew Souter Willie Wilcox Doc Wiley and Richard Zvonar Ken Bob Jamey Noah and Mitch IN T R the one that comes before the sequel About PhaseMistress PhaseMistress
19. effect of any changes you ve made to one of the PhaseMistress presets AS soon as you change any parameter in PhaseMistress the compare light will come on Click on the compare light to toggle between the original preset and your current changes Bypass One of the more useful features on any plug in is the Bypass button Click on this to bypass the effect of PhaseMistress This also recovers any CPU cycles being used by PhaseMistress Using Parameter Automation Many of the controls in PhaseMistress can be automated Click on the auto button to bring up the Plug In Automation window At the left is a list of parameter available for automation On the right are any of the parameters that are currently automated Select whichever parameter or parameters you d like to automate then click on the Add button Those parameters will appear on the right side of the window and can now be automated from within Pro Tools Plug In Automation InputGain Frequency OutputGain i Add gt Resonance k Bypass EE m Style Mix SS InOutMode lt lt Remove Gain c ModulationDepth Triqqer Temno Inserts BeatSyne s Sou ndToys PhaseMstrs 14 To record automation data you ll first need to do a few things within ProTools First bring up the Pro Tools automation window see Pro Tools Manual for enabling automation and make sure plug in is enabled O Next in the track you re wor
20. entide s original H3000 effects processor Trademark Info Wave Mechanics SoundToys PhaseMistress PhaseMistress FlangeThing PanMan Crystallizer Decapitator Tremolator EchoBoy and their respective logos are all trademarks of Wave Mechanics Inc 46
21. et rhythms provided PhaseMistress includes a very powerful and unique Custom Rhythm Editor feature that allows you to create your own rhythms To access the Custom Rhythm Editor select the Edit option from the Rhythm pop up menu The Rhythm Editor works a bit like a simple drum machine By default the basic rhythm pattern is one bar long and is shown in the rhythm display For each selected event in the rhythm pattern one entire cycle of the LFO Shape will be triggered and played Adding and Deleting Events To add an event in a specific location simply click in the rhythm grid at the desired location and a new event will be added to the pattern To remove an event just click on the event you wish to remove and it will go bye bye 36 Changing Event Level and Duration To change event level or duration option click and drag on any existing event Dragging up down will change the level and dragging left right will change the dura tion Adjusting Grid Length and Spacing You can further adjust the grid spacing and length of any new events using the Grid control Pattern Length Number of Beats per Bar Increasing the length of a pattern is easy To create patterns longer than 1 bar simply adjust the Pattern Length control to the desired number You can also adjust the number of Beats per Bar for the pattern up or down Saving A Custom Pattern Once you have created a custom pattern it can be stored and named for future reca
22. flanging as real flanging requires a short modulated delay but the resulting effect though different sounded tres cool especially on guitar Enter Jim Hendrix the Univox Univibe and the rest as they say is history A phaser or phase shift effect is created by altering the phase of the audio kinda like delay but varying with frequency and mixing this phase shifted sound back in with the original signal The resulting phase cancellation produces a wonderfully musical sounding set of notches at musically related frequencies in the original sound By sweeping or modulating the phase shifted signal the notch frequencies are moved up and down the frequency spectrum thus creating that classic swooshy and swirly phase shift sound Analog phasers can have different numbers of phase shift stages in their design producing more or less phase shift through the circuit As you add stages to the phase shift circuit resulting in more notches the overall strength of the phase shift effect increases and becomes more prominent In addition the number of stages significantly affects the overall tonal character of the phased sound A 2 stage phaser will be very washy and wet think Hendrix Machine Gun Robin Trower s Bridge of Sighs and the opening guitar on Dark Side of the Moon s Breath The totally cool phased drum sound on Led Zeppelin s Kashmir from Physical Graffiti was created with a 4 stage phaser that provided a much mo
23. g applied at the amount set by the Freq Mod knob This is useful when you want to make quick changes in the direction of the modula tion without changing the settings of the Freq Mod Frequency and Depth controls Res Mod The Res Mod knob allows you to modulate the Resonance with whatever modulation source being employed in the preset LFO Envelope etc The Res Mod knob is also center justified like the Freq Mod knob When set at 12 o clock no modulation is applied to the Resonance Turning the knob clockwise or typing in a positive number will modulate and increase the Resonance Turning the Res Mod value counter clock wise will modulate the Resonance in a negative direction and decrease Resonance It is important to keep in mind that the setting of the front panel Resonance knob defines the default starting point for the resonance modulation Positive going modulation will increase the Resonance from the value set on the front panel knob where as negative modulation will decrease from the Resonance value set on the front panel Having this bi polar control provides for some really cool effects and allows you to modulate the Resonance inversely from the modulation of Frequency So you could have the resonance modulation decreasing as the Frequency is increasing or visa versa The overall amount of modulation to the Resonance is defined by the value set with the Res Mod control Res Mod Polarity switch The modulation polarity switc
24. h located directly under the Res Mod knob can be used to quickly flip the direction of the Resonance modulation The Normal setting means that the direction of the modulation is in synch with the direction of the mod ulation signal it is increasing as the modulation signal is increasing The Reverse setting switches reverses the direction of the modulation being applied at the amount set by the Res Mod knob Res Offset Mod The Res Offset Mod knob allows you to modulate the Resonance Offset parameter with whatever modulation source being employed in the preset LFO Envelope etc The Res Offset Mod knob is also center justified When set at 12 o clock no modula tion is applied to the Resonance Turning the knob clockwise or typing in a positive 30 number will modulate and increase the Resonance Offset Turning the Res Mod value counter clockwise will modulate the Resonance Offset in a negative direction It is important to keep in mind that the setting of the Resonance Offset in the Mode Tweak defines the default starting point for the Resonance Offset modulation Positive going modulation will increase the Res Offset from the value set on in this menu where as negative modulation will decrease from the Resonance Offset Again this provides for some really cool effects and allows you to modulate the Resonance Offset Resonant Frequency inversely from the modulation of the Resonance or the Frequency and by a specific amount T
25. hance the variety of potential tones available in PhaseMistress Intensity Simply put the High setting gives you steeper more intense and fatter peaks and valleys in the phase signal where the Normal setting provides a more standard set of peaks and valleys The high setting will make the phase effect significantly more pronounced at all Stage settings Please Note The High setting chews up a lot of DSP power As a general rule the High setting sounds best and is most useful when the number of stages is between 3 and 12 You can use with all Stage settings but you may start to see a pretty big CPU hit Color The Color also affects how the resonance interacts with the notches The Classic setting provides the most common type of response where the notches get weaker as feedback or resonance is increased The Modern setting preserves deep notches with all resonance settings We could probably spend a whole lot of time trying to find the words to try and describe how this sounds but as with most of the parame ters just try them and listen You can t hurt yourself or PhaseMistress but PhaseMistress just might put a hurt on you but in a really good and pleasurable phasing way Modulation Tweak Menu The Modulation Tweak parameters allow you set both the modulation depth and direction for Frequency Resonance and Res Offset The L R Offset knob and Polarity switch allow you to determine the type of stereo signal that will
26. he Attack knob controls the how fast the phase effect will react to an increase in signal level A fast setting will cause the envelope follower to react very quickly to transients and will produce a very dynamic staccato like phasing effect Setting the Attack knob to a slower setting will smooth out and lengthen the attack response the envelope follower PhaseMistress will behave like it has had a few too many beers Release The Release knob controls how fast or slow the phase signal will react to the input signal as it decreases the opposite of the Attack knob Again a faster release set ting will produce a more dynamic effect and slower release times producing a slower smoother effect as the sound decays Random S H Mode SMOOTHING u EF aF F Mii F W RANDOM P ni The Random S H Sample and Hold Mode produces a waveform that jumps from one value to another at each cycle This effect was used with a resonant filter and abused by ELP in the beginning of Brain Salad Surgery you know Welcome back my friends to the dinosaur that never ends as well as other cheesy sci fi movies to mimic the sound of bleeping and burping computers However it is an especially cool effect when applied to phasing and PhaseMistress offers a few twists so that its sam ple and hold can be synced to the tempo of your music Tempo As before you can either use Tap Tempo to define the BPM of the random signal or sync it to Midi
27. he overall amount of modu lation applied is defined by the value set with the Res Offset Mod control Res Offset Mod Polarity switch The modulation polarity switch located directly under the Res Offset Mod knob can be used to quickly flip the direction of the Resonance Offset modulation The Normal setting means that the direction of the modulation is in synch with the direction of the modulation signal it is increasing as the modulation signal is increasing The Reverse setting switches reverses the direction of the modulation being applied at the amount set by the Res Offset Mod knob L R Offset The L R Offset knob is a little different than the other knobs as it allows you to create various types of stereo phase signals depending on the setting of the knob In the simplest terms it is a static frequency offset between left and right channels With the knob set to 12 o clock the phasing effect on both the left and right sides will be identical However as you turn the L R Offset knob clockwise from the 12 o clock position or input a positive value into the number field from O to 2 octaves the frequency of the right channel will be increased relative to the left channel This can create some dramatic and very wide stereo effects Extreme settings can make you feel as if your eardrums are being sucked out of your head and make the phasing effect swirl around in the stereo field Negative values for the L R Offset will make the rig
28. hings like this manual Registration Please register your product by going to http www soundtoys com register If you choose not to register your product during the PhaseMistress installation please take a moment to register PhaseMistress by going to http www soundtoys com register We also strongly recommend that you go to http www iLok com set up an iLok com account and register your PhaseMistress authorization So why should you bother with all this tedious registration stuff When the day comes that your pet boa constrictor swallows your iLok in the middle of a recording session and you NEED to use PhaseMistress we will be able to get you up and run ning again MUCH MORE QUICKLY If you haven t taken the time to do this we will still try to help you but we ll have no easy way of knowing whether you are really you or some bozo who swiped your copy of PhaseMistress when you weren t looking usina PHASEMISTRESS What s a Phase Shifter For those in the know vou can skip this section The original Phase Shifter effect was an attempt at electronically recreating analog tape flanging an effect created by mixing the output of two analog tape machines playing the same track only slightly out of sync using integrated circuits Early effects designers attempted to model the out of sync part of the flanging effect by using something called an analog phase shift circuit The result wasn t exactly tape
29. ht channel have a lower frequency setting relative to the left channel L R Offset Polarity Switch The associated L R Polarity switch affects the modulation only In the Normal set ting the modulation is same for left and right When the switch is reversed left and right channel modulation is the inverse of each other creating a swirling panning effect in stereo 31 MODULATION CONTROLS Choosing a Modulation Type and Source HATE 4 1 JE f F aas eo idl 1 LF Rkythrn Erwe Ope Fandom ls _ Step ADSR When is comes to modulation the more sources you have the greater the sonic possi bilities PhaseMistress includes a number of different modulation options selected under the small white button below the Rate knob The available types of modula tion available include e LFO e Rhythm e Envelope e Random e Step e ADSR To select one of the modulation sources click on the LFO pop up button drag the mouse to highlight the desired type and let go You will notice that the name above the button will change as will the parameters in this area of the front panel Though the button name will change to reflect the selected type of modulation the function of this button remains constant opening the menu to select among the various types of modulation 32 LFO Mode HATE ily X oY XG a F 1 MI iodo HI SH APE The LFO mode stands for Low Frequency Oscillator An LF
30. hythm mode is a much more sophisticated version of the LFO and provides the means to sync the LFO regardless of the shape to the tempo of a song in Pro tools Using the Tempo mode allows you to produce complex filter modulations that can be programmed in musical and rhythmic ways ff TAP TEMPO F u F F U F F F E A i F SHUI E Pl RHYTHM 35 Tempo You can use Tempo in one of two ways Lock to Midi Beat Clock or Tap Tempo To lock PhaseMistress to Midi Beat Clock follow the procedure on page 15 Locking the LFO to Midi Beat Clock insures that the sweeps will lock in march step to your songs tempo and not waiver If you re not using MIDI beat clock to lock PhaseMistress s tempo you can simply tap in a tempo by clicking on the Tap Tempo button You can also enter an exact tempo in BPM by clicking on the Tempo LED display and entering the desired value with the computer keyboard Rhythm You can also choose specific rhythmic divisions using the Rhythm menu You can select from one of the included simple rhythms by clicking on the Rhythm LED dis play which will launch a pop up showing the available preset options Simply high light the desired rhythmic interval with your mouse and le go You can also use the two nudge buttons to move through the various rhythm choices RHYTHM PATTERN EDITOR pri mm me LENGTH IN BARS BEATS BAR i P CURRENT BAR Custom Rhythm Editor In addition to the pres
31. i i StresS anatoc PHASE SHIFTER FREQUENCY RESONANCE Goundtoys Mix WW Mop HE TERT V gt S WET Hz 20 iN Ax DRY IN MAX STYLE MODULATION n i TWEAK Mix Knob Mod Knob Modulation Analog Switch Mode Style Menu Modulation Button Analog Flavor Meter Button Analog Mode Switch Distortion Overload Characteristics The analog mode toggle switch and flavor button allow you to choose how PhaseMistress will distort or saturate as the signal input increases which is more noticeable at high signal levels Analog Mode In analog mode PhaseMistress will saturate in the nice warm and friendly manner similar to the way real analog gear responds The analog setting adds a certain amount of distortion at all signal levels The Analog setting sounds really good but keep in mind the Analog setting eats up significantly more DSP resources Sorry no free DSP lunch here Digital Mode When the analog mode switch is off PhaseMistress is in digital mode In this mode higher signal levels will clip in the typically nasty crunchy digital way This too can be desirable depending on what effect you re trying to achieve Lower level sounds are left pretty much unchanged and sound spic n span clean Also note that the digital setting uses significantly less DSP horsepower than the analog setting What are horses doing in my computer anyway Needless to say you should experiment with both setti
32. ike to hear These controls are particularly useful in the Analog mode allowing you to control the amount of saturation and distortion in PhaseMistress You can crank either the Input or the Output to create distortion and cranking both to extreme levels can really futz with your sound Distortion combined with phasing can be lots of fun If you saturate the input stage by turning up the Input level the distortion and harmonics added by the saturation will be filtered by the PhaseMistress phase effect If you saturate the output stage by turning up the Output level the signal will be phased first and the distortion and har monics will be added post phasing These can sound quite different and there are a lot of variations available using both input and output saturation at different levels Keep in mind that the greater the harmonic content the more pronounced the phasing effect will be so overloading the input will increase the presence and appearance of the phasing effect Conversely most guitarists plug into a phaser before going into their distortion but in this case the subtleties of the phasing effect will be less pronounced as it is distorted 21 It s important to note that the input and output level only affects the phased signal and leaves the dry signal unchanged This approach may be slightly different than that of some other plug ins and we found this implementation to work best for PhaseMistress Mix The Mix control
33. is the second in a series of totally cool new plug ins to come out of the SoundToys formally Wave Mechanics plug in development lab As with FilterFreak our Analog Filtering module a truly ridiculous amount of programming time head scratching listening and tweaking has gone into the development and design of PhaseMistress in order to provide you with an incredibly creative powerful ground breaking and truly analog sounding phase shifter Special attention has been given to recreating a phase shifter that not only sounds and responds like a real analog phaser but one that offers some totally new and unique features twists and facilities to phase shifting Yes folks you can now fulfill your wildest analog phasing phantasies with PhaseMistress and we guarantee that it will do whatever you ask without any complaints Our heads are still spinning from all the work we put into this product and ALL SoundToys products and we are really pleased with the way PhaseMistress works and sounds hopefully you will be as well What and Who is SoundToys Ok so what the heck is SoundToys anyway SoundToys is a concept a vision a new line of totally cool sonically superior audio FX plug in devices designed to set a new standard in regards to plug in processing and sound And it s our new company name You see all of us at SoundToys formerly Wave Mechanics are a bunch of audio geeks that thirst for new ways to manipulate and mangle sound that a
34. is used to set the balance between the phased sound created by PhaseMistress and Input Output control settings and the dry signal Phasing sounds best when you mix a percentage of dry and phased signal together usually 50 of each The Mix control provides a convenient means of setting just the right balance between the dry and phased signals right in and on PhaseMistress So if you re using PhaseMistress on an Aux Send Return configuration you may want to leave the mix at 100 and use the fader on the return to control the amount of the effected sound If you are using it in line and sending the signal right through PhaseMistress you probably want to set the Mix knob at 50 or less depending on the type of phased effect being used Keep in mind that PhaseMistress can create a wide variety of sounds from extremely subtle to super pronounced The amount of dry to effect signal is very important based on the type of phasing effect being used how pronounced you want the effect to be and how you want the sounds to sit in your mix As with most things in the world of audio there is no right and wrong let your conscience be your guide oh wait a minute that s a different movie we mean let you EARS be your guide That s the ticket Tip Because of the stuff mentioned above it might be preferable to use PhaseMistress as a channel insert and use the Mix knob to determine the mix between the dry and filtered sound But then again it may no
35. king on select auto write to enable the real time ae au recording of automation data manual write to auto write on stop ee start all end Markers inserts io Audio 1 Bi inputL SC Blue SC Ele Guitar etric E 55 auto read auto touch auto latch SC Fle Now press play and fiddle with the PhaseMistress controls Pro Tools should now record any control changes you make When the transport is stopped the automation will automatically switch to auto touch Please Note In auto touch mode the automation data you ve just recorded will be played back and any new control changes you make will be written over the older automation data To prevent these new control changes from being recorded change the automation mode to read To turn off all automation on this track set the mode to off inet B m eel Sepia It would be really cool to edit these control changes wouldn t it Pro Tools has got you covered From the edit window click on the waveform button and slide the mouse over until you see PhaseMistress and its automated parameters Choose whichever parameter you d like to edit it would be nice to see all parameters at once but for now you ve got to work on one at a time 15 volume mute pan Miu il fx b SoundToys PhaseMistress ae Frequency Resonance Di or ty 2 PhaseMistres S anatce prase suet FREQUENCY HESO
36. lable modulation based on the Freg Mod setting This will all be covered in detail when we discuss the Tweak menu features but we thought it would be worth mentioning now Rate Shape and LFO ido HZ SHAPE oa Dea Bea Deere LFO The Rate knob allows you to alter the speed or rate of the modulation signal via the front panel and the setting of this knob is saved within a standard PhaseMistress preset However the Modulation section within PhaseMistress is REALLY powerful and there is a whole world of modulation possibilities that are waiting to be accessed and abused These are covered in detail in the section called Choosing a Modulation Type and Source on page 32 But for now just note that the Rate knob sets the speed of the modulation 24 Style Menu The Style menu gives you access to dozens of different virtual phasing circuits with a click of the mouse Each style setting has a completely different tonal shape and can be used to quickly change the overall sound and character of PhaseMistress while still preserving the modulation frequency resonance etc This is like switch ing between a Maestro Phaser an MXR Phase 90 Mutron Phaser etc The style menu includes a bunch of classic Styles that you would find in real phasers as well as many Styles that are totally new and unique to PhaseMistress You can even create your own phaser Style by clicking on the Tweak button and editing the Style Tweak p
37. ll After creating your rhythm the Rhythm LED display will show the word cus tom Pressing the Save button will allow you to name andsave the pattern Once saved the new rhythm will appear in the Shape popup menu under the Preset menu entry Selecting a Rhythm Preset To select a Rhythm Preset choose the Preset Menu option to view the list of avail able rhythms Groove The Groove control is used to adjust the feel and define the amount of swing feel to be added to the selected rhythm pattern Turning the knob will add a swing feel to the rhythm Turning the knob down will add a shuffle feel This allows you to swing and shuffle all night long Have mercy Shape The shape control works just like the Shape control for the LFO mode except that one cycle of the shape is inserted for each rhythm event 37 EMVELOPE The Envelope Mode employs an envelope follower that follows the volume level of the input signal and dynamically controls the amount of filter modulation based on volume changes in the input signal The Envelope Mode works great on dynamic signals that dynamically change in volume in rhythmic ways like guitar or drums PhaseMistress allows you to create envelope controlled phasing effects and a whole lot more using the envelope mode Threshold The Threshold knob works similar to the threshold control on a compressor It defines at what volume the envelope follower will start tracking the volume ch
38. mpo based on this If the tempo of your music varies which it prob ably does if it wasn t recorded to a click then you may need to repeat this proce dure a various points in your song to keep the beat locations lined up correctly Bar Beat Markers __ Add Bar Beat Markers Start Location 25 1 026 Time signature 4 4 End Location 76 1 030 Time signature 4 4 Hint It is very very useful to use a drum track along with the tab to transient fea ture within Pro Tools to help with this If you re a Pro Tools TDM user you may also want to learn about Beat Detective which can help to automate this potentially tedious process More Info All of this and more are covered in great detail in the Pro Tools manual For info about tempo maps and conductor tracks look at Chapter 21 of the ProTools 6 reference guide For info about Beat Detective see Chapter 22 and for info about the extremely useful tab to transients feature read Chapter 16 Playing and Selecting Audio Using the HTDM version of PhaseMistress If you are a Pro Tools TDM user PhaseMistress is also available as an HTDM plug in and will appear in the TDM inserts menu of ProTools The HTDM version is available because RTAS plug ins cannot be used on aux tracks and cannot have real time mon itoring when used within Pro Tools TDM systems The HTDM format allows native plug ins like PhaseMistress to be used just like TDM plug ins excep
39. ngs using various types of source material and cranking the input levels up and down to hear what it all sounds like A fun and educational exercise 20 Analog Flavor The analog flavor control is used to adjust how the input and output behaves or doesn t behave when it is overdriven To access this control click on the small but ton to the left of the Analog switch to see the analog flavor pop up menu For best results experiment with different sources when tweaking this control e Clean Maximum non distorted range with fairly hard clipping e Fat Smooth low frequency distortion e Squash Similar to above but more compressed e Dirt Smooth broadband saturation e Crunch Exaggerated high end clipping e Shred Lots of asymmetrical clipping e Pump Extreme pumping compression Input and Output Level The Input and Output level controls are used to you guessed it boost or attenuate either the input or output of PhaseMistress The default setting of the controls approximates unity gain what goes in comes out the same level and should pro vide the best overall normal sound quality when set to these levels The LEDs beneath the Input and Output knobs provide visual display of the input and output signal levels The yellow LED indicates that the signal is 6dB below clipping The red LED indicates maximum signal level and possible clipping which may or may not sound so good depending on the switch setting and what your ears l
40. o using a knob control Press Return to submit the new value and deselect the field 10 Pop Up Menus 8 Changing Values Edit Presets a ine Triangle Ram pup Ramp D owt e Trapezoid SQuare For most text based readouts meaning things that aren t a number like LFO WaveShape etc clicking on the readout with the mouse will display a popup menu To change a value in the popup hold down the mouse button and drag to select the desired value and let go The selected entry will show up in the filed or a new pop up window may appear depending on what you have selected Accessing PhaseMistress Now that you know how to use knobs and pop up menus it s time to actually use PhaseMistress within Pro Tools PhaseMistress is available to process your audio in two different ways Real Time or Non Real time Real Time Processing RTAS or HTDM As a real time plug in PhaseMistress works a lot like a real hardware phaser Whatever sound goes into PhaseMistress comes out filtered and you can hear it as it is happening in real time Keep in mind that using PhaseMistress in this manner always chews up some CPU processing power To use PhaseMistress in this way you must first select PhaseMistress as one of the insert devices within ProTools by clicking on the inserts button on a track You can do this either from the edit or mix window in Pro Tools From the inserts pop up select PhaseMistress one and two band version
41. oid Square p Select the Custom LFO Shape Screen To create a custom LFO shape you first need to get to the LFO Edit screen Click on the LFO shape LED display to display the shape pop up menu Select Edit at the top of the popup menu This will launch a screen where you can create custom LFO shapes LFO SHAPE EDITOR SMOOTHING u hay Ald PE FAK Creating a New LFO Shape Adding Points to the Waveform Creating a new shape is really pretty easy To create a new shape you first need to add a new point in the waveform you ll notice that the starting shape is a sine wave with three points one at each end and one in the middle at the top To add a new point simply click anywhere on the green waveform this will insert a new point To remove a point hold down the option key while clicking on it with the mouse To change the shape of the wave click on the new point and drag it up down sideways etc You will see that the shape of the green waveform line will change based on where you position the point Letting go of the mouse will position the point where you left it You can create as many points on the waveform you like and use the grab move operation to reposition any of the points This process allows you to create some REALLY complex wave shapes Smoothing The Smoothing control allows you to round out the edges in the wave shape between the points When smoothing is set to zero no smoothing the
42. ou but if you are having problems first try to look in the manual or on the support page of our web site for an answer If you are still stumped please e mail us with the follow ing info e The product version and serial number e The version number of your Pro Tools system and type of hardware e g Mix HD Digi O01 etc e Your computer type and operating system version number e g System 9 1 OS X etc e A detailed description of the problem The e mail address for support is support soundtoys com If you don t have e mail you can call us at 1 802 951 9700 Sound Toys PO Box 528 Burlington VT 05402 Phone 802 951 9700 Fax 802 951 9799 LE MORE SOUNDTOVS PRODUCTS The UltraFX Product Line SoundToys offers a complete line of great sounding easy to use plug ins When you need your sound to make a statement use SoundToys FilterFreak Serious analog modeled filtering combined with tempo locked rhythmic modulation options make FilterFreak the ultimate filter plug in EchoBoy Great echo plain and simple Modeled after the warm sound of analog tape echos FlangeThing A classic analog tape flanger with ultra smooth sound Reproduce analog flanging effects with the same kind of creative options offered with PhaseMistress Crystallizer A software emulation of a mind blowing granular echo effect first heard in the classic Eventide H3000 Must be heard to be understood Decapitato
43. r Instant Lo Fi Add grunge aliasing and distortion with ease great on drums PanMan Inspired by the legendary PanScan hardware processor Brings auto panning into the new millennium Tremolator Create retro surf guitar or edgy modern sounds Or go beyond simple guitar pedal tremolo with adjustable groove accent and tempo locked patterns AED The UltraTools Product Line SoundToys continues to make its UltraTools line of plug ins for ProTools TDM sys tems UltraTools is the most complete package of advanced audio manipulation tools for ProTools giving you complete power over time and pitch PurePitch PurePitch is the tool of choice for vocal manipulation on Pro Tools The first formant preserving TDM pitch processor PurePitch is a great tool for creating harmony vocals or altering vocal character PitchDoctor The most natural sounding intonation processor available anywhere When you want to fix pitch without killing the performance PitchDoctor is the only option Speed Jaw dropping time compression expansion and pitch transposition that works incredibly well even on full mixes Wish we had this when we were trying to learn all those Hendrix licks SoundBlender An amazing multi effects processor in a single plug in Includes a complete library of stunning effects from lush chorus and swirling delays to truly mind bending sonic destruction What else would you expect from the creators of the Ev
44. re innovative unique and with sound quality that is in a class all its own While everyone and their grandmother is modeling older gear these days we are busy wracking our collective brains to develop NEW devices that are truly inventive and will stand the test of time the kind of things you d take with you to a desert island Just so you know we are the guys that were responsible for designing such ground breaking and industry standard products as the Eventide H 3000 DSP 4000 the Wave Mechanics UltraTools line of plug ins for Pro Tools TDM Our DSP algorithms can even be found in such high end studio gear as the TC Electronics Fireworx G Force and G Major processors and more Our approach in developing the SoundToys series of Pro Tools plug ins is to create a series of dedicated processors that provide the absolute best possible sound quality flexibility and creative sound manipulation in the wonderful world of digital but that also possess that truly analog character and vibe GETTING STARTED System Reguirements PhaseMistress is software plug in for the Digidesign ProTools system You ll need to have at least one decent Macintosh computer G3 or better Fastest is bestest run ning OS 9 2 or later and of course you ll need a copy of Pro Tools version 5 0 or later To use PhaseMistress you ll also need one of those little iLok hardware keys it s a small blue plastic key that looks like this If you don
45. re pro nounced effect So it kind of stands to reason that 6 8 10 and 12 stage phasers each sound progressively more pronounced One thing you might also notice that these are all even numbers Using an odd num ber of stages sounds totally different than an even number of stages and for some reason at least until now virtually all phasers stuck to only even numbers PhaseMistress on the other hand allows you to pick any number of stages between 2 and 24 including all odd numbers This expands the tonal palate exponentially allow ing you to make an even number of even or odd sounds an odd number of odd or even sounds as well as making really odd sounding even phasers and so on and so forth Some of the most popular phasers over the years have include the old Univox Univibe MXR Phase 90 Electro Harmonix Small Stone Eventide Instant Phaser and the Mutron Bi Phase which had two distinct phasers in one box These phasers and the phasing effect in general have been used by literally hundreds of artists and on thousands of albums It remains one of the most musically pleasing and cool effects available to this day Of course PhaseMistress takes this effect to a completely new level offering an unprecedented variety of phasing effects with the highest possible guality Basics Note Since you would probably not be reading this unless you own a Pro Tools sys tem we kind of take it for granted that you have at LEAST a basic working knowle
46. rning it down As we said before there ain t no right nor wrong way it just depends on what kind of effect you want Of course most of the really cool effects available with PhaseMistress happen by either clicking on the Frequency knob yanking it around and recording the changes with Pro Tools automation or more likely using the PhaseMistress s extensive built in modulation section Discussed in the Modulation Section to automatically modu late the phase effect in a multitude of different and bizarre ways Resonance The Resonance control greatly enhances the effect of the phase shift effect by creat ing resonant peaks in each of the notch filters boosting and enhancing the harmonics contained in the input signal that fall around each of notches As you increase the Resonance and sweep the frequency the harmonics that fall into and around the various notches are exaggerated picked out and become more pro nounced This significantly enhances the phasing effect giving it a much sharper churning quality Cranking the Resonance all the way up will drive PhaseMistress into oscillation and can actually obscure the input signal as the filters in the phase effect are actually creating a signal on their own It is also important to note that the number of stages and the phase positive nega tive of the resonance located under the Tweak menu and discussed shortly will sig nificantly affect the character and overall tonal quality of
47. s of PhaseMistress as shown in the next graphic 11 9 O 8 Tempo Map Show Hide M no insert Bi b Audin 1 E je Audio 2 TOM plug in x r ee RTAS plug in je SoundToys Crystallizer mono be Audio 5 SoundToys FilterFreakl mono je Audio 6 i o p SoundToys FilterFreak2 mono v eee f fal SoundToys PhaseMistress mono MIDI 1 SoundToys Tremolator mono You can insert as many versions of PhaseMistress as you d like just keep in mind that each one gobbles up certain amount of CPU cycles and can make your computer start to sweat in terms of what s left over for other tasks Non Real Time Processing AudioSuite If you want to save computer power PhaseMistress can also be used to process a specific region of audio destructively This is done in ProTools using the AudioSuite version of PhaseMistress To do this first select the region of audio you d like to process from the Edit window of Pro Tools Then choose PhaseMistress from the AudioSuite menu of ProTools ProTools File Edit Were MIDI Movie Operations eoe SoundToys Crystallizer SoundToys FilterFreak1 p SoundToys FilterFreak2 M SoundToys PhaseMistress JR SoundToys Tremolator SPEED by W Wave Mechanics KZ 9 Audio 1 b Audio 2 b Audio 3 EEN ae be Audio 4 363 walls 78 i pis Beer H Audio 7 E Z AT be Audio 8 at le ni tli I 1 I V I
48. s of effects that can be achieved with PhaseMistress but one of them just might be the ticket you need for your latest hit record or production They also provide a great starting point for you to tweak and mangle to your hearts content Besides we spent a whole bunch of time making them so you might as well give them a spin Loading a Preset To view and load a PhaseMistress preset simply click on the Settings Librarian but ton located in the standard ProTools plug in controls area located at the top of the plug in window located in Pro tools located on your computer located in your oops Audioi Snatysmenstm4 RTASY TT ZTE O Drum Mangling gt v Phase 90 O Envelope Phasers b SmaliSton C FX gt gt gt gt f gt 5 ANALOG PHASE SHIFTER RESONANCE ui ll OC MOD 1 21 C Rhythmic Sweeps Way Out NEL TTP A R O KHZ lt factory default gt Ax I MAX STYLE MODULATION ei meal Lle w aads dada eae 13 sorry And as you would expect for more info on the Pro Tools Settings Librarian please read the Pro Tools manual etc Saving a Preset Saving a preset is just as simple Click on the small button to the left of the preset name and choose Save to update the current preset or Save As to create a new preset Compare Button The compare button often called the compare light by Pro Tools pros is a great way to audition the
49. t Frequency The frequency knob on PhaseMistress allows you to set the center frequency of the phase notches It determines the point along the frequency spectrum that the phaser effect will be centered also referred to the initial setting There are a few things that will often affect where you might want to set the Frequency e The type of input signal or instrument to be effected i e bright bass midrange etc e The type of phasing effect being used i e soft and thin with little resonance we ll get to that or deep wide and resonant e The type and depth of the modulation being used to sweep the phaser To hear how changing the Frequency affects the sound turn the Mod knob discussed shortly all the way down and manually yank the Frequency knob from the lowest to highest setting You will hear the standard phaser effect across the full freguency spectrum However it is pretty common to set the Freguency knob to a specific setting somewhere midway between the lowest and highest setting and then add modulation with an LFO or envelope to modulate the frequency So to get your standard phasing effect set the Frequency knob at 12 o clock and then add some modulation with the Mod knob set it to 11 o clock and the Rate set fairly low Say around 7 o clock You can then move the Frequency knob to tune or bias the phasing effect more towards higher frequencies by turning it up or more towards the bass by tu
50. t Ouantize v Click Click Options MIDI Beat Clock Input Filter Input Devices v MIDI Thru All Notes Off OR 3 Select OK to lock to the ProTools tempo and beat clock 4 But WAIT There are still a few things to note before this will all work New Pro Tools sessions always set the default tempo to 120 BPM and the downbeat will start at the beginning of the ses sion In order for tempo locking to be useful the downbeats and tempo of your music needs to line up with the downbeats and tempo in your Pro Tools session If you ve recorded everything to a click track within Pro Tools everything should be cool If not you ll need to enable the conductor track within ProTools and create a tempo map for your song Creating a Tempo Map post roll transport Pro Tools Length Enable the conductor track by clicking on the conductor button in the transport window of Pro Tools If you don t see the conductor button on the transport win dow Select Display gt Transport Window Shows from the Pro Tools menu Make sure MIDI and Expanded are both checked Create a tempo map by defining bar beat markers in your song A simple way to do this is to select the first measure of your song very precisely in the Edit win dow and then use the Identify Beat command in ProTools to define the starting and ending beat numbers for the selection ProTools will then calculate 17 the correct te
51. t that the host CPU is used for processing instead of the DSP chips on the DSP farm cards One very big caveat here is that the HTDM format causes sig nificant latency or delay in the audio stream 18 IMPORTANT Digidesign has a special low latency version of the StreamManager driver for ProTools This can reduce the latency from 1024 audio samples to 256 audio samples from 21 milliseconds to 5 milliseconds at 48 kHz sample rate For the latest and greatest info on optimizing HTDM for your system and to download the low latency StreamManager please visit the HTDM O8A page on the Digidesign website The link to it is http www digidesign com support fag htdm html Optimizing CPU Usage PhaseMistress is a native plug in which means that it uses your computer s proces sor to do its audio processing Because of its advanced DSP algorithms PhaseMistress can put a pretty heavy load on your processor Here are some tips to reduce the processing e Use Digital mode instead of Analog This uses about half the CPU power e If you re running multiple tracks through the same effect use PhaseMistress on an aux track and use sends to route the audio through PhaseMistress e Commit your effect to disk by using AudioSuite or by bouncing to disk 19 PHASEMISTRESS CONTROL PANEL Frequency Knob Resonance Knob Input Output Levels Mot Th JSndrysvenst bypass RTAS E Farae oompare auto safe P h r S W
52. the envelope The modulation envelope will increase the phase freguency and attack to its maximum value then decay to the sustain value based on the settings of the individual Attack Decay and Sustain knobs When the trigger button is released the envelope will decrease to zero release based on the setting of the Release knob Threshold You can also trigger the ADSR based on the level of the input signal Just set the Threshold knob to a value other than maximum value Each time the input signal moves above the Threshold level the envelope will be triggered If you don t want the audio to trigger the ADSR make sure the Threshold is set to its maximum value A Attack The Attack knob determines how fast the envelope will increase to its maximum value once it has been triggered The lower the setting of the Attack knob the faster the attack time As you increase the setting of the Attack knob the attack time will get longer slower like increasing the Smoothing parameter Keep in mind that the possible modulation level goes from a hypothetical O to 100 so the Attack time determines how fast the envelope modulation signal will move from a level of O to a level of 100 D Decay Once the Attack has reached its maximum value the envelope moves to the Decay stage and the modulation signal decays then until the Sustain value is reached The Decay knob controls the speed or length of the decay time The lower the set ting of the Dec
53. the resonance and greatly increases the variety of phasing effects available in PhaseMistress A Word of CAUTION Extreme settings of the Resonance controls can create VERY high signal levels enough to fry your tweeters and blow out your woofers if the volume is way up You may want to turn down the output level of PhaseMistress when cranking up the Resonance We cannot be responsible for any damage done due to being dopey enough to listen REALLY loud while cranking the Resonance So please be cool and careful 23 Mod The Mod control determines the amount of modulation signal that will be used to sweep the phaser Frequency Increasing the Mod will increase the amount of modula tion and determine the mod how far the frequency will be swept either above and or below the center frequency The amount of Mod used will often be dependent on where the Frequency knob is set as well as the type of modulation signal being used Usually the faster the modulation the less Mod you will want to use as phase shifting can create a vibrato like effect and make the signal sounds out of tune Please Note The Mod knob on the front panel is directly linked to the Freq Mod parameter located under the Tweak button The total available modulation depth as well as the direction of the modulation is set by the Freq Mod parameter in the Tweak menu based on having the Mod knob full up The front panel Mod knob allows you to scale the amount of avai
54. think hopefully you will agree So we won t keep singing our own praises and telling you how this feature or that feature open up new territories in phasing let s just take it for granted that by now this should be pretty clear This Tweak screen is separated into two sections Style Tweak and Modulation Tweak Style Tweak The Style Tweak parameters are used to create the basic character and structure of the virtual phasing circuit These are also the parameters used to create the Style settings Once you open the Tweak menu you can actually see how each of the Style settings were created by selecting one of the Style settings in the menu and looking at the settings of the knobs and switches in the Style Tweak section You can create your own Styles just by tweaking any or all of these parameters Once you change any of the parameters in the Style Tweak section the Style menu will read Custom indicating duh that you have changed one or more of the Style Tweak parameters Please Note 1 Our original intention was to NOT expose these secret ingredients at the user level and to only have the Style settings that we deemed useful and use able etc However once all the infighting screaming and bloodshed subsided inside the SoundToys lab it was not a pretty sight the powers of good prevailed over the powers of evil and it was decided by the wise SoundToys Elder Council to provide you our esteemed user with the power to con
55. trol the phasing galaxy by exposing these parameters to you Please Note 2 Only the parameters under the Style Tweak area of the menu were used to create the Style settings The Modulation Tweak parameters are separate and are saved when saving a standard PhaseMistress preset Stages The Stage knob is one of the most important parameters in PhaseMistress As we discussed earlier the number of stages determines the number of phase shift stages used in the virtual phasing circuit with the available values in PhaseMistress ranging from 2 through 24 In general the most significant changes in the sound occur between Stage settings 2 and 12 with 2 4 6 8 10 and 12 being the most commonly used Note A 2 stage phaser is the least pronounced and transparent sounding and as a general rule sounds best with minimal resonance This does not mean that you can t add resonance with a 2 Stage phaser but you will most likely find that it does not add that much Once you get above a 2 Stage setting you ll find that reso nance will become more useful and pronounced This Stage menu allows you to choose all odd and even numbered Stages something not available on any other phaser anywhere As a basic rule odd number stages will impart some form of lowpass filtering into the signal and the character of odd stages sound very different from even stage settings They don t sound better or worse they just sound different and often very cool
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