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MetaSynth 2.5 User Guide (Color)

1. 115 nuni TH CC EE 115 Open Wave Table eee rtt ee ee e n E PPS 115 Save Wave Table tette o eo e eor ute be TR 115 ABOUT THIS CHAPTER e nee pe a ee ee e 116 METASYNTHINSTRUMENTS 4er tite eee 116 INSTRUMENT BASICS 4 22 eic tetet reete es eee eee iie dt eee eet e ete eee 117 USING 118 Creating and Opening 118 Auditioning Notes on the 119 Saving Loading Presets Made with 5 119 Instruments and Memory 119 Computing and Previewing Presets with Instruments esee 120 Tdeas for exploration x32 e e ettet e ms 120 INSTRUMENTS EERE EEE 121 Remove Sample ERE ERR epe e o e HIE ERR RECO RENE ENTER 121 Load Sample Re HIE TOR ERE EE ees 121 Preview Sample RHEIN ei re Eee e 122 Sample Name ie e He HIR sonnel econo nea 122 DOOD 122 Max Key vii e GR p t dei aee ERE ERES 122 Pitchand Octave seco REESE es 122 Randomize Sample 122 Wil m 123 Fine Tuning ss seb ORO eno ele eda
2. 4 INSTALLATION AND SYSTEM 2 22 5 HARDWARE amp SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS 5 gi p E 5 rr 5 ing 5 PERFORMANCE NOTES AND 8 02 000000 0 00 6 MINUS TATA TION EDE E Pe Pe EE 7 What s Installed 8 OVERVIEW 5 9 ABOUT THIS CHAPTER cccsssscessssccesseseceesssecesesecsesusececsuseceeusececusececsusececuseceeusesecsseeceesees WHAT METASYNTH CAN DO tenter Pi neret tree enin ANATOMY OF METASYNTH Spheres of Influence teer temere toe Rer tr Hr pet Rer The Image Synth amp Its Allies eter epe rere The Sample Editor amp Its Allies eese nnne USER 0 enne entren einn senes senes set ei Sn D III M EENS Tips DUS Play E
3. 177 CrOSS GODVOLVe Fit Amplitude Formants sliced HE Ose Bank PhaseVocoder i uneven eee ee o iae RR 180 Fundamental Convolvye commiand k nee np HR Eee pe he eee delat Pee 182 Wave Shaping tt edente tea ite eene erede eet 183 Instant Spectr m etn tee eie RR aet e eee ete ittis iet 184 e 184 Spectrum E EC n e P es 184 INSTRUMENTS 186 oa EE 186 Open NSU A ence tede 186 Build UNIAN STEREO RC EPA 186 Opened Insiruments List ciet dde HO RR ERG 186 WINDOWS 187 ABOUT THIS CHAPTER WINDOWS T Image Synth 1 2 ttt ento rtr nee nee eene TEEN Wave Table commandd 2 eter esce ter ortae R Effects Palette command 3 Filter Palette commands4 amp 5 232 A Ei ne ee TRE e ind Hide Show Sample Editor command w esee 187 Hide ShosvPalettes trn Rer OE PRO OR ERE 188 TUTORIALS
4. UR n RR ER 163 20 ee Le ein eoe ndn 163 Silence Command ytes nen e ee n eio E ERRAT 163 Fade in Comrmiard tein emere ter n e PH YO oot say OUR EE 163 Fade out Cominand erinnerte rennen euh 164 amp Out Commarnd tee ee d e dee HIER Paare ties 164 SOUNDS MENU E 165 ABOUT THIS GHAPTER ette etr ecd e ed e teda etr 165 SOUNDS MENU zt TR RR RR TR ts 165 Sound Playback Commands eee eese eese tne tne 165 Play Sound Enter key eee nen oerte TP E DEO TH EE 165 Play Selection Command b 165 Loop Selection Command 1 eiiiai 165 Sound Generation Commands eese eene teretes eene enne tese nennen enne 165 White lNOISe Ee Narrow Noise Fractal Noise el tebe ek eed te E onde Sade Lah aed Procedural ient eei eee me eee 166 Renee eee rene ehe cede eee hag e eue dean De Mu e ege EC ERE aee ene eua 170 TRANSFORM eene eese eene enata seen setas etas to setas
5. ZEE NE S O Evolution A B Frequency 15 BEER Pd YN my ANY The Procedural Synth is a simple 2 operator frequency modulation FM synthesizer featuring real time preview The Procedural Synth can be used to create samples to be used with samplers and MetaSynth s multi sample Instruments and it 166 Sounds Menu can be used as an Image Synth input source It falls within both the Sample Editor and Image Synth spheres of influence One operator acts as the carrier the oscillator you actually hear and the other is the modulator that modulates the pitch of the carrier The frequency and amplitude of the modulator can both be determined by the user Each operator oscillator of the Procedural Synth can have up to two user programmable waveforms called A and B which comes into play if Evolution is turned on The Procedural Synth fades the oscillators between their A settings and their B settings when the Evolution envelope which defines the envelope for the transition is turned on The B state of the two oscillators are only played if Evolution is turned on Both the carrier and the modulator have A and a B waveforms Using the Procedural Synth Press the Preview button to start playing the Procedural Synth Play with the waveform envelopes until you find a sound you like Press the Apply button to replace the selected region of the current sound with sound generated by the procedural synth or press t
6. 42 2 2 soroa stata 189 Wave 20 Create Instruments Using Master Tuning Creating Slammin Filter Sweeps with Displacement 189 Creating Rhythim 0 er Transfer Modes and Displacement Maps Processed Analysis Discovering Rhythmic Patterns with Quantize sss 190 Stereo Effects with Displacement 191 T DAS D DD e 192 xiii U amp I software license agreement User friendly and Innovative software LLC U amp I is willing to license the enclosed MetaSynth software Software only upon the condition that you accept all the terms of this Agreement If you do not agree to these terms is unwilling to license the Software to you in which event you must return immediately and in no case later than ten 10 days from the date of purchase the unopened diskette package and accompanying items including manual other documentation and container together with your proof of purchase to the place from which it was acquired for a refund LICENSE You may use the enclosed Software on a single computer The Software is in use when it is installed into permanent memory such as a hard disk or other storage device or loaded into temporary m
7. sena eS 171 ABOUT THIS CHAPTER eee ue Pen ue TRANSFORM MENU Smooth command h CIeats oss tne cms Normalize command n Envelope command e peines 172 Pitch Envelope Pam o ashes ish eoe vasa Puoi wie Coke ioe syne Invert Phase te iere e n e tee certe ees Derivate Gui M P EN Limiter and Expander e Rede re eve deed a 175 Remove Lows Remoye HiglS ceo ihnen cei tastes etate 175 Offset 5 estet tie ice ee e eerie er e 175 Octave Down command 2 175 Octave Up command 3E Exe LES ERR REESE aeo exe 175 xii MORPH MENU ccccssssssssssrsesssssssesssrscsscsssrscsacsssssssesscsssssasscsesscsssssasscssessasscssonsesacssssseses 176 ABOUT THIS CHAPTER csetera VE 176 MORPH MENU seien 176 Super e epe REUS UR Eee OR RR fra ire 176 M1x 53066 command Im oce rre ee T ER BES 177 COSS MIX io certis rete te CHEER dee ea o e e SERIA ENS UR EAE 177 Grosstade command f tbe
8. MetaSynth and its palettes Hiding and Showing Palettes An individual palette may be hidden by clicking in its close box To show a hidden palette or bring a palette to the front choose its name in the Windows menu or press the command key equivalent which is displayed beside the item s name in the menu The Sample Editor does not have a close box but can be hidden by choosing Hide Sample Editor from the Windows menu or by pressing command w Unlike most other Macintosh applications MetaSynth treats command w as a toggle to either show or hide the Sample Editor 26 Note QuickStart Unlike other Macintosh applications MetaSynth doesn t ask you to save your changes when you quit Remember to save your sounds or add your presets to a library if you want them saved The black background which hides the Macintosh desktop and other applications is the Sample Editor s background The black background is helpful as it makes dim pixels easier to see in the Image Synth and Filter Palette If you want access to the windows open in other applications or the Macintosh desktop you may hide the Sample Editor Close the Filter Effects and Wave Table palettes If you are not sure which palette is which refer to the illustration above or choose the palette s name from the Windows menu to bring it to the front e The Image Synth and Sample Editor should both still be visible e Click and drag the Image Synth Palette s grow bo
9. 132 ZOOM Sample VIEW si 132 Sample Selection Duration Display eese eese eene enne 132 Tips Display odi E D sre te dba 132 IEEFI HAND TOOLBAR eite reiten teretes rete aree e eta Eae eek aee 132 Open Sound do eneoneoenoomgnnse nien rater n re OR On or 132 SAVES OUT eee oet estetico tee teme ep ee Ee Ee 133 Mono Stereo Toggle aee ert etoile teh re i hh ee ea 133 Play All Enter Key cs see eene eei noie deed 133 Play Selection Command B eese sees eene entente nnne 133 Loop Play Command L eere tentes ttt et o eren 133 Record Sound ee ea estie SA EY CE YE ERES 133 Normalize eese eese eee eene nente 134 Fade In esent eene arroa enne 134 Fade Out Command eee eese eene eene nennen enne nne enne 134 Time Reverse Sound esee 134 Auto CrossFade RERUM 134 Repeat E 135 ALPIN OH LS M DA ul Dec csscavstavscavatecscscatevesaccestbestusscevsccssceessess 136 ABOUT THIS CHAPTER nos nc RS n OU RUE ORO ERN 136 THE PIETERAPAEETTE 5253 Gs ocodono uq edu eO HUI UE 136 USING THE FILTER PALETTE addendo n ead ORO quedes 137 BIETER PALETTE RESOLUTION 5 3 duo UU GR UU Ee 137 FILTER PALETTE TOOLS sa ete sues coos seas e ei re v suck PEE TEE cues TEE TREE YE
10. Copy Pict Copy selected displacement map to the PICT clipboard Smooth before displace checkbox Turning this option on results in continuous curves when the image is displaced See illustration above Smoothing works well when creating filter sweeps See 103 Image Synth Reference the tutorials for a lesson on creating filter sweeps For other effects discontinuity is often desirable Turn smoothing off for melodic remapping and diffusion effects Octave Transpose Transpose the image up or down in one octave increments Hold down the option key when transposing to leave a copy behind Shift click to transpose the image up or down by a fifth Nudge Transpose Nudge the image in single pixel increments Modifier keys can be used to nudge by other increments e Up Down Left Right arrows nudge the selection one pixel in the indicated direction e Shift Up Down arrows transpose up down thirds e Shift Left Right arrows shift left right by the Hot Filter Grid interval e Page Up Down arrows transpose up down by octaves e Shift Page Up Down transpose up down by fifths Holding down the option key leaves a copy behind Normalize Click here to normalize the image Normalization remaps brightness so that the image s brightest pixels are remapped to maximum brightness with the rest of the pixels being remapped accordingly This process results in sharper brighter images and louder sounds Use it any
11. To create a symmetrical image execute the following command sequence Copy c Reverse t Add Pict e Pulse p Pulse the pictures of the canvas or the selected region by removing pixels using the current Hot Filter Grid interval A grid interval of 16 removes every other 16 pixels of the picture i e 16 pixels unchanged followed by 16 pixels of silence and so on This command is useful for creating strong rhythms There are a number of processes which complement Pulse in helping to create rhythmic interest in a picture Try using Echo and Pre Echo or Reverb after applying the Pulse Hot Filter Try applying the Attack Hot Filter a few times with the same grid interval after applying Pulse Create a swelled pulsing effect by setting the Hot Filter Grid interval to a medium small interval 8 pixels for example and executing the following edit sequence Copy c Clear delete key Fade in out Pict u Pulse p 108 MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip Image Synth Reference For pulses that morph into sustained tones use this command sequence Copy c Pulse p Crossfade Pict x Saw w Similar to Pulse but a fade out effect is applied at the intervals specified by the Hot Filter Grid interval rather than hard cuts to silence This effect is great for adding a rhythmic drive to material Try the same tips as suggested for the Pulse Hot Filter Shorten Shorten the duration o
12. QuickStart Intermediate Techniques Grids Creating Rhythmic Grids In this exercise we create a rhythmic grid with thick blue lines every 4 beats and thin blue lines every beat a convenient grid for working in 4 4 time signatures Click on the Hot Filter Grid Interval and type 64 4 beats at 16 Pixels Per Beat Click the Blue Grid submenu choose Draw Blue Grid Click on the Channel Edit Mode Selector icon Choose the Blue Channel only mode In this mode editing commands apply only to the Blue Channel The default mode is Red and Green only for color pictures e Press option right arrow two times to thicken the lines right arrow moves the selection the option key leaves a copy behind Enter 16 as the Hot Filter Grid Interval e Choose Add Blue X Grid from the Blue Grid submenu which yields a Blue Channel with thick lines at measure boundaries and thin lines at beat boundaries e Click the Add Preset icon to add the preset the current preset library 45 QuickStart Creating Harmonic Grids In this exercise we create a simple chord structure and paste it to the Blue Channel This technique provides a template over which notes can be placed or filtered In this example we create an arbitrary chord progression You can of course use more interesting harmonic grids e Click on the Channel Mode Selector Choose Red Green only mode e on the Brush Gri
13. Reserved memory for workspace This setting allows you to control how much memory MetaSynth protects from the Sample Editor At startup MetaSynth splits its memory partition into two parts One part is used only by the Sample Editor The other part called the workspace is used for Instruments the picture clipboard and canvas display The default value is a good choice for most users Setting this preference to a large value makes it possible to load several large Instruments and have a large canvas but it may limit the length of the sounds that you can open and generate If you do not plan on using Instruments at all you can set this to none to maximize the space available for opening and generating sounds You must quit and restart MetaSynth for any change to this preference to take effect Free Memory max block Displays the maximum free memory block in MetaSynth s memory space Quit Command q Quit MetaSynth 160 File Menu NOTE MetaSynth does not prompt you to save changes when Quit is chosen Remember to save any pertinent data sound files presets wave table data before quitting 161 N Edit Menu About this chapter This chapter describes the Edit menu s commands Familiarity with the Sample Editor chapter is helpful for getting the most out of this chapter Edit Menu The following commands are found in the Edit menu and apply to the Sample Editor regardless of which palette is front most Clipb
14. overlaps the source sound Use the frequency analysis of drum loops to filter orchestral and choral sounds to create rhythm orchestras When using frequency analyses created in the Image Synth as filters it is a good idea to apply the filter to a sample roughly the same length as the original sound Advanced User Tip Higher Resolution Filters In most cases the resolution of the Filter Palette strikes the ideal balance between resolution and computational intensity In some cases you may desire greater timing or 139 Filter Palette frequency resolution more than 128 bands In these cases you can actually synthesize sound using the Image Synth then apply them as filters using commands found in the Morph menu If you need greater timing resolution than the Filter Palette provides you can use the Convolve menu command with a sound synthesized in the Image Synth In such cases you might use a wide canvas with a small sample per pixel setting If you do not need a time variant filter filter envelope you can use the Spectrum Filter command See QuickStart chapter of this manual and the tutorials provided on disk for examples of creative uses of the Filter Palette 140 Shuffler Parameters Chorus Preview 40 0 Echo Decay time in percent Harmonizer Phaser Flanger 120 0 Transpose gt 50 0 in percent Parametric EQ gt About This Chapter Reverb Resonator Harmonics Inertia Stretch Grain 50
15. ENS Choose brush color or change the selection s color Click drag on the Brush Color Selector found below the Brush Palette icon to change the brush color The current brush color is displayed in the tool s display in the toolbar The palette of colors which is displayed reflects the canvas color mode At the left edge of the selector s pop up palette are six convenient preset colors When there is an active selection selecting a color applies the new color to the selection using the multiply transfer mode You cannot change red pixels to green or vice versa but you can change the amplitude of any pixels or the degree of panning Hold the option key to invoke the Eye Dropper Tool which picks the color under the eye dropper and makes it the current color This tool is not available when the Selection Tool is the active brush tool Brush Size Tool Note Change the brush size by clicking and dragging this control or double click the control to open the Brush Options Dialog see below The Brush Size tool is a two dimensional control Click on the tool and drag horizontally and or vertically to change the brush size When changing brush size the entire screen not just the Image Synth palette area area is active Drag to the lower left corner of the screen to reset the brush to 1 X 1 Drag up and to the right to increase the brush s vertical and horizontal dimensions Use the shift key to constrain the tool
16. Unchecking this checkbox deletes the sample from the Instrument Checking this checkbox has no effect Load Sample Click here to load a sample into the Instrument MetaSynth s open file dialog box prompts you to choose a sample file Any stereo or mono 44 1 kHz Sound Designer II or AIFF file can be selected however mono and stereo samples cannot be mixed in the same Instrument Loop markers in Sound Designer II files are respected if the Loop checkbox see below is checked If the sample s name ends with a pitch and octave number Eric Guitar A3 for example the sample will be inserted in the appropriate location and the pitch and octave fields assigned accordingly You can re assign the pitch and octave if you would like the sample placed elsewhere Dual mono split stereo pairs should have 121 Instruments the channel suffix AFTER the note name for MetaSynth to auto map them i e Guitar A3 L Eric Guitar Preview Sample Press this button to hear the sample played back Preview does not loop the sample Sample Name This field displays the name of the sample file Loop Turning this option on loops the sample if notes in the picture exceed the sample length If the sample file contains Sound Designer II style loop markers they will be used for the looping otherwise the entire sample is looped Max Key This field indicates the highest note using MIDI note numbers played by this
17. Undo the filter application by typing command z 7325 Nudge the filter up or down to adjust the overlap Apply the filter Repeat the previous 3 steps if necessary until you have a sound you like Save the sound as Ana Filtered Using the Sample Looped Sample Mode Bring the Image Synth to the front Type to invoke the Open Preset Library dialog box Open the library QuickStart Presets found in the QuickStart folder of MetaSynth s home directory Click on the Preset Selector and choose this preset the first in the library Click on the Input Source Selector and choose Looped Sample Preview the sound Double click the Tempo Duration Tool In the Tempo Duration Dialog click the button Fit Duration to Current Sample M Click the OK icon button and play the sound Command drag in the Sample Editor s waveform display to select all of the sample except for the beginning We want to give the sound a sharp attack Type command g to crop the sound 38 QuickStart Intermediate Techniques Instruments and Convolution e Choose Sample as the Input Source e Preview the sound picture and note the difference between how it plays in Sample and Looped Sample modes In Looped Sample mode the notes trigger points progressively later in the sample rather than triggering it from the same start point each time e Press the delete key to delete the image e Switch back to Looped Sample mode e Type to draw
18. m Instrument Up to six open instruments are available for selection from the Input Source Selector Instruments are collections of up to 16 different samples where each sample is mapped to a different frequency range which allows you to minimize pitch shifting of individual samples and allows pictures to play composite instruments such as drum sets If no instruments have been loaded these slots on the pop up menu will be inactive Instruments turn the Image Synth into an extraordinarily powerful sampler Unlike hardware samplers where notes have the same envelope every time they are triggered you can create rich human articulation by modifying individual notes envelopes using the Smooth tool for example Instruments can be applied to a wide variety of applications from the bizarre to the realistic See the MetaSynth CD for a large number of instruments and the preset libraries built for them See the chapter Instruments for detailed information about Instruments Tempo Duration Tool Use this tool to adjust the duration of the picture Clicking and dragging to the left and right of the icon adjusts the picture s duration While the tool is dragged the picture s duration is displayed beside it Option clicking displays the picture s duration in terms of the Samples Per Pixel SPP and Beats Per Minute BPM New in2 5 Double clicking this tool invokes the Tempo Duration Dialog which is described below This tool allows for sophisti
19. Edit the sound using the commands available in the Edit menu Cut Copy Paste Clear Insert Merge The Sample Editor has two toolbars The left hand toolbar contains buttons for the most commonly performed functions such as Play Loop Normalize Open and Save The upper toolbar consists of selection and zoom tools Clicking and dragging the displayed waveform scrolls it Scrolling is inertial allowing you to scroll by dragging and throwing the waveform to the left or right The mouse velocity determines the velocity at which the waveform travels Click the mouse button to stop the waveform Selections are made by pressing and holding the command key while dragging across region to be selected The selected region is highlighted in blue Extending and reducing selections is accomplished by using modifier keys The selection commands are 130 Sample Editor Command drag select new region selects command dragged region e Command shift drag extend selection from beginning or end Command option drag reduce selection from end e Command option shift drag reduce selection from beginning Zooming is inertial and accomplished by option dragging the mouse Option drag centers the zoomed region about the initial click location edits are automatically crossfaded to ensure clickless edits The crossfade length can be set using the File menu s Preferences command Opening Loading Sounds Sounds are loaded into the Sample E
20. Smooth differs from the Remove Highs command in that it removes only the very high frequency content of the sound over about 18 kHz Smooth is useful for attenuating clicks removing buzziness from a sound and for processing a sound before pitch shifting it upwards When removing clicks select the area immediately surrounding the click and apply Smooth Clean A macro operation for cleaning up samples Clean removes DC Offset normalizes the sample fades in the very beginning and fades out the very end to remove possible clicks This command is especially useful for working with samples that will be looped Normalize command n Normalize the volume of the sample or the selection Normalization scales the sound s volume upward so that the highest peak is 0 dB Use this command to maximize the sample s volume without changing its effective dynamic range The left and right channels are normalized independently If the two channels have markedly different peak amplitudes the balance between the channels may be upset 171 MetaTip Transform Menu This command is the same as the Normalize tool found on the Sample Editor s left hand toolbar Envelope command e Envelopes POE 08 Electroboiling L eps hI A T Le a Ventil oa Shape the selection s amplitude envelope The envelope s vertical axis signifies amplitude The horizontal axis represents time The envelope is sca
21. The corresponding frequency is displayed but cannot be edited directly Click on the up or down icons to change the reference pitch in one octave increments This behavior is handy when computing sounds to be used in multi sample Instruments Option click the up and down icons to increment decrement the pitch by semitones rather than octaves See the tutorials provided on CD for an example of how to use this feature to quickly build Instruments from computed waveforms Optimizing Frequency Analysis with Master Tuning When analyzing the sample of a note you can sometimes optimize the analysis by using this technique Perform the first analysis with A2 as the reference pitch and the semitones frequency map Observe the basic pitch of the note Set the reference pitch of the picture to that note and octave Change the frequency map to a microtonal or harmonic frequency map and set the picture height only as large as needed to accommodate the sample s frequencies Perform the analysis again Harmonic frequency maps see Custom Scales work well for analyzing stringed instruments In previous versions of MetaSynth the reference pitch was invisible and fixed at A2 220 5 Hz 78 Image Synth Reference Left Hand Toolbar This toolbar contains painting tools and submenus with pitch harmonic content related processes Brush Mode Toggle The Image Synth has three brush modes Line Dot and Repeat modes EZA The behavior of t
22. The sound is automatically played back after it is computed While the sound plays an orange Play Position Indicator dot moves across the top of the picture to indicate the play position The computed sound is a 44 1 kHz 16 bit sound Synthesize is a CPU intensive task The computation time is influenced by a number of factors the size of the picture the number of non black pixels in the image the input source Sound pictures with wave table input sources require the least computation and multi sample Instruments require the most Option Synthesize Holding down the option key when clicking the tool s icon results in amplitude being scaled inversely to frequency As a result high harmonics have attenuated amplitudes This can be used to compensate for the loss of envelope resolution when working with low amplitude harmonics since a picture has only 255 values for amplitude Option Synthesize lets you use the full brightness range to paint high harmonics and have them scaled down during rendering In some cases option Synthesize has pleasing natural results This technique emphasizes the bass and can result in clipping if the low frequency pixels are too bright Computation can be aborted by clicking in the menubar Preview Return key Improved in MetaSynth 2 5 Real time preview Play a real time preview of the canvas or the selected region For simple pictures the preview is done in mono at full fidelity For more complex picture
23. Wave Shaping from the Morph menu 152 Envelope Editors e Remap Colors Dialog available by double clicking the Contrast amp Luminance tool in the Image Synth Palette While these processes are all very different they share MetaSynth s unique envelope editing interface The layout may differ slightly across different instances but the overall controls remain the same This chapter describes the interface See the appropriate chapter of the manual for descriptions of the processes themselves and the meaning of the envelope for that process Envelopes can be manipulated directly by clicking on any point of the curve and pulling it or by clicking on one of the shaping tools and dragging away from its icon At the beginning of this chapter is an image of the Envelope dialog box which features an envelope editor whose envelope controls the current sample s amplitude Multi Envelope Editors A number of processes make use of more than one envelope In each of these dialogs there will be a switch used to select the envelope to which the envelope shaping tools apply as only one envelope can be shaped at a time You will encounter multi envelope editors when using the Pan Envelope Cross Convolve and Color Remap dialogs Unity zero sum pairs In some multi envelope dialogs such as the Crossfade dialog a pair of envelopes are constrained to a constant sum usually one or zero In these cases only one envelope can be manipulated di
24. s most powerful input source Instruments are multi sample collections that are used to map up to 18 different samples to different pitch 11 Overview ranges Instruments turn MetaSynth into a non real time sampler with hundreds of voices and incredible note by note envelope control The Sample Editor amp Its Allies Sample Editor The Sample Editor is a full featured sound editor where sounds are edited and transformed with the various filters effects and morphing processes provided by the Sample Editor s satellites Most of the application menus serve the Sample Editor Filter Palette This palette is used to create time variant attenuating filters that are applied to the currently loaded sound The image processing tools available are similar to the tools available in the Image Synth though the images here serve a different function Rather than generating sound they filter it The luminance of the blue pixels in the Filter Palette s filter canvas determine how much of the original signal passes through Parameters Reverb Preview 40 0 Echo me in percent Resonator Harmonics Inertia 20 0 din BPM Stretch Transpose Grain Parametric EG 50 0 ffec e in percent L 3 z 2 50 0 Effects Palette This palette provides a number of sophisticated digital signal processors Familiar effects such as delay chorus and reverb are offered along with spectacular granular synthesis based effec
25. sample Normally you do not set this value When you create the Instrument you will generally use the Auto Ranges button to calculate the Max Key values for the Instrument s samples Pitch and Octave These pop up menus are used to set the base pitch for the sample The base pitch is the note in Image Synth sound pictures which plays back the original sample without pitch shifting If the sample file is of a pitched instrument you will generally choose the sample s original pitch and octave If the sample s name ends with a pitch and octave number Eric Guitar A3 for example the pitch and octave will automatically be assigned when the sample is loaded though you may re assign these values if you prefer Randomize Sample Start When this option is turned on the start points will be randomized when the Instrument s notes are triggered so that same notes won t play exactly the same way each time they are played This option can add a human touch when using instrument samples Note The random start point is picked from the first 6000 samples 136 milliseconds of the sample file If the note has a rapid attack it is possible for the attack to be missed 122 MetaTip Instruments Stereo This checkbox indicates whether the instrument is mono or stereo Instruments can be built from either mono or stereo samples but not both in the same instrument While MetaSynth won t actually prevent you from mixing mono and stereo s
26. 0 Effec ice in percent E This chapter describes the operation of the Effects Palette Familiarity with the operation of the Sample Editor is recommended for getting the most out of this chapter Effects Palette The Effects Palette is a powerful effects rack for modifying the sound currently loaded in the Sample Editor The available effects include both standard effects like Echo Reverb and Flanger as well as unique granular synthesis and FFT based effects such as Grain Shuffler Inertia and Harmonics Using Effects Real time effects previewing features simultaneous gestural control of two parameters Click on an effect name to activate the effect Click on the Preview button and drag the mouse up and down left and right to hear the effect in mono as the parameters change Click the Apply button to render the currently selected portion of the sound or the entire sound if there is no selection with the chosen effect If you are unhappy with the result choose Undo from the Edit menu to restore the sound to its original state Gestural control of parameters can be turned on and off by clicking to the right of the parameter slider to toggle the green checkmark indicators on and off Preview Press the Preview button and drag the mouse up and down left and right to hear the effect applied in mono to the sound In order to achieve real time performance the preview is mon
27. 163 Merge Pict Image Synth 62 Min Pict Image Synth 61 Minimum Transfer Mode 89 Mix 50 See Morph Menu 176 Move to End Sample Editor 132 Move to Start Sample Editor 131 Multiply defined 55 Transfer Mode 90 Multiply Pict Image Synth 62 N Narrow Noise menu command Sample Editor 166 New Filters File Image Synth 58 New Instrument 125 186 New Presets File Image Synth 58 Noise Filter 92 Normalize 104 menu command 171 Sample Editor 134 Note Brush 83 Nudge Transpose 104 numeric fields 14 O Octave Down menu command 175 Octave Transpose 104 Octave Up menu command Sample Editor 175 Offset 99 Open File menu 158 Open Dialog 15 Open Filters File Image Synth 58 Open Instrument 126 186 Open Pict File Image Synth 57 Open Presets File Image Synth 58 Open Sound 132 Osc Bank PhaseVocoder 180 menu command 173 Parametric EQ Effects Palette 150 Paste File menu 162 Paste Pict Image Synth 60 Paste to Blue Image Synth 63 Paste to Blue Channel 66 Pen Brush 81 Performance Notes tips 6 Phaser Effects Palette 149 Picture Height 77 Picture Width 77 Pitch and Harmonics Submenu Image Synth 94 Pitch Envelope menu command 172 Play Sample Editor 133 Play position indicator preference 160 Play Selection Filter Palette 139 menu command Sample Editor 165 Sample Editor 133 Play Sound menu command Sample Editor 165
28. 77 Master Tuning Reference Pitch eese tnter 78 LEEFI HAND TOOLBAR ete e e e eite e eig 79 Brush Mode ete ee et tb EHE e 79 79 Line Mode 2 80 Repeat eet de erit e a 80 81 teres 81 Air Brush shift a Filter Brush shift f Harmonics Brush shift h 2 82 Attack Brush shift t 2 82 Smoothing Brush shift s 2 83 Spray 83 D cay Brush shift d 2 ertet e eee aa e ee ETE E e Here redes 83 ordine S 83 vi ea Smear Smear Brighter Brush Clone Brush i Selection FOOL iet rrr me md e EE e E ee e Eee 84 Br sh Golor Selector ri 86 Br sh Size Tool iran met hi ohn he RRS 86 Brush Options Dialog 87 Transfer Mode Submenu Maximum Minimum 2 89 Additive 2 89 Subtractive Multiply Fade in D PAGS UE 2 encuentres n RON IR eim enu ee 90 Pade ees oe RR EO
29. Compute Samples Building the Instrument Using the Instrument Tutorial 3 Build the filter 189 Features Used synthesize tool master tuning option transpose selection tool apply filter picture tempo duration tool wave shaping command filter palette filter palette analysis crossfaded sample mode synthesize tool master tuning Build Instrument command select preset set input source displacement dialog choose filter Tutorials Summary Use the Filter Tutorial 4 Creating Rhythm Grooves Learn some techniques for Loading the Instrument entering notes directly in the Image Synth Setting the Tempo Grid and Picture Size Using Grid amp Repeat to Paint the Kick and Snare Using the Repeat Brush to Paint the Hi Hat Painting with the Note Brush Tutorial 5 Transfer Modes and Displacement Maps Explore transfer modes to create Getting Started beautiful Moir patterns Warping the Image Creating the Moir Pattern Tutorial 6 Processed Analysis Discovering Rhythmic Patterns with Quantize 190 apply displacement map open sound filter palette analyze open instrument input source selector channel mode tempo duration dialog box pixels per beat amp tempo picture size line mode brush grid interval brush size control click to audition repeat hot filter repeat brush mode brush grid brush grid interval brush mode brush palette note brush marque
30. MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip Effects Palette The variety of effects that can be created with Grain is astounding Grain can turn a solo violin sample into a string section a jackhammer or a stuttering violin Load in a drum loop and tweak the settings to come up with new rhythms in real time A good starting point for exploring grain is with the Input and Output steps set to 1 4 of the grain size Explore the possibilities of Grain by using real time preview with gestural control of the parameters Change the parameters controlled by the mouse by clicking to the right of the parameter sliders See how Input Step and Output Step affect the output and explore the other parameter combinations as well Try using Grain with settings that break up the sound into discrete particles then apply the Harmonics effect to expand the particles You may want to attach a DAT machine or tape recorder to your computer s sound outputs of your machine as you play Grain in preview mode to capture the real time interaction Grain Size in millisecond The size of the time slices rearranged by Grain Generally this value should be at least four times the size of the input and output steps though some nasty deconstruction can be created with grain sizes less than the input and output steps When working with drum loops set the grain size to the length in milliseconds of a convenient beat division such as a sixteenth note To f
31. Palette 148 Clean menu command 171 Clear File menu 163 Image Synth 61 Clone Brush 84 Color Channels defined 54 Compress menu command 174 Compute 105 Compute Ratios 75 Contract 96 Contrast and Luminance 99 Convolution with Filter Palette example 41 Convolve vocoder example QuickStart 43 Copy File menu 162 Copy Blue Channel 66 Copy Pict Image Synth 60 Crop File menu 163 Cross Convolve 178 Super MetaTip 176 Cross Mix 177 Crossfade 177 in Instruments 124 Super MetaTip 176 Crossfade Pict Image Synth 62 Cursors 13 Custom Scale harmonic series using 33 Custom Scales wraparound 76 Custom Scales Dialog 74 Cut File menu 162 D Decay Brush 83 Delete Blue Channel 66 Derivate menu command 174 Deselect All Image Synth 63 Differences Transfer mode 90 Displacement Map Dialog 103 Displacement Maps 101 smoothing 103 Divisions per octave 76 Dot Mode 79 Drag and Drop 15 Draw Blue X Grid 65 Draw Octaves Grid 65 193 107 Effects Palette 143 Echo Octaves 65 Edit Submenu Image Synth 59 Effects Palette 141 gestural control of 142 parameters 142 preview 36 141 summary 21 using 141 Emboss Left 92 Emboss Right 92 Envelope menu command 172 Envelope Editors 152 multi envelope editors 153 some dialogs which feature 152 Erase Transfer Mode 89 Expand 12 96 Expand 2 95 Expand 4 96 Expander option limiter 175 Expo
32. Pre Echo 107 Preferences command File menu 159 Preset automatic sample instrument loading 160 command select shortcut 34 delete from library 34 saving wave table with 160 196 Preset Selector Image Synth 64 Preset delete Image Synth 64 Preset replace Image Synth 63 Preview Image Synth 105 Open Dialog 15 Procedural Synth as input source Tip 167 described 166 input source Image Synth 69 Processes Submenu Image Synth 90 Pulse 108 Q Quantize 92 107 QuickStart 23 49 Getting Acquainted 28 self tour 25 Quit 160 warning 27 R Randomize Values 76 Recent Files 16 Record Sound Sample Editor 133 Reference Pitch See Master Tuning Remap Colors Dialog 99 Remove DC Offset menu command 175 Remove Highs menu command 175 Remove Lows 175 Repeat 108 Sample Editor 135 Repeat Mode 80 Repeat Pitch 96 Repeat Twice 93 Replace Preset Image Synth 63 Resonator Effects Palette 144 example QuickStart 37 Reverb 107 Effects Palette 143 Reverse 108 Reverse Sound See Time Reverse Sound Reverse Time 93 Right Hand Toolbar Image Synth 106 Rotate 99 5 input source Image Synth 67 Sample Editor described 129 duration display 132 hide show 187 left hand toolbar 132 memory usage 130 scrolling 130 selections making 130 summary 19 upper toolbar 131 using 130 zoom tool 132 zooming 131 Save File menu 158 Save As File m
33. Preview the sound Click on the Master Tuning tool s up arrow to tune the picture to Preview or Synthesize the sound Click on the Hot Filter Grid Interval at the lower right of the Image Synth and type 32 Press the tab key to confirm the value If you need to correct your entry do not type the delete key It will delete your picture Press the tab key until the number is displayed with green and enter the new value Press Echo in the Hot Filter list once or twice Press Reverb The picture will look something like this Preview or Synthesize the sound Click on the Frequency Map selector again and choose Custom Scale Enter 16 for the Divisions Per Octave Select Linear Subdivisions 32 Note QuickStart Option click Compute Ratios Option clicking generates the harmonic series rather than a scale with linear or exponential subdivisions Click the OK icon button Listen to the picture Experiment with higher and lower Master Tuning settings A1 A3 etc Option click to increment this reference pitch by semitones Click and drag some of the tools in the lower toolbar and observe their effects and listen to your changes LI Change the brush mode to Dot Mode the usual mode by clicking the Brush Mode Toggle until you see the Dot Mode icon Delete the current picture by pressing the delete key Paint on the canvas using different brush colors Double click the Brush Si
34. The tools are similar to those available in the Wave Table Palette For a complete description of the tools see the chapter Wave Table Palette of this manual 168 Sounds Menu The modulator can be faded between two different waveforms A and B Click on the A and B icons to toggle the display between the A and B waveforms Waveform B is only heard if Evolution see below is turned on The waveform settings can be saved to or loaded from disk by using the Save and Open icon buttons found in the Modulation area The waveform data files are compatible with the Wave Table data written from the Wave Table Palette m Pressing the arrowhead copies the displayed waveform to the oscillator s other display Le copy A to B or B to A The frequency and amplitude of the modulator determine the overtones of the sound produced by the Procedural Synth Frequency This setting determines the frequency of the modulator wave The units are tenths of a semitone with 0 indicating AO 55 12 Hz The range is from 999 to 1200 Values about 600 and below result in vibrato like modulation with overtones appearing at higher values Every 120 steps 12 semitones is an octave Amount This setting determines the amplitude of the modulator waves expressed as a value from 0 to 100 A setting of 0 leaves the carrier wave unmodulated Evolution gt The Evolution envelope mixes the oscillators and waveforms It is activated by turning on
35. a complete description of the Filter Palette Effects Palette Shuffler Parameters Chorus Preview 40 0 EchoDecay Harmonizer Phaser Flanger 120 0 Speedin BPM Transpose Parametric EQ Reverb Resonator Harmonics Inertia Stretch Grain 50 0 Effect balance in percent a LJ E E E E 1919119 1919 19119 50 0 Brillance in percent The Effects Palette provides high quality effects with which you can modify the Sample Editor s current sound It includes a full complement of standard effects Echo Reverb Flanging and the like as well as unique granular synthesis based effects such as Inertia Stretch Grain and Shuffler All of these processes provide real time previewing with x y mouse control where the entire screen serves as a virtual control surface with which you can dial in your settings When you are happy with the effect you apply it permanently to the currently loaded sample which can be restored to its previous state by choosing Undo from the File menu See the chapter Effects Palette in the Reference section for a complete description Sound Advice It can be helpful to remember that MetaSynth can serve a variety of functions As you explore MetaSynth we have found it useful to mix free exploration and more focused exploration Spend some sessions which focus on particular areas the Image Synth as a sound design sound sculpting tool e the Image Synth as a composition tool sequencer for c
36. absolute pitches will change The image can be transposed after expansion to restore the absolute pitch of the unexpanded picture MetaTip Before expansion identify the pitch of a line in the picture by mousing over the pixels and observing the pitch displayed in the Tips Display After expansion and the selection of the new frequency map mouse over the corresponding pixels to find their new pitch Now simply transpose the pixels back into place with the up and down arrows 95 MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip Image Synth Reference Expand 4 Vertically expand the pixel spacing by a factor of four See notes for Expand 2 above Expand 12 Vertically expand the pixel spacing by a factor of twelve See notes for Expand 2 above Contract Contract the vertical space between pixels by a factor of two Use this command to restore the relative pitch of pixels when changing frequency maps for example when switching from Micro8 to Quartertones or Quartertones to semitones There is a reduction of pixel brightness to avoid pixel clipping The command can of course be applied repeatedly to contract the pitch even more as when switching from 50 to semitones Generally you will want to normalize the picture after each application of this process The absolute pitch can change when applying this process See the notes for Expand 2 for tips about restoring the original pitch Invert Pitch Flip the canvas or t
37. allows you to quickly generate a number of harmonics that do not conform to the harmonic series You can use this technique to generate the odd harmonics choose Micro8 as the frequency map draw a line choose Add Harmonics from the Pitch and Harmonics submenu of the left toolbar then change the frequency map to Quartertones See the MetaSynth CD for tutorials which explore MetaSynth s custom scales 73 MetaTip MetaTip Im age Synth Reference When changing the frequency map it may be advisable to change the vertical size of the picture The frequency range possible in a picture is determined by the frequency map and the vertical Y size of the picture When working with microtunings larger pictures tend to be desirable With widely spaced tunings large vertical sizes are not needed as some pixels will be outside the audible range Observe the frequency range of a picture by regarding the Tips Display while mousing over the low and high pixels of a picture Several useful processes are available from the Pitch and Harmonics submenu of the left toolbar when changing frequency map You can contract or expand the vertical spacing of the canvas pixels with these commands MetaSynth considers A to be 441 Hz rather than 440 Hz in order to optimize the required calculations since CD quality sound use a sample rate of 44 100 samples per second Use custom scales based on the harmonic series we ve provided some in the Scales f
38. and reverb add a rhythmic pulse to a picture increase or blur the attacks of notes and more Hot Filters are available at the click of the mouse and are applied with the spacing determined by the Hot Filter Grid Interval indicator displayed at the base of the toolbar Hot Filters are applied to the selected region or the entire picture if there is no selection For ear bending effects apply Hot Filters separately to the left and right red and green channels or different frequency ranges using different grid intervals Apply these processes to the pitch domain to achieve surprising harmonic textures by rotating the picture 90 degrees to the right applying the process then rotating the picture back into position M Blur New in 2 5 Motion Blur Smooth out rapid transients and remove short isolated pixels The intensity of the filter is determined by the Hot Filter Grid interval It is especially useful when applied to analyzed sounds to remove quantization artifacts and to generate slowly moving pads Use this Hot Filter to smooth out or remove the static in a noisy picture one with lots of dots or isolated little pixel islands It is also great for smoothing out the attacks and decays of pictures with lots of hard edges 106 MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip Image Synth Reference Apply this separately to the red and green channels with different Hot Filter Grid settings Quantize New in 2 5 Rhythmic qua
39. are tools to scale rotate and offset the canvas or the selected region Also two of the Image Synth s most exciting features are found here displacement maps with which you can bend a picture with another picture and color remapping Scale Picture Scale the picture vertically and or horizontally with or without wraparound The tool can be invoked in two ways clicking on the tool and dragging the mouse or double clicking the tool s icon to invoke its dialog box When clicking and dragging up and down movements change the vertical scale while horizontal movements change the horizontal scale Scaling can be constrained horizontally to the Hot Filter Grid interval by holding down the shift key before scaling Vertical constraint in 32 pixel increments is achieved by holding down option shift To invoke the Scale Picture Dialog Box double click the tool s icon The dialog allows numerical entry of horizontal and vertical scale amounts and allows wraparound to be turned on and off By default wraparound is turned on The dialog provides a Scale From Center checkbox which determines whether scaling is done from the center or the left edge of the sound canvas 98 Image Synth Reference When wraparound is turned on shrinking the image results in copies of the image being wrapped into the vacated region This is useful for creating repetitive motifs Rotate Rotate the image freely with or without image wraparound The to
40. blue picture layer acts as a snapshot sequencer The filter is highly responsive customizable and capable of creating astounding effects you might not associate with filters such as sound morphing and vocoder like effects It can of course perform standard EQ tasks filter effects and filter sweeps The Filter Palette has a canvas area and painting tools similar to the Image Synth s but the picture s meaning is quite different It reshapes existing sounds rather than creating new ones As with the Image Synth s canvas the horizontal x axis represents time and the vertical y axis represents pitch 136 MetaTip MetaTip Filter Palette The Filter Palette has two color channels only one of which is editable Blue pixels allow signal to pass through the filter the amount of signal being determined by the luminance of the blue pixels Orange is the Filter Palette s comments channel whose sole purpose is to display the frequency content of the sound to be filtered This mechanism makes it easy to visualize the effect the filter will have Using the Filter Palette Paint on the filter canvas or choose a filter preset and press the Apply Filter icon to apply the filter to the currently loaded sound One of the astounding capabilities of the Image Synth Filter Palette combination is the ability to create Filter Palette filters from Image Synth pictures Pictures can be copied and pasted between the Filter Pale
41. channels export the envelope data by pressing the Save Envelope icon button to save the date then activate the other envelope and import the data Original Remapped 100 Image Synth Reference Displacement Maps New in 2 5 Displace the image by warping it against another image Displacement maps are one of MetaSynth s most powerful graphic manipulation tools You will probably find it useful for creating beautiful images in addition to creating sounds To use this tool double click its icon to open the Displacement Map dialog Choose a Displacement Map using the Displacement Map Selector Click the OK icon button to dismiss the dialog Click on the tool and drag the mouse in any direction to deform the image by bending it against the selected displacement map The amount of displacement is determined by the luminosity of each pixel of the image used as the displacement map Gray values 127 are neutral while Black and White will create maximum displacement in opposite directions When smoothing is turned on in the Displacement Map Dialog lines are bent in smooth continuous curves When it is turned off lines break discretely where edges occur in the displacement map Use displacement maps with smoothing on to skew images and create pitch modulation effects such as vibrato pitch bending and glissando Use displacement maps with smoothing off for diffusion effects and to re contour melodic and rhythmic lines Use th
42. chapter Wave Table Palette of this manual The carrier wave can be faded between two different waveforms A and B Click on the A and B icons to toggle the display between the A and B waveforms Waveform B is only heard if Evolution see below is turned on The waveform settings can be saved to or loaded from disk by using the Save and Open icon buttons found in the Carrier area The waveform data files are compatible with the Wave Table data written from the Wave Table Palette The carrier wave s base pitch the pitch you hear is determined by the Procedural Synth s Master Tuning setting see below m Pressing the arrowhead copies the displayed waveform to the oscillator s other display Le copy A to B or B to A Master Tuning Master Tuning determines the pitch of the generated sound This control works the same as the Master Tuning button found in the Image Synth This feature is especially helpful when building a MetaSynth Instrument to be used as an Image Synth input source When creating sounds to be used in an Instrument generate samples with the same overall settings spaced a fifth or a flat fifth apart to minimize the artifacts introduced by pitch shifting Modulation This section of the dialog defines the modulator wave the waveform which modifies the carrier s pitch The waveform is shaped by clicking and dragging the waveform directly or by using any of the tools found below or to the right of the waveform display
43. creation or loading of 18 seconds of stereo sound or 36 seconds of 5 Installation mono sound The preferred partition size for most work is 60 megabytes or more Larger partition sizes allow for the creation of larger sounds and the loading of larger instruments With a large RAM partition you can create pieces five minutes or longer Performance Notes and Set Up A 233 MHz PowerPC can preview up to 400 simultaneous oscillators pixels in real time when using sine waves as the input source The other input sources samples instruments and Procedural Synth are computationally more intensive and will reduce the number of oscillators that can sound at once when doing real time previews If you experience intermittent playback when previewing you can select a portion of the picture and preview the selected portion 32 bit color mode millions of colors is recommended however resolutions down to 8 bit 256 colors are supported It is recommended that you adjust the brightness of your display to its maximum setting to enhance pixel display Increasing brightness helps to make low amplitude pixels visible The Gamma control panel which is included with some graphics applications can be very useful for adjusting the brightness curve of your display For the best results we recommend connecting your computer s sound output to a stereo receiver or mixing board which is connected to high quality speakers or headphones If you are co
44. edits made in the Sample Editor Normally MetaSynth crossfades the data at edit points to avoid clicks when deleting or inserting data Entering a value of 0 turns off auto crossfading The default value is 8000 Display time in Choose the units with which time duration is displayed The options are Milliseconds or Min Sec Frames When using Min Sec Frames format the frame rate is user definable The default frame rate is 1000 frames second which is equivalent to milliseconds 159 Note File Menu Show play position in pict When this option is turned on an orange dot rides above the canvas during Image Synth sound playback Include Wave Table with preset When this option is turned on MetaSynth stores the current Wave Table data when presets are added Brush grid size This preference sets the Image Synth s Brush Grid interval For a detailed description of this feature see the Image Synth chapter of this manual Load instrument with preset This setting determines whether MetaSynth prompts you to load the required instrument when selecting a sound picture preset that uses an Instrument or sample input source If the file has not moved MetaSynth will locate and load it automatically otherwise it will prompt you to find the file If the preset was saved with a MetaSynth version prior to 2 5 MetaSynth displays its Open dialog without a prompt as instrument and sample file names were not stored in older versions
45. ete tania 150 ENVELOPE EDITORS e eere eese pe pe 152 ABOUT THIS eicit teeth et EROR ORE ERR REESE ee 152 ENVELOPE EDITORS vosi reete ette rete beste etn bei etae eee tede ed eee 152 M lti Envelope EditOrs i s i ett tte e 153 Unity zero sur patrs ete eet er tete eee AE IS 153 ENVELOPE TOOLS si t IR Dre er e EE E 153 Open Saye Envelope Dal atari HEREDES 153 Envelope oit ee erem Pen aar OO e ERES 153 Mouse Influence Frequency Control eese eese 154 P M 154 Default Envelope oU diee epe eene albe ees 154 Minimum Envelope eet tiet eee eee eR Regu ERR ER AW ae 154 ELD CUTIVE C E 154 NYC B Tii EE 154 Square RooUExpurd s 3 2 5 eee RU eR eed 154 Scale esc teenie aha ur esee e be ee es 154 Vertical Offset hand LOO cai cows estes testes ttt teet bai 155 ceviche sR ees a RANA a ah wh 155 NIA 155 RIGHT HAND TOOLBAR 3 sscdccesscvsssessssiscssessiesncesstesssescscsusecednsedosedusesestdesndesndeacsssedseesseudsceses 155 Lines oe e E e 155 TEES 155 155 Fade in Out linear
46. following formats integer floating point or a fraction Fractions may have integer or floating point numerators and denominators Le 5 3 and 5 12 2 9 are both allowed Commas are not allowed If a step definition contains there must be a digit on both sides of the period There should be a 1 or a 2 or 2 0 or 2 1 in the scale but not both Note MetaSynth does no or very little error checking If your custom scale is not working or loading correctly examine the file to make sure that it matches the rules mentioned above Size X Picture Width Selector Size x 256 128 Set the pixel width of the canvas Click here to display a pop up menu of available picture widths When composing music in the Image Synth picture widths divisible by 2 should be used for duple meters 4 4 2 4 2 2 etc Picture widths divisible by 12 288 576 1152 are well suited to triple meters such as 3 4 6 8 and 9 8 Changing the picture width changes the duration of the picture Use the Temp Duration tool to adjust a sound pictures duration or tempo When designing sounds with rapidly changing dynamics or explosive percussive attacks you may want to use wide pictures with short durations Size Y Picture Height Selector Set the pixel height of the canvas 77 MetaTip Image Synth Reference The frequency range of a picture is determined by three factors picture height frequency map and the master tuning reference pitch para
47. have loop points markers If you would like to save the crossfades permanently choose Save Instrument and Samples This command is useful if you have sample files which you want looped that do not contain loop markers and which do not loop smoothly by themselves Sample duration is reduced by the crossfade calculation 124 MetaTip MetaTip Note Instruments Auto Crossfade works best for pads and other sounds without a strong attack Long samples 6 seconds or longer tend to yield the best results The looping of shorter samples tends to be more obtrusive Instrument style crossfades can be created in the Sample Editor by option clicking the Auto Crossfade tool Auto Crossfade notes Some operations like pressing the Auto Ranges button reload the samples from disk in which case the crossfades are destroyed unless they were saved to disk using the Save Instrument and Samples button Since all editing functions made in the Sample Editor destroy loop points it is strongly advised that you calculate crossfades at the final stage to ensure smooth looping OK Confirm changes made in the Instruments Dialog The Instrument is added to the list of available input sources in the Image Synth s input source selector and it is added to the Instrument menu s list of recent instruments The OK button only confirms changes to the Instrument settings The Instrument is loaded regardless of whether OK or Cancel were pre
48. if it was previously hidden Effects Palette command 3 Bring the Effects palette to the front and make it visible if it was previously hidden Filter Palette command 4 Bring the Filter palette to the front and make it visible if it was previously hidden Hide Show Sample Editor command w Hide the Sample Editor if it is visible Show the Sample Editor if it is hidden When the Sample Editor is visible it occupies the entire screen and obscures the Macintosh Desktop MetaSynth s black background is actually the Sample Editor s background Hide it to make the windows of other applications visible 187 Tutorials Summary Hide Show Palettes Hide or show all palettes excluding the Sample Editor whose visibility is toggled by the menu command Hide Show Sample Editor 188 Tutorials Summary The table below summarizes the seven tutorials provided in the Tutorials folder on the MetaSynth CD Tutorial Wave Shaping Create a rich analog synth type sound from scratch Create Instruments Using Master Tuning Build an Instrument from synthesized sounds Creating Slammin Filter Sweeps with Displacement Maps Use displacement maps to simulate analog synth type filter sweeps Sections Tutorial 1 Computing Simple Waveform to Transform Set Fundamental Add Second Harmonic Give the second harmonic an envelope Set Tempo Apply Wave Shaping Applying a Filter Envelope Tutorial 2
49. in percent Semitones C1 was chosen because an Image Synth frequency analysis of the sound revealed that C was a prominent harmonic in the sample Click Apply Click on the Harmonics effect and enter these settings Amount in Percent 100 Semitones 12 0 Inertia in Percent 40 0 2 Preview 100 0 Amountin percent 12 0 Inertia in percent Click Apply e Click the left hand toolbar s Normalize icon e Choose Save As from the File menu and save the sound as Ana Pitched The Harmonics effect uses the Wave Table palette s waveform to derive the final effect You can create very complex sounds by experimenting with different Wave Table settings The Filter Palette Bring the Filter Palette to the front by choosing it in the Windows menu m Click on the Analyze Current Sample icon Note The image drawn in orange is a frequency analysis of the currently loaded sound Ana Pitched The image has no effect on the filter but acts as a guide or template over which a filter can be overlaid 37 QuickStart The Filter Palette s tools are nearly identical to the Image Synth s but the speaker icon does not preview the filter it plays the unfiltered sample Click on the Choose Filter icon and choose this filter aA Click on the Synthesize icon to apply the filter The resulting sound only contains the frequencies where the filter and the unfiltered sound the orange picture overlap
50. need to be in order Option clicking the Compute Ratios button when the Linear radio button is selected generates the standard harmonic series ratios of 1 2 3 4 etc up to the table size Notes for Advanced Users Non linear scales scale wraparound Custom scales are typically defined with ratios given in increasing order between 1 0 the fundamental and 2 0 the first octave The new implementation allows more flexibility Ratios do not have to be constrained to one octave or ordered by increasing values When unordered values or values greater than 2 the octave are used the Image Synth s frequency space will not be linear and will exhibit wrap around where moving up can actually cause a downward frequency jump Transposition in the picture domain will modify the harmonic content of the sound With such scales a diagonal line going up will not play a simply ascending scale a property which can be used to create some very interesting sounds and effects Try it Open the Custom Scales dialog Set Divisions per octave to 16 Click Linear Subdivision Option click Compute Ratios Click the OK icon button Draw an upward diagonal line across the canvas Preview the sound Note how every sixteen pixels the pitch jumps back down to the next octave of the tuning To see the pitch which is played by a particular pixel move the mouse over the location and read the Tips Display in the lower right hand corner of the window You will s
51. provided seven step by step tutorials that demonstrate a number of valuable techniques A summary of the tutorials is provided at the end of this manual After you have explored a bit come back to the manual and read a section You will be rewarded with new discoveries that will make your MetaSynth experience richer Spend some time learning to use MetaSynth in each of its guises Learn to create sounds to shape or mis shape existing sounds and to compose note based music Explore the Instruments and sample preset files provided on the CD They will give you an idea of the many wonderful things that MetaSynth can do for you and how to do them Most of all HAVE FUN Introduction What s New 2 5 A lot has changed since MetaSynth 2 0 was released This chapter covers the highlights but is by no means complete There have been a lot of changes under the hood Displacement Maps Master Tuning Reference Pitch in the Image Synth Numerical control of brush size scaling and rotation for increased precision Double click to display tool options for Brush Size tool Scale Picture tool Rotate tool Offset tool Contrast and Luminance tool Remap Colors dialog Brush Size Options New Hot Filters Quantize amp M Blur Improved real time preview Improved granular synthesis Wave shaping Spectrum synthesis and filtering Import Export Custom Scales Tunings Custom Scales Tunings with up to 1024 divisions Open Dialog sound and pi
52. rendered with sine waves will yield a very different result from the same picture rendered with a piano or drum instrument 17 Overview Pictures can be created from scratch or imported into MetaSynth Sound pictures are typically saved into preset libraries which store a number of sound pictures Each picture in the open library is immediately available from the Select Preset pop up menu Getting Started If you can t wait to jump in launch MetaSynth now There are a few tools with which you ll need to be familiar in order to start exploring the File submenu use it to open preset and filter libraries EE the Preset Selector Select Preset tool hold down the mouse button to display a pop up menu of sound pictures presets the Synthesize tool click on this tool to compute full fidelity stereo sound e the Preview tool click on the icon to hear a mono preview of the sound Use the Select Preset tool to try out some of the presets in the default preset library Use the lt return gt key as a shortcut to preview the picture Press the mouse button to halt the preview Don t forget to listen to the full quality rendered sounds too by pressing the Synthesize icon Notice the Tips Display at the lower right corner of the palette where helpful information is displayed as you mouse around See the QuickStart chapter which follows for a hands on tour Other Features The Image Synth provides a host of
53. samples MetaSynth presents an open file dialog for you to choose a sample file If other related sample files are found in the same directory they are automatically added to the instrument and mapped with to the pitch and octave suggested by their names To be related the files must share the same base name which is the file s name minus the pitch designation For example Guitar A2 Guitar C2 and Guitar E2 are related But Guitar 2 and Eric Guitar C2 The L and extensions of split stereo dual mono file pairs is ignored when determining the base name Many commercial SampleCell sample libraries follow this naming convention If you have a group of samples from which you would like to build an Instrument it is generally more convenient to rename the files in the Macintosh Finder according to this convention and have MetaSynth build the Instrument than to manually load samples and assign their pitches in the Instrument dialog Opened Instruments List Every time you open or create an Instrument during a work session its name is added to the Instrument menu Selecting a name from this list re invokes the Instrument dialog for that instrument Option select an item from this list to delete its name and free the memory it occupied 126 Procedural Synth The Procedural Synth falls into both the Image Synth and Sample Editor spheres of influence See the Sounds menu chapter of this manual for a detailed description o
54. selection tool It allows you to draw a selection rectangle in the graphics display areas The hand cursor lets you scroll a picture There are no scroll bars in MetaSynth Press the spacebar to invoke this cursor when the mouse is over a drawing area wat gt gah je M3 PR AE These cursors are associated with brush tools and are discussed in detail in the Image Synth chapter of this manual Numeric Fields In a number of dialog boxes and some of the palettes you will encounter fields for entering numbers Numbers can be entered two ways clicking on the field and dragging the mouse up and down to increment and decrement the value or by clicking on the field and typing a number When entering numbers by typing you can usually type the return key to complete entry of the value This does not work in the Image Synth where pressing return is the shortcut for the Preview tool Values can also be confirmed by pressing the tab key which completes the entry and activates the next numerical field The delete and backspace keys do not function in these fields To correct an entry press the return or tab key then click on the field and enter the desired value Tips Display In the Image Synth Sample Editor and the Filter Palette there is a region of the window where helpful information is displayed as you roll the mouse over a tool or display area This information might be the name of the tool or the pitch associated with a particula
55. semitone 100 cents separates consecutive pixels There are 12 pixels per octave in this tuning Quartertones A quartertone 50 cents separates each consecutive pixel There are 24 pixels per octave in this tuning Micro8 One eight of a whole tone 25 cents separates the pixels There are 48 pixels per octave in this tuning 12 1 12 of a whole tone 18 75 cents separates the pixels There are 72 pixels per octave in this tuning 16 1 16 of a whole tone 12 5 cents separates the pixels There are 96 pixels per octave in this tuning Micro 32 1 32 of a whole tone 6 25 cents separates adjacent pixels There are 192 pixels per octave in this tuning Micro50 1 50 of a whole tone 4 cents separates adjacent pixels There are 300 pixels per octave in this tuning Pythagorean Consecutive pixels are mapped to the seven note Pythagorean scale whose pitches are arranged with the classic Pythagorean ratios 1 9 8 81 64 729 512 3 2 243 128 To see the pitch played by a particular pixel move the mouse over the pixel and read the Tips Display in the lower right hand corner of the window You will see the pixel s pitch displayed as a note and octave 1 e A2 a degree of pitch shifting and absolute frequency When designing sounds you can achieve some very interesting effects by applying a process that generates frequencies such as Add Harmonics or Fit to Scale then changing the frequency map This
56. specialized tools for creating sound pictures There are a number of brush types for painting and filtering There are filter presets which filter the displayed image There are Hot Filters which apply musically useful graphic processes such as Echo Pre Echo and Quantize The image size is customizable as are the reference pitch and tuning of the picture See the Image Synth chapter in the reference section for a full description of the Image Synth and its tools 18 Note Overview Sample Editor Overview MetaSynth s streamlined sample editor is non modal and always available Here is where you modify the sounds created with the Image Synth or transform any SoundDesigner II or AIFF sound files It provides standard editing tools and some not so standard effects and filtering tools Edits are automatically crossfaded to ensure seamless clickless edits No need to worry about zero crossings If that means nothing to you be glad It is RAM based to make it very responsive The Tips Display is found in the upper right portion of the Sample Editor just below the menubar and displays helpful information Only one sound can be open at a time though any sounds opened during a session are available from the Sounds menu The Sample Editor s tools are displayed on the left and top edges of the screen The Sample Editor can be hidden by typing command w or choosing Hide Sample Editor from the Windows menu This action merely hides the Sa
57. the Analyze Current Sound function Apply tempo to all presets Change the tempo duration settings for each preset of the current library This function makes it easy to set all of the presets in a library to the same tempo This is useful when the preset library contains sound pictures that will be used to construct a song Be careful not to press this button accidentally This function cannot be undone Higher SPP values yield longer sounds but less precise envelopes Small values 20 to 150 are good for sounds with rapid transients while higher are more suited to ambient slowly varying pads 71 Image Synth Reference Tempo Duration and Samples Per Pixel Tech Note While there is no longer any need to do manual calculations to set the tempo and duration of a picture it may be useful to understand how MetaSynth makes these calculations internally Since the Image Synth is pixel based all internal calculations are done on the basis of pixels and sample rate both of which are integer values The value is stored as Samples Per Pixel The number of pixels is determined by the picture s Size X setting The Sample Rate is 44100 samples per second Hence the number of samples played by a sound picture Samples per Pixel Pixels and the duration of a picture Samples per Pixel Pixels Sample Rate Tempo and duration settings are thus rounded to the nearest value which corresponds to an integer value of the Samples per Pix
58. the blue pixels or blue layer of a sound picture It is ignored by the Image Synth when sounds are generated and serves as a guide or comments channel The Blue Channel is often used for harmonic and rhythmic templates or grids When working with a series of sound pictures whose sounds will be mixed together you might copy an image clear the canvas and paste the PICT Clipboard to the Blue Channel to start working on a new sound while being able to see the content of the other sound Only color images have a Blue Channel Color Channels In a sound picture color represents stereo placement Color channels are analogous to a sound s left and right channels A mono sound picture has a single channel grayscale A stereo sound picture has 3 channels red left green right and blue comments When applying image manipulations it is sometimes useful to think of 54 Image Synth Reference color pictures as having three layers where pixel brightness in each layer is scaled from 0 to 1 Where you see red in an image the red pixel has a value gt 0 and lt and the pixels of the green and blue layers have values of 0 Where you see a shade of yellow the red and green pixels have approximately the same brightness Where you see white the red green and blue pixels have the same brightness It is possible to edit the pixels of the individual color channels using the Channel Edit Mode Selector Filter Library A filter library is a fi
59. the key center and scale You can further customize the scale by editing the remapping of individual pitches This is handy for remapping a composition from one scale to another or for turning freeform drawing into notes When working with non semitone based music you can temporarily change the frequency map to semitones apply this command then change back to a custom scale While the results are variable this is a nice tool for discovering new modalities Filter Scale f Remove pixels that do not fit a user definable diatonic scale Unlike Fit to Scale pixels are removed not remapped A dialog box appears with pop up menus to choose the key center and scale You can further customize the scale by editing the remapping of individual pitches When working with non semitone based music you can temporarily change the frequency map to semitones apply this command then change back to a custom scale While the results are variable this is a nice tool for discovering new modalities Use this tool when extracting melodies from a sound s analysis to remove unwanted dissonance or microtonality 94 Image Synth Reference Filter Octaves And Fifth Attenuate all pixel lines of the canvas or the selected region except for the octaves and fifths centered around the sound picture s reference pitch see Master Tuning This adds a pitched resonance and is most commonly used to add a sense of pitch when working with noisy pictur
60. them on the CD If you need to free up disk space you may delete any of the items you wish Overview About This Chapter This chapter is intended to orient you in MetaSynth s sometimes bewildering world MetaSynth is so good at creating surprising surreal soundscapes that it is easy to forget that it is also a wonderful tool for accomplishing such mundane tasks as sequencing a rhythm groove or rendering orchestral music The goal of this chapter is to introduce MetaSynth s basic organization and operating principles and to give you an idea of what MetaSynth can do The following chapter the QuickStart provides a hands on tour Once you have read this chapter you may want to jump in and start exploring MetaSynth on your own In fact we encourage it After a bit of exploring skim through the manual and discover some of the rest of what MetaSynth can do What MetaSynth Can Do MetaSynth can be used to create new sounds from scratch and it can filter shape and deconstruct existing sounds What is more MetaSynth can be used as a sequencer to make music from these sounds When using MetaSynth as a sequencer you can create amazingly realistic dynamics and articulations that would be impossible with other sequencer sampler combinations And of course you can create music whose very nature defies credulity How you accomplish these tasks will depend on how you use and set up the various tools MetaSynth provides People oft
61. to enter 16 notes Double the values for eighth notes etc Choose Filter with Blue Channel from the Blue Grid submenu Voila Your picture is now consistent with the harmonic structure you entered Of course you can use these tricks with any harmonic and rhythmic structure that you d like If you only want to filter part of the picture to allow leading tones and other notes that aren t in the chords that make up the blue grid you can use the selection tool and select only that portion of the picture that you want filtered by the Blue Channel Moving On Before you leave the QuickStart you may want to play the rest of the presets in the QuickStart Presets file These sound pictures demonstrate sounds made with some advanced techniques to give you an even greater sense of what the Image Synth can do Ideas For Exploration You ve now had a brief tour that hopefully has given you an idea of MetaSynth s possibilities If you haven t read the Overview section now would be a good time to take a look at it There are several detailed tutorials provided on the CD to show you more useful techniques that will help you get the most out of MetaSynth The appendix provides a list of the provided tutorials with a brief synopsis of each 48 QuickStart Intermediate Techniques Grids The folder you installed on your hard disk contains a variety of preset and filter libraries worth exploring as well as highlights from the Custom Scales
62. with the commands described in this chapter Both libraries are collections of pictures Preset libraries are collections of sound pictures A sound picture consists of an image and the parameters used to play it back the scale to use tempo duration of the image and the input source Filter libraries are collections of images that can be applied as filters more on this later to the picture displayed on the canvas Any image can be added to either type of library The Image Synth has its own clipboard for copy paste and undo which it shares with the Filter Palette The Image Synth s and Filter Palette s clipboard operations are handled by keyboard shortcuts that do not use command keys For example Copy Pict is handled by simply typing c Command key shortcuts apply to the Sample Editor and do not alter the image clipboard How MetaSynth Plays a Picture Pictures are converted to sound using a few simple rules though the effects are not so simple The vertical axis represents pitch The higher up the picture you go the higher 53 Image Synth Reference the pitch The horizontal axis represents time The color of the pixels represents stereo placement The time it takes to play the picture is set with the Tempo Duration Tool Pictures play back from left to right The brightness of the pixels the dots which make up a picture determine the amplitude or volume of the sound at that moment Complex amplit
63. you can create morphing and vocoder effects when the filter is applied to another sound See the QuickStart chapter of this manual for a step by step example in which Mozart s Requiem is morphed with a techno drum beat You can also extract melodies or harmonies from a sound file by doing an analysis This requires some work manipulating the resulting image but the results are well worth the investment Another use for analysis is to create new instruments with some of the characteristics of a sampled instrument 58 MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip Image Synth Reference Analyze Current Sound performs a Fast Fourier Transform FFT of the currently loaded sound and places the resulting sonogram on the canvas The analysis is quantized to the current Frequency Mapping and uses the current settings of the Image Synth for picture duration As a result of quantization artifacts re synthesized sounds will not sound the same as the original sound For the best results you will need to adjust the Image Synth settings to match your goal Experiment with different frequency maps and picture sizes It is advisable to use the Fit duration to current sample command in the Tempo and Duration Dialog discussed later in this chapter before performing an analysis Frequency and time resolution can be fine tuned to the sound In some cases microtonal tunings give the best results Similarly wide pictures can be used to improve time resolution and trans
64. you go the higher the pitch The horizontal axis represents time The color of the pixels represents stereo placement The time it takes to play the picture is defined by the user Pictures play back from left to right The brightness of the pixels the dots which make up a picture determine the amplitude or volume of the sound at that moment Complex amplitude envelopes can be created by varying the brightness of the pixels Specialized tools have been provided to perform tasks such as smoothing and sharpening attacks and decays and more Sound pictures can be mono or stereo mono sound picture is grayscale and results in a mono sound Stereo sound pictures are color and result in stereo sounds The color of a stereo sound picture s pixels determines the stereo placement of the sound MetaSynth uses an RGB red green blue color model Green represents the right channel Red represents the left channel In RGB yellow is the combination of red and green and plays back in the center of the stereo field Blue is ignored by the Image Synth which allows you to set up silent blue rhythmic and harmonic grids over which you paint with other colors The sound triggered by the pixels is determined by the input source for the picture The input sources can be sine waves or other simple waveform defined in the Wave Table palette the currently loaded sound the Procedural Synth or any of the currently loaded multi sample instruments A picture
65. BPM 149 MetaTip Effects Palette Flanger A digital version of the familiar flanger effect a variable delay run through a sweeping resonant filter and mixed with the source signal Flanger amount in percent Adjusts the mix of the processed and unprocessed signal 100 yields only the processed signal Semitones Adjusts the frequency center of the resonant filter Low Frequency Osc in BPM Sets the rate of the delay in beats per minute BPM Use low values for long sweeping effects Transpose A pitch shift effect without time correction Transpose works the same way as speeding up or slowing a tape recorder or turntable The effect has a range of plus or minus 24 two octaves Transpose in semitones Adjusts the amount of pitch shifting in semitones Parametric EQ A single band parametric equalizer This effect is used to emphasize or de emphasize a single frequency band whose width is determined by the band width parameter Amount in percent The wet dry mix of the processed and unprocessed signal Frequency The center frequency of the filter A setting of 100 is approximately 20 kHz The values don t follow a linear scale A setting of 5 corresponds to about 800 Hz A value of 25 is approximately 3500 Hz To determine the frequencies affected by a particular setting generate white noise using the Sound menu s White Noise command Apply the Parametric EQ effect with the desired settings With
66. ET GE ERBEN ERE IER NINE 90 DF RR 90 Processes eee ete tide dee bete 90 Blur More Triangle Filter i Noise Filter eot ed ED EID ED A ISnbutgbau RE M Emboss Right ONEN aA oo Trace Edges V Trace Edges H Ba Repeat CEWICE sine rore ENE GRE OTIO RES Reverse Time ismon EE Swap Red and Green j Pitch and Harmonics Submenu Lower Even 4 5 Fit to Sc lez Dy i esto EHE ER HER E be ss Filter Octaves And Fifth fo Add Fundamental G Jissie iiris iiini an int iiir Ei E e aia K eeina 95 Add Harmonics i aE E in 95 Expand 2 Expand 4 Expand 12 47 a AEA E e tiem eie OE RI E Contract Invert Pitch Repeat Pitch m Maximum 2nd TRIN MU ML th ase ete Brush Grid Toggle Br sh Grid Interv l toii err EFIE fave ea 97 Scroll Hand SpaceDab ie eni eT Drei E HP ERES eed COEUR E 98 Zoom Tool LOWER TOOLBAR meneame vii Remap Colors Dialog Displacement Maps eb etant Displacement Map Dialog 5 rnit t
67. Faunching Meta S VIN s detenta ao Drop iet ete i oat ei ron GROS d n agn Open Save Didlo eS nhi t tete tte td Preview Favorites and Recent Files Canceling Interrupting Time Consuming Processes IMAGE SYNTH OVERVIEW sviscsscssscsnsssrsssosscsecnsstencnsssvsneceosenssssnsg e Ra PURSE eed eb ope About the Image Synthesist re re ea tee tiem tere t PRO ED HO ENNE SE How MetaSynth Plays a Picture Getting Started En Other HE Ate e SAMPLE EDITOR OVER VIEW EA PI PER 19 User Interface 4 tree epe e eps eb t d 19 PIETER PALETTE edet ette ettet leve eet ceo tet dvd etna 20 How Th Filter Palette 2020040 iir ere A ke OO E EET RR 20 OE EEN witch ib T Per PERPE 21 SOUND ADVICE 21 QUICKSTAR YF SEE ERSS 23 A SIMPLE Convention cese ton tone e oe Re Ene PH e uera nere THE IMAGE SYNTH oe PRE FEIGHT EHE SELE TOUR uere hee te eee ee eee eee eerte METASYNTH BASICS terre
68. Fit to Scale Filter Scale and Add Harmonics will yield different pictures when the frequency map is Semitones than they would if the map were Whole Tones In some frequency mappings the precise frequency demanded by a process may not be available i e when using Add Harmonics in a frequency map that that has wide spacing between pixels In these cases MetaSynth will try to match pitches as well as possible The pre defined frequency mappings are Exponential The pixels represent consecutive integer ratios of the fundamental The first pixel is 1 1 the next pixel is 2 1 the octave etc This mode can be used to 72 MetaTip Image Synth Reference create interesting waveforms when there are stacked clusters of pixels In this mapping the notes get closer and closer together as you reach the top of the canvas Custom Scale Choosing this option invokes the Custom Scale dialog which is described in the next section Major Scale Each pixel represents one step of the major scale The lowest pixel will sound 2 octaves below the sound picture s reference pitch In this mapping there is not an even mapping of consecutive pixels as there will be a whole step tone between some pixels and a half step semitone between others There are seven pixels to an octave in this tuning Whole Tones A whole tone 200 cents separates each consecutive pixel There are six pixels to an octave with this tuning Semitones the default setting A
69. LIMITATION OF REMEDIES 17615 entire liability to you and your exclusive remedy shall be the repair or replacement of the Software the repair or replacement of the Software medium or the refund of your purchase price as set forth above In no event shall U amp I liability to you or any third party exceed the purchase price paid for the Software Regardless of whether any remedy set forth herein fails of its essential purpose in no event will U amp I or its authorized dealers resellers or distributors be liable to you 1 for any damages including any lost profits lost data other incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use or inability to use the Software or any data supplied therewith even if U amp I has been advised of the possibility of such damages or 2 for any claim by any other party Some states do not allow the limitation or exclusion of liability for incidental or consequential damages so the above limitation or exclusion may not apply to you GENERAL This Agreement will be governed by the laws of the State of California except for that body of law dealing with conflicts of law If any provision of this Agreement is held to be unenforceable that provision will be removed and the remaining provisions will remain in full force This Agreement is the complete and exclusive statement of the agreement between us which supersedes any proposal or prior agreement oral or written and any other communications between us in relation
70. MetaSynth 2 5 User Guide amp Reference created by Eric Wenger manual by Edward Spiegel P Kor tware manufactured U amp I software LLC 85A States Street San Francisco CA 94109 http www uisoftware com http www metasynth com distributed by Arboretum Systems Inc 75 Aura Vista Pacifica CA 94044 650 738 4750 http www arboretum com This documentation describes MetaSynth version 2 5 and was written Dec 98 Jan 99 1999 U amp I software LLC MetaSynth and Image Synth are trademarks of U amp I software all rights reserved All other brands and trademarks mentioned are property of their respective owners ii Credits Thanks to Edward Spiegel Len Sasso Andrew Souter Raphael Elig Todd Souvignier John Dalton Paul Swendsen Tom Dimuzio Michel Redolfi Jean Baptiste Barriere Thanks also to Digidesign and McGill University for use of their samples in our instrument preset examples iii Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS sscccoscsccccocesscssescsssetecssncesescssosssesescsedecssecescdesesscesecscoesdesesoessoeesenessese IV INTRODUCTION 1 WHY METASYNTH ccccccccsscsccesssscccssssccessssecsesesececsesececsuseceeseseceeuseceeusececseseceeseseeesstseseesees 1 ABOUT THIS MANUAL cccccscceessseceesssccessssecsesesecsesesscsesusecsesesececesececssececsuseceesusecesstseseesees 2 WIAA T S 25 55
71. N FECE EE UY 138 Analyze Current Sample eee ee ee teet eee eene eene 138 Apply Filler p re De EE eee 139 Pl y Selectiori ane 139 E 139 EFFECTS PALE DE DE pae bee 141 ABOUT THIS CHAPTER heated GO eoe i ee tie 141 EFFECTS PALETTE nece 141 USING BEFECITS utet t ae 141 Preview esses Parameters Apply x Granular Synthesis Chee M re Ore Mire e REA eee cote Hero ccr e tr ere EE Hakmonies eR AER ORE OI EGO ER UD ER A2 EP 145 Gu TAMEN 146 Mona EE 148 CHOTUS c 146 H rmORIZer iie e e Erde ee e NE Re ER SER ee tees 149 IAE D 149 Iur ETE E 150 150 oett
72. This command invokes MetaSynth s Open File dialog and imports the selected PICT file MetaSynth imports the image and does not actually open the file The original image is not modified To export the changes to a PICT file use the Save As Pict File command Normally you will save images by adding them to a preset library See Add Preset later in this chapter MetaSynth only opens PICT format files To import JPEG GIF or other graphic file types open the picture in an application capable of opening them and use the copy command to copy the image into the clipboard The image can then be pasted into the Image Synth If the Mac OS Easy Open Control Panel is installed you may be able to open JPEG GIF and TIFF files directly Save as Pict File s Save the image displayed on the canvas as a standard Macintosh PICT file This command invokes MetaSynth s Save dialog and saves the canvas area as a standard Macintosh PICT file This command only needs to be used when you want to open the picture with another application Usually you will save the canvas area as a preset using the Add Preset tool 57 Image Synth Reference New Presets File Create a new preset library The library becomes the active preset library MetaTip Enable the option Include Wave Table with preset in the Preferences dialog to save wave table data with your presets New Filters File Create a new filter library Invokes MetaSynth s save dialog which a
73. a line across the canvas is a shortcut for the Add Fundamental command found in the Image Synth s Pitch and Harmonics submenu e Preview the sound and let the picture play through several iterations Note that the sample plays continuously e Choose Sample from the Input Source Selector Click the preview icon and notice that the sample plays through once and stops playing Stereo ize the Sound Picture Click on the Stereo Mono Toggle to colorize the picture e Press the command key temporarily changing the brush to the selection tool and select only the region containing the notes Click on the Filter Selector and choose any color Filter Picture that has vertical red green changes e Select Looped Sample as the input source if it isn t already e Synthesize the sound and note the stereo effect 39 Note QuickStart Lesson 3 Instruments and Sound Convolution Techniques Instruments Choose Open Instrument from the Instruments menu e Open the instrument FemaleSoftVoices from the Female soft voices m f folder found in the Instruments folder in the MetaSynth home folder e The Instrument Dialog is opened and displays the samples in the Instrument e Click on any of the speaker icons to audition the corresponding samples M Click the OK icon button e Choose the following preset the second in the library from the QuickStart Presets library e Control click anywhere in the picture to hea
74. al music and for musicians who are looking to achieve a greater degree of realism than traditional samplers allow One of the limitations of traditional samplers is that each time a sample is triggered its volume may change in response to keyboard velocity but its envelope i e the attack and decay will be unchanged The picture below imitates the response of a typical sampler The volume varies from note to note But the notes merely trigger playback at a particular volume The sample s envelope remains constant from note to note 116 With MetaSynth you vary the envelope and articulation over the course of each note and each note can have its own envelope articulation With the same source sample you can have staccato notes with sharp attacks and notes with smooth attacks and long decays The picture below shows how articulations can be given to samples played by the Image Synth Note how some notes have diffuse edges and others bright sharp edges The attack and decays of the notes will be correspondingly sharp or smooth Another area of exploration rich with possibilities is the use of custom tunings frequency maps with Instruments Now you can compose pieces for any possible tuning system and render them with high quality realistic samples You are not restricted to using the samples provided on the MetaSynth CD You can use samples from commercial sample libraries or record your own as Instruments are built from sta
75. alette The pitch and time associated with the cursor position are displayed in the Tips Display when the mouse is over the canvas g Press either the up or the down Octave Transpose arrows and preview the picture If you lose the line off the canvas it can be recovered by typing z or by typing which is the shortcut for the Add Fundamental command found in the Image Synth s Pitch and Harmonics submenu e z to undo the transposition e Move the mouse over each of the tools and note the Tips Display for each one 28 Note QuickStart Play the Current Sample The green waveform towards the top of the screen is the display of the currently loaded sample At start up a simple waveform is loaded by default The Sample Editor has two toolbars one found above the waveform display the other at the left edge of the screen Press the enter key to play the Sample Editor s current sound Mouse over the tools and observe their names displayed in the Sample Editor s Tips Display area which is located at the upper right of the screen Press Open Sound icon Navigate into the Input Samples folder in MetaSynth s home folder and open the sound Ana MetaSynth Speech Press the Play Sound icon to hear the sound Press the command key and drag over the beginning of the sound Press the Play Selection icon to hear the portion you selected Input Sources Sample Wave Table Procedura
76. ame will be displayed in the Tips Display in the lower right corner of the palette Tools The canvas is surrounded on each side by tools The upper toolbar serves as the palette s menu bar and is where you set the parameters which govern the image s playback input source number of channels playback speed scale and tuning The Image Synth has its own File and Edit submenus with many special paste modes The Image Synth also has its own clipboard which it shares with the Filter Palette This PICT clipboard is independent from the Sample Editor s sound clipboard which is accessed via the application s menu bar and command keys The right hand toolbar contains the Hot Filters which are processes like echo and reverb that work in the time domain 56 Note MetaTip MetaTip Image Synth Reference The left hand toolbar contains the tools for choosing among the many available brushes and brush modes There are also pitch tools for modifying the picture s vertical frequency domain pitches and harmonics The lower toolbar contains a number of other useful tools The Synthesize compute render and Preview tools are found here as are the Displacement tool and tools for rotating and scaling the image and adjusting the brightness and contrast of the image Upper Toolbar File Submenu Pressing the File Submenu icon displays a menu with the following items Open Pict File Open a PICT file and display it on the canvas
77. ample files are found in the same directory they are automatically added to the instrument and mapped with to the pitch and octave suggested by their names To be related the files must share the same base name which is the file s name minus the pitch designation For example Guitar A2 Guitar C2 and Guitar E2 are related But Guitar A2 and Eric Guitar C2 The L and extensions of split stereo dual mono file pairs is ignored when determining the base name Many commercial SampleCell sample libraries follow this naming convention Opened Instruments List Every time you open or create an Instrument during a work session its name is added to the Instrument menu Selecting a name from this list re invokes the Instrument dialog for that instrument Option select an item from this list to delete its name and free the memory it occupied 186 Windows Menu About This Chapter This chapter describes the items found in the Windows menu Windows Menu The items in this menu hide show and bring to the front MetaSynth s windows and palettes Clicking a palette s close box just hides the palette without affecting the its contents Also command w merely hides the Sample Editor the open sound file is not closed Image Synth command 1 Bring the Image Synth palette to the front and make it visible if it was previously hidden Wave Table command 2 Bring the Wave Table palette to the front and make it visible
78. ample data The data either side of the deletion are joined with a ripple edit Insert Command I Insert the sound clipboard data at the beginning of the selection If there is no selection the data is inserted at the end of the current sound Use this command to concatenate data from different sound files Merge Merge mix the sound clipboard data with the selected sound data using a user defined mix envelope The Crossfade dialog is opened for you to define the mix envelope Data is merged at the sample beginning if there is no selection See the Envelope Editor chapter for information about envelope editing Crop Command G Delete the audio data outside of the selected region Select Command a Select all of the currently loaded sound Select None Command d Deselect the selected region Silence Command y Replace the current selection with silence The edges of the silenced areas are crossfaded Replaces the entire sound if there is no selection Fade in Command Fade in the sample or selection using a linear fade across the selection range This is a quick and dirty fade in For greater control over the fade contour use the Envelope command in the Transform menu This command is identical to the Fade In tool on the Sample Editor toolbar 163 Edit Menu Fade out Command Fade out the sample or selection using a linear fade across the selection range This is a quick and dirty fade F
79. amples in an instrument they will not play back correctly The first sample loaded determines whether it is mono or stereo Stereo may be turned off to make an instrument of stereo samples mono An instrument built from mono samples cannot however be made stereo See Load Sample above for more information about loading stereo samples Fine Tuning This option allows you to fine tune all the samples in an instrument The transposition is non destructive leaving the sample files themselves unaltered This option is necessary because we have discovered that samples provided in some sample libraries are not tuned precisely to A 440 In such cases it may be necessary to fine tune the instruments to standardize their reference pitch The fine tuning is given in cents hundredths of a semitone which means that a value of 100 will transpose everything up one semitone A simple way to check the tuning of a particular sample is to perform an analysis in the Image Synth using the Micro 32 frequency mapping to see how much the fundamental diverges from the given note In Micro 32 each pixel of offset represents 1 1 of a semitone or 6 25 cents To perform the analysis open the sample in the Sample Editor and choose the command Analyze current sound from the Image Synth s File submenu Advanced User Note MetaSynth s Sine Wave Table Synthesis is based on A2 441 Hertz Many sounds use a reference pitch of 440 Hz or lower If you plan to mi
80. an Image Synth sound picture created for this instrument It is a techno music rhythm part The key at the left and the blue grid if you are viewing the pdf version of this document indicates the base pitches the A s of the instrument s samples and is labeled with the corresponding sample names UNMAPPED 808 CLAP FREQ CHIRP 808 TOM 2 808 CYMBAL 1 BLOCK 808 OPEN HAT 808 CL HAT 2 808 SNARE 24 PWR KICK Using Instruments Creating and Opening Instruments You may use either pre built Instruments hundreds of megabytes of them are provided on the MetaSynth CD or create your own There are two methods of creating instruments The Build Instrument command automatically builds instruments from the samples in a chosen folder This command will even correctly map the samples to pitches if the sample names follow a common convention described in the section Build Instrument later in this chapter New Instrument lets you manually build an Instrument 118 Note Instruments Normally when an Instrument is saved only the mapping of sample files to pitches and a few options such as whether to loop the samples are saved These files are quite compact MetaSynth also provides an option to store the sample data as part of the Instrument file After an Instrument is built or opened its name is added to both the Image Synth s input source selector pop up menu and the Instruments menu Choosing the instrument name in the in
81. and Warning Any loop data from the original file is lost 158 MetaTip File Menu Save As Save the currently loaded sound to a new 44 1 kHz sound file in Sound Designer II format Stereo sounds are saved as split stereo also called dual mono Sound Designer II files with the suffix L and R added to the left and right channels respectively Option Save As saves only the current selection When using this command for a sound synthesized from an Image Synth preset MetaSynth proposes a default name SoundNN where NN is the preset number This convention is provided for tight integration with MetaTrack our upcoming audio mixing application If you plan to use the sound file in a MetaTrack audio sequence we recommend that you use the proposed name Otherwise you are free to rename the file as suits your liking To save the sound as an AIFF or interleaved stereo Sound Designer II file use Export AIFF or Export interleaved Sd2f This command is equivalent to the Save Sound tool on the Sample Editor toolbar Warning Any loop data from the original file is lost Export AIFF Save the current sound as a44 1 kHz mono or stereo AIFF file Export interleaved Sd2f Save the current sound as a 44 1 kHz stereo interleaved Sound Designer file Preferences command p Display the MetaSynth Preferences dialog The preferences are Default Edition Auto Crossfade The number of samples used to crossfade
82. applying filter pictures Multiplying by black results in black Multiply Crossfade the two images the selection fading in as the existing pixels fade out Fade in Crossfade the two images the selection fading out as the existing pixels fade in Fade out Fade in the selection then fade it out while fading out the existing pixels then back in again Fade in out Combine the two images by Xor keeping the pixels that exist in one but not both images Pixel values are determined by the Differences absolute values of the differences between the two layers Processes Submenu This menu provides a number of graphical processes useful for shaping images into sounds While these processes are not musical in the same sense as the commands in the Pitch and Harmonics submenu they can help you transform just about any picture into a sound picture They can also create graphics beautiful in themselves Importing pictures is a nice way to discover found sounds but most pictures that were not intended to be sounds need some help in their metamorphosis Pixel density and distribution generally need to be altered Use the commands in this submenu to massage found pictures into sounds 90 MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip Image Synth Reference Don t forget to experiment with custom scales and microtonal frequency maps when using the
83. ation provides a method of sound manipulation without equal Over the past three releases MetaSynth has also developed into a powerful image processing tool This is where you will probably do most of your image and by consequence sound manipulation Additionally the Image Synth can reverse the process Any sound loaded in the Sample Editor can be turned into a picture using the Image Synth s sound analysis function While the visual processing of sound may take some getting used to you will begin to recognize the sorts of visual patterns or coherences that are musically meaningful You will develop a synesthetic sense for how a picture will sound and how to paint the sounds you want You can create both individual sounds and entire compositions with the provided tools depending on the picture you use and how you set up the Image Synth s parameters You can think of the Image Synth as a bank of oscillators or tape players which is controlled by the image displayed on the canvas The vertical axis determines the sound s pitch and the horizontal axis determines when the sound is triggered The Image Synth makes use of two special kinds of files preset libraries and filter libraries When MetaSynth is launched the preset library named Metasynth presets and filter library called Metasynth filters are automatically opened and available with the Preset Selector and Filter Selector tools You can add to these libraries or create your own
84. can be applied to color pictures and are applied equally to each active color channel When applying color filters the best results are achieved with 64 Image Synth Reference color pictures Mono pictures can be made stereo by clicking the Mono Stereo Toggle By default the file Metasynth filters found in the same folder as MetaSynth is the active library Use the Open Filters File command in the Image Synth s File submenu to make another library active Filters have a large number of uses Color filters can be used to stereo ize a picture They can also be used to provide complex envelopes to sounds and note They can be used to remove dissonance They can be used to adjust the harmonics of a sound picture When using sine wave wave table synthesis this process is similar to subtractive synthesis and amplitude shaping The default filter library has pictures that act as high and low pass filters and that perform various linear and non linear fades To invert a filter before application shift select the filter To view the filters of the previously opened library command click the Filter Selector To remove a filter option click the Filter Selector The cursor becomes the delete cursor ET Blue Grid Submenu The Blue Grid Submenu contains a number of commands for managing the Blue Channel It is only available for color stereo pictures Draw Blue X Grid g Replace the current Blue Channel with vertical grid lines who
85. cated modification of a sound picture s time related parameters Changing the width of a picture changes its duration without changing the setting for samples per pixel All sounds in MetaSynth have 44 100 samples per second For a detailed discussion of tempo and duration as they relate to sound pictures see the description of the Tempo Duration Dialog below 70 NOTE MetaTip Image Synth Reference Tempo Duration Dialog Total duration fr gt To 1000 frames secor The Tempo Duration dialog is invoked by double clicking the Tempo Duration tool This new dialog box allows you to conveniently set the tempo and duration of an image The duration of a picture can be defined in terms of either samples per pixel spp or beats per minute bpm MetaSynth can even fit the duration of the picture to match the length of the currently loaded sound The following settings can be changed via the dialog e Samples per pixel e Beats per minute bpm e Pixels per beat e Total duration minutes second frame By default BPM settings are based on a setting of 32 pixels per beat which you can of course change The dialog box also has buttons to perform the following utility functions 2 and Z These buttons multiply or divide the SPP and tempo by 2 Fit duration to current sample Set the duration of the sound picture to the duration of the currently loaded sound This is especially useful when you intend to use
86. ception of the Synthesize tool which acts upon the entire canvas and brush strokes which are not clipped to the selection Shortcut To temporarily switch to the Selection Tool press the command key When the Selection Tool is the active brush tool the Brush Size tool is replaced by the Transfer Mode submenu When a selection is dragged or option dragged or inserted using the Insert command in the Edit submenu it is applied to the existing pixels using the current Transfer Mode See the description of the Transfer Mode submenu for more information about Transfer Modes The Edit submenu s paste commands scale the clipboard image to fit the selection size Pressing the shift key when pasting causes the clipboard image to be scaled to 84 MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip Image Synth Reference the canvas size then clipped to the selection region This was the behavior in versions prior to 2 5 The Selection Tool makes it easy to move a portion of a picture copy it or fine tune it with the Image Synth s tools When the Brush Grid is turned on selection and movement is aligned with the grid The selection s behavior follows the standards observed by most graphics applications e Option drag or option arrow key leaves copy of the selection behind e Shift drag constrains the selection and displacement to the Brush Grid e Arrow keys displace the selection by a pixel in any direction e Delete key clears the sele
87. cer amicrotonal composition tool aspectral analysis and resynthesis tool MetaSynth is a pretty darn neat painting application too MetaSynth uses pictures to describe sounds Think of each pixel in an image as an oscillator or tape recorder over which you have absolute control The picture determines where in space the oscillator plays how loud for how long and what type of sound the oscillator plays The pixels can trigger sine waves in which case the picture is the sonogram of the resulting sound or other sounds as well simple waveforms FM sounds and samples sound files You can even set different pixel ranges to trigger different samples Why MetaSynth MetaSynth makes it possible to see the content of sound or music in a way that traditional waveform based sound editing tools cannot and integrates sound design and music composition into a single elegant paradigm When you look at traditional waveform displays of sound files you can see changes of volume in the sound but you cannot see Introduction the details of the music how the frequencies of the sound are changing over time MetaSynth shows you at a glance not only the volume of the sound but also its harmonic content and the stereo placement of each harmonic or note that comprises the sound With MetaSynth s painting tools you can alter the sound in astounding ways Imagine creating sounds whose low harmonics move from left to right while the high frequenci
88. ch Envelope Convolve Cross Convolve OSC Bank PhaseVocoder Wave Shaping and more These commands are described in the Transform Menu and Morph Menu chapters of this manual In addition to sounds generated by the Image Synth any 44 1 kHz Sound Designer II or AIFF sound file can be opened and transformed with the Sample Editor s tools and menu commands and or made available as an input source for the Image Synth You can also click the record button to record new sounds using any available Sound Manager input device The Sample Editor is memory based which makes it very fast however this can limit the length of the sounds that can be opened To work with long sounds you should configure MetaSynth s memory partition using the Macintosh Finder s Get Info window to be as large as possible Using the Sample Editor Press the Enter key or click the Sample Editor s Play icon to hear the currently loaded sample When MetaSynth is launched by double clicking its icon in the Finder a simple waveform is automatically loaded This waveform is suitable as an input source for the Image Synth or for further manipulation using the Morph menu s Wave Shaping command Morph the currently loaded sound with the Effects and Filter Palettes or any of the spectacular sound morphing functions available from the Transform and Morph menus described later in this manual Most of menus in the menubar at the top of the screen belong to the Sample Editor
89. cs Voicy Drag to the right to morph the current waveform towards a waveform with a voice like timbre The waveform consists of the first five overtones of the harmonic series with a 1 f amplitude decay Minors Drag to the right to morph the current waveform towards a waveform with a minor quality The wave shape is made of the fundamental plus overtones spaced a minor third apart 114 MetaTip MetaTip Wave Table Palette Brass like Drag to the right to morph the current waveform towards a waveform with a mellow brass like timbre Add Octaves Drag to the right to add octave overtones to the waveform s existing harmonics This tool has the effect of creating mini waveforms within the larger waveform Cosmic Drag to the right to morph the current waveform towards a waveform with a cosmic high pitched resonance remember the Outer Limits Cosmic is the product of the multiplication of a sine wave and a Gaussian curve Option drag will halve the frequency Normalize Drag to the right to morph the current waveform towards a normalized version of itself Amplitudes are scaled upwards so that the peak reaches maximum amplitude Open Wave Table Click here to invoke a standard Macintosh file which allows you to open any previously save Wave Table data A library of Wave Table data files is located in MetaSynth s home folder Save Wave Table Click here to save the current Wave Table data as a file
90. cted region e selects all and automatically makes the Selection Tool the active brush tool e deselects the currently selected region The following shortcuts are useful when transposing moving a selection or the entire canvas e Up Down Left Right arrows nudge the selection one pixel in the indicated direction e Shift Up Down arrows transpose up down by current Brush Grid Interval e Shift Left Right arrows shift left right by the Hot Filter Grid interval e Page Up Down arrows transpose up down by octaves e Shift Page Up Down transpose up down fifths Pressing the option key when using the above commands leaves behind a copy of the selection Use the selection tool when previewing Previews are limited to the selected region which is convenient when fine tuning one area of the sound picture or when working with sound pictures too complex to be previewed in their entirety If Preview plays back silence when it shouldn t type d to deselect the selection There may be an empty selection To deselect the selection press d This returns you to full length previews New in 2 5 The selection behaves somewhat differently than in earlier versions of MetaSynth It is now persistent and is maintained when you switch tools which allows you to work and preview a part of the sound without having to reselect the area when switching tools 85 Image Synth Reference Brush Color Selector
91. cture Creating a Preset Library e E Choose New Presets File from the Image Synth s File submenu e Save the new file to the location of your choice Adding Deleting Presets Click on the Add Preset icon to add the canvas image to the preset library e To delete a preset hold down the option key and click on the Select Preset tool The cursor becomes an X cursor Choose the preset to delete it Accessing the Previous Library To access the presets of the preset library previously open in the current work session Hold down the command key and click on the Select Preset tool Observe that the presets of the previous preset library are displayed 34 QuickStart e Select any preset e Click on the Add Preset icon to add the canvas image to the preset library Voila A quick way to copy presets or filters between libraries 35 QuickStart Intermediate Techniques Lesson 2 Preparing a Sound with the Effects and Filter Palettes Looped Sample Mode In this section we delve into the Effects and Filter Palettes to convert a spoken syllable into a pitched sound source The Grain Resonator and Harmonics effects are use to prepare the sound by pitching it and giving its general characteristic We use the Filter Palette to give the sound a harmonic filter envelope Sample Editing We use the sound file Ana MetaSynth Speech in this lesson G If the sound isn t open choose Open from the File menu and click on
92. cture previews and favorites menu Blue Grid submenu Sample and Instrument names now remembered with presets plus many other refinements bug fixes and optimizations Note Installation and System Requirements MetaSynth is a stand alone application that creates sound in non real time It runs on a wide range of Macintoshes Though computation time varies with processor speed the resulting sounds will be identical on any machine Hardware amp Software Requirements CPU MetaSynth runs on any Power Macintosh or clone A processor speed of 120 MHz or faster is recommended but not required The Image Synth s real time preview function may be limited by the processor s speed on machines with slower CPUs System MacOS 7 3 or later is required MetaSynth is compatible with System 8 5 Virtual Memory should be disabled via the Memory control panel Sound Manager 3 1 or later is required Sound playback and recording is done through the currently selected Sound Manager device MetaSynth will work in conjunction with any third party sound card provided that a SoundManager driver has been installed Memory MetaSynth requires a minimum RAM partition size of 20 megabytes Hence the computer must have 32 megabytes or more RAM 64 or more megabytes are preferred Virtual Memory should be disabled via the Memory control panel MetaSynth does memory based processing With the minimum partition size MetaSynth is limited to the
93. d by clicking the grid icon It is on when the icon is green Click on the Brush Grid Interval and enter 16 one beat at 16 Pixels Beat EH Choose the Pen Brush from the Brush Palette e Double click the Brush Size Tool e Set the brush to be pixel high and 16 pixels wide e Set the Hot Filter Grid Interval to 64 one measure A Click on the Brush Mode Toggle until Repeat Mode is active We will create a grid for the chord sequence Am D C D with the chords changing on the beat You won t get a Grammy but e Press the Caps Lock key which results in octaves being entered while in Repeat Mode Move the mouse near the first grid line and click on any 9 11 0 476 29H 5 oe The pitch is displayed in the Tips Display at the lower right corner of the Image Synth Note Zoom the picture and grow the Image Synth window if it makes entering the notes easier e Click on any pixel which corresponds to a C in the same column as the first note 46 QuickStart Intermediate Techniques Grids e Click on any in the first column e Proceed to the next column and enter the notes D F A e Proceed to the next column and enter the notes C E G Press the command and option keys to pop up the brush palette Choose the Selection Tool Drag rectangle around the second column the Brush Grid keeps the selection aligned to the grid e Enter 32 as the Ho
94. d file with speech or percussive sounds like a drum loop 182 Wave Shaping Remap the selected portion of the displayed waveform MetaSynth presents an envelope editor that remaps the sample s amplitude values The y axis represents amplitude values of the source waveform and the x axis represents the remapped values Positive and negative values are changed symmetrically A line with a 45 degree slope results in a waveform identical to the source Real time preview is provided as you change the envelope either by clicking and dragging the envelope directly or by using the envelope shaping tools You can also press the Preview button to hear the remapped waveform Have Shaping I M y V Original Waveform After Wave Shaping a 1 Wave Shaping can radically alter the sample s harmonic spectrum It tends to have a clipping distorting denaturing effect on rich high amplitude sounds The effect is often more subtle with low amplitude or simple waveforms where the addition of arbitrary harmonics can generate pleasing electronic sounds MetaTip To create synthesizer like sounds to use as Image Synth input sounds or to load into your sampler use Wave Shaping with simple waveforms to enrich them then use the Filter Palette to provide a harmonic envelope See the tutorials provided on disk for a step by step lesson on using this technique No
95. d in BPM The echo delay time expressed in beats per minute BPM values can be entered with accuracy to one hundredth of a beat Brilliance in percent Introduces a low pass filter on the decay of the delayed signal A setting of 100 passes the signal through unfiltered Use Brilliance to emulate the decay of typical of natural spaces Reverb A natural sounding reverb which emulates room ambience by simulating the way sound is absorbed and reflected off surfaces in different sized rooms of variable reflectivity Amount in percent Adjusts the wet dry mix 100 only plays back the delayed signal 0 plays back the unprocessed signal Room reflectance Determines how much of the simulated wall surface is reflective A setting of 100 results in a very live room where all of the signal is reflected bounced off the walls 0 results in a dead room where most of the sound is absorbed by the walls 143 MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip Effects Palette Room size in percent Adjusts the size of the room 100 being the largest room Brilliance in percent The processed signal s decay is passed through a low pass filter This parameter controls the amount of filtering A setting of 100 passes the signal through unfiltered Brilliance determines whether the reverberant space is dark or bright Some preferred settings are Amount Reflectance Room Size Brilliance Cathedral 50 80 30 0 Huge 60 98 29 50 Ear
96. d region by repeating the pixels to the left with decreasing brightness volume The Hot Filter Grid interval determines the pre echo delay time Reverb Simulate reverb by extending and fading the durations of all pixels of the canvas or the selected region 107 MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip Image Synth Reference In addition to creating a reverb effect this process is useful for selectively increasing the decay time of notes in different regions of a picture Repeat Repeat pixels identically across the canvas or the selected region The Hot Filter Grid interval determines the grid used to repeat the pixels Unlike Echo there is no alteration of pixel brightness Use this process to duplicate a motive or pattern across an entire picture For example set the canvas width to 64 set a picture s Pixels Per Beat setting in the Temp Duration dialog to 16 and set the desired tempo paint in a rhythmic or melodic pattern increase the picture size to 1024 set the Hot Filter Grid interval to 64 and press Repeat to repeat the pattern across the entire picture width Create an instant pattern out of the canvas by setting the Hot Filter Grid interval to 16 and executing the following commands Repeat Reverse t Repeat Reverse t Reverse the canvas or the selected region Similar to playing a tape or record backwards Note The Hot Filter Grid has no effect on this command
97. da dada ga dada o 123 123 Save Instrument amp 5 124 P trees waive ERE ERE 124 Auto RON HEREETC 124 Auto Crossfade amp LOOP E a ete e 124 OK ipeo iei eol nete dm be Ob obra rei eb le de 125 Cali Cel o sb AV ELA At ee 125 INSTRUMENTS MENU Re i eee ei Feed ed o oo Roda 125 New InstF ment s et e e ee rere ea 125 Open Instrument cce e eeepc ee i tei e e TUS 126 Duild Instrument iiia e tte er eerie 126 Opened Instruments List eese esee eene entente enne 126 PROCEDURAL SYNTH SAMPLE EDITOR ix ABOUT CHIS CHAPTER eu ee oe vena RR RI Rudi 129 SAMPLE EDITOR 129 USING THE SAMPLE EDITOR cssccsssccssscescceseccsssccsscessceesacessecesseccsaceeseceesacesseecssecesaeeesa 130 OPENING LOADING SOUNDS c ccssccssseessseessecessecssecessecessecesseceasecsaecesecessecesseceaseesseceaeeenes 131 UPPER tere DIA 131 E EEEE 131 nA NIIS PET 131
98. ditor one of two ways by computing a sound in the Image Synth palette or by opening a sound file Sound files may be opened using the Open command in the File menu or by dropping one or more sound files on the MetaSynth icon in the Macintosh Finder While only one sound can be open at a time dropping a number of files on the MetaSynth icon will add each sound file to the list of sound in the Sounds menu This technique is useful when you want to work with a number of sounds during your MetaSynth session and want quick access to the files with which you will be working Only the last of the dropped sounds is actually loaded into memory The Sample Editor can open any 44 1 kHz AIFF or Sound Designer II file The native format used when saving files is Sound Designer II split stereo though the export commands can be used to export sounds as AIFF or interleaved Sound Designer II files Upper Toolbar Fit to Screen Click here to zoom the selected region to fill the Sample Display Area If there is no selection fit the entire sound to fit the screen width Move to Start Click here to scroll the selection start to the left edge of the Sample Display Area This tool is useful for regaining your bearings if the selection start has been scrolled out of view 131 Sample Editor Move to End Click here to scroll the selection end to the right edge of the Sample Display Area This tool is useful for regaining your bearings if the se
99. e brought to the front by clicking on it or choosing Wave table from the Windows menu The Wave Table palette can be hidden by clicking on its close box With this palette you can easily create the classic analog synthesizer waveforms square pulse waves and sawtooth ramp waves Using note based sound pictures envelope shaping and liberal use of the Filter Palette you may be surprised how much the results can sound like classic synthesizers if that s your pleasure The palette s contents are changed when a new preset is chosen in the Image Synth Palette if the preset had wave table data stored with it The Wave Table data can be 111 MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip Wave Table Palette saved with presets if the Preferences dialog setting Include Wave Table with preset is turned on Wave table data can be saved or opened using the palette s Open and Save buttons These data files are compatible with those created by the MetaSynth s envelope editors The Wave Table stores 1024 samples which is about 23 milliseconds at 44 1 kHz By default the Wave Table is set to a sine wave As a result sound pictures with the Wave Table input source are played with sine wave synthesis unless the Wave Table is modified by the user As you work with the palette try to maintain an overall balance of the waveform above and below the center line Imbalance can result in DC offset which has some undesirable side effects such as c
100. e files to the selected location This leaves the original sample files unchanged If the Auto Crossfade button described below was used prior to saving the Instrument the encapsulated new sample files will contain the crossfaded data Option click this button to normalize the samples before they are copied Stereo samples are saved in interleaved format regardless of their original format with the LR suffix Reload Samples Reload the Instrument s samples This command is useful if you have edited any of an Instrument s samples since it was opened during the current MetaSynth session If you have used the Auto Crossfade button and would like to reload the un crossfaded samples use this button Auto Ranges Sort the samples by pitch and calculate optimal key ranges the max key values MetaSynth sets the max key values to minimize the amount of pitch shifting that needs to be done The max key value for each sample is set half way between the sample s base pitch pitch and octave and the next sample s base pitch This action reloads the sample data into memory Auto Crossfades are lost unless they were saved to disk with the Save Instrument and Samples button Auto Crossfade amp Loop Fade the beginning and end of unlooped samples so that they loop smoothly This command modifies the loop data in memory but not the sample files themselves Crossfades are not calculated for samples that are already looped i e
101. e some of the timbral variation often missing from sampler based music Explore microtonal tunings such as Micro8 12 Microl6 Micro32 to achieve interesting pitch articulations glissando vibrato etc Compose the basic melody in semitones Increase the vertical size of the picture Choose a microtonal frequency map then use the Expand commands in the Image Synth s Pitch and Harmonics submenu to restore the correct relative pitches For example if you go from semitones to Microl6 i e 1 2 of a step per pixel to 1 16 of a step per pixel choose Expand 4 then Expand 2 to restore the original relationship between the notes 120 Instruments Dialog instrument looped max uy pitch octave d PW X9 ewe ue ur Wu See o Ww Wt 4 CL HAT 2 OPEN HAT LOC MBAL 1 8 TOM 2 FREQ CHIRP C Randomize sample start 0 Stereo Fine tuning 0 Save Instrument Save Instrument amp samples Reload samples Ruto ranges Crossfade loop D D D D D 77777 2737773223258 23 2 NNNNNNN NN WBN FHF UN Ii E L1 0 m m 0 m 0 a 7 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 03 03 gt E 7 2 2 Instruments Dialog is MetaSynth s interface for creating and loading Instruments Whether you are opening an existing Instrument or creating a new one this window will appear at some point during the process Remove Sample
102. e sound is morphed by multiplying the two waveforms frequency spectrums together Technically speaking FFT analysis of the two sounds is performed and the resulting spectrums multiplied together This is similar to making Image Synth pictures by performing frequency analysis of both sounds and applying one picture as a filter to the other but Cross Convolve provides a much higher quality and computationally more intensive convolution The resulting sound contains only the frequencies in common between the two sounds If the two sounds have no overlap in their frequency spectrums the morphed sound will be silent Both sounds contribute equally to the blue morphed convoluted sound Fourier Window pop up menu To the left of the A Mul B envelope selector is the Fourier Window pop up This determines the number of frequency bands used when the analysis is performed in preparation for convolution Higher numbers for this value yield higher quality results than smaller values but the convolution takes longer to compute 178 MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip Morph Menu The red and green curves The red and green envelopes are mix envelopes that allow you to mix the unconvoluted sounds with the blue curve sound They perform the same functions as in the Cross Mix dialog In fact if the blue curve is set to the minimum value Cross Convolve yields the same results as Cross Mix Use these envelopes to mix in time va
103. e terea rece reed eee er Setting up the Work Space Lesson 1 Getting Acquainted INTERMEDIATE TECHNIQUES esses enne eene enne ener en eenn senes setenta Lesson 2 Preparing a Sound with the Effects and Filter Palettes Looped Sample 36 Lesson 3 Instruments and Sound Convolution Techniques eese 40 Lesson 4 Filtering Mozart with Drums Techno Mozart eese 41 Lesson 5 Using Convolve for a Vocoder Effect eese 43 Lesson 6 Building and Using 44 Creating Rhythmic Grids essent therein ete tn tenentes 45 Creating Harmonic Grids 46 Using the Blue Grid as a Harmonic MOVIN niis uere epe Ideas For Exploration IMAGE SYNTH 1 neto eene 52 ABOUT THIS CHAPTER 5 5 3 EE oes REER RER EREE IMAGE SYNTH BASICS eee ee ees tee use Pee eee ves le Cue How MetaSynth Plays a Picture Canceling Interrupting Time Consuming Processes eese 54 IMAGE SYNTH CONCEPTS rii eve seva et ORRA 54 CANVAS P M 56 4 c 56 UPPER TOOLBAR 57 Ti
104. e tool apply filter picture choose preset choose displacement map apply displacement copy picture insert pict differences transfer mode Tutorials Summary Preparing the picture brightness contrast tool option quantize Adjusting the Harmonic custom scales Mapping and Tempo tempo duration tool Process the red and green Mono Preset to Stereo mono stereo toggle channels separately to create rich stereo effects 191 Index A Add Blue X Grid 65 Add Filter Image Synth 64 Add Fundamental 95 Add Harmonics 95 Add Pict Image Synth 62 Add Preset Image Synth 63 Additive Transfer Mode 89 AIFF files exporting as 159 Air Brush 81 Analyze Current Sample Filter Palette 138 Analyze Current Sound example QuickStart 41 Image Synth 58 Apply Filter Filter Palette 139 Attack Brush 82 Attacks 109 Auditioning Notes Instruments 119 Auto CrossFade Sample Editor 134 B Blend Transfer Mode 89 Blue Channel Blue Grid Submenu 65 defined 54 192 Blue Grid Submenu Image Synth 65 Blur 91 Blur More 91 using QuickStart 33 Brush Color Selector 86 Brush Grid example QuickStart 46 Brush Grid Interval 97 Brush Grid Toggle 97 Brush Grid Tool 96 Brush Mode Toggle 79 Brush Options Dialog 87 Brush Palette 81 using QuickStart 31 Brush Size Tool 86 Build Instrument 126 186 C Canceling 16 Canvas Image Synth 56 Channel Edit Mode Selector 66 Chorus Effects
105. ear Subdivision The octave is divided into equal steps with the same difference consecutive scale steps These divisions can be interesting as they often have perfect fourths and or fifths unlike equal temperament depending on the number of steps per octave The formula for determining a particular step s frequency ratio r 1 is where r is the frequency ratio and n the 1VISIOnS scale step Exponential Subdivision The difference between the scale steps is scaled exponentially with the steps separated by increasingly large intervals The 75 MetaTip MetaTip Image Synth Reference formula for determining a particular step s frequency ratio is r gy es divisions where r is the frequency ratio and n the scale step Randomize Values Randomly fill in the scale steps This is interesting for experimenting and coming up with wild new sounds Divisions per octave The number of steps that make up an octave or scale cycle in cases where the scale spans more than an octave This number can be any value from 1 to 1024 Though only the first 64 steps are editable within the dialog Scales can be exported and edited with any text editing application Frequency ratios This is a set of editable text fields which displays the frequency ratios of the scale s steps Only the first 64 steps are editable from within the dialog There is no restriction on the values The scale steps may actually span more than an octave and do not
106. ears the existing pixels with a brighter gradient than the Smear Brush When using this brush bright pixels win when smeared Very handy for adding glissandi at notes boundaries This tool is unaffected by the Brush Mode Use this brush and the Smear Brush in microtonal frequency maps for creating glissandi pitch bends vibrato and other similar effects Clone Brush MetaTip MetaTip This brush captures the pixels under the brush when the mouse button is first pressed and allows you to paint with the captured pixels Nice effects can be created in both Dot and Line modes It is a handy tool for retouching notes edges Nice Random textures can be created with the Clone Brush when using Dot Mode AND a large minimum spacing see Brush Options Dialog AND a Brush Grid interval of 16 or more With small brush size and minimum spacing settings the Clone Brush does a nice job as a retouching tool since you can quickly pick the color where you click and spread it ER Selection Tool shift m A tool to create a marqueed selection similar to the selection tools found in most graphics applications The Selection Tool also called the Marquee Tool allows you to select a rectangular selection which can be moved by dragging it directly or by using the Transpose Nudge tools and their keyboard equivalents The active selection or the entire image if there is no selection is the target of all Image Synth tools and commands with the ex
107. ed and green channels when applying the Pulse Saw or Echo Hot Filters Or start with a mono image and apply Echo to the red channel and Pre Echo to the green See the tutorials provided on the CD for more examples of how to use this tool Stereo Mono Toggle Click here to change whether the sound picture is mono grayscale or stereo color When stereo mode is chosen the Channel Edit Mode Selector becomes visible and active Stereo pictures have three color channels red left green right blue comments The Channel Edit Mode selector allows you to selectively manipulate individual color channels Mono pictures have a single grayscale channel where luminosity determines amplitude Mono pictures have no comments Blue channel Input Source Selector Click here to select the sound source played by the sound picture The palette which pops up lets you choose any of the following as the picture s input source Wave Table Sample Looped Sample Procedural Synth any open Instrument Each pixel triggers the input source according to the pixel s vertical position Wave Table MetaTip Use the Wave Table Palette s waveform as the input source The default waveshape is a sine wave This waveform can be changed interactively in the Wave Table Palette See the chapter Wave Table Palette for more information Be careful with waveforms that have significant high frequency content When used with sound pictures which thems
108. ee the pixel s pitch displayed as a note and octave i e A2 a degree of pitch shifting and the absolute frequency in Hertz Working with large scales Custom scales of up to 1024 divisions are allowed though only the first 64 divisions are editable from within MetaSynth The algorithmic scale generation activated by pressing the Compute Ratios button will work regardless of the number of scale steps If you need to edit these scales you can open them with a text editor to edit the 76 MetaTip MetaTip Image Synth Reference values This feature was added to allow MetaSynth to import large scale files generated by other applications Custom Scale File Format Custom Scales are just text files with a simple format Open any of the supplied files and examine them The first line in the file defines the scale s name It should begin with a character The second line should start with and is used for comments Its contents are ignored The third line should be left blank The fourth line is an integer that indicates the number of steps in the scale It corresponds to the Divisions Per Octave setting in the Custom Scales dialog box The next line begins with and is ignored The rest of the lines are the specifications for the scale steps There should be the same number of step definitions as there are Divisions Per Octave or more correctly Divisions Per Cycle A scale step can have any of the
109. eee tiere Eee a PE de Re Sue 155 Trade OU iii eet e ues a e e ede 155 Fade in out non linear eet ma nana t t i art E E 156 rea aa ennt e 156 Sine 156 eee E e 156 GE HH 156 FICE MENU E ERA E 158 ABOUT THIS CHAPTER KEIO R ee R RRR 158 FILE MENU Open Command o irren aa ee Ute I OE ee RR DAR E E 158 Saves Commandes etre rede rr e pee ree t pe ee o ee enda 158 SaVe AS 1 Export AIFF Exportinterleaved Sd2T sete rhe O 159 iar ento Pe eed eti dts 159 Out Commandsq ON Er EAR RE 160 EDIT MENU 162 ABOUT THIS CHAPTER EE EEEE 162 162 Undo Commannd Z exer 162 Cut Command x Copy Commniand e ritenere ttt SEE S iae ri iar r 162 P ste Command y Ji ien ee ere etes ete E E Eee sete ee etie 162 EO 163 hU Ir E 163 Crop Command G 163 Select AllF Gommand
110. eference Fade in out Pict u Fade the PICT Clipboard in and out while also fading the selected region out then in This process results in a gradient blend effect Shift selecting this command reverses the fading scheme Fade the current picture in and out with the following key combination c copy delete u fade in out Paste to Blue Paste the PICT Clipboard to the Blue channel regardless of the Channel Edit mode This is a convenient way to move a stereo red green color image into the Blue Channel To delete the Blue Channel use the Channel Edit Mode Selector to make the Blue Channel the active channel then press the delete key You may want to create a preset library with different Blue Channel templates Paste to Blue does not work with mono grayscale images See the provided tutorials for examples of using the Blue Channel Select All a Select all of the pixels of the canvas Deselect All d Deselect the current selection d Add Preset Click here to add the currently displayed sound picture to the active preset library The sound picture is added to the first empty position in the active preset library The Add Preset function saves not only the picture but also the frequency map sound input source tempo duration and optionally the associated Wave Table data see Preferences in the File Menu chapter If the sound picture s input source is Instrument Sample or Looped Sample the instrumen
111. el setting At 32 pixels per beat and 256 pixels typing 92 into the BPM field will yield a tempo of 92 07 which corresponds to 898 samples per pixel The duration parameter uses units in minutes seconds frames format Therefore a value of 1000 will give you millisecond precision for the frames and a 10 sample accuracy at 4410 frames per seconds The Frames per Second setting is modified in the Preferences dialog Frequency Map Selector Define the mapping of the canvas vertical axis to pitch Click on the tool to pop up a menu of the scale tuning choices The name of the current frequency map is displayed in the toolbar if it is one of MetaSynth s built in tunings Otherwise the words Map Custom Scale appear The selector provides a Custom Scale option which invokes the Custom Scales Dialog that allows you to define import and export custom frequency maps This dialog is described in the following section of this chapter Frequency mapping allows you to explore vast harmonic realms previously unreachable with all but the most esoteric tools You can create compositions in an almost infinite array of micro and macro tunings Explore Just intonation Pythagorean and pentatonic scales 50 tone scales or any imaginable mapping With the Custom Scale option you can define frequency maps with up to 1000 divisions per octave Most of the commands in the Pitch and Harmonics submenu of the left hand toolbar are affected by the frequency map
112. ellow or white depending upon the channel edit mode Choose the desired image using the Filter selector Max Pict k Paste the PICT Clipboard contents into the selected area treating the clipboard s black pixels as transparent Where there are coincident pixels the brightest one is kept Scaling is performed as described for the Paste Pict command Min Pict Combine the PICT Clipboard contents with the selected area keeping the pixels of lowest amplitude in the combined image Where either picture is black the result is 61 MetaTip MetaTip Image Synth Reference black Where there are coincident pixels the least bright is kept Scaling is performed as described for the Paste Pict command Add Pict e Combine the PICT Clipboard with the selected area adding the luminosities of the two images Scaling is done as described for the Paste Pict command Add Pict is a quick convenient way of brightening an image or selection To brighten the canvas image copy the canvas type a then c then use the Add Pict command type e as many times as necessary Subtract Pict 1 Subtract the contents of the PICT Clipboard from the selected area Darker colors from the PICT Clipboard overlay and replace the pixels of the selection This command can be useful for forcing a rhythmic or harmonic structure on an existing image Scaling is performed as described for the Paste Pict command Multiply Pict Multip
113. elves have significant high frequency content the results can be undesirable If this is the case you can use the Smooth Filter HF tool in the Wave Table palette to reduce the source waveform s high frequency content If the option Include Wave Table With Preset is turned on in the Preferences dialog the waveform will be stored with the sound picture in the preset library m Sample Use the sound currently loaded in the Sample Editor as the input source A picture can play back literally hundreds of voices derived from the sample Try that with your sampler When the input source is set to Sample mode the sample is not 67 MetaTip MetaTip Image Synth Reference looped If a horizontal line exceeds the length of the sample the sample ends If you want the sample to loop continuously use Looped Sample mode described below The sample is re triggered where silence black is followed by a non black pixel When using sample mode think of each pixel of the picture as a tape recorder whose playback speed is relative to its vertical position The playback speed duration of the sample is affected by the pitch shifting The pixel line that corresponds to 220 5 Hz A2 on the canvas will play the sample without altering its pitch or duration This is true regardless of the Master Tuning setting of the picture As a result this mode often works best with images that don t span a large frequency spectrum though extreme pitch shift
114. em in the Filter Palette to create filter sweeps 101 Image Synth Reference I Griginal Displaced horizontally Displacement mapping can be constrained horizontally with the shift key or vertically with shift option See the tutorials provided on the CD for lessons in making use of this incredible feature The first time you click on the tool or any time you double click on it the Displacement Map dialog box is opened 102 Image Synth Reference Displacement Map Dialog 3 Add Preset E Open Pict E Paste Pict Copy Pict C Smooth before displace This dialog box lets you choose an image to use as a displacement map The dialog box has the following controls File submenu This submenu provides commands to open or create new preset libraries Any MetaSynth preset library can be used as a displacement map library A special library DisplaceMaps presets has been provided with images that work well as displacement maps Displacement Map selector Use this selector to choose a displacement map Remove an item from the list by holding down the option key pressing the selector icon to display the pop up list then selecting the preset to be deleted Open Pict Press this button to open a PICT file and add it to the preset library used by the Displacement Dialog Paste Pict Press this button to add the PICT clipboard image to the preset library used by the Displacement Dialog
115. emory RAM of that computer The Software is copy protected RESTRICTIONS You may not transfer modify rent lease loan resell distribute network electronically transmit or merge the Software You may also not reverse engineer decompile or disassemble the Software or otherwise attempt to discover the Software source code You are not permitted to copy the Software except to make an archival copy for back up purposes or any of the accompanying documentation Any attempt to transfer any of the rights duties or obligations hereunder except as expressly provided for in this Agreement is void COPYRIGHT The Software including audio music text images and animations incorporated into the Software and accompanying documentation are owned by U amp I or its suppliers and are protected by United States copyright laws and international treaties Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of the software or documentation is subject to civil and criminal penalties LIMITED WARRANTY U amp I warrants for the period of thirty 30 days from the date of delivery of the Software to you as evidenced by a copy of your receipt that 1 The Software will perform substantially in accordance with the user documentation provided by U amp I Your sole remedy under this warranty is that U amp I will at its option either repair or replace the Software which does not meet this Limited Warranty or refund to you the money paid for the Software U amp I does not
116. en paint freely in the Red and Green channels Choose Filter With Blue Channel to remove notes that don t fit Delete Blue Channel Delete the Blue Channel contents Channel Edit Mode Selector q Click here to pop up a palette of the various channel edit modes This tool allows independent processing of the left red and right green channels which makes for mind bending effects The channel edit mode determines which channels are affected by edit operations Most editing operations and Image Synth tools apply only to the active color channel which makes incredible stereo manipulation possible The icon s appearance in the toolbar changes to reflect the current channel edit mode The area is left blank if the canvas is set to mono The available modes are red and green active red only green only blue only all red green and blue active The default mode is red and green active New in 2 5 In MetaSynth 2 5 brushes respect the channel edit mode in version 2 0 they did not Type q to toggle through the Channel Edit modes Try applying different filter pictures to the red and green channels of an image For example you might apply a fade in filter to one channel and a fade out filter to the other Try applying different Hot Filters to the left red and right green channels of a picture For example incredible effects can be created by using different grid 66 Image Synth Reference intervals for the r
117. en ask what they are supposed to do with the sounds created in MetaSynth Some users will use the sounds in their hardware samplers Others will create tracks they will import into multi track mixing applications Still others will create complex atonal compositions and explore MetaSynth s custom micro and macro tonal tunings It all depends on how you choose to use this tool Anatomy of MetaSynth MetaSynth has several work areas where you accomplish different tasks Each of these work areas puts quite a range of tools at your disposal Understanding the relationship between these areas is critical to getting the most out of MetaSynth Below is a brief description of the primary work areas A more detailed summary of each area is provided later in this chapter A complete reference for each area is provided in the reference section of this manual Overview Spheres of Influence MetaSynth has two spheres of influence about which its functionality is structured The Image Synth where sounds are created according to the sound picture paradigm lies at the center of one sphere Its satellites include the Wave Table Palette the Procedural Synth and Instruments Its output is sent to the Sample Editor which is served by the Effects Palette the Filter Palette the Procedural Synth and five of the application s seven menus The Sample Editor s output can be played saved to disk or fed back into the Image Synth where it can be used as an input so
118. ening sounds preset and filter libraries and custom scales files When opening sounds a Play button appears if the highlighted file is a SoundDesigner II file AIFF files are not currently supported for previewing When opening preset and filter libraries the preview area displays the first three presets of the highlighted library When opening custom scale files the first 4 lines of the file are displayed Favorites and Recent Files Both dialogs now feature Favorites and Recent Files pop up lists which are persistent between sessions The Favorites pop up menu has a command which adds the highlighted file or folder to the menu Choosing an item from the list navigates the dialog to the appropriate location and highlights the item If you choose a file of a different type than appropriate for the dialog if you choose a sound file s name when you are in the Open Preset Library dialog for example the dialog box still navigates to the item s directory An item named Metasynth prefs will be listed at the top of the menu Selecting it takes you to MetaSynth s home folder To remove an item from the Favorites list hold down the option key and select it in the list 15 Overview E The Recent Files pop up menu lists the ten most recently opened files The most recently opened file is always at the top of the list As with the Favorites list you can select a file of a different type than the dialog is asking for and it will
119. enu About this chapter This chapter describes the File menu s commands Familiarity with the Sample Editor chapter is helpful for getting the most out of this chapter File Menu The File menu s commands with the exception of the Preferences command apply to the Sample Editor The Image Synth and Filter Palette each have their own File submenus Open Command o Open any 16 bit 44 1 kHz Sound Designer or AIFF sound file The file becomes the currently loaded sound its waveform displayed in the Sample Display Area and the file s name is added to the Sounds menu along with the names of the other sounds that have been opened during the current MetaSynth session The Open Sound Dialog contains a preview area with a Play button SoundDesigner II files may be previewed by highlighting their name and pressing the Play button Currently AIFF cannot be previewed This command is equivalent to the Open Sound tool in the Sample Editor toolbar Note MetaSynth will not prevent you from opening sounds created at other sample rates but they will be played back as if they were 44 1 kHz sounds which will result in pitch and time shift Save Command s Save the current sound file This command is only available if the current sound was opened from a file If the sound was created by pressing the Image Synth s Synthesize tool this command is not available To save a sound created by Image Synth synthesis use the Save As comm
120. enu 159 Save as Pict File Image Synth 57 Save Dialog 15 Save Sound 133 Saw 109 Scale Name 75 Scale Picture Image Synth 98 Scroll Hand Image Synth 98 Select All File menu 163 Image Synth 63 Select None File menu 163 Select Preset Tool Image Synth 64 Selection Tool 84 Shorten 109 Show Palettes 188 197 Shuffler Effects Palette 148 Silence File menu 163 Size X 77 Size Y 77 Smear Brighter Brush 84 Smear Brush 83 Smooth menu command 171 Smooth before displace 103 Smooth Decay 104 Smooth Envelope 104 Smoothing Brush 83 Sounds Menu 165 Spectrum Filter 184 Spray Brush 83 Stereo interleaved files exporting 159 Stereo Mono Toggle Image Synth 67 Sample Editor 133 Stretch Effects Palette 145 Subtract Pict Image Synth 62 Subtractive Transfer Mode 89 Swap Red and Green 93 Synthesize 105 Synthesize Spectrum 184 Tempo Duration Dialog 71 Tempo Duration Tool 70 example QuickStart 44 using QuickStart 34 Time Reverse Sound Sample Editor 134 Tips Display 14 Image Synth 106 Sample Editor 132 Tools defined 13 Image Synth 56 Trace Edges H 93 Trace Edges V 93 Transfer Mode submenu 88 Transform Menu 171 Transpose Effects Palette 150 Triangle Filter 91 Tutorials summary table 189 U Undo File menu 162 Image Synth 60 Units time units displayed 159 V Virtual Memory warning 5 W Wave Shaping 183 Wave Table Input S
121. epare the ilter sound by pitch shifting it to a range which will increase the overlap and savin 8 8 8 it Then open the sound to be filtered and choose Formants Filter Osc Bank PhaseVocoder old 1277 new 1277 as tenths of a semitone none Fourier Hindow 1024 High quality FFT based time corrected pitch shifting time expansion compression and other FFT based effects Osc Bank Phase Vocoder is short for Oscillator Bank Phase Vocoder Use this tool to shift a sample s pitch without changing its duration or to change the sample duration without changing its pitch You can of course change both the pitch and duration Realism is maintained when small amounts of pitch shifting or time modulation are applied Large time or pitch changes will yield less realistic results This process is valuable for preparing samples to be used as Image Synth input sources Pretty far out effects can be generated by making use of the Filter Effect options provided in the dialog box Time stretching is computationally very intensive and can take a long time especially on slow machines or with long sounds 180 Phase vocoding techniques involve FFT analysis applied to short duration time slices These grains are then used to re synthesize the sound with a new pitch and or duration The results are sensitive to the settings used to perform the analysis You may need to experiment to find the best parameter settin
122. er Tuning tool The reference pitch determines the base pitch for a sound picture Sound Picture A sound picture is an image intended for sound synthesis Sound pictures contain image data as well as an associated frequency mapping input source and tempo duration Presets are sound pictures stored in a preset library Transfer Modes Frequently you will use one image to process another image When an image is applied to another image the corresponding pixels in the two images are processed together to create the resulting image Each color channel only interacts with the corresponding channel A full discussion of these operations is discussed in the section Transfer Modes later in this chapter Canvas The Image Synth s central area is its painting surface the canvas The canvas is where images are created and edited Images can be painted from scratch imported using the Open Pict menu command chosen from a preset library or pasted onto the canvas The Image Synth s toolbars provide a wide of array of brushes and tools for working with images When MetaSynth first launches the Image Synth contains a picture with a single horizontal line pitched at the picture s reference pitch which by default is A2 220 5 Hz Auditioning Notes Control clicking on the canvas will audition play back the pitch which corresponds to the mouse position using the picture s input source If the input source is an instrument the sample file n
123. es Add Fundamental Draw a horizontal line with the sound canvas reference pitch see Master Tuning This command is useful when starting to draw a sound Frequently this command will be followed by an application of the command Add Harmonics to generate overtones Add Harmonics h Add harmonics overtones of the picture s existing pixels a sort of vertical echo The overtones correspond to the first five overtones of the standard harmonic series octave 8va fifth 8va octave 16 third and are added with decreasing amplitude Option select this command from the submenu to generate the first 30 harmonics rather than just the first five This option is only available when choosing the command from the submenu MetaTip To thicken up sounds successively apply Add Harmonics which will add harmonics of the harmonics MetaTip After applying this command you will probably want to use the Filter Brush to adjust the contours of the harmonics so that the sound will breathe Expand 2 Vertically expand the pixel spacing by a factor of two Expansion is done from the bottom up Use this command to maintain a picture s relative harmonic content when switching between frequency maps i e going from semitones to quarter tones Pixels disappear when they are expanded beyond the canvas height It is a good idea to increase the canvas height to accommodate the expansion Since expansion is done from the bottom
124. es move in the opposite direction MetaSynth s creator Eric Wenger needed a tool to realize the complex electronic compositions that played in his mind He needed a tool that could be used for creating sample based contemporary electronic music realistic orchestral compositions and abstract electronic compositions There were several capabilities required of the tool 1 the ability to control the envelope dynamics of each harmonic of a sound 2 the ability to generate sounds with a nearly unlimited harmonic range 3 the ability to determine the location in space of each harmonic at any moment in time and 4 the ability to define arbitrary tonal spaces so that one could compose in microtonal spaces as easily as in traditional semitone spaces While working on a computer painting program he realized that the graphical manipulations which were so common in advanced graphics applications could be applied to sound if you thought of stereo sound as a color picture sound pictures in which color represented stereo placement brightness represented volume and the horizontal and vertical axes represented time and pitch Once Eric began to work with this new metaphor he found that the tools in these graphics applications yielded wonderful useful musical results and the Image Synth the heart of MetaSynth was born With each new version of MetaSynth more graphics tools have been added to MetaSynth so that it is no longer necessary to use an
125. ete tetti HE eer gero tni 103 Octave Transpose Nudge Transpose 5 5i c tete HOD RR RERO Normale reena moment nmn Smooth ERveloDE sett ete tee etie d o RE ene Smooth Decay Smooth Right a 104 Interpol te tote og cea ete pate e get e pepe eee uud 105 105 Preview key cete epo cete eta eee epi p E Rd 105 Tips Displays ui eee EO S e Dee patate decet ever 106 ABOUT THIS CBEAPTER necceecthtecee ete eet e WAVEUIABLE PALETTE at op te dere ot ceste eve ree ere a SQuare COnlr cls sce ite te e e e e n D tees cons SquarecRoot Exp rid Scale Frequenty ough NE bee ee COMET ASE Filter HF Smoothing eee etree hae RIGHT HAND TOOLBAR SINE WAV M M quate WAave eren ae ds Og m E Idm VOI c 114 114 hdc 115 Ad OCLAVES PP 115 ur PR TEC
126. f pixel lines in the canvas or the selected region by a pixel Single pixels are not removed To remove single pixels use the Noise Filter command from the Processes submenu This tool is handy for shaping decay envelopes It is often useful to apply Shorten a few times before applying Quantize Pulse Saw or M Blur Option Shorten This separates notes pixel lines at the specified grid boundaries by removing the ends of notes if the pixels on either side of the grid boundary have different luminosities volume Option Shorten is especially useful after applying the Quantize Hot Filter It keeps notes from running into one another Attacks Sharpen the attacks of notes Brighten by 1 5 times the first pixels of all pixel horizontal lines except where first pixel is faint Use this command to add a percussive attack to notes It is often used several times in succession to achieve the desired degree of percussiveness It is often desirable when creating percussive music to use wide pictures with a low Samples Per Pixel setting specified using the Tempo Duration Dialog Such settings allow for precise control of note envelopes and attacks Max Replicate the brightest pixel maximum intensity vertically at the intervals specified by the Hot Filter Grid interval When applied to an entire picture this results in vertical lines or bands This command is most often used when creating images to be used as filters Use this command on the Blue cha
127. f the Procedural Synth and its operation 127 Sample Editor amp Its Allies sample Editor Filter Palette Effects Palette Envelope Editors The Menus iSample Editor Duration Display Move to Start Move to End j Command Drag Zoom fo select within fe wavatam Fit te scnpen 1 About This Chapter This chapter describes the basic tools and operations of MetaSynth s built in Sample Editor Complete descriptions of the available menu commands are given in the chapters which cover the individual menus File Open Sounds Transform and Morph Familiarity with the information covered in the Overview section of this manual is helpful for getting the most out of this chapter Sample Editor The green waveform you see in the background when you launch MetaSynth is the Sample Editor s waveform display The Sample Editor is a full featured memory based sample editor which features clickless auto crossfaded editing and a number of powerful sound morphing tools The Sample Editor is where the sounds created by the Image Synth are loaded and the displayed waveform is what the Effects and Filter Palettes 129 Sample Editor modify This sound can in turn be used as an input source for the Image Synth or saved as sound file The Sample Editor features unique sound morphing capabilities that are accessed through its Transform and Morph menus The available commands include Pan Envelope Pit
128. f the envelope canvas represents amplitude volume and the horizontal axis represents time The time axis is scaled to the duration of the shorter of the two sounds The two envelopes are completely independent The sounds waveforms are displayed below the envelope canvas The color bars to the right of the waveform displays allows you to select the envelope to shape To select an envelope for shaping click on the color bar above the sound s name The color bar becomes highlighted to show that it is the active envelope Note The envelope curves are independent Hence distortion clipping can occur Press Preview to audition the mix If distortion is heard lower the levels of one or both of the mix envelopes Press the OK icon button the checkmark to execute the mix If you are unhappy with the mix press command z or choose Undo from the Edit menu to restore the original sound MetaTip Crossfade described below is similar to Cross Mix but maintains unity gain between the two envelope curves and thus prevents clipping distortion The envelope editor is a standard MetaSynth Envelope Editor For more information about envelope editing see the Envelope Editors chapter of this manual Crossfade command f Mix the selection with another sound file using mix envelopes that maintain unity gain thus preventing clipping distortion This command is similar to Cross Mix except that unity gain is maintained MetaSynth prompts you
129. for the other sound to mix then opens the Crossfade dialog box 177 The vertical axis of the envelope canvas represents amplitude volume the horizontal axis represents time The time axis is scaled to the duration of the shorter of the two sounds The sounds waveforms are displayed below the envelope canvas Because the mix envelopes maintain unity gain only one envelope the green envelope is directly editable The red envelope is automatically adjusted to maintain unity gain between the two envelopes MetaTip We frequently use this command to combine different renditions of the same sound picture See the Super MetaTip at the beginning of this chapter Cross Convolve Morph and mix two sounds together with user definable mix and morph envelopes MetaSynth prompts you for the other sound then opens the Cross Convolve dialog box Cross Convolve provides three independent user definable envelopes for mixing three sounds e morphed convoluted sound labeled A Mul the blue curve e the selection labeled A the green curve e chosen sound file labeled B the red curve The envelope editor is a standard MetaSynth envelope editor For more information about envelope editing see the Envelope Editors chapter of this manual The blue curve The blue envelope labeled Mul B which stands for A multiplied by B determines the amplitude of the morphed sound in the final mix Th
130. from 0 to 1 Scale Frequency Click and drag left or right to scale the waveform horizontally Shift option drag to scale the waveform s amplitude the vertical scale Dragging to the right has the effect of increasing the frequency of the waveform by increasing the number of wave cycles Rotate Click and drag left or right to rotate the waveform on its axis Great for making subtle adjustments to the blend of a waveform s harmonics The visual effect is similar to vertical scaling Contrast Click and drag to the right to increase the waveform contrast 1 e the difference between the waveform s peaks and valleys This tool has a normalizing effect Dragging to the left restores the original waveform Filter HF Smoothing Click and drag to the right to reduce high frequency harmonics Drag to the left to restore the original waveform Option drag to smooth less Waveforms rich in high frequency can be problematic when playing pictures that have significant high frequency content In such cases use this tool to reduce the HF content Right Hand Toolbar Most of these tools morph the waveform towards the picture displayed on the tool s icon when the mouse is dragged to the right The original waveform is restored by dragging to the left The tools are listed in column order Sine Wave Drag to the right to morph the current waveform towards a sine wave Sine waves are pure tones with a flute like quality They are
131. g of pitches as you ascend the scale For example when using Harmonic 16 the pixel at y 16 is much higher in pitch than the pixel at y 17 Great techno and synthesizer sounds can easily be simulated using these scales Harmonic 16 and 32 are great for constructing sounds since even dense blocks of pixels yield interesting wave forms Custom Scales Dialog Items Scale Name The name of the Custom Scale is displayed here This field is not directly editable The name displayed is either the name stored in the scale file or an algorithmically generated name if the Compute Ratios button was used Import Scale Display the Open File dialog for you to choose a custom scale stored in a text file A large number of scales are provided in the Scales folder of MetaSynth s home folder This dialog contains a preview area that displays the first several lines of any selected scale file Option click the Import Scale button to import a spectrum file created with the Morph menu s Instant Spectrum command as a custom scale This option is great for sound design Use this option with dense pictures to create wild new sounds Export Scale Export the current scale as text which be reused other presets Compute Ratios Press this button to have MetaSynth fill in the scale according to the algorithm chosen Option clicking this button fills in the harmonic series if the Linear Subdivision option is chosen The options are Lin
132. ground you can create high pass low pass band pass or other filters custom tailored to the frequency content of the underlying sound As you mouse around in the Filter Palette helpful information is displayed in the Tips Display in the upper right portion of the palette How The Filter Palette Works Like the Image Synth the Filter Palette has a canvas upon which you paint the filter The vertical axis represents frequency and the horizontal axis represents time The duration of the picture is equal to the duration of the current sound not the current sound picture The filter is drawn with blue pixels The brightness of the pixels determines how much sound passes through the filter Where the filter is black no sound passes through Orange pixels have no effect on the filter They are like the Image Synth s blue channel You can do a frequency analysis of the current sound to the orange channel by clicking on the Analyze Sound tool This gives you a template of the current sound over which you can draw your filter Where the blue and orange pictures intersect sound passes through the filter 20 Overview The Filter Palette can open preset libraries so that you can save and re use your favorite filters Also any picture can be pasted into the palette and used as a filter A full complement of tools similar to the Image Synth s are available in the Filter Palette See the Filter Palette chapter in the reference section for
133. gs for each particular application The tab key can be used to cycle through the parameters The parameters for this effect are Fundamental Select the base pitch of the sample This setting is important as MetaSynth centers its FFT analysis on this frequency Time Stretch in percent or milliseconds The degree of time stretching can be set either by entering it as percentage of the original duration or by entering the desired duration of the computed sound Values can be entered by either clicking on the field and typing or by clicking and dragging up or down The original duration is displayed for information purposes and is read only When typing a value press Return to enter the setting and deselect the field Pitch Shift The desired amount of pitch shift The units are tenths of a semitone One semitone equals 10 120 equals one octave Values can be entered by either clicking on the field and typing or by clicking and dragging up or down When typing press Return to enter the value and deselect the field Filter effect pop up menu Choose an effect to apply when processing the sound The choices are None process the sound without additional filtering Noise Filter remove low amplitude data from the processed sound This option usually adds a metallic character to the re synthesized sound Harmonic Filter removes all frequencies that are not part of the harmonic series of the specified fundamental Great for add
134. hat have been opened during the current MetaSynth session The Open Sound Dialog contains a preview area with a Play button SoundDesigner II files may be previewed by highlighting their name and pressing the Play button Currently AIFF files cannot be previewed If the opened file ends with a extension MetaSynth will look for the matching file and open the file pair as a stereo sound To edit the left and right channels of split stereo pairs independently use this trick To edit the left channel open the sound and use the Mono Stereo Toggle to switch to 132 Note Sample Editor mono mode which discards the right channel To edit the right channel open the file with the Open Sound command This tool is equivalent to choosing Open from the File menu MetaSynth will not prevent you from opening sounds created at other sample rates but they will be played back as if they were 44 1 kHz sounds which will result in pitch and time shift Save Sound Save the currently opened sound to a new Sound Designer II format file This tool is equivalent to choosing Save As from the File menu Stereo sounds are saved as split stereo also called dual mono file pairs with the left and right channels labeled and R extensions respectively Option Save Option clicking this tool saves only the active selection Warning Any loop data from the original file is lost Mono Stereo Toggle Click here to c
135. he checkmark icon to make the current synth patch available for use as an Image Synth input source without affecting the currently loaded sample Complete patches that include all of the envelope pitch and amplitude settings can be saved to or loaded from disk by pressing the Save and Open icon buttons at the dialog box s right edge Additionally each waveform and envelope displayed Carrier and Modulation waveforms A and B and the Evolution envelope can be saved to disk by using the Save and Load icon buttons found in the waveforms envelope editors When generating sounds for the Sample Editor you will probably want to provide additional shaping with the Filter or Effects Palettes or the Envelope menu command after computing the sound NOTE When used as an Image Synth input source the carrier wave s frequency is determined by the note s pitch in the Image Synth The modulation frequency however does not change hence the relationship between the carrier and modulator changes with the pitch In a sound picture whose pixels cover a relatively narrow frequency range this is generally not a problem Sometimes this behavior may be undesirable In such cases it is best to press the Apply button in the Procedural Synth Dialog and use the generated sample as the input source You may also want to consider creating an Instrument from a number of samples generated with different pitches A brief note about FM Synthesis In FM S
136. he current one By default the file Metasynth presets found in the same folder as MetaSynth is the active library Use the Open Presets File command in the Image Synth s File submenu to make another library active To view the presets of the previously opened library command click the Preset Selector This is very handy for working with two preset libraries and copying images between them To remove a preset hold down the option key the cursor becomes the X delete cursor and choose the preset to be deleted with the Preset Selector This command cannot be undone The MetaSynth folder and the CD both contain a large number of sample preset files worth exploring Add Filter MetaTip Click here to add the displayed sound picture as a filter picture in the active filter library The image is added to the first blank space in the active filter library To replace the most recently selected filter option click the Add Filter tool Filter Selector Click and drag here to pop up a menu of the active library s filter pictures When chosen the selected filter picture is applied to the selection or the entire canvas if there is no selection using the multiply transfer mode Drag past the lower boundary to display more filters as there may be more than can be displayed in a single screen The selected filter is applied to the selected region of the current sound picture using the multiply transfer mode Grayscale filters
137. he selected region vertically to invert the picture s pitches Repeat Pitch Replace the upper half of the canvas or the selected region with the lower half This command is not affected by the current frequency map You may want to adjust the brightness of the new pixels after applying this process Maximum Find the maximum brightness of the pixels of the canvas or the selected region and replicate them horizontally Use this command to create long sustained tones generate a harmonic grid in the Blue Channel or create a filter from the frequency spectrum of the analysis of a sound Brush Grid Tool New in 2 5 The Brush Grid allows painting and selection operations to be aligned to grid points defined by the Brush Grid Interval Turn constraint on by clicking the Brush Grid toggle or hold down the shift key and paint Brushes and the Selection Tool are constrained to the grid when it is active 96 Image Synth Reference The Brush Grid allows you to easily enter or select notes in time by setting the Brush Grid Interval to appropriate pixel widths Use this tool in conjunction with the Tempo Duration Dialog to set up the sound canvas for the direct entry of note based music This tool provides instant access to the Brush Grid formerly hidden in the Preferences dialog and provides a way to turn on the grid for painting with rhythmic constraints without needing to press the shift key while painting MetaTip Wi
138. he various brushes is influenced by both Brush Mode Brush Size and the Brush Options see the Brush Option dialog later in this chapter The Brush Options have somewhat different meanings in Dot and Line modes Repeat Mode is a special case of Dot Mode When exploring the brushes it is worthwhile to get a little hands on experience with the difference between Dot and Line Modes as the effects are more easily understood when experienced than when described The picture below demonstrates the difference between Dot and Line modes Both portions where drawn with the same brush following the same contours The upper portion was drawn in line mode while the lower portion was drawn in Dot mode The brush was 15 pixels wide 1 pixel high and had a minimum spacing see Brush Options Dialog of 30 pixels Dot Mode This is the default brush mode and results in diffuse discontinuous strokes In Dot Mode the minimum spacing setting in the Brush Option Dialog invoked by double clicking the Brush Size Tool determines the minimum distance between notes strokes This mode can be used to leave discrete notes along the mouse path The speed with which the mouse is dragged influences the continuity of the strokes regardless of the minimum spacing Dragging quickly results in increased space between notes This brush is well suited to entering discrete notes or copies of the brush shape 79 Image Synth Reference Line Mode In Line M
139. hics in a musical way You can create pictures from scratch or work with pictures imported from other applications MetaSynth s Custom Scales feature enables you to explore non standard and microtonal tunings in ways never before possible 16 The Image Synth is used for both sound design and music composition sometimes both at the same time It all depends on what the picture is and how you set up the Image Synth In certain respects the Image Synth resembles the piano roll type display found in conventional MIDI sequencers In other respects the Image Synth resembles a super sonogram The displayed picture can be heard by previewing the sound picture or by synthesizing computing it Computing the sound generates a CD quality 16 bit 44 1 KHz sound When computed the sound is automatically loaded into the Sample Editor and played back Previews are performed in real time in mono at reduced fidelity Previewing will give you a rough idea of what the picture will sound like and is convenient for checking your work as you go when working with pictures that take a while to compute In some cases if the picture is simple enough MetaSynth will preview the sound at full fidelity When previewing the sound is not routed to the Sample Editor How MetaSynth Plays a Picture Pictures are converted to sound using a few simple rules though the effects are not so simple The vertical axis represents pitch The higher up the picture
140. ient response The tutorials and appendices of this manual have useful information for getting the most out of this feature Use analysis to tune samples precisely Perform an analysis in semitones Mouse over the prominent harmonic the sound s actual fundamental and observe the frequency in the Tips Display Set the Master Tuning parameter of the Image Synth to a pitch near the sample s fundamental Set the frequency map to Micro32 Mouse over the fundamental and observe the frequency in the Tips Display Use Transpose in the Effects Palette to transpose the sample to the desired frequency More information about this technique is provided in the Instruments chapter of this manual Edit Submenu The Image Synth maintains separate clipboards for graphic data and sound data This submenu affects only the graphics clipboard The keyboard shortcuts for this menu do not use the command key The operations available from this menu provide sophisticated processes for combining images Pasted images can be applied as filters to multiplied against added to merged with subtracted from faded into or out of the current sound picture In addition the Transfer Modes available from the left hand toolbar s Transfer Modes pop up menu affect the way that data pasted with the Insert command interact with the underlying image When an image is pasted it is scaled to the current selection or the entire canvas if there is no selection If the shif
141. ift or time modulation Before applying these effects it is often a good idea to perform a frequency analysis the Image Synth s Analyze Current Sound command to determine the fundamental pitch Fourier Window pop up menu Set the granularity of the FFT analysis This setting has a large impact on the character of the computed sound A small window increases time resolution and decreases frequency resolution Large windows have the opposite effect Large windows tend to smooth rapid transients and small windows tend to decrease low frequency response Convolve command k Morph the selection by using another sound file to shape its harmonic envelope MetaSynth prompts you to select a file from which the harmonic envelope is taken The resulting sound is the length of the shorter of the two sounds Unlike Cross Convolve this process is asymmetrical The phase and pitch of the selection are preserved but its harmonic envelope is shaped by the chosen sound file Convolve performs higher resolution 2048 band FFT convolution than Formants Filter 128 bands Also the convolution is unsmoothed which allows for transient effects not possible with Formants Filter which performs a smoothed convolution You may want to try both effects to determine which yields the desired results For terrific results open a sustained melodic sound file in the Sample Editor or synthesize one with the Image Synth Choose Convolve and select a soun
142. ilter Tool Click and hold the mouse button here to apply a Filter Picture Stereo Mono Toggle Click here to switch between stereo color and mono grayscale Input Source Selector Click here to change the picture s sound input source Hot Filter Grid Interval Use the arrows to double or halve the interval or type a new value Press tab to complete the entrv Preview Click here to hear a real time mono preview of the sound QuickStart Pre Flight The Self Tour In this section you will open the Self Tour preset library and listen to a variety of sound pictures The Self Tour will give you an idea of the kinds of sounds that you can create in MetaSynth During the course of the Self Tour you will occasionally be prompted by MetaSynth to find a file Don t worry if you don t understand why The dialog box will have the name of the file you are looking for It will be found in either the Input Samples f or Instruments f of MetaSynth s home directory Some pictures in the Self Tour have comments in blue If you are not sure what they mean don t worry e Launch MetaSynth Click on the Image Synth Palette to bring it to the front if it isn t already e o to open a preset library e Choose the file Se f tour presets which is found in the QuickStart folder in MetaSynth s home directory ad Click on the Select Preset tool to pop up a menu of the library s presets Pre
143. ind the appropriate value select a note in the Sample Editor and observe the selection length Don t forget to deselect the selection type command d so that the effect will be applied to the whole sample Input step in millisecond The rate at which grains are fed into the Grain engine If the input and output steps are the same length the resulting sound will have the same length as the original sound With an input step larger than the output step the duration will be compressed If the input step value is smaller than the output step the duration will be expanded A good starting point for exploration is with the input step and output step set to the same value A value 1 4 of the grain size ensures smooth output Use small input output step values to artificially color the sound 147 MetaTip MetaTip Effects Palette Output step in millisecond The rate at which grains are output by the Grain effect Output steps smaller than the grain size ensure continuous output Output steps larger than the grain size result in gaps between output grains If the output and input steps are different sizes time modulation stretching or expansion occurs Use small input output step values to artificially color the sound Randomization in percent The degree of randomization of grain order A setting of 0 plays back the grains in the original order A setting of 100 completely randomizes the grain order The left and right channel gra
144. ing can yield interesting results To avoid extreme pitch shifts you can use Instruments which map different samples to different pitch ranges Also the Octave Up and Octave Down commands in the Transform menu as well as the Effects palette s Transpose effect can be used to adjust the sample s pitch to a more optimal range for the picture Note The Tips Display shows the degree of the sample s transposition when the mouse is moved over the canvas The degree of transposition measured in semitones is indicated in the display s second column beside the note and octave indication Sample mode is computationally intensive Complex pictures may be challenging for MetaSynth s real time preview If previewing the picture stutters or yields no sound use the Selection Tool to select a portion of the picture then preview the selection You can create extremely rich sounds with this input source mode A picture can play hundreds of pitch and amplitude modulated versions of the sample If you synthesize render the picture you can use that output again to render the picture and have tens of thousands of voices This is a great trick to try with samples like flutes with simple harmonic content After a few iterations the picture can sound like a full orchestra Looped Sample Formerly called Crossfaded Sample This mode is similar to Sample mode except that the sample is looped The loop is created by overlapping the sample s begin
145. ing pitch to speech and other unpitched sounds Creates a classic vocoder effect Odd Harmonics retain only harmonics that are common to the odd harmonics of the harmonic series of the specified fundamental Great for adding pitch to speech and other unpitched sounds Octaves retain only harmonics that are common to the octave harmonics of the harmonic series of the specified fundamental Great for adding pitch to speech and other unpitched sounds Significantly reduces the overtones in the resulting sound 181 MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip Morph Menu e FFT Amp Inertia average the amplitude of the original and re synthesized grains This process has a strange metallic reverb like effect that slightly desynchronizes the frequency and amplitude of the original sound and tends to smooth rapid transients e FFT Pitch Inertia averages the frequency of the old and new grains Pitch inertia adds micro glissandos that smooth out rapid pitch changes With this effect exaggerated glissandi may appear at the beginning of the processed sound though they stabilize over time Inertia applies both FFT Amp and FFT Pitch inertia Vibrato is attenuated Use this effect when stretching sounds that will be looped As with pitch inertia exaggerated glissandi may appear at the beginning of the processed sound though they stabilize over time The Filter effects can be used to great effect by themselves without performing pitch sh
146. ins are randomized independently yielding wild stereo effects Shuffler A granular synthesis based shuffler effect which breaks up the source sound into 16 slices and reorders them according to the parameter settings This effect is great for reordering drum loops to create new rhythms or for creating rhythm loops from non rhythmic material This effect is great for both discontinuous type sounds like drum loops or continuous sounds like string samples When used with drum loops the effect constructs a new pattern With a sustained input source the effect is like a tremolo Speed in BPM Sets the grain time slice size in BPM beats per minute When working with drum loops set this value to a multiple of the drum loop s tempo For example to re order the loop with sixteenth note feel set the BPM value to 4 times the tempo of the original loop Randomization in percent The degree of randomization of grain order A setting of 0 plays back the grains close to the original order A setting of 100 completely randomizes the grain order Attack in percent Adjusts the contour of the grains amplitude envelopes A setting of 100 results in a percussive envelope 0 overlaps the envelopes for smoother transitions Chorus Creates a familiar voice doubling effect by mixing in a frequency modulated copy of the source sound 148 Effects Palette Chorus amount Adjusts the wet dry mix of the chorused and original signal 100 plays back o
147. is brush then switching back to the intended map This technique works especially well with microtonal tunings Attack Brush shift t MetaTip A brush that paints with a hard left edge hence a sharp attack with a soft decay The upper pixels of the brush if it has a vertical dimension greater than a pixel fade out faster than the lower pixels This brush is great for creating percussive attacks with bell like decays Try this brush with microtonal frequency maps like Micro50 or with custom scales based on the harmonic series like Harmol6 and Harmo32 82 Image Synth Reference Smoothing Brush shift s A brush that smoothes the pixels over which it passes giving notes smooth attacks and decays This brush affects only existing pixels Spray Brush A spray paint type brush Great for creating grainy noisy textures Decay Brush shift d MetaTip A brush that extends existing pixels to the right to increase durations This brush affects only existing pixels An alternate technique for extending durations is to select the desired region and press option right arrow to extend the pixels Make sure the Transfer Mode is set to Maximum Note Brush MetaTip Note New in 2 5 A brush for freeform note drawing Press and drag to leave a trail of notes in the mouse s path Notes are always quantized to the current Brush Grid interval The edges of the notes are less hard edged than the Pen Brush Generally thi
148. is list is one pixel high The Brush Size can be further refined with direct numerical entry in the Brush Width or Brush Height fields x Brush Width A numerical control for setting the brush width 87 MetaTip Image Synth Reference y Brush Height A numerical control for setting the brush height Minimum Spacing A numerical control for modifying the minimum spacing setting This number determines the spacing between brush strokes when dragging the mouse in Dot and Repeat modes or the length of lines when in Line brush mode The effect of this setting is quite different in Line and Dot brush modes In Dot mode the effect is to ensure space between brush strokes if the minimum spacing is larger than the brush size No paint is added in the space between strokes in this mode In Line Mode this setting acts as a sort of line grid in effect it sets the minimum line length Transfer Mode Submenu This menu is available in the space below the Brush Palette tool when the Selection Tool is active The transfer mode determines how a selection interacts with the pixels of the existing image Most of these processes have a corresponding paste command in the Edit submenu The selection may be created by using the Selection Tool or by using the Edit submenu s Insert Pict command shortcut The transfer is not complete until the region is deselected Shortcut You can advance through the transfer modes by pressing the 7 ke
149. ith two different but related MetaSynth Instruments For example render a sound picture with a string orchestra instrument set of samples and save the result Now use a string orchestra or violin section instrument that uses a different set of samples Finally use the Crossfade to fade back and forth between the two sounds This yields the sort of timbral variations you just can t get with a sampler 176 For a psychedelic effect render the picture with totally different instruments Render the sound picture first with strings then with flutes or timpani Now Crossfade or Cross Convolve the two sounds OUCH Mix 50 command m Perform an equal power mix of the selection with another sound file When you choose this command MetaSynth prompts you to select the file to mix with the selection The result s duration will be the length of the selection Mix is a quick but useful way of combining two sounds Cross Mix Mix the selection with another sound file using user defined mix envelopes The mix length is the duration of the shorter of the two sounds MetaSynth presents a file selector dialog box for you to choose the other sound The Cross Mix dialog box is then opened with an envelope editor for you to shape the mix envelopes of the two sounds The mix envelopes can be shaped by direct manipulation clicking and dragging the envelope curves or using the envelope shaping tools The vertical axis o
150. ixels defining the line s endpoints To achieve a classic edge tracing effect use this command sequence Trace Edges V Copy Pict c Undo z Trace Edges H Max Pict k or Add Pict e Trace Edges H Trace edges horizontally Traces the edge of pixel lines along their vertical boundaries Where adjacent pixels are on Trace Edges H turns them off If there is a large difference in brightness between adjacent pixels a pixel will appear at the boundary in the resulting image When applied to a solid rectangle for instance the result is a pair of horizontal lines at the rectangle s top and bottom edges When applied to a single pixel high line the resulting image is two new lines either side of the former line s location which will be black in the resulting image To achieve a classic edge tracing effect use this command sequence Trace Edges V Copy Pict c Undo z Trace Edges H Max Pict k or Add Pict e Repeat Twice r Paste a copy of the first half of the canvas or the selected region onto the second half This command is useful for repeating a pattern or phrase when switching to a larger picture width Reverse Time t Flip the canvas or the selected region horizontally to reverse it in time The pictorial equivalent of playing a record or tape backwards Swap Red and Green j Swap the red pixels to the green channel and the green pixels to the red channe
151. k new harmonics 0 plays back the unprocessed signal Semitones Adjusts the base pitch of the harmonics generator tunable to hundredths of a unit Inertia in Percent Decay time of the regenerated harmonics Larger values result in longer decay times Experiment with this value to achieve the desired degree of smoothness Larger values often result in smoother pads Inertia An effect which simulates sympathetic vibrations Just as singing inside a piano while holding down the sustain pedal excites the undampened piano strings and causes them to sustain and ring out Inertia synthesizes the sustained sympathetic vibrations with variable decay Amount in Percent Adjusts the wet dry mix 100 plays back only the processed signal 0 plays back the unprocessed signal Decay Time in Percent Adjusts the decay time of the synthesized vibrations A setting of 100 sustains the vibrations for the maximum time Stretch Expands or compresses a sound s duration using granular synthesis techniques Large stretches may result in unnatural pulsation and coloration however these artifacts are often interesting in themselves Use this effect to create strange 145 Effects Palette unnatural sounds For more naturalistic time stretching use the Osc Bank Phase Vocoder available from the Morph menu Stretch ratio in percent Adjust the amount of time expansion or compression applied to the original sample 50 halves the d
152. l To move only the red or green pixels set the Channel Edit Mode to edit that color channel choose Copy type c switch the Channel Edit Mode to the channel to paste into and Paste v the clipboard image 93 Image Synth Reference Pitch and Harmonics Submenu MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip This submenu is dedicated to processes in the pitch vertical domain Unless otherwise noted the current frequency map affects the outcome of the operation New in 2 5 Add Fundamental Add Harmonic Fit to scale and Filter scale have all been modified to support the new possible scales and the new master tuning tool They will give the closest approximation of the solution depending on the frequencies available in the current frequency map Lower Even Lines Lower the brightness amplitude of the even numbered pixels Several applications in a row are needed to actually remove the pixels This process acts like a comb filter The frequency map does not effect this command This command can help reduce the clutter in dense pictures To remove the odd numbered pixels transpose the picture up or down one pixel with the arrow keys before applying the process then shift them back into position when done Fit to Scale Remap pixels to fit a user definable diatonic scale Pixels not found in the chosen scale are shifted up or down to the nearest pitch in the scale A dialog box appears with pop up menus to choose
153. l Synth MetaSynth can use several different sound sources to play Image Synth sound pictures In this section we explore some of them Sample Input Source Click on the Input Source Selector If you have changed the input source the icon will be that of the chosen input source Sine Wave Table is the default source ue p Choose Sample from the list of available input sources which appear EJ Press the Preview icon to audition the sound Hold down the option and shift keys and press the up arrow of the Octave Transpose tool and play the sound Like many graphics applications when you hold down the option key a copy of the original picture is left behind Pressing the shift key when clicking Octave Transpose transposes the selection or the entire picture if there is no selection by a fifth 29 QuickStart Wave Table Input Source e Click on the Input Source Selector and choose Wave Table e Preview the sound You will hear two sine waves a fifth apart e Choose Wave Table from the Windows menu e Click on any of the wave shaping tools and drag to the right Click on the Image Synth Palette to bring it back to the front Preview the picture Procedural Synth Click on the Input Source Selector and choose Procedural Synth e Choose Procedural Synth from the Sounds menu to open the Procedural Synth Modify the Modulator wave by applying any of the wave shaping tools Experiment with different amount a
154. l movement changes the image contrast and vertical movement changes the brightness luminance Use the shift key to constrain the tool to contrast adjustments and option shift to constrain to brightness adjustments Remap Colors Dialog Double clicking the Contrast amp Luminance tool invokes the Remap Colors Dialog This tool can be used to create a range of effects You can use it to achieve the visual equivalents of audio compression gating and expansion or to create wild psychedelic effects 99 Image Synth Reference At the left of the dialog is a display of the image as it will appear with its colors remapped The central area is the remapping canvas which is a standard MetaSynth envelope editor see the section Envelope Editors of this manual Beneath the envelope canvas is a color bar that displays the remapped spectrum The red and green envelopes are independent The red envelope controls remapping of the red color channel The green envelope controls remapping of the green color channel Click on the channel toggle beside the color bar to switch between envelopes The Protect Black checkbox can be used to ensure that silence remains silence Turning this option off allows black to be remapped which can result in undesirable side effects if you don t make sure that some other shade is remapped to black MetaTip Use this tool to remove faint pixels after doing an analysis of a sound MetaTip To apply the same curve to both
155. l the selected portion of the displayed waveform or the entire sample if there is no selection White noise is made up of frequencies with equal amplitude randomly distributed across the entire frequency spectrum Filtered white noise can be used for creating sounds such as wind surf and snare drums and 165 Sounds Menu can even be used to create interesting metallic semi pitched sounds by applying the Resonator and Harmonics effects MetaTip Try this technique generate white noise use the Filter Palette to contour the noise apply the Effects Palette s Resonator effect to make the sound pitched Narrow Noise Generate narrow noise to fill the selected portion of the displayed waveform or the entire sample if there is no selection Narrow noise is made up of frequencies randomly generated within a narrower frequency range than white noise It sounds much like static on a short wave radio Fractal Noise Generate fractal noise to fill the selected portion of the displayed waveform or the entire sample if there is no selection Fractal noise is similar to white noise but the amplitude of the partials varies inversely with frequency higher frequencies have increasingly lower amplitudes It is a great starting point for room tone and other low rumbles Procedural Synth Carrier Modulation v a AN n w pala Ao 82 Adee
156. le Submenu 57 Pict Files nne A NE 57 Save as Pict File s 2 57 New Presets File 2 58 New Filters 58 Open PresetsPile0 57 RR TOC ERE RET RENE eet 58 Open Filters File ue Analyze Current Sound 58 Edit SU bPnW sau teet eet e aste pea Undo 2 Copy Pict c Paste Pict v Inser amp Piet D S sena eme eR Clear delete comer RHET TIENE ERE RR EE YET TERT Invert 1 e Max Piet I e eerte itte tete eat tee beet Min Add Pict Subtract Pict 1 Multiply Pict s Merse Piet i incre ho nitide ied eee eq ee et Crossfade Pict x Fade in out Pict u P ste to Bl e 63 Select All o e e HR eos 63 Deselect AN d rece tereti iet oet es 63 Add sens es ete 63 Preset Selector vests neni 64 Add e e de e 64 Filter Selector sss sdcuce ae
157. le smoothing effect Right Hand Toolbar The following shaping tools appear to the right of the canvas area Each tool morphs the current curve to the shape displayed on the tool s icon The original waveform is restored by dragging to the left Max Line Drag the tool to the right to morph the envelope into a horizontal line with the maximum value Min Line Drag the tool to the right to morph the envelope into a horizontal line with the minimum value Fade in Drag the tool to the right to force the curve to a linear fade in Fade in out linear Drag the tool to the right to force the curve to a linear fade in fade out Fade out Drag the tool to the right to force the curve to a linear fade out 155 BH E B Envelope Editors Fade in out non linear Drag the tool to the right to force the curve to a non linear fade in fade out Bell Curve Drag the tool to the right to force the curve towards a bell curve Sine Wave Drag the tool to the right to force the curve to a sine wave The number of cycles from 1 to 4 is determined by the Mouse Influence Frequency Control Randomize Drag the tool to the right to randomize the curves values Cosmic Drag the tool to the right to drag it to the cosmic curve the product of a sine wave multiplied by a Gaussian curve 156 Menus File Menu Edit Menu Sounds Menu Transform Menu Morph Menu Instruments Menu Windows Menu File M
158. le that contains a collection of pictures that can be used as filters Any image displayed on the canvas can be added to the current filter library by clicking on the Add Filter icon There is always an active filter library At startup MetaSynth automatically opens the library named MetaSynth filters found in the same folder as MetaSynth The active filter library is accessed by clicking on the Filter Selector icon Filters and preset libraries see below share the same file format Filter Filter Picture A picture found in a filter library When discussing the Image Synth a filter or filter picture is an image chosen from the active filter library that is applied to the canvas using the multiply transfer mode described below These are attenuating filters as MetaSynth uses units between 0 and to represent brightness Frequency Map To play back a sound picture MetaSynth needs to know how to map the vertical scale of a picture to pitch frequency This is done with frequency maps There are a number of built in frequency maps to handle whole tone mapping semitones and a number of other common mappings including microtonal mappings It is also possible to define your own custom scales This makes MetaSynth a perfect tool for exploring almost any imaginable tuning or intonation system Multiply This is the most commonly used transfer mode When you apply a filter picture this transfer mode is used When two images are combined using the mul
159. lection end has been scrolled out of view Zoom Sample View Click and drag left or right to zoom the sample display in or out When there is a selection the zoom is centered around it Double clicking the tool zooms out to display the entire waveform Shortcut Option drag the waveform directly to zoom in and out The visible region will be centered about the initial click location Option drag is inertial while dragging the zoom tool is not Sample Selection Duration Display Information about the sound s duration or the selection start and end points is displayed to the right of the Zoom Sample View tool When there is no selection the sound s duration is displayed The selection start and end times are displayed when a portion of the waveform is selected Tips Display At the right edge of the upper toolbar is the Tips Display When the mouse is over the waveform the time corresponding to the mouse location is displayed When the mouse is over a tool the tool s name is displayed When MetaSynth is involved in a time consuming calculation progress info is displayed here You can cancel any process by clicking in the menubar Left Hand Toolbar Open Sound MetaTip Open any 16 bit 44 1 kHz Sound Designer or AIFF sound file The file becomes the currently loaded sound whose waveform is displayed in the Sample Display Area and the file s name is added to the Sounds menu along with the names of the other sounds t
160. led to the duration of the selected region of the sample The sample s or selection s waveform is displayed below the envelope canvas to provide a guide while shaping the envelope Click and drag the curve directly or use any of the provided envelope shaping tools The tools are MetaSynth s standard envelope editing tools Use the Preview button to audition the envelope as applied to the sample or selection You can achieve quite complex effects Use this tool to create fades adjust the sample volume create tremolo effects and more Click the OK icon button the checkmark to replace the selection with the processed sound Chaotic or rapidly changing envelopes especially when applied over a short duration can be used to generate overtones This can be useful when you want to distort a sample Select a short region 250 milliseconds or less of the current sample Choose Envelope Use either of the bottom most tools in the right hand toolbar to shape the envelope Preview the sound When the sound has lots of overtones click the OK icon button Treat the sample further using the Effects or Filter Palettes then use it as an input source for a picture or as part of an Instrument See the chapter Envelope Editors for a complete description of MetaSynth s envelope editing environment Pitch Envelope Modulate the sample s or the selected region s pitch over time using a pitch envelope The envelope s vertical axis determines the degree of
161. library provided on the hard disk The sample folder contains a number of sounds that work great as input samples for the Image Synth Don t forget to explore the hundreds of megabytes of MetaSynth Instruments provided on the CD that range from beautiful natural samples of acoustic instruments to wild electronic and hybrid sounds Most instruments include sample preset libraries that will give you a sense of their possibilities 49 MetaSynth Reference Image Synth and Its Allies Image Synth Palette The Wave Table Instruments Sample Editor and Its Allies Sample Editor Filter Palette Effects Palette Envelope Editors Menus File Menu Edit Menu Sounds Menu Transform Menu Morph Menu Instruments Menu Windows Menu Tutorials Summary 50 Image Synth amp Its Allies Image Synth Palette The Wave Table Instruments Procedural Synth Image Synth Palette About This Chapter This chapter describes the individual tools and operations of the Image Synth Palette It is assumed that you are familiar with the material covered in the Overview section of this User Guide The variety of applications for the Image Synth is enormous and this chapter does not attempt to cover them Read this chapter for information about the components of the Image Synth and how they work For ideas about how to use the Image Synth take a look at the QuickStart chapter of the User Guide and the tutorials supplied on the MetaSynth CD Si
162. licking The Clean and Remove DC Offset commands in the Transform menu can be used to remove these artifacts after a sound picture has been synthesized Be careful with waveforms that have significant high frequency content When used with sound pictures which themselves have significant high frequency content the results can be undesirable If this is the case you can use the Smooth Filter HF tool in the Wave Table palette to reduce the source waveform s high frequency content Window Features and Tools Canvas Click on any point of the waveform and drag the mouse up or down to move it The waveform is played back instantly reflecting any changes to it as the mouse is dragged Notice that the tool name is shown in the display area at the bottom right of the palette Lower Toolbar Square Contract Click on this tool to contract the waveform inward The amplitude is multiplied by itself to achieve this effect amplitudes being measured on a scale of 0 to 1 Repeated application of this button followed by Square Root tends to create a wave shape with a rich timbre eventually evolving into a reedy square wave like sound Apply the normalize tool to restore signal strength if repeated applications of this tool reduces the maximum amplitude levels of your waveform 112 MetaTip Wave Table Palette Square Root Expand Click on this control to expand the waveform outward by taking the square root of amplitude values which range
163. llows you to create the new library on any mounted volume The library becomes the active filter library NOTE The preset library file format has been changed While you can still open preset libraries created with MetaSynth 2 0 libraries created with the new version can not be read by MetaSynth 2 0 Open Presets File 0 Open a preset library and make it active This command invokes MetaSynth s Open File dialog and makes the selected file the active preset library The Open Presets File Dialog has a preview area which displays the first 3 presets in the selected library Preset and filter libraries share the same format and may be opened interchangeably Open Filters File Open a filter library and make it active This command invokes MetaSynth s open file dialog and makes the selected file the active filter library The Open Filters File Dialog has a preview area which displays the first 3 presets in the selected library Preset and filter libraries share the same format and may be opened interchangeably Analyze Current Sound n Create a picture based on the Sample Editor s current sound One of MetaSynth s most powerful and misunderstood features Image Synth frequency analysis can be used as a Starting point for synthesis pitch detection and harmonic content analysis See the tutorials and appendices for detailed examples of using this function By pasting a copy of the analysis into the Filter Palette s canvas area
164. ly Reflections 80 20 50 80 Room 45 50 15 20 Outer Space 60 90 80 30 Resonator Add pitch or a pitched resonance to a sound The effect is similar to the familiar doubling effect achieved using digital delays with ultra short echo times and large amounts of regeneration Especially intriguing results can be created by using this on noisy unpitched sources making them more suitable as input sources for the Image Synth Selecting resonant combinations of fifths and or octaves adds an interesting quality to human speech and other sound sources Use this too emphasize particular harmonics of sounds with a known pitch You can find the harmonics of the sound by using the Image Synth s Analyze Current Sound command Amount in percent Adjusts the wet dry mix 100 only plays back the resonated signal 0 plays back the unprocessed signal Pitch in semitones Set the resonant pitch in semitones 144 MetaTip MetaTip Effects Palette Harmonics Reshape the sound by convoluting it with the current Wave Table Palette waveform Harmonics are derived based on the fundamental of the source sound and convoluting it with the Wave Table Experiment with different Wave Table settings and hearing how they impact the resulting sound For subtle effects use a sine wave in the Wave Table and use the Semitones parameter to tune the second voice Amount in percent Adjusts the wet dry mix 100 only plays bac
165. ly the selected region or the entire canvas if there is no selection by the PICT Clipboard This is the same operation that is performed when applying a filter picture with the Filter Selector tool The luminosities of the corresponding pixels of the selection and the clipboard are multiplied together Luminosities are represented internally as values from 0 black to 1 maximum brightness When a stereo image is multiplied by a stereo image the pixels of the corresponding color channels are multiplied Hence green times red is black Yellow times green produces green Black times anything yields black If either pixel is less than maximum brightness the result will be attenuated luminosity Scaling is performed as described for the Paste Pict command Shift selecting this command inverts the PICT Clipboard before applying it Merge Pict m Merge the PICT Clipboard with the selected region or the entire canvas if there is no selection using a 50 blend Scaling is performed as described for the Paste Pict command Crossfade Pict x Crossfade the PICT Clipboard with the selected region or the entire canvas if there is no selection A linear crossfade is performed from left to right with a 0 to 100 gradient Shift selecting this command performs a right to left crossfade Create a symmetrical image using the following key combination c copy t reverse time x crossfade 62 MetaTip MetaTip Note Image Synth R
166. meter With microtonal frequency maps larger picture heights are needed to give reasonably broad frequency spectra When changing the frequency map for a picture it is sometimes useful or necessary to change the picture size There is no need for tall pictures in semitone or whole tone frequency maps as only a limited number of pixels is required to cover the entire audible range The left toolbar s Pitch and Harmonics submenu contains a number of functions useful when changing pict sizes and frequency map These functions can expand or contract the vertical spacing of a picture s pixels and thus adjust the pitches to account for wider or narrower spacing of pitches To check the frequency range of a picture move the mouse over the pixels from bottom to top and read the Tips Display in the lower right hand corner of the window Pixels outside of the audible range have their pitch displayed as dashes Master Tuning Reference Pitch Note Set the reference pitch used to play the sound picture The default setting is A2 220 5 Hz and can be set in semitone increments from A 2 through A12 16Hz through 22050 Hz Changing this setting changes the pitches played back by the canvas image The reference pitch is also taken into account when the File submenu s Analyze Current Sound command is executed Click on the tuning fork icon to display the Master Tuning dialog that allows you to set the reference note and octave for the sound picture
167. mple Editor the open sound file is not closed Typing command w shows the Sample Editor if it was previously hidden Currently MetaSynth only works with 16 bit 44 1 kHz sound files User Interface Note The default tool in the Sample Editor is the scroll tool Click on the waveform and drag left or right to scroll it Scrolling has a unique inertial throw behavior You can throw the waveform to the left or the right with the mouse Clicking on the moving waveform stops its scrolling Several important functions are handled by pressing a keyboard modifier while using the mouse Selecting Selection within the waveform is performed by command dragging the mouse There is no separate selection tool 19 Overview Extending selections Extending a selection is performed by pressing the shift and option keys while dragging Zooming Zooming in and out is performed by option dragging the mouse See the Sample Editor chapter in the reference section for a full description of the Sample Editor and its tools Filter Palette The Filter Palette is a 128 band time varying filter with a pictorial interface The filter modifies the sound currently loaded in the Sample Editor The Filter Palette allows you to create a variety of unique filter effects in addition to providing standard EQ and filter operations You can use it do analog synthesizer like filter sweeps Because you can see the sound to be filtered in the palette s back
168. n of a sweeping filter Note The preset shown is included in the file QuickStart Presets If you need sustained looped notes whose start points to correspond to the sample start use an Instrument based on that sample as the input source Instrument mode is a more sophisticated input mode where you can have many different samples mapped across the frequency range each one with its own loop points See the Instruments chapter for detailed information about MetaSynth Instruments ES Procedural Synth Use the current settings of the Procedural Synth as the input source The Procedural Synth is a frequency modulation FM synthesis tool accessed through the Sounds menu When used as an input source the carrier wave s frequency is determined by the note s pitch in the Image Synth The modulation frequency however does not change hence the relationship between the carrier and modulator changes with the pitch In a sound picture whose pixels cover a relatively narrow frequency range this is generally not a problem Sometimes this behavior may be undesirable In such cases it is best to press the Apply button in the Procedural Synth Dialog and use 69 Image Synth Reference the generated sample as the input source You may also want to consider creating an Instrument from a number of samples generated with different pitches See Procedural Synth in the Sounds Menu chapter for detailed information about the Procedural Synth
169. navigate to the item s directory This is especially handy if you store Instrument files in the same folder as the samples from which they were built Let s say you have opened an Instrument file and decide to edit one of its sample files Choose Open Sound then choose the Instrument s name the Recent Files list The dialog box locates the directory where the Instrument and samples are stored Canceling Interrupting Time Consuming Processes Some MetaSynth processes are time consuming rendering complex pictures that use Sample or Instrument input sources Morph operations with long sounds and some others To cancel such processes computations click in the application s menubar Note Unlike other Macintosh applications MetaSynth doesn t ask you to save your changes when you quit Remember to save your sounds or add your presets to a library if you want them saved Image Synth Overview Custom Scale a Ae Size x 512 y 192 Ul MBlur Quantize Echo Pre Echo E Reverb E Repeat E Reverse i Pulse Saw shorten Attacks E max E a About the Image Synth The Image Synth lies at MetaSynth s heart The central area of the palette the canvas is where sound pictures are edited and created The canvas area is surrounded by the Image Synth s tools which are described in the reference section of this manual These tools provide a broad range of functions and are designed to manipulate grap
170. nd frequency settings by clicking on the numbers and dragging up or down e M Click the OK icon button to confirm the settings e Preview the picture Wave Table with the Input Source Selector We will come back to the Instrument and Looped Sample input sources later Stereo amp Mono Applying a Filter In the Image Synth grayscale images play back in mono and color pictures play in stereo To hear the sound in stereo you must synthesize the sound Preview plays back a mono rendition of the sound Filter pictures can be applied to the canvas image to modify it The filter is applied by multiplying the pixels together This process is described in detail in the Image Synth chapter of the manual 30 QuickStart e Click on the Mono Stereo Toggle to turn the picture into a stereo picture The picture becomes color The white line turns a shade of yellow Red Green balance determines panning Yellow plays in the middle since it is the combination of red which plays the left channel and green which plays the right Press the Apply Filter tool and choose the filter picture which fades from red to green by selecting it in the picture list which pops up The picture now fades from red to green Choose the input source of your choice using the Input Source Selector Wave Table Sample or Procedural Synth Synthesize the sound by clicking the Synthesize tool The previously loaded sample has been
171. ndard mono or stereo 44 1 kHz Sound Designer or AIFF files Instrument Basics An Instrument is a user definable mapping of sample files sound files to pitch ranges that can be used as an input source for the Image Synth Up to 18 different sound files totaling up to 16 megabytes can be used to define an instrument When an Image Synth sound picture plays an Instrument a pixel plays the sample mapped to the range in which the pixel falls and the sample is pitch shifted relative to the base pitch defined for the sample Each sample can be looped or not For example a violin Instrument might be made up of 10 violin samples each sample recorded at a different pitch with the sample recorded at A2 mapped to the canvas A2 the sample recorded at E2 mapped to E2 etc When the sound picture is played pixels corresponding to A2 play the A2 sample without any pitch shift since that is the base pitch Pixels at B2 play the violin s A2 sample pitch shifted up one whole tone Pixels at 117 Instruments E2 play the E2 sample without pitch shift Or you might create a drum Instrument Shown below is a portion of MetaSynth s Instrument Dialog for such an instrument 24 PMR KICK FREQ CHIRP L L n L P ane Wn S 272 2 23 23 D 308 CI ap HEHE K EK K E m The samples base pitches are all mapped an octave apart A0 A1 A2 etc The picture below is
172. nean enano iaa a st iat ie aS ies e 64 Blue Grid ie erede 65 Draw Blue ERIT IIR dee TEES 65 Add Blue X Grid shift 65 ever deuhn m 65 Echo Octaves y as Copy Blue Ghannel eedstenscaretes Paste to Blue Channel 4er rete ee EE PTT RR EE HL Filter with Blue Channel 26 Delete Blue Chantel ins Channel Edit Mode Selector 4 eee eese eese enne 66 Stereo Mono Tosgle x xii Ha et ettet UE PEE 67 Input Source Selector tete ete detti nte T ate 67 Wave ILLE 67 Sample 2 67 Looped Sample 68 Procedurab Synth s c sesesssisessceszenssessioessonesevtendiens ssentoneseenseessovesetendsadessevtetgsgontpeasonesedsobassedesedeses 69 Instrument 2 5 DRE ER RERO REED TTE 70 Tempo Duration Tool ee ott PER ERN HO 70 Tempo Duration Dialog iter tenet ro eee e eene et eee dede en 71 Frequency Map Selector tette tnnt a R 72 Custom Scales Dialog ent teen o ete nenne ine eiae Ene eset ie oe eee ettet 74 Size X Picture Width Selector esses eene nennen 77 Size Y Picture Height Selector eese eese entente enne
173. nential Subdivision 75 Export AIFF 159 Export interleaved Sd2f 159 File menu 163 Sample Editor 134 Transfer Mode 90 Fade In amp Out File menu 164 Fade in out Transfer mode 90 Fade in out Pict Image Synth 63 Fade out File menu 164 Sample Editor 134 Transfer mode 90 Favorites 15 File Menu 158 File Submenu Image Synth 57 Filter Brush 82 Filter Library defined 55 Filter Octaves And Fifth 95 Filter Palette described 136 resolution 137 summary 20 tips for using 139 using 137 Filter Palette Tools 138 See Image Synth Tools Filter picture applying QuickStart 30 defined 55 Filter Scale 94 Filter Selector Image Synth 64 Filter with Blue Channel 66 Fit Amplitude 179 Fit to Scale 94 Fit to Screen Sample Editor 131 Flanger Effects Palette 150 FM Synthesis described 167 Formants Filter 180 Fractal Noise menu command Sample Editor 166 Frequency Map defined 55 using QuickStart 32 Frequency Map Selector 72 Frequency ratios 76 G Grain Effects Palette 146 example QuickStart 36 Granular Synthesis about 142 Grain Effect 146 illustrated 146 see Grain 142 Grow Box 106 194 H Harmonics Effects Palette 145 example QuickStart 37 Harmonics Brush 82 Harmonizer Effects Palette 149 Hide Palettes 188 Hot Filter Grid Interval 110 example QuickStart 45 using QuickStart 32 Hot Filters toolbar 106 I Image Synth how it pla
174. ng Apply applies the effect to the selected portion of the sound loaded in the Sample Editor Choosing Undo from the Edit menu restores the sound to its original state Granular Synthesis Many of the effects are based on granular synthesis Granular synthesis involves breaking up samples into time slices known as grains By repeating stretching interpolating and shuffling these grains a number of interesting unique effects can be achieved With these effects the results are somewhat less predictable than familiar effects like Echo and Reverb and are highly dependent on the source material We recommend that users interested in sound design spend time becoming familiar with the granular based effects Almost any sound can be transformed into something strange and beautiful with these effects The Grain and Shuffler effects may be of special interest to composers of loop based music 142 Effects Palette Effects The following effects are available from the Effects Palette Echo Digital delay echo effect Echo Decay time in percent This is a feedback or regeneration control which allows you to determine the number of echoes Sets the percentage of the output signal fed back to the input A setting of 100 results in full regeneration multiple repeats and 0 results in a single repeat Effect balance in percent Adjusts the wet dry mix 100 only plays back the delayed signal 0 plays back the unprocessed signal Spee
175. ning and end and crossfading them As a result the looped sample does not play from the beginning of the actual sample Once triggered the sample loops until a black pixel is encountered The Looped Sample s start point is determined dynamically for each note as opposed to Sample mode where the sample plays from the beginning whenever it is triggered In Looped Sample mode when a note triggers the sample the sample plays back with a start point determined by the note s horizontal position This allows you to create dramatic sweep effects as described in the inset below This procedure is demonstrated in the QuickStart chapter of this manual 68 MetaTip Create an analog synth sweep effect with Looped Sample input sources Load a sample of a rich sustained note Rich waveforms generated by the Image Synth are good sources especially if enriched using the Morph menu s Wave Shaping command Sweep Filter Repeating Figure Give the sound a sweeping harmonic envelope with the Filter Palette by applying a filter like the one pictured above Create or choose a preset that plays a repeated rhythmic figure like the one shown Set the picture s input source to Looped Sample Transpose the picture up or down as desired Listen to the notes sweep through the sample s envelope Each note starting progressively later in the sample as opposed to triggering it from the beginning as in Sample mode creating the impressio
176. nly the chorused signal Low Frequency Osc in BPM Sets the rate of pitch modulation in BPM beats per minute Harmonizer Mix a pitch shifted time corrected version of the input sound with the original The duration of the pitch shifted sound is unchanged This effect uses granular synthesis techniques For more naturalistic pitch shifting use the Osc Bank Phase Vocoder available from the Morph menu This effect can be used to thicken sounds Harmonizer Balance Adjusts the wet dry mix of the processed and unprocessed signals Transpose in semitones Controls the amount of pitch shifting The most natural pitch shifting occurs within a range from 5 down a fourth to 7 up a fifth Grain size in millisec The size of the grain used to construct the pitch shifted voice Short grain sizes generally result in sharp attacks but may introduce harmonic artifacts and larger grain sizes generally yield smooth attacks Phaser A digital implementation of the familiar analog phase shifter effect The effect is similar to Chorus and Flanger It is created by mixing the dry signal with a copy modulated by a sweeping parametric EQ Phaser amount in percent Adjusts the wet dry mix of the processed and unprocessed signals 100 yields only the processed signal Freq amplitude in percent Adjusts the gain of the EQ sweep 100 yields the maximum sweep amplitude Low Frequency Osc in BPM Sets the rate of the EQ sweep in beats per minute
177. nnecting the sound output to a mixing board remember to pan the mixer channels hard left and hard right The internal speakers of your computer or AV monitor cannot do justice to the sounds you will create with MetaSynth There are no known Extension or Control Panel conflicts other than Virtual Memory However real time previewing can be compromised by any software which steals CPU cycles in the background If you experience stuttering effects when previewing sounds try turning off any extension which operates in the background such as Norton DiskLight or Fax Modem software You may want to use the Extension Manager control panel or other startup set manager to create a custom MetaSynth startup set Installation Installation Q MetaSynth 2 5 f MetaTrack Demo f e Custom Scales library f e Documentation and tutorials f e Instrument libraru f e MetaSynth 2 5 CD Demo f Figure 1 MetaSynth CD Contents Place the MetaSynth CD into your Macintosh CD ROM drive When the CD s icon appears on your desktop double click on it to open the disk Copy the folder MetaSynth 2 5 f to your hard drive Open the folder you copied to your hard drive and double click the MetaSynth application The first time that you start MetaSynth you will be asked to enter your name and serial number You can find the serial number on the registration card The CD contains a wide range of files of interest to MetaSynth use
178. nnel to make rhythmic grids 109 Image Synth Reference Hot Filter Grid Interval Set the spacing for the Hot Filter processes The spacing is expressed in terms of pixels Click on the up or down arrows or type in a number to change the Hot Filter grid spacing Clicking on the arrows doubles or halves the current value The Hot Filters are time domain processes which makes the Hot Filter Grid a horizontal grid 110 Wave Table Palette About This Chapter This chapter describes the user interface and operation of the Wave Table Palette Familiarity with the Image Synth Palette is helpful for getting the most out of this chapter For more information about using the Wave Table Palette see the QuickStart chapter of this manual and the tutorials provided on the MetaSynth CD Wave Table Palette The Wave Table Palette is used to create simple waveforms that can be used as Image Synth input sources The Wave Table Palette is the default input source for the Image Synth The waveform displayed on the Wave Table canvas is played by the pixels of the Image Synth The palette features a set of specialized tools for shaping waveforms from sine waves to square waves to cosmic waves and beyond Click and drag on the waveform to morph it directly or click and drag on any of the palette s tools As you shape the waveform MetaSynth plays it so that you can hear the effect of your manipulations in real time The Wave Table Palette can b
179. ns you will not be prompted with the instrument s name Instruments and Memory MetaSynth must be able to load the entire instrument into memory in order to use it When working with large instruments you should give MetaSynth the largest memory partition possible Partitions of 80 to 100 megabytes are recommended when using large instruments You may want to use the Preferences command to maximize the reserved memory space See the File menu chapter for information about the Preferences command 119 Instruments Computing and Previewing Presets with Instruments Computing synthesizing rendering presets that use Instrument input sources is computationally intensive and make take significantly longer than presets that use Wave Table and sample input sources Also real time preview is more likely to fail especially if the picture is complex If this happens use the marquee selection tool to select portions of the image to preview Ideas for exploration The following techniques are often useful for rendering music with MetaSynth instruments Render synthesize the same sound picture with different Instruments made from different sets of violin samples for instance then use the Crossfade command to mix the renditions Use envelopes that fade back and forth between the renditions The Crossfade command maintains unity gain so the volume of the passage remains steady as the samples fade back and forth This technique can provid
180. ntize Force notes to start and end at the positions determined by the current grid interval Quantizes all notes to the duration specified by the Hot Filter Grid interval and to the brightness of the brightest pixel in each pixel group Quantize is similar to the pixelate function found in some graphic editing applications MetaSynth however only applies the effect horizontally the time domain This Hot Filter is great for finding interesting rhythmic patterns especially when processing analyzed sounds Try it on slowly evolving sounds to add some groove to them Option Quantize holding down the option key when clicking the Hot Filter results in the average rather than the maximum brightness to be used After applying Quantize it is often useful to apply the option Shorten Hot Filter to separate adjacent notes Interesting effects can be created by inverting an image before and after quantizing Type i to invert the canvas Apply the Quantize Hot Filter Type i to invert the canvas again returning it to its original color orientation See the tutorials on the CD for examples of using this Hot Filter Echo Echo the canvas or the selected region by repeating the pixels to the right with decreasing brightness volume The Hot Filter Grid interval determines the echo delay Get a multi tap delay effect by successively applying Echo with different grid intervals Pre Echo Pre Echo the canvas or the selecte
181. nverse effect on the other thus maintaining the perceived volume of the original signal Invert Phase Invert the phase of the selection Derivate Extract the high frequency content of the selection by computing the difference between every two consecutive samples Use this effect to make a rich sample sound as if it were coming out of a cheap radio or create tweeter burners for that next techno hit MetaTip You will often want to normalize the sound after applying this process as Derivate often results in low amplitude signals MetaTip Use Derivate temporarily to find clicks Repeated application of this command will emphasize rapid transients like clicks Apply this process on a selection to find hard to find clicks then once you have found them Undo the derivation and remove the clicks Compress Compress the selection s dynamic range This is a simple compressor with no settings You may want to apply Compress several times in a row to achieve the desired amount of compression 174 Transform Menu MetaTip To raise the apparent volume of a sound Compress the sample then Normalize it Repeat the two steps until the desired volume has been attained Limiter and Expander Severely decrease high amplitudes and boost low amplitudes Use this command to reduce volume spikes Option select the menu command to expand the selection s dynamic range increase the difference between the low and high amplitudes You
182. o The parameter settings change as you move the mouse and the changes 141 MetaTip MetaTip Effects Palette are reflected by the sound playback in real time The parameters affected by mouse movement are indicated by green checkmarks next to the parameter s slider Parameters Each effect has its own set of up to 4 parameters Two parameters can be selected for gestural control where horizontal mouse movements control one parameter and vertical movements the other A parameter is active for control if there is a green checkmark to the right of its slider Clicking in that space toggles the checkmarks on green and off invisible When choosing parameters for gestural control MetaSynth does not prevent you from turning on more parameters than it can actually control at once Only two parameters can be controlled at once Parameters are either X horizontal or Y vertical parameters The order of the parameters in the list alternates X and Y parameters hence you can not control the first and third or second and forth parameters simultaneously Parameter values can be changed by any of these methods gestural control clicking on the numerical value and typing a new value clicking on the parameter slider Constrain real time parameter changes by using the shift key to horizontally constrain changes and shift option for vertical constraint Gestural control can be turned off by turning all the checkmarks off Apply Clicki
183. oard actions apply to the sound clipboard maintained by the Sample Editor The Image Synth and Filter Palette each have their own Edit submenus and their own clipboard Undo Command z Undo or redo the last change made in the Sample Editor Use this command for before after comparisons of sample changes Note The Undo menu item operates somewhat differently in MetaSynth than in other applications It is available even after choosing Save or Save As This behavior makes it easy to restore re open a sound after having applied an effect and saving the modified sound Or it can be used to re open a sound file after having computed a sound with the Image Synth Cut Command x Copy the selected sample data to the sound clipboard and delete it from the displayed waveform Cut performs a butt splice at the location where the material was deleted Copy Command c Copy the selected sample data to the sound clipboard Paste Command v Replace the selected sample data with the data stored in the sound clipboard The pasted data is truncated at the selection boundary if the clipboard data exceeds the sample s duration If there is no selection the entire sample is replaced by the clipboard data 162 Note MetaTip Edit Menu This function will not paste into an empty Sample Display there must be a sample loaded in order for Paste to have an effect In this case use the Insert command Clear Delete the selected s
184. ode the resulting brush strokes are always continuous as you drag the mouse The minimum spacing setting in the Brush Option Dialog invoked by double clicking the Brush Size Tool determines the minimum spacing between vertices A line segment s path is not determined or visible until the mouse traverses the minimum distance at which time a straight line is drawn connecting the end points of the line This brush mode is nice for creating notes with modulating pitches Create glissandi by painting in Line Mode with small brushes and a minimum spacing of 1 Use the Brush Size tool and Brush Option dialog to determine the smoothness of the lines and the space between vertices Repeat Mode This is a special case of Dot Mode in which every stroke is repeated in time across the grid specified by the Hot Filter Grid Interval discussed later in this chapter Repeat mode is handy for creating drum patterns and repetitive musical structures It will usually be used with the Brush Grid turned on see below MetaTip Press the caps lock key to repeat the strokes in all its octaves both above and below the painted stroke This feature is especially useful for creating harmonic grids to be pasted into the blue channel and for creating pictures to use as filters MetaTip Use this mode to create super rich sound pictures try using the Add Harmonics command to make it even richer then paint with sweeping strokes of a thick filter brush to selectively remo
185. often used to transpose a sample prior to its being used as an Image Synth input source Note Higher quality and computationally more intensive time corrected pitch shifting is available using OSC Bank Phase Vocoder from the Morph menu 175 About this chapter This chapter describes the commands found in the Morph menu Familiarity with the Sample Editor chapter of this manual is recommended Morph Menu Morph or mix your sounds with the commands in this menu All of the commands in this menu are applied to the sound loaded in the Sample Editor The Morph menu provides some of MetaSynth s most powerful sound modification processes Many of these processes use a sound file to modify the current sound With these processes you can e Morph one sound into another e Filter one sound with another e Perform time corrected pitch shifting e Completely reshape a sample e Steal a sound s spectrum and re synthesize it Super MetaTip We have found the following technique to be a great way of creating ear boggling sounds In the Image Synth render the same sound picture or variations of a sound picture with different input sources or frequency maps Open one of the sounds Use the commands in the Morph menu to recombine them or morph them with each other You can use this same technique to create super realistic effects or super psychedelic effects For realistic orchestral sounds render the sound picture w
186. ol can be invoked by clicking and dragging the tool or double clicking to invoke its dialog box When dragging the tool left right mouse movement rotates the image Rotation can be constrained to 45 degree intervals by holding down the shift key before clicking the tool The dialog box allows numerical entry of the rotation amount and allows wraparound to be turned on and off Wraparound is on by default With wraparound turned on parts of the image that are rotated beyond one boundary are rotated back in at the opposite boundary Offset Offset the image vertically and or horizontally with or without wraparound The tool can be invoked by clicking and dragging the tool or double clicking to invoke its dialog box When dragging the tool the image is offset in the direction of the mouse movement Use the shift key to constrain movement horizontally by the Hot Filter Grid Interval or use shift option to constrain movement to vertically by 32 pixel increments The dialog box allows numerical entry of the offset amount and allows wraparound to be turned on and off By default wraparound is turned on With wraparound turned on the parts of the image that are shifted beyond the canvas boundary are wrapped around to the opposite boundary Contrast and Luminance Adjust the image s brightness and contrast The tool can be used by clicking and dragging or by double clicking to access the Remap Color Dialog When dragging horizonta
187. older found in MetaSynth s folder to create new waveforms and sounds to use as input sources or for your sampler Custom Scales Dialog To invoke this dialog choose Custom Scale from the Frequency Map pop up menu Some commonly used scales like equal tempered semitones are provided in the Frequency Map pop up list as presets but much more interesting sounds can be created using Custom Scales Custom Scales allow you to tune the Image Synth any way you want You can enter values directly or import and export custom scale files Scale files are text files where each note of the scale is defined in terms of fractions cents or absolute ratio values Hundreds of files which define scales used by a wide variety of cultures and civilizations have been provided thanks to Andrew Souter on the MetaSynth CD and in the Custom Scales folder of MetaSynth s home directory Highlights of the provided scales are 74 Image Synth Reference Pentatonic scale e Harmonic minor scale e Natural minor scale e Major scale in Just intonation e Harmonic 16 and Harmonic 32 are 16 and 32 note scales which follow the natural harmonic series ratios of 1 2 3 4 etc It is a very interesting non linear mode where the Image Synth behaves almost like a subtractive synthesis filter Each pixel line is a specific harmonic of the fundamental The second note in the sequence is already equal to second octave So you get an interesting wrappin
188. on the center of the brush stroke is aligned to the grid Filter Brush shift f A brush that filters pixels by applying the selected brush color with the multiply Transfer Mode While similar to filter pictures filter presets Filter Brushes can be used to amplify as well as attenuate pixels Filter pictures by contrast cannot amplify brighten pixels With Filter Brushes neutral gray is the shade which when applied leaves pixels unaffected with filter pictures the neutral color identity multiplier is bright white In effect the filter s brightness is scaled from 0 black to 2 0 white whereas the values are scaled from 0 black to 1 white when applying filter pictures This is a great tool when designing sounds It gives you fine control over the harmonics in an image Use colored filter brushes to adjust stereo placement E Harmonics Brush shift h MetaTip A brush that paints a fundamental pitch and the first five overtones of the harmonic series The brightness of each harmonic is less than the previous harmonic The harmonics are fundamental octave octave plus a fifth second octave second octave plus a third second octave plus a fifth This brush is sensitive to the Frequency Map setting and will do its best to accommodate the current map This tool is useful for creating thick sounding waveforms to which you can apply the filter brush Try switching to different frequency maps when painting with th
189. on any mounted volume Play Click and hold here to play the current waveform 115 UN 4 3 Instruments amp the Instruments Menu About This Chapter This chapter describes MetaSynth Instruments and the commands found in the Instruments menu Unlike the other menus in the menubar this menu applies only to the Image Synth Familiarity with the Image Synth chapter of this manual is essential for understanding Instruments A solid understanding of frequency maps see the Image Synth chapter and the canvas vertical axis is recommended MetaSynth Instruments Instruments are the most powerful of the Image Synth s possible input sources They are user definable collections of up to 18 different samples sound files which are mapped to different vertical regions of the canvas For users familiar with hardware MIDI samplers this concept will be familiar A MetaSynth Instrument is exactly analogous to a sampler s sample banks In fact when Instruments are used as the input source the Image Synth acts as an integrated non real time sequencer software sampler Unlike hardware samplers there is virtually no limit to the number of voices that can be sounded at once OK there is a limit of 1024 simultaneous voices but who s counting In addition to being great for creating the startling and unusual sounds for which MetaSynth is renowned Instruments are a great tool for composers who wish to explore orchestr
190. onvert the sound from stereo to mono or vice versa The tool s icon indicates the current sound type mono or stereo When converting a mono sound to stereo duplicate copies of the sound data are placed in the left and right channels Stereo to mono conversion keeps the left channel and discards the right To merge channels use the Transform menu s Pan Envelope command MetaSynth automatically switches to stereo mode when synthesizing computing a color picture in the Image Synth or when opening a stereo sound file Play All Enter Key Play the currently loaded sound The shortcut key is the enter key To stop playback click anywhere Play Selection Command B Play the selected portion of the current sound To stop playback click anywhere Loop Play Command L Loop play the selected portion of the current sound or the entire sound if there is no selection To stop playback click anywhere Option enter may also be used as a shortcut Record Sound Record sound Clicking on this tool brings up the Record Sound dialog box which lets you choose from the available Sound Manager input devices Click on the 133 MetaTip Sample Editor Options button to display the driver s record options dialog Press the red Record button to commence recording Press Stop to stop recording Clicking the cancel button exits the dialog without saving the recorded sound Clicking the ok button loads the recorded sound into the Sam
191. or greater control over the fade contour use the Envelope command in the Transform menu This command is identical to the Fade Out tool on the Sample Editor toolbar Fade In amp Out Command j Perform a very short duration fade at the selection beginning and end to guarantee that a sound begins and ends at zero 164 i age 25 Sounds Menu About This Chapter This chapter describes the commands found in the Sounds menu Familiarity with the Sample Editor chapter of this manual is recommended Sounds Menu With the exception of the Procedural Synth command the Sound menu s items apply only to the Sample Editor The Procedural Synth command applies to both the Sample Editor the Image Synth The first three items control sound playback The next group of menu items generates sound material which replaces the selected portion of the displayed waveform The final group of items is a list of recently opened sound files Sound Playback Commands Play Sound Enter key Play the currently loaded sound The shortcut key is the enter key To stop playback click anywhere Play Selection Command b Play the selected portion of the current sound To stop playback click anywhere Loop Selection Command l Loop play the selected portion of the current sound or the entire sound if there is no selection To stop playback click anywhere Sound Generation Commands White Noise Generate pure white noise to fil
192. or increase its brightness before applying this process to ensure that there are pixels above the filter s threshold Create nice psychedelic images by repeatedly normalizing the picture then applying the Triangle Filter 91 MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip Image Synth Reference Noise Filter Remove isolated pixels This is useful for cleaning up noisy pictures and sound analyses Often when you create a picture by using the Analyze Current Sound command in the File submenu there are little quantization artifacts especially when analyzing speech or other sibilant sounds or other isolated pixels which this process can remove Emboss Left A convolution filter that tends to emphasize the trailing edges of shapes and in some cases creates a three dimensional impression of a light source coming from the above left Pixels tend to shift to the right Applying this process repeatedly can result in solarization effects You will generally apply this process a few times until you get the desired effect It is often useful to apply the lower toolbar s Normalize and Smooth tools when you apply this process Interesting effects can be created by applying this process to a single color channel Emboss Right A convolution filter that tends to brighten the leading edges of shapes and in some cases creates the three dimensional impression of a light source coming from the above right Pixels tend to shift to the left Appl
193. ound has lots of overtones click the OK icon button Treat the sample further using the Effects or Filter Palettes then use it as an input source for a picture or as part of an Instrument See the chapter Envelope Editors for a complete description of MetaSynth s envelope editing environment Pan Envelope Modulate stereo panning with envelopes for the left and right channels This command can be used with mono or stereo sounds When applied to a mono sound the sound is made stereo The green and red curves represent the right and left channels of the sound respectively The vertical axis represents stereo placement The vertical midpoint is panned to the center The top of the canvas is leftmost and the bottom is rightmost If you start with a mono sound the green and red envelopes determine the volume of the right and left channels of the resulting sound The illusion of movement can be created with a simple X linear crossfade envelope When applied to stereo sounds Pan Envelope can be used to invert the channels with an envelope that has a red horizontal line at the top of the envelope canvas and the green line at the bottom or to de emphasize stereo panning or to create a sense of spatial dynamism With the lines centered a stereo sound is essentially converted to mono 173 Transform Menu PanPot Envelopes Pan Envelope Dialog Note The two envelopes have a unity gain relationship A change to one envelope has the i
194. ource Image Synth 67 Wave Table Palette 198 described 111 tools 112 using QuickStart 30 What s New 4 White Noise menu command Sample Editor 165 Windows Menu Effects Palette 187 Filter Palette 187 Hide Sample Editor 187 Image Synth 187 Show Sample Editor 187 Wave Table 187 Workspace memory 160 X Xor Transfer mode 90 Z Zoom Sample Editor 132 Zoom Tool Image Synth 98
195. pes to the minimum This is the envelope you get when pressing the Default icon button in the envelope editor though it is not the envelope displayed initially Fit Amplitude Steal the amplitude envelope from a sound file and apply it to the selection The duration of the resulting sound is the length of the shorter of the two sounds MetaSynth prompts you to choose a sound file analyzes the amplitude volume contour of the sound and applies the contour to the selection 179 Formants Filter Morph the selection by applying another sound file as a filter This effect emphasizes the frequencies the two sounds have in common The effect is very similar to what happens when you paste an Image Synth frequency analysis into the Filter Palette and use that picture to filter another sound It is also similar to the convolution performed by Cross Convolve but Formants Filter uses a fixed number of frequency bands 128 for the analysis which results in a smoother convolution When you choose this command MetaSynth prompts you to select the sound file to apply as the filter MetaTip For the best results since common frequencies are emphasized start with a rich sound one with a broad frequency spectrum You can achieve vocoder effects by recording speech and applying the speech sounds as filters to sounds such as violins pianos etc MetaTip If the two sounds don t have a lot of frequencies in common you can pr
196. pitch shifting The 172 MetaTip Transform Menu horizontal axis represents time The envelope is scaled to the duration of the selected region of the sample The sample s or selection s waveform is displayed below the envelope canvas to provide a guide while shaping the envelope Click and drag the curve directly or use any of the provided envelope shaping tools The tools are MetaSynth s standard envelope editing tools The zero point where no pitch shifting occurs is the midpoint of the vertical axis The numerical field above the envelope display determines the pitch shift range The units are tenths of a semitone hence a pitch shift of one octave is equal to 120 and a shift of 10 is one semitone Use the Preview button to audition the envelope as applied to the sample or selection Click the OK icon button the checkmark to replace the current selection with the processed sound Applications of this process include creating vibrato and glissando effects You can generate new overtones or generally denature a sound by applying a chaotic or rapidly changing envelope to a short duration selection Use Pitch Envelope to do FM synthesis where your sample is the carrier Open a sample file Select a short region 250 milliseconds or less of the current sample Choose Envelope Use either of the bottom most tools in the right hand toolbar to shape the envelope to have lots of rapid perturbation Preview the sound When the s
197. ple Editor The available recording time and sample rate are displayed in the dialog While recording MetaSynth draws an oscilloscope like display which indicates the incoming sound level Recording is done directly to RAM The available recording time is limited by the memory allocated to MetaSynth To increase the available memory use the Get Info window in the Finder E Normalize Command N Note Normalize the volume of the sample or the selection Normalization scales the sound s volume upward so that the highest peak is 0 dB Use this command to maximize the volume of the sample without changing its effective dynamic range The left and right channels are normalized independently If the two channels have markedly different peak amplitudes the balance between the channels may be upset This tool is equivalent to the Transform menu s Normalize command Fade In Command Fade in the sample or selection using a linear fade across the selection range This is a quick way to fade in a sound For greater control over the fade contour use the Envelope command in the Transform menu This tool is equivalent to the Edit menu s Fade In command Fade Out Command Fade out the sample or selection using a linear fade across the selection range This is a quick way to fade out a sound For greater control over the fade contour use the Envelope command in the Transform menu This tool is equivalent to the Edit menu s Fade O
198. put source selector makes the Instrument the input source for the displayed sound picture Choosing the instrument s name from the Instrument menu re opens the Instrument Dialog for that instrument Option selecting the instrument s name removes its name from the list and removes the samples from memory Hint Remember to choose the instrument with the Image Synth s input source selector after you open it or the instrument will not be played by the picture Auditioning Notes on the Canvas When an instrument is the input source for a picture you may audition the sample played by a particular pixel by control clicking the mouse at the desired location The appropriate sample from the Instrument pitch shifted according to the vertical position is played back and its name is displayed in green in the Image Synth s Tips Display area Saving Loading Presets Made with Instruments When you add a preset to a library the Instrument s name and its location on disk are saved with the preset When you choose a preset made with an Instrument the instrument is automatically found and loaded if the Load Instrument With Preset setting is turned on in the Preferences dialog If the preset was saved by a version of MetaSynth prior to 2 5 the instrument will not be loaded MetaSynth will present its open file dialog giving you an opportunity to open an instrument Unfortunately since instrument names were not saved with presets in older versio
199. r pixel or some other helpful text Launching MetaSynth When MetaSynth is launched by double clicking its icon it opens the files MetaSynth presets and MetaSynth filters located in its home folder and loads a simple waveform into the Sample Editor You can replace the default preset and filter libraries 14 Overview with your own but they must be named MetaSynth presets and MetaSynth filters to be loaded automatically Drag and Drop MetaSynth can also be launched using the Macintosh Drag amp Drop mechanism A preset library dropped on the MetaSynth application icon will become the active library Sound files and Instrument files dropped on the icon are loaded and added to the Sounds and Instruments menus respectively The last sound file dropped on the application icon will be the current sample when MetaSynth finishes loading Since filter libraries have the same format as preset libraries dropping a filters file on MetaSynth opens it as a preset not filter library Filter libraries must be loaded using the Open Filters File command of the Image Synth s File submenu Files can also be dropped onto the MetaSynth application icon while it is open Open Save Dialogs New in 2 5 MetaSynth now features custom Open and Save dialogs with a couple of handy features a Preview display area and Favorites and Recent Files pop up menus Preview Area The Open File dialog box has a new Preview area This area is active when op
200. r the note played by that pixel location Note that the sample s name is displayed in the Tips Display while the mouse is down Press the return key to audition the picture e Ifthe preview stutters or fails select a small portion of the picture by command dragging and press the return key to audition the selection e d to de select the selection if you made one in the previous step The CD contains many many more instruments and preset files which we hope you will explore e Press the option key and select the instrument s name in the Instruments menu to unload the instrument from memory 40 QuickStart Intermediate Techniques nstruments and Convolution Lesson 4 Filtering Mozart with Drums Techno Mozart e Choose this preset the third one Note The TR808 drum instrument may be loaded automatically If not find it in the Instruments folder of MetaSynth s home directory e Choose 512 from the Image Synth s Size x submenu e Click on the Hot Filter Grid Interval and type 647 Click on Repeat in the Hot Filter list to fill the canvas with the drum pattern Click on the Synthesize icon to compute the sound e Type n or choose Analyze current sound from the Image Synth s File submenu e The analysis will resemble following picture Bp bey bp By eee Be By p Bp pp e eb e Press c to copy the picture e Bring the Filter Palette to the front e Type to pas
201. re painting constrains painting horizontally as well as quantizing the note start to the Brush grid If the brush width is smaller than the Brush Grid interval the result is pulsed strokes MetaTip Pressing option shift while painting constrains strokes to the vertical axis and applies vertical grid quantization This is great for dragging chords EN Pen Brush shift p A hard edged opaque rectangular brush with a square on off envelope that adds paint with the current brush color Pen Brush strokes are anti aliased In line mode continuous lines are drawn The Brush Size Dialog s minimum spacing setting acts as a sort of line grid In Dot mode the Brush Size Dialog s minimum spacing setting has the effect of ensuring space between notes This brush is frequently used for entering notes that will be played with an Instrument input source in cases where it is desirable to retain the Instrument samples inherent envelopes Air Brush shift a A round edged brush with translucent edges useful for creating smooth attacks and decays Use small brushes a pixel high for notes and large size brushes for unpitched clusters or rich harmonic clusters depending upon the current frequency map 81 Note Image Synth Reference Large size brushes can be used to great effect with frequency maps custom scales based on the harmonic series This brush s hot spot is at the center of the brush When the Brush Grid is
202. reating note based music e the Image Synth as a multi sample player renderer using Instrument input sources e the Effects Palette as a granular synthesis tool the Morph Menu sound convolution functions 21 Overview You will find that using MetaSynth iteratively provides a limitless terrain for exploration Generate samples from the Image Synth that you use the Filter and Effects Palettes and Morph functions to modify Then use those sounds as input sources for the Image Synth and on and on and Check the MetaSynth web site from time to time New tutorials and tips and tricks are posted frequently The site also features a lively users forum where MetaSynth users from around the world share their ideas The site s address is found on the information page which follows the title page 22 QuickStart This chapter provides a hands on whirlwind tour of MetaSynth s highlights The QuickStart has something for everyone MetaSynth newcomers and experienced users alike While some of the material is quite basic there are advanced techniques as well If you hate to read manuals this is a good place to make MetaSynth s acquaintance If you are new to MetaSynth you might want to check out the Overview chapter before proceeding with the QuickStart though it is by no means a requirement Our goal in this QuickStart is to let you get your feet wet and quickly see the neat things MetaSynth can do We don t slow you down
203. rectly The other envelope is modulated automatically by MetaSynth to maintain the constant sum Envelope Tools Open Save Envelope Data New in 2 5 Save the current envelope data and open previously saved envelope data Envelopes can now be saved and reused This feature is especially handy when creating complex color remapping curves and crossfades Envelope data files use the same format as Wave Table data files so you can exchange shapes between envelopes and wave tables Envelope Canvas The display area is a canvas where you can modify the envelope by clicking and dragging the curve into shape The width of the mouse s influence is determined by the Mouse Influence Frequency Control 153 Note Envelope Editors Mouse Influence Frequency Control This tool plays a dual role It determines the width of the mouse s influence when directly manipulating the curve by clicking and dragging the curve into shape and it determines the frequency of the resulting waveform when using envelope tools such as the Sine Wave Tool that are marked by a row of dots at the icon s bottom When dragging the line with the control set to the leftmost value a broader portion of the line will be pulled by the mouse than when the control is set to the right When dragging the Sine Wave Tool the leftmost position results in a single cycle being drawn With the control set to the rightmost position four cycles are drawn Lower Toolbar Defa
204. replaced by the computed sound and the sound starts playing on the right channel and pans to the left Press command z to restore the previously loaded sample Brushes and Tools The Image Synth s left hand toolbar contains a number of painting tools and menus that modify the note pitches Choose Wave Table with the Input Source Selector Open the Wave Table Palette Click on the sine wave tool and drag to the right to return the waveshape to a sine wave Bring the Image Synth to the front Press the delete key to delete the canvas image Click on the Choose Brush Tool also called the Brush Palette This tool displays the icon of the active tool The Air Brush icon shown below will be on display unless you have chosen another brush tool Choose the Air Brush if it isn t already selected Double click the Brush Size tool Make the brush 5 pixels wide the upper number by 3 pixels high with a minimum spacing of 3 M Click the OK icon button 3l QuickStart Click on Brush Mode tool until the Line Mode icon is displayed Draw a few simple lines and curves periodically changing the brush color by choosing a color from the Brush Color Selector You will have something like this Preview or Synthesize the sound It won t sound like much yet Click on the Frequency Map selector it will be displaying the text Map Semitones Choose Micro32 This Frequency Map maps 32 pixels per whole tone
205. rs There are hundreds of megabytes of instruments sound files sample preset libraries tutorials and a soft copy of this manual Also supplied are demo versions of some exciting UI Software applications Xx a MIDI sequencer and algorithmic composition tool which can read and write MIDI files and convert these files into pictures that MetaSynth can render MetaTrack a multi track audio sequencer that uses MetaSynth preset libraries Installation What s Installed MetaSynth 3 Metasynth presets Metasynth filters DisplaceMaps presets e Custom Scales Presets amp Filters f Spectrums f Waves amp procedural synth f Input Samples e Instruments f e Quick Start Presets The picture above shows the contents of the folder you have installed on your hard disk The files MetaSynth presets MetaSynth filters and DisplaceMaps presets are all used by MetaSynth MetaSynth requires files with these names to operate If you delete these files new empty ones will be created at start up If you would like to use your own preset filter and displace map libraries by default you can replace the provided files with your own of the same name The other folders are not required but are convenient They contain a number of instruments preset and filter libraries spectrum files sound files and custom scales we think you will find helpful Remember that there are even more of these files hundreds of megabytes of
206. rying amounts of the original signals to create complex morphing effects Preview Preview auditions the cross mix of the red and green curves but not the blue curve The blue convolved component is too complex to be previewed in real time As a result Preview is of limited use with this command Since unity gain is not enforced it is possible to clip distort the signal If this happens Undo the convolution and lower the levels the of the envelopes when you re invoke the Cross Convolve You can create dynamic morphing effects by having the three curves achieve their maximums at different points in the sound For example try starting with the green curve at the maximum and ending at 0 the red curve starting at zero and gradually fading in then out and the blue curve starting anywhere and rising to the maximum Another interesting effect is created by using red and green curves as described above but with the blue curve at the maximum throughout the sound Since preview does not mix in the convoluted sound it is often a good idea to perform Cross Convolve with a maximum blue curve and minimum red and green curves to hear the convolution result You can then choose Undo to restore the original sound Finally choose Cross Convolve again and adjust the envelopes as desired To produce the convoluted sound only set the blue envelope to the maximum a horizontal line across the top of the envelope canvas and set the red and green envelo
207. s With the exception of the Instruments and Windows menus the menus found in the menubar apply to the Sample Editor This enables you to execute independent editing operations cut copy and paste in both the Sample Editor and the active graphics display area the Image Synth or Filter palette without disturbing the selection or clipboard of the other MetaSynth maintains separate sound and pict clipboards Command keys therefore apply to the Sample Editor The equivalent commands in the graphics display areas the Image Synth and Filter Palette are executed by pressing a key without using the command key For example to select all of the waveform displayed in the Sample Editor press command a To select all of a displayed picture you simply press the a key by itself Cursors For all tools the cursor provides important feedback about how to operate the tool k The standard arrow cursor indicates that clicking on the tool does one of the following instructs MetaSynth to perform a specific action toggles the tool s state or pops up a palette or menu 13 Overview 1 These cursors indicate that dragging the mouse in the indicated directions changes the tool s settings Many tools are capable of changing two different but related parameters such as Brightness and Contrast simultaneously via gestural control where the entire screen acts as a control surface The crosshair cursor belongs to MetaSynth s
208. s a mono 22K representation of the sound is played The currently loaded sound does not change While the picture plays an orange Play Position Indicator dot moves across the top of the picture to indicate the play position Even at reduced fidelity some complex pictures will not preview well when previewed in their entirety If the preview stutters or produces no sound select a portion of the picture before previewing 105 MetaTip MetaTip Image Synth Reference Pressing the option key previews the sound with the amplitude scaled inversely to frequency See the full description of this feature in Synthesize Compute section above Tips Display The Tips Display provides information about whatever is under the mouse When the mouse is over a tool the tool name is displayed When the mouse is over the sound canvas the pitch and time information corresponding to the mouse position is displayed When the mouse is over the sound canvas the following information is displayed note name and octave number of steps of pitch shifting for Sample input sources absolute frequency x axis position expressed in seconds milliseconds format Grow Box Change window size without changing zoom ratio Drag this control to change the size of the Image Synth palette Right Hand Toolbar Hot Filters The right hand toolbar contains the Image Synth s Hot Filters which are time domain x axis effects These tools can be used to add echo
209. s brush is used in Dot mode leaving a trail of notes where the mouse passes though interesting effects can be created in Line mode where it can be used to draw lines and polygons with large Brush Grid interval settings You may want to apply the Filter Scale or Fit to Scale processes after painting with the note brush if you are not using a custom scale which prevents dissonance This brush is similar to the note brush found in Xx MetaSynth s MIDI sequencing sister Line Brush MetaTip Also called the Harmonics Brush A brush that paints a horizontal line a harmonic or overtone with the brush color across the width of the canvas This brush is most commonly used when using the Wave Table as the picture s input source It is useful when using the Image Synth to create waveforms You can use this tool in the Blue Channel to provide a harmonic grid to use as a guide when composing music in the Image Synth Smear Brush A brush that smears the existing pixels The brush grabs the pixels beneath it when the mouse is clicked and smears them as you drag This brush is nice for modifying a note s amplitude or pitch envelope depending upon whether you smear horizontally or vertically 83 MetaTip Image Synth Reference This tool is unaffected by the Brush Mode Don t forget that you can smear black This technique is useful for making dense parts of a picture more diffuse Smear Brighter Brush A brush that sm
210. se processes with your images You may discover sounds you never imagined Blur Apply vertical and horizontal smoothing Since it applies to both axes Blur influences both the harmonic content and envelope of the sound Successive applications of this process force an image to grow increasingly out of focus This process yields especially nice results when used with microtonal frequency maps to create haunting other worldly sounds Blurring has very interesting effects in microtonal tunings and tunings based on the harmonic series You may find it useful to apply the lower toolbar s Normalize tool after applying this process since process tends to reduce the overall brightness Create a halo effect with this sequence Copy Picture Blur Add Picture Blur More A more intensive blur effect resulting in an out of focus look Adds dissonance to an image by blurring adjacent frequencies You may find it useful to apply the lower toolbar s Normalize tool after applying this process since process tends to reduce the overall brightness For a glow effect try this sequence c Copy Picture Blur More e Add Picture Triangle Filter A solarization effect where luminance above 50 is changed to black across the canvas or the selected region This process is useful for reducing the density of images with lots of bright pixels You may want to normalize the picture or selection
211. se spacing is determined by the Hot Filter Grid interval The grid replaces the previous Blue Channel contents This is a useful tool when composing music as it gives you a grid with the metric interval of your choice Add Blue X Grid shift g Overlay vertical grid lines whose spacing is determined by the Hot Filter Grid interval This is a useful tool when composing music as it gives you a grid with the metric interval of your choice Draw Octaves Grid Replace the current Blue Channel with horizontal gridlines indicating the octaves of the current Frequency Map grid line is drawn every n pixels where n corresponds to the Custom Scale Dialog s Divisions Per Octave setting Echo Octaves y Draw the pixels pitches of the Red and Green channels to the Blue Channel and shadow the pitches in every octave This command creates a template which helps 65 MetaTip Shortcut MetaTip MetaTip Image Synth Reference you to avoid unwanted dissonances when painting music yes we do it directly on the canvas Copy Blue Channel Copy the Blue Channel contents to the PICT Clipboard Paste to Blue Channel Paste the PICT clipboard contents to the Blue Channel Duplicates the functionality offered by the Edit submenu s Paste to Blue command Filter with Blue Channel Filter the selection or the entire canvas with the Blue Channel picture Construct a Blue Channel image from a melodic figure using Echo Octaves th
212. sets also called sound pictures are pictures stored in a MetaSynth preset library such as the file you just opened Presets contain information about how MetaSynth should interpret the image when using it to synthesize a sound e Choose the first preset It points out the most important Image Synth controls e Choose each of the presets in order and listen to them There are two ways to listen to sound pictures You can click the Synthesize icon to compute a full fidelity stereo sound You can click the Preview icon to hear a real time mono preview at reduced fidelity IMPORTANT Don t forget to synthesize not preview pictures with red amp green in them to hear the impressive full stereo impact Quit from MetaSynth before progressing to the next lesson 25 QuickStart MetaSynth Basics Setting up the Work Space e Launch MetaSynth by double clicking on its icon in the Finder When MetaSynth first launches the Sample Editor the area where the green waveform is displayed and all of the MetaSynth palettes are visible the Image Synth Palette Filter Palette Effects Palette and the Wave Table Palette When you quit from MetaSynth it remembers which palettes were open and opens only those ones the next time you launch The Sample Editor Wave Table Palette s T M Image Synth Palotie a ra al hee Filter Palatia P an n pe Tha Effecis Palette
213. should Normalize after applying this effect as the overall amplitude may decrease even though the overall dynamic range difference between high and low amplitudes increases Remove Lows Attenuate frequencies below 400 Hz This command provides a quick way of rolling off the low frequency content of a sample Remove Highs Attenuate frequencies above 600 Hz The filter s slope starts gradually at 600 Hz and rolls off increasingly more after about 800 Hz Remove DC Offset Readjust the vertical balance about the zero point of the sample Imbalance DC offset can result in clicks and pops in the sound itself OR when the sound is processed DC offset can occur when a large number of unbalanced signals are integrated This sometimes happens when computing sounds in the Image Synth if the input source is a sample or waveform with some degree of imbalance Octave Down command minus Shift the selection s pitch down one octave The transposition is not time corrected so the duration of the sample is doubled This command is often used to transpose a sample prior to its being used as an Image Synth input source Note Higher quality and computationally more intensive time corrected pitch shifting is available using OSC Bank Phase Vocoder from the Morph menu Octave Up command Shift the selection s pitch up one octave The transposition is not time corrected so the duration of the sample is cut in half This command is
214. ssed To remove the Instrument from memory option select the instrument s name in the Instruments menu Cancel Cancel any edits made to the Instrument Cancel does not cancel loading only the changes made to the Instrument s settings Auto crossfades however are not removed To remove them press the Reload button to reload the samples from the disk To remove the Instrument from memory option select the instrument s name in the Instruments menu Instruments Menu New Instrument Create a new Instrument An empty Instrument Dialog is opened with the empty sample slots spaced an octave apart Load individual samples manually by pressing the Load Sample icon buttons Assign the base pitch for the sample using the pitch and octave pop up menus 125 MetaTip Instruments Important If you would like to use the Instrument in future MetaSynth sessions you must press the Save button Open Instrument Open an Instrument file MetaSynth presents an open file dialog box to select the Instrument then presents the Instrument dialog for the Instrument Press the OK icon button to confirm loading or press the Cancel icon button to cancel loading If any of the Instrument s samples are not found you will be prompted to find them If there is not enough memory available you will be alerted and only some of the samples will be loaded Build Instrument Automatically create and map a new instrument with related
215. synthesized sound is equal to that of the selection s or the entire sound s if there is no selection This command provides a mechanism by which you can create rich new waveforms and samples for use as Image Synth input sources or in commercial MIDI samplers When you choose this command MetaSynth prompts you for a reference pitch for the synthesis This pitch is relative to A2 If you choose A2 the resulting sound will have the same pitch as the original sound It will only actually be A2 if the original pitch was A2 If you are planning to use the sound as an Image Synth input source you may want to synthesize the sound with several different reference pitches and build an Instrument from the samples to avoid extreme pitch shifting of the sound Generally after using Synthesize Spectrum you will use the Filter Palette Envelope command or Convolve command to give the sound shape to vary it over time Spectrum Filter Apply a spectrum file as a filter to the current selection This process yields similar results to the Convolve command but uses a spectrum file to provide the convolution data rather than a sound file Since a spectrum file is unchanging over time this process does not change the harmonic envelope of the sound the way that Convolve does Use this command when you want to use another sound file to reshape the harmonic content of the sound without imposing its harmonic envelope For example you might want to gi
216. t Filter Grid Interval e Type option shift right arrow which moves the selection by the Hot Filter Grid Interval Repeat this until the picture is filled The picture should look like this e Click on the Add Preset tool to add this picture as a preset to deselect the selection To create a grid that contains both the harmonic and rhythmic data type to copy the picture e Press the delete key to delete the Red Green channel the sound channel e Choose Paste To Blue Channel from the Blue Grid submenu Using the Blue Grid as a Harmonic Tool Reselect the last version of the preset saved with the harmonic and rhythmic data Choose Delete Blue Channel to remove the rhythmic grid Press to copy the harmonic grid the yellow pixels Press the delete key to delete the Red Green layer 47 QuickStart Choose Paste to Blue Channel from the Blue Grid submenu e Turn off Repeat Mode by clicking on the Brush Mode Toggle to choose Line Mode or Dot Mode e Turn Caps Lock off 7 D n Bm Choose either the Pen Air Attack or Note brush e Set the brush size to be several pixels high and the width of your choice Draw freely in the Red Green Channel Experiment with different brush colors and sizes Use any of the available tools e Experiment with different brush size brush grid interval combinations For example set the grid to 4 and the brush width to 3 or 4
217. t key is held down when pasting the image is scaled to the entire canvas area and clipped to the selection area In this case if the source image is the same size as the canvas the marquee acts as a clipping region and no rescaling is done Edit operations respect the setting of the Channel Edit Mode Selector Operations only apply to the active color channels 59 Note MetaTip MetaTip Image Synth Reference Many of these commands can be combined to accomplish frequently desired effects such as brightening or dimming the current image Images from any graphics application can be pasted onto the canvas We encourage you to explore the effects possible with the various transfer modes and paste processes The tutorials provided on the CD provide examples of how to use some of these features Each of the special paste commands has an analogous Transfer Mode For a table of the transfer modes with pictorial examples see the section Transfer Modes later in this chapter Stereo pictures cannot be pasted into single color channels If you attempt to do so MetaSynth will beep Mono pictures pasted into a stereo channel are pasted to both channels I e a grayscale image pasted into a stereo image appears yellow Pressing the Edit Menu icon displays a menu with the following items Undo z Undo the most recent edit operation Undo toggles between Undo and Redo MetaSynth maintains a single level of undo Copy Pict c Copy
218. t name or sample file name is stored with the preset This sample or instrument file will be opened when the preset is selected if the preference Load Instrument With Preset is turned on in the Preferences dialog box Typically you will save sound pictures by using this function to add them to preset libraries If you would like to export an image as an independent file use the Save as Pict File command in the File submenu Option click to replace the most recently selected preset This functionality lets you choose a preset modify it and save it back to the same location in the preset library 63 Image Synth Reference To remove a preset hold down the option key the cursor becomes the X delete cursor and choose the preset to be deleted with the Preset Selector see below Preset Selector MetaTip Also called the Select Preset Tool Click and drag here to display a menu of the active library s presets If the chosen preset s input source is a sample looped sample or instrument file the appropriate file will be opened if the preference Load Instrument With Preset is turned on in the Preferences dialog box If the sound instrument file is not in the original location MetaSynth looks in the same folder as the preset library Drag past the pop up s lower boundary to display more presets as there may be more pictures stored than can be displayed in a single screen The selected sound picture and its settings replace t
219. tch the duration of the selected portion of the Sample Editor s currently loaded sound or the entire sound if there is no selection When using filter pictures derived from an Image Synth frequency analysis the duration of the sound to be filtered should be close to that of the analyzed sound 137 MetaTip MetaTip Note MetaTip Filter Palette from which the filter was derived if the time related characteristics such as tempo are to be maintained The frequency space of the Image Synth and the Filter Palette are offset by one octave when the Image Synth s master tuning setting is at the default A2 So when pasting an image as when analyzing a sound from the Image Synth into the Filter Palette the picture needs to be transposed up one octave by clicking the octave transpose arrow in order to maintain the original sound s frequency spectrum You can avoid having to do this transposition by setting the Image Synth s Master Tuning setting to A3 Also the Image Synth canvas should be set to the same height as the Filter Palette s 128 pixels high Choose a filter from the Filter Selector pop up to use as a starting point Use the arrow keys or transpose tools to move the filter to overlap the sound as desired Filter Palette Tools The left hand and bottom toolbars are identical to the Image Synth s and the upper toolbar is very similar For brevity s sake they are not re described here For information abo
220. te Care should be taken to keep the leftmost value of the envelope at zero otherwise DC offset or overly strong distortion may occur 183 MetaTip Morph Menu Instant Spectrum Capture the instantaneous frequency content of a sound region Instant Spectrum generates a spectrum file which encapsulates the harmonic spectrum of the first 2048 samples of the selection When you choose this command MetaSynth prompts you for a name with which to save the file This command is used in conjunction with Synthesize Spectrum which synthesizes a new sound based on the spectrum The spectrum is a high quality short time FFT Fast Fourier Transform Spectrum files are much more compact than the corresponding sound files and can be a convenient way to share sound sources via e mail Spectrum files can be used as Custom Scales in the Image Synth Choose Custom Scale from the Frequency Map selector and option click the Import Scale icon button This option is a great way to create exciting new sounds See the Image Synth chapter of this manual for information about this exciting new feature See Synthesize Spectrum and Filter Spectrum below for more information about spectrum files and their uses Synthesize Spectrum Synthesize a sound from data in a spectrum file see Instant Spectrum above The sound has steady unvarying harmonic content based on the frequency content of the sound from which the spectrum file was created The duration of the
221. te Convolution is a CPU intensive task On slower machines this may take a while to compute MetaTip To cancel a time consuming operation click in the menubar 43 QuickStart Lesson 6 Building and Using Grids When creating tonal music it is often useful to create rhythmic and or harmonic grids to provide a framework The Blue Channel can be used for such templates The Blue Channel s contents are ignored by the Image Synth when it synthesizes images It can also be used as you saw in Self Tour presets to display text comments Only color pictures have a blue channel e Bring the Image Synth window to the front e Delete the canvas image by pressing the delete key Click on the Blue Grid submenu and choose Delete Blue Channel e Choose Semitones from the Frequency Map selector e Make sure that the Image Synth is in color mode by clicking on the Mono Stereo toggle if necessary e Set the canvas width to 256 and the height to 128 by choosing these values from the Size X and Y pop up menus at the upper right of the Image Synth palette 4 EL Double click the Tempo Duration icon to open the Tempo Duration dialog 1024 Samples per pixel 80 74 BPM at 32 IE CIEN per beat Total duration in m s fr gt 5 f 944 1000 frames Enter 16 as the setting for Pixels per Beat Enter 160 as the BPM tempo setting MetaSynth may adjust this value slightly which is ok M Press the OK icon button 44
222. te the image you copied Look in the Sample Editor s upper toolbar and note the length of the sound about 7 8 seconds e Choose Open in the main menubar s File Menu and open the sound Requiem Mozart L in the Input Sample f Use the command key and select about 7 5 seconds of the sound Type command g to crop the sound Type command n to normalize the sound e Press the Filter Palette s compute Apply Filter icon Type command z to restore the sound 41 QuickStart g Press the Filter Palette s Octave Transpose up arrow and apply the filter Note The Filter Palette and Image Synth have slightly different frequency ranges The Image Synth with the default Master Tuning setting A2 has a range which starts at 0 The Filter Palette starts at A 1 When pasting a picture copied from the Image Synth you may generally want to transpose it up one octave to have the frequencies match 42 QuickStart Intermediate Techniques Grids Lesson 5 Using Convolve for a Vocoder Effect e Open the instrument FemaleSoftVoices from the folder Female soft voices m f found in the Instruments folder of MetaSynth s home directory Choose this preset e Synthesize the sound picture by pressing the Synthesize tool e Choose Convolve from the main menubar s Morph menu e Choose the sample file Ana MetaSynth Speech A quick shortcut is to choose it from the recent files menu in the Open Sound dialog box No
223. th the Brush Grid it is easy to enter musical figures and rhythm patterns directly See the tutorials provided on the CD for detailed lessons that show you how MetaTip Here is an example of how to set up the grid In the Tempo Duration Dialog set your tempo and set the pixels per beat to 16 Setting a Brush Grid Interval of 16 will restrict your notes to occurring on the beat Setting the Brush Grid Interval to 64 will restrict notes to occurring on the first beat of a measure Setting a Brush Grid Interval to 4 will restrict notes to 16 note boundaries And so on Brush Grid Toggle Click on this toggle to turn the Brush Grid on and off When the toggle is on it is lit up The grid can be turned on temporarily by pressing and holding the shift key prior to initiating a paint stroke or selection When the Brush Grid is on modifier keys can be used to achieve these constraints e Shift key constrain to the Brush Grid Interval and constrain stroke horizontally e Shift Option keys treat Brush Grid Interval as a vertical grid and constrain to the horizontal Brush Grid e Shift Option will constrain strokes to a vertical grid using the Brush Grid Interval without horizontal constraint when the Brush Grid is off MetaTip Use vertical constraint shift option to paint chords and other interesting harmonic structures Set the Brush Mode to Dot Mode With a semitone frequency mapping for instance set the Brush Grid Interval
224. the Recent Files icon Choose the file from the list e Hold down the command key and drag over the first two syllables to select Welcome e Audition the selection by pressing the enter key If the selection wasn t right try again When you have selected Welcome type command g or choose Crop from the Edit menu to crop the sound to the selection e Choose Save As from the File menu and save the sound as Ana Quick Click on the Time Reverse icon e Click the Time Reverse icon again to return the sound to its original orientation The Effects Palette Grain Resonator and Harmonics e Bring the Effects Palette to the front by choosing it in the Windows menu e Click on the Grain effect Click on Preview and drag the mouse around the screen Enter the following settings Grain Size 160 0 Input Step 4 0 Output Step 40 0 Randomization 0 Parameters Preview 1500 4 Input step in millisecond Output step in millisecond Randomization in percent 36 QuickStart Intermediate Techniques Instruments and Convolution Click Apply Note Applying an effect changes the sample loaded in the Sample Editor You can use the File menu s Undo command z to undo the effect BH the left hand toolbar s Normalize icon Click on the Resonator effect and enter these settings Amount in Percent 100 Semitones 12 0 Parameters Preview 100 0 Amount
225. the Evolution gt checkbox otherwise it has no effect The green envelope controls the waveform A s amplitude and the red envelope controls waveform B s Frequency the evolution frequency is the frequency of the Evolution envelope in cycles per minute setting of 1 cycles the envelope once in a minute To shape the envelopes click on them and drag or use any of the available shaping tools This section of the dialog box is a standard MetaSynth envelope editor The two envelopes are constrained to unity gain in order to avoid clipping A change to one envelope has an inverse effect on the other See the chapter Envelope Editors for more information about MetaSynth s envelope editing tools Open Synth Data Click on the Open icon button found at the right edge of the dialog box to open a Procedural Synth patch that has been saved to disk 169 Sounds Menu Save Synth Data Click on the Save icon button found at the right edge of the dialog box to save the current settings of the Procedural Synth to disk Preview Audition the sound Playback begins when the button is pressed and continues until it is pressed again Apply Replace the selected region of the Sample Editor s displayed waveform with the sound generated by the Procedural Synth Clicking this button does not close the dialog box Enough data is generated to fill the selection MetaTip You don t have to click Apply to use the Procedural Synth as an Image S
226. the Image Synth Palette in front press n to analyze the resulting sound Mouse over the affected areas and observe the frequency range 150 Effects Palette To repeat this with different settings type command z to restore the original white noise and follow the steps again Band width The bandwidth or Q determines the width of the filter about the frequency center 100 yields a broad band width Gain The amount of gain or attenuation applied to the signal The range is 200 to 200 Some favorite settings are Amount Frequency Band Width Gain Telephone 100 14 2 200 Cheap Radio 99 11 6 150 Enhance Highs 80 20 8 150 Enhance Mids 80 10 20 100 151 Envelope Editors About This Chapter This chapter describes the envelope editors which appear throughout MetaSynth Envelope Editors Envelopes MetaSynth uses envelope displays to control a number of very powerful processes These envelopes are edited via MetaSynth s Envelope Editor interface which you will encounter throughout MetaSynth The envelope editing interface is similar to the Wave Table Palette s Envelopes are curves whose contours provide control points for processes like convolve and crossfade Processes which use envelopes are e Envelope Pitch Envelope and Pan Envelope which are available in the Transform menu e Procedural Synth available from the Sounds menu e Cross Mix Crossfade Cross Convolve
227. the basis for frequency analysis FFT This is the default waveform When playing a picture with a sine wave table the sound picture is the sonogram of the resulting sound 113 Wave Table Palette Option drag doubles the frequency Saw Wave Drag to the right to morph the current waveform towards a saw tooth wave Sawtooth or ramp waves have often been used as the starting points for synthesizing brass instruments with conventional analog synthesizers and consist of the fundamental plus its even harmonics Square Wave Drag to the right to morph the current waveform towards a single cycle square wave A square wave has a hollow reedy sound and is comprised of the odd numbered harmonics MetaTip To create a pulse wave click on the Scale Frequency tool and drag to the left to change the pulse width Octaves Drag to the right to morph the current waveform towards a waveform that consists of the fundamental plus the octaves above it This waveform has a pipe organ like timbre From Sample Drag to the right to morph the waveform towards a waveform derived from the first 1024 visible samples of the currently loaded sample MetaTip Scroll the sample loaded in the Sample Editor to change the waveform which this tool steals Randomize Drag to the right to randomize the waveform Randomize has the effect of increasing the high frequency content of the waveform Use the smoothing tool to filter some of these harmoni
228. the current selection or the entire canvas if there is no selection to the PICT Clipboard Only information from the active color channels see Channel Edit Mode Selector later in this chapter are copied For example if the Channel Edit Mode Selector is set to the red channel only the red pixels will be copied Paste Pict v Paste the clipboard into the current selection scaling the image to fill the selection or canvas area The new pixels replace previously existing pixels To paste without scaling the image use Insert Pict Pressing the shift key when pasting causes the clipboard to be scaled to the entire canvas area and clipped to the selection area This is useful for pasting in part of an image without rescaling For example select all of the sound press a canvas and copy press c Clear the canvas by pressing the delete key Use the marquee tool to select a part of the canvas Press shift v Voila The pixels originally located in the selected region reappear unscaled Insert Pict b Paste the clipboard maintaining the original proportions and using the current transfer mode The selection does not necessarily replace the pixels of the existing 60 MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip Image Synth Reference sound picture The inserted material is added as a floating selection It is initially centered but can be moved The transfer mode can be changed after inserting the clipboard and the selection mo
229. the selected portion of the currently loaded sound or the entire sound if there is no selection When computation is complete this can take a while with long sounds or with complex filters the filtered sound will play To restore the unfiltered sound press command Z or choose Undo from the Edit menu of the main menubar Play Selection Click the speaker icon to hear the selected portion of the currently loaded sound or the entire sound if there is no selection This is not a preview of the processed sound Tips Perform an analysis of the sound you intend to filter by clicking the Analysis tool before starting to paint your filter This lets you see where to place your filter Use Displacement Maps with smoothing on to create analog synth like filter sweeps Create vocoder like effects by using the frequency analysis of vocal sounds as filters in the Image Synth To do this record spoken vowels or words with the Sample Editor s record function Perform an analysis in the Image Synth shortcut n Copy the resulting image and paste it into the Filter Palette s canvas Open a sample file of sustained strings for example and click the Analysis Tool Nudge the filter picture to maximize overlap Apply the filter by pressing the Apply Filter button Build a library of graphic filter presets based on the FFT analysis of unique sounds or your favorite music Remember to transpose the filter or use the arrow keys so that it
230. time that the brightest pixels in the image are dim Smooth Envelope Soften the left and right edges of all pixel lines of the canvas or the selected region This command softens the attacks and decays of a sound picture s notes Unlike the Blur process diffusion happens only in the time domain the harmonic content is unchanged Repeated application removes sharp attacks Smooth Decay Smooth Right Soften and extend the decay of all pixel lines notes of the canvas or the selected region Use this tool to add sustain and soft decay to notes without affecting the attack MetaTip Option click this tool to smooth the attacks left edges only 104 Image Synth Reference Interpolate Create smooth interpolated transitions in amplitude along the time axis Interpolate is usually used to modify the envelopes of individual notes or clusters of notes A smooth gradient is calculated between the pixels at the right and left boundaries of the selected region Interpolate is the visual equivalent of crossfading Generally you will select either the attack or the decay of a note or note cluster before applying this process Use this tool to smooth out abrupt changes in brightness Use this tool to lengthen note durations by selecting the end of a note and the area to the right of the note Synthesize Compute MetaTip Render the canvas as a sound and load it into the Sample Editor The entire sound canvas is rendered
231. tiply transfer mode the pixels of the corresponding color channels are multiplied together red channel times red channel green channel times green channel to calculate the new image Only pixels common to the corresponding color channels of both images remain Each pixel s brightness is the product of the luminosity of the contributing pixels Brightness is measured on a scale of 0 black to 1 maximum brightness except when using the Filter Brush When a red picture i e the green layer is black is multiplied by a green picture i e the red layer is black the result is black When yellow is filtered multiplied by green the result is green And so on See Color Channels above Preset A sound picture that has been stored in a Preset Library A preset stores the image and settings required to play it back input source tempo frequency map and tuning Preset Libraries Preset libraries are files that contain collections of sound pictures There is always an active Preset Library If MetaSynth is launched by double clicking a preset library or by dropping one on MetaSynth s icon that preset library is made active otherwise MetaSynth automatically opens the library named MetaSynth presets found in the same folder as MetaSynth The active preset library is accessed by clicking on the Preset Selector icon 55 Image Synth Reference Reference Pitch A sound picture has an associated reference pitch which is set with the Mast
232. to 5 and use vertical strokes to paint stacks of fourths Brush Grid Interval The horizontal width between grid points This is a standard MetaSynth numerical field Type a number and press tab to confirm the value To activate the grid press the shift key before using a brush or selection tool or turn it on by clicking the Brush Grid Toggle 97 Image Synth Reference FI Scroll Hand spacebar Scroll the canvas within its frame When the Image Synth is zoomed in some of the picture may lie beyond the visible frame This tool replaces the functionality provided by the standard Macintosh scroll bars There are two ways to use the tool click on the tool and drag in any direction to scroll the image Alternately move the mouse over the canvas area press the spacebar to get the hand cursor and drag the mouse to pull the desired portion into view Shortcut Press the spacebar and drag the mouse in the sound canvas to scroll it directly Note Don t confuse this tool with the Offset Tool whose icon is the outline of a hand Zoom Tool Zoom the image in and out while maintaining the image center Use the plus and minus keys as shortcuts Command spacebar click zooms in on the clicked location Option command spacebar click zooms out from the clicked region Lower Toolbar The toolbar at the bottom of the Image Synth window has a number of the most frequently used tools The Preview and Synthesize tools are here as
233. to the brush s width Use shift option to constrain the tool to changing the brush height While the mouse button is down the tool displays the brush s size in pixels with the width displayed on top Double click on the tool s icon to open the Brush Options Dialog This tool is not available when the Selection Tool is active in which case its position in the toolbar is occupied by the Transfer Mode submenu 86 Image Synth Reference Brush Options Dialog New in 2 5 This dialog provides a convenient way to precisely set the brush size and spacing To invoke the Brush Option Dialog double click the Brush Size tool The Brush Size Tool is not available when the Selection Tool is active Brush Shape Display The Brush Display at upper left corner of the dialog shows the appearance of the brush with its selected size and shape The Brush Tool selection affects the appearance of the brush and is reflected in this display Brush Shape Canvas This canvas provides continuous control over brush shape Click anywhere to immediately change the brush shape Areas between the displayed shapes are active Press and drag the mouse through the canvas and watch in the Brush Shape Display as the brush shape changes continuously The Brush Size can be further refined with direct numerical entry in the Brush Width or Brush Height fields Brush Picker Click here to pick any one of several brushes convenient for entering notes Each brush in th
234. to the subject matter of this Agreement If you have any questions concerning this Agreement you may contact U amp I by writing to U amp I software manufactured by U amp I software LLC 85A States Street San Francisco CA 94109 MetaSynth is a trademark of U amp I software all rights reserved You acknowledge that you have read this Agreement understand it and agree to be bound by its terms xiv introduction Welcome to MetaSynth a vast creative space where your two most precious senses sight and hearing meet and interact in wonderful new ways MetaSynth presents a new paradigm for sound design and music composition enabling you to paint sound and create vivid sonic textures beyond your imagining MetaSynth allows you to sculpt all aspects of the sounds you create stereo imaging dynamics tonal space spectral content by manipulating sound pictures MetaSynth s pictorial representation of sound and music What exactly is MetaSynth It is hard to say It is a tool so unique and of such extraordinary richness that we ve never found a single sentence description that could capture its essence Once you have used MetaSynth we think you ll agree that the only reply is Well it s MetaSynth It is a sound rendering engine that can function as asynthesizer capable of additive wave table granular and simple FM synthesis e thousand voice sampler asample editor e an effects processor asequen
235. ts that are all applied to the currently loaded sound Transform Morph Sounds menus These menus provide a number of sophisticated processes for transforming and morphing sounds in the Sample Editor 12 User Interface Tools The moment you launch MetaSynth you will see that MetaSynth has a look and feel unlike any music application you have ever used We want the visual experience of using MetaSynth to be as unique and stimulating as the experience of using it As a result many of the windows have user interface features that won t be immediately familiar Every icon picture and glyph that you see in MetaSynth s palettes and windows does something We call these items tools Many of these tools are commented as you move the cursor over the tool its title or some information about it will appear in the Tips Display of its window Some tools are simply meant to be clicked Others need to be pressed and dragged vertically or horizontally or both The mouse cursor changes to indicate how the tool is operated see Cursors below Tools that are influenced by both vertical and lateral motion can be constrained to the influence of one or the other using modifier keys shift for horizontal only control shift option for vertical only control Detailed description of each tool is provided in the reference section of this manual Menus MetaSynth s menus work somewhat differently from those found in other application
236. tte and Image Synth So an Image Synth sound analysis can be copied and pasted into the Filter Palette Applying such a filter to a rich sound can create dramatic sound morphing effects Imagine analyzing a kicking drum groove and using its picture to filter Mozart instant techno Mozart Or use an analysis of human speech to filter a string orchestra to create a singing orchestra See the QuickStart to see how The Filter Palette can open any filter or presets library The same filter library is shared by both the Filter Palette and the Image Synth Remember the filters function differently in the two palettes In the Image Synth filters are applied to the displayed image and influence the sound by modifying the picture Filter Palette filters are applied directly to a sound As with the Image Synth any graphic image can be pasted to its canvas and Macintosh PICT files can be opened It can be convenient to start with a blue canvas which lets all frequencies pass by clearing the canvas delete key pressing i Invert to turn all the pixels of the filter layer on blue Control click anywhere in the filter canvas to hear the pitch which corresponds to that pixel location Filter Palette Resolution The palette s frequency space is 128 pixels high with semitone per pixel frequency mapping giving filter pictures a range of 27 56 Hz to 42 28 kHz The image width is fixed at 256 pixels and the duration of the image is scaled to ma
237. ude envelopes can be created by varying the brightness of the pixels for which task several tools have been provided Sound pictures can be mono or stereo A mono sound picture is grayscale and results in a mono sound Stereo sound pictures are color and result in stereo sounds The color of a stereo sound picture s pixels determines the stereo placement of the sound MetaSynth uses an RGB red green blue color model Green represents the right channel Red represents the left channel In RGB yellow is the combination of red and green and thus is played back in the center of the stereo field Blue is ignored by the Image Synth when rendering sound which allows you to set up silent blue rhythmic and harmonic grids over which you paint with other colors The Input Source Selector determines the sound source triggered by the picture s pixels whether it is the Wave Table s waveform a Procedural Synth patch the Sample Editor s current sound or a multi sample MetaSynth Instrument Canceling Interrupting Time Consuming Processes Some MetaSynth processes can be time consuming rendering complex pictures that use Sample or Instrument input sources Morph operations with long sounds and some others To cancel such processes computations click in the application s menubar Image Synth Concepts There are a few terms and concepts that are important to understand when discussing the Image Synth Blue Channel The Blue Channel refers to
238. ult Envelope Clicking this button sets the envelope to the default envelope for the process The default curve varies from dialog to dialog The default envelope is not necessarily the curve displayed when the envelope editor first appears Minimum Envelope Set the curve to the minimum or identity value depending upon the dialog box in which the envelope editor appears Flip Curve Flip the envelope curve about the x axis Square Contract Click on this tool to contract the waveform inward The amplitude is multiplied by itself to achieve this effect amplitudes being measured on a scale of 0 to 1 Square Root Expand Click on this control to expand the waveform outward by taking the square root of amplitude values which range from 0 to 1 Scale Curve Scale the curve horizontally Drag to the left or right to contract or expand the curve horizontally Shift option drag to scale the curve vertically which can be used to invert the curve 154 Envelope Editors Vertical Offset hand tool Offset the curve vertically Drag the hand tool up or down to move the curve in that direction Shift drag to offset the envelope horizontally Rotate Rotate the curve Drag the mouse to the left or right to rotate the curve about the canvas area s center point Smoothing Drag from this tool to smooth the curve Drag all the way to the left to morph the envelope back to its original shape Option drag for a more subt
239. uration 200 doubles the duration etc Average grain size in millisec The size of the grains or time slices used to expand the sound Large grain sizes may result in stuttering echo like effects Small grains may emphasize particular harmonics and unnaturally colorize the sound sometimes the effect you want but sometimes not Very small grains will pitch the sound Grain A granular synthesis effect that displaces and reorders time slices from the source sample This effect is one of MetaSynth s most powerful features and is capable of creating mind boggling new sounds You will find that a bit of experimentation is needed to find the settings that work best for a particular source sound or effect Imagine being able to take a tape recording slicing it up into arbitrarily small bits then rearranging them That s Grain input step lt P 2 grain size gt output step Grains of duration grain size are fed into the Grain effect at a rate defined by the input step value The Grain effect sends the grains out at a rate defined by the output step value The order of the grains is determined by the randomization parameter A high value for randomization results in grains taken out of order from the input sound The left and right channel grains of stereo sounds are randomized independently Subtle randomization produces beautiful chorus like stereo effects 146 MetaTip MetaTip
240. urce for playing pictures or analyzed to create a new sound picture Transform Morph Sound Menus Effects Palette Filter Palette Wave Table Palette Instruments Procedural Synth Sample Editor Figure 2 MetaSynth s spheres of influence The Image Synth amp Its Allies Map Semitones E ys Pe Size x 256 128 z wes MBlur Quantize Echo Pre Echo Reverb Repeat Reverse Pulse Saw Shorten Attacks Max E E 2 2 E g E E E m arid Image Synth This is the heart of MetaSynth The Image Synth renders the picture in the display area as sound The picture it contains can be either rendered in non real time at full fidelity or previewed in real time at reduced fidelity When the image is rendered the output is loaded into MetaSynth s Sample Editor In addition to being able to render sound pictures the Image Synth is a sophisticated image processing application 10 Overview Wave Table Palette A wave table waveform generator that can be used as an input source by the Image Synth 1 Modulation I DI O EBvalutien A R Procedural Synth The Procedural Synth is a two operator FM based sound generator accessed from the Sounds menu It serves double duty It can be used as an input source by the Image Synth and it can generate sound directly into the Sample Editor Instruments Dialog The Image Synth
241. ut command Time Reverse Sound Reverse the sound or selection Time reverse has the effect of playing the sound backwards Auto CrossFade Blend a reversed copy of the sample or selection with the original Option click the tool to perform the same crossfade as the Instruments Dialog Auto Crossfade command See the chapter Instruments for more information 134 Sample Editor Repeat Click here to insert a duplicate copy of the sample or selection Repeat performs a ripple edit which inserts the data at the beginning of the selection if there is one or at the end of the sample if there is no selection 135 Filter Palette About This Chapter This chapter describes the features and tools which make up the Filter Palette Familiarity with the features of the Image Synth and Sample Editor is helpful for getting the most out of this chapter For more information about using the Filter Palette see the QuickStart chapter of this manual and the tutorials provided on the MetaSynth CD We encourage you to review the QuickStart chapter of this manual and the tutorials provided on the CD to get a sense of the amazing effects you can create The Filter Palette The Filter Palette is a unique time variant subtractive 128 band filter which modifies the sound currently loaded in the Sample Editor You can think of it as a 128 channel equalizer with 256 snapshot settings which are recalled as the sound plays The Filter Palette s
242. ut them see the Image Synth chapter of this manual There are a few menu commands found in the Image Synth s submenus which are missing from the Filter Palette s submenus since they do not apply For example there is no Swap Red and Green command and there are no blue channel commands since there is only one editable color layer blue Analyze Current Sample Press this tool to compute an overview of the current sound s frequency content over time The analysis is created in the orange comments channel of the image The analysis is similar to that performed in the Image Synth palette but provides a template only blue pixels are the active ones in the Filter Palette The analysis gives you a visual representation of the sound over which you can paint or overlay your filters By seeing where the orange and blue pixels overlap you will get a sense of the final sound since the only sound which passes through the filter will be where these layers overlap To clear the frequency analysis you must clear the currently loaded sound then perform another analysis The orange layer cannot be copied To use an analysis as a filter perform the analysis in the Image Synth palette and add the resulting picture to the filter library by clicking the Add Filter tool or copy the image and paste it into the Filter Palette s filter canvas 138 MetaTip Filter Palette Apply Filter Press the Apply Filter icon to apply the filter to
243. ve a vocal timbre to a recording of a string or horn section without changing the recording s overall contour envelope Spectrum filtering would be 184 perfect for this job whereas Convolve would impose voice s harmonic and amplitude contours 185 See the Instruments chapter earlier in this manual for a complete description of MetaSynth instruments and the Instruments Menu New Instrument Create a new Instrument An empty Instrument Dialog is opened with the empty sample slots spaced an octave apart Load individual samples manually by pressing the Load Sample icon buttons Assign the base pitch for the sample using the pitch and octave pop up menus Important If you would like to use the Instrument in future MetaSynth sessions you must press the Save button Open Instrument Open an Instrument file MetaSynth presents an open file dialog box to select the Instrument then presents the Instrument dialog for the Instrument Press the OK icon button to confirm loading or press the Cancel icon button to cancel loading If any of the Instrument s samples are not found you will be prompted to find them If there is not enough memory available you will be alerted and only some of the samples will be loaded Build Instrument Automatically create and map a new instrument with related samples MetaSynth presents an open file dialog for you to choose a sample file If other related s
244. ve harmonics MetaTip See the provided tutorials for examples of using Repeat Mode This picture was created in Repeat mode with the Brush Grid see below turned on Only the first four notes were entered directly the other notes are repetitions generated by this brush mode The Brush Grid Interval is 8 pixels The Hot Filter Grid Interval is set to 32 pixels 80 Image Synth Reference Brush Palette Choose a brush or tool for working in the Image Synth MetaSynth provides a number of brushes optimized for entering music and sound There are brushes for painting notes for adding harmonics for filtering for smearing existing pixels for refining note envelopes and more Several settings work in conjunction with the Brush Palette Brush Mode Brush Color and Brush Size Each brush type remembers its size and mode settings MetaTip Holding down the command and option keys together pops up the Brush Palette when you click on the canvas making it easy to switch brushes while working MetaTip Pressing the command key temporarily changes the brush to the selection tool Note There is an additional related tool which does not appear on the palette When you press the option key the eye dropper tool is activated An eye dropper cursor appears and picks the color beneath it when the mouse is clicked Brush strokes can be constrained with the Brush Grid described later in this chapter MetaTip Pressing and holding the shift key befo
245. ved to achieve a wide variety of effects Use this command to maintain the proportions of the inserted image or if you want to apply the selection with one of the transfer modes If there is a selected region the inserted image will be scaled to the selection Insert Pict makes the Selection Tool the active Brush Tool and the Color Selector is replaced by the Transfer Mode Selector To see how this works choose a preset Copy the canvas type c Insert the image type b Now use the Transfer Mode Selector to change the transfer mode to Subtractive or Differences and move the selection around Insert Pict can be used to add comments to a picture To do this open a text application and type the text you would like to add as a comment Use a screen capture tool such as SnapzPro or Capture to copy the text as an image In the Image Synth use the Channel Edit Mode Selector to select the blue channel only Insert Pict will add the text image to the Blue channel You can advance through the transfer modes by pressing the 7 key Clear delete Delete erase the current selection or the entire canvas image if there is no selection The selection area becomes black Invert i Inverts the colors of the selection area or the entire canvas image if there is no selection Invert can be used to load any Filter on to the canvas Clear the canvas press the delete key Invert the canvas type i making the canvas y
246. warrant that the Software will meet your requirements that operation of the Software will be uninterrupted or error free or that all software errors will be corrected 2 The medium on which the Software is furnished will be free from defects in materials and workmanship under normal use U amp I will at its option either repair or replace the faulty medium at no charge to you provided you return the faulty medium with proof of purchase to U amp I This Limited Warranty is void if any failure of the Software or any damage to the medium is due to accident disaster abuse misapplication modification of the Software and or violation of any of the terms of the License Agreement The above warranties are exclusive and in lieu of all other warranties express or implied and U amp I expressly disclaims all other warranties including the implied warranties of merchantability fitness for a particular purpose and non infringement No oral or written information or advice given by U amp I its employees dealers resellers distributors or agents shall increase the scope of the above warranties or create any new warranties Some states do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties so the above exclusion may not apply to you In that event any implied warranties are limited in duration to thirty 30 days from the date of delivery of the software This warranty gives you specific legal rights You may have other rights which vary from state to state
247. with explanations of material covered elsewhere in the manual Don t worry if you feel a bit lost at first MetaSynth s is a strange new world We recommend that everyone take the self tour It shows off some pretty nifty sounds many of which make use of new features like custom tunings scales This chapter only scratches MetaSynth s surface Remember that there are several tutorials provided on the CD which demonstrate many valuable techniques A summary of the tutorials is provided at the end of this manual A Simple Convention In this chapter we use a simple convention to distinguish explanatory text from steps to execute Steps to execute are marked with bullets e Get ready to have fun 23 QuickStart The Image Synth If you are new to MetaSynth take a look at the picture of the Image Synth Palette below It points out Image Synth interface features you will use in the Self Tour and first lessons Select Preset Tool Click and hold the mouse button here to choose a picture preset Brush Mode Click here to toggle between the Brush Modes Dot Line and Repeat Brush Palette Click and hold the mouse button to pop up the Brush Palette Brush Color Click here to change the brush color Scroller Click and drag left right up or down to scroll a zoomed image Synthesize Compute Click here to compute synthesize the sound and load it into the Sample Editor 24 Apply F
248. x sounds computed from both Instruments and sine waves you will want to make the reference pitch for your instruments A 441 Hz To do this set the Fine Tuning parameter to 3 or 4 3 824 would be the exact value Most real acoustic instruments have unstable pitches and are approximate in the first place Tuning different instruments together is more of an art than a science If you experience problems with Instrument tunings you will ultimately need to use trial and error and render the same image with different Instrument to see how the sounds interact Beating or chorus like effects are indications that fine tuning is needed Ultimately you may need to modify one or more of the original samples with the Effects Palette s Transpose effect Save Instrument This command presents a save file dialog box for you to save the Instrument Saving the Instrument creates only one file the Instrument file All of the options looping stereo and fine tuning settings are stored in the created file These files take up very little space on disk 123 Note MetaTip Note Instruments Don t forget to use this button when creating new instruments Clicking the Instrument dialog s OK icon button will load the instrument during the current session however the Instrument is only saved to disk if you choose Save Instrument or Save Instrument amp Samples Save Instrument amp Samples Create the Instrument file and save copies of the sampl
249. x until the window is a convenient size Click on the Magnify Zoom tool to make the picture a comfortable size while keeping the entire picture in view Use the grow box if needed You can use the plus and minus keys as shortcuts for zooming in or out MetaSynth has no scroll bars If the gray area which surrounds the picture disappears it is an indication that not all of the canvas the picture is visible You can use the Scroller hand to scroll the picture or press the spacebar and drag the canvas directly to scroll it 27 QuickStart Lesson 1 Getting Acquainted When MetaSynth is first opened the canvas area displays the following picture a single horizontal white line that runs across the width of the canvas In the Image Synth the vertical axis represents pitch and the horizontal axis time This picture plays a single pitch for the time specified by the Tempo Duration Tool described later The red sine wave displayed at the top of the palette indicates that the Wave Table is the current input source for the picture Preview amp Tips Display 4 Press the Preview tool to audition the picture An orange dot rides along the top of the picture as the sound plays e Press the return key as a shortcut for clicking on the Preview tool You can stop playback by pressing it a second time e Move the mouse over the canvas area and observe the Tips Display area located at the lower right portion of the Image Synth p
250. y In some transfer modes Differences or Subtractive for example the image may appear to disappear when perfectly aligned with the selection Slight movements of the selection can have interesting effects Try this select a preset with a dense image Type c to copy the image Type b to insert the image Choose Differences from the Transfer Mode submenu Now use the arrow keys to move the image around and see what happens See the provided tutorials for examples of using the transfer modes The default transfer mode is Maximum 88 The following table demonstrates the transfer modes Canvas Image Image Synth Reference Inserted Image Transfer Mode Resulting Image Notes Erase The selection replaces the existing pixels Blend A 50 blend of the two images is made Maximum The default Transfer mode The images are combined with the brightest pixels taking precedence Minimum The images are combined with the least bright pixels taking precedence Additive The images are combined by adding the brightness of the two layers Subtractive Subtract the selection s pixel values brightness from the existing image s Subtracting black pixels has no effect 89 MetaTip Image Synth Reference Multiply the brightness values of the two images pixels This is the same process used when
251. y other application to manipulate sound pictures You will be amazed by the sounds and effects you can create This new paradigm allows you to use the same tool to analyze sound and to create it MetaSynth can convert existing sounds into pictures as easily as it can turn sound pictures into sounds making it possible to invent new mind stretching instruments by manipulating sound pictures Unlike traditional music software there is no distinction between sound design creation and composition With no external hardware required you can create music that goes from your brain to CD retaining the crystalline clarity of the music as you first imagined it About This Manual If you are like us you rarely read software manuals We recommend that you make an exception with this one MetaSynth is such a new paradigm that as good as our user interface is there is much that MetaSynth can do that you won t discover without a few glimpses at this manual Introduction MetaSynth s richness is akin to a furniture maker s workshop Before you can make a beautiful table you need to understand not just how to use the individual tools but also the method by which the products of each tool are put together to make the final product Our hope is that this manual and the provided tutorials will provide both types of information We suggest perusing the Overview chapter then getting your feet wet with the QuickStart hands on tour On the CD we ve
252. ying this process repeatedly can result in solarization effects You will generally apply this process a few times until you get the desired effect It is often useful to apply the lower toolbar s Normalize and Smooth tools when you apply this process Interesting effects can be created by applying this process to a single color channel Quantize Rhythmic quantize Force notes to start and end at the positions determined by the current grid interval Quantizes all notes to the duration specified by the Hot Filter Grid interval and to the brightness of the brightest pixel in each pixel group Quantize is similar to the pixelate function found in some graphic editing applications MetaSynth however only applies the effect horizontally in the time domain This command is identical to the Quantize hot filter For a full description see Quantize in the Hot Filters section of this chapter 92 MetaTip MetaTip MetaTip Image Synth Reference Trace Edges V Trace edges vertically Traces the edge of pixel lines along their horizontal boundaries Where adjacent pixels are on Trace Edges V turns them off If there is a large difference in brightness between adjacent pixels a pixel will appear at the boundary in the resulting image When applied to a solid rectangle for instance the resulting image is a pair of vertical lines at the rectangle s left and right edges When applied to a horizontal line the result is a pair of p
253. ynth input source OK Dismiss the dialog and keep the current settings MetaTip Use this button without first hitting apply to use the Procedural Synth as an Image Synth input source Cancel Dismiss the dialog without remembering the current settings Recent Sounds The last group of items which only appears if sound files have been opened during the current work session is a list of the sound files that have been opened during the session Selecting a name reloads that sample into the Sample Editor Any sound files dropped on the MetaSynth icon in the Finder are added to the list although only the last one will actually be opened MetaTip If you are going to be working with a number of different sound files during your work session drop their icons or alias icons on to the MetaSynth icon in the Finder to add them to the Sounds menu making them instantly accessible 170 MetaTip Note Transtorm Menu About This Chapter This chapter describes the commands found in the Transform menu Familiarity with the Sample Editor chapter of this manual is recommended Transform Menu The Transform menu provides utility functions for processing and cleaning up sound samples Each of these processes is applied to the selected region of the sample loaded in the Sample Editor or to the entire sample if there is no selection Smooth command h Remove very high frequencies from the selected region of the current sample
254. ynthesis one oscillator the carrier is the oscillator whose output is actually heard The other oscillator the modulator varies the pitch of the carrier If the frequency of the modulator is low the carrier s pitch wavers audibly creating a vibrato like effect If the modulation frequency is greater than about 20 cycles per second overtones harmonics partials called sidebands are generated in the carrier wave These sidebands create rich complex sounds not possible with subtractive synthesis the type of synthesis employed by classic analog synthesizers 167 MetaTip Sounds Menu While the Procedural Synth won t replace your DX7 the range of sounds that can be generated using this simple FM synthesizer is astonishing With a bit of experimentation you can generate everything from clangorous metallic sounds to industrial buzzes It is beyond the scope of this manual to describe how to produce particular effects If you are interested in learning more about FM synthesis there are a number of good books which describe guidelines for FM synthesis sound generation Carrier This section of the dialog defines the carrier wave the waveform whose output is actually heard The waveform is shaped by clicking and dragging the waveform directly or by using any of the tools found below or to the right of the waveform display The tools are similar to those available in the Wave Table Palette For a complete description of the tools see the
255. ys a picture 17 summary 16 Tools 56 Image Synth Basics 53 Image Synth Palette cancel synthesis 54 how it plays a picture 53 reference chapter 110 Inertia Effects Palette 145 Input Source examples QuickStart 29 Procedural Synth QuickStart 30 Sample QuickStart 29 Input Source Selector 67 Insert File menu 163 Insert Pict Image Synth 60 Installation 7 Instant Spectrum 184 Instrument automatic sample instrument loading 160 input source Image Synth 70 sample mapping illustrated 118 Instrument Basics 117 Instruments Creating Instruments 118 described 116 example QuickStart 40 reserving memory for 160 Instruments Dialog 121 Instruments Menu 125 Interpolate 105 Invert Image Synth 61 Invert Phase menu command 174 Invert Pitch 96 L Launch 14 Left Hand Toolbar See Limiter menu command 175 Line Brush 83 Line Mode 80 Linear Subdivision 75 Loop in Instruments 124 Loop Play Sample Editor 133 Loop Selection menu command Sample Editor See Looped Sample example QuickStart 38 input source Image Synth 68 Lower Even Lines 94 Lower Toolbar Image Synth 98 M M Blur 106 Magnify Image Synth 98 Master Tuning 78 example QuickStart 42 Procedural Synth 168 using with Analyze Current Sound 59 Max 109 Max Pict Image Synth 61 Maximum Pitch and Harmonics submenu 96 Transfer Mode 89 Memory tips 5 virtual memory warning 5 Merge 195 File menu
256. ze Y Picture Height Selector Blue Grid Submenu Size X Picture Width Selector Filter Selector Frequency Map Selector Preset Selector Tempo Duratjon Tool Add Preset Input Source Edit S bnhenu Sterep Mono Toggle File Sinn Channel Edit ode Selector M ster Tuning Reference Pitch E Sizex512 V Brush Mode Toggle e Brush Palette um Brush Color Selector Hot Filters Brush Size Tool Transfer Mode Submenu N E MBur Quantize E Echo Pre Echo and Harmonics Submenu E Reverb E Repeat c Brush Grid Tool Sound Canvas Reverse 4 E E saw E shorten E attacks Nudge Transpose E NT Transpose Hot Filter Grid Interval Lis grids wwii BOOS Ja ee Oy s Tips Display 1 eras xil inane Offset Rotate Normalize Scale Smqoth Envelope Smqoth Decay Scroll Hand Interpolate Zoom Tool 9 Processes Submenu Grow n Synthesize review Brush Palette Image Synth Reference Image Synth Basics The Image Synth lies at MetaSynth s heart It is a full featured image editor whose features have been optimized for the musically meaningful manipulation of images Try saying that ten times fast It started as the obvious solution to Eric s problem of controlling a large number of oscillators and envelopes Once he happened upon the visual paradigm it became evident as you will find that image manipul
257. ze tool and enter a minimum spacing setting of 16 Press the OK icon button Paint and observe the effects of changing the minimum spacing setting Feel free to experiment with other minimum spacing settings Optional step switch to Line Mode and note the effect that the minimum spacing setting has In Line Mode the minimum spacing setting determines the minimum distance between vertices E If the image is dim press the Normalize tool to brighten it Here is an example image Choose Blur More from the Processes submenu in the left hand toolbar Normalize again if necessary Thick pixel clusters like this work well with Custom Scales based on the harmonic series and sometimes with tunings like Micro32 In semitone and major scale frequency maps such pictures are pretty dissonant 33 QuickStart e After blurring the image looks like this e Apply Echo and Reverb again and synthesize not preview the picture e The result is Adjusting the Tempo There are two ways to change the speed at which a picture plays back dragging the Tempo Duration Tool or by editing the settings of the Tempo Duration Dialog Box d Click and drag the Tempo Duration Tool to the left or right While the mouse is down the sound picture s duration is displayed e Play the picture at its new tempo e Double click the Tempo Duration Tool to open the Tempo Duration Dialog Enter anew tempo Click OK and play the pi

MetaSynth 2.5 User Guide (Color)

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