Software Developer · Tech Lead · iOS, macOS & Full-Stack

Effects

Effects work on the whole sound, after the notes have been mixed. Chain them in any order. Muting an effect bypasses it, so the sound passes through unchanged.

Notes are mixed before the effects, so a Reverb or a Delay runs once on everything that feeds it.

Chorus

Two or three copies of the sound, each delayed by a slowly drifting time. They beat against each other and the sound widens.

An ensemble chorus with two or three voices drifting against each other, in the style of the string machines’ ensemble effect. Drag the voices sideways for Rate and up and down for Depth; slow with medium depth suits pads and keys. Keep Mix moderate to stay in tune.

Delay

Repeats of each note, left above the line and right below, at their own times. Feedback sets how many, Tone how dark they get.

A stereo echo with the left and right times set apart, in milliseconds or synced to the tempo. Drag the trail sideways for time, above the line for the left side and below it for the right. Try a dotted eighth on one side and a quarter on the other. Tone darkens the repeats, Ping-pong bounces them from side to side, and high feedback builds washes.

Reverb

After a short gap (Pre-delay) come thousands of reflections that fade away. Shimmer feeds octaves into the tail; Freeze holds it.

A space around the sound, from a small room to an endless hall. Drag the arches up and down for Size, and sideways for Shimmer, which feeds octaves into the tail: up an octave to the right, down to the left. Pre-delay keeps the dry sound clear in front, and Freeze, the snowflake, holds the tail so you can play over it. Put a Filter after the Reverb to shape the tail.

Drive

The dashed line is the clean wave. Clipping modes round off the peaks, each in its own way; Fold wraps them back over on themselves.

A drive that behaves like real gear: the clipping moves with your playing and the level stays where it was, so you judge it by its tone. Five modes: Valve is warm and sags on hard hits, Tape rounds and thickens with a gentle wobble, Pedal is a mid-focused overdrive that keeps the lows clean, Fuzz is a buzzing wall that sputters as notes fade, and Fold wraps the wave back on itself for hollow, vocal and metallic tones.

Drag the valve up and down for Tone and sideways for Character; Drive is the bar underneath. Past 70 % every mode opens up and gets louder. One Drive after the voices makes chords grind together, and Cab adds the sound of a speaker cabinet.

Compressor

Above the Squeeze point, loud parts come up less than they went in. The level evens out; Maximize then brings the whole sound back up.

A compressor drawn as a funnel the sound runs through. Drag the left opening up to drive it, pull the waist down until the loud bars flatten against it, and set the right opening for the level out. The top of Squeeze pumps and squashes hard. Maximize brings the level back up to full and keeps peaks under 0 dB, and Mix keeps some of the dry sound.

Frequency Shifter

Every part of the sound moves by the same number of hertz. The overtones stop lining up, so the sound turns metallic, or slowly phases at small shifts.

Moves every frequency of the sound by the same number of hertz, which is not the same as changing pitch. A shift of a hertz or two gives slow, endless phasing; bigger ones turn sounds metallic and bell-like. With feedback it sweeps up or down without end, and Stereo shifts the two sides opposite ways for width.

Resonator

Whatever you feed it makes its strings or bars ring, tuned to the notes you hold. Damping sets how long they ring.

Rings from whatever sound you feed it: modal bars, sympathetic strings, a single string, an FM voice, chords, or a string into a reverb. Leave Follow Notes on so it plays the notes you hold. Structure and Brightness change the instrument and Damping sets how long it rings. Even noise or drums come out plucked, bowed or bell-like.

Next: Modulators