Automaton User’s Guide Audio Damage, Inc. Release 1.
The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of Audio Damage, Inc. The software described by this document is subject to a License Agreement and may not be copied to other media except as specifically allowed in the License Agreement. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced or otherwise transmitted or recorded, for any purpose, without prior written permission by Audio Damage, Inc. © 2008, 2011 Audio Damage, Inc.
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System Requirements To use Automaton, you'll need a Steinberg VST-compatible host application which conforms to the VST 2.0 specifications, and a computer capable of running it. For the Audio Unit version of Automaton, you’ll need an application capable of hosting Audio Unit plug-ins, and an Apple computer with an Intel CPU capable of running it. We support the use of Automaton under Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7; and Apple OS X version 10.5 or newer.
Online Videos of Automaton We’ve created several videos showing Automaton in action. You might find them to be a useful addition to this manual while learning about Automaton. The videos can be found at http://vimeo.com/audiodamage Introduction The heart of the Automaton plug-in is a mathematical construction called a cellular automaton (pluralized automata). The study of cellular automata is a wide field with applications in computer science, mathematics, biology, and physics.
Operation Automaton is a complex plug-in so we'll describe each of its features and controls in detail, but first we'll provide a quick overview and introduce some terminology. Here is a screen shot of Automaton in action: The rectangular grid at the top of Automaton's window is the cellular automata world grid. Each square represents one cell. If the square is filled with white, the cell is alive.
For example, if the image on the right showed the only contents of the world grid, you'd hear the Modulate and Replicate processors but not the Stutter or Bitcrush processors. Automaton can be used in either a stereo or mono context in your host DAW software. If you use a stereo input, the left and right channel separation of the input signal is preserved in the output signal.
Automaton’s Control Panels Next we’ll look at the panels of controls for each of Automaton’s signal processors, and for the controls which affect the operation of the world grid and how Automaton mixes its output with the incoming signal. Click on the corresponding button near the center of Automaton’s window to reveal each panel. Common Controls Many of the knobs in the signal processor panels have two adjacent sliders. These sliders modify the values set by the knobs.
The SOLO and MUTE switches act in a manner similar to that of the solo and mute controls commonly found in mixers. When a processor's SOLO switch is illuminated, you will hear only that processor in action; the other processors will be silenced. Only one processor can be soloed at a time. If you turn on the SOLO switch for, say, the Stutter processor, switch to the Modulate processor and turn on its SOLO switch, you will then hear only the Modulate processor. The MUTE switch silences the processor.
contain when you release the mouse button. In other words, establishing the initial state while the transport is running is something of an exercise in hitting a moving target. The SEQUENCE LIFESPAN knob controls how rapidly the world evolves. That is, it controls how often a new generation of cells is calculated within the world grid. The generations are synchronized to your host's transport, so the Lifespan knob works in units of beats.
to activate Automaton's effects at sixteenth-note intervals as you desire. The SEQUENCE WRAPPING switch (described below) has no effect when this rule set is chosen. Replicator Worlds evolved with the Replicator rule set have the interesting property that any pattern of cells is eventually replaced with several copies of the pattern (provided that the world is big enough). In this rule set, any cell square will contain a live cell in the next generation if it has an odd number of live neighbors (i.e.
If the WRAPPING switch is on, the world grid is treated as though its left edge meets its right edge, and its top edge meets its bottom edge. To envision how this might be done, imagine drawing a grid on a donut with a felt-tip pen2. Every square has eight neighboring squares, regardless of its location on the grid. With WRAPPING turned on, some interesting things can happen if the cell population is allowed to evolve indefinitely.
Stutter The Stutter processor takes small slices of audio and plays them a number of times, producing buzzes, beeps, and glitchy buffer effects. This processor has three knobs, labeled REPEATS, LENGTH, and PITCH. The REPEATS knob sets the number of times that the slice of audio is repeated. The available values are powers of two, that is, two, four, eight, 16, etc. on up to 128.
length of audio slices that Stutter creates (which is determined by the STUTTER REPEATS knob and the SEQUENCE LIFESPAN knob, as described previously). The STUTTER PITCH knob changes the pitch of the audio slice as it repeats. Each time the slice is played the rate at which it plays is increased or decreased slightly, causing its pitch to rise or fall with each repetition. If the knob is set to its center position the pitch of the audio slice is not changed.
The third and forth knobs control the second oscillator which modulates the frequency of the main oscillator. The RATE knob controls the rate of the second oscillator. You'll notice that this knob has a wide range, from one cycle every ten seconds (0.1Hz) up to 200Hz. At low frequencies you'll hear the modulation pitch rising and falling. At frequencies above 20Hz or so the frequency modulation will blur into a steady tone, and the overall effect of the Modulate processor will become more intense.
more persistent errors are added to the signal, creating digital-sounding noise. The BITS and ERROR knobs are somewhat complementary in that the effect of the ERROR function is less noticeable at high settings of the BITS knob. Replicate The Replicate processor is a scaled-down version of our wildly popular Replicant plug-in. In a manner similar to the Stutter processor, the Replicate processor records and repeats chunks of audio.
causing the repeated audio to sound darker or duller. The amount that the filter closes is set with the FILTER knob. The setting of this knob determines the frequency of the filter used during the final repetition. The FILTER knob has a range of 40Hz to 20kHz. At high settings the filter won't close much and you'll hear little or no effect. At low settings the filter's frequency may go below the lowest tones in Automaton's input signal and you may hear nothing at all after the first few repetitions.
Master The Master pane has controls which affect Automaton's overall output level and how it mixes the processed audio it creates with the incoming audio. The OUTPUT knob controls the loudness of Automaton's output signal. Use this knob to balance Automaton's overall output against other instruments in your mix. (Of course you can do this other ways in your DAW, but we thought it would be handy if Automaton had its own loudness control.
The DUCK mode silences the input signal when it is playing back looped audio, and passes the input signal without alteration otherwise. This mode is useful when you’re using Automaton as an insert effect, and you want to hear the original signal and the processed signal but not both at once. The SEND mode does not pass any of the unprocessed input signal to Automaton’s output. You hear only the looped audio.
MIDI Controllers Automaton responds to MIDI continuous controller messages. You can use hardware MIDI controllers, such as MIDI slider boxes or the knobs found on some MIDI keyboards, to adjust Automaton’s parameters. You can assign MIDI controllers to the knobs, sliders, and switches in Automaton’s Sequence, effects, and Master panel. MIDI control is not available for the contents of the world grid. Automaton has a simple “MIDI Learn” mode for assigning its controls to MIDI controllers.
in use at once, any MIDI assignments you make will not be propagated to the other instances until the next time that your host loads the plug-ins. Automation All of Automaton's parameters can be automated using your host's automation features; the contents of the world grid cannot be affected by automation. Consult your host's documentation for information on how to use these features. And Finally… Thanks again for purchasing Automaton.
