® Owner’s Manual Analogue Volume Effects Stomp Box for Guitar and Bass Version 1.0.
Owner’s Manual Safety — read this first! Important safety information. Read the following information carefully and keep all instructions for future reference. ! Do not open any part of the Voluum case other than the battery compartment. There are no user-serviceable parts in the Voluum. ! Do not expose the Voluum to rain, liquids or moisture of any kind.
Owner’s Manual Quick start This manual is a comprehensive guide to the Voluum. To start using it as quickly as possible, follow this short guide. Please refer to the rest of the manual for detailed operating instructions. Connect your guitar/bass to the IN jack of the Voluum. Connect your amplifier to the OUT jack of the Voluum. Set the LOCK switch to the locked position (this lets you select presets without worrying about editing them by mistake).
Owner’s Manual Welcome Thank you for purchasing a sonuus Voluum. Like all sonuus products, the Voluum is the culmination of ground-breaking innovation and considerable technical expertise. We are delighted that you have chosen to purchase a sonuus Voluum and we anticipate that it will greatly enhance your music making. This manual is a comprehensive guide to the Voluum but if you have any questions, we offer attentive customer support via our on-line user forum: www.sonuus.
Owner’s Manual Transparent-true-bypass… True-bypass means that the effect is completely switched out of your signal chain when bypassed to preserve the integrity of your guitar/bass signal. This is typically done by mechanical switches but these cause clicks or pops when switching. sonuus has designed a silent-switching true-bypass circuit so you get the benefits of true-bypass without the associated switching noise.
Owner’s Manual What can the Voluum do? Gate/expander In its simplest form a noise gate cuts the signal when its level falls below a set threshold. The Voluum noise gate not only gives you control over the threshold, but also enables fine control over how quickly it reacts and how much the signal should be reduced in level.
Owner’s Manual down smoothly over a chosen time to give you super-smooth fades that are impossible to do by using just foot-control. In envelope mode, the level change is triggered when you play a new note or strum a new chord. Combine this with built-in ADSR shaping and you can create synth-like tones from your instrument. Limiter The high voltage analogue power rails in the Voluum give great sonic quality, but it means that high output levels can overdrive other effects in your chain.
Owner’s Manual Using the Voluum In the rest of this manual, we cover everything you need to know about the Voluum: from how to connect it to your rig, to how to power it and how to delve in and create your own presets. Consult the photo of the Voluum shown below to familiarise yourself with the controls and displays.
Owner’s Manual Connecting the Voluum The simplest way of connecting the Voluum is between your guitar and amp: connect the output of your guitar to the input (IN) of the Voluum. Connect the output (OUT) of the Voluum to your amp’s input. When using other effects in your signal chain, there is no right or wrong effect order— experiment to see what you can do, and be creative.
Owner’s Manual Powering the Voluum The Voluum can be powered by batteries, by a 9V DC power supply (neither of these is supplied), or by USB. Select one of the following: • • • insert 4 AA batteries (alkaline can be used, but we recommend rechargeable NiMH batteries) into the battery compartment in the base of the Voluum. WARNING: observe correct polarity! plug the output of a 9V DC power supply into the port labelled DC on the back of the Voluum.
Owner’s Manual Enabling and bypassing the Voluum The main footswitch LED shows the status of the Voluum effect. When this LED is off, the effect is completely bypassed and the input (IN) is directly connected to the output (OUT). This connection is known as a true-bypass connection because in this state none of the Voluum electronics are connected to the signal: this keeps your original guitar/bass signal as pure as possible.
Owner’s Manual Selecting a factory preset The factory presets configure the Voluum into a variety of set-ups, from traditional volume to sonuus’ unique pedal-controlled compressor effects. The Voluum has two modes: Preset Select mode and Preset Edit mode. By default, it is in Preset Select mode and the display alternates between the 3-character preset name and the preset number: either F00–F99 for factory presets 0 to 99 or P00–P99 for user presets 0 to 99.
Owner’s Manual Foot-operated preset selection Preset selection using the buttons and the save button was described in “Selecting a factory preset” on page 12. There is an alternative method of preset selection using the footswitch and the footpedal. This has been specially designed to make it easy to change presets when you are gigging. Using this method, you don’t have to bend down and select presets using your hands.
Owner’s Manual Creating your own presets You can create and store up to 100 user presets on the Voluum. The steps for creating a preset are straight-forward. Creating and saving a user preset Ensure that the LOCK switch is in the unlocked position. Starting from any preset (factory or user), adjust the Voluum settings using the EFFECT knob and the active and hi/lo buttons to get the desired musical effect. These settings are discussed in detail later. Save the preset. Press the save button.
Owner’s Manual Selecting and changing parameters When you press or move the EFFECT knob, the Voluum will enter Preset Edit mode. The flashing LED shows which effect is being edited. Successive presses on the EFFECT knob will cycle between editing the parameters for the gate, compressor, LFO, volume and limiter effects. To include an effect in the signal chain, press the active button. The active button and the beside the effect will light up to show that the effect is active.
Owner’s Manual Voluum effects signal chain The Voluum signal chain comprises five separate effects, as shown below. gate compressor LFO volume limiter IN OUT envelope/peak detection global sensitivity adjustment When using individual effects pedals, musicians are careful about the order of the effects chain. One reason for this is because if one effect cuts the signal level, then the next one boosts it to compensate, excess noise can be added to the output signal.
Owner’s Manual the Voluum acts as a traditional volume effects pedal. However, unique to the Voluum, you can also choose to control dB using a MIDI controller to remotely-control or automate volume changes. Not all control methods are available for all effects, for example, the gate and compressor are inherently envelope-controlled effects, so there is no additional envelope control method for these effects. The control methods available for each effect are shown below.
Owner’s Manual Top Tip: If CtL is set to one of the coarse (MSB) 14-bit MIDI controllers (controller # 0–31), the Voluum can be controlled using the full 14-bits of the controller to ensure the smoothest response. (Of course, you need to ensure the fine (LSB) part of the MIDI controller (controller # 32–63) is also being sent to the Voluum for this to work.) envelope control similarly varies the controllable parameters between their hi and lo values in response to changes of the input signal level.
Owner’s Manual Adjusting the gate The gate effect on the Voluum is a noise gate/expander. A noise gate is used to suppress unwanted noise when the signal falls to a low level. It works by allowing signals that are above the gate threshold to pass through unchanged, but reduces signals that are below the gate threshold.
Owner’s Manual The gate parameters are shown in the table below. Parameter Controllable Range Description rEd no 0–100 Signal level reduction. 0 is subtle and transparent (soft-knee, low ratio), 100 is more aggressive (hard-knee, high ratio). thr no −90–20 Threshold in dB. Att no 0·00–6·00 Attack time in seconds for the gate to open. rEL no 0·10–6·00 Release time in seconds for the gate to close.
Owner’s Manual The parameters are shown in the table below: Parameter Controllable Range Description CPr yes 0–100 Compression amount. 0 is subtle (soft-knee, low ratio), 100 is maximum compression (hard-knee, high ratio). thr yes −60 –20 Threshold in dB. Att yes 0–100 Attack time in milliseconds. rEL yes 0·10–6·00 Release time in seconds. LvL no −24 –24 Level trim in dB. Use this to keep the signal level the same regardless of the amount of compression being applied.
Owner’s Manual whereas a slow attack (Att time is large) often sounds more natural and can preserve the “pop” and “slap” of bass guitar playing. Top Tip: The compressor, even at fastest attack (Att = 0) may not react quickly enough to block all transients. However, you can still do this by using the limiter in combination with the compressor to tame the fastest, largest, transients.
Owner’s Manual Adjusting the LFO The LFO in the Voluum is used to create a tremolo effect. It is highly configurable using the parameters in the table below. The speed of the LFO can be controlled precisely and can even be synchronised to a sequencer using MIDI (“MIDI operation” on page 31). Parameter Controllable Range Description tPo tAP Syn Type of LFO clock: tempo in bpm pedal is used to tap a tempo sync’d to MIDI clock yes 10·0–999 Sets LFO tempo in bpm. Only available if tyP is set to tPo.
Owner’s Manual Parameter Controllable Range Description SEn no −30–30·0 Envelope sensitivity in dB. Only available with envelope control. CtL no 0–127 MIDI controller for LFO . Only available with MIDI control. The diagram below shows examples of the different shapes of waveforms, selected using the ShP parameter. The random waveform takes a different random value every cycle (the cycle is defined by the bPM and div parameters).
Owner’s Manual trapezoid waveform is represented by 100 time units. The sum of ramp up and ramp down cannot exceed 100. If the sum of ramp up and ramp down is less than 100, the remaining time has no ramp, shown as ta below. ta ta r.up r.dn r.up + 2ta + r.
Owner’s Manual The parameter tyP, lets you select the LFO clock type. The options for the clock are: it can be set as a tempo (tPo) using the bPM parameter; tempo can be tapped using the footpedal (tAP); or the clock can be sycn’d (Syn) to external MIDI clock. The tempo is in beats per minute, bpm. The bPM parameter has a range of 10 to 999. To achieve slower and faster tempos, the div parameter multiplies the value of the tempo set by the tyP clock source.
Owner’s Manual Parameter Controllable Range Description SuS no −99 –40 Sustain in dB, relative to hi value of dB (ADSR). Only available with envelope control. rEL no 0·00–9·99 Release in seconds (ADSR). Only available with envelope control. thr no −80 –0 The signal level drop (threshold) in dB required to trigger the ADSR release. Only available with envelope control. CtL no 0–127 MIDI controller for volume. Only available with MIDI control.
Owner’s Manual If this seems a little complicated, the best way of remembering how lo and hi work is that a lo curve spends more time near the lo value of volume, while a hi curve spends more time near the hi value. The higher the number i.e., Lo9 rather than Lo1, the more pronounced the effect. To get even more control, these curves can be combined so that the curve starts as a “lo” curve, but ends as a “hi” curve (Lh-), and vice-versa (hL-).
Owner’s Manual dB hi Sustain (dB relative to dB hi) dB lo Attack (time) Decay (time) Release (time) When triggered by a new note or chord, the volume increases from lo to hi (attack). Once complete, the volume then decreases (decay) to the sustain level (sustain). Once the input signal falls below the threshold (it drops in level by thr dB compared to the signal level at the start of the attack) the release phase is entered and the volume falls back to its lo value.
Owner’s Manual Parameter Controllable Range Description SEn no −30·0–30·0 Envelope sensitivity in dB. Only available if envelope control is enabled. CtL no 0–127 MIDI controller for the limiter. Only available if MIDI control is enabled. A large signal entering an effect with limited headroom will often cause hard-clipping where the tops of the signal are simply chopped off. Generally, this doesn’t sound good.
Owner’s Manual symmetry so that you like the sound. Note, however, that the symmetry control will have less effect the closer dBu is set to its minimum value: at maximum limiting only symmetric limiting is possible. The limiter level and symmetry is controllable using the hi and lo values of the dBu and SyM parameters when a control method is selected. MIDI operation It is possible to control the Voluum with MIDI input and to use the Voluum as a MIDI controller.
Owner’s Manual input (from computer or MIDI device to Voluum) MIDI MIDI message MIDI MIDI Chan Description sync clock Used when LFO is in MIDI sync (Syn) mode. N/A Song position Program Change Program Change Ch. i a Selects the preset to be used. Operates on the currently selected bank (factory or user). Use Bank Select controller message to switch between factory and user banks. MSB LSB Bank Select #0 #32 Ch. i Selects factory (0) or user (1) preset bank. (Factory: #0=0, #32=0.
Owner’s Manual Custom settings Further configurability of the Voluum is possible through custom. This lets you change the setup of the Voluum to suit your own instruments or personal preferences. For example, you can adjust the display LED brightness to a very low level to prolong battery life or to suit working in a darkened studio. The custom settings are different from all of the other parameters: they affect the Voluum’s set-up, not the set-up of the current preset i.e., they are global settings.
Owner’s Manual Parameter P.En Default Range Description oFF Pedal enable. Allows you to enable the effect by moving the footpedal. If set to oFF then this feature is disabled. on The effect is enabled when the footpedal is pressed to the toedown position. The effect must be turned off using the footswitch. o.
Owner’s Manual External footswitch connection Although it is easy to select presets using your foot with the Voluum’s footswitch and footpedal (see “Foot-operated preset selection” on page 13), it can sometimes be more convenient to have dedicated footswitches for this, freeing up the Voluum’s foot controls to be used exclusively for enabling/bypassing the effect and for pedal-control.
Owner’s Manual User modifications of the Voluum For the avoidance of doubt, opening any part of the Voluum other than the battery compartment will always cause your warranty to be invalid, unless you obtain prior authorisation from sonuus. However, we realise that musicians sometimes make the minor modification of reducing the footpedal travel by sticking a piece of rubber under the front (heel position) of the footpedal. If you do this, you will need to follow the pedal calibration procedure below.
Owner’s Manual Firmware updating To support new features and to make it future-proof, firmware (internal software) of the Voluum can be upgraded. To update the Voluum firmware you will need to download the latest firmware file (.sfu) and Firmware Updater software (which includes an instruction manual). The updater software is available for both OSX and Windows. To access these files, you need to register and create a user account at the following web site: register.sonuus.
Owner’s Manual Special key presses Mode Key Presses Pedal calibration: enter Simultaneously press and hold active button + CONTROL button for 4s until CAL is displayed. save and exit cancel and exit Press save. Press and hold save to cancel. Battery monitoring Simultaneously press and hold active + to display % battery charge. Firmware update mode: enter Simultaneously press and hold active + when powering-on the Voluum. exit Restart the Voluum.
Owner’s Manual Factory presets The Voluum is able to store up to 100 factory presets, but not all of these slots are utilised in the current firmware version. Additional factory presets will be included in future firmware updates. Use this space to note your favourite factory, or user, presets.
Owner’s Manual Specification Physical & Electrical Size 171mm × 192mm × 76mm Power 9VDC (any polarity), 4 × AA batteries, USB (500mA max) Audio Input 6·35mm (¼") mono jack | 2MΩ impedance +18dBu nominal maximum input level Audio Output 6·35mm (¼") mono jack | 1kΩ impedance +21dBu nominal maximum output level Audio Bandwidth (−3dB) 17Hz – 121 kHz (0dB gain) 17Hz – 22kHz (40dB gain) 17Hz – 35kHz (40dB attenuation) MIDI Input Standard 5-pin MIDI DIN MIDI Output Standard 5-pin MIDI DIN | Pin 1 an
