C O N T E N T S CONTENTS 2 THANKS! 4 INTRO About Tremolator What and Who is SoundToys? 5 5 6 GETTING STARTED System Requirements Installing Tremolator Registration 7 7 7 8 USING TREMOLATOR Basics Knobs Toggle Switches LED Displays 10 10 10 11 11 Accessing Tremolator Real-Time Processing (RTAS or HTDM) Non-Real Time Processing (AudioSuite) 12 12 13 Using Tremolator Within Pro Tools The Tremolator Preset Library Compare Button Bypass Using Parameter Automation Locking Tremolator to Tempo and Down
C O N T E N T S (continued) Release Env Mode 31 32 Summary 33 FINAL PAGE Getting Help More SoundToys Products The UltraTools Product Line Trademark Info 34 34 35 36 36 3
T H A N K S ! First off we’d like to give you a loud THANK YOU for purchasing Tremolator! We know there are an awful lot of plug-ins for you to choose from and we are truly grateful that you have chosen to spend your hard earned scratch (old school for cash) on our product. We take a lot of pride in our work and we sincerely hope that you find Tremolator inspirational and musically useful.
I N T R O (the one that comes before the sequel!) About Tremolator Tremolator is number four in our series of totally cool new plug-ins to come out of the SoundToys (formerly Wave Mechanics) plug-in development lab.
What and Who is SoundToys Anyway? If you already own one of our other products like FilterFreak, PhaseMistress or Crystalizer you can skip this section but if not, read on to find out who we are and what we do! So what the heck is “SoundToys” anyway? SoundToys is a concept, a vision, a new line of totally cool, sonically superior audio FX plug-in devices designed to set a new standard in regards to plug-in processing and sound. And, it’s our new company name.
G E T T I N G S T A R T E D System Requirements Tremolator is a software plug-in for the Digidesign Pro Tools system. You’ll need to have at least one decent Macintosh computer (G3 or better. Faster is always better) running OS 9.2 or later and of course you’ll need a copy of Pro Tools version 5.0 or later.
Registration Please register your product by going to http://www.soundtoys.com/register If you choose not to register your product during the Tremolator installation, please take a moment to register Tremolator by going to http://www.soundtoys.com/register. We also strongly recommend that you go to http://www.iLok.com, set up an iLok.com account, and register your Tremolator authorization.
Some Information on Amplitude Modulation… Tremolo is really nothing more than amplitude (volume) modulation. On a standard guitar amp this is usually just a knob that says, you guessed it, “Tremolo”. Usually this has a fixed speed and you can simply adjust the depth. But in its basic form all tremolo is the same: the volume goes up and down, up and down, at some predetermined rate.
U S I N G T R E M O L A T O R Basics Note: Since you would probably not be reading this unless you own a Pro Tools system we kind of take it for granted that you have at LEAST a basic working knowledge of your computer and of Pro Tools. If you don’t, we strongly suggest you make yourself a strong cup of coffee (or two), get a comfortable chair and familiarize yourself with the ins and outs of your Pro Tools system before delving too much further into Tremolator.
Toggle Switches In an effort to provide the feeling of real analog gear our toggle switches “switch” when clicked. To change the “state” of a toggle switch (like the analog/digital control), simply click on the switch. It will change from where it was to the “other” setting. Click again to change it back. Really simple! LED Displays LED displays on Tremolator work in a couple of ways: Nudge Buttons Most text readouts also include a pair of nudge buttons next to the display.
Pop-Up Menus & Changing Values: For most text-based readouts (meaning things that aren’t a number), like LFO WaveShape etc, clicking on the readout with the mouse will display a pop-up menu. To change a value in the pop-up, hold down the mouse button and drag to select the desired value and let go. The selected entry will show up in the field, or a new pop-up window may appear depending on what you have selected.
Non-Real Time Processing (AudioSuite) If you want to save computer power, Tremolator can also be used to process a specific region of audio destructively. This is done in Pro Tools using the AudioSuite version of Tremolator. To do this, first select the region of audio you’d like to process from the Edit window of Pro Tools. Then choose Tremolator from the AudioSuite menu of Pro Tools. Hit the process button to process the selected region with Tremolator and to write the result back to disk.
Using Tremolator Within ProTools Tremolator is designed to be very integrated with Pro Tools, supporting all of the “standard” Pro Tools plug-in features and controls including parameter automation, MIDI control, etc. Access to these functions can be found in the gray bar that Pro Tools attaches to the top of Tremolator. The display below shows the real-time version of Tremolator.
sorry! And as you would expect, for more info on the Pro Tools Settings Librarian’, please read the Pro Tools manual. Saving a Preset Saving a preset is just as simple. Click on the small button to the left of the preset name and choose “Save” to update the current preset, or “Save As” to create a new preset. Compare Button The compare button (often called the compare “light” by Pro Tools pros) is a great way to audition the effect of any changes you’ve made to one of the Tremolator presets.
To record automation data, you’ll first need to do a few things within Pro Tools. First, bring up the Pro Tools automation window (see Pro Tools Manual for enabling automation) and make sure ‘plug-in’ is enabled. . Next, in the track you’re working on, select ‘auto-write’ to enable the real-time recording of automation data. Now, press play and fiddle with the Tremolator controls. Pro Tools should now record any control changes you make.
Now you’ll see the automation control superimposed on the audio waveform. From this you can click and drag to your hearts content, creating all sorts of wild and crazy effects! Locking Tremolator to Tempo and Down Beat One of the coolest features of Tremolator is its ability to synchronize its sweep to the tempo (BPM) and downbeat (the ‘1’ of 1, 2, 3, and 4) in your music. This is a totally awesome way to make Tremolator hip-hop and groove along with your tunes.
How to Get Tremolator to Sync Tremolator uses MIDI clock to synchronize with your music. To sync Tremolator to your tune: If you are using Pro Tools 6.2 or later simply click on the ‘Midi’ switch on the front panel of Tremolator. If you are using an earlier version of Pro Tools, you’ll also need to do the following: 1. Select ‘MIDI Beat Clock’ from the Pro Tools MIDI menu. 2.
and then use the Identify Beat command in Pro Tools (ð - I) to define the starting and ending beat numbers for the selection. Pro Tools will then calculate the correct tempo based on this. If the tempo of your music varies (which it probably does if it wasn’t recorded to a click), then you may need to repeat this procedure at various points in your song to keep the beat locations lined up correctly.
IMPORTANT: Digidesign has a special low-latency version of the ‘Stream Manager’ driver for Pro Tools. This can reduce the latency from 1024 audio samples to 256 audio samples (from 21 milliseconds to 5 milliseconds at 48 kHz sample rate!) For the latest and greatest info on optimizing HTDM for your system and to download the low latency Stream Manager, please visit the HTDM Q&A page on the Digidesign website. The link to it is: http://www.digidesign.com/support/faq/htdm.
T R E M O L A T O R Depth Knob Groove Knob C O N T R O L Accent Knob Rate Knob Input/Output Levels Shape Rhythm P A N E L Tweak Analog Mode Input and Output Level The Input and Output level controls are used to (you guessed it) boost or attenuate either the input or output of Tremolator. The default setting of the controls approximates “unity gain” (what goes in comes out the same level) and should provide the best overall “normal” sound quality when set to these levels.
Digital Mode When the analog mode switch is off, Tremolator is in ‘digital’ mode. In this mode, higher signal levels will clip in the typically nasty, crunchy digital way. This too can be desirable depending on what effect you’re trying to achieve. Lower level sounds are left pretty much unchanged and sound spic-n-span clean. Also note that the digital setting uses significantly less DSP horsepower than the analog setting.
As you turn the Accent knob clockwise, the downbeat of the rhythm pattern will be emphasized, and the other beats will be de-emphasized. As you turn the knob fully clockwise, the ‘2-3-4’ in the beat will be virtually silent with no amplitude modulation happening on those beats. The only pulse in the tremolo effect will be on the ‘1’ or the first downbeat. This can create some really cool effects not available elsewhere.
Shape The “Shape” nudge buttons are used to select from the list of available built-in LFO wave shapes. Tremolator includes all “standard” LFO shapes like sine, triangle and square etc, but also includes a method for you to create you own custom wave shapes, which greatly increases the sonic modulation abilities of Tremolator. The number of possible shapes you can create is virtually limitless. Select the Custom LFO Shape Screen: To create a custom LFO shape, you first need to get to the LFO Edit screen.
Creating a New LFO Shape / Adding “Points” to the Waveform: Creating a new shape is really pretty easy. To create a new shape you first need to add a new “point” in the waveform (you’ll notice that the starting shape is a sine wave with three points: one at each end and one in the middle at the top). To add a new “point”, simply click anywhere on the green waveform; this will insert a new point. To remove a point, hold down the option key while clicking on it with the mouse.
Rhythm The “Rhythm” menu serves a couple of purposes. First off it allows you to determine how you want to subdivide the Rate setting based on all sorts of Bar and Note values. This can range from 1/32 note to up to 4 Bars. So you can get VERY fast modulations as well as v…e…r…y slow modulations based on the value selected and the Rate setting. In addition, you can create custom rhythm patterns using the Rhythm Editor as described below.
Adding and Deleting Events: To add an event in a specific location simply click in the rhythm grid at the desired location and a new event will be added to the pattern. To remove an event, just click on the event you wish to remove and it will go bye-bye. Changing Event Level and Duration: To change event level or duration, option-click and drag on any existing event. Dragging up/down will change the level, and dragging left/right will change the duration.
Tweak Button Pressing the Tweak button will open the Tweak menu screen providing access to a new set of parameters. These controls allow you to alter the rate and depth and provide additional dynamic modulation controls and capabilities based on the volume of the incoming signal. Keep in mind that underlying these controls is an envelope follower that is “watching” the level of the incoming signal and producing a value based on the changes in the level of this signal.
Rate Mod The Rate Mod knob allows you to dynamically increase (or decrease) the rate of the LFO or Rhythm based on the level of the input signal, and the Threshold setting as discussed above. The modulation is either added or subtracted from the basic Rate as set on the front panel. The setting of this knob determines the maximum amount of rate modulation that can occur The Rate Mod knob is bi-polar; when set straight up it is at the ‘zero’ position.
Depth Mod The Depth Mod is also a bi-polar control and allows you to dynamically increase or decrease the depth of the tremolo effect, again, based on the setting of this knob as well as the Threshold setting as previously discussed. When set straight up the Depth Mod it is at the ‘zero’ position. As you turn the knob clockwise the depth will increase based the setting of the knob and/or the numbers entered into the LED display below.
amount, or depth of modulation. This lets you create smoother and slower changes in the rate and depth rather than the immediate and abrupt changes that would occur with a very fast Attack setting. As mentioned, this is dependent on the Threshold setting and how far past the Threshold setting the signal goes. It is important to keep in mind that the attack and sustain characteristics of the input signal will directly affect how you will want to set the Attack time.
Envelope Mode The Envelope mode switch affects the way the underlying envelope follower, Threshold, Attack and Release responds and works together. There are two settings: ‘Env’ and ‘Gate. When the Envelope Mode Switch is set to 'Env', the Rate and Depth modulation will respond to the level of the input signal. Louder signals will produce more modulation, and quieter signals will produce less modulation. Any input below the threshold will produce no modulation.
S U M M A R Y As with all Sound Toys plug-in’s, we have tried to take the tremolo effect to a whole new level in terms of sound quality, flexibility and usability. There is a lot of sonic space to explore and a plethora of effects to be had with Tremolator. We hope that you find it a creative and useful device in your toolbox and thank you again for your purchase of our product.
F I N A L P A G E Getting Help We offer free technical support for all registered users. We love to hear from you, but if you are having problems, first try to look in the manual or on the support page of our web site for an answer. If you are still stumped, please e-mail us with the following info: • The product version and serial number • The version number of your Pro Tools system, and type of hardware (e.g. Mix, HD, Digi-001, etc.) • Your computer type and operating system version number (e.g.
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