User manual ACCESS VIRUS TI POLAR

Virus TI User Manual Copyright 2004-2006 Kemper Digital GmbH. All rights reserved. This manual, as well as the software and hardware described in it, is furnished under license and may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of such license. The content of this manual is furnished for informational use only, is subject to change without notice and should not construed as a commitment by Kemper Digital GmbH. Kemper Digital GmbH assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in this book. Except as permitted by such license, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise without the prior written permission of Kemper Digital GmbH. Virus is a trademark of Kemper Digital GmbH. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners. All features and specifications subject to change without notice. For the latest revision of this manual, visit our website: www.access-music.de 2 Table Of Contents Introduction WELCOME THE VARIOUS CHAPTERS SAFETY PRECAUTIONS MAINTENANCE THE REAR PANEL ROTATING THE SOCKETS SETTING UP SWITCHING ON AND OFF SELECTING PROGRAMS ABOUT THE MENUS DIFFERENT WAYS OF WORKING ABOUT USB CONNECTION CREATING NEW SOUNDS ABOUT POLYPHONY 8 8 9 9 10 11 11 12 12 13 14 16 17 17 First Steps CHEESE FOR STARTERS? THE AMPLIFIER ENVELOPE SECTION THE FILTERS SECTION THE FILTER ENVELOPE SECTION THE OSCILLATORS SECTION THE MIX SECTION THE MODULATORS SECTION THE MATRIX SECTION THE ARP SECTION THE EFFECTS SECTION THE MASTER SECTION HYPERSAW AND WAVETABLE 20 21 24 29 30 35 37 39 40 41 44 47 VirusControl INTRODUCTION 50 3 COMPATIBILITY STARTING UP LOADING VIRUSCONTROL EASY PAGE BROWSER PAGE OSC PAGE FILTER PAGE LFO PAGE MATRIX PAGE ARP PAGE FX PAGE COMMON PAGE REMOTE PAGE GENERAL HINTS AND TIPS 52 53 55 57 58 63 65 67 68 69 70 71 72 74 LFO 1 LFO 2 LFO 3 LFO 1 DESTINATIONS LFO 2 DESTINATIONS LFO 3 DESTINATION EFFECTS (UPPER ROW) DELAY REVERB LOW EQ MID EQ HIGH EQ EFFECTS (LOWER ROW) DISTORTION ANALOG BOOST CHORUS PHASER VOCODER VOCODER TABLE INPUT FOLLOWER INPUT RING MODULATOR OSCILLATORS OSCILLATOR 1 ­ CLASSIC OSCILLATOR 1 ­ HYPERSAW OSCILLATOR 1 ­ WAVETABLE OSCILLATOR 2 ­ CLASSIC OSCILLATOR 2 ­ HYPERSAW OSCILLATOR 2 ­ WAVETABLE OSCILLATOR 3 82 84 84 84 86 87 89 90 91 93 94 94 95 95 96 97 98 100 104 105 106 107 110 112 114 115 117 118 120 Sound Parameters Reference ARP ARPEGGIATOR MATRIX SLOT MODULATORS 76 76 79 79 81 4 COMMON SUB OSCILLATOR NOISE RING MODULATOR MASTER COMMON UNISON VELOCITY MAP INPUTS SURROUND CATEGORIES SOFT KNOB STORE STORE MIX FILTERS SATURATION FILTER-1 FILTER-2 COMMON FILTER ENVELOPE AMP ENVELOPE FILTER ENVELOPE AMPLIFIER ENVELOPE 121 123 124 124 125 128 131 132 133 134 134 135 136 136 137 139 140 141 143 144 145 146 148 149 Configuration Reference RANDOM PG MIDI MIDI DUMP RX MIDI DUMP TX KEYBOARD MIDI CONTROL INPUTS AUDIO CLOCK SOFT KNOB (GLOBAL SETTINGS) KNOB BEHAVIOUR GLOBAL TUNING SYSTEM 152 152 154 154 155 157 158 159 159 160 160 161 Multi Mode Reference PATCH 166 Appendix A - Legal Declarations COMPLIANCE DECLARATION OF CONFORMITY WARRANTY REGULATIONS 172 174 175 5 Appendix B - Glossary GLOSSARY 178 Appendix - Patch Names ROM-A 192 Index INDEX OF FUNCTIONS ETC. 210 6 1: Introduction Welcome Dear Virus owner Congratulations on choosing the new Virus TI, the latest generation in a deliberate process of evolution that has kept the Virus name at the forefront of synthesizer technology for many years. TI stands for Total Integration, meaning that the hardware can be fully integrated into a PC or Mac-based studio via the VirusControlTM plug-in (VSTi or Apple Audio Unit). Before switching your Virus TI on, please read this chapter thoroughly! > Sound Parameters Reference: The main body of this manual. Every parameter concerning sound generation and treatment is listed here, with brief explanations and crossreferences. > Configuration Reference: All global settings ­ parameters used to adapt the Virus to suit your way of working. > Multi Mode Reference: A list of the Multi Mode parameters, with brief explanations. > VirusControl: Introduction to the VirusControl application. > Appendices: Legal matters, charts, diagrams, glossary. > Index: Where to look when you are not sure where to look! The Various Chapters This manual is structured as follows: > Introduction: What you are reading now. Fundamental information you should know before trying out your Virus. > First Steps: A practical guide for beginners, intermediates and experts alike. The best starting point before delving into the reference chapters. 8 Safety Precautions Please read the following carefully. Some of this advice concerns your health as well as that of your instrument! Avoid exposing your Virus to moisture, dust or dirt. Do not place open liquids (e.g. coffee cups) anywhere near the unit. If any substances get into the Virus housing, you should switch it off, disconnect the power supply and contact a qualified service techician. Avoid exposing the unit to excessive heat or direct sunlight. Especially when rack-mounting your Virus (desktop version), please ensure that relatively cool air can circulate freely around the unit. Avoid exposing the unit to physical shock or vibrations. Make sure it is placed firmly on a flat surface or properly secured in a rack. If your Virus model requires a 12V DC external power supply, only use the one that was included with the unit. Never connect the Virus to a power outlet that does not fully comply with national safety regulations. Never use an external power supply which wasn't designed to match the local voltage requirements. Disconnect the power whenever you are unlikely to use the Virus for a long period of time. Always pull on the plug itself, not on the cord. Never touch the mains plug with wet hands. The Virus is capable of generating levels that can cause irreversible damage to your ears, either via an external amplifier or 9 when using headphones connected directly to the unit. Please keep levels reasonable at all times! Make sure that the equipment you connect the Virus TI to matches the Virus' requiremtents (+4dB Outputs etc.) Maintenance Updating the OS Access Music is famous for improving their products via free updates to the operating system. We recommend that you visit www.access-music.de regularly and download the latest OS. Cleaning Only use a soft, dry cloth or soft brush to clean the panel ­ do not apply any liquids. Note that industrial or household solvents can cause severe damage to surfaces. Repair Never open the Virus yourself ­ there are no user-servicable parts inside. If your Virus ever needs repairing, please contact a qualified service technician. Replacing the Battery To prevent your sounds from being lost whenever you switch off the power, there is a battery inside your Virus. This may need replacing after 4 or 5 years by a qualified service technician. Remember to backup your data beforehand! The Rear Panel Sockets > USB: Audio and MIDI communication with computers. Disposal Disposal of old Electronical & Electronic equipment (Applicable throughout the European Union and other European countries with seperate collection program). The marking shown on the product indicates that it should not be disposed with other household waste. Please take your Virus TI to an applicable collection point for recycling of electronical and electronic items. For further questions on an ecological friendly disposal of this product, please contact your Access dealer respectively your local government office. > MIDI IN / OUT / THRU: The usual trio > S/PDIF: Digital audio I/O > INPUT: Audio input jacks > OUTPUT 1: Main audio output jacks > OUTPUT 2 / 3: Additional audio output jacks > 12V DC IN (desktop model): Power supply input socket. > HEADPHONES: Stereo audio output jack. 10 Rotating the sockets The sockets on the rear panel of the Virus TI desktop model can be rotated 90° so that the unit can be mounted in a 19" rack without requiring free space above the "back" panel. Many owners will consider themselves skilled enough to attempt the following themselves ­ although this should ideally be done by a professional technician. We recommend to contact your Access dealer for further assistance. Important notice: Kemper Digital GmbH takes no responsibility whatsoever for any damage incurred while attempting to carry out these instructions! Rotating the sockets does not void the warranty of a Virus TI Desktop. What you will need: A flat and soft working surface (e.g. your couch), a bowl or similar for the screws, a suitable crosspoint screwdriver and hexagonal key. Remove any attached cables and turn the unit upside down. Remove the end-cheeks using the hexagonal key. Using a small cross-point screwdriver, remove the 6 screws in the baseplate. Carefully remove the baseplate and set it aside for the moment. Remove the 6 screws between the rear-panel sockets. Pull up the "sockets unit" a little and perch it on the ledge of the back panel. Using both hands, carefully pull the 40-way con- nector from its socket on the motherboard. The sockets unit is now free. Using the latest set of screws (i.e. the ones without pointed ends), attach the sockets unit firmly into the baseplate, which has all the necessary holes. Position the baseplate (with the sockets now firmly in place) so that the 40-way cable can reach the socket on the motherboard. Carefully but firmly plug it all the way in. "Close the lid" and use the remaining 6 small screws to reattach the baseplate. Turn the unit "right side up" and attach the power cable to ensure that the 40-way plug has been properly fitted. Setting Up The following steps include several important precautions. In addition to the simple setup described here, the Virus TI can be connected in a variety of ways to suit virtually any audio environment. Please do not plug the Virus into the mains power yet. First of all, temporarily switch off any devices you will eventually be connecting your Virus to, and turn all main volume controls (mixer, amplifier) down to minimum. If your Virus is a desktop version, connect the MIDI OUT from a keyboard or sequencer to the MIDI IN socket on the Virus. 11 Connect both the OUTPUT 1 sockets (standard mono jacks) to two line inputs on your stereo amplifier or audio mixer. Make sure to only use qualified amplifiers. Check back with your local Access dealer for further details. When using two separate mixer channels, pan them to the extreme left and right respectively. If you prefer to use headphones, use the HEADPHONES socket on the rear panel. Connect your Virus to the mains power. Press both TRANSPOSE buttons at the same time to "wake up" the Virus. Switch the rest of your equipment on in the following order: the MIDI send device (keyboard or sequencer etc.), then the mixer and finally the amplifier. Set up the MIDI send device (keyboard or sequencer) so that it sends on MIDI channel 1 (for now). Turn up the MASTER VOLUME on your Virus to maximum and, while playing some notes, adjust the volume controls on your mixer/amplifier to a reasonable listening level. If you are using a mixer, you might find some useful advice on setting optimum levels in the mixer´s own documentation. Selecting Programs Your Virus TI has 20 banks of memory (RAM-A to RAM-D, ROM-A to ROM-P), each containing 128 SINGLE programs numbered from 0 to 127. A total of 2560 sounds... To try out some sounds, make sure you are in SINGLE mode and that no menu is open ­ you might have to press the SINGLE button (in the Master section to the right of the display) first. There are three basic methods of selection: Sequentially The most obvious way to select programs is by stepping through them using the BANK and PROGRAM buttons to the right of the display. When any menu is open, these buttons are used for PARAMETERS and VALUE instead ­ see "About the Menus" below. To scroll automatically, hold one of them down for a while. A quick method of reaching any program within the current Bank: Hold down SHIFT and turn the VALUE 3 knob. Switching On and Off Virus TI models do not have a physical on/off switch. To put the unit into standby mode, press and hold both TRANSPOSE buttons until the countdown reaches zero. Press the same buttons to "wake up" the Virus again. 12 By Category Because there are so many sounds to choose from, programs can be assigned one or two so-called "Categories". This information is stored within each program. A practical demonstration: Press the SEARCH button to the left of the display and use the VALUE 1 knob to change the category to "Drums". Then use the VALUE +/- buttons to browse through programs ­ in the bar at the top of the screen you will see programs that are in the "Drums" category only. When you have found a suitable program, press the EXIT button. About the Menus How to open menus The main menus are opened via the EDIT buttons you will find in most of the sections. The usual method is to SELECT an element first (e.g. LFO1, OSC 2 or REVERB) then press the EDIT button in that same section. All buttons in the MATRIX section as well as CONFIG in the Master section also open menus. Via MIDI All MIDI sequencers and professional MIDI keyboards are capable of transmitting Bank and Program change messages via MIDI. How to make full use of Edit Buttons If pressed repeatedly, the EDIT buttons in the FILTERS and MASTER sections will step through the menu pages. Those in the OSCILLATORS and lower EFFECTS sections toggle between the selectable (element-specific) pages and additional, non-selectable parameters e.g. the Vocoder. Similarly, the one in the MODULATORS section toggles between the selected LFO's main settings and its Destinations menu. How to navigate within menus Many menus in your Virus require more than one page. These can be found by using the PARAMETERS buttons (in the Master section, to the right of the display). 13 If a menu is already open, selecting a different element within the same section (e.g. LFO3 instead of LFO1, OSC1 instead of OSC2 or LOW EQ instead of REVERB) will jump to the new menu. Different Ways of Working Single mode How to change values within menus Use the VALUE knobs below the display. Whenever you enter a menu page, one of the parameters will already be active (indicated by a triangular cursor). Its value can be decremented/incremented via the VALUE buttons. To move the cursor without changing values, hold down SHIFT and press one of the PARAMETERS buttons. There is actually a system parameter which governs how the PARAMETERS buttons work ­ see "Navigation" on page 163. This is the standard mode for playing just one sound at a time. The next chapter is a simple but detailed tutorial to help you become familiar with Single mode operation. Multi mode Your Virus can play 16 different sounds at the same time: MULTI programs contain 16 PARTS, each equivalent to a SINGLE program plus a few additional parameters such as MIDI channel, fine tuning, key range etc.. Unlike earlier Virus models and many other synthesizers, MULTI programs in the Virus TI do not simply reference individual sounds, but actually contain the data, including all effects. Multi mode is therefore predestined for more complex programs. Whenever the Bank or Patch parameters (see "Patch" on page 166) are changed, the corresponding Single program is copied into the current Part of the Multi program. For details about Multi mode parameters, see the "Multi Mode Reference" on page 165. How to close menus To exit any menu, press the EXIT button to the left of the display. It is not necessary to press EXIT before opening a new menu. Re-selecting the current basic mode (SINGLE, MULTI) will also exit menus. 14 Sequencer mode Whereas Multi mode offers maximum flexibility for layering sounds, defining keyboard splits etc., Sequencer Mode is usually the better choice for multitrack MIDI sequencing purposes. Press the MULTI and SINGLE buttons at the same time (or start the VirusControl application ­ see below). Sequencer Mode accesses an area of memory containing 16 Single programs. It couldn't be simpler: the MIDI channel is always the same as the PART number (1 to 16). timing and delay-compensated audio/MIDI. See "VirusControl" on page 145 for details on setting up, compatibility and how to work with this revolutionary feature. Remote mode The Virus TI can be used as a MIDI controller i.e. the controls can be configured to suit a variety of MIDI devices. There are several Remote setups suitable for popular devices already included in your unit. Remote mode is accessed by holding down SHIFT and pressing the CONFIG button to the left of the display. User-defined remote setups can be created using VirusControl... VirusControl The VirusControl application (for PC or Mac) makes the Virus TI appear to be a multi-channel VST/AU soft-synth within any suitable host program e.g. Logic, Cubase etc.. Virus TI is the world's first hardware synthesizer featuring sample-accurate 15 About USB Connection Don't use a hub! To achieve the level of performance and integration the Virus TI series provides, you must reserve a USB slot exclusively for the Virus TI i.e. this specific port should not be shared with any other USB device. During beta-testing with various PC and Mac setups, we found that using certain USB hubs not only slowed down the connection speed but often made the entire connection unreliable. For this reason, we eventually decided not to support the use of USB hubs at all. Note: Virus Control constantly checks the MIDI and AUDIO connections and displays an alert message if it sees any problems. A Typical Setup Changing knob response A global parameter (see "Response" on page 160) affects how most of the knobs on your Virus react, and the current value of this parameter may not suit your needs... 16 Creating New Sounds The INIT Programs The end of bank ROM-A has been reserved for a few simple templates, which you can use whenever you want to create sounds "from scratch". For instance, the instructions in the next chapter will often ask you to select one of those. Press the CONFIG button to the left of the display and use the PARAMETERS buttons to scroll through the pages until you reach the one shown above. Using the VALUE 1 knob, change Response to "Jump" if this is not already selected. Press the EXIT button to return to normal operation. Later on, you may prefer one of the other options (Snap or Rel) to prevent glitches during live performance. Note that some knobs will have no audible effect because they depend on other parameters e.g. the RATE of an LFO that isn't being used, or the DECAY of an envelope when SUSTAIN is at maximum etc.. About Polyphony The average number of voices the TI series (with its two DSPs) can deliver is quoted at about 80, with a maximum of more than 100. However, to reach such giddy heights, the TI makes very dynamic use of resources i.e. using certain features can lower polyphony to well below these figures. For instance, doubling the number of Unison voices e.g. from 3 to 6 will reduce polyphony by half. If you ever find you need to maximize polyphony (e.g. in Multi mode), try minimizing your use of the following "prime suspects" first: Unison mode, Reverb, Analog Filter models and Oscillator 3. 17 18 2: First Steps This hands-on tutorial introduces every physical control on the panel, as well as a few important parameters in the menus. Cheese for Starters? If your Virus TI is a desktop model, you should have a MIDI keyboard connected... The most effective way of getting to know your Virus is by performing very simple exercises "hands-on", and that's why many of the sounds you will be asked to make are cheesy to say the least! Despite the risk of compromising your aesthetic sensibilities or overstating the obvious, I hope you will appreciate the advantages of this method. Throughout this chapter you will often be asked to "Restore ROM-A126" or "Restore ROM-A127". To do this, press the EXIT button (closes any open menu), then use the VALUE buttons to step to the neighbouring program then back again. Make sure you are in SINGLE mode, then select program ROM-A127 (i.e. Bank ROM-A, program number 127). Play a note on your keyboard. Like an organ, the sound starts abruptly, sustains as long as you hold down the key, then stops abruptly. Unlike an organ, you can change this behaviour by adjusting a few "envelope" parameters... 20