Instruction/ maintenance manual of the product Chromaphone AAS
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USER MANU AL.
2 Information in this manual is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of Applied Acoustics Systems D VM Inc. The softw are described in this manual is furnished under a license agreement. The softw are may be used only in accordance of the terms of this license agreement.
Contents 1 Introduction 6 1.1 System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 1.2 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 1.2.1 From a CD-R OM . . . . . . . . .
4 CONTENTS 4 Parameters 19 4.1 General Functioning of the Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 4.1.1 Knobs and Sliders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 4.1.2 Switches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
CONTENTS 5 5 Utility Section 37 5.1 The MIDI LED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 5.2 Polyphony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 5.3 T uning . . . . . . . . . . .
6 Introduction 1 Intr oduction Chr omaphone is a synthesizer dedicated to the creation of acoustic instruments. It is based on the combination of acoustic resonators to create drums, percussion, string and hybrid synth-like instruments.
1.2 Installation 7 K eep in mind that the computational power required by Chr omaphone depends on the number of voices of polyphony and the sampling rate used. These computer configurations will enable you to play the factory sounds with a reasonable number of voices but performances will v ary depending on your specific computer configuration.
8 Introduction After starting the application, a message will appear telling you that the application needs to be authorized. After clicking on the Authorize b utton, a pop-up window will appear as shown in Figure 1. Enter your serial number and click on the A uthorize button.
1.3 A uthorization and Registration 9 Figure 2: Of fline Authorization. Y our serial number as well as the automatically generated c hallenge code are displayed b ut you need to obtain the r esponse code . T o do so, take note of your serial number and challeng e code and proceed to an internet connected computer .
10 Introduction • Outside North America: 1-514-871-8100 • Fax Number: 1-514-845-1875 1.4 Using Chromaphone as a Plug-in Chr omaphone integrates seamlessly into the industry’ s most popular multi-track recording and sequencing en vironments as a virtual instrument plug-in.
1.7 About this Manual 11 Our online support pages contain downloads of the most recent product updates, and answers to frequently asked questions on all AAS products.
12 Bank and Program Management 2 Bank and Pr ogram Management Chr omaphone comes with several factory presets, called pr ogr ams , cov ering a wide range of sounds. This collection of programs lets you play and familiarize yourself with this synthesizer without having to tweak a single knob.
2.3 The Bank Manager 13 Figure 3: Bank and program manager windo w . A new bank can be created by clicking on the New button belo w the bank list. This opens the Cr eate New Bank window in which the name of the new bank can be entered. A bank can be deleted by first selecting it in the bank list and then clicking on the Delete button.
14 Bank and Program Management program list. Programs can be deleted from a bank by first selecting them and then clicking on the Delete button. This will move the programs to a special bank called T r ash which is located belo w the regular list of banks.
2.7 Restoring the F actory Library 15 2.7 Restoring the F actory Library If necessary , it is possible to restore the original f actory library of banks and programs.
16 Architectur e of Chromaphone 3 Ar chitecture of Chromaphone Chr omaphone is synthesizer built around the combination of acoustic resonators. The resulting in- struments are played using a mallet or the signal from a noise source.
3.1 General Organization and Signal Flow 17 Figure 5: Signal flo w of Chr omaphone . Resonators in parallel mode. Figure 6: Signal flo w of Chr omaphone . Resonators in coupling mode. by Resonator B, it starts to vibrate which in return influences the motion of Resonator A.
18 Architectur e of Chromaphone 3.2 Preset Management and Master Contr ols The top part of the interface includes the About button, polyphon y and general pitch settings. This part of the interface also includes the preset manager , undo, redo and compare commands, a master volume, a simple re v erb control, the MIDI led and a lev el meter .
Parameters 19 4 Parameters This section can be used as a reference on the different controls appearing on Chr omaphone ’ s graphical interface. W e begin by describing the behavior of the different .
20 Parameters A modulation can be viewed as the v ariation of a parameter around its current v alue controlled by a modulation signal. The different modulation controls act as gain knobs which multiply the modulation signal by a certain factor .
4.2 General Notions of Acoustics 21 As an example, the vibration motion associated with two normal modes of a rectangular plate is illustrated in Figures 7 and 8. In the first figure, one can see the vibration motion associated with two different normal modes of the plate (modes [1,1] and [3,2]).
22 Parameters Figure 8: Contour plot corresponding to normal mode [1,1] and [3,2] of a plate. nodal line of a mode (a line where amplitude of the motion associated with a mode is zero) does not allo w the transfer energy to that specific mode and its corresponding partial will not be excited.
4.3 The Mallet Module 23 of the string; most of the energy will be reflected back into the string at the bridge resulting in a standing wa ve in the string and a long decay . Now let’ s imagine that the soundboard becomes much less rigid. The string can now set it into motion more easily at the bridge.
24 Parameters Low Medium High Low Medium High Time Time Stiff Vol Figure 9: Ef fect of the Stiffness and V olume knob on the output from the Mallet module. amount of noise. The frequency content of the noise can be adjusted with the help of the Color control.
4.5 The Resonator Module 25 to become continuous. This parameter can be used to produce interesting ef fects by exciting the resonators randomly . This parameter can be modulated with the the pitch or velocity signal from the ke yboard or with the output from the Noise En velope or LFO module.
26 Parameters • Manual : In this mode, one can adjust the frequency of one to four different partials (see Quality control). The Quality control is located just below the resonator selector and is represented by big dots.
4.5 The Resonator Module 27 The Release parameter is used to simulate the effect of dampers on the object when a note is released. The release time is calculated as a percentage of the total decay time of the object as set by the Decay parameter .
28 Parameters The Hit P osition controls where the excitation signal is applied on a resonator . This is an im- portant parameter as it affects the relativ e amplitude of the different partials of the resonator and therefore the spectrum of the sound it radiates as explained in Section 4.
4.7 The V ibrato Module 29 is di vided into four phases, the Attack , Decay , Sustain and Release controlled by the A , D , S and R controls respecti vely . During the attack phase, the en velope signal goes from a value of zero to a v alue of 1 in a laps of time controlled by the A knob .
30 Parameters position, there is no vibrato and turning the knob clockwise increases the amount of pitch variation. The MW modulation entry is used to determine the ef fect of the k eyboard modulation wheel on the depth of the vibrato.
4.9 The Multi-Effect Module 31 4.9 The Multi-Effect Module The Multi-Effect module allo ws one to process the signal from the synthesizer before sending it to the out- put. There are two identical sets of effects which can be applied in series. These ef fects are switched On or Off by clicking on the switch located in their top left corner .
32 Parameters The effect is controlled with the three knobs appearing at the bottom of the module. The Mix knob is used to adjust the ratio of “dry” and “wet” signal in the output signal from the module.
4.9 The Multi-Effect Module 33 around the v alue fix ed by the F req knob while with the A uto W ah ef fect, the setting of the F r eq will fix the starting point v alue of the varying center frequenc y . The Depth knob controls the excursion of the center frequency of the filter .
34 Parameters center frequency of the filter . T urning this knob clockwise increases the rate of the modulation if the Sync function is off . 4.9.7 EQ The EQ provides equalization ov er the low , mid, and high frequency bands. It is composed of a lo w shelf filter , a peak filter , and a high shelf filter in series.
4.9 The Multi-Effect Module 35 Amplitude (dB) 0dB Gain = 30 dB, Q = 20 Gain = 20 dB Gain = 30 dB, Q = 50 Gain = 10 dB Gain = 30 dB, Q = 20 Frequency (Hz) Freq Figure 13: Peak filter . asymmetrical resulting in the introduction of e ven and odd harmonics in the signal.
36 Parameters 4.9.10 Rev erb The Reverb effects are used to recreate the effect of reflections of sound on the walls of a room or hall. These reflections add space to the sound and make it warmer , deeper , as well as more realistic since we always listen to instruments in a room and thus with a room ef fect.
Utility Section 37 5 Utility Section The utility section is located at the top of the Chr omaphone interface and it includes important parameters and monitoring tools. For information on Banks and Pr ogr ams please refer to Chapter 2 5.1 The MIDI LED The MIDI LED is located on the left of the lev el-meter .
38 Utility Section version. When in Compar e mode, edition is blocked and it is therefore not possible to modify any parameter . The Compar e mode must then be switched off by clicking on the Compar e b utton in order to resume edition. 5.5 Rev erb Chr omaphone is equiped with a simple rev erb which can be used to add ambiance to your sound.
Using Chromaphone as a Plug-In 39 6 Using Chromaphone as a Plug-In Chr omaphone is av ailable in VST and AudioUnit formats and integrates seamlessly into the in- dustry most popular multi-track recording and sequencing en vironments as a virtual instrument plug-in.
40 Using Chromaphone as a Plug-In 6.6 Perf ormance Using a plug-in in a host sequencer requires CPU processing for both applications. The load on the CPU is even higher when multiple instances of a plug-in or numerous dif ferent plug-ins are used.
License Agreement 41 7 License Agr eement IMPOR T ANT! CAREFULL Y READ ALL THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS A GREE- MENT BEFORE OPENING THIS P A CKA GE.
42 License Agreement 5. LIMIT A TION OF LIABILITY . TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLI- CABLE LA W , IN NO EVENT WILL AAS BE LIABLE TO THE LICENSEE OR ANY THIRD P AR TY FOR ANY INDIRECT , SPECIA.
License Agreement 43 rendered inoperati ve b ut the remaining provisions shall continue in full force and ef fect. 9. ENTIRE A GREEMENT . This Agreement is the entire agreement between AAS and the Lic.
Index about, 38 adsr , 18 architecture, 16 authorization, 7 auto-wah, 31, 32 backup, 14 bank, 12 backup, 14 create, 12 delete, 12 factory library , 15 rename, 12 sharing, 14 bank manager , 12 challeng.
INDEX 45 re verb, 36 synchronization, 20 tremolo, 35 wah wah, 32 noise, 24 en velope, 28 noise source, 24 notch filter , 31, 33 numerical displays, 19 output ef fect, 18 ov erdriv e, 34 parameters, 1.
An important point after buying a device AAS Chromaphone (or even before the purchase) is to read its user manual. We should do this for several simple reasons:
If you have not bought AAS Chromaphone yet, this is a good time to familiarize yourself with the basic data on the product. First of all view first pages of the manual, you can find above. You should find there the most important technical data AAS Chromaphone - thus you can check whether the hardware meets your expectations. When delving into next pages of the user manual, AAS Chromaphone you will learn all the available features of the product, as well as information on its operation. The information that you get AAS Chromaphone will certainly help you make a decision on the purchase.
If you already are a holder of AAS Chromaphone, but have not read the manual yet, you should do it for the reasons described above. You will learn then if you properly used the available features, and whether you have not made any mistakes, which can shorten the lifetime AAS Chromaphone.
However, one of the most important roles played by the user manual is to help in solving problems with AAS Chromaphone. Almost always you will find there Troubleshooting, which are the most frequently occurring failures and malfunctions of the device AAS Chromaphone along with tips on how to solve them. Even if you fail to solve the problem, the manual will show you a further procedure – contact to the customer service center or the nearest service center
