Access VIRUS|POWERCORE, User'S Reference Manual

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Page 4: ...ponsibility 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 t...

Page 5: ...mote Controllers Getting Started An Introduction to Viral Synthesis 27 Oscillators 27 Mixer 28 Filter 28 Amplifier 29 Effects 29 Modulation Matrix 29 Viewing Pages 30 Easy Page Parameters of the Easy...

Page 6: ...r 84 Global 85 Pitch 86 Pitch Wheel 87 Patch Param 88 Keyboard 89 Arpeggiator 90 The ModMatrix Page Assign 1 94 Assign 2 94 Assign 3 95 Categories 96 Customer support Appendix Oscillator and LFO wavef...

Page 7: ...the smooth warm tones associated with traditional analog synthesizers to the most gut wrenching teeth rattling speaker shredding sonic terror is possible The Virus PowerCore also sports a powerful eff...

Page 8: ...commonly used patches will be automat ically stored to the Favourites folder for instant recall NOTE The Virus PowerCore is 100 compatible with the majority of patches available for the Virus series o...

Page 9: ...d files you have which contain Virus patch librar ies Check the download section of www access music de for a large selection of freely downloadable patches The Virus PowerCore is compatible with the...

Page 10: ...for updates frquently Instancing the VPC in Logic STEP1 Create a new Audio Instrument in the arrange window STEP2 Now select the Virus PowerCore by opening the instrument popup menu within the audio...

Page 11: ...to create an Aux object for every stereo output you wish to gain access to STEP4 Now select the Virus individual outs from the Aux channel s Input options STEP5 Now open up the environment select the...

Page 12: ...t STEP1 Select VST Instruments from the Devices menu to show the VST Instru ments window STEP2 In the VST Instruments window find an empty VST Instrument slot Empty VST Instrument slots are labelled n...

Page 13: ...te the VST Mixer parameters of the four stereo outputs of the Virus PowerCore If you are confused by these tracks just click the little symbol to the left of the VST Instruments track to col lapse the...

Page 14: ...chn menu in the track inspector to play Part 1 of the Virus PowerCore Now you can play the Virus Powercore via MIDI and record on the created MIDI track You can create further MIDI tracks and assign...

Page 15: ...Virus PowerCore patches If you are running Windows it is located in My Documents Access Music PowerCore If you are running Mac OS it is located in Library Application Support Access Music PowerCore N...

Page 16: ...many entries to display all at once you will see a little arrow at the bottom of the list Click on this arrow to scroll through the rest of the entries RECENTLY USED Patches which have been used in t...

Page 17: ...s that new patches stand a chance of being included in the list Clear this list Use this to clear all entries from the Favourites list BROWSING PATCHES At the top right hand corner of the Virus PowerC...

Page 18: ...the new name SAVE To save the current patch click on the Save tab The Save menu will appear see screen shot You can now choose from three options Replace old patchname xxx in xxx Bank The original ve...

Page 19: ...Virus Powercore On a Mac it will be located in Library Application Support Access Music Virus Powercore NOTE It is important to realise that only sounds saved in mid format will be recognised by the...

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Page 21: ...urchasing the Extended License The Part DSP box at the top of the plugin window displays the current part and the DSP it is using i e To choose a different part click on the box and select the desired...

Page 22: ...this case the value range is 64 to 0 to 63 Centre position 12 o clock is zero Rotate the knob in an anti clockwise direction to specify values down to 64 Rotate clockwise to specify values up to 63 A...

Page 23: ...ning that adjusting certain parameters may or may not have an audible effect depending on the value of another For instance if Filter Balance is set to 64 only filter1 is audible consequently adjustme...

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Page 25: ...alent parameter in the Virus PowerCore is updated accord ingly NOTE Please note that in certain sequencer hosts some parameters such as Channel Volume and Panorama will be intercepted by the audio ins...

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Page 27: ...rus PowerCore sound An oscillator generates a basic wave form which if left untreated will sound as a continuous tone for as long as a key is held Different waveforms contain different amounts of harm...

Page 28: ...eating more complex timbres like bells and electric pianos Mixer This is where the outputs of the oscillators noise and ring modulator are balanced before the resulting mixture is sent to the filter s...

Page 29: ...lease being the time it takes the sound to decay to silence once the key is released The Virus PowerCore actually contains a 5 stage envelope due to the addition of a Sustain Time parameter This is us...

Page 30: ...ws for a great deal of movement interest and expression within a single sound So hopefully you now have a general overview of the way the Virus PowerCore works it s time to look in more detail at how...

Page 31: ...tion Chorus and Delay Reverb effects FX 2 GLOBAL The FX 2 Page contains the controls for the Vocoder Input Envelope Follower and several global settings such as Master Tune Pitch Wheel Unison Mode et...

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Page 33: ...a selection of controls for the most commonly edited parameters in the Virus PowerCore If you just want to tweak an existing patch without getting into it too deeply then this is the page for you indi...

Page 34: ...gnal and the phaser effect SEND Adjusts the balance between the dry signal and the delay reverb effect OSC VOLUME Adjusts the volume of the combined outputs of the 3 oscillators and the sub oscillator...

Page 35: ...ch maximum volume At zero the sound has immediate impact at higher values it will fade in gradually AMP DECAY This adjusts the time it takes for the sound to fall from maximum volume to the sustain le...

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Page 37: ...Osc Page is the birthplace of any Virus PowerCore patch Here you will find the controls for adjusting the 3 main oscillators the sub oscillator the noise generator ring modulator and FM indigo powerc...

Page 38: ...uld like to see a graphical representation of these waveforms see the Appendix PW This determines the width of the pulses in a square wave or the pulse width At a setting of 0 the wave is completely s...

Page 39: ...xed in with the saw until at a value of 127 a pure square wave is achieved WAVE SELECT The Wave Select knob allows you to choose from one of 64 waveshapes including sine tri angle and 62 additional sp...

Page 40: ...ing of 0 results in every key sounding at the same pitch and minus values will make osc 2 descend in pitch as you play up the keyboard SYNC When switched to On the wave cycle of osc 2 is forced to syn...

Page 41: ...ay see Fil ters Env page ENV OSC 2 This determines to what degree osc 2 Pitch is modulated by the filter envelope Experiment with both negative and positive values and different values of filter attac...

Page 42: ...s more calculating power and as such will result in a reduction in polyphony when activated SEMITONE This adjusts the pitch of osc 3 within a range of 4 octaves 48 semitones above or below middle C If...

Page 43: ...erCore can be controlled by velocity In practice this means that these parameters can be set to respond to how hard you press the keys Think of a traditional piano as you hit the keys progressively ha...

Page 44: ...applied to Osc 1 Shape as you play harder therefore Osc 1 Shape needs to be set to something considerably higher than 0 for you to notice any effect here OSC 2 This determines to what degree Osc2 Sha...

Page 45: ...ry key played depending on the chosen value The voices are then detuned and spread across the stereo field resulting in a much fuller sound than is otherwise possible Be aware that Unison mode will re...

Page 46: ...is adjusts the balance between osc1 and osc 2 At 64 you will hear only osc 1 and at 63 only osc 2 At 0 default both oscillators are equally balanced OSC 3 VOL This adjusts the volume of oscillator 3 A...

Page 47: ...her percussive sounds but can also be used to create wind and surf fx or add extra warmth to the oscillators PAN This adjusts the position of the sound in the stereo field Virus PowerCore must be enab...

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Page 49: ...is different for every synthesizer which is one reason why they all have such a distinctive character The Virus PowerCore is endowed with two filters with a flexible routing system and sev eral modes...

Page 50: ...or From 0 to 63 this increases the level of saturation applied to filter 1 If Saturation is set to Off then values above 0 will have no effect FILTER ROUTING Determines the way in which the output of...

Page 51: ...is 12 o clock 0 In Serial 4 and Serial 6 modes this means that the output of filter1 is routed through filter2 and then to the amplifier section If filter balance is set to a negative value then some...

Page 52: ...l come into effect For instance in a Low Pass filter frequencies below this point are allowed to pass and those above are removed according to the slope of the filter LINK CUTOFF Synchronises the cuto...

Page 53: ...ible will result in the filter envelope having no effect on the cutoff frequency of filter 1 As you play harder the filter envelope has an increasingly noticeable effect until at maximum velocity the...

Page 54: ...row band of frequencies through Resonance determines the width of the band in this case Band Stop The opposite of Band Pass this filter removes a narrow band of frequencies Often referred to as a notc...

Page 55: ...if you understand that then you re doing very well indeed I think a practical example is in order Set Env Vel to 63 and Filter 2 Env Amt to 127 At this setting playing as gently as possible will resu...

Page 56: ...e envelope to reach its peak DECAY This determines how long it takes for the envelope to decay from its peak to the sustain level SUSTAIN This determines the level at which the envelope will sustain S...

Page 57: ...to the sus tain volume SUSTAIN This determines the volume at which the sound will sustain as long as the key is held SUSTAIN TIME At 0 the sound will remain at the sustain level so long as the key is...

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Page 59: ...equency Oscillator Basically these generate wave forms that oscillate so slowly that they are only useful as a modulation source for other parameters such as pitch cutoff panorama etc The Virus PowerC...

Page 60: ...is determines the waveform of LFO 1 different waves can result in very different modula tion effects Choose between the following options Sine A smooth up down cyclic wave Triangle Similar to sine wav...

Page 61: ...the waveform once This effectively turns the LFO into an additional envelope which is shaped according to the currently selected wave form KEY FOLLOW This determines to what extent LFO rate is affect...

Page 62: ...uare wave for this parameter to have an effect RESO 1 2 Determines the amount of modulation applied to the resonance of filters 1 and 2 ASSIGN AMT Determines the amount of modulation applied to the pa...

Page 63: ...g of 4 1 will cause it to sync to cycle of 4 bars SHAPE This determines the waveform of LFO 2 different waves can result in very different modula tion effects Choose between the following options Sine...

Page 64: ...gative values will zoom into the wave Positive values will have no effect on the spectral waveforms LFO MODE When set to Mono LFO 2 is applied to each voice note in sync When set to Poly each voice is...

Page 65: ...NORAMA Determines the amount of modulation applied to the stereo pan position ASSIGN AMOUNT Determines the amount of modulation applied to the parameter selected in the Assign Desti nation window ASSI...

Page 66: ...overrides Rate and forces LFO 3 to sync its wave cycle to the clock control The frac tions are relative to a whole note or semibreve which in turn are equivalent to a whole bar measure in 4 4 time So...

Page 67: ...introduces vibrato on longer notes LFO MODE When set to Mono LFO 3 is applied to each voice note in sync When set to Poly each voice is modulated independently Note there will only be a difference be...

Page 68: ...te the pulse width of oscillator 1 and oscillator 2 Osc2 PulseWidth LFO 3 will modulate the pulse width of oscillator 2 Osc2 SyncPhase LFO 3 will modulate the phase position of oscillator2 when it is...

Page 69: ...Here you will find the controls for the Analog Boost Input Ring Modulator Phaser Patch Distortion Chorus and Delay Reverb effects as well as the output selection for the cur rent part indigo powercor...

Page 70: ...sine wave for both oscillator 1 and 2 and experiment with different pitches for each MIX This determines the balance between the oscillators ring mod and audio input signals At 0 the effect is Off and...

Page 71: ...e higher the value the greater the intensity of the phasing effect FREQUENCY Determines the center frequency about which the phaser will sweep STAGES Determines the number of filter stages used to cre...

Page 72: ...from Off Light Soft Middle Hard Digital Shaper Bit Reducer Rate Reducer Low Pass and HighPass Chorus Use the renowned Virus chorus effect to add depth and movement to the sound The chorus works by add...

Page 73: ...he amount of signal to be fed back into the chorus At extreme values this can create an intense howling effect which can easily overload your equipment and your ears so approach with caution SHAPE Det...

Page 74: ...ing the same DSP will use the delay reverb settings from the Part selected here The delay reverb controls will be greyed out in the other three Parts NOTE Remember that although there is only one Glob...

Page 75: ...bounce back and forth between the speakers like a ping pong ball The different ratios refer to the relationship between the left and right signals i e 2 1 means that the left delay time is twice the...

Page 76: ...e repetitions you will hear COLORATION Determines the character of the delay by applying a filter to the delayed signal At 0 the character is unchanged Negative values apply a lowpass filter resulting...

Page 77: ...round a room the high frequencies get gradually attenuated especially by soft furnishings carpets etc As the value increases the more quickly the high frequencies are damped in the reverb tail COLORAT...

Page 78: ...can be synchronised in the same way as in the delay See Delay Clock for further explanation FEEDBACK This parameter is only functional in the Reverb Feedback modes It determines the amount of signal...

Page 79: ...The FX2 Global Page On this page you will find the controls for the Vocoder Envelope Follower External Audio Input Arpeggiator as well as Global Tuning Key Mode Pitch Wheel etc indigo powercore manual...

Page 80: ...uses the resulting signal to modulate the equivalent fre quencies in the carrier signal Widely different results can be achieved depending on the number of bands used the sensitivity of the envelope f...

Page 81: ...or bank relative to the carrier bank MOD Q Determines the width of the gap between the bandpass filters in the modulator bank This is unlikely to have more than a very subtle effect on the sound MOD S...

Page 82: ...f speech The more filter bands there are the more calculating power is required so polyphony might vary depending on the num ber of active filter bands ATTACK Determines the response time of the vocod...

Page 83: ...ent so that the input plugin has something to connect to Now in the audio track you wish to process select Virus Input from the PowerCore folder in the VST menu Now click on the Destination window and...

Page 84: ...inu ously monitored and the peaks and troughs in the signal are translated into data which can be used to control the levels of other parameters A typical application of this would be to use a drum lo...

Page 85: ...ues result in a smoother sound which still contains a rhythmic element Global The following parameters are global i e they affect each part channel of the current instance in the same way TUNE Determi...

Page 86: ...nes the pitch offset in semitone increments for the current patch You can transpose a patch down to 64 semitones lower or up to 63 semitones higher All oscillators keep their rel ative intervals betwe...

Page 87: ...nd the musical context of the patch Linear This affects a consistent change in pitch as you move the controller towards either extreme Exponential This affects a gradual change in pitch as you first m...

Page 88: ...eters Auto Smoothing is applied to parameters whose value is changed slowly but sudden jumps are not smoothed Note Smoothing is applied within a note s duration but is disabled at Note Off i e param e...

Page 89: ...yboard HIGH KEY Determines the highest MIDI note number to which the current patch will respond Any notes played above this key will be ignored There are two ways to set the High Key either 1 Click th...

Page 90: ...er the keys are released As soon as you press a key any held voices will be replaced by the new voice s PORTAMENTO Determines the rate at which the pitch of one note will glide towards the next A valu...

Page 91: ...ng some of the Velocity Mod parameters see Osc Page NOTE LENGTH Determines an offset in the length of each note in the current arpeggiator pattern Positive values lengthen each note in the pattern whi...

Page 92: ...rns 2 64 are designed to be used with a clock value of 1 8 but can of course be used with any of the available values HOLD When enabled the arpeggiator will continue to arpeggiate the most recently pl...

Page 93: ...plex movement within a sound Practically any parameter in the Virus Powercore can be modulated by any one of 27 control sources The most common application of the ModMatrix is to assign the modwheel t...

Page 94: ...Select the control source for Mod Slot 2 AMOUNT 1 Detemines the degree of modulation for Destination 1 DESTINATION 1 Select the first parameter to be modulated by Assign Source 2 AMOUNT 2 Determines t...

Page 95: ...OUNT 2 Determines the degree of modulation for Destination 2 DESTINATION 2 Select the second parameter to be modulated by Assign Source 3 AMOUNT 3 Determines the degree of modulation for Destination 3...

Page 96: ...patch If you choose to use two different categories then the patch will appear in both lists in the categories option in the Load menu Click on the relavant pane to select the appropriate category for...

Page 97: ...r Virus PowerCore synthesis related questions please contact http www access music de go support Addiotional patches can be downloaded here http www access music de The latest PowerCore driver version...

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Page 99: ...forms Waveform Sine Waveform Triangle Waveform 3 Waveform 4 Waveform 5 Waveform 6 Waveform 7 Waveform 8 Waveform 9 Waveform 10 Waveform 11 Waveform 12 Waveform 13 Waveform 14 Waveform 15 Waveform 16 i...

Page 100: ...orm 21 Waveform 22 Waveform 23 Waveform 24 Waveform 25 Waveform 26 Waveform 27 Waveform 28 Waveform 29 Waveform 30 Waveform 31 Waveform 32 Waveform 33 Waveform 34 Waveform 35 Waveform 36 indigo powerc...

Page 101: ...aveform 40 Waveform 41 Waveform 42 Waveform 43 Waveform 44 Waveform 45 Waveform 46 Waveform 47 Waveform 48 Waveform 49 Waveform 50 Waveform 51 Waveform 52 Waveform 53 Waveform 54 Waveform 55 Waveform...

Page 102: ...102 Waveform 57 Waveform 58 Waveform 59 Waveform 60 Waveform 61 Waveform 62 Waveform 63 Waveform 64 indigo powercore manual book Page 102 Thursday April 22 2004 12 23 PM...

Page 103: ...ngle Program thus a Single Program contains 256 Bytes Page A LowPage contains Single parameters that are usefull for MIDI automation The parame ters of this page are additionally controllable by MIDI...

Page 104: ...me MIDI channel the Sound Param eter is receiced only by the Multi Part with the lowest part number Example B0 21 40 Set oscillator balance 21 hex 33 dec on MIDI channel 1 to the middle position 40 he...

Page 105: ...15 A 16 p Contr 16 A 17 a Osc1 Shape 0 127 64 0 63 Wave Saw Pulse A 18 a Osc1 Pulsewidth 0 127 A 19 a Osc1 Wave Select 0 64 Sine Triangle Wave 3 64 A 20 a Osc1 Semitone 0 127 64 63 A 21 a Osc1 Keyfoll...

Page 106: ...r2 Keyfollow 0 127 64 63 A 48 a Filter Balance 0 127 64 63 A 49 a Saturation Curve 0 6 0 Off 1 Light 2 Soft 3 Middle 4 Hard 5 Digital A 51 a Filter1 Mode 0 3 0 LP 1 HP 2 BP 3 BS A 52 a Filter2 Mode 0...

Page 107: ...127 64 63 A 79 a Lfo2 Rate 0 127 A 80 a Lfo2 Shape 0 5 0 Sine 1 Tri 2 Saw 3 Square 4 S H 5 S G A 81 a Lfo2 Env Mode 0 1 0 Off 1 On A 82 a Lfo2 Mode 0 1 0 Poly 1 Mono A 83 a Lfo2 Symmetry 0 127 64 63 A...

Page 108: ...e 4 S H 5 S G A112 a Delay Reverb Mode 0 1 0 Off 1 Delay 2 Reverb 3 Rev Feedb1 A113 a ms Effect Send 0 127 A114 a ms np Delay Time 0 127 A115 a ms np Delay Feedback 0 127 A116 a ms np Delay Rate 0 127...

Page 109: ...b Clock Tempo 0 127 63 190 BPM B 17 b Arp Clock 1 17 1 64 1 1 B 18 b Lfo1 Clock 0 19 Off 1 64 4 1 B 19 b Lfo2 Clock 0 19 Off 1 64 4 1 B 20 b ms np Delay Clock 0 16 Off 1 64 3 4 B 21 b Lfo3 Clock 0 19...

Page 110: ...Resonance2 Velocity 0 127 64 63 B 60 b Amp Velocity 0 127 64 63 B 61 b Panorama Velocity 0 127 64 63 B 62 b Soft Knob1 Single see Soft Knob List B 63 b Soft Knob2 Single see Soft Knob List B 64 b Ass...

Page 111: ...0 Off 1 6 Phaser Stages B 85 b Vb Phaser Mix 0 127 B 86 b Vb Phaser Rate 0 127 B 87 b Vb Phaser Depth 0 127 B 88 b Vb Phaser Frequency 0 127 B 89 b Vb Phaser Feedback 0 127 64 63 B 90 b Vb Phaser Spr...

Page 112: ...ND PARAMETER OF BANK B Accessible by MIDI Polyphonic Pressure SysEx Parameterchange and Single Dump The Sound Parameters are stored with a Single Sound When received as Polyphonic Pressure the Sound P...

Page 113: ...k number similar to the regular Program Change Part number 40 will address the Single buffer in Single Mode On non part sensitive parameters the part number is ignored but must still be sent as any va...

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Page 115: ...ank as new entry new patchname xxx in xxx Bank Patches How To Install Your Own Patches 19 Parts and DSPs 21 Global Effects Adjusting Parameters 22 Adjusting knobs Typing in Values typing a value into...

Page 116: ...ount FM Mode PosTri Tri Wave Noise Input Env FM Env Osc 2 Phase Init Osc 3 42 Osc Mode Semitone Detune Sub Noise 43 Sub Shape Noise Color Middle 0 Negative 64 Positive 63 Velocity Mod 43 Osc 1 Osc 2 P...

Page 117: ...s Band Pass Band Stop Cutoff Resonance Env AMT Key Follow Reso Vel Env Vel Env Polarity Filter Envelope 56 Attack Decay Sustain Sustain Time Release Amplifier Envelope 57 Attack Decay Sustain Sustain...

Page 118: ...quare Sample and Hold Random Sample and Glide Oscillator Waveform Fade In LFO Mode Key Follow Assign Amount Assign Destination Osc1 Pitch Osc1 2 Pitch Osc2 Pitch Osc1 PulseWidth Osc1 2 PulseWidth Osc2...

Page 119: ...delay Clock Feedback Vocoder 80 About the Vocoder Mode Off Osc Osc Hold Noise Input Center Freq Mod Offset Mod Q Mod Spread Carr Q Link Carr Spread Spectral Bal Bands Attack Release Source Bal Using t...

Page 120: ...own Up Down As Played Random Chord Pattern Note Length Swing Oct Range Clock Hold Assign 1 94 Source Amount Destination Assign 2 94 Source Amount 1 Destination 1 Amount 2 Destination 2 Assign 3 95 Sou...

Page 121: ...Classes 112 p Performance Controller a Sound Parameter of Bank A b Sound Parameter of Bank B ms Multi Single Parameter np Non part sensitive Sound Parameter bpc Bank Program Change Parameter Bank Sele...

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Page 124: ...CESS MUSIC ELECTRONICS GMBH K NIGSWALL 6 45657 RECKLINGHAUSEN GERMANY WWW ACCESS MUSIC DE Printed in Germany IPEMU 03 04 Revision A indigo powercore manual book Page 124 Thursday April 22 2004 12 23 P...