Solid State Logic One Stop Vocal Processing Plug-in Vocalstrip, User Manual

Page 1: ...Vocalstrip One Stop Vocal Processing Plug in for SSL Duende a User s Guide Duende This is SSL ...

Page 2: ...cess Order 10 5 Graphical Displays 11 5 1 Graphical EQ Display 11 5 2 FFT Spectrum Analyser 11 5 3 Compander Law Display 12 5 4 I O Difference Display 12 5 5 Meters 13 Peak Meter and Clip Indicator 13 Dynamic History Meter 13 RMS Meter 13 6 Control Options 14 6 1 Preset Save and Load 14 6 2 A B Functionality 15 6 3 Automation 16 6 4 Global Bypass 16 7 Vocalstrip Parameters Control Ranges 17 Equali...

Page 3: ...ings on the overall frequency spectrum of the sound source The Compander response is shown visually and full gain reduction metering shows you exactly how the dynamics are being manipulated Extensive control options include traditional mouse parameter control wheel adjustment and exact numerical entry The plug in is available as a mono instance only in VST AU and RTAS formats making it compatible ...

Page 4: ...tment and numerical data entry Proprietary preset management functions providing compatibility between all DAW platforms A B functionality for easy comparison of any two settings Global soft latency free bypass Superb mastering grade audio quality delivered by Duende s 40 bit floating point engine Preset library based on settings used by some of the worlds top mixing engineers As with other Duende...

Page 5: ...imise this situation we have made the Vocalstrip modules only use DSP cycles when they are switched in For example you can quite happily run 8 Vocalstrips on one Duende DSP as long as maybe two of them have the De esser switched out and another two the De ploser switched out Also in reality you are very unlikely to run more than 6 fully enabled VocalStrips on any one Duende DSP If you do run into ...

Page 6: ... 6 De esser 7 De ploser 8 Compander response graph 9 EQ graph not shown will show here with optional FFT display 10 Amplitude histogram 11 Duende logo 12 Output meter 13 Compander 14 Output gain control 15 Process order 14 12 13 15 1 2 4 5 11 3 Press Ctrl click Windows or click Macintosh on the Duende logo to access the Product Activation window 7 10 8 9 6 ...

Page 7: ...ware Minimum of Intel Pentium IV 1GHz or equivalent 512MB RAM 1GB recommended Windows XP or Vista 32 bit versions only 80MB of free Hard Disk space Approved VST or RTAS compatible host application 17 or larger colour monitor with screen resolution of 1024 x 768 or higher recommended Internet connection for product registration and to download software updates Approved audio interface Page 5 Vocals...

Page 8: ...ou can purchase the full version from our on line store Once the authorisation procedure has been completed you will have an unrestricted version of Vocalstrip To obtain an authorised version of Vocalstrip please do the following 1 Discover your Duende unit s Authentication ID This can be found in the Product Activation window press Ctrl click Windows PC or click Macintosh on the Duende logo in th...

Page 9: ...ed to register it here 7 Enter your payment details and your order will be completed and you will be provided with the Unlock Key 8 Return to the Product Activation box and enter the Unlock Key Vocalstrip is now authorised for unlimited use Please note that Vocalstrip will only run on the particular Duende hardware for which it is authorised Enter the Unlock Key here ...

Page 10: ...s being taken out This can be used effectively with the Thresh control to ensure you are only processing the correct portion of the signal 4 2 De ploser Plosives can ruin a good vocal take as they cause a burst of low frequency energy in the signal which can not only sound unpleasant but use valuable headroom and can cause dynamic processors to behave in an undesirable manner Plosives are often ca...

Page 11: ... 12dB of boost attenuation over the range of 1kHz to 20kHz It has a low Q value and hence a broad response Tip Finding and attenuating a resonance A vocal recording may contain a resonant frequency caused by a number of factors including bad mic placement room modes or even unpleasant resonances caused by the singer s skull These can be detected and reduced in the following way Switch off the low ...

Page 12: ...ls The output stage which is sourced after the make up gain features an optional Drive feature This introduces non linear characteristics and hence harmonics to the signal and its intensity is controlled by the level of the make up gain knob More make up gain increases the level into the drive circuitry If you use a lot of make up gain to drive the circuit the level can be reduced again by using t...

Page 13: ...al EQ Display The EQ curves are calculated from the actual analogue response of the different EQ types Each band is shown as a different colour so individual bands can be easily identified in the display The different curves are alpha blended so if curves are overlapping one can see the different bands through each other An overall response curve is calculated from the combined EQ bands and the re...

Page 14: ...ter shows the relative occurrence of various amplitudes before and after processing For either input or output the distance the blue horizontal line protrudes from the middle and shows the amount of times that a particular amplitude is occurring The vertical scale is the full range of amplitudes from to 0dB It allows you to see the shift in dynamic range that occurs over time due to the compansion...

Page 15: ...d following clip detection after which it will automatically clear It can also be cleared at any point with a mouse click Dynamic History Meter The thin white bracket on the far right of the meter gives an indication of the recent dynamic range of a signal The top of the bracket measures the most recent peak level of the signal where as the bottom of the line shows the smallest peak to have happen...

Page 16: ...to move with mouse cursor scroll with shift as fine adjust and reset using modifier keys Exact numerical entry is possible for any value by double clicking on the value box 6 1 Preset Save and Load Permanent preset storage and retrieval can be carried out by using the Load and Save buttons The underlying SSLpreset files used by Vocalstrip are written in a standardised file interchange format that ...

Page 17: ...older 6 2 A B Functionality An A B function providing two different memory locations is included for easy comparison of any two settings When the plug in is instantiated memory location A is selected by default as shown above Pressing the A B toggle button will move to memory location B which allows you to set up a completely independent EQ curve Pressing the A B button again will return to A You ...

Page 18: ...lt the host application s documentation 6 4 Global Bypass Because Duende plug ins cause a noticeable latency at higher host buffer settings the bypass button provided by the DAW can cause an undesirable shift in time For this reason a latency free global bypass is included When this is engaged the audio is still passed to and from Duende but is unchanged as all Vocalstrip processing including inpu...

Page 19: ... 0dB to 48dB Attack 0 1ms to 100ms Release 0 5ms to 2s Knee Soft Hard Expander Threshold 0db to 96dB Make up Gain 0db to 48db Control Range Threshold 48dB to 0dB Amount 0 to 100 Control Gain Frequency Q Slope HP Filter n a 30Hz to 300Hz 12dB oct Notch Filter 12dB to 36dB 200Hz to 10kHz 0 5 to 72 depends upon gain setting High Band 12dB 1kHz to 20kHz 0 8 ...

Page 20: ...pport site at www solid state logic com music Duende Classic faq asp The information within the FAQ is kept up to date to ensure all information is accurate and available to you 24 7 If you can t find your answer or a solution to your issue you can submit a question via the FAQ pages to our support staff for resolution ...

Page 21: ...ledged No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means whether mechanical or electronic without the written permission of Solid State Logic Oxford OX5 1RU England As research and development is a continual process Solid State Logic reserves the right to change the features and specifications described herein without notice or obligation Solid State Logic cannot be held re...