Modal Electronics COBALT8, User Manual

Page 1: ...1 Modal COBALT8 8 voice polyphonic extended virtual analogue synthesiser User Manual OS Version 1 0...

Page 2: ...spilt onto or come into contact with the apparatus In the event this should happen remove power from the unit immediately and seek expert assistance This apparatus produces sound that could cause per...

Page 3: ...Arpeggiator Sequencer FX Modulation Keyboard Voice Joystick Audio Input Audio Output Gain Settings 04 MIDI MIDI Implementation Chart MPE Polychain 05 Update 06 MODALapp Getting Started Main Editor Pre...

Page 4: ...sly on board COBALT8 also boasts a hugely powerful Mod Matrix with eight assignable slots and four additional fixed routes 12 mod sources and 55 destinations The 4 axis joystick can be assigned to a h...

Page 5: ...Sequencer and Arpeggiator Polyphonic Real time and Step sequencer with 512 notes and four recordable editable parameter animations Delay FX LFO s sequencer and arpeggiator can be either clocked intern...

Page 6: ...dal input Enclosure and Display Road ready steel and aluminium enclosure with economical stained bamboo end cheeks 1 54 inch large OLED display for instant visual feedback at all times of playing edit...

Page 7: ...the two detented encoders These two switched encoders are located either side of the screen are used for screen navigation and control and can be clicked to either switch mode or trigger modify the se...

Page 8: ...hold Navigating and Loading Preset To navigate through and load patches first press the Patch Seq button to return to the Patch page and use the Preset Edit encoder to scroll through presets Click thi...

Page 9: ...press the Rest button to add a rest to the pattern Hold the Patch button and turn the Division encoder to control Arp Gate Keyboard Voice Press Unison repeatedly to cycle through the different unison...

Page 10: ...w the confirm instructions to reset all global settings to the factory default settings Please note that this will also reset the Main Volume and Tempo parameter values but your presets will be unaffe...

Page 11: ...DIN Out Filters DIN Thru USB Thru Arp Seq Out MIDI in Oct Offset MIDI in Monitor Settings UI Screen Brightness Screen Switch Mode Screensaver Idle Time LEDs Brightness Keyboard Local Velocity Curve A...

Page 12: ...BALT8 to work adequately with your expression pedal you may need to use a TRS Polarity Adapter Please note that expression pedals with the TS polarity will not work with COBALT8 Audio In Audio Input o...

Page 13: ...24 25 03 Synthesis engine...

Page 14: ...orithms on COBALT8 include a variety of complex analogue synthesis techniques built in cross modulation SYNC RM and many more PWM smooth Morphing between VA waves bit crushing and filtered noise Each...

Page 15: ...the first Fractal Square Complex sync with un quantised control over ratio A and and an asymmetry control B that allows every second cycle of the wave to have a different sync ratio to the first Frac...

Page 16: ...n and turning the Cutoff encoder selects the current type of the filter The filter types available are Resonant Low Pass Morphs 4 pole lowpass through bandpass to 1 pole lowpass Balanced Low Pass Morp...

Page 17: ...rol of the amount of modulation the envelope has over its destination s Type There are 8 envelope types These types are stored per patch and each envelope type is independent so you can have a differe...

Page 18: ...each new keypress restarts the LFO and it the continues to run particularly useful for Unison Stack sounds Free In this mode the LFO is never reset so it could be at any phase when a note is pressed S...

Page 19: ...n the button is released the sequencer carries on from the location it should have been before the step was repeated so it will still be in time In real time mode a step is a 16th of the total sequenc...

Page 20: ...the cursor is over an animator value parameter changes panel or MIDI will assign an animation lane and or set the highlighted value Sequencer Overdub While the sequencer is playing press Record to all...

Page 21: ...tedly will play back the sequence as programmed playing note 61 will play the sequence back 1 semitone higher than programmed Great when used in conjunction with the Arp Arp octave controls playing ba...

Page 22: ...FX slot for control with encoders A F with a single click With multiple clicks it will cycle through the effect type used in that slot Note You can hold FX1 2 or 3 when cycling through FX types to cle...

Page 23: ...lows you to activate or deactivate that slot Modulation Velo Pressing this button enters and exits the assign mode for velocity AftT Pressing this button enters and exits the assign mode for after tou...

Page 24: ...e X FEG Amount X AEG Attack X AEG Decay X AEG Sustain X AEG Release X AEG Amount X MEG Attack X MEG Decay X MEG Sustain X Parameter LFO1 LFO2 LFO3 EG NOTE VELO EXPR AFTT X X Y Y MEG Release X MEG Amou...

Page 25: ...voice mode Cycle through to choose between Unison 2 Unison 4 or Unison 8 These are monophonic voice modes where multiple voices are stacked and detuned the number reflects the number of voices per no...

Page 26: ...while decreasing noise floor so adding gain from external sources won t introduce unwanted noise Because COBALT8 employs a limiter as the final stage before output in its audio signal path headroom f...

Page 27: ...al non MPE MIDI controllers or software when MPE Mode is enabled please set their output MIDI channel to match this MPE Master Channel value to ensure correct behaviour Settings MPE Number of Channels...

Page 28: ...setting and therefore cannot be used to adjust previously recorded notes Transport Enables disables the sequencer transport to be controlled by MIDI Clock Start Continue Stop messages from USB MIDI Yo...

Page 29: ...n modes here TRS and RTS where each mode has three sub modes 1 3 Select a TRS polarity mode if you are using a TRS expression pedal or an expression pedal with a polarity switch set to the TRS polarit...

Page 30: ...thesiser to a USB port and it will show up as a MIDI input and output device in any software that supports external MIDI devices On macOS COBALT8 will show up in Midi Studio found in Applications Util...

Page 31: ...ock is detected the COBALT8 will continue to use whatever tempo it is internally configured to MIDI Soft Thru COBALT8 has two soft thru settings configurable from the app DIN Thru Forwards Midi receiv...

Page 32: ...Osc1 Algorithm 63 Osc2 Algorithm MIDI CC Implemention Chart CC Function 64 Sustain Pedal 65 66 67 Seq Length 68 Seq Mute 69 Seq Clear 70 Seq Hold 71 Seq Loop 72 Seq Record 73 FX Amount 74 75 Transpos...

Page 33: ...me MPE instruments may not specify a Number of Channels in this case the most likely value to use here is 15 Please refer to the MPE instruments settings or documentation for more information 5 Set MP...

Page 34: ...ettings General Polychain Master and turn this on The slave device should now be showing all voice mode LEDs lit and Polychain Slave on screen When In Polychain mode the slave COBALT8 panel is disable...

Page 35: ...to the latest version each time an update is released You can update COBALT8 using the MODALapp MODALapp is available for macOS iOS Windows and Android To find the app on your platform visit www modal...

Page 36: ...t Modulation page to quickly view and edit the current patch modulation settings FX page for selecting and editing the 3 stereo FX engines on COBALT8 Sequence page for live sequence controls and editi...

Page 37: ...Editor This is the main section for patch design editing You will find keyboard voice oscillator filter and envelopes here The currently selected preset is shown at the top There are also options for...

Page 38: ...the exporting or importing options Exporting will copy and send all of the selected presets to the selected folder Importing will overwrite all of the selected presets in the preset manager with the...

Page 39: ...zontal can be changed by clicking the controls on the top bar or scrolling left right Draw Mode To create some notes ensure the draw button on the top bar is highlighted this will be by default and cl...

Page 40: ...ve controls In the Keyboard Tab there is a MIDI controller that can be used to play notes on COBALT8 from your device There are pitchbend and modwheels as well as 3 buttons to determine how many octav...

Page 41: ...e necessary to provide a copy of the original invoice or Dealer purchase receipt to the Distributor In the event that you are unable to provide proof of purchase directly then you should contact the D...