u-he Beat beatzille, User Manual

Page 1: ...beatzille modular FM PD synthesizer user guide version 1 0 2 22 July 2021 u he Heckmann Audio GmbH BERLIN ...

Page 2: ...view 10 Directory Panel 11 Presets Panel 14 Preset Info 16 Installing Soundsets 16 Search 17 Oscillators 18 Pitch 19 Phase FM 20 Phase Distortion 21 Fractal Resonance 22 Outputs 22 LFO 23 Filter 25 Envelopes 26 Outputs 27 Processors 28 Quantizer 28 Sample Hold 28 Inverter 28 Rectifier 28 Lag Generators 28 Voice Pitch and Glide 29 Voice 29 Pitch 30 Glide 31 ...

Page 3: ...d Trigger 37 Snapshot Dial Rotate 38 Snapshot Values 39 How to Trigger Envelopes 40 Delay 41 Configuration 42 MIDI Control 42 Preferences 44 Tips Tricks 46 General Tips 46 Oscillator Tricks 46 Filter Tricks 47 Mapping Tricks 48 Processor Tricks 48 Multiplex Tricks 49 Sequencer Tricks 50 ...

Page 4: ...ot the other way round TOC INTRO PRESETS OSC LFO FILTER ENV PROC MIDI MULT SEQ MAP DELAY CONF TRIX 4 Bazille BeatZille Oscillators 4 2 Filters 4 1 LFOs 2 1 Envelopes 4 with Fall Rise range control 2 no F R range Ramp Generators 2 0 Modulation Mapper 2 1 Dual Lag Generators 2 1 Effects Distortion Delay Phaser Spring Reverb Delay only HQ mode YES NO Multicore mode YES NO Maximum polyphony 16 8 Stack...

Page 5: ...e code Luca Christakopoulos communication design GUI Components Knobs and sliders There are two types of controls unipolar and bipolar Unipolar knobs and sliders only allow positive values while the bipolar knobs and sliders allow negative values often within a range of 100 to 100 In the above image the oscillator tuning controls you can easily see that the Tune knob is unipolar it starts at zero ...

Page 6: ... you will see a straight line connected to the original output sockets remove cables either double click the input end or drag drop away from the input socket change cable colour click repeatedly but slowly on the input end until the cable has the colour you want Take care not to double click as this will remove the connection Right click on any input socket even if it is unused to change the opac...

Page 7: ...ces can still be stolen across multiple channels The Duo mode is not channel aware i e all MIDI channels are merged Single trigger modulation sources e g LFOs with Phase mode set to single will listen to the channel of the first voice being played Poly pressure polyphonic aftertouch As well as regular channel aftertouch Beatzille also recognizes and reacts appropriately to polyphonic aftertouch ea...

Page 8: ...ct a patch from the current folder While BeatZille is being edited parameter names and values are displayed here Whenever you stop editing for a few seconds the patch name reappears Initialize To load a simple template right click on the data display and select init initialize If you want to start from scratch every time you open an instance of BeatZille save this under the name default in the Loc...

Page 9: ...he Frequency knob on the left adjusts horizontal resolution while the Scale knob on the right adjusts vertical resolution Right click in the scope to select visual effects glow fire and wind add different fade out effects at the cost of some extra CPU These modes are also a bit more sluggish than fast or eco GUI Size Right click anywhere in the background to adjust the size of BeatZille s window i...

Page 10: ...the triangle to the left of Local If you can t see the PRESET INFO pane at all click on the button in the top right and activate Show Preset Info The Local root directory contains a representative selection of presets copied from the subfolders Immediately after loading a preset by clicking on its name you can step through all the others using your computer s cursor keys Close the browser by click...

Page 11: ...g the Program Change message The MIDI Programs folder itself is bank 0 sub folders are addressed in alphabetical order starting with bank 1 When BeatZille receives a program change it will display the bank and program numbers to the left of the preset name e g 0 0 for the first preset in the first bank in certain hosts the first bank preset is designated 1 instead of the correct 0 To avoid another...

Page 12: ...the no Bank folder you will see at the bottom of the Bank list or right click on the Bank and select Remove Presets from Bank Empty Banks will disappear Favourites Presets dropped onto the Favourite 1 folder will be marked as such The Favourite status can be removed from all presets by right clicking on Favourite 1 and selecting Remove All Favourite 1 Marks see Presets context menu a few pages dow...

Page 13: ... instead of opened Move to Trash Recycle Bin Moves the selected folder and all its contents to the trash On Open Expand to The options here determine how deeply the browser will open any sub directories whenever the GUI is opened or the Refresh function is called The first option none collapses all folders while the final option all levels reveals all nested folders Show Folder Icons Unselecting t...

Page 14: ...tatus of the Save Presets To preference as well as on the location of the source preset s i e whether they are in the Local or the User folder Selected presets are copied with a number appended to the name which increments just like the Auto Versioning option so that no preset can be overwritten by mistake Show in Finder Explorer Opens a system window for the right clicked file In smart folders on...

Page 15: ... at once External Drag Drop To manage your preset library externally you can drag presets and folders between BeatZille s browser and your desktop or any system window On the Mac most Finder operations will automatically update the browser Updating might not be immediate when using multiple formats or multiple host applications but all it usually takes is a click on the GUI or in the directory tre...

Page 16: ...ndset should appear in the User folder If a soundset with the same name already exists in that location any modified files will be backed up and the location of the backup file will be displayed Alternative Method Soundsets in uhe soundset format can also be installed by clicking on the u he badge selecting Install Soundset from the menu and navigating to the uhe soundset file This option is espec...

Page 17: ... clicking the search path which opens a little menu Try this Enter three or four letters then hit Return For instance star will find all files containing the text string star e g mustard or starters Entering star wars with the quotes would find e g Battlestar Warship if such existed in the presets Scope You can limit the scope of the search to just the preset name or specific parts of PRESET INFO ...

Page 18: ...f the 5 sections The main oscillators are very powerful signal generators which can even be used as LFOs as the frequency range starts at zero Hertz It can take a while to get comfortable with them but that s the price you pay for such flexibility The oscillator panel has five distinct sections each with a modulation input The next few pages deal with each of these sections separately let s start ...

Page 19: ... to max 48Hz but can be greatly extended via Multiply see modify below Note that the rate is usually doubled 1 00 is 2Hz and 24 00 is 48Hz if the second PD wave is the same as the first Clocked sync to host division factor 1 00 mean a whole note 4 00 a quarter note etc For technical reasons the synchronization isn t 100 perfect so you might have to retrigger the notes every now and again Modify A ...

Page 20: ...lator gets its phase from where the most recent voice left off for a better free running effect despite voice rotation round robin Phase modulation with mode selector The bipolar knob on the left adjusts the amount of phase modulation or frequency modulation depending on the modes from a signal connected to the socket Connect another audio rate oscillator here for classic FM sounds both should be ...

Page 21: ...e basic amount of phase distortion The bipolar knob to the left adjusts the modulation depth from any signal connected to the socket PD waves upper 2 selectors The selectors below the PD knob specify a pair of alternating non linear phase functions The first five modes Saw Square Impulse 2pulse Halfsaw are simple they need no explanation In the three Res modes multiple sine waves are packed into o...

Page 22: ...s the shape of the window Off Saw Tri or Max roughly correspond to none Res1 Res2 and Res3 respectively see the previous page Fractalize modulation unlabeled The bipolar knob on the left sets the modulation depth of a signal connected to the socket Outputs There are two signal outputs at the bottom of the oscillator The upper one is always at full volume while the lower one can be attenuated and m...

Page 23: ... 0 1 1 or 10 all the others are synced to host tempo The five options with dot in the name are dotted 50 is added to the cycle length and those with trip in the name have triplet length 3 cycles occupy the space of 2 0 1s to 10s absolute times 1 10th 1 or 10 seconds at Rate 0 00 1 64 to 8 1 synchronized to host tempo Note that the Rate control is exponential The simplest way to set up a typical 5H...

Page 24: ...played Delay Fades the LFO in from zero with ramp times ranging from immediately to about 20 seconds Amp Mod This knob adjusts the amount of LFO level modulation from a source specified in the selector That higher values result in lower LFO output may seem counterintuitive but please remember that Amp Mod is an attenuation depth parameter Whatever the modulation source you will always get maximum ...

Page 25: ...would be to patch an envelope to one and an LFO to the other but remember that you can even use audio rate sources in BeatZille Try everything experiment Key Follow Key follow causes the cutoff to track MIDI notes with a variable amount Resonance The resonance range is 0 00 to 100 00 Although self oscillation can start around 50 00 the actual amount of resonance depends on the Gain setting see gai...

Page 26: ...ate unusual envelope shapes Fall Rise This parameter causes the normally flat sustain stage to either fall negative values or rise positive values Values closer to the centre mean a slower rate Amp Mod The amount that the envelope s output is modulated by a source chosen in the selector Velocity This knob scales the envelope level via MIDI velocity so lower velocities result in lower levels Trigge...

Page 27: ...h are summed together Like in the filter the dual inputs save the multiplex units for more worthy tasks Volume A level control with envelope selector Choose one of the envelope generators or the Gate a simple maximum sustain envelope with very fast attack and release Note that the final volume control is the lonely Output knob in the upper control bar Pan If the modulation source in the selector i...

Page 28: ...oise to the input an LFO to the trigger and the output to either oscillator pitch modulation or filter cutoff or both Inverter Simply inverts the phase of the input signal The modulation wheel and aftertouch go negative instead of positive a sawtooth becomes a ramp etc Rectifier Full wave rectification all negative values become positive Lag Generators Similar to Glide the lag generators can be us...

Page 29: ...il a space is left between consecutive notes duo duophonic oscillator 1 is lowest Priority oscillator 2 is highest priority Priority This parameter applies to Mono and Legato modes only and is otherwise ignored last plays the most recent note typical of digitally controlled synthesizers lowest plays the lowest note most classic US American mono synthesizers highest plays the highest note EMS and m...

Page 30: ...nd mapping generators this control is called PitchW the W stands for wheel Transpose This selector shifts the overall pitch in semitone steps with a range of 24 Transpose does not work in real time it is only updated when the next note is played Fine The Fine knob adjusts the overall pitch within a range of 1 semitone Fine does not work in real time it is only updated when the next note is played ...

Page 31: ...for anything that uses key follow e g the oscillators and filter Offset The value is added to oscillator 2 as well as to the modulation source Key2 KeyFollow2 This means you can set up two different glide amounts depending on which modules you choose To make the glide faster for oscillator 2 than for oscillator 1 turn Amount up and Offset down Range Glide strength a u he speciality Lower values sh...

Page 32: ...es Map Smooth modulator values interpolated for smooth transitions Map Quantize modulator values no interpolation for more immediate transitions Increment consecutive notes step through the map Note The two Map modes aren t active until you define a modulation source Source The Source selector specifies the modulator to be processed in one of the Map modes This setting is ignored in Key or Increme...

Page 33: ...selection Invert Shift Left Shift Right Select every 2nd 3rd 4th If nothing is currently selected only the latter three options will appear in the submenu Reverse flips the current selection horizontally Invert flips the current selection vertically Randomize adds a random offset to all selected values Soften removes abrupt transitions Normalize expands vertically to minimum maximum Make Unipolar ...

Page 34: ... you like of course Ring modulation RM fade in Ring modulation as an audio effect is traditionally used for bell like sounds robot voices etc In the above example the signal connected to input 1 is being ring modulated multiplied with the signal connected to the Mod modulation input Note In this case swapping the regular input signal with the Mod signal will make no audible difference Whenever a c...

Page 35: ...be used for fading signals out Whatever you connect to the righthand inputs can be faded out by whatever you connect to the Mod input Unipolar crossfade crossfade using a unipolar modulation source In this example the modulation signal green controls the mix between inputs 1 and 3 If e g the modulation wheel is connected there it will crossfade smoothly between inputs 1 and 3 with complete separat...

Page 36: ...sive note 5V A constant voltage For instance you can use 5V to create DC offsets which can affect filter distortion characteristics or to push parameters beyond their normal ranges Gate A simple organ type square envelope with very fast attack and release KeyF 1 KeyF 2 Multi purpose key follow modulation sources MIDI note number plus pitchbend and glide BeatZille has two of these so you can offset...

Page 37: ...tly see the instructions on how to trigger envelopes Divide Time and Trigger The controls in the top left of the panel determine the speed and how the sequencer is triggered Divide The Divide knob accelerates the sequencer by dividing the Time by up to 16 Time Base Specifies the basic speed like in the LFO but offering only the 1 16 1 1 and 1s options Trigger This parameter specifies how sequences...

Page 38: ...Right clicking in the middle of the dial gives you an Autoselect option When this is switched on moving the snapshot position control also selects the closest snapshot Rotate Rotate lets you morph through the 8 snapshots in one of two ways If a signal is connected to the socket it will cause the dial to rotate and the Rotate value specifies by how much If the socket is left empty however the snaps...

Page 39: ... be 14 up an octave would be 24 etc 4 tap outputs The four output sockets let you divide the sequencer into shorter sections which can then be used to modulate different target parameters Each section can run at a different speed 4 tap speed factors The lengths of steps in each tap can be multiplied by setting this number higher than 1 Note that the speed factors of unused taps are simply ignored ...

Page 40: ...erwise ModSeq2 would remain undefined Gates and velocities When envelopes use the ModSeq option positive values are interpreted as GATE ON with velocity while zero and below are interpreted as GATE OFF without velocity Note that envelope Velocity now comes from the sequencer instead of from MIDI notes Regular MIDI note velocity is still available in the MIDI MORE panel As gates need to be closed a...

Page 41: ...ring that particular tap Simply turn Center Vol down to zero Wow Emulates slow tape wobble ranging from subtle spacey to almost seasick Volume Output level controls for the center tap and for the left right taps together HP LP Separate cutoff controls for the highpass and lowpass filters within the feedback path For the damping effects typical of tape delays turn HP up and LP down Feedback The amo...

Page 42: ...n overlay with all MIDI learnable elements appearing as selectable outlines Controls that are already assigned appear filled like the cutoff and resonance controls in this image and the currently active control is highlighted like the output 1 volume knob here Try it Click on Filter cutoff and send BeatZille some MIDI CC data move a knob or slider on your MIDI controller the connection is made ins...

Page 43: ...t to the current value Type Specifies the type of hardware by far the most common is Continuous 7 bit Encoder 127 relative mode endless rotary controls that repeatedly send the CC value 1 when turned in the positive direction or 127 interpreted as 1 when turned in the negative direction Encoder 64 relative mode endless rotary controls that repeatedly send the CC value 65 when turned in the positiv...

Page 44: ...hich wheel direction should move to the bottom of the list so we made this optional APPEARANCE Cable Opacity solid see thru x ray and ghosted Cable Style the thick slim line hair or natural Default Size The GUI size for each new instance Note that you can temporarily change the GUI size without having to enter the Preferences page just right click in the background Gamma Controls overall brightnes...

Page 45: ...dio in chuncks of n x 16 samples This so called block processing method significantly reduces the CPU load and memory usage of all our plug ins For example if the number of samples to be processed is 41 BeatZille will process the first 32 and keep the remaining 9 in a small buffer 16 samples is big enough Those 9 samples are then processed at the start of the next call and so on The extra buffer i...

Page 46: ...ssible tasks Oscillator Tricks DX type FM Load INIT and switch both oscillator Tune modes currently Semitone to Overtone Patch the lower OSC 2 output to OSC 1 phase modulation input PM Course and turn the amount up to about 50 You should hear a very bright digital wave Turn the PD knob in OSC 1 to minimum for a pure sine wave carrier the tone becomes less bright more hollow Patch envelope 2 into O...

Page 47: ... modulation amount play and listen Filter Tricks Self oscillation You can play notes just using filters by setting the Resonance and Key Follow both to maximum and Cutoff fairly low e g 0 00 or 12 00 Experiment with all filter types Caution self resonating filters can get very loud so it s best to turn the volume down first Especially the lower notes are slow to self resonate and a short impulse i...

Page 48: ...eries and transforms them into the corresponding waveform Processor Tricks Quantizer bit crusher tip by 3ee As well as making control rate signals steppy the Quantizer can also be used as a bit crusher effect for audio signals Use low values but note that 1 00 will generally result in silence Quantizer octave transpose The Quantizer can be used to keep oscillator pitches within a certain range acr...

Page 49: ...ect 5V to the Mod input and the signal you want to invert to one of the righthand inputs Multiplex gain tip by justin3am To boost weaker signals try feeding the output of a multiplex back into one side with the signal you want to boost connected to the other side Be careful with the feedback level as things can get out of control very suddenly Half wave rectification tip by justin3am Mixing a rect...

Page 50: ...f the modulation wheel tricky isn t it Using the Mapping Generator This method has the advantage that you can jump between snapshots in any order you like Load initialize drag a cable from the Mapping Generator to the Rotate input and set the Rotate value to 7 00 Right click in the Mapping Generator editor and reduce the map size to 8 values Right click again and select ramp from the shapes sub me...