Xils lab miniSyn'X, User Manual

Page 1: ...miniSyn X User Manual www xils lab com ...

Page 2: ...S 15 7 1 LAYER MODES SINGLE SPLIT AND DOUBLE 16 7 2 GLOBAL PARAMETERS TIED TO LAYERS MODES STEREO BALANCE POLYPHONY 16 7 3 LAYERS MANAGEMENT COPY EXCHANGE GANG EDIT MODE 17 8 EASY SOUND DESIGN WITH THE LAYERS SMART LOAD RANDOM LOAD AND LOAD LAYER FUNCTIONS 18 9 MINISYN X MODULES DESCRIPTION 19 9 1 SYNTHESIS 19 9 1 1 Oscillators 19 9 1 2 Oscillators synchronization 21 9 1 3 Multimode Filter 21 9 1 ...

Page 3: ...10 4 MISC 30 11 CREDITS 30 ...

Page 4: ...ble And often that are not feasible on any other synthesizer be it hardware or software Ring Modulation Cross Pulse Width Modulation and Hard Synchronization between the oscillators and an unique sophisticated glide circuit allow the recreation of some of the patches that made this synthesizer a must have in the ancient times If you not yet developed your skills as a sound designer we have include...

Page 5: ...olyphonic LFO 2 per patch in Split Double mode One sine monophonic LFO Assigned to the Joystick One 128 steps polyphonic sequencer 4 Lines Fat and warm 3 modes Chorus Structure and ergonomy 2 independent identical synthesizer engines that can be associated in 3 modes Single Double Split Easy Sound Creation Module Smart Load Gang Edit Mode In Double Split Modes Adaptative UI design YOSWYN You only ...

Page 6: ...o specify in the next step of the installer Once the installation directory is specified you will be asked to select the VST plug in directory with a suggested default location Keep this default directory if you do not use the VST version Important notice for Vista or Windows 7 be sure to use a folder write enable and owned by the user do not use c program files for instance Otherwise you will hav...

Page 7: ... to design new presets 4 2 Toolbar Note The toolbar at the top of the interface allows you to load or save presets make a comparison between settings A and B or modify the options These functions are described in detail later in this manual Click on the PRESET arrow to show the available presets in the current sorted group Please note that selecting a new preset without saving your current setting...

Page 8: ...will give the same results To increase a parameters value click and drag the knob to the right or to the top To decrease a parameter value click and drag the knob to the left or to the bottom If you right click on a parameter or if you hold shift while clicking you can adjust the parameter with fine precision Tip the button of the toolbar opens an info panel summarizing these shortcuts Keyboard sh...

Page 9: ...arameter Apple Alt CTRL click open the MIDI Control panel with the parameter already selected Note Other GUI elements and controls like the LED Switches or the dropdown menus will be described in the following sections of this manual when you ll need to use them The switches are simpler just left click to change their state A right click will change the state only while the button is pressed and r...

Page 10: ...order to prevent you from erasing them the Factory presets cannot be modified When you edit a Factory preset the Save button will be grayed and you will have to use the Save As function to save it in another bank If you edit any other preset than a Factory one the Save and Save As function will both be available The main difference is that the Save function will save the preset under its current n...

Page 11: ...as a new bank It always makes sense to back up your presets on external media Open preset Information or click on SAVE AS opens the following preset information window where the name and all other information related to the current preset can be displayed or changed In this window you can modify the Name of the preset specify the Bank in which the preset will be saved and also enter information in...

Page 12: ... different custom instrument categories it would become very difficult to browse the library using the Style sorting Once you have filled all the desired required fields SAVE AS Will save the current preset in the chosen Bank with its new or unchanged Name and tagged with all the fields you filled in MOVE TO Allows saving the current preset in another location BANK This is handy to gather a lot of...

Page 13: ...ay to customize it to your personal needs In order to perform such selections all you have to do is to select an item in the first sort menu This represents the first and main criteria for the search engine AUTHOR Your name or a Sound Designer name for factory presets Type Category of the instrument like Keys Leads Basses etc Style Musical Genre Feeling Cold warm soft and finally Project My Song M...

Page 14: ... presets available in the entire Factory Sound Library Click on the row of the sorting button to open the menu used to manage this sorting group or sub group Here you can directly select and load any preset from any group or subgroup 6 3 1 Sorting Menu Additional Functions In this menu other actions are also available Delete deletes all of the presets of the current group that are not factory ones...

Page 15: ...h at the same time and instantly switch from one to the other to compare them These two settings are stored in the A and B memory slots When you launch the miniSyn X the default activated memory is A When you load or modify a preset this memory A is also modified in real time according to your edits You can switch to B memory by clicking on the B button To copy the current active memory content to...

Page 16: ...Split switch is engaged the lower part of the keyboard will play the Lower layer while the the upper part of the Keyboard will play the Upper layer In this mode a triangle appears above the keyboard and you can freely move it with the mouse to set the most appropriate Split Point The Split mode should obviously be preferred when you want two play two completely different tones on each zone of your...

Page 17: ...r It has been very closely modeled and has three different settings 7 3 Layers Management Copy Exchange Gang Edit Mode Copy and Exchange Functions To make things easier we added two buttons Copy and Exchange that allow you to copy and exchange layers Clicking on the Exchange button exchanges the two layer sounds clicking on the copy button copies the selected layer to the other layer engine Tip Ex...

Page 18: ...ty of giving you a usable and inspiring patch Just try it a few times on any Double Patch you like and you will see that its rare that something nice doesn t happen after a few Smart Load attempts The Smart Load function is also instantaneous which adds to its charm so you can make numerous attempts in a few seconds RANDOM LOAD LAYER Works in an similar way to Smart Load except it doesn t use any ...

Page 19: ...is 9 1 1 Oscillators 16 8 1 Octave Select Buttons TRANSP Transpose Knob in semi tones up to 12 Clockwise rotation of this knob increases the pitch of the oscillator up to 12 semitones counter clockwise rotation decreases the pitch Using the ALT keyboard modifier allows snap to semitone otherwise the settings are continuous and can be very fine using the right click LED TRANSP When on the keyboard ...

Page 20: ...the digital domain The new Xils Lab Sync algorithm while still not perfect adds a lot to the overall perception of the PWM in the miniSyn X R M Ring Modulation circuit select button This modulation can be used to produce metallic or bells sounds depending on the waveform selected WIDTH Pulse Width Control for the pulse but also the triangle or the sawtooth wave form depending on these latter setti...

Page 21: ... the filter RES This knob sets the resonance or quality factor of the filter When set to the maximum the filter self oscillates That means that it outputs a kind of sine wave even without any audio signal feeding its input I e even if both Oscillators are muted This knob is sometimes called emphasis or Q KEYB set the amount of the keyboard follow Cut Off modulation The setting can be positive or n...

Page 22: ...on the keyboard or from the output of a sequencer or an arpeggiator it begins with Attack part From zero to the maximum level the EG outputs a signal which increases in a time depending on the Attack setting Then follows the Decay part while the output decreases to a level specified by the Sustain setting during a time specified by the Decay setting It stays on this sustain level as long as the EG...

Page 23: ...odulation Depth A for the oscillator pitch Modulations and the pulse width modulation of Oscillator 1 Depth B for the Filter and Output Amplifier modulation and the Pulse Width Modulation of Oscillator 2 Waveforms Buttons The various switches select the different available LFO waveform s Sine Triangle Saw Ramp Square Random S H Please note that you can select different waveform simultaneously and ...

Page 24: ...9 1 7 1 Glide and Portamento FLT O1 and O2 buttons These buttons route the glide or the portamento which has been set up to the filter frequency or and the oscillators pitch GLD The glide select button enables the glide function for the selected glide portamento destination s PORT The Portamento select button enables the portamento function for the selected glide portamento destination s SPEED Thi...

Page 25: ... led to Filter and finally set the good modulation amount with the Flt LFO Slider WHEEL LEDs Connect the modulation wheel to the horizontal left and or right movement of the joystick UPPER BOTH LOWER Switch This 3 position toggle control let you choose which layers will be affected by the Joystick Modulations Lower Upper or both 9 1 9 Master MASTER This knob controls the general output level of th...

Page 26: ...he current step but in that case modify the sequence directly on the sequencer edit panel might be easier and faster see below PLAY Modes Press the PLAY button and the sequencer will automatically play the selected tracks To stop the Sequencer playback just hit the Play button again Trig and TUNE More control If TRIG is ON the sequencer will play from the beginning each time a note is played on th...

Page 27: ...e slider allows you to move the displayed part inside the whole range The current time slot is shown as a white cursor line at the bottom of the view Each of the current sequences is displayed in a different color The sequences can be highlighted or hidden by checking or un checking the corresponding colored boxes to the left of the event display You can also modify the sequencer with the mouse se...

Page 28: ...ce to play the 4 steps in this order 3 4 1 2 Clicking 1 or 2 will do the inverse The sequencer memorizes the pitch but also the velocity of the entered note So not only can use the sequencer for creating pitched sequences but using the velocity or the pitch through the modulation section gives you endless design possibilities To display or edit the velocity instead of the recorded pitch click into...

Page 29: ... the parameter label to select in the drop down list the parameter you want to assign that will be displayed on the right field once you have chosen it Then you can enter either directly the MIDI controller number you wish from 0 to 127 with your computer keyboard You can also switch on the autolearn button The MiniSyn x will wait for any midi controller data sent by your Midi device The first Mid...

Page 30: ...he current settings All the new presets will be created from these settings when the init settings choice is selected These parameters will also be used when setting a control to its default value Win CTRL click OSX ALT Apple Click Layer locked when loaded When this option is checked the layer are locked not writeable when a multi later is loaded Disable Downsize at launch This option disable the ...

Page 31: ...nses The Morphable triangle and sawtooth oscillators emulation of the Chorus based on the Dual Bucket Brigade Delay component multilayering and multi keyboard concept are licensed by Xavier Oudin to XILS lab for exclusive use in the miniSyn X virtual synthesizer The Smart Load and Random Load technologies are licensed by Laurent Bourgeon to Xils Lab for exclusive use in the MiniSyn X virtual synth...