User`s Manual - Spectralhead Audio
Contents
1. Its main purpose is to determine the accent amount for the steps which are marked with accent in the pattern sequencer The more the accent level is the more the accent envelope modulates the cutoff frequency of the filter and the amplitude of the amplifier SilverBox v1 22 User s Manual http www spectralhead com 4 4 Sequencer The sequencer features a piano roll and six rows In the piano roll you can enter the note sequence by clicking at the LCD display You can either click at a row to move a note or drag and drop the note to the desired position SilverBox will play the note sequence relative to the actual MIDI note that is received from the external host MIDI keyboard This allows transposing the pattern during playing a pattern or even when playing live For this you need to play notes in legato mode in your external host POSITION The first row below the piano roll is a position display which shows the actual position in the sequencer This is just for display purposes GATE This row determines if a note is played or skipped muted Basically you might want to set the gate buttons for all notes You may do that easily by setting the probability knob on the right side of the user interface to maximum position and pressing the random button CT You will find more information about this in the Functions section OCT UP The octave up and octave down rows transpose the note an octave up or down If OCT DN both are set2. then the note is not transposed SilverBox v1 22 User s Manual http www spectralhead com ACCENT The accent row enables accent for the selected steps The ACCENT knob determines the amount of accent applied to the step The accent modulates the cutoff frequency in a very typical way and gives an amplitude boost to the step SLIDE If slide is enabled for a step it will be played in legato mode with the next step This means that the frequency will smoothly glide to the next step s frequency Note that if the next step is muted then the slide button does not have any effect Sequencer options TEMPO LENGTH SYNC TO HOST EXT SEQ MODE j RETRIGGER TEMPO SYNC TO HOST The sequencer can be synchronized to the host s tempo or by driven by its internal BPM clock If the SYNC TO HOST option is enabled the host s tempo setting overrides the internal tempo setting of SilverBox Otherwise the tempo given on the user interface will be set in the internal sequencer You can set the tempo by individually dragging the numbers on the LCD display near the TEMPO label There s no limit on the tempo anything goes from 000 1 to 999 9 BPM For a different time signature for example 3 4 triplets you can play with the tempo setting Let s suppose your external host runs at 140 BPM Now if you set BPM to 140 3 4 105 BPM then the time signature will be 3 4 You may also want to set the pattern length to 16 3 4 12 LENGTH
3. In SilverBox the length of a sequencer pattern may be 1 to 16 steps Then LENGTH parameter sets the length of the sequence after which it restarts from the first position You can set the length by clicking and dragging the numerical display near the LENGTH label EXT SEQ MODE SilverBox has two working modes internal sequencer mode and external sequencer mode When EXT SEQ MODE is disabled it means that the built in sequencer is running To switch off the internal sequencer and play SilverBox just like any other synth enable EXT SEQ MODE RETRIGGER SilverBox v1 22 User s Manual http www spectralhead com The RETRIGGER option determines how the sequencer works when a new note is received before the previous note ends legato mode When the internal sequencer is running and a new note comes the pattern will be transposed but it won t be restarted if RETRIGGER is set to off If it is enabled then the pattern will be restarted from the beginning In external sequencer mode the behavior of RETRIGGER is different When it is set to off then overlapping notes legato will be bent similar to the slide in the internal sequencer without the envelopes being retriggered This way you can create 303 like patterns using your external host If RETRIGGER is enabled every note will trigger the envelopes However in this mode if you hold a note press a new note envelopes are triggered now then release the second note still holding th
4. from the external host coming from the external sequencer or a MIDI keyboard for example You can use the TUNING knob to detune the frequency an oscillator ranging from 12 to 12 semitones Note that the tuning knob is quantized to half note steps if the TUNING QUANTIZE option is enabled in the settings section TUNING QUANT 4 If this option is disabled then you can use the TUNING knob for fine tuning of the frequency For this hold the control key on your keyboard while dragging the TUNING knob Note that you can use the control key to fine tune any of the knobs on the user interface SilverBox v1 22 User s Manual http www spectralhead com 4 2 Filter CUT OFF RESONANCE o ar all The CUT OFF knob determines the cutoff frequency of the filter Depending on the filter type frequencies above or below this will be attenuated The RESONANCE knob determines the emphasis at the cutoff frequency Around this frequencies will be emphasized resulting in the typical screaming 303 sound when set to maximum FILTER TYPE PEAK The FILTER TYPE switch is below the RESONANCE knob SilverBox features five types of filters the low pass filter modeled after the original The high pass band pass and peak modes try to retain the typical sound character but allowing wider sound possibilities The filter types are summarized in the following table Type Description LP 3 pole 18 dB octave low pass filter HP 3 pole 18 dB
5. octave high pass filter BP1 3 pole band pass filter with 6 dB octave high pass slope and 12 dB octave low pass slope BP2 3 pole band pass filter with 12 dB octave high pass slope and 6 dB octave low pass slope PEAK Peaking EQ filter emphasizes frequencies around cutoff VCF TUNE The VCF TUNE knob left to the volume knob modifies the center frequency of the CUTOFF knob By adjusting it you can set the cutoff range lower or higher This way you can somewhat determine the character of your sound allowing hollow barking or high screaming sounds SilverBox v1 22 User s Manual http www spectralhead com 4 3 Envelopes ENV MOD DECAY ACCENT A Ne a em E e E E a m o lo E x E 2 E ta E 4 SilverBox features unique envelopes just like the original bass line synth it is modeled after The ENV MOD knob determines how much the envelope generator modulates the cutoff frequency Note that if you increase the envelope modulation amount the base cut off frequency of the filter will be lowered The DECAY knob sets the decay time of the envelope generator The minimum decay time is around 200 ms the maximum decay time is around 1 5 second When accent is enabled for a step in the sequencer the decay amount will be minimal for that step no matter what level is set This is the normal behavior of the original bass line synthesizer The ACCENT knob does multiple things at the same time
6. quality to MEDIUM or HIGH to minimize the distortion artifacts for very high overdrive settings Better quality settings consume a little more processing power so use NORMAL if you want to Spare on CPU resources Note that due to extreme optimization even HIGH quality mode uses fairly little CPU power less than most of the average virtual instruments HIGHPASS The overdrive module includes a high pass filter for removing the low frequencies before the overdrive This may make the sound clearer and sharper The options are OFF 110 195 350 and 630 Hz You can adjust the high pass filter by dragging the readout on the LCD display The high pass filter is only active when DRIVE TYPE is not set to OFF SilverBox v1 22 User s Manual http www spectralhead com 5 Automation 5 1 Parameter automation You can automate almost all SilverBox parameters through your host sequencer program including the individual steps in the pattern Most host programs can show you a list of available automation parameters As this is different to do in every host please refer to the documentation of your host program SilverBox has the following automation parameters to adjust Accent Cutoff Decay Dist Type Drive Env Mod Filter Type Highpass Length Noise Quality Resonance Retrigger SyncToHost Tempo Tuning Tuning Quantize VCF Tune VeloSens Volume Waveform Also there is an automation parameter for every single step in the sequencer inclu
7. If you have further questions suggestions bug reports feel free to contact us www http www spectralhead com e mai into spectralhead com 20
8. RETRIGGER option If it is set to off and you play SilverBox in legato meaning that two notes overlap without a note off between them the pitch will be slided to the second note without retriggering the envelopes This way you can create 303 like patterns using your external sequencer If you enable RETRIGGER then every new note will trigger the envelopes However if you hold a note and press a new note then release the new note still holding the first note then the pitch will be slided back to the first note without retriggering the envelopes This way you still have some flexibility for sliding notes when retrigger is enabled SilverBox v1 22 User s Manual http www spectralhead com 4 Sections OSCILLATOR FILTER ENVELOPES VOLUME DRIVE FILTER LENGTH i SYNC TO HOST SEQUENCER EXT SEQ MODE RETRIGGER SETTINGS FUNCTIONS SilverBox v1 22 User s Manual http www spectralhead com 4 1 Oscillator TUNING The oscillator is a basic waveform generator with two waveforms sawtooth and square The square oscillator generates an analog modeled waveform with a distinct unique character he waveform switch is located at the upper left corner of the use interface In the left position the waveform is sawtooth In the right position the waveform is square The TUNING knob determines the base frequency of the oscillator In SilverBox the frequency of the oscillator is relative to the MIDI note received
9. SilverBox v1 22 User s Manual http www spectralhead com SilverBox TUNING CUTOFF RESONANCE ENV MOD DECAY 07 666666 sas QUALITY HIGHPASS VCF TUNE y VELO SENS TEMPO LENGTH SYNC TO HOST EXT SEQ MODE 3 RETRIGGER L NOISE TUNING QUANT GLOBALITRANS Cr EO CHI De CRE IEF 0000 c DO CO 00 UC CC C 00 CO gc 00 00 gc Users Manual O 2007 2009 Spectralhead Audio SilverBox v1 22 User s Manual http www spectralhead com 1 Contents UB Ic AT OM TUM 3 BOS vM t denise aul MELDEN LE d c DL vase LEN edu 4 3 MOFPKIFIQUMOCGBS u victos sic durus Dub vOv plus do DON re Uds Edu se evo LOU teat as Saab deduce icon D Sel Internal Sequence Mode emite er utu ove eoe AA E DeL sia co D 3 2 External e quencer MOGOOG uoi oz 5 A O eR E T E eee nii 6 CA UNI Oscar T TI EE E a RR RN a 7 A2 ANE 8 MR RR RSRS RES o ree eL 8 4 3 EnveloD6S 59 29 5 O RP A 9 e ueniunt a Le 10 Sequencer OPON S eacus itat tae e I Ia EE E N 11 2 3 FHBCIODS dass et deed uds ptus eiu us tuc eee M M DE E D ME ROME 13 HO StU S cest iE Ent ERE E op Open enn ELE 15 MM SI 0 Y EE T DA 16 AOM HON coa e a e E iMd CUM 17 5 ParatmeterautormdtlOl ecce m nmn uL E EE RE 17 So NH Oman ss P O LATIN 17 SID OU rate o Eod ta tae nee DET A at 19 Ve ht el ere AGER 20 SilverBox v1 22 User s Manual http www spectralhead com 1 Installation Thanks for registering SilverBox To install 1 Run the installer that
10. ation possibilities When you release a note and press another note the sequencer restarts When the synth is played in legato meaning that two notes overlap without a note off between them the behavior is determined by the RETRIGGER button If it is disabled then the pattern is transposed during playing without restarting If it is enabled then the pattern will restart from the beginning 3 2 External Sequencer Mode The other way to play SilverBox is the external sequencer mode To allow this enable the EXT SEQ MODE button found in the sequencer options section In this mode the internal sequencer is switched off and SilverBox can be played just like any other synth In this mode accents can be triggered by high velocity values If the velocity of a note is higher than a threshold it will be accented The threshold is adjustable by using the VELO SENS knob next to the VOLUME knob VELO SENS In the leftmost position accents are switched off completely In the rightmost position every velocity means accent note so all notes will be accented The optimum is somewhere between the middle so that you can use low velocity in your sequencer for normal notes and high velocity for accented notes Tip if you use various different velocity levels and adjust the VELO SENS knob during playing you can change the number of accented steps without actually changing your pattern To slide between notes you need to disable the
11. ding every row This means there are additional 96 parameters giving you total access to the pattern These are named Notel 16 Gatel 16 OctUp1 16 OctDn1 16 Accent1 16 and Slide1 16 With these you can modify the pattern on the fly from your host program 5 2 MIDI automation In many hosts you can route MIDI input to automation parameters However SilverBox also responds to MIDI continuous controller CC data directly Upon installation a subfolder named SilverBox122 is created in the installation directory The folder name is the same as the name of the DLL so if you renamed the DLL then the folder name will change accordingly In this SilverBox folder a MIDIConfig ini file is created with the default MIDI CC settings This is a standard INI file which you can edit by using any text editor for example Notepad If you open the SilverBox folder and double click MIDIConfig ini in Explorer Notepad will open by default allowing you to edit this file The adjustable parameters are Cutoff Resonance EnvMod Decay Accent Waveform Tuning Volume Drive DistType FilterType VCFTune and VeloSens You may specify a CC number example Cutoff 74 or turn off automation for a control by writing None as the CC number example EnvMod None Note after changing MIDIConfig ini you need to reload SilverBox in order for the changes to take effect SilverBox v1 22 User s Manual http www spectralhead com The default MIDI CC assignm
12. e first one then the pitch slides back to the first note without the envelopes being triggered SilverBox v1 22 User s Manual http www spectralhead com 4 5 Functions dl GLOBALTRANS wil I4JERIEX TETTE Payee 2 EO EMEF o EEEF 2 EE OLA o MIDI L 4JEFIEXIET 2 Right to the sequencer matrix there is a group of buttons which are dedicated to editing and modifying the pattern The uppermost row is a global row affecting all the pattern whereas the six lower columns affect only one row of the sequencer matrix or the notes The row near the position row changes the notes in the piano roll The rest are connected to the rows near them 4 Shift left This button shifts all steps towards left by one step The steps that exit at the left will be wrapped around and enter at the right 1 P Shift right This button shifts all steps towards right by one step The steps that exit at the right will be wrapped around and enter at the left X Reset This button clears accent slide octave up octave down buttons and resets notes to the base C position for the notes Randomize This button has multiple functions it may be used to randomize a pattern alter a note sequence or reset or set all buttons in a row For each randomize button except the global ones there is a knob for adjusting the probability ou At the leftmost position the probability is 0 which means all steps will be reset At the rightmost po
13. ent is shown in the following table Cutoff 74 Resonance 76 EnvMod 77 Decay 78 Accent 79 Waveform 70 Tuning 71 Volume 7 Drive 92 DistType 80 FilterType 8 VCFTune 82 VeloSens 83 SilverBox v1 22 User s Manual http www spectralhead com 6 MIDI output SilverBox sends the sequencer data as MIDI output when the internal sequencer is running In certain host programs you can record this MIDI output or route it to another software or hardware synthesizer Some host that can do this include Reaper Live Energy XT2 Buzz SynthEdit and Tracktion Accented notes have a velocity of 127 and non accented notes velocity is set by the VELO SENS knob So for example if you set that knob to about halfway then non accented notes velocity will be around 63 Slided notes are played as legato meaning that the new note starts before the previous note ends If you route the MIDI output to another monophonic synth you can use this to create slided notes if the synth has a portamento setting If you record the MIDI output you can use that MIDI sequence to drive SilverBox from your host program in external sequencer mode For that make sure the RETRIGGER option is disabled so Slides are played properly If you do that you can extend or modify that pattern in your host being able to create loops longer than 16 steps SilverBox v1 22 User s Manual http www spectralhead com 7 Contact
14. face The randomize shift transpose and reset functions at the lower right corner help you in editing the pattern in a quick and convenient way SilverBox has two working modes internal and external sequencer mode In external sequencer mode you can play it like any other synth you create a pattern in your external host program In internal sequencer mode the synth is driven by the in built sequencer which is triggered by MIDI notes You can transpose a pattern by pressing different keys on your MIDI keyboard which transposes the notes in the internal sequencer You can adjust pattern properties like tempo and length at the LCD right to the piano roll Once the sequence is playing you can tweak and shape the sound with the knobs at the top of the user interface To add some crunch to your sound set DRIVE TYPE to your favorite distortion type and adjust the DRIVE knob The options in the LCD near the VOLUME knob determine the character of the distortion like quality and bass cut SilverBox v1 22 User s Manual http www spectralhead com 3 Working Modes 3 1 Internal Sequencer Mode The built in sequencer lets you create bass line patterns quickly and easily The sequencer is running as long as a MIDI note is played The notes in the internal piano roll are relative to the MIDI note that triggers the sequencer which means that you can transpose the pattern by playing different notes This allows more flexibility and gives some improvis
15. sition the probability is 100 which means all steps will be set This may be used to clear or set all steps in a row 13 SilverBox v1 22 User s Manual http www spectralhead com The two global randomize buttons work differently The upper button randomizes the sound by setting the oscillator envelope filter overdrive and highpass parameters randomly This way you can get new sounds quickly with a mouse click The lower global random function randomizes the notes Instead of changing all notes the probability function determines the chance of a step being changed Thus if you set probability to minimum no notes will be changed If you set it to maximum all notes will be changed in the sequencer If you set it to a low amount then only a few notes will change which is useful for altering a pattern only a little bit in a random way There s no separate probability knob for the global randomize function Instead if you use the global randomize function the probability settings of the individual rows will apply 3 Transpose up This button transposes all notes in the sequencer up one half note Notes that are too high for the piano roll will be wrapped around and they will appear at the bottom Transpose down This button transposes all notes in the sequencer down one half note Notes that are too low for the piano roll will be wrapped around and they will appear at the top 14 SilverBox v1 22 User s Manual http ww
16. w spectralhead com 4 6 Settings NOISE TUNING QUANT E3 The settings panel features two options If NOISE is enabled background noise will be added to the sound of SilverBox to make it less sterile This may make it sound a bit more authentic but it may sound bad in combination with overdrive We discussed the TUNING QUANTIZE option in the oscillator section If enabled it quantizes the TUNING knob to half note steps SilverBox v1 22 User s Manual http www spectralhead com 4 7 Overdrive DRIVE TYPE FILTER TYPE PEAK QUALITY BP2 HIGHPASS er VCF TUNE Fur VELO SENS LP SilverBox features a high quality built in overdrive module with four types of wave shaping DRIVE Sets the amount of overdrive Rightmost position is 80 dB overdrive More overdrive attenuates the sound so that the output level stays more or less constant DRIVE TYPE Sets the type of the overdrive OFF No overdrive SOFT Soft clipping more analog sound HARD Hard clipping harsher sound WARP Soft fold back distortion WRAP Hard fold back distortion QUALITY Sets the oversampling amount of the distortion NORMAL means 4x MEDIUM means 8x and HIGH means 16x oversampling If you re working at a 44 1 kHz sampling rate this means the internal sampling rate is 705 6 kHz in HIGH quality mode For most sounds the NORMAL quality setting should be enough For some sounds with bandpass or highpass filter modes you may want to set the
17. you downloaded from the website 2 Read the license agreement thoroughly Then click on I Agree 3 On the next page select to install the main program and or the user s manual 4 Select the destination folder for the installation The installer tries to find your VST folder based on your registry settings If this is not appropriate please select another location 5 Click on Install After installation you may need to rescan your VST folder in your sequencer or restart your sequencer for the plug in to appear If you have trouble doing that please refer to the documentation of your host program or simply restart it Spectralhead Audio wishes you happy tweaking SilverBox v1 22 User s Manual http www spectralhead com 2 Overview SilverBox is a monophonic bass line synthesizer painstakingly modeled after one of the world s most famous and most often copied analog instruments lts sophisticated filter and envelope sections will let you recreate all types of typical acid sounds For convenience it features a high quality overdrive module with four types of wave shaping To make pattern editing easier its internal sequencer features a built in piano roll and a dedicated sequencer matrix for gate accent slide octave up and octave down options This gives you an instant overview of what s going on in the pattern The main goal was to make editing as easy as possible without any hidden features that are not visible on the user inter
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