ArcSyn User Manual: Effect Types
Notes
- ArcSyn's effects section is designed to be as simple as possible. Each effect has the minimum possible number of parameters; the original design concept was to produce something like row of guitar stompboxes.
- Effects share controls wherever possible. For instance, the MONO CHORUS and FLAZER effects both share LFO RATE and DEPTH controls and most effects share the MIX control.
- Clicking the labelfor an effect will toggle it on or off.
- All effects process the input signal in stereo unless otherwise described.
1. OFF
2. MONO CHORUS
A chorus effect with a single delay line and sine LFO. The left and right input signals are mixed down to mono.
3. STEREO CHORUS
A chorus effect with 2 delay lines. The left delay is swept by a sine LFO, the right delay is swept by the inverse of the left channel’s LFO.
4. QUAD CHORUS
A chorus with 4 delay lines. The 1st and 2nd delays are panned left, the 3rd and 4th delays are panned right. The 1st delay is swept by a sine LFO, the 2nd delay by a 90 degree phase-shifted LFO, the 3d delay is swept by a 180 degree phase-shifted LFO and the 4th delay by a 270 degree phase-shifted LFO.
5. ENSEMBLE
A chorus with 3 delay lines and two LFOs. This arrangement is based on the ensemble chorus circuits built into old divide-down string machines like the Solina. The 2 LFOs each generate 3 out-of-phase sine waves which sweep the 3 delay lines. Unlike a traditional ensemble chorus from a string machine, the output of ArcSyn's ensemble is stereo with the 3 delay line outputs spread from left to right.
6. MONO FLANGER
A flanging effect with a single delay line and a sine LFO. The left and right input signals are mixed down to mono. The delay time is displayed as the frequency of the resulting effect.
7. STEREO FLANGER
A flanging effect with 2 delay lines. The left delay is swept by a sine LFO, the right delay is swept by the inverse of the left channel’s LFO. The delay time is displayed as the frequency of the resulting effect.
8. FLAZER
An effect which is a combination of flanging and phasing, with 2 delay lines in series with 2 phasers. The left and right delays are both swept by a sine LFO. The delay time is displayed as the frequency of the resulting effect.
9. MONO DELAY
A delay effect with a single delay. The left and right input signals are mixed down to mono. The HP and LP controls affect the delay output and feedback. The delay time is quantised to musical bars.
10. BOUNCE DELAY
A delay effect with two delays in which the delay output ‘bounces’ from one side to the other. Left and right input signals are mixed down to mono, then sent to the left delay. The delay time is quantised to musical bars.
11. STEREO DELAY
A delay effect with two delays. The delay times are quantised to musical bars.
12. X-FDBK DELAY
A delay effect with two delays in which feedback from each delay output is sent to the opposite side’s input. The delay times are quantised to musical bars.
13. QUAD DELAY
A delay effect with 4 delays in which feedback from the fourth delay output is sent to the first delay’s input. The delay outputs are panned even across the stereo field from left to right. The delay time is quantised to musical bars.
14. MULTITAP DELAY
A delay effect with 32 delays in series plus a seperate pre-delay. Left and right input signals are mixed down to mono, then sent to the pre-delay, the pre-delay feeds the main delays. The delay, level and pan position of all 32 delays are set by using menus to select ‘curves’ which control how the parameters vary from the first to the last delay. Delay times are set in ms and are not quantised to the song tempo.
15. REVERB
An simple 8-delay reverb with modulation to produce a warm sound. This reverb is intended to be used to fill out sounds and not as a replacement for a stand-alone studio reverb!
16. PHASER 4-POLE
17. PHASER 8-POLE
18. PHASER 12-POLE
19. PHASER 16-POLE
A series of phasing effects with 4, 8, 12 or 16 phase-shifting elements. Two phase-shifters are needed to produce 1 notch in the output signal so they produce 2, 4, 6 or 8 notches. Each phaser operates in stereo and does not mix left and right input channels before processing. The left and right delays are swept in unison by a sine LFO.
20. BARBERPOLE
A unusual phasing effect which produces a sweep which moves in one direction only. The speed and direction of the sweep are controlled by the SHIFT control.
21. FRQ SHIFTER-1
A frequency-shifting effect with a triangle LFO. The left and right channels are swept in opposite directions. Setting the MIX control lower than 100% will produce a barberpole-phasing effect Like the BARBERPOLE effect) but with LFO modulation of the sweep rate and a higher range
22. FRQ SHIFTER-2
A frequency-shifting effect in the feedback loop of a stereo delay effect. This arrangement produces delay repeats which continuously shift up or down in pitch. The delay times are quantised to musical bars.
For more complex and sophisticated barber-pole phasing and frequency-shifting effects, try our Freek plug-in.
23. BITCRUSHER-1
A bitcrushing (or ‘aliasing’) effect with a triangle LFO. The left and right channels are swept in opposite directions.
24. BITCRUSHER-2
A bitcrushing affect which employs a set of unusual binary number-crunching processes and other low-level operations to manipulate the input signal. Warning, some of these processes can produce extremely harsh results—use with caution!
25. EQ
A simple bass and treble tone control.
26. PARAMETRIC EQ
A full parametric EQ.
27. LP FILTER
A static -12dB/octave lowpass filter.
28. HP FILTER
A static +12dB/octave highpass filter.
29. BP FILTER
A static +/-6dB/octave bandpass filter.
30. NOTCH FILTER
A static +/-6dB notch filter.
31. DISTORTION
A distortion or drive effect.
32. SLEW LIMITER
An unusual distortion effect which reduces the slew-rate, or the rate at which the input signal is allowed to change. At its lowest setting it will usually silence the signal completely.
33. AUTOPAN
Last (and least?) effect, an autopan with variable depth.