SPC Plugins

Wobbulator Audio Plugin User Manual

Installation

If you have any problems with installation, authorisation or any other aspect of Wobbulator, please contact us.

PC: extract the Wobbulator VST.zip file (Right click, ‘Extract All’), then run the installer. The default installation directory is C:\Program Files\Steinberg\Vstplugins but you can select whatever location you want.

Mac Audio Unit: double click the Wobbulator AU.dmg file to mount it, agree to the license then drag the Wobbulator icon to the Components folder icon. The default Audio Unit plugins folder is Macintosh HD/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components.

Mac VST: double click the Wobbulator VST.dmg file to mount it, agree to the license then drag the Wobbulator icon to the VST folder icon. The default VST plugins folder is Macintosh HD/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST.

Wobbulator Block Diagram

What does it do?

The Wobbulator is a stereo ring modulator. Ring modulation simply consists of multiplying two signals together (the name “ring modulator” comes from the earliest hardware devices, which used a ring of diodes to perform multiplication). The output of a ring modulator consists of the SUM and DIFFERENCE of the input frequencies, i.e. if the inputs are sinewaves at 100 Hz and 400 Hz (two octaves apart), the output consists of two new sinewaves at 500 Hz (sum) and 300 Hz (difference), which are no longer in a simple ratio. The sounds produced by a ring modulator tend to be “clangourous”, discordant and bell-like.

What do the controls do?

DEPTH:

Varies the overall depth of the effect. A setting of 0-50% will give AM (amplitude modulation) where the original sound is still audible. 50-100% will give increasing amounts of Ring Modulation. At 100% the input waveform is completely removed. The default setting is 100%.

ALIAS:

Reduces the sampling rate of the built-in oscillators. This effect is also known as “foldover” or “resampling”, and will produce a very rough, “digital” sound. At maximum, the sampling rate is divided by 64. The default setting is off.

FREQ:

Varies the frequency (pitch) of the built-in oscillators. The range is 8.176Hz (or cycles per second) to 12543.85Hz. The default setting is 261.626Hz, which is middle C.

DRIVE:

Adds a distortion effect to the built-in oscillators. This is a centre-off control which introduces a “squaring” effect as it is rotated clockwise from the centre (12 o’clock) position, and a “thinning” effect as it is rotated anticlockwise. The default setting is 0% (12 o’clock).

X-FM:

Short for “cross frequency modulation”, causes the output of each built-in oscillator to modulate the frequency (technically, like the DX7 and other “FM” synthesizers, it is the PHASE which is modulated) of the other oscillator. Depending on the relative frequencies of the oscillators, the settings of the other controls and the depth, the effect can vary from subtle extra complexity to complete disintegration of the sound. The default setting is 0%.

DUAL:

Selects a mode in which left and right oscillators are ring modulated against each other to produce a combined signal which is then ring modulated with the left and right input signals. This produces a more complex result but with less stereo width as both sides are using the same modulation signal. The default setting is off.

LFO Controls

WAVE:

Selects the waveform used by an LFO from within the this bank of 32. Waveform 32 is actually an envelope follower, which outputs the average level of the input signal. In this mode, the FREQ control determines the speed at which the envelope follower tracks the level of the input, and the LFO SYNC control has no effect. The default setting is SINE.

WAVE DISPLAY:

Clicking inside a wave display advances the LFO bank number by 1, i.e. from BANK 1 to 2, 2 to 3, or 3 to 1. The default setting is BANK 1.

RATE:

Varies the rate (frequency) of an LFO. Clicking an LFO RATE DISPLAY toggles the BPM (tempo) synchronisation on-off. With LFO SYNC off, the range is 0.01Hz (cycles per second) to 10Hz. With LFO SYNC on, the range is 1 cycle per 128 beats to 64 cycles per beat. There are 24 different rates available. The default setting is 4 beats.

AMNT: (Amount)

Varies the amount of modulation from an LFO. A setting of 100% will modulate an oscillator over it’s full range and the oscillators’ FREQ control will have no effect. When waveform bank 3 is selected, AMNT becomes a semitone transpose control for the oscillators. The default setting is 0%.

PHASE:

Varies the phase or start position of an LFO. When set to 50%, for example, the wave will start halfway through it’s cycle. 100% is the same as 0%. The default setting is 0%.

RND: (Red button)

Randomizes most control settings each time it is clicked. The randomization algorithm attempts to choose musically useful control settings so it favours, for example, LFO RATE settings of 4 beats, LFO-1 and LFO-2 controls set similarly, etc. The (LFO) SYNC and DEPTH controls are unaffected. • Keep clicking this button!

MIDI

The Wobbulator responds to MIDI note on information in a basic way with last note priority, setting the frequency of both internal oscillators to match incoming notes. Note off information is ignored—in other words, once a note has been received the oscillators will remain at that pitch until another note is received or the FREQ control is moved.

MIDI controllers (CC) 45 to 60 are mapped to the Wobbulator’s controls as follows:

45: LFO-1 WAVE 46: LFO-1 BANK 47: LFO-1 RATE 48: LFO-1 AMNT 49: LFO-1 PHASE 50: LFO-2 WAVE 51: LFO-2 BANK 52: LFO-2 RATE 53: LFO-2 AMNT 54: LFO-2 PHASE 55: FREQ 56: DEPTH 57: DRIVE 58: ALIAS 59: X-FM 60: DUAL MODE

Minimum System Requirements

Mac: an Intel Mac running OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or higher and a VST 2.4 compatible DAW / sequencer host application.

PC: Any PC capable of running Windows XP or newer and a VST 2.4 compatible DAW / sequencer host application should be sufficient.

Version History

Wobbulator v2.5

Wobbulator v2.4

Wobbulator v2.3

Wobbulator v2.2

Wobbulator v2.1

Wobbulator v2.0

Wobbulator v1.3

Wobbulator v1.2

Wobbulator v1.1

Wobbulator v1.0