Suppahelp!

(Ynzn's newest machines)

by Christiaan Janssen

Click'n'pop Generator

This machine generates random pulses. You can control the amplitude, period and length of these pulses. There is also a couple other controls.

> P a r a m e t e r s

On/Off switch | Maintained by historical purposes. Even when the song is stopped, if you turn this on the c'n'p will start working, and when you turn this off it will stop (easy, isn't it?). When you press the Buzz stop button it is turned off automatically. I should remove this parameter, but maybe somebody finds it useful.
Trigger | It forces the c'n'p internal timer to restart, and turns the machine automatically on. If you're writing drums or similar things with great delays (high values for the other parameters) it lets you sinchronize the c'n'p with the rest of the song.
Remove DC | At first sight it isn't very useful. It was supposed to cancel the zero-frequency component of the signal, to avoid problems with other effects based on integration. I discovered that it can be an amazing source of new sounds and new sensations.
Medium Value | For each of the three controllable parameters, this value is its "normal" value. If you turn variation to 1, all pulses will have this value. So turning all three variations to 1 you get a regular square signal.
Variation | The variable that defines each of the three controllable values of the pulse is a random uniform variable from MedVal-Variation to MedVal+Variation. I wanted it to be a normal Gaussian random variable, but it was too much work :). Maybe some day...

3Dizer

It's a stereo effect. You tell it your position and the position of the source of sound and it calculates the delays and attenuations of each ear. If you change the parameters in real time it simulates the Doppler effect, shifting the pitch of the sound up or down, depending on the direction and speed of the movement.

> P a r a m e t e r s

L/R Separation | The virtual separation of your ears. The higher this value is, the thougher the effect will be. More separation means more delay between ears and higher difference in the attenuations. There are no units, this distance determines the impression that will cause the other values to you.
| Angle | The position of the soundsource is defined in polar coordinates. This angle is given in degrees. 0 degrees means directly at your right. 90 degrees your front. 180 degrees your left. 270 degrees is behind you. 360 degrees is the same as 0 degrees. In fact there is no difference between in front and behind. | Distance | The distance of the sound source from you. The radius in polar coordinates. The higher the distance is, the higher the attenuation will be. Also, high distances mean high delays. Realistic, isn't it? | Gain | If you want a great great delay, the easiest way is to place the sound source far away. But then maybe you can't hear it due to de great attenuation. With this parameter (in dBs) you can amplify the sound before it begins the trip to your ears. It is sometimes fun to set a huge L/R separation, place the souce just over one of the ears, and set a great gain. You will hear a lot of saturation in this ear and the other one normal and delayed. :)

RemComp + RemGate

A compressor and a noise gate. If you don't know what a compressor or a gate is look Geonik's comp/gate documentation. This ones have the special feature that they analize the sound that comes from the auxbus and affect the one that goes through them (I'm not sure if this is clear enough).

> P a r a m e t e r s

Threshold | The effect works only if the auxbus signal is above or below this value (it's given in dB). If it works above or below depends on which of the two effects are you working with.
Ratio | If the effect is working, the input signal (not the one that comes through the auxbus) is attenuated. The attenuation ratio is given by this parameter.
Attack | To avoid clicking, the effect follows an A-R curve when working. To explain this I will use an example: Imagine you are testing the gate. If the signal that comes from the auxbus is under the threshold, the gate is "closed". This means that it's working: The input signal is attenuated. When the auxbus signal becomes loud, the gate starts "opening". The attenuation ratio decreases to 1:1, but instead of doing it automatically, it takes the time defined by this parameter.
Release | When the auxbus signal becomes quiet again, the gate begins to "close". But it needs the release time to completely close. This A-R curve is used both to avoid clicking and strange distortions.

No pictures this time

The 'mediana' filter

I think it's all explained in the web. Anyway, here it is the description of this effect: A non-linear filter (this means you can't calculate a frequency response, the response depends on the shape of the signal) which picks n samples, sorts them in order of amplitude, and returns the one in the middle. The effect over low-freq sinusoids is a little unheardable deformation in the peaks (the same as a compressor). The effect over short clicks is its complete erasing. The effect over sawteeth is a strange distortion. The effect over squares is a little delay (n/2). The effect over voice samples... well, look for yourself.

> P a r a m e t e r s

NumSamples | The number of samples it uses each time. The higher this number is, the heavier on CPU usage will this effect become. Try different values to see different effects.
On/off switch | It was in the Interpolator sourcecode, and I didn't remove it. Useless, it switches between thru mode (with calculations) and normal mode (calculations+output).

ChirpFilter

A filter whose cutoff freq and ressonance changes over time. Something that sounds like chuip-chuip. It also has an ADSR envelope. I love its sound, did I say so before?

> P a r a m e t e r s

trigger | The name says it all. Triggering the chirpfilter restarts the internal timer (to control the ADSR), the cutoff and the ressonance.
type | Lowpass, highpass or bandpass. The basic Butterworth filters that come with Buzz.
frequency | The starting cutoff frequency when the chirpfilter is triggered.
ressonance | The starting ressonance when the chirpfilter is triggered. In the bandpass mode it controls the Q of the filter.
frequency speed | The speed in which the cutoff changes. Values over 512 mean that the cutoff increases linearly over time (high values mean higher changes). Values under 512 mean that it decreases over time (low values mean higher changes). If it's 512 the cutoff stays unchanged (as a normal filter).
rez speed | The same as above, but instead of affecting the cutoff freq it affects the ressonance (or Q in the bandpass mode).
attack | These next four parameters let you define the ADSR curve that is followed each time the chirpfilter is triggered. They are given in milliseconds. Attack is the attack time, the time that it takes to reach to the maximum volume (0 dB), beginning in -infinite dB.
decay | The time it takes to reach to the sustain value, beggining in the moment it reachs 0 dB.
sustain | The sustain level. 128 means 100% (0 dB), 0 means 0% (-infinite dB). 64 means 50% (-6 dB).
release | The release time. It's the time it takes to reach the -infinite dB, counting from the sustain point.

Author | Christiaan Janssen "Ynzn"
Email | cjan5813@alu-etsetb.upc.es
Web | http://members.xoom.com/Ynzzn/Buzz/mainpeix.html