Global Parameters
Inertia: Controls the glide time for certain parameters. [List of inertia parameters to be compiled]
Freq Mode: Toggles between Linear and Logarithmic frequency sliders (P Freq and D Freq). Logarithmic allows greater resolution at lower frequencies at the expense of less at higher frequencies. Linear has more or less the opposite effect.
Min P Freq: Sets minimum P Freq value.
Min D Freq: Sets minimum D Freq value.
Oversample: Use oversampling to reduce signal aliasing. Default value is 2x, and can be increased up to 32x. Be fore-warned that this is the most computationally intensive part of Pulsar, and high settings will require a lot of CPU power, especially when used in combination with high overlap settings.
DC Removal: Removes any DC offset using a specialized highpass filter to insure maximum dynamic range.
Track Parameters
Synchronise: (pattern editor only) Resets the LFOs and phase counters, synchronising the machine.
Overlap: Specified the number of simultanteously overlapping pulsarets. Defaults to 1 (off), which allows only one pulsaret to be generated at a time. Increasing this value will allow multiple pulsarets to overlap. In technical terms: the Duty cycle frequency (D Freq) of an individual pulsaret will always complete, regardless if it extends past the pulsar emission frequency (P Freq) which determines the rate at which new pulsars are generated.
This setting can have a significant effect on CPU usage, especially in combination with oversampling. Furthermore, depending on the source material, high overlap values may cause clipping -- it is suggested that you reduce the volume setting before experimenting.
P Freq: Controls the pulsar emission frequency in hertz. This is the rate that new pulsars are generated. See pulsar diagram for detailed explaination.
P Period: Controls the pulsar emission frequency in ticks. This is the rate that new pulsars are generated. See pulsar diagram for detailed explaination.
P Note: (pattern editor only) Sets the note to use for P Freq. P Param must be set to Note for note data to have any effect.
P Param: Selects the parameter that controls the P Freq. Choices are:
- Freq: Uses P Freq parameter (hertz)
- Period: Uses P Period parameters (ticks)
- Note: Uses a Note value (as entered into pattern editor's P Note value)
- Slave: Slaves to previous track's value. No effect if set on track 0.
D Freq: Controls the Duty cycle frequency in hertz. This determines the length of the pulsaret, the audible part of the pulsar. See diagram for detailed explaination.
Volume: Volume of output.
Pan: Pan position of output.
Burst: [todo]
Rest: [todo]
Stoch Mask: Stochastic masking introduces a probability into the otherwise orderly generation of pulsarets. The value of the stochastic mask represents the chance of the current pulsaret being triggered.
Random Pan: The amount of randomness applied to panning position on a per pulsaret basis. Range is from 0% (no random panning) to 100% (full random panning) Note that this setting is relatitve to the absolute track pan position as set via the Pan parameter.
Envelope/Waveform Section
On/Off: (Generator only) Turns Pulsar's sound generation on or off.
Freeze: (Effect only) When this is On, PulsarFX will stop sampling its source waveform from the input, and keep using the most recently sampled wave.
Wave: (Generator only) Select the wavetable number that Pulsar will use as source material in sound genertion. Values 201 and above use internal waveforms, which consist of: Sine, Sawtooth, Pulse, Triangle, Noise, 303 Sawtooth, Vela_short, [todo]
Start: Specify the start position (in percent) of the waveform selected in the Wave parameter.
End: Specify the end position (in percent) of the waveform selected in the Wave parameter.
Envelope: Select the envelope to be applied to pulsarets. Default is a rectangular envelope. Other selections are Gausian, Linear Decay, Exponential Decay, Linear Attack, Exponential Attack, or a user supplied envelope in the wavetable. See the pulsaret envelope entry in the terminology section for images.
The Gaussian, Exponential Decay, Exponential Attack, and Wavetable envelopes can be altered using the Env Param setting.
Env Wave: Wavetable slot to use for user defined pulsaret envelope.
Env Param: Alters the parameters of the pulsaret envelopes. This has different effects depending on the selected envelope:
- Exp Attack / Exp Decay: Alters the steepness of the exponential curve.
Default Exponential Attack (note discontinuity at onset)
Default Exponential Attack (/w normalization)
Exponential Attack with env param of 0.15 (/w normalization)
Exponential Attack with env param of 0.7 (/w normalization)
- Gaussian: Alters the variance ("steepness" or "width") of the Gaussian function.
Default Gausian (note discontinuities)
Default Gausian (/w normalization)
Gaussian with env param of 0.1 (/w normalization)
Gaussian with env param of 0.7 (/w normalization)
- Wavetable: Acts as a DC offset parameter, allowing the center of the envelope to be shifted. A value of 1 centers the wave, while a value of 0 shifts the envelope to maximum depth. Will not have any effect if Env Norm is enabled.
Env Norm: Normalizes the pulsaret envelope to the range of 0 to 1. This suppresses discontinuities which sometimes occur at the ends of the Gaussian and Exponential envelopes.
LFO Section (Low Frequency Oscillator)
LFO1 Period: The period (speed), in ticks, of the LFO waveform.
LFO1 Shape: The waveform the LFO generates. All the usual settings: Sine, Square, Triangle, Ramp Up, Ramp Down, Lin Wander, Cos Wander (like linear wander, except with cosine segments, making it smoother), Random, and Wavetable.
LFO1 Wave: Selects the wavetable slot to use for the LFO waveform (provied Wavetable is selected in LFO Shape).
LFO1 Target: The parameter that LFO will modulate.
LFO1 Track: Selects which track number of Pulsar that the LFO will modulate. It can select from one track or all.
LFO1 Amount: Controls the depth of the LFO upon the targeted parameter. The amount is expressed as a percentage of the parameter's full range.
LFO2: The settings for LFO2 are nearly identical to LFO1, except that it can target the period and amount of LFO1.
