Audio Automaton User Manual

Automaton User’s

Guide

Audio Damage, Inc.

Release 1.1

28 December 2011

The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on
the part of Audio Damage, Inc. The software described by this document is subject to a License Agreement
and may not be copied to other media except as specifically allowed in the License Agreement. No part of this
publication may be copied, reproduced or otherwise transmitted or recorded, for any purpose, without prior
written permission by Audio Damage, Inc.

© 2008, 2011 Audio Damage, Inc. All rights reserved.

Credits

Software Design and Construction, Documentation

Chris Randall
Adam Schabtach

Field Testing

Wade Alin
Dean Dunakin
Steve Hamann
Jeff Laity

Made Possible By

Elle
Tracie

Fuzzy Logic

Alex
Chica
Pablo
Widget

Audio Unit version implemented using Symbiosis from NuEdge Development.

Audio Damage would like to thank Mirek Wójtowicz, whose website at http://www.mirekw.com/ca/index.html
provided valuable information and inspiration during the development of Automaton.

License Agreement

BY INSTALLING THE SOFTWARE, YOU ARE CONSENTING TO BE BOUND BY THIS AGREEMENT. IF YOU DO NOT
AGREE TO ALL OF THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT, THEN RETURN THE PRODUCT TO THE PLACE OF
PURCHASE FOR A FULL REFUND.

Single User License Grant: Audio Damage, Inc. ("Audio Damage") and its suppliers grant to Customer
("Customer") a nonexclusive and nontransferable license to use the Audio Damage software ("Software") in
object code form solely on a single central processing unit owned or leased by Customer.

Customer may make one (1) archival copy of the Software provided Customer affixes to such copy all
copyright, confidentiality, and proprietary notices that appear on the original.

EXCEPT AS EXPRESSLY AUTHORIZED ABOVE, CUSTOMER SHALL NOT: COPY, IN WHOLE OR IN PART,
SOFTWARE OR DOCUMENTATION; MODIFY THE SOFTWARE; REVERSE COMPILE OR REVERSE ASSEMBLE ALL
OR ANY PORTION OF THE SOFTWARE; OR RENT, LEASE, DISTRIBUTE, SELL, OR CREATE DERIVATIVE WORKS
OF THE SOFTWARE.

Customer agrees that aspects of the licensed materials, including the specific design and structure of
individual programs, constitute trade secrets and/or copyrighted material of Audio Damage. Customer agrees
not to disclose, provide, or otherwise make available such trade secrets or copyrighted material in any form to
any third party without the prior written consent of Audio Damage. Customer agrees to implement reasonable
security measures to protect such trade secrets and copyrighted material. Title to Software and
documentation shall remain solely with Audio Damage.

LIMITED WARRANTY. Audio Damage warrants that for a period of ninety (90) days from the date of shipment
from Audio Damage: (i) the media on which the Software is furnished will be free of defects in materials and
workmanship under normal use; and (ii) the Software substantially conforms to its published specifications.
Except for the foregoing, the Software is provided AS IS. This limited warranty extends only to Customer as
the original licensee. Customer's exclusive remedy and the entire liability of Audio Damage and its suppliers
under this limited warranty will be, at Audio Damage or its service center's option, repair, replacement, or
refund of the Software if reported (or, upon request, returned) to the party supplying the Software to
Customer. In no event does Audio Damage warrant that the Software is error free or that Customer will be
able to operate the Software without problems or interruptions.

This warranty does not apply if the software (a) has been altered, except by Audio Damage, (b) has not been
installed, operated, repaired, or maintained in accordance with instructions supplied by Audio Damage, (c) has

been subjected to abnormal physical or electrical stress, misuse, negligence, or accident, or (d) is used in
ultrahazardous activities.

DISCLAIMER. EXCEPT AS SPECIFIED IN THIS WARRANTY, ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED CONDITIONS,
REPRESENTATIONS, AND WARRANTIES INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NONINFRINGEMENT OR ARISING FROM A
COURSE OF DEALING, USAGE, OR TRADE PRACTICE, ARE HEREBY EXCLUDED TO THE EXTENT ALLOWED BY
APPLICABLE LAW.

IN NO EVENT WILL AUDIO DAMAGE OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOST REVENUE, PROFIT, OR
DATA, OR FOR SPECIAL, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES HOWEVER
CAUSED AND REGARDLESS OF THE THEORY OF LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO
USE THE SOFTWARE EVEN IF AUDIO DAMAGE OR ITS SUPPLIERS HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY
OF SUCH DAMAGES. In no event shall Audio Damage's or its suppliers' liability to Customer, whether in
contract, tort (including negligence), or otherwise, exceed the price paid by Customer. The foregoing
limitations shall apply even if the above-stated warranty fails of its essential purpose. SOME STATES DO NOT
ALLOW LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES.

The above warranty DOES NOT apply to any beta software, any software made available for testing or
demonstration purposes, any temporary software modules or any software for which Audio Damage does not
receive a license fee. All such software products are provided AS IS without any warranty whatsoever.

This License is effective until terminated. Customer may terminate this License at any time by destroying all
copies of Software including any documentation. This License will terminate immediately without notice from
Audio Damage if Customer fails to comply with any provision of this License. Upon termination, Customer
must destroy all copies of Software.

Software, including technical data, is subject to U.S. export control laws, including the U.S. Export
Administration Act and its associated regulations, and may be subject to export or import regulations in other
countries. Customer agrees to comply strictly with all such regulations and acknowledges that it has the
responsibility to obtain licenses to export, re-export, or import Software.

This License shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Illinois, United
States of America, as if performed wholly within the state and without giving effect to the principles of conflict
of law. If any portion hereof is found to be void or unenforceable, the remaining provisions of this License
shall remain in full force and effect. This License constitutes the entire License between the parties with
respect to the use of the Software.

System Requirements

To use Automaton, you'll need a Steinberg VST-compatible host application which conforms to the VST 2.0
specifications, and a computer capable of running it. For the Audio Unit version of Automaton, you’ll need an
application capable of hosting Audio Unit plug-ins, and an Apple computer with an Intel CPU capable of
running it.

We support the use of Automaton under Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7; and Apple OS X version

10.5 or newer.

Installation

Double-click the Automaton Installer icon and follow the instructions. During the installation process the
installer will ask you to enter your registration code. Your registration code uniquely identifies your purchase,
and you will need it if you need to reinstall your plug-in (for example, after upgrading to a new computer).
Keep a copy of the code in a safe location and please don’t share it with your friends. We’re delighted if you
like our products so much that you want to share them, but please ask your friends to buy their own copy so
that we can keep making new products.

On OS X, the installer installs both the AudioUnit and VST versions of Phosphor by default. If you click the
Customize button you can choose to not install one of these formats. If you’re running a 64-bit version of
Windows, you can choose to install either a 32- or 64-bit version of Phosphor, or both. On OS X, both the
AudioUnit and VST versions are combination 32/64-bit plug-ins.

To un-install from OS X, simply delete the plug-in from your VST folder, which is usually located at

/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/, and your Audio Units folder, which is located at /Library/Audio/Plug­Ins/Components/. To un-install from Windows, delete the file named Automaton.dll from your VST folder(s).

Online Videos of Automaton

We’ve created several videos showing Automaton in action. You might find them to be a useful addition to this

manual while learning about Automaton. The videos can be found at http://vimeo.com/audiodamage

Introduction

The heart of the Automaton plug-in is a mathematical construction called a cellular automaton (pluralized
automata). The study of cellular automata is a wide field with applications in computer science, mathematics,

biology, and physics. We won't attempt to provide anything more than a very brief introduction here. If you're
interested in learning more about cellular automata, the Wikipedia entry is an excellent place to start:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellular_automata

A cellular automaton consists of a rectangular grid of cells which we'll call the world grid or simply the world.
Each cell can be in one of two states, usually described as "alive" and "dead". Cells change from one state to
the other when a set of rules is applied to all of the cells simultaneously. Typically (and in the case of
Automaton) the rules work by counting the number of live neighbors that a cell has, and setting the state of
the cell based upon some function of the number of its neighbors and its current state. Only the cells
immediately adjacent to a cell are considered neighbors, so each cell has eight neighbors. The same set of
rules is used for each cell.

When the world is updated with a new population of cells that has been calculated by applying the rules to
every cell, we say that a new generation has been created, and that the population of the world grid has
evolved. Automaton's generations occur in sync with your plug-in host's transport, e.g. a new generation
might be calculated every eighth note.

Although the rules for a cellular automaton are usually quite simple, the manner in which the world’s

population evolves over a number of generations can be surprisingly complex and unpredictable. Geometric
patterns form and dissolve, order turns to chaos and back to order, stable groups of cells remain unchanged
and other groups pulsate and move around while spawning new groups, and so on. Automaton harnesses this
mixture of chaos and predictability to provide an inspirational new signal processor—a tiny world of effects
processing evolving inside your DAW.

Operation

Automaton is a complex plug-in so we'll describe each of its features and controls in detail, but first we'll
provide a quick overview and introduce some terminology. Here is a screen shot of Automaton in action:

The rectangular grid at the top of Automaton's
window is the cellular automata world grid.
Each square represents one cell. If the square
is filled with white, the cell is alive. The
population of live cells changes each
generation when Automaton uses one of
several rule sets to calculate how the world
evolves.

The cells in the world do not directly affect the
audio flowing through Automaton. Automaton
has four signal processors, named Stutter,
Modulate, Bitcrush, and Replicate. These
processors operate independently and are
arranged in series. The row of colored buttons
below the world grid lets you choose which
processor's controls (knobs, sliders, and
switches) are displayed in the panel near the
bottom of the window.

The colored dots in the world grid are triggers.
The color of the triggers corresponds to the
colors of the processor selector switches. A
signal processor is turned on when there is a
live cell in the same square as one of its
triggers. We refer to a trigger that is in the
same square as a live cell as an active trigger.
If there are no active triggers for a processor
in the world, you won't hear that processor;
and if there are no triggers at all, Automaton
doesn't change the audio flowing through it.