Full Bucket Music Deputy Mark II Manual v1.0

the deputy

Mark II

VST™ Polyphonic Ensemble

Version 1.0

© 2012 by Björn Arlt @ Full Bucket Music

http://www.fullbucket.de/music

VST is a trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

the deputy Mark II Manual Page 2

Table of Contents

Introduction................................3

Architecture.................................3

The Poly Section...........................4

Generator Banks............................4

Filter............................................4

Envelopes.....................................5

Amplifier.......................................5

Resonators....................................5

The Mono Section.........................5

VCO.............................................5

VCF..............................................5

VCA.............................................6

ENV and LFO.................................6

The Main Section..........................6

Keyboard......................................6

Ensemble......................................6

Phaser..........................................6

Output.........................................7

VST Controls................................7

Parameters..................................8

Main — Keyboard...........................8

Main — Ensemble..........................8

Main — Phaser..............................8

Main — Output..............................8

Mono — VCO.................................9

Mono — VCF.................................9

Mono — VCA.................................9

Mono — Env..................................9

Mono — LFO................................10

Poly — Generator 1 & 2.................10

Poly — Speed..............................10

Poly — Amp.................................10

Poly — Filter................................10

Poly — Global Env........................11

Poly — Voice Env..........................11

Poly — Resonators.......................11

VST Controls...............................11

Frequently Asked Questions.........12

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Introduction

The deputy Mark II is a VST™2.4 software instrument for Microsoft® Windows® in the
tradition of classic string machines and early “polyphonic” synthesizers, written in
native C++ code. The main features are:

● Polyphonic string/synthesizer (Poly) section and monophonic synthesizer

(Mono) section

● Built-in Ensemble and Phaser effects

● Flexible keyboard assignment for Poly and Mono section

● Poly section:
○ Up to 61 voices polyphony
○ Two band-limited frequency divider-driven oscillator banks
○ Sawtooth and PWM waveforms
○ 2-pole multi-mode filter and ADS envelope per voice
○ Global ADSR envelope for paraphonic modulation
○ Resonator bank (3 zero-delay feedback filters)

● Mono section:
○ Single VCO plus suboscillator and noise
○ 4-pole zero-delay feedback lowpass filter
○ ADSR envelope and LFO
○ Output of Poly section can be send to filter input

● Plug-in comes in 32 bit and 64 bit versions

● Fully compatible with SM Pro Audio's V-Machine™

The deputy emulates an instrument that might have been built this way in the 1970s.
Due to technical and economical reasons it would have been a compromise between
which features a musician expected, what he was willing to pay for it, and what fitted
in a single box. The Digital Revolution already lured around the corner and manifested
itself in frequency dividers and sophisticated keyboard controllers, but sound was still
shaped in the good old analog fashion (if you ignore some ingenious machines like the
PPG Wave Computer for the moment). As a conclusion, the deputy is (technically
speaking, and as to nowadays standards) a fairly limited instrument. However, I
strongly believe that technical limitation can be a source of great creativity. Prost!

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Architecture

The deputy consists of three major blocks: the polyphonic Poly synthesizer section,
the monophonic Mono synthesizer section, and the Main section hosting global effects,
the mixer, and keyboard-related controls. Apart from that the deputy Mark II VSTi has
an additional section containing controls for program management and “tweak”
parameters.

Each voice of the Poly section features two “generators” feeding a 2-pole multi-mode
filter. The generators are driven by independent master oscillators and deliver
sawtooth and/or pulse signals derived from frequency divider banks. Two simple LFOs
are used for frequency and pulse width modulation. The amplitude and/or the filter
cutoff can be controlled by an ADS envelope (per voice) or by an additional global
ADSR envelope (for all voices). A resonator bank consisting of three 4-pole multi­mode filters is available to process the signal of the Poly section.

The Mono section features a single VCO plus suboscillator and white noise, a 4-pole
lowpass VCF, an ADSR envelope, and a LFO offering four waveforms. The output of the
Poly section can be sent to the VCF input as well.

Finally, in the Main section the Poly and Mono parts can be assigned to one or both of
the two keyboard ranges while pitch and modulation wheels can be routed to several
modulation targets. Furthermore, an Ensemble and a Phaser effect are available as
well as an overall output mixer.

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The Poly Section

The Poly section is the heart of the deputy Mark II: A fully polyphonic synthesizer (up­to 61 voices) plus a three-stage resonator bank. Its architecture resembles that of
many well-known instruments like the Polymoog or the Korg PS series which also
used electronic organ and classic string machine technology.

Generator Banks

The Poly synthesizer section follows a common, yet (at that time) highly discussed
pattern of 1970s polyphonic keyboard designs: The tone signals are not generated
directly by individual oscillators but by using overall “Master” oscillators driving a
cascade of frequency dividers. While this design is rather cost-effective — in this case
only one Master oscillator and a “Top-Octave Synthesizer” followed by octave dividers
are needed to create a fully polyphonic generator bank — it also means that the
waveform signals of different octaves of the same key (i.e. C to B) are totally
correlated. Purists never stopped to point out that such an arrangement sounds “cold”
and “unnatural”, many even simply rejected it because this technology was used in
(and originally developed for) electronic organs. Some 40 years later purists will
assure you that this is absolutely necessary to reproduce the “warm” tone of, for
example, famous string machines like the Eminent Solina etc.

A nice feature of such generator banks is that one gets the upper and lower octaves of
a played key (almost) “for free” — think of choirs in (again) electronic organs. The
Poly section provides two different waveform outputs (sawtooth and pulse) and three
such octave signals (16', 8', and 4') which are individually selectable per waveform. To
mitigate the static character of the generated signal it is possible to modulate the
width of the pulse waveform by a dedicated LFO. However, the “real synthesizer
feeling” is introduced by a second, identical generator bank which can be (de)tuned
with respect to the first bank; this at least produces the famous “beating” when
signals undergo a periodical phase cancellation.

Finally, frequency modulation of the generator banks by a separate LFO (vibrato) is
available as well.

Filter

In contrary to other early polyphonic synthesizers (e.g. the Polymoog but also the
later Korg Poly 800), the Poly section offers a multi-mode filter (lowpass, highpass,
bandpass) per voice. Thus, each voice (in fact each of the 61 keys!) has its own filter
in place — an enormous amount of additional hardware! To reduce the costs, the filter
layout follows a simple 2-pole design which is not capable of self-oscillation (today an
absolute No-Go). The filters' cutoff frequency can be modulated by key tracking,
velocity (an uncommon feature in the 1970s), and the Voice or Global envelopes (see
below). Here, it should be mentioned that both positive and negative modulation is
possible.

Envelopes

There is a dedicated envelope per voice (the Voice envelope) which can be used to
modulate the amplifier and/or the filter. To save costs, this envelope has a reduced

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control set, namely Attack and Decay plus a switchable Sustain level (On or Off)
where Decay also controls the release time.

An additional Global envelope featuring the full ADSR control set is available as well.
However, there is only one such envelope for the whole Poly section resulting in a
paraphonic playing mode. Thus, the trigger mode can be changed from Single (a new
note only triggers the envelope when all previous notes have been released) to
Multiple (the envelope is triggered for each new note).

Amplifier

The amplifier section offers modulation by velocity (!) and a selectable envelope
(Voice, Global, and Gate, a simple rectangular-shaped envelope). Again, there is one
amplifier per voice, a luxury and only possible due to progress in large scale circuit
integration.

Resonators

The deputy is equipped with three independent 4-pole multi-mode filters (lowpass,
highpass, bandpass) working in parallel mode on the overall output of the Poly
section. Although it is not possible to modulate their cutoff frequency, these

Resonators become very handy when it comes to create fixed formants.

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The Mono Section

Many keyboards of the 70s were in fact “assemblies” of multiple instruments, e.g.
String, Brass, Synthesizer, and Organ sections combined in one box, sharing a
common keyboard controller; examples are the ARP Quadra, the Moog Opus, but also
the Siel Trilogy, to name a few. Along with the Poly section the deputy “just” features
an additional monophonic synthesizer, the Mono section. Following a very basic
VCO/VCF/VCA design, there is nothing spectacular about this little buddy except that
the output of the Poly section can be routed through the Mono's VCF as well.

VCO

The VCO offers three waveforms (sawtooth, pulse, sine) in four octaves (32', 16, 8',
4'). The pulse width can be modulated by the LFO, and it is also possible to tune the
VCO in a range of ±7 semitones.

VCF

This 4-pole lowpass filter is capable of self-oscillation and takes the outputs of the
VCO, the rectangular suboscillator (one octave below the VCO frequency), the white
noise generator, and the Poly section as input signals. Cutoff frequency will be
positively or negatively modulated by velocity, keyboard tracking, LFO, and the ADSR
envelope.

VCA

To modulate the amplitude of the Mono synthesizer, one can select the ADSR or a
simple gate envelope. Furthermore, it is possible to set the VCA into a permanent
“On” mode; this becomes handy when the Mono section is configured to process only
the output of the Poly section. Last but not least, the VCA can be modulated by
velocity.

ENV and LFO

The ADSR envelope of the Mono section is identical to the Global envelope of the Poly
section and is used as a modulation source for the VCF and the VCA.

The LFO features four waveforms (triangle, sawtooth, rectangle, sample/hold) which
can modulate the VCO frequency and pulse width and/or the VCF cutoff.

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The Main Section

This section provides common functionality for both the polyphonic and the
monophonic synthesizer sections: keyboard controls, effects, and mixer.

Keyboard

The keyboard of the deputy has 61 keys (C-1 to C-6), and each key makes up one
individual voice (one can decrease the number of total voices in the VSTi version to
reduce computational load). Thus, only MIDI keys C-1 to C-6 generate a sound when
played.

The keyboard is divided into two zones, the Lower and the Upper zone — the split
point between both regions was originally fixed to C-3 but is variable in the VSTi
version). The Poly and the Mono sections can be assigned to one or both of these
zones independently, allowing for split, layered, or combinations of both modes.

The amount of pitch wheel modulation (2, 3, 7 or 12 semitones) is selectable for both
sections as well; this also holds for the modulation wheel which controls the intensity
of vibrato and LFO respectively. Furthermore, the modulation wheel can be assigned
to manipulate the VCF cutoff frequency.

Ensemble

Many classic string machines like the Eminent Solina are famous (or infamous) for
their modulation effects (often called Chorus, Ensemble, or simply Modulation). While
these effects are very important for the typical sound characteristics, the original
rationale for integrating them into such an instrument was to beef up the rather static
output of the single generator bank. In contrary, the Polymoog (like the deputy)
features two individual generator banks with a detuning option resulting in a “fat”
sound. However (and unlike the Polymoog), the deputy does have a built-in Ensemble
effect that can be individually activated for both the Poly and the Mono section.

Phaser

The Phaser effect modulates the sum of both section outputs. Implemented by a
classic 4-pole allpass filter the Phaser features feedback control and a separate LFO
for modulation.

Output

Last but not least, the Output section sums up the individual Mono and Poly output
signals. There is also a very simple signal limiter (called Clip) which in the signal path
lies before the master volume control. However, for “loud” signals this circuit works
more like an overdrive effect.

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VST Controls

VST related controls live in a section at the very bottom of the deputy's user interface.
Besides the program selector and a switch for linear or circular knob control there are
also some “tweak” parameters: the number of Poly voices (12, 32, 61) to reduce
computational load, the split point between the keyboard zones, and the Ensemble
mode (mono or stereo). Furthermore, two LEDs report the status of the Mono and
Poly sections (on or off).

A quite handy tool is the parameter display: At start-up it displays the software
version while as soon as a parameter is edited the respective value is shown. By
clicking the display the user can select any of the deputy's parameters from a list
menu to determine the current value.

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Parameters

Main — Keyboard

parameter description

Lower/Mono activates Mono section for Lower keyboard zone

Lower/Poly activates Poly section for Lower keyboard zone

Upper/Mono activates Mono section for Upper keyboard zone

Upper/Poly activates Mono section for Upper keyboard zone

Bend/Mono pitch bend amount (± 2, 3, 7, 12 semitones) for Mono section

Bend/Poly pitch bend amount (± 2, 3, 7, 12 semitones) for Poly section

MW/Mono FM mod wheel amount for frequency modulation of Mono section

MW/Mono VCF mod wheel amount for cutoff frequency of VCF (Mono section)

MW/Poly FM mod wheel amount for frequency modulation of Poly section

Main — Ensemble

parameter description

Enable/Mono activates Ensemble effect on Mono section

Enable/Poly activates Ensemble effect on Poly section

Main — Phaser

parameter description

Enable activates the Phaser effect

Man manual setting (i.e. center frequency)

Feed feedback

Speed modulation speed

Mod modulation amount

Mix dry/wet balance

Main — Output

parameter description

Mono volume of the Mono section

Poly volume of the Poly section

Clip controls if the overall output is unlimited or clipped to unity

Master overall volume

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Mono — VCO

parameter description

Porta portamento time (0 to 5 seconds)

Octave octave (32', 16', 8', 4')

Trans transpose (0 to ±7 semitones)

Tune fine tuning (±1 semitone)

FM amount of frequency modulation by LFO

Wave waveform (sawtooth, pulse, sine)

PW pulse width

PWM amount of pulse width modulation by LFO

Mono — VCF

parameter description

VCO volume of VCO signal

Sub volume of suboscillator signal (rectangle, -1 octave)

Noise volume of white noise signal

Poly volume of Poly section output signal

Cut cutoff frequency

Res resonance (up to self-oscillation)

Env amount of cutoff frequency modulation by envelope

Key amount of cutoff frequency modulation by keyboard tracking

Velo amount of cutoff frequency modulation by velocity

LFO amount of cutoff frequency modulation by LFO

Mono — VCA

parameter description

Shape envelope selection (Env, Gate, On)

Velo amount of amplitude modulation by velocity

Mono — Env

parameter description

Trig envelope trigger selection (Single, Multiple)

Attack attack time

Decay decay time

Sustain sustain level

Release release time

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Mono — LFO

parameter description

Wave LFO waveform (triangle, sawtooth, rectangle, Sample & Hold)

Speed LFO speed (0 to 30 Hz)

Poly — Generator 1 & 2

parameter description

Vol volume of the generator bank

Tune fine tuning (±1 semitone)

FM amount of frequency modulation

PW pulse width

PWM amount of pulse width modulation

Saw 16' activates the 16' Sawtooth register

Saw 8' activates the 8' Sawtooth register

Saw 4' activates the 4' Sawtooth register

Pulse 16' activates the 16' Pulse register

Pulse 8' activates the 8' Pulse register

Pulse 4' activates the 4' Pulse register

Poly — Speed

parameter description

FM speed of frequency modulation (0 to 30 Hz)

PWM speed of pulse width modulation (0 to 30 Hz)

Poly — Amp

parameter description

Shape envelope selection (Voice, Global, Gate)

Velo amount of amplitude modulation by velocity

Poly — Filter

parameter description

Mode filter mode (bypass, lowpass, highpass, bandpass)

Cut cutoff frequency

Res resonance

Env amount of cutoff frequency modulation by envelope

Key amount of cutoff frequency modulation by keyboard tracking

Shape envelope selection (Voice, Global)

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Poly — Global Env

parameter description

Trig envelope trigger selection (Single, Multiple)

Attack attack time

Decay decay time

Sustain sustain level

Release release time

Poly — Voice Env

parameter description

Attack attack time

Decay decay/release time

Sustain sustain level (on or off)

Poly — Resonators

parameter description

Enable activates the resonators

Mode 1–3 filter mode (lowpass, highpass, bandpass)

Cut 1–3 cutoff frequency

Res 1–3 resonance

Vol 1–3 volume

VST Controls

parameter description

Program program selector (programs 1 – 64)

Voices number of Poly voices (12, 32, 61)

Split split point between Lower and Upper zone

Ensemble Ensemble mode (mono or stereo)

Knob knob mode (linear or circular)

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Frequently Asked Questions

How do I install the deputy Mark II (32 bit version)?

Just copy the file deputy.dll from the ZIP archive you have downloaded to your
system's or favorite DAW's VST plug-in folder. Your DAW should automatically register

the deputy VST plug-in the next time you start it.

How do I install the deputy Mark II (64 bit version)?

Just copy the file deputy64.dll from the ZIP archive you have downloaded to your
system's or favorite DAW's VST plug-in folder. Your DAW should automatically register

the deputy VST plug-in the next time you start it.

Note: You may have to remove any existing (32 bit) deputy.dll from your VST plug­in folder or else your DAW may screw the versions up...

How do I install the deputy Mark II on the V-Machine?

First of all: Make sure that you have installed the latest V-Machine firmware and VFX
software (available from www.smproaudio.com). The deputy is known to work with
version 2.0.20101204. :-)

Second: I will not take any responsibility if the following install procedure does not
work for you, corrupts or damages your V-Machine, or bores you! :-P

Third: I do have a V-Machine and tested the deputy Mark II against it. Have faith! ;-)

Now to the point: Export the contents of the ZIP archive to a temporary folder on your
PC/Mac, run the VFX software, and import the deputy.dll plug-in from this folder;
make sure to choose the “Don't use a Wizard file” option. The VFX software will tell
you that “there is no guarantee that it will run on a V-MACHINE without a wizard's
help”. That's OK, no magic here. ;-)

Finally, create a preset for your V-Machine using the deputy and you're done!

What is the VST plug-in ID of the deputy?

The ID is T D M 2 .

How can I decrease the deputy's CPU load?

Whenever it does not degrade the sound you need, try this:

• Reduce polyphony, i.e. the number of voices.

• Deactivate a section, an effect, or the resonators.

• If you don't need a waveform/octave to be generated by one or both generator

bank, switch off the respective buttons.

How can I prevent output clipping?

Decrease the sections' Volume levels. Alternatively, switch on the Clip parameter in
the Main section but that might lead to distortion effects. Hey, maybe that's exactly
what you need? ;-)

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There is no sound when I play a key below C-1 or above C-6?

This is by design: The deputy has 61 keys, each making up a complete voice of the
instrument. For keys beyond this range there is no voice left over.

Can I tweak the Ensemble effect parameters?

Yes, but not from the deputy's front panel. Like on the old Solina thy shall seek and
thy will be given.

Seriously, the deputy has never existed as a real “hardware”
instrument...!?

I never said it would! The deputy Mark II is an emulation of a fictive polyphonic
synthesizer from the 1970s of an alternative history. But the point is that an
instrument like this could have been built just this way — see the appendix.

So why did you create the deputy VSTi?

Because I love those weird machines with their strange concepts and technical
designs. They tell us where the sophisticated instruments of today originally come
from blablabla. And because it's fun!

What does “Prost!” mean?

You do not know this famous German word? It means something like “To your
health!”. Typically, German words tend to be indefinitely longer than their English
counterparts but in this case the Germans came to the point.