Heckmann Audio Podolski User Guide
PODOLSKI
version 1.2.2
USER GUIDE!
u-he • Heckmann Audio GmbH • Berlin
Wednesday, 22. January 2020
Table of Contents
Introduction 3
About Podolski 3 ......................................................
Installation 3 .............................................................
GUI Elements 4 ........................................................
Control Bar 5 ............................................................
Synthesis 6
Global Settings 6 ......................................................
Oscillator 7 ...............................................................
Envelope 10 .............................................................
Amplifier 11 ...............................................................
LFO global / LFO voice 12 .......................................
Filter 13 ....................................................................
Delay 14 ...................................................................
Chorus / Flanger 15 .................................................
Arpeggiator 16
Switches in the global panel 16 ................................
Arpeggiator Control Sequence 17 ............................
Preset Browser 19
Directory Panel 20 ....................................................
Presets panel 22 ......................................................
Preset Tagging 23 ....................................................
Search Functions 24 ................................................
Configuration 26
About MIDI CC 26 ....................................................
Preferences 29 .........................................................
NKS 31
INTRODUCTION
Introduction
About Podolski
Podolski is a freeware virtual analogue synthesizer featuring a flexible, Zebra2-style
arpeggiator / step sequencer, plus delay and chorus effects.
Main Features
•
Oscillator – the Warp and Invert functions can be used to create many different waveforms, including (of course) the classic sawtooth, triangle and pulse / PWM
•
Envelope – only one envelope here, but Gate can be used for the amplifier instead
•
2 LFOs – one global (i.e. for all voices) and one per voice
•
Filter – classic owpass, Bandpass or Highpass with extra parameters Drive, Click (an
impulse at Note On) and AutoFM (bipolar frequency modulation from the oscillator)
•
Arpeggiator – combined arpeggiator, step sequencer and modulator, like in Zebra2
•
2 effects – stereo delay and chorus / flanger with feedback
•
resizable GUI – with 3 alternative skins. Version 1.2.1 introduces 10% GUI scaling
Installation
Go to the Podolski page, grab the installer for Mac or PC, double-click on the downloaded
file and follow further instructions. To update, simply install over the existing version.
File locations
The precise locations depend on your installation paths:
Win
Presets (local) C:\Users\*YOU*\Documents\u-he\Podolski.data\Presets\Podolski\!
Presets (user) C:\Users\*YOU*\Documents\u-he\Podolski.data\UserPresets\Podolski\!
Preferences C:\Users\*YOU*\Documents\u-he\Podolski.data\Support\ (*.txt files)
Mac
Presets (local) Macintosh HD/Library/Audio/Presets/u-he/u-he/Podolski/!
Presets (user) *YOU*/Library/Audio/Presets/u-he/Podolski/!
Preferences *YOU*/Library/Application Support/u-he/com.u-he.podolski... (*.* files)!
Resources Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/u-he/Podolski/
To uninstall, delete the plugin(s) and the associated files / directories."
intro oscillator envelope amplifier LFO filter effects arpeggiator presets configuration 3
INTRODUCTION
Team 2020
Urs Heckmann (boss, concepts)
William Rodewald (student life-support code)
Sebastian Greger (GUI design, 3D stuff)
Rob Clifton-Harvey (IT admin, backend development)
Viktor Weimer (support, presets, the voice)
Jan Storm (framework, more code)
Thomas Binek (QA, bug-hunting, presets)
Howard Scarr (user guides, presets, necessary grump)
Sascha Eversmeier (code, bad puns)
Frank Hoffmann (more framework, new browser)
Alexandre Bique (all things Linux)
Henna Gramentz (office supervision)
Jayney Klimek (office management)
Alf Klimek (tagging & repairs, studio)
Melina Garbisch (studio attendant)
Oddvar Manlig (everything else!)
GUI Elements
Knobs
Podolski’s knobs work like vertical faders (click and drag). You can also hover over any
control and roll your mouse wheel if there is one. Values appear in the data display,
which reverts to showing the name of the current preset after a few seconds.
For fine control, hold down a SHIFT key on your computer keyboard before moving a
knob. Values can be reset to the default by double-clicking on any knob. Alternatively,
try alt+click (Mac) or ctrl+click (Win).
Switches
For the sake of simplicity, the pop-up menus dotted around Podolski’s GUI are called
“switches” throughout this manual. Select from a menu via mouse-click, or scroll
through the options using a mouse wheel.
Appearance
The window can be resized from (70% to 200%) by right-clicking anywhere in the background. There is a choice of 2 skins: Cozy and Blue Steel.
The skin selection and GUI size can be made more permanent – see Configuration."
intro oscillator envelope amplifier LFO filter effects arpeggiator presets configuration 4
INTRODUCTION
Control Bar
The bar at the top is used for switching the view as well as calling a few utility functions:
SYNTHESIS | ARPEGGIATOR | PRESETS
The 3 large buttons select the panel view. Each has its own chapter in this user guide.
PODOLSKI
Either side of the central label you will see information about the plujgin format as well
as the revision number.
MIDI
An indicator for any MIDI activity e.g. playing a note.
UNDO / REDO
Click on the curved arrows to UNDO or REDO an action. You can even undo a change of
preset so that you don’t lose edits made to the previous one. If an UNDO or REDO step is
available, the arrow will be highlighted (white).
SAVE
Stores the loaded preset in either the User folder or the currently open folder, depending
on the status of the Save Presets To preference.
Right-clicking on the [SAVE] button lets you select the preset format you will be using.
Standard is .h2p, which has the great advantage of being cross-platform compatible.
The .h2p extended format is similar but also allows per-line comments (the preset files are
therefore a bit larger). If you loaded the VST2 version you will also see the option .nks in
the list. See the NKS chapter.
Selecting Tag this patch opens a window where you can specify one or more Categories,
Features and Characters for the currently loaded preset. See Preset Tagging.
U-HE Badge
Click on the badge to open a popup menu containing links to this guide, to our web- site,
to our support forum at KVR as well as our address in various social networks.
Configuration cogwheel
Clicking on the cogwheel symbol top-right opens the configuration pages where you can
set up remote control (via MIDI CC) as well as various global preferences. For details,
read the Configuration chapter."
intro oscillator envelope amplifier LFO filter effects arpeggiator presets configuration 5
SYNTHESIS
Synthesis
Global Settings
The main views, SYNTHESIS, ARPEGGIATOR and PRESETS are selected using the row
of buttons at the top left of Podolski’s window. The Synthesis and Arpeggiator views both
have a few panels in common, including the global settings:
Data Display
The bar in the middle normally shows the name of the selected preset. While you are
editing the preset, however, it shows the value of the parameter being adjusted. After a
few seconds of inactivity it reverts to displaying the preset name again.
Clicking on the data display lets you select a preset from the current folder. You can use
the arrows to the left and right of the display to step through presets – even stepping
“across the boundary” into neighbouring folders.
Initialize function: Whenever you want to start programming a sound from scratch,
simply right-click on the data display and select init.
Voice settings
There are six voice-related controls immediately above the data display...
Transpose
Adjusts the overall pitch in semitones within a +/- 2 octave range.
Glide
Controls portamento (glide) rate. Turn this up to slew between consecutive notes."
intro oscillator envelope amplifier LFO filter effects arpeggiator presets configuration 6
SYNTHESIS
Mode
Selects one of 4 basic voice modes:
poly polyphonic i.e. you can play chords and overlapping notes
mono monophonic: each new note triggers the envelope
legato monophonic: the envelope is not retriggered until after a space has been
left between consecutive notes – great for expressive solos
arpeggiator polyphonic: arpeggios are defined in the Arpeggiator panel
Voice s
Specifies the maximum number of notes available at the same time, usually to save
CPU but also quite useful for characterful “voice-stealing” effects:
few 4 voice polyphony (arpeggiator: 6)
medium 8 voice polyphony (arpeggiator: 12)
many 16 voice polyphony
PitchBend
These two small switches define the pitch bend ranges (down and up), from 0 to 24
semitones. Set down and up to different values (e.g. 12 and 3), then try the pitch bender
on your MIDI keyboard.
Arpeggiator settings
Below the Data Display are four arpeggiator controls. For a description of these switches as well as all the other arpeggiator parameters, read the Arpeggiator chapter.
Oscillator
Podolski’s oscillator is basically a sawtooth wave with adjustable symmetry (via Warp).
Podolski’s oscillator also includes an inverted wave that can be mixed in via the Inv/PWM
knob. As the two signals can be phase-shifted apart, variable width pulse waves and other
waveforms are available…
intro oscillator envelope amplifier LFO filter effects arpeggiator presets configuration 7
SYNTHESIS
Tune / TuneMod / Vibrato
Tune
The Tune knob adjusts the oscillators basic pitch by +/- 24 semitones.
TuneMod
The TuneMod knob sets the amount of Tune modulation from a source selected in the
neighbouring switch. Experiment with different modulation sources and amounts.
Vibrato
Sets the amount of Tune modulation from a fixed source, namely LFO voice (LFO1).
WaveWarp / WarpMod
WaveWarp
Controls the basic oscillator shape.
The minimum setting gives you a bright spike, the centre position (50%) is a classic
sawtooth which morphs into a triangle as you turn WaveWarp up to maximum.
WarpMod
The knob sets the amount of WaveWarp modulation from a source selected in the associated switch. Experiment with different modulation sources and amounts.
Phase / PhaseMod / Inv-PWM
Phase
The Phase knob shifts (in opposite directions) the phases of the two oscillator signals.
PhaseMod
The PhaseMod knob sets the amount of Phase modulation from a source selected in
the neighbouring switch. Experiment with different modulation sources and amounts!
Inv/PWM
Controls the relative mix between the ‘normal’ and ‘inverted’ waves. Facilitates PWM..."
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0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
SYNTHESIS
How to do PWM
Although the oscillator is sawtooth-based, it is also capable of generating variable-width
pulse waves. To achieve this, Podolski’s oscillator includes an inverted version of the
waveform and lets you shift the relative phases apart.
The centre-left waveform in this image is the same as the one above it, but inverted vertically and precisely 180° (i.e. half the total wavelength) out of phase. Adding these two
results in a square wave.
The phase of the centre-right waveform is much closer to the top wave. It is only shifted
by about 90°, resulting in a much narrower pulse.
This means that cyclic PWM (pulse width modulation) can be achieved by e.g. using an
LFO to modulate the phase difference…
1. Load init via right-click on the data display
2. Set oscillator Inv/PWM to the centre i.e. 0.00 (WaveWarp and Phase are at 50.00)
3. Select LFO1 as PhaseMod source and turn the amount up to about 20
4. Change the LFO VOICE Sync to 1s
5. Push the modulation wheel…
Of course you could try a different modulator for the Phase e.g. the envelope…
intro oscillator envelope amplifier LFO filter effects arpeggiator presets configuration 9
+ +
= =
SYNTHESIS
Envelope
Synthesizer envelopes are used to shape the volume and/or tone of each note...
Mode
Podolski lets you select one of four envelope modes – adsr exp, adsr ln, hdsr exp and
hdsr ln. Those abbreviations have the following meanings:
adsr classic envelope type with Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release stages, plus ............
an extra Fall-Rise stage that modifies the sustain (see below)
hdsr similar to adsr, but the Attack stage is replaced by a Hold stage: The level ............
starts at maximum and remains there for the time set by the Attack knob
exp short for ‘exponential’: the attack, decay and release stages are all curves .............
like in the image below
ln short for ‘linear’: the attack, decay and release are all straight lines .................
Stages (Attack, Decay...)
Attack
This knob controls either the time it takes for the envelope to rise from zero to maximum
level (in adsr mode) or the length of the Hold stage at maximum level (in hdsr mode)
Decay
The time it takes to fall from maximum down to the sustain level
Sustain
The level after Decay. Normally remains at this position until the note is released..."
intro oscillator envelope amplifier LFO filter effects arpeggiator presets configuration 10
note on note off
Attack Decay Sustain Release
Rise
Fall
Sustain
Level
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