Strymon Magneto User manual

USER MANUAL

Four Head dTape Echo & Looper

USER MANUAL

MAGNETO - Four Head dTape Echo & Looper ®

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION & FEATURES	3
MODES & TAP BUTTON	4-5
SPEED/PITCH & DELAY TIME	6
AUDIO I/O	7
PLAYBACK LEVEL & FEEDBACK ON/OFF	8
PLAYBACK HEAD MECHANICS	9
PLAYBACK HEAD SPACING IN ECHO MODE	10
EFFECT LEVEL	11
PRESET PANNING OPTIONS	12
CUSTOM PANNING	13
TRANSPORT CONTROLS	14
PITCH QUANTIZE	15
SELF-OSCILLATION	16
CONTROL VOLTAGE INPUTS	17
CONTROL VOLTAGE CLOCK OUTPUTS	18
DIP SWITCHES	19
BLOCK DIAGRAM	20
SPECIFICATIONS	21
WARRANTY	22

pg 2

MAGNETO - Four Head dTape Echo & Looper	®

Introduction

Create expansive soundscapes and evolving, otherworldly tones. Add layers upon layers of harmonic and rhythmic complexity within an enveloping stereo field. Infuse your rack with vintage warmth and retrofuturistic soul.

Packed with powerful features while maintaining intuitive playability, Magneto is a stereo multi-head tape delay that also functions as a looper, phrase sampler, vintage spring reverb unit, phase-aligned clock multiplier, chaotic oscillator, zero latency suboscillator and more, with extensive CV I/O.

Turn simple monophonic signals into complex orchestrations. Create new oscillator tones using self-oscillation. Add rich stereo dimension to your sound, and enjoy the inherent warmth and sweet, subtle distortion characteristics of magnetic tape. Magneto transforms even the smallest rack into a fully expressive, immersive instrument.

Features

•Tape-Voiced Delay machine with four playback heads, one record head

•Processor-intense dTape algorithm delivers meticulously nuanced recreations of vintage tape echo systems

•Three operational modes: Echo, Sound-on- Sound Looper, Phrase Sampler

•Varispeed algorithm with dynamic machine mechanics, 8:1 speed range

•Input record level (REC LVL) for clean reproduction to warm, fat saturation

•Maximum Delay/Loop Time: 15 seconds at max Speed, two minutes at min Speed

•Self-oscillating for tone generation

•Transport controls (buttons and CV inputs) for real-time performance options

•Independent Spring Reverb

•Individual Playback Head Level controls

•Individual Head feedback assignment independent of playback level

•Phase aligned clock out (CLK OUT) CVs synched with clock in (CLK IN) CV

•Clock In CV Range: 50ms – 15s

•TAP Button Range: 50ms – 15s

•TAP CV Range: 10ms – 15s

pg 3

MAGNETO - Four Head dTape Echo & Looper	®

MODES & TAP Button

MODE

TAP

The MODES button toggles between ECHO, LOOP and SAMPLE.

The TAP button changes the head spacing to achieve the desired delay time at the current machine speed.

ECHO mode: (GREEN LED) Four head tape delay, with four playback heads and one record head.

Tap a delay time with two successive presses.

+	= Delay Time at Head 4

NOTE: The delay TAP range is 50ms-15s, regardless of tape speed setting.

LOOP mode: (AMBER LED) Sound-on-Sound looper. Tape head 4 is the looper playback head while tape heads 1-3 provide delay repeats for the incoming signal.

The FEEDBACK ON/OFF button for Playback Head 4 must be ON to enable S.O.S. loop playback.

Press the TAP button once to Splice In. Press TAP a second time to Splice Out and begin loop playback. Pressing TAP a third time will clear the recorded loop.

The REPEATS knob controls regeneration strength. Set lower REPEATS level for loops that evolve over time.

Tap to splice in

Tap again to splice out and begin loop playback.

Tap a third time to clear loop

pg 4

MAGNETO - Four Head dTape Echo & Looper	®

MODES & TAP Button (cont.)

MODE

SAMPLE mode: (RED LED) Phrase sampler records an audio phrase between two taps of the TAP button. Transport RESTART ( ) triggers phrase playback.

Press the TAP button once to start sample recording, again to stop recording, and a third time to clear the sample memory.

Trigger sample playback with the RESTART transport button or RESTART CV input.

TIP: Connect CLK OUT 4 to RESTART CV for continuous re-triggering of the recorded sample.

NOTE: In LOOP and SAMPLE mode, the maximum time between SPLICE IN and SPLICE OUT (or SAMPLE START and SAMPLE END) is determined by the tape Speed.

30s

1 min

2 min

15s

TAP

Tap to start sample record

Tap again to stop recording

Press RESTART ( ) in the Transport to playback the sample once

Tap a third time to clear the sample memory

pg 5

MAGNETO - Four Head dTape Echo & Looper	®

SPEED/PITCH & Delay Time

Setting Delay Time with TAP & SPEED/PITCH

The delay time for any analog tape delay is determined by a combination of two factors – the distance between the heads and the speed of the tape. On Magneto, both of these can be adjusted independently.

Magneto’s TAP button adjusts the delay time by changing the distance between the heads and does not affect the pitch or fidelity of the delay signal.

The SPEED/PITCH knob adjusts the delay time by controlling the speed of the tape. Magneto features a true varispeed tape system with pitch artifacts as the SPEED/PITCH knob is adjusted faster (higher pitch, shorter delay time) or slower (lower pitch, longer delay time). Higher tape speeds result in higher fidelity delay repeats, while lower lower tape speeds yield lower fidelity delay. With slower tape speeds, the CRINKLE and WOW & FLUTTER controls affect the sound much more than at faster speeds.

	NORMAL
HALF
QUARTER	DOUBLE
(Lowest Fidelity)	(Highest Fidelity)

The total range of the SPEED/PITCH knob is a factor of 8, where 12 o’clock noon position is normal speed, max SPEED/PITCH knob setting is 2x speed, minimum SPEED/PITCH knob setting is 1/4 speed, and 1/2 speed is available at about 9 o’clock on the

SPEED/PITCH knob.

Delay RANGE: 200μs minimum, 120 seconds max.

NOTE: The maximum delay time is achieved by tapping in a 15 second delay with the SPEED/ PITCH knob at maximum (double SPEED). Reducing the speed to minimum will multiply this delay time by a factor of 8, resulting in a 2 minute (240 second) delay at HEAD 4.

NOTE: The minimum delay time is achieved by applying a 10ms clock to the TAP CV with the SPEED/PITCH knob at minimum (quarter SPEED). Turning the SPEED/PITCH to maximum will divide this delay time by a

factor of 8, resulting in a delay time of 1.25ms at HEAD 4. Selecting HEAD 1 in TRIPLET mode further divides this by a factor of 6, resulting in a delay of 200μs.

pg 6

MAGNETO - Four Head dTape Echo & Looper	®

Audio I/O

INS AND OUTS

FEEDBACK LOOP

LEFT/RIGHT IN: Left and Right audio inputs. Use LEFT IN for mono input.

LEFT/RIGHT OUT: Left and Right audio outputs. If only one output is connected, Delay output sums to mono.

SEND: Delay repeats generated by Magneto are sent out to be processed by other devices.

RETURN: Processed delay repeats are returned back to be mixed in with the dry input signal.

Delay repeats are summed to mono when SEND/ RETURN jacks are connected, dry signal retains stereo image.

MOD

IN

OUT

pg 7