Strymon Volante User Manual

USER MANUAL

Volante - Magnetic Echo Machine

Table of Contents

FRONT PANEL

REAR PANEL

FOOTSWITCHES

SOUND ON SOUND

LIVE EDIT FUNCTIONS

EXPRESSION PEDAL

POWER UP MODES

MULTISWITCH PLUS

FACTORY RESET

MIDI IMPLEMENTATION

OUTPUT MODES

SIGNAL FLOW DIAGRAM

FEATURES AND SPECIFICATIONS

WARRANTY

pg 2

Volante - Magnetic Echo Machine

SPEED

half normal double

Front Panel - Tonality

REC LEVEL

Controls the analog preamp gain of the signal fed into the processor. When turned up, fat and saturated signals are sent to the record head. Turn down for cleaner delay signals.

Class A Analog JFET Input Buffer-Touch response and dynamic interaction with your guitar are optimized with a discrete class A JFET buffer.

MECHANICS

Controls the amount of mechanically related speed fluctuations and media irregularities, including: friction, creases, splices, and contaminants.

Set to minimum for a fresh, clean recording medium. Set to maximum for a recording medium that is in need of service.

Selects between three available magnetic media types.

drum

tape

studio

TYPE

drum: Steel wire spinning platter. Atmospheric echoes emphasize the low-mid frequencies and will saturate with hot signals or high feedback.

tape: Magnetic tape used in vintage echo machines. Warm tape response with moderately clean and airy signal path.

studio: Clean studio-grade tape used in reel-toreel units.

drum

tape

studio

REC LEVEL MECHANICS

LOW CUT SPRING

WEAR

LOW CUT

Controls the low frequency shaping of the echo repeats. Set to minimum for extended low frequency bandwidth. Set to maximum for extremely highpassed repeats.

SPEEDTYPE

half normal double

playback

feedback

REPEATS

triplet golden

even

SPACING

ECHO LEVELTIME

silver

WEAR

Controls the wear of the media and heads which affects the fidelity of the high frequencies. Set to minimum for a fresh, full bandwidth sound.

pg 3

Volante - Magnetic Echo Machine

Front Panel - Head Configuration

feedback

Enables or disables feedback of the corresponding playback head signal to the record head.

PANNING

Turn the TIME knob while pressing and holding the individual feedback buttons to adjust the panning for each playback head. Adjusting the knob to twelve o’clock returns the head to the center position (the

corresponding playback button will light up RED.)

NOTE: A head can be fed back to the input even if its playback is disengaged.

NOTE: When all heads are panned to center, a psychoacoustic stereo process is applied to the delay signal.

playback

Selects which of the individual playback heads are engaged (GREEN LED ON).

HEAD VOLUME

Press and hold for one second to toggle between half and full volume.

GREEN LED ON = full volume.

AMBER LED ON = half volume.

REPEATS

Controls the feedback amount for the heads that have their feedback enabled.

SPEEDTYPE

drum

tape

studio

REC LEVEL MECHANICS

LOW CUT SPRING

WEAR

playback

feedback

half normal double

REPEATS

triplet golden

even

SPACING

ECHO LEVELTIME

silver

SPACING

Adjusts the spacing between the heads. Turning the knob morphs the heads in between the marked settings.

SPACING CONFIGURATIONS

even: Sets the heads evenly to produce delays of sixteenth note, eighth note,

33 3

dotted eighth, and quarter note.

triplet: Sets heads to sixteenth note triplet, eighth note triplet, quarter note

playback

triplet and quarter note.

golden: Sets the distances between each of the heads according to the golden ratio, resulting in the fastest density buildup when multiple heads are repeating.

silver: Sets the distances between heads according to the silver ratio, resulting in repeats that “bunch up” closer to the head 4 quarter note.

pg 4

Volante - Magnetic Echo Machine

Front Panel - Time and Mix

TIME

Controls the delay time at head 4. Heads 1-3 subdivide proportionately according to the SPACING setting. Turn the knob to the left for shorter delays and to the right for longer delays. Delay time ranges vary by selected speed setting.

Delay Ranges at head 4

half 400ms - 4 sec

normal 200ms - 2sec

double 100ms - 1sec

drum

tape

studio

REC LEVEL MECHANICS

playback

NOTE: The delay time is determined by a combination of two factors: the distance between the record and playback heads and the speed of the media. The distance is determined by the TIME knob. The SPEED switch selects the speed of the media.

ECHO LEVEL

Sets the overall delay signal level sent to the output.

SPEEDTYPE

half normal double

REPEATS

triplet golden

ECHO LEVELTIME

LOW CUT SPRING

WEAR

SPEED

Selects the speed of the media.

NOTE: The shortest possible delay time is achieved by setting SPACING to triplet and selecting head 1.

feedback

even

silver

SPACING

SPRING

Controls the output mix of the integrated spring reverb tank. The dry signal input and ECHO LEVEL knob control the signals feeding into the spring reverb effect. The reverb effect is located just before the output. To bypass, turn the knob all the way to the left.

pg 5

Volante - Magnetic Echo Machine

9VDC

Rear Panel

INST/LINE Switch

Sets the input level to the effect processing. Setting to LINE adds 10dB of clean headroom.

• Use INST for guitars or instruments with lower output.

• Use LINE for synthesizers, or when placing Volante in the effects loop of an amplifier or mixer, or for guitar rigs with high output levels if more clean headroom is desired.

LEFT IN RIGHT IN LEFT OUT RIGHT OUT EXP

INST

LINE

MIDI IN

Full featured 5-pin DIN MIDI input. Provides support for receiving:

• MIDI Program Change (PC) messages to recall up to 300 presets.

• MIDI Continuous Controller (CC) messages to control the individual parameters of Volante including all knobs, switches, buttons, and Live Edit functions.

• MIDI Clock to sync the delay time with an external MIDI Clock source.

USB

MIDI IN

MIDI OUT

INPUTS

High impedance audio inputs. Use LEFT IN for mono input. Connect a jack to the RIGHT IN for stereo input.

OUTPUTS

Audio signal outputs. Use LEFT OUT for mono output.

(See page 19 for details.)

MIDI OUT

Can be set to send MIDI messages received at the MIDI IN port or send MIDI data generated by Volante.

(See page 14 for details.)

NOTE: Volante can respond to MIDI Clock along with MIDI PC and MIDI CC messages received at the MIDI IN or USB on the assigned MIDI Channel.

(See page 14 for details.)

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Volante - Magnetic Echo Machine

9VDC

ECHO LEVELTIME

9VDC

Rear Panel (cont.)

EXP

To configure the EXP jack, press and hold the TAP button while powering up Volante. Turn the ECHO LEVEL knob to

ECHO LEVEL

select the mode. The current mode will be displayed on the TAP LED.

TAP

splice

Expression Pedal Mode = GREEN: Allows

continuous control over any of the knobs in any direction with a standard TRS expression pedal.

(See page 12 for details.)

External TAP Mode = AMBER: Allows you to use an external MiniSwitch to control the TAP tempo.

Preset Mode = BLUE: Allows for the selection of up to three presets using a Strymon MultiSwitch Plus or 300 Presets by sending MIDI Program Change messages via ¼” TRS MIDI connection.

Speed Mode = PURPLE: Toggle between the three settings of the SPEED switch using a Strymon MultiSwitch Plus.

Transport Mode = RED: Provides access to additional transport controls using a Strymon MultiSwitch Plus.

(See page 15 for details.)

hold (SOS)

USB

Used for connecting to a computer to control via MIDI.

LEFT IN RIGHT IN LEFT OUT RIGHT OUT EXP

INST

LINE

USB

MIDI IN

MIDI OUT

POWER

Use an adapter with the following rating: 9VDC center negative. 300mA minimum.

pg 7

+ 16 hidden pages