u-he Repro User guide

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HECKMANN!

AUDIO GMBH"

REPRO-5

USER!

GUIDE

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REPRO-5 SYNTHESIZER! USER GUIDE

by u-he / Heckmann Audio

Revision 1.1.xx! S/N 1000 up! User Guide No. HA1000D! Date: 15. January 2020

About Repro-5

First we released Repro-1, a faithful component-level model of what was perhaps the most powerful-sounding monophonic keyboard ever built. Repro-1 proved to be a very successful product! It seemed that people liked Repro-1 so much, they wanted more… would we please consider making it polyphonic?

After umming and ahing about the idea, we decided to give it our best. A few cuts were inevitable (for instance in Repro-1 oscillator B can modulate its own pulse width, which we gladly dropped from Repro-5).

We soon realized what was happening to our new baby: It was looking more and more like its true father, a famous 5-voice polyphonic synthesizer from the same company born in 1978. We were aware that a polyphonic Repro-1 would never grow up to be a 100% clone of that synth, but with basically the same sound plus a few tweaks, 99% will do nicely thank you!

So here it is: All the lovable quirks of that classic polyphonic synthesizer, plus several additions including more voices (max. 8) and a row of very cute stomp-boxes. We hope that Repro-5 will quickly become your favourite “classic analogue polysynth”.

Product Names

The polyphonic version was dubbed Repro-5 for obvious reasons, but we were presented with another conundrum: Repro-5 had to reside within the file layout we had already set up for Repro-1, and we couldn’t rename everything Repro internally without breaking stuff for our existing Repro-1 customers. So Repro-5 uses resources within Repro-1 folders. Ignore!

So: The product bundle called Repro contains two plug-ins – a monosynth called Repro-1 and a polysynth called Repro-5. The installer for both is still called Repro-1. Alles klar?

- Urs and the team"

HECKMANN AUDIO GmbH, BERLIN 2

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1 INTRODUCTION 4

1-1 INSTALLATION 4 ..........................................................................

1-2 RESOURCES 4 .............................................................................

1-3 KNOBS AND SWITCHES 5 ...........................................................

1-4 THE CONTROL BAR 6 .................................................................

1-5 KEYBOARD and WHEELS 7 .........................................................

2 PRESET BROWSER 8

2-1 DIRECTORY PANEL 9 ...................................................................

2-2 PRESETS PANEL 11 .....................................................................

2-3 TAGGING 12 ................................................................................

2-4 SEARCH BY TAGS 13 ...................................................................

2-5 SEARCH BY TEXT 15 ...................................................................

2-6 SMART FOLDERS 17 ...................................................................

3 SYNTH 18

3-1 OSCILLATOR A 18 .......................................................................

3-2 OSCILLATOR B 19 .......................................................................

3-3 MIXER 20 .....................................................................................

3-4 UNISON, GLIDE & VOICE DETUNE 20 ........................................

3-5 FILTER 20 ....................................................................................

3-6 AMPLIFIER 22 ..............................................................................

3-7 VOICE MOD 23 ............................................................................

3-8 LFO 24 .........................................................................................

3-9 WHEEL MOD 24 ..........................................................................

3-10 MATRIX 25 .................................................................................

4 TWEAKS 27

4-1 JUMPERS 27 ................................................................................

4-2 SELECTORS 28 ............................................................................

4-3 VOICE PANNING 29 .....................................................................

5 EFFECTS 30

5-1 DISTORTION 30 ..........................................................................

5-2 FX CHAIN 31 ...............................................................................

5-3 VELVET tape saturation 32 ...........................................................

5-4 LYREBIRD delay 33 ......................................................................

5-5 RESQ resonator / equalizer 34 ....................................................

5-6 DRENCH reverb 35 ......................................................................

5-7 SONIC CONDITIONER 36 ............................................................

6 CONFIGURATION 37

6-1 ABOUT MIDI CC 37 .....................................................................

6-2 MIDI LEARN 37 ...........................................................................

6-3 MIDI TABLE 38 ............................................................................

6-4 PREFERENCES 39 ........................................................................

7 NKS 41

8 Troubleshooting 42

HECKMANN AUDIO GmbH, BERLIN 3

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1 INTRODUCTION

1-1 INSTALLATION

The following procedure installs both Repro-1 and Repro-5 on your hard disk

Go to the Repro web page and download the latest installer for Mac or PC. Unzip the file, open the Repro-1 folder, start the installer application and follow instructions.

The only demo restriction is a mild crackling at irregular intervals after about two minutes use. The crackles disappear after you have purchased a license and entered the serial number. For more information, please refer to the ReadMe file included with the installer. By default, Repro-5 uses the following directories on your hard disk:

Windows

Presets (Local) C:\Users\*YOU*\Documents\u-he\Repro-1.data\Presets\Repro-5\! Presets (User) C:\Users\*YOU*\Documents\u-he\Repro-1.data\UserPresets\Repro-5\! Preferences C:\Users\*YOU*\Documents\u-he\Repro-1.data\Support\ (*.txt files)! Alternative skins C:\Users\*YOU*\Documents\u-he\Repro-1.data\Support\Themes\

Notes: Paths containing non-standard characters are not supported. If a previous installation into the VstPlugins folder didn’t cause any file permissions problems, you can safely reinstall there.

macOS

Presets (Local) MacHD/Library/Audio/Presets/u-he/Repro-5/! Presets (User) MacHD/Users/*YOU*/Library/Audio/Presets/u-he/Repro-5/! Preferences MacHD/Users/*YOU*/Library/Application Support/u-he/com.u-he.Repro-5...! Alternative skins MacHD/Library/Application Support/u-he/Themes/ (skin folder)! Other Resources MacHD/Library/Application Support/u-he/Repro-1/

“Repro-1” in the above paths is not a copy/paste error. See Product Names on page 2.

To uninstall Repro, delete the plugin files and these folders.

Important: Realtime malware scanners (e.g. Windows Defender) allowed to scan u-he plugin resources will slow down the browser considerably, depending on the number of presets. Please add the Repro-1.data folder to the scanner's exceptions list (you can rest assured that we havn't put any executable files in there). Mac owners using a malware scanner should add the above /u-he/ resource directories to the exceptions list.

1-2 RESOURCES

u-he online

For downloads, news and support, go to the u-he website For heated debates about u-he products, go to the u-he forum For friendship and informal news updates, go to our facebook page For u-he presets (paid or free), go to u-he preset library PatchLib For video tutorials and more, go to our youtube channel For personal pics and a few videos, go to our instagram page For audio demos of soundsets, go to our soundcloud"

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u-he team 2020

Urs Heckmann (boss code, vision) Sascha Eversmeier (code, puns) Jan Storm (framework, more code) Sebastian Greger (GUI design, 3D stuff) Rob Clifton-Harvey (IT admin, backend) William Rodewald (student-life-support code) Howard Scarr (presets, manuals, necessary grump) Viktor Weimer (support, presets, the voice) Thomas Binek (QA / bug-hunting, presets) Alexandre Bique (all things Linux) Frank Hoffmann (more framework, new browser) Henna Gramentz (worldly supervision) Jayney Klimek (office management) Alf Klimek (tagging & repairs, studio) Melina Garbisch (studio attendant) Oddvar Manlig (everything else)

…with special thanks to John Bowen for some history-making presets

JUMP BETWEEN CHAPTERS USING THE HYPERLINKS AT THE BOTTOM OF EACH PAGE

1-3 KNOBS AND SWITCHES

The knobs respond to vertical click & drag as well as to mouse wheel movement (no clicks required!). You can fine tune most parameters, often at a resolution of 0.01, by holding down SHIFT before clicking on the knob. How switches react depends on a global preference called Switch Behaviour – see the Configuration chapter.

The name and value of the control currently being edited appears in the data display, which you will find in the middle of the control bar (see below).

Parameter Locking: To prevent a value from changing when you switch presets, use the Lock function – right-click on any control and select the last entry in the menu. Don’t forget to unlock afterwards, otherwise presets will sound “wrong”.

Entering values: The value of the most recently used control can be set by entering numbers on your computer keyboard. Switches take integer indices e.g. you can set Clock to 1/16 by entering ‘19’. Please note that hosts respond differently to keyboard strokes while a plug-in has the focus – you might have to set an option to allow this feature. If in doubt, please refer to the documentation of your host app."

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1-4 THE CONTROL BAR

u-he Badge: Clicking on u-he opens a popup menu containing links to this user guide, to our

homepage, to our support forum, and to various social networks.

SYNTH, TWEAKS, PRESETS: These buttons switch between Repro-5’s three basic views. To ensure that each new instance will open in the current view, right-click anywhere within the row of buttons and select set current as default.

MIDI activity: An indicator which flashes whenever MIDI data is being received.

Data Display: Normally shows the name of the preset. Clicking in the middle of the display

lets you select any preset from the current folder. While editing, the name and value of the parameter is displayed, and the preset name reappears after a few seconds.

UNDO / REDO buttons: Use these to fix any mistakes. Although the number of steps in the undo-buffer is limited, you can even undo a change of preset.

PRESET buttons: These step backwards and forwards through all Repro-5 presets.

SAVE button: Stores the preset into either the currently selected folder or the ‘User’ folder, de-

pending on the Save Presets To preference (see chapter 6). To select a different folder, click on PRESETS and navigate in the directory. Then click on [SAVE], give your preset a suitable name and enter any details you would like to appear in the PRESET INFO area of the browser. Note: Please avoid using these characters while naming folders/presets: (\ / ? % * : " > < =).

Right-clicking on [SAVE] opens a menu with a choice of file formats. The recommended h2p is our cross-platform format (editable text), while h2p extended includes extra readable information. The native option is the standard format of your system (.fxp for VST and AAX, .aupreset for Audio Units). An nksf option also appears in the VST2 version (see chapter 7).

MCORE (multicore) button: All played voices are distributed between multiple CPU threads so that more can be played simultaneously. This works well on recent processors (e.g. i5 and i7) but please note that performance can actually be reduced if your CPU is older. Some hosts offer their own multicore support, and this can also lead to poorer performance for Repro-5. In such cases, please switch one of them off. See Multicore Threads in the Preferences section.

HQ button: The global High Quality option should only be necessary for extreme FM sounds or extreme pitches. Circuit-level modeling requires plenty of CPU anyway, and there’s no point in doubling that requirement for little or no difference in the sound. Consider carefully!

VOICES: The maximum number of voices played before note-stealing occurs. Also the number of stacked voices when UNISON is switched on.

TUNE: Tunes the preset within a range of +/– 12 semitones. For fine tuning, hold down a SHIFT key on your computer keyboard while adjusting.

OUTPUT: A final volume control, after all amplifiers and effects. Normally set to 12 o’clock i.e. 100%, the volume can be boosted up to 200% if necessary.

Configuration button: A click on the button below the cogwheel icon opens the configuration pages, which contain MIDI control options and various global settings. See chapter 6."

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VIEW

SAVEREDOUNDOMIDI

MCORE

CPU

HQVOICES

TUNE OUTPUT

PRESETSTWEAKSSYNTH

0 200-12 +12

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1-5 KEYBOARD and WHEELS

The FX button at the bottom left toggles between the effects and the keyboard view:

Keyboard: Most of this panel is taken up by a 5-octave keyboard — the same range as the

original synth. You can click the keys to fire off notes. Double-clicking on a key will sustain the note until you click on another.

Immediately to the left of the keyboard are two ‘left-hand controls’…

PITCH BENDER (PB): Centre-sprung control of overall pitch. The ranges (down and up, from 0 to 48 semitones) can be set in the TWEAKS page. Repro-5’s pitch wheel mirrors incoming MIDI pitchbend data, but can also be moved with the mouse.

MODULATION WHEEL (MOD): Mirrors incoming MIDI CC#01 (modulation wheel) but can also be moved with the mouse. Not centre-sprung but positive-only, 0.00 to 100.00.

WHEEL MOD LIMITS: The small triangles between the two wheels are used to set upper and lower limits of wheel modulation (see WHEEL MOD). For instance, if you want a certain minimum amount of LFO/noise modulation when the wheel is all the way down, move the red triangle up a little. Similarly, to restrict the vibrato range i.e. limit the maximum amount, pull the white triangle down. To move both of them together, roll the mouse wheel.

Note: These limits do not affect the depth of wheel modulation defined in the MATRIX.

Vibrato via modulation wheel

•

In the WHEEL MOD panel, activate the FREQ buttons for both oscillators

•

Set the WHEEL MOD LIMITS to 0.00 and about 10.00

•

If you need a certain minimum vibrato when the wheel is at its lowest position,! bring the lower (red) triangle up very slightly."

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PB MOD

KEYSEFFECTS

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2 PRESET BROWSER

In the control bar, click on the PRESETS tab. You should see something like this:

Folders appear on the left (drag the scrollbar to see more), presets appear in the centre and information about the currently active preset appears on the right. If you can’t see any presets, click on Local then on 01 Basses (for instance). If you don’t see a PRESET INFO panel, click on the [≣] button in the top right corner and activate Show Preset Info.

Note: The Local root directory contains a representative selection of presets.

To load a preset, click on its name. Immediately after selecting a preset you can step through all the others using your computer’s cursor keys.

That’s actually all you need to know for now! Repro-5’s browser has many more features for users who want to dig deeper: The file functions include drag&drop, a powerful search engine etc.. For details, read the rest of this chapter.

Default, initialize

Whenever Repro-5 is started it checks whether the ‘Local’ root contains a preset called default. If this file exists, it is loaded instead of the demo sound.

If you want a simple template preset to be loaded every time, do this: Either load --INIT-- from Local, or click on the data display and select init (initialize) from the bottom of the list. Make sure that the Local folder is selected and [SAVE] this preset under the name default.

Note that default will not appear in the browser. If a fresh instance of Repro-5 is not loading your new default, it probably landed in ‘User’ instead, in which case you should change the Save Presets To setting (in Configuration/Preferences) and repeat the above."

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Local

DIRECTORY TAGS

RESTORE

xxx xxx

Aubergine Bamboo Synth Bellina Breaking Stride Celestial Bells Chime Time Classic Strings Cor Anglais Solo CS-Something Deep Sky Drill Alarm 2 - m7 E-Piano Repro-5 Eastrogen Foldback Roar Wide Harpsi-in-the-box Lauch Pad 39a Like Faith Liquid Horn

Mannequin Marcato Cello Multitoms Nervous Pulse One Hundred Fog Horns Peace Flutes Polysync Pure Wool Rubber Brass SampleHold Pad Soft Tines Spooks Suspense Chord That Filter Effect Throbbing Mayhem Vega Vintage Pop Piano bright Vocal Pad Vox Keys 1 Zephyrs

PRESET INFO

4 Osc Monster Lead

DESCRIPTION

USAGE

2-1 DIRECTORY PANEL

If you don’t see this panel in Repro-5’s PRESETS browser, click on DIRECTORY.

The ‘Local’ folder

Repro-5’s factory presets are sorted into folders 01 to 10. We recommend that you do not add or remove any presets there, but save all your creations to ‘User’ (see below).

Named after the year Repro-5’s hardware ancestor first appeared, the 1978 Historic folder contains the original 40 presets, meticulously recreated using several different sources.

‘Local’ also contains a special folder called ‘MIDI Programs’ which is normally empty. When the first instance of Repro-5 starts, up to 128 presets from that folder are loaded into memory so they can be selected via MIDI Program Change message. It is a good idea to call those presets e.g. ‘000 rest-of-name’ to ‘127 rest-of-name’, as they are accessed in alphabetical order.

But that’s not all: the ‘MIDI Programs’ folder can contain up to 127 sub-folders, switched via MIDI Bank Select messages (CC#0). Send Bank Select first, then Program Change. ‘MIDI Programs’ is bank 0, sub-folders are addressed in alphabetical order starting with bank 1.

When Repro-5 receives a program change, it will display the bank and program numbers to the left of the preset name e.g. “0:0” for the first preset in the first bank. In certain hosts e.g. Ableton Live, however, the first bank / preset is designated “1” instead of the correct “0”.

To avoid another possible source of confusion, make sure that there are no junked presets in the MIDI Programs folder. All files there are indexed, whether they are visible or not.

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Local

2-2 PRESETS PANEL

The central, unlabelled area of the browser is where you click to load presets…

Presets context menu

Right-click to open a menu containing functions you can apply to individual presets.

mark as favourite: Choose one of eight differently coloured dots. To remove the dot again, right-click on the preset(s) and select unmark as favourite.

mark as junk: Instead of deleting any unloved presets, you can mark them as ‘junk’ so that they (normally) disappear from the browser. See show junk below.

show junk: Activate this option to display junked files (marked with a STOP symbol), which would otherwise disappear.

select all, deselect: See Multiple Selection below.

rename…: Change preset names with this function. Note that only

the most recently selected preset can be renamed – you can’t rename multiple files at once.

duplicate / copy to User Folder: This entry depends on the status of the preference Save Presets To as well as on the location of the source preset(s) – whether they are in the Local or User folder.

Selected presets are copied with a number appended to the name, which increments (just like the ‘Auto Versioning’ option) so that presets cannot be overwritten by mistake.

reveal in Finder / open in Explorer: Opens a system window for the selected preset. If you change anything there, remember to refresh the directory (see the the previous page).

convert to native / h2p / h2p extended: Converts the selected preset(s) into the format previously specified via right-click on the [SAVE] button.

move to Trash / Recycle Bin: Moves the selected preset(s) to the system trash.

The [RESTORE] button

You can try as many presets as you like in any folders without losing the one that was previously loaded: Clicking [RESTORE] will get you back to where you started.

Scan / Ready

In the top right of the presets panel is a dark rectangle normally labelled ‘ready’. Whenever you use the refresh function (see the Directory context menu on the previous page), this turns into a progress indicator showing the preset database being refreshed.

Multiple selection, drag & drop

A block of presets can be selected via shift+click, and individual presets can be added to an existing selection via cmd-click (Mac) / ctrl+click (Win). Presets can be moved to a different folder via drag & drop. Use SHIFT etc. on your computer keyboard to highlight the files you want to move, click and drag them from the files area and drop them onto a target folder. To deselect, either click on an unselected preset or choose deselect from the context menu."

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mark as favourite

select all

deselect

show junk

rename… duplicate * reveal in Finder * convert to h2p

move to Trash

mark as junk

unmark as favourite ……….

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2-3 TAGGING

“Tags” are elements of metadata (information) you can add to presets so that they can be found according to certain attributes. See the image below.

IMPORTANT: Clicking on [SAVE] isn’t required, as tags are updated automatically. This makes editing tags much easier overall, but also means that you should only add tags after saving your preset. Why? Because if you change the tags while creating a new version of something, you would also be changing the tags in the original preset.

To set tags, you have a choice of three different methods:

Standard method: Using the tagging window

Right-click on the [SAVE] button and select Tag this patch:

CATEGORIES describe a preset by analogy to instrument types or classic synth genres. Each one has its own set of subcategories. FEATURES are technical classifications, and CHARACTER tags are pairs of opposites from which you can choose only one.

Alternative 1: Using the PRESET INFO

In the PRESET INFO panel, right-click on CATEGORIES, FEATURES or CHARACTER and select or unselect tags from the menu. Note: This method only works for individual presets. If you right-click on an existing tag, the first option in the menu becomes remove tag ‘xx’.

The function create Search from Tags searches for presets with ALL the same tags.

Alternative 2: Using the Tags subfolders

You can drag & drop presets onto Tags smart folders e.g. Tags/Categories/Keys/Bells/. To re- move all tags, drag presets onto Tags/Untagged/."

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Bass

Leads

Keys

Drums

Stabs

Seq & Arp

Other

Pads

Acoustic

Atonal

Breathy

Distorted

Drones

PWM

Lo-Fi

Rhythmic

Strings

Evolving

2-4 SEARCH BY TAGS

Click on the large TAGS tab to open this view. The buttons in this panel let you set up search criteria according to tags with just a few mouseclicks:

There are four sets of buttons. The first three correspond to the tags in the tagging window (see the previous page), and the bottom row lets you search any ‘Favourites’. Click the [^] button on the right to collapse any of these tag types.

CATEGORIES and SUBCATEGORIES

Here are just a few bullet points to get you started. For this type of tag in particular, following a step-by-step tutorial is much easier than studying a full technical description. Try these:

•

Each of the CATEGORIES has its own set of subcategories. Not selecting any subcategory here means “show me presets tagged with any subcategory”. Click on [Leads]…

•

You can select multiple categories without specifying any subcategory if you hold Cmd (Mac) or Ctrl (Windows) while clicking on the category. Try that, click on [Keys].

•

Selecting the subcategory with the same name as the category means “show me presets tagged without a subcategory”. You will not find any of these in the factory presets.

•

Completed category+subcategory tags appear below the subcategories as buttons with ‘off’ switches [X] so you can add other main categories by simply clicking on them."

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FEATURES

CHARACTER

Bright Dynamic Constant

Acoustic

Natural

ChordPoly

Mono

HostSync Dry Effects

Unison

Glide

Slow Release PercussiveSoft Attack

Modulated

Sustained

CrossMod Osc Sync

Soft Harmonic Phat

Clean Wide

Modern

Dark Static

Evolving

Aggressive Inharmonic Thin

Electric

Vintage

Narrow

Distorted

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

FAVOURITES

Synthetic

Bowed Brass

Leads

Chords Distorted Guitar

Plucked

Winds

Local

2-5 SEARCH BY TEXT

The editable field immediately below the DIRECTORY and TAGS tabs lets you search for presets according to a string of characters i.e. text. The search normally looks into the preset name, the author, the DESCRIPTION and USAGE (see the PRESET INFO panel). It is not casesensitive. Quotes are not required unless you need to include spaces.

If you want to restrict the search to a particular path e.g. Local/02 Leads, double click on the 02 Leads folder. This path will appear below the Search field instead of the preset folders, and you will only see smart folders:

The [^] button to the left moves the search path up one level, in this case to /Local. The [ X ] button to the right sets the search path to the default Local and User (i.e. all Repro-5 presets), and the preset folders become visible again. Alternatively, you can navigate directly to any higher level by right-clicking on the path.

Try a text search: Enter three or four letters then hit Return. For instance, star will find all files containing the text string star (e.g. mustard or starters). Entering "star wars" (with the quotes) would find e.g. Battlestar Warship, if such a string existed in the presets."

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2-6 SMART FOLDERS

Smart folders do not contain files, they display the results of querying a database of all presets. The content is therefore dynamic i.e. it will change whenever the underlying data changes.

Search History

Click on this folder to display the results of past searches (maximum 10). Whenever you need to make the results of a search more permanent, right-click and select save Search… The entry will be moved to the ‘Saved Searches’ folder – see below.

To remove all searches from the list, right-click on the ‘Search History’ folder and select clear. Note: Individual entries cannot be removed here, unlike ‘Saved Searches’…

Saved Searches

This folder contains searches that have been saved via right click from ‘Search History’. Entries dragged from ‘Saved Searches’ and dropped onto real folders within ‘Local’ or ‘User’ will create a folder containing copies of all found presets. To remove individual saved searches, right-click on the search and select delete.

Favourites

8 smart folders, one for each Favourite colour. See Presets context menu. Presets dropped onto one of the Favourites folders will be marked as such.

Junk

A smart folder pointing to all junked presets. See Presets context menu. Presets dropped onto this folder will be junked, and will therefore disappear from the rest of the browser unless made visible (see show junk in the Presets context menu).

Tag s

Smart folders for each Category/Subcategory, Features and Character tag. Presets dropped onto these folders will adopt the corresponding tag. Presets dropped onto the Untagged folder will have all Category/Subcategory, Features and Character tags removed.

Author

Smart folders for each Author. Tip: Instead of signing each of your creations, you could sign just one of them, then select them all and drag them onto Author/(You)/. As the process can- not be undone, you should use this feature with caution."

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3 SYNTH

This section explains the various modules available in the SYNTH panel, starting with the oscillators. Click on the SYNTH button at the top left to see this panel:

The layout is fairly simple, with modulation parameters on the left, oscillators in the centre and filter / amplifier settings on the right. Let’s start with the oscillators…

3-1 OSCILLATOR A

FREQUENCY knob: Adjusts pitch within a two-octave range (+/– 12 semitones).

FINE TUNING trimmer (between FREQUENCY and OCTAVE): Adjusts pitch within a range of

+/– 20 cents. Its main purpose is to adjust the rate of beating between the two oscillators when they are tuned almost in unison.

OCTAVE rotary switch: Transposes oscillator pitch over a four-octave range.

SAWTOOTH SHAPE button: Activates the standard brassy waveform containing all harmonics

(odd as well as even)."

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UNISONKYBDLQFREQSHAPE

0 100

12 +12

0 100

0 100SYNCSHAPE500 100

12 +12

0 3

OSCB

FREQA PW A FIL

TER

FREQA FREQB PWBPWA FILTER

DESTINATION

DESTINATION SOURCE/DESTINATION SOURCE /DESTINATION

SHAPE

RATE

SOURCEAMOUNT

SOURCEMIX

FREQUENCY

OCTAVE

PULSEWIDTH

PULSEWIDTH OSCA OSCB NOISE CUTOFF

RESONANCE ENVELOPE

AMOUNT

KEYBOARD

AMOUNT

GLIDE ATTACK DECAY SUSTAIN RELEASE

VOICEDETUNE ATTACK DECAY SUSTAIN RELEASEDEPTH DEPTH

HOSTSYNC500 100

FILTENV

LFO NOISE

0 100

-1

00 100

-1

00 100

MATRIX AMPLIFIER

OSCILLATORB

1 2

OSCILLATORB MIXER FILTER

WHEEL MOD

LFO

VOICEMOD

SYNC

-12

+12

1 2

OCTAVEFREQUENCY

OSCILLATOR A

SHAPE

100

PULSE WIDTH

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PULSE SHAPE button: Enables a waveform with a harmonic content that depends on the PULSE WIDTH setting, but sounds generally more hollow than the sawtooth.

Note: If neither SHAPE is switched on, OSCILLATOR A is silent.

PULSE WIDTH knob: Adjusts the harmonic content of the pulse wave by setting its “duty cycle”. The range is from 0% to 100%. Double-click on the knob for a 50% pulse (a clean square wave containing odd-integer harmonics only).

Note 1: At extreme values, the signal gets so thin that it becomes silent (DC, direct current).

Note 2: The PULSE WIDTH knob has no effect on the shape of the sawtooth wave.

SYNC button: Hard synchronization forces the waveform of OSC A to reset whenever OSC B hits zero. The frequency of OSC A generally needs to be higher than OSC B for this to work properly. Experiment: Intermediate FREQUENCY values can produce unusual timbres at the next lower harmonic of OSC B.

3-2 OSCILLATOR B

The same as oscillator A, minus the SYNC button but with the following extras:

TRIANGLE SHAPE button: The triangular waveform is bipolar, so it doesn’t add any DC to the modulation when used as an LFO. As an audio signal, the triangle has very little “bite”, but can be used to boost the fundamental frequency.

LO FREQ button: Extends the range of oscillator B down to the sub-audio frequencies suitable for use as an LFO.

KYBD button: Switching this off disables keyboard follow, resulting in a constant pitch which is independent of the played note."

INTRO PRESETS SYNTH TWEAKS EFFECTS CONFIG NKS 19

OSCILLATOR B

-12

+12

1 2

OCTAVEFREQUENCY

SHAPE

100

PULSE WIDTH

LO FREQ KYBD

Page 20

3-3 MIXER

OSC A and OSC B knobs: The output levels of each oscillator.

NOISE / FEEDBACK knob: When labelled NOISE, this knob sets the output level of the noise

generator (an unpitched audio source useful for wind and percussion effects etc.). A jumper in the TWEAKS page replaces this function (and the label) with FEEDBACK. The knob then controls the amount of signal fed from behind the amplifier back into the MIXER – useful for boosting bass frequencies, for instance.

3-4 UNISON, GLIDE & VOICE DETUNE

To the right of oscillator B is an open area of the panel containing the following three controls:

UNISON button: When this is activated, Repro-5 will assign all available voices to single notes. The number of VOICES is set in the control bar. Stacking all 8 voices with some extra detuning, UNISON can deliver a truly massive lead sound.

GLIDE knob: This is only effective while UNISON is switched on. Glide (also known as Portamento) slurs the transitions between consecutive notes. At zero, the pitch jumps instantaneous, while values above 50 cause it to glide very slowly.

VOICE DETUNE knob: Effective at all times, independent of UNISON status. Per-voice subtle to serious detuning, as well as various other offsets.

Tip: To ensure that repeating the same note doesn’t apply exactly the very same detuning every time, go into the TWEAKS view and set the REALLOCATE jumper to OFF.

3-5 FILTER

CUTOFF knob: Adjusts the cutoff frequency for the 24 db/octave lowpass filter, which works a

bit like a tone control. Lowpass “cutoff” is the frequency below which all components of the signal are allowed to pass, while most of the higher frequency components are suppressed.

INTRO PRESETS SYNTH TWEAKS EFFECTS CONFIG NKS 20

MIXER

100

OSC A

100

OSC B

100

NOISE

100

GLIDE

100

VOICE DETUNE

UNISON

Page 21

RESONANCE knob: Determines the amount of feedback within the filter circuit. The higher the resonance, the more the cutoff frequency will be accentuated. Above 60.00 the filter starts to self-oscillate – it becomes a sine-wave oscillator with pitch determined by Cutoff. Note that adding resonance tends to lower the volume, like in the original hardware.

ENVELOPE AMOUNT knob: The amount of cutoff modulation from the filter envelope.

KEYBOARD AMOUNT knob: The amount of cutoff modulation from the keyboard – the high-

er the note, the higher the cutoff. Set to 75.00, cutoff follows notes precisely so that it can be played “in tune” when the resonance is high.

The filter envelope is triggered whenever a note is played, and applies a contour to the cutoff. As long as a key is held down, the envelope proceeds through its ATTACK and DECAY stages, remains at the SUSTAIN level until the key is released, then drops to zero at a rate set by the RELEASE knob:

INTRO PRESETS SYNTH TWEAKS EFFECTS CONFIG NKS 21

FILTER

VEL

100

CUTOFF

100

RESONANCE

100

ENVELOPE

AMOUNT

100

KEYBOARD

AMOUNT

100

ATTACK

100

DECAY

100

SUSTAIN

100

RELEASE

LEVEL

SUSTAIN

LEVEL

ATTACK TIME DECAY TIME

TIME

RELEASE

TIME

NOTE OFF

NOTE ON

KEY HELD DOWN

max.

zero

A D S R

Page 22

AT TACK knob: Varies the time for the envelope to rise from zero to maximum, within a range of about 2 milliseconds to more than 15 seconds.

DECAY knob: Varies the time for the envelope to fall from maximum to the SUSTAIN level, also within a range of about 2 milliseconds to more than 15 seconds.

VEL trimmer: Adjusts the amount of velocity modulation for the filter envelope. When set to maximum, minimum velocity will reduce the envelope level to zero.

SUSTAIN knob: The “hold” level, from zero to maximum. An interesting detail: while being adjusted, SUSTAIN always decays to the new level – the longer the DECAY, the longer it takes to reach the new SUSTAIN setting.

RELEASE knob: The time it takes for the filter envelope to fall from the current level (usually SUSTAIN) down to zero after the key is released. The range is 2 ms to about 55 seconds.

3-6 AMPLIFIER

These controls shape the envelope applied to volume, pre-effects. The amplifier envelope is started whenever a note is played. As long as a key is held down, the envelope proceeds through the ATTACK and DECAY stages, remains at the SUSTAIN level until the key is released, then drops to zero at a rate set by the RELEASE knob.

INTRO PRESETS SYNTH TWEAKS EFFECTS CONFIG NKS 22

AMPLIFIER

VEL

100

ATTACK

100

DECAY

100

SUSTAIN

100

RELEASE

LEVEL

SUSTAIN

LEVEL

ATTACK TIME DECAY TIME

TIME

RELEASE

TIME

NOTE OFF

NOTE ON

KEY HELD DOWN

max.

zero

A D S R

Page 23

AT TACK knob: Varies the time for the envelope to rise from zero to maximum, within a range of about 2 milliseconds to more than 15 seconds.

DECAY knob: Varies the time for the envelope to fall from maximum to the SUSTAIN level, also within a range of about 2 milliseconds to more than 15 seconds.

VEL trimmer: Adjusts the amount of velocity modulation for the amplifier envelope. When this is set to maximum, minimum velocity will reduce the envelope level to zero i.e. silence.

RELEASE knob: The time it takes for the amp envelope to fall from the current level (usually SUSTAIN) down to zero after the key is released. The range is 2 ms to about 55 seconds.

3-7 VOICE MOD

A synthesizer’s expressiveness depends largely on its modulation capabilities. In Repro-5, modulation is assigned in 3 different panels (VOICE MOD, WHEEL MOD and the MATRIX). VOICE MOD routes the filter envelope and/or oscillator B to three destinations:

Both modulation sources here are “polyphonic”: Minuscule differences between the individual voices create effects that differ from note to note in subtle but interesting ways. This is unlike WHEEL MOD (see below), where just one signal modulates all voices in the same way.

FILT ENV knob: The amount of filter envelope sent to all selected destinations.

OSC B knob: The amount of oscillator B sent to all selected destinations.

DESTINATION buttons: These specify where the mixture of filter envelope and OSC B is to be

sent: oscillator A frequency, oscillator A pulse width and filter cutoff."

INTRO PRESETS SYNTH TWEAKS EFFECTS CONFIG NKS 23

VOICE MOD

FILT ENV

OSC B

SOURCE AMOUNT

DESTINATION

FREQ A PW A FILTER

Page 24

3-8 LFO

Two of the basic modulation sources (filter envelope and oscillator B) were already mentioned in section 3-6. The third is the Low Frequency Oscillator (LFO):

HOST SYNC switch: When this is activated, the LFO RATE switches between fixed divisions relative to the host tempo. Values are expressed as 4/4 bar divisions from 8/1 (slowest) to 1/64 (fastest). The trip options are triplets (3 in the space of 2) and the dot options are dot- ted (2 in the space of 3 i.e. 50% longer than normal):

The order of values may appear strange at first (e.g. 1/4 then 1/8 dot then 1/4 trip), but you can rest assured that they are correctly sorted according to length.

If HOST SYNC is off, the rate can be freely adjusted between about 0.03 Hz and 27.5 Hz.

SHAPE switches: The same options as in OSC B except that the LFO’s pulse width is fixed at 50%. Remember that you can add the shapes here e.g. SAW + SQUARE.

3-9 WHEEL MOD

Global modulation settings. A mixture of two sources, LFO and pink noise, is routed to five destinations: the frequency and pulse width of each oscillator, and filter cutoff.

INTRO PRESETS SYNTH TWEAKS EFFECTS CONFIG NKS 24

LFO

SHAPE

100

RATE

HOST SYNC

triplets

normal

dotted

DESTINATION

PW A

WHEEL MOD

SOURCE MIX

PW B

FILTER

LFO NOISE

FREQ A FREQ B

Page 25

The depth of modulation is normally set by the position of the modulation wheel to the left of the keyboard. Unlike the original hardware, however, in Repro-5 you don’t actually have to push the mod wheel to get any modulation at all – the lower limit (see WHEEL MOD LIMITS on page 5) can be used to set a permanent minimum amount.

SOURCE MIX knob: From 100% LFO signal, through 50% LFO / 50% noise to 100% noise. The original idea was probably to facilitate more organic-sounding cyclic modulation, but SOURCE MIX can help while emulating the sounds of heavy industrial machinery!

DESTINATION buttons: Select frequency and pulse width of each oscillator, and/or cutoff.

Note: The LFO isn’t strictly global, as its Rate can be forced to differ between voices, for instance by modulating Rate with Key Follow in the MATRIX.

3-10 MATRIX

In the lower centre of the panel is a 2-slot modulation matrix you can use to extend Repro-5’s modulation capabilities.

To select a SOURCE, click on one of the upper selectors. Right-clicking on the lower selector opens a menu where you can choose a DESTINATION. Note: Effect parameters will only ap- pear in the destination menu if the corresponding effect is currently active.

Drag & Drop is a very comfortable alternative method of assigning the destination. Left-click on the lower selector, drag the crosshair onto any valid control (it will be highlighted), then release the mouse button.

On the next page is a list of all modulation sources and destinations. Two of the sources might need some explanation…

Trigger is a very short impulse derived from the Gate of each note. You can use it to add punch to a sound by modulating oscillator frequency, filter cutoff or Distortion amount, for instance.

Voice Index is derived from the ‘number’ of the played voice (1 to max. 8). You can use it as a general-purpose VOICE DETUNE to modulate any parameter by a quasi-random amount."

INTRO PRESETS SYNTH TWEAKS EFFECTS CONFIG NKS 25

Velocity

SOURCE / DESTINATION

MATRIX

LFO: Frequency

Breath

Glide: Amount

2 1

-100

100

DEPTH

-100

100

DEPTH

SOURCE / DESTINATION

Page 26

* Restricted to the FREQUENCY range, for technical reasons "

INTRO PRESETS SYNTH TWEAKS EFFECTS CONFIG NKS 26

Modulation Sources

Mod Wheel (MIDI CC#01) Pitch Wheel Control A (default = Breath i.e. CC #02) Control B (default = Expression i.e. CC #11) LFO —————Trigger (see previous page) Gate Key Follow Key Follow +PB Velocity Aftertouch Filter Envelope Amp Envelope Voice Index (see previous page)

Modulation Destinations

LFO

Frequency – only while HOST SYNC disabled

Global Modulation

LFO/Noise Mix Lower Limit Upper Limit

Glide

Amount

Pitch

Master Tune

Filter Envelope

Attack Decay Sustain

Release

Amplitude Envelope

Attack Decay

Sustain Release

Oscillator A

Frequency * Fine Tune

Pulse Width

Oscillator B

Frequency * Fine Tune

Pulse Width

Voice Modulation

Osc B Amount Filter Env Amount

Voice Detune

Amount

Mixer

Osc A Osc B

Noise/Feedback

Filter

Cutoff Resonance

Keyboard Amount Envelope Amount

Distortion

Amount Tone Mix Rate

Crush

Stereo Pan

Pan 1 Pan 2 … Pan 7

Pan 8

Vel vet

Input Gain

Lyrebird

Delay Time Regeneration

Mix

ResQ

Bass Frequency Bass Gain(EQ)

Bass Vol (Res) Mid Frequency

Mid Gain (EQ) Mid Vol (Res)

High Frequency High Gain (EQ)

High Vol (Res) Q/Resonance

Drench

Pre-Delay Decay

Tone Dry/Wet Mix

Sonic conditioner

Gain Stereo Width

Trans i ent

Page 27

4 TWEAKS

Apart from being unashamed eye-candy, the TWEAKS page is there to let you change the fundamental behaviour of individual modules. In the current version there are 10 jumpers (circuit connectors) and 6 module option selectors (not including the 4 MATRIX source and destination selectors, which don’t really count as “tweak” elements):

Although the knobs and switches actually work, the labeling has been kept simple and cryptic on purpose, in keeping with the ‘circuit board’ theme.

The TWEAKS page is meant to be eye-candy!

4-1 JUMPERS

LFO DC|NO DC: With the jumper in the DC position, both the square and saw waves are positive-only (unipolar). The NO DC option makes them both bipolar. Note that the LFO triangle wave is always bipolar, whatever the position of the jumper.

LFO INV|N: Inverts the sawtooth. In the normal (N) position it is a rising sawtooth, in the INV position it is a falling sawtooth.

INTRO PRESETS SYNTH TWEAKS EFFECTS CONFIG NKS 27

Oscillator

Presets

Filter

Presets

Envelope

Presets

LFO

invert / normal

LFO

DC / no DC

OSC2

saw / inverse saw

Note Priority

low / high / last

Wheel Mod Source

noise / s&h

Voice Reallocate

on / off

Microtuning

on / off

Mixer

noise / feedback

Filter Env

invert

Keyfollow

key / key+pb

Microtuning

Presets

Page 28

WHEEL MOD S&H|Noise: Setting this jumper to the S&H position replaces the pink noise signal with random steps (noise sampled at the LFO rate).

OSC B INV|N: Inverts the sawtooth. In the normal (N) position it is a rising sawtooth, in the INV position it is a falling sawtooth.

UNISON / NOTE PRIO (note priority) on the lower board: This jumper sets how Repro-5 reacts when you play more than one note at a time when unison is switched on. LOW plays the lowest note (like the original hardware as well as other USA-designs), HIGH plays the highest note (EMS and most Japanese synths), LAST plays the most recent note (modern, typical of digitally controlled synths).

POLY VOICE / REALLOCATE: Determines whether the same note will trigger the same voice (reallocate ON), or distribute voices round-robin (reallocate OFF). Turn the VOICE DETUNE knob up a little, repeat the same note and watch the voice activity indicators!

MIXER FB|NOISE: Switching this jumper over to “FB” replaces the usual NOISE with audio FEEDBACK. The knob then controls the amount of signal fed from behind the amplifier back into the MIXER – useful for boosting bass frequencies, for instance.

FILTER –|+: Setting this to “–” inverts the filter envelope signal (ENV AMOUNT).

FILTER KEY|KEY+PB: In the KEY position, the pitchbender doesn’t affect cutoff, while in the KEY+PB position it does.

MICROTUNING ON|OFF for the selection: See Microtuning on the next page.

4-2 SELECTORS

All red fields are selectors – either click and select one of the options or simply hover over them and roll your mouse wheel (no click required).

PITCH RANGE

The pair of selectors on the extra circuit board at the bottom left are for adjusting the range of the pitch bender. The options are 0 through 24 i.e. two octaves in semitone steps, then either three or four octaves (36 / 48 semitones).

Oscillator tweaks

The two selectors above the oscillator SHAPE buttons. The standard setting for Repro-5 is P5, while P1 was adopted from Repro-1. The ideal option has a crisper, more precise sound. The most obvious difference between P5 and P1 is that the P5 pulse wave is inverted (that’s why P1 is much quieter when Saw and Pulse are both switched on). A less obvious difference is that OSC A in P5 mode retains very little of the fundamental frequency when SYNC is on.

P5 Old is a highly detuned version of the regular P5.

Only available in OSC B: Bottom emphasizes the TRIANGLE shape.

Filter tweaks

Crispy, Rounded, Driven or Poly: The first two accurately model the filters in the two synths we bought especially for Repro-1 analysis. Most obviously, cutoff in Rounded is a few semitones lower than it is in Crispy, and there are also significant differences in the resonance behaviour. Driven is the result of balancing internal filter parameters in search of a novel 3320 flavour –

INTRO PRESETS SYNTH TWEAKS EFFECTS CONFIG NKS 28

Page 29

we like it! Finally, Poly is an approximation of the filters in Repro-5’s grandad. The cutoff is significantly lower – doesn’t reach max. unless modulated upwards e.g. by the filter envelope.

Envelope tweaks

Ideal: Non-linear but consistently clean ADSR.

Analog: Includes more imperfections typical of real analogue circuitry.

High Sustain: Emulates an interesting fault (“quirk”) in some versions of the hardware synth

we used to create Repro-1: The end of the Attack stage doesn’t quite reach Sustain levels above about 85 – it simply jumps up the last 15%.

One Shot: The gate is ignored, the Decay stage continues until it reaches the sustain level, which is immediately followed by Release. This type of envelope is particularly suitable for percussion sounds, fly-by effects etc..

Piano 1/2: These two modes were implemented according to a rather geeky article in the magazine Electronics and Music Maker (affectionately known as E&MM) all about the CEM 3310 envelope chip. In both Piano modes the Attack and Decay stages are the same as in One Shot mode. However, if the key is lifted during the Release stage there is an extra (true) release, which is longer in Piano 1 than in Piano 2 mode.

Microtuning

At the bottom right of the TWEAKS view is a beige-coloured circuit board with a selector and a jumper switch. Click on the selector to open an overlay window...

Repro-5 supports standard .TUN microtuning tables, and you will find several in the list already. Many more tuning tables are available online, most of them free. The .tun files belong in the following folder on your hard drive:

Win: C:\Users\*YOU*\Documents\u-he\Repro-1.data\Tunefiles\ Mac: Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/u-he/Tunefiles/

…or equivalent locations in accordance with your VST and Repro-1 installation paths. To go directly to that location from within the microtuning browser, right-click on any .tun file then select Reveal in Finder (Mac) / Open in Explorer (Win). To close the microtuning browser again, click on the [CLOSE] button at the top right.

4-3 VOICE PANNING

Apart from the single trimmers for oscillator fine tuning and envelope velocity, there is a row of eight identical trimmers on a separate board at the bottom of the TWEAKS view…

These set a stereo pan position for each individual voice. Turn down to minimum for hard left panning, turn up to maximum for hard right panning, double-click to return to the centre. See also Reallocate a few pages back."

INTRO PRESETS SYNTH TWEAKS EFFECTS CONFIG NKS 29

Page 30

5 EFFECTS

The FX button in the bottom lefthand corner toggles between the keyboard and FX views. The

BYP (effects bypass) button above it is for comparing the treated and untreated sound.

Please remember that the BYP (effects bypass) status is global – bypass won’t automatically switch off when you select another preset, but will remain on until you click on the button again. If most of your presets sound strangely dry today, you will know where to look first!

5-1 DISTORTION

Repro-5’s distortion unit is polyphonic. Each voice has its own processor, so there is no interaction between notes in a chord. Although it wasn’t what sparked the idea for including a pervoice distortion unit in repro-5, Edgar Froese (of Tangerine Dream) once attached an Elektro-

Harmonix “Big Muff” fuzzbox to each of the five outputs of his modified SC Prophet-5.

I/O (in/out) button: Switches distortion in or out of the signal path."

INTRO PRESETS SYNTH TWEAKS EFFECTS CONFIG NKS 30

I/O TYPE

AMOUNT TONE MIX

FX CHAIN

0 100

0 60

DISTORTION

MODE

GROOVE SWING PPONG ECHO

MODULATION

REGEN

MIX

TONE

PRE DELAY

DRY/WET

DECAY

TRANSIENT WIDTH

GAINMIDLOW HIGH

MODE

Q/RES

------ ---

TIME MAX MED MIN OFF

RES EQ

INPUTGAIN

KEYSEFFECTS

100

Soft Clip

AMOUNT TONE

MIX

TYPEI/O

DISTORTION

Page 31

TYPE selector:

Soft Clip smoothly compresses peaks in the signal.

Hard Clip simply chops off the top and bottom of the waveform.

Foldback is similar to soft clip except that increasing the gain doesn’t slam more of the signal

peaks against the limits, but reflects (folds) them back.

Corrode is a sample rate reducer and bit crusher in one. In this mode, the Amount and Tone controls (see below) are replaced by Rate and Crush.

AMOUNT knob: Input gain in Decibels, controls the perceived amount of distortion.

RATE knob (replaces AMOUNT when the type is ‘Corrode’): Reducing the sample rate of a sig-

nal degrades its quality – medium values introduce high-pitched grit, and high values create rough metallic tones which are louder than the dry signal. Rate reduction is particularly interesting when applied to softer sounds, with low cutoff.

TONE knob: A frequency tilt control for more bass or more treble distortion.

CRUSH knob (replaces TONE when the type is ‘Corrode’): The bit-crush amount – the signal

becomes increasingly steppy. Try it on a pure triangle wave first!

MIX knob: Dry/Wet balance control. Turning MIX down from the usual maximum preserves more of the original character without affecting the distortion characteristics.

5-2 FX CHAIN

The block to the right of the distortion panel is for activating and reordering the other five effects. Click on individual cells to activate/deactivate them, drag & drop to change the order (the signal flows from top to bottom of the FX chain).

Velvet

Lyrebird

ResQ

Drench

SoniCon

INTRO PRESETS SYNTH TWEAKS EFFECTS CONFIG NKS 31

Page 32

5-3 VELVET tape saturation

Based on u-he’s SATIN effect plug-in, this little unit adds the kind of colouration and distortion that is typical of magnetic tape recorders. It can be used at the end of the the FX chain for subtle sheen, or (for instance) before RESQ for more obvious distortion effects.

Note: Velvet’s distortion is fundamentally different from the polyphonic Distortion, as notes played together will interact like in a guitar amplifier. Of course you can use a bit of both!

PRESET selector: Selects one of the factory presets.

INPUT GAIN knob: Signal cut/boost, effectively the amount of tape saturation/distortion."

INTRO PRESETS SYNTH TWEAKS EFFECTS CONFIG NKS 32

INPUT GAIN

Smoothy

Page 33

5-4 LYREBIRD delay

Lyrebird models an analogue (bucket brigade type) delay, capable of unsynchronized effects anywhere between flanging (i.e. modulated, very short delays) and 2 seconds, or host-temporelative delays between 1/16 and 8/1. In either mode, the delay time can be continuously fine-tuned.

Sync (upper selector): Chorus/Short, Unsync/Long, Sync 1/16 or Sync 1/4. The first two op- tions are absolute times, not relative to host tempo. As the name implies, the Chorus/Short option sounds especially rich with plenty of modulation (see below). Unsync/Long is usually the best choice for larger spaces and non-rhythmic effects.

Flavour (lower selector): Three different tonal characteristics for the decaying effect (Clean, Bright or Dark). Try them all out and compare results.

MODE switch: Affects the ratio between delays in the left and right channels: Echo has equal delay times in both channels (so the effect is monophonic unless modulated). Pingpong alternates evenly between the left and right channels, Swing creates triplets and Groove does dotted times.

MODULATION switch: Time modulation LFO rate. Switching to OFF disables the LFO.

TIME knob: Scales the Delay Sync value. For the synchronized delays this is literally a 1 to 8

multiplier, while for unsynchronized delays the range is much wider. Tip: Try turning REGEN up and modulating TIME – the pitch glides very smoothly, just like a real analogue or tape delay unit.

MIX knob: The volume ratio between unprocessed and processed signal.

REGEN knob: Regeneration determines how much of the processed signal is fed back into

Lyrebird’s input. At maximum, the feedback lasts longer than you will ever need…

INTRO PRESETS SYNTH TWEAKS EFFECTS CONFIG NKS 33

TIME MIX

REGENMODE

ECHO

PPONG

SWING

GROOVE

MODULATION

OFF

MIN

MED

MAX

Sync 16th

Clean

Page 34

5-5 RESQ resonator / equalizer

Depending on the status of the MODE switch, RESQ is either a semi-parametric EQ with two shelving filters surrounding a midrange band, or a triple bandpass resonator:

The FREQUENCY knobs adjust the cutoff for each band. The bands can seriously overlap or swap positions, so those labels shouldn’t be taken too literally. The ranges of the knobs are approximately as follows:

LOW = 45 Hz to 3 kHz! MID = 55 Hz to 9 kHz! HIGH = 130 Hz to 10 kHz

GAIN knobs (EQ mode): Centre-zero controls for cutting or boosting the level of each band by up to 18dB. In EQ mode, LOW and HIGH are shelving filters (as indicated by the labels).

VOLUME knobs (RES mode): The amplitudes of three resonant bandpass filters. The knobs are not centre-zero in RES mode, but positive only.

Q (quality) / RES (resonance) knob: The Q-factor of a filter band characterizes its width rela- tive to its cutoff frequency. In EQ mode, Q only applies to the MID band."

INTRO PRESETS SYNTH TWEAKS EFFECTS CONFIG NKS 34

LOW

FREQUENCY

Q / RES

RES

MID HIGH

MODE

Q / RES

RES

MODE

LOW

FREQUENCY

MID HIGH

Page 35

5-6 DRENCH reverb

A typical lush plate reverb – but with an atypical pre-delay!

DRY/WET knob: The amount of reverb as a percentage of the total output.

PRE DELAY knob: A simple delay before the reverberation appears. This is especially useful

for retaining the presence of the dry signal while simulating larger spaces, but it can also be adjusted to support a delay from Lyrebird, for instance.

DECAY knob: The length of the reverb tail. At the maximum setting (100), it can take several minutes for the effect to reach absolute silence.

TONE knob: A tilt filter, from very dark at -100 to very bright at +100. TONE simulates the softness / hardness of surfaces. Note: At these extreme values, the wet signal almost (but not quite) disappears."

INTRO PRESETS SYNTH TWEAKS EFFECTS CONFIG NKS 35

PRE DELAY

DRY / WET

DECAY

TONE

Page 36

5-7 SONIC CONDITIONER

Is the signal too loud or too soft? Is the stereo too extreme? Is your bass sequence too clicky, or does it lack punch? Then you should try the SONIC CONDITIONER…

On the top right is a load indicator which gets brighter as the signal is saturated.

GAIN knob: Bipolar control for the output level. Settings above zero (the centre) will saturate the signal – a useful effect in its own right. You can compensate for high GAIN by turning Repro-5’s main OUTPUT level down.

TRANSIENT knob: Bipolar control over the percussive elements within a signal. Set negative values to reduce clicks or positive values to add punch. Caution: Negative TRANSIENT can cause crackling with bassy material and pads – in this case, try turning it up until the crackling only just disappears.

WIDTH knob: A stereo spread control. Especially useful for keeping delay or bias-modulated wavefolder effects more focussed in the centre of the stereo field.

Caution

Applying Transient (either positive or negative) to big polyphonic sounds can result in unpleasant distortion due to the process being triggered by complex low frequencies.

INTRO PRESETS SYNTH TWEAKS EFFECTS CONFIG NKS 36

WIDTH

GAIN

TRANSIENT

Page 37

6 CONFIGURATION

A click on the red button at the top right opens the global configuration pages where you can adjust the appearance and performance or connect Repro-5 parameters to MIDI controls:

You can specify which particular page (e.g. PREFERENCES) will open whenever you click on the configuration button: Right-click anywhere in this row and select set current as default.

6-1 ABOUT MIDI CC

CC, which now officially stands for Control Change (no longer Continuous Controller) is a multi-purpose message format used for editing and performing presets. CC isn’t the only kind of MIDI performance data. For instance, there are different messages for note on/off (including velocity), pitch bend and two kinds of aftertouch.

Although the MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA) was kind enough to leave most of the 128 CC numbers undefined, two have specific meanings that Repro-5 also recognizes:

01 = modulation wheel 64 = sustain pedal

Repro-1 version 1.0 also offered the performance modulation sources Breath (CC 02) and Ex- pression (CC 11). In Repro-1 as well as Repro-5, these have been replaced by the user-definable Control A and Control B. See section 6-4 PREFERENCES.

By the way: You don’t actually need a breath controller (for instance) or an expression pedal to make use of CC messages. Most of the names are purely convention these days. You can use anything that can send a definable CC e.g. a couple of knobs on your MIDI keyboard or a controller lane in your MIDI sequencer.

Later MMA revisions to the MIDI spec even included a bunch of esoteric CC definitions such as ‘Celeste Detune Depth‘, probably at the request of a home organ manufacturer or two. We can safely ignore all such definitions!

6-2 MIDI LEARN

The MIDI LEARN page is where you can connect MIDI CC (see above) to almost any Repro-5 parameters. The MIDI data can be generated by adjusting the knobs or faders on a hardware controller, for instance, or by a track in your sequencer.

Learnable elements appear as selectable outlines. Controls that are already connected appear filled, while the outline of the control waiting to be MIDI-learned is highlighted white.

Try it: Click on the Cutoff knob (it is then highlighted) and send Repro-5 some MIDI CC data by adjusting a knob or fader on your MIDI controller. To remove the assignment, double-click on that same control or go to the MIDI Table (see below).

Note: You can access all parameters without exiting MIDI LEARN. Simply switch between the SYNTH and TWEAKS pages, or between the KEYS and EFFECTS.

INTRO PRESETS SYNTH TWEAKS EFFECTS CONFIG NKS 37

MIDI LEARN PREFERENCESMIDI TABLE

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6-3 MIDI TABLE

To open an editable list of all current MIDI CC assignments, click on the Configuration button (cogwheel top right) and select MIDI TABLE.

Parameter: The first field selects a Repro-5 parameters from submenus sorted according to module. Click on the Add button at the bottom left and experiment with this field, then delete the assignment again by clicking on the small [X] to the right of the line you just created.

Channel / Controller: The next two fields are for the MIDI channel and CC number. Repro-5 is channel-sensitive – you can map up to 16 channels for a total of… well, more than enough assignments for Repro-5!

Mode: Specifies the range and/or resolution of values.

Normal full range, continuous ......................

Integer full range, whole numbers only .......................

Fine 0.01 steps between the integers closest to the current value ...........................

Type : Specifies the type of hardware (by far the most common is Continuous 7-bit).

Encoder 127 unipolar encoder ..............

Encoder 64 bipolar encoder ................

Continuous 7-bit 7-bit MIDI CC (normal resolution, very common) ........

Continuous 14-bit 14-bit MIDI CC (high resolution, less common) ......

Removing assignments: The small [x] to the right of each line removes that assignment. The MIDI table can be cleared by clicking on the [Delete All] button at the bottom of the window.

Experimental feature: Click on Add. At the very bottom of the Parameter menu you will see two options called Last Clicked Control and Last Clicked Control Fine…

Select Last Clicked Control, enter a suitable controller (MIDI CC) and exit the configuration pages. The most recently clicked knob/switch will now respond to that CC. The Fine option is similar, but with a significantly reduced range."

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6-4 PREFERENCES

For the following options, click on the cogwheel button at the top right of Repro-5‘s window and select the PREFERENCES tab:

CONTROLS

Mouse Wheel Raster: If your mouse wheel is rastered (it clicks as you roll the wheel), set this option ‘on’ so that each little click increments the value in ‘sensible’ steps.

Switch Behaviour: The drag option here requires that you drag the TWEAKS page jumpers up/down, while toggle lets you click anywhere on 2-state switches. the iterate option is like toggle except that it also applies to 3-way switches, with the downside that clicking on the target position no longer works. Irrespective of this setting, the jumpers respond to rolling the mouse wheel just like the knobs – no clicks required!

APPEARANCE

Default Size: The GUI size for each new instance of the plug-in.

Default Skin: This option will only appear if Repro-5 finds at least one alternative skin when

it loads. Change this option to set the global default.

Gamma: Specifies the overall brightness of the Repro-5 window.

Text Antialiasing: Turns the smoothing of labels and values on or off. Usually left on!

PRESETS

Auto versioning: If this option is switched on, an index is appended to the preset name and automatically incremented each time you save it. For instance, saving ‘Space’ three times in a row would give you three files: ‘Space’, ‘Space 2’ and ‘Space 3’.

Save Presets To: Choosing user folder here causes all saved presets to land in the User folder.

Scan on Startup: Whether the preset library should be scanned and the database recreated

when the first instance of Repro-5 is started, e.g. when you reopen a project.

OTHERS

Auto Tag Features: Setting this preference to an option other than never can make tagging presets less of a chore. The on load option causes Repro-1 to generate appropriate ‘Features’ tags whenever a preset is loaded, hiding any existing Features. The if empty option is similar but doesn’t hide existing tags. Auto-tagging is temporary. To make automatically generated ‘Features’ permanent you can use the convert to .h2p function (PRESETS panel context menu).

Base Latency: Only disable this if you are absolutely sure that your audio system – hardware as well as software – uses buffers that are a multiple of 16 samples. Otherwise you should leave it at the default ‘16 samples’. This setting only takes effect when the host allows e.g. on playback, after switching sample rates, or after reloading Repro-5. See the information box on the next page “About the Repro-5 Buffers”."

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Control A/B Default: The list of modulation sources in the previous version of Repro included the fixed MIDI control sources Breath (CC#02) and Xpress (expression pedal, CC#11). While retaining backwards compatibility, we replaced them both with the user-definable Control A and Control B performance sources, with Breath and Expression set as the defaults.

HQ Default: Whether HQ should be set to High Quality for each new instance. High Quality is seldom necessary – you can save a significant amount of CPU if you leave this off.

MIDI Control Slew: Adjusts the amount of ‘smoothing’ for Pitch Bend, Modulation Wheel, Control A, Control B and Aftertouch. While set to Off, Repro-5 responds more quickly to modulation wheel (for instance), but might become too grainy for your tastes. The Fast setting is a good compromise between response and smoothness.

Multicore Threads: Sets the number of threads (instruction steams) this instance of Repro-5 will use while the [MCORE] button is active (see MCORE button). The operating system is then responsible for how threads are distributed within and/or across the available CPU cores.

The optimum number for minimum CPU load depends on your computer hardware, operating system, host application and how many instances are running in parallel. While using multiple instances of Repro-5 you should generally avoid setting higher values than the default (4).

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ABOUT THE REPRO-5 BUFFERS

Repro-5 processes audio in chunks of n x 16 samples. This block processing method significantly reduces the CPU load and memory usage of all our plug-ins.

If the number of samples to be processed is e.g. 41, Repro-5 processes the first 32 and keeps the remaining 9 in a small buffer (16 samples is large enough). Those 9 samples are then processed at the start of the next call… and so on.

The extra buffer is only necessary if the host or audio driver processes ‘unusual’ buffer sizes. If your host processes buffers of e.g. 64, 128, 256 or 512 samples (these are all multiples of 16), try setting Base Latency to off so that Repro-5 can process latency-free.

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7 NKS

Repro-5 supports Native Instruments (NI) NKS extensions for VST2. All Windows audio plugin hosts and certain macOS hosts can load VST2.

This means that Repro-5 can be integrated into the Komplete Kontrol software or Maschine environments: As well as the u-he cross-platform h2p formats, you can also install the factory presets as tagged .nksf files. In the VST2 version only, nksf also appears in the context menu of the [SAVE] button.

As we wanted to keep them synth-specific, the Category options (see PRESET BROWSER) differ from the Komplete Kontrol / Maschine Type tags. During conversion to NKS (see below) Repro-5 automatically converts Category tags to the closest corresponding Type.

In Komplete Kontrol / Maschine, any untagged presets will appear in Synth Misc.

Presets saved in NKS format do not appear in Repro-5’s browser!

Saving as nksf

Right-clicking the [SAVE] button opens a small menu offering a choice of several preset formats.

While the native, h2p and h2p extended formats allow Repro-5 to save presets into the currently selected folder, choosing nksf causes them to land in a location specified by NI. For more detailed information, please refer to Native Instruments’ own NKS documentation.

Conversion to nksf

Set the format to nksf by right-clicking on the [SAVE] button and choosing the nksf option. Open Repro-5’s browser, select the presets you want to convert, right-click on one of them and choose convert to nksf. A text message appears telling you how many were converted and how to update the Komplete Kontrol database. During conversion, a few pages of performance controls mapped to common parameters are generated and saved with each .nksf preset.

If you encounter any problems, see the next chapter, Troubleshooting."

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native h2p h2p extended nksf

tag this patch

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8 Troubleshooting

8-1 NKS

Repro-5 doesn't appear in Komplete Kontrol / Maschine

Firstly, make sure that you have Komplete Kontrol Software version 1.5+ or Maschine version

2.4 – the minimum requirements for our implementation of NKS.

Under Windows, Komplete Kontrol needs to register the location of Repro-5’s VST2 file: Open the Komplete Kontrol preferences, go to Locations and add the directory that contains either Repro-5(x64).dll or Repro-5.dll (as specified during Repro installation). Hit Rescan and check whether Repro-5 appears.

If the NKS preset folder is empty you should reinstall Repro with the correct VST path and the NKS-option checked. Here are the preset folder locations:

Mac: Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/u-he/Repro-1/NKS/Repro-5/ Win: C:\Users\*YOU*\Documents\u-he\Repro-1.data\NKS\Repro-5\

Perhaps the XML-File is missing from the following path:

Mac: Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/Native Instruments/!

Service Center/u-he-Repro-5.xml Win: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Native Instruments\!

Service Center\u-he-Repro-5.xml

A re-install with the NKS-option checked should also resolve this issue.

Error message “Could not load plug-in (plug-in not found)”

Repro-5's VST file isn’t in the directory specified by the Komplete Kontrol preference. Reason: Either Repro-1 wasn't installed as a VST at all, or it wasn’t installed with the correct path. Note that the VST path is fixed in OSX/macOS but is user-definable in Windows:

Mac: Macintosh HD/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/u-he/! Win: <User VST Folder>/ (path for the VST plug-in used during installation)

If the VST plug-in isn’t in this directory you will need to reinstall Repro-1 with the VST option checked and the correct VST path.

8-2 DC Thump

In certain hosts a Repro-5 track can start with a noticeable DC offset, which fades within about half a second. This effect is typical of analogue circuitry when first switched on, and it therefore also affects component-level models. Seldom noticed in hardware synths as they are not switched off each time a song is stopped, DC thump can become a problem in VA models.

Solution: Start your song with an empty bar or two so that Repro-5 is "switched on" well before the first note in the song arrives. If that doesn't help, it’s likely that the host application doesn’t process any plugins before the first note is played. In such cases you should try placing a “dummy” note well before the song begins.

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