Triple Cheese v1.2
u-he.com
Thanks for checking out Triple Cheese! I think it's a great sounding plugin, even
though it's free and not too capable. As the name says, it's great for cheesy sounds,
but it has also room for some surprisingly nice things.
Preface
Triple Cheese is a 16-voice software synthesizer plugin. It should work on Macs (Mac
OS X 10.3.9 and up, both PowerPC and Intel processors) and PCs (Windows XP). You
need a hosting software that's either compatible to VST or AU to run it.
If you don't know what this is all about, go to www.google.com and search for "VST AU
plugin synthesizer host".
In any case, please read the license agreement. It's freeware, but there's still some
terrible stuff in there!
[ 2015 update! Version 1.2 lets you change the GUI size and brightness. Right-click
anywhere in the background and check it out ]
www.u-he.com
Installation
On Windows just doubleclick the installer. It'll guide you through the process. Just
make sure that you have "msvcrt.dll" in your SYSTEM32 directory. It's badly needed, but
sometimes it disappears. If you don't have it, grab it here:
http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?msvcr71
On Mac, drag files here:
TripleCheese.component:! MacHD/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/
TripleCheese.vst:! MacHD/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/
Presets: MacHD/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Presets/u-he/Triple Cheese/
To uninstall, just delete all these files.
Synthesis concept
Unlike many other synthesizers that use synthesis forms like substractive (oscillators
and filters), fm (interacting oscillators), additive (piled up sine waves), Triple Cheese
mainly uses various forms of comb filters (chromatically tuned delays) to create or
modify sound. So, it's a bit different from most of the stuff you've already seen. No, it
does not have any analogue sounding resonant lowpass filter.
The basic idea is this: You have three cheesy modules (hence Triple Cheese!) that
either generate sound, or manipulate what's been created by previous modules. The
first module can only generate sound, while the second and third module can also
manipulate.
Each of the three cheesy modules looks like this:
The selector on the top left holds a menu for 8 different modes it can work in. The
knobs in the top row (Tune, Detune, Vibrato) determine the module's tuning relatively
to the note that's played.
The eight knobs below that show 4 parameters (Tone, Damp, Volume and Pan), with
their respective modulation sources and modulation amounts. A modulation amount
knob with "..." has no modulation source assigned, so that a menu with all modulation
sources pops up when you click it. If you want to change an assigned modulation
source, just right-click or ctrl-click that knob for the menu.
While Volume and Pan may be obvious parameters, Tone and Damp depend on the
Mode
Description
Tone
Damp
Pluck
Creates a pluck based on noise
excitation, good for plucked
strings
spectral richness of the
noise excitation
drains higher partials
out of the pluck. The
decay gets shorter with
higher damping
SawPluck
Creates a pluck based on a
sawtooth waveform
same as above, at 0.00 it's
almost a sine wave
same as above
SquarePluck
Creates a pluck based on a
square wave
same as above
same as above
Bowed
creates a constant noisy sound
that is somehow reminiscent to
bowed strings
makes the pitch of the
noisiness appear higher or
lower
if damp is low, it sounds
a bit like a violin. If
damp is high, it's more
ensemblish
Blown
creates a noisy sound that's
reminiscent to flute and reed.
Caution: This mode ay sound
pretty out of tune
tunes the resonance of the
tube, closing in on
partials. Can sound
overblown
the more damp, the less
noise is inside here
Noise*
Creates white noise
-
lowpass filters the noise
DC*
Injects a dc offset. Almost only
useful in combination with a
subsequent Resonator module
-
-
Crackle*
Creates crackled noise
the amount of crackles,
the higher Tone, the less
crackles come through
lowpass filters the
crackles
Resonator**
A stereo comb filter. Replaces the
input signal from previous
modules by its output!
Feedback of the comb
filter
lowpass filters the
feedback
Damp**
A combined 12dB lowpass and
highpass filter. The center
frequency (Cutoff) is tuned
relative to the note played
Tunes the cutoff of the
lowpass filter
Tunes the cutoff of the
highpass filter
Stressor**
Another stereo comb, but with a
waveshaper in the feedback path
and 100% feedback
Amplification before
waveshaping
lowpass filtering after
waveshaper
actual mode of any cheesy module. Here's a little chart:
* only in cheesy module one ** only in cheesy modules two and three
In "Resonator" and "Damp", the Pan parameter is a stereo balance. Also, Detune
detunes the left and right sides in opposite directions for "Resonator" and "Stressor"
So, this is what it's all about. It's pretty flexible though, almost like a miniature
modular synthesizer. Examples:
SawPluck - SawPluck - SawPluck: You can hear three SawPlucks
Noise - Damp - Resonator: You can hear white noise going through a lowpass and a
highpass filter before entering a feedback comb filter
DC - Resonator - Damp: A square wave-alike bell with filters
Modulations
For modulation there are a bunch of typical MIDI Controls, 2 classical ADSR envelopes
with a Fall/Rise parameter on Sustain, a Gate control (key pressed or lifted) a global
tempo-syncable LFO and a Vibrator. Latter is basically an LFO for each voice, with
delay and amplitude modulation.
All this stuff should be pretty self explanatory.
Effects
Triple Cheese also has a really cheesy built-in effects section. The quality isn't too bad,
but it really only covers a few essential effects:
Chorus1: A wide chorus with pretty long center delay
Chorus2: A bit narrower and bettwer suited for percussive material Flanger: A chorus
with short center delay, suited for flanging (feedback!) Phaser: Classical out-of-phase
phaser effect
Delay1: Stereo delay synced to host tempo in quarters
Delay2: Stereo delay synced to host tempo in eighth notes
Delay3: Ping Pong delay based on quarters and dotted eigths
Reverb: A cheesy reverb based on only 4 delays
Note that you can modulate the delay times of the Delay effects which can add some
nice warmth to the sound. Same for the reverb, which might sound a bit out of tune
with too much modulation.
Global Parameters
Well, these are all self explanatory, aren't they? Volume, VCA source (Gate or one of the
envelopes), few/medium/many voices, Portamento time, Pitchbend...
Presets
Triple Cheese comes pre-equipped with a bunch of presets by fine patch designers.
You can browse through them within its user interface, either by showing the full patch
list of its patch directories or by the "<" and ">" buttons on the bottom.
You can always get the full list of presets in the current directory by clicking the big
value display in the center!
You can also save presets directly from the GUI into the currently selected patch
directory.
A word to Mac users: Please make sure that your local patch directory is *writable*
when saving presets - MacHD/Library/Audio/Presets/u-he/Triple Cheese/
MIDI Learn
Some people love to control parameters by external MIDI Devices with lots of real
knobs. Although this concept has never caught up on me, it's available in Triple
Cheese as well:
Right-click (or ctrl-click for those with one-button-mice) a knob in Triple Cheese's gui.
Then turn the knob on your hardware MIDI device that you want to assign to it. Boom.
There you go.
To get rid of such an assignment, just right-click (or ctrl click...) that knob twice.
A word about this: Some hosts reset MIDI controls when you start playback. In that
case an assigned parameter will jump to its lowest most position. If you experience
trouble here, just right-click (or ctrl-click) that knob twice.
Okay, now you've made it through the manual! Congrats and...
enjoy,
;) Urs
urs heckmann
www.u-he.com
support@u-he.com
Credits
Copyright 2006, Concept, Design & Development: Urs Heckmann
Thanks for presets & help to (in no particular order):
Tasmaniandevil (tas), Tim Conrardy (TC - like Triple Cheese), biomechanoid (bio),
Gordon Sauve (GJS), Jouni Alkio (JA), Steve Bates (b78), Stephen Wey (SW), Hans Hafner
(HH), Stephan Muesch (SM), Dave VitaminD (VD), Sascha Franck (SF), Chris Scheidel
(crscheid), Marius Braasch (luCi) and to those that I might have accidentally forgotten
in the rush shortly before deadline.
Thanks for tuz on kvraudio.com for motivating me to do something like this!
Also thanks to following projects/companies for providing helpful sources and files
used in the version for Windows:
ZLib - http://www.zlib.net/
libpng - http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/libpng.html
FreeType - http://www.freetype.org/
Bitstream Vera.ttf - http://www.gnome.org/fonts/
Anti-Grain Geometry - http://www.antigrain.com/
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