Voxengo Primary User Guide
Voxengo Primary User Guide
(for VST, VST3, AudioUnit, AAX audio software made by Voxengo)
https://www.voxengo.com/
Document revision date: 28-Feb-2019
Voxengo Primary User Guide
2
Contents
Introduction 5
Common Features of Voxengo Audio Plug-Ins 5
User Interface Layout 6
Title Bar 6
Control Buttons 6
Plug-In Control Interface 6
Hint Line 6
Main Control Buttons 7
Plug-In Instance Name Edit Box 7
Oversampling Selector 7
Bypass Switch 8
A/B Switch Button 8
“A > B” (“B > A”) Button 8
Sat Switch 8
Standard Controls 9
Knob 9
Keyboard Value Entry 10
Value List Selector 10
Slider 10
Level Meter 10
Equalizer 11
Equalizer – Group Editing 12
Equalizer – Spectrum 13
Equalizer – Narrow-Band Sweeping 13
Envelope Editor 14
Quick Zoom-In 14
Scroller 14
Window Resizer 15
Spectrum Mode Editor 15
DC Filter Mode Editor 17
Copyright © 2007-2018 Aleksey Vaneev
Voxengo Primary User Guide
3
Static Spectrums Editor 17
Undo/Redo 19
Preset Manager 20
Main Preset Manager 20
Local Preset Managers 21
Channel Routing Window 22
Layout 22
Input and Output Routing Selection 22
Show All Channel Meters 22
Mid-Side Pairs Selection 22
Channel Group Assignments 23
Key Signal Sources 23
In Channel Labels 24
Group Names 24
Routing Presets 24
Channel Group Selector 25
Channel Group List 25
Plug-In Settings for a Specific Plug-In 26
Color Scheme 26
User Interface Scale 26
Min Infrastructure 26
Show Groups Bar 26
Oversampling 26
Meter “Density Mode” 27
Meter Integration Time 27
Meter Release Time 27
Meter Peak Level Hold Time 28
Global Voxengo Software Settings 29
Auto Oversampling Level 29
Mouse Wheel Precision 29
Shift Key Precision 29
Drag Precision 29
Copyright © 2007-2018 Aleksey Vaneev
Voxengo Primary User Guide
4
Show Preset Selector 29
Show Knob Labels 29
Tablet Mode 29
Show Virtual Keyboard 30
Remember Window Positions 30
Enable Mouse Wheel On Lists 30
Curve Drag Adds Points 30
Radial Knob Mode 30
Control Surface Crosshair 30
Show All Filter Shapes 30
Show Colorized Filter Shapes 30
Do Not Show Latency Changes 30
Anti-Denormal Noise 31
VST 2 Function Sync 31
No Multi-Channel Operation 31
Visual Settings 31
Plug-In Files’ Locations 32
Additional Information 33
Selecting Best Audio Block Size 33
64-Bit Audio Processing 33
Plug-In Registration/Authorization 33
CPU Load Measurement Notice 33
Knowledge Bit – Correlation 34
Stereo Correlation 34
Knowledge Bit – Aligning Microphones 35
Alignment Steps 35
Microphone Delay Alignment 35
Microphone Phase Alignment 36
Microphone Gain Alignment 36
High-Frequency Drop Issue 37
Why Go Multi-Microphone? 37
Questions and Answers 38
Copyright © 2007-2018 Aleksey Vaneev
Voxengo Primary User Guide
5
Introduction
Voxengo audio plug-ins feature a set of standard interface elements that are shared
among all Voxengo plug-ins.
This guide describes functionality of these elements, focusing on the interaction
between the user and the plug-in. This means that this guide does not describe an
actual application of user interface elements (some may control Gain, some may
control Frequency, etc.), but shows the ways of using these elements efficiently from
the user perspective. After reading this guide you will be able to use common
features of all Voxengo audio plug-ins. Any non-standard or special features are
described in the guides for the plug-ins that contain these non-standard or special
features, and are not covered by this guide.
Beside user interface description this guide contains important technical information
about Voxengo plug-ins.
Common Features of Voxengo Audio Plug-Ins
Preset manager
A/B comparison switch
Internal channel routing
Mid/side processing
Undo/redo history
Input channel naming
Channel grouping
Channel group naming
Settings (coloration, scale, hints)
Global settings (control precision, etc.)
Plug-in instance naming
Oversampling
Bypass switch
External side-chain (where applicable)
Contextual hint messages
Copyright © 2007-2018 Aleksey Vaneev
Voxengo Primary User Guide
6
User Interface Layout
The graphical interface of every Voxengo plug-in consists of four distinctive parts: the
title bar, the control buttons array, the plug-in control interface and the hint line.
Title Bar
The title bar shows hint enable switch, plug-in’s title, and also contains the Plug-In
Instance Name text box, the Oversampling selector and the “Bypass” switch. Note
that this title bar will not be visible if the “Min Infrastructure” option in the “Settings”
window was enabled.
Some plug-ins have differently-looking title bar that only displays plug-in’s title with
one or several control buttons.
Control Buttons
This part of the user interface contains several control buttons: the “Presets” button
which opens the preset manager popup window; the quick preset selector “down”
button; three change history-related buttons; the A/B comparison button; the “A > B”
(“B > A”) button; the “Routing” button which opens the channel routing popup
window; the quick routing preset selector “down” button; the channel group selector;
and (at the far right) the “Settings” button which opens a popup window with the
plug-in’s copyright information and additional settings.
Plug-In Control Interface
This part of the plug-in varies greatly from plug-in to plug-in, and an in-depth
description is available on a per plug-in basis, in a separate user guide.
Hint Line
This interface element displays hint messages and may also display other
informational messages. The hint line can be enabled with the “?” button.
Copyright © 2007-2018 Aleksey Vaneev
Voxengo Primary User Guide
7
Main Control Buttons
Every Voxengo plug-in features a set of standard control buttons. They are shown
and described below.
Plug-In Instance Name Edit Box
This control element allows you to give a name to the current plug-in instance. This
name is used for informative purposes only: it helps you to remember the purpose of
the plug-in, or gives you a note of a name of the host audio channel the plug-in is
inserted to. For example, the instance name can be set to “Vocals”, “Drum Bus”,
“Polysynth”, “Bass”, “Lead Guitar”, etc.
Oversampling Selector
This selector allows you to select a “quality factor” for the plug-in. An oversampling
allows a plug-in to run on a higher internal sample rate thus offering a better overall
sound quality. Almost all types of audio processes benefit from an oversampling:
probably, only gain adjustment, panning and convolution plug-ins have no real use
for it. An oversampling helps plug-ins to create more precise filters with minimized
warping at highest frequencies, to reduce spectral aliasing artifacts in compressors
and saturators, to improve a level detection precision in peak compressors. The
higher the oversampling setting is, the more CPU resources plug-in will require since
a CPU load is increased proportionally to the specified oversampling setting: at the
“8x” oversampling setting plug-in uses exactly 8 times more CPU time (and that is
excluding the time necessary to perform the oversampling itself).
The “Auto” oversampling option is the special option that enables the oversampling
when a project is being bounced (exported) to a wave file; in this mode, when the
plug-in works in the real-time mode the oversampling is set to the “1x” option (some
plug-ins may use “2x”). If the “Auto” option was not used then the selected option
will be used during bouncing. It should be noted that not all audio host applications
provide the plug-in with the required plug-in state information: in those cases the
“Auto” option works as the “1x” (or “2x”) option all the time (this is the case for some
older Mac OS X audio host applications that do not report the off-line bouncing state
to the plug-in). The “Auto” oversampling mode engages the “4x” oversampling mode
if the working sample rate is below 72 kHz; the “2x” mode is engaged if the sample
rate is below 144 kHz; otherwise the oversampling is not engaged at all (for example,
if the working sample rate is equal to 176.4 kHz or 192 kHz the oversampling is not
engaged). The maximum oversampling level used when the “Auto” mode is engaged
can be adjusted in the global settings window. Note that when the plug-in enters the
bouncing state, the “Off-Line Render” notification will be displayed on its interface.
When this notification is displayed, the “Auto” oversampling option will be working
correctly.
In the “Settings” window of most Voxengo plug-ins you can choose the oversampling
filter type to use. When the “Min-Phase” type is selected Voxengo plug-ins are using
poly-phase IIR low-pass filters with at least 106 dB stop-band attenuation and 6%
Copyright © 2007-2018 Aleksey Vaneev
Voxengo Primary User Guide
8
transition band’s width (which starts at Fs/2) for the oversampling. Please note that
these poly-phase filters impose a phase coloration which sounds slightly different at
various working sample rates.
Voxengo plug-ins using the “Lin-Phase” filter type use linear-phase filters with 150
dB stop-band attenuation and 4% transition band’s width (centered at Fs/2). Note
that while working at 44.1 kHz sample rate, linear-phase oversampling filters will cut
frequencies above 20 kHz. This is a standard side-effect of oversampling and should
be considered normal.
Please also read the part titled “Oversampling” under the “Plug-In Settings for a
Specific Plug-In” topic.
Bypass Switch
The Bypass switch was mainly designed for evaluation of changes the plug-in made.
The Bypass switch will not reduce the plug-in's CPU load when switched on.
A/B Switch Button
By pressing the “A/B” switch button, you can switch between the current and an
opposite (“A” or “B”) plug-in states.
You can use the “A/B” switch button to copy programs between Session Bank’s slots.
To do so, in the Session Bank you first need to switch to a program you want to copy
and then press the “A > B” (or “B > A”) button. Next, switch to a program where you
want to put the first program and then finally press the “A/B” switch button again.
(The preset manager and its preset banks are discussed later in this guide.)
“A > B” (“B > A”) Button
The “A > B” (“B > A”) button copies the current plug-in state to an opposite state.
You may then switch to this opposite state by pressing the “A/B” button.
Sat Switch
Some plug-ins feature a built-in soft-knee output limiter. This switch enables this
limiter. This limiter controls output signal level and produces “console saturation”
effects. Note that neither limiter mode nor soft-clipping threshold is adjustable.
Copyright © 2007-2018 Aleksey Vaneev
Voxengo Primary User Guide
9
Standard Controls
Knob
The knob control consists of four parts: the name of parameter it controls, the knob
position marker, the center of the knob, and the parameter value readout.
The knob position marker is represented by a rounded light indicator. You may drag
this marker to adjust the value of the parameter using the circular knob adjustment
approach: during dragging, you may move the mouse cursor farther away from the
knob to increase parameter value adjustment precision. You may click on the marker
to set the desired parameter value immediately. This way of adjusting the knob is
available only if the “Radial Knob Mode” global setting was enabled.
The center of the knob has a defined color that corresponds to the parameter or
parameter group the knob controls. You may drag the center of the knob to adjust
the value of the parameter with up and down mouse movements, linearly. While
dragging the center of the knob with the left mouse button, by additionally pressing
the right mouse button you can enable a high precision adjustment mode (which can
otherwise be enabled by holding down the “Shift” key). Dragging precision can be
adjusted in the global settings window.
The parameter value readout displays the current value of the parameter.
When knob is hovered with the mouse cursor, a scale ring is displayed that shows
approximate parameter values at different knob positions (“knob labels”). Thousand
values are suffixed with an asterisk (e.g. “2*”). This ring can be disabled in the global
settings window.
In some plug-ins you may use the right mouse button to enable knob linking. The
linking between knobs is available when two given knobs are logically linked (for
example, input and output gain knobs, low and high frequency knobs, etc.). You may
hold the “Ctrl” (“Command” on Mac OS X) key before dragging a knob with the right
mouse button to enable inverse knob linking: in this mode every positive increment
of the knob you drag results in a negative increment in the linked knob.
Knob can be also controlled with the mouse wheel. Double-clicking on the knob
resets it to the default state.
When working in surround, dual-mono or any other multi-group processing mode,
you may hold the “Alt” key to enable linked change of the knob in all channel groups
with active channels in them. This may not work for all knobs knob since such
feature may not be applicable to a parameter a particular knob controls.
Copyright © 2007-2018 Aleksey Vaneev
Voxengo Primary User Guide
10
Keyboard Value Entry
Most readout values displayed on the user interface (gain, frequency, parameter value
readouts) can be clicked for keyboard value entry (some plug-ins whose parameter
value readouts can be dragged require double-click for keyboard entry).
Value List Selector
This type of control allows you to choose a value or an option from the list. You may
press the selector button with the left mouse button to display the value list. If you
later depress the mouse button on the desired value instead of the selector itself, the
list will be closed and the value on which you have depressed the mouse button will
be selected.
Note that mode preset lists are different to value lists in that mode preset lists do not
highlight a currently selected mode when you open the list.
Value and mode preset lists offer you additional ways of item selection without
opening the list: you may use mouse’s “forward” and “backward” buttons and mouse
wheel to scroll through the values. You may press the right mouse button on a value
selector (but not on a mode preset selector) to switch between the current and default
values.
Slider
Voxengo plug-ins feature horizontal and vertical sliders. A slider can be dragged with
the left mouse button to perform adjustments. While dragging the slider with the left
mouse button, by additionally pressing the right mouse button you can enable a high
precision adjustment mode (which can otherwise be enabled by holding down the
“Shift” key).
If plug-in presents you an array of sliders (like the “Overtone GEQ” plug-in does) by
holding down the right mouse button on the slider array you will engage the
“drawing” mode that allows you to position sliders in the “free-hand” mode.
Level Meter
Many Voxengo plug-ins feature standard level meters. Each level meter contains
level scale ruler (in decibel) and several level bars that correspond to channels (“A”,
Copyright © 2007-2018 Aleksey Vaneev
Voxengo Primary User Guide
11
“B”, etc.) of the currently selected channel group (level meter displays all available
channels if the “Show All Channel Meters” switch was enabled in the “Channel
Routing” window). In some cases level meters are shown in the “minimal” variant
with only a single level bar present that averages level from all channels that belong
to the currently selected group. Gain reduction meters are displayed inversely (from
top to bottom), and may show positive gain reduction values since they are showing
gain reduction changes relative to the average gain reduction over 2-second time
frame.
Level meters may show a small horizontal white bar which represents peak level. In
output level meters such peak level may turn red which means that the output level
has entered the area above the 0 dBFS signal level and clipping may occur if the plugin stays last in the audio host application’s signal chain (if the plug-in is staying in the
intermediate position before other plug-ins clipping may not necessarily occur). In
non-output level meters used in the plug-in a red peak level may be only an
informative indication that some predefined threshold level was reached.
Level meter ballistics and peak level hold time can be defined for all instances of the
plug-in in the “Settings” window.
Output level meters usually feature the “Out/In” readout that displays the RMS level
difference between the input and output signals of the plug-in (this level difference
estimation is based on 3-second integration time).
Equalizer
Several Voxengo plug-ins feature an equalizer with the built-in real-time spectrum
analyzer. While the visual appearance of the equalizer is similar among Voxengo
plug-ins, the equalizing algorithm used by any given plug-in may be different from
other plug-ins.
Note that information contained in this chapter applies to parametric equalizers only,
this part does not apply to envelope-driven equalizers like CurveEQ – please refer to
the Envelope Editor chapter for information on envelope editing.
This picture shows the “control surface” with control points which can be dragged
with the left mouse button to adjust the filter's gain and frequency that corresponds
to this control point (you may additionally hold the “Shift” key to enable precise
adjustments).
You may select the filter type of the control point by pressing the right mouse button
on that control point. By default, the filter type is set to “Off” making the control
point appear grey. Alternatively, you may use the mouse’s “forward” and “backward”
buttons to scroll through the filter types.
Copyright © 2007-2018 Aleksey Vaneev
Voxengo Primary User Guide
12
The readouts you see show mouse cursor position within the control surface. The
readout also displays the musical note (and detune in cents) that corresponds to the
frequency position. The rightmost readout shows mouse cursor’s position within the
spectrum power range.
Clicking on a control point with the mouse button will cause the point to be encircled,
and the corresponding filter's frequency response curve will be shown in orange. The
white curve shown in the equalizer window shows the summary frequency response
of all currently enabled filters. When the control point is encircled, three entry fields
will be also displayed which you can use to specify filter’s parameters via keyboard
precisely (these entry fields may not be available in a particular plug-in).
While dragging a control point with the left mouse button, you can adjust the filter's
bandwidth by additionally holding the right mouse button (or holding down the “Alt”
key). Alternatively, you can use the mouse wheel to adjust the filter’s bandwidth.
You can hold the “Ctrl” (“Command” on Mac OS X) key while dragging a point to
enable its gain adjustment only; holding the “Ctrl” (“Command” on Mac OS X) and
“Alt” key simultaneously enables control point’s frequency adjustment only. Doubleclicking on a control point with the “Ctrl” (“Command” on Mac OS X) key held
returns this point to the 0 dB gain position.
Double-clicking on a control point without any key being held temporarily disables it.
Second double-click will re-enable the control point. A disabled control point will be
re-enabled whenever you move it. Some plug-ins may allow you to double-click or
Shift+Click the control surface anywhere to add a new filter (the filter type will be
auto-selected depending on the frequency where the filter was added at).
Equalizer – Group Editing
You can also perform editing operations on a group of control points. To select
several control points, drag inside the control surface itself. A box will appear, and all
control points inside this area will become selected. Later you can move a group of
selected points like you are working with a single point. To add control points to the
current selection, you have to hold the “Shift” key before starting to drag inside the
control surface. While holding the “Shift” key, instead of dragging you may also click
on the control point you want to add or remove to/from selection. If several points
were selected the double click on any of the selected points with the “Ctrl”
(“Command” on Mac OS X) key held will reset all selected points to 0 dB.
To deselect any currently selected points, simply click the control surface anywhere.
You may right-click the control surface to select all control points at once.
Copyright © 2007-2018 Aleksey Vaneev
Voxengo Primary User Guide
13
If several control points are selected, dragging them up and down scales the gains of
these filters up and down, up to the point of gain inversion.
The “Presets” button opens preset manager for the equalizer.
Equalizer – Spectrum
Beside control points and frequency response plot the equalizer window also displays
the Fourier spectrum analysis plot. The spectrum analysis and displaying parameters
can be selected via the “Spec” mode selector. The “Spectrum Mode Editor” can be
used to customize these parameters further. You may also click the control surface
with the left mouse button anywhere to reset spectrum analysis display. Note that
Voxengo plug-ins use Hann windowing function to perform FFT analysis.
A red vertical line that can be displayed if the visible frequency range is wide: this line
shows maximal frequency of the input signal and depends on the input sample rate.
A second red vertical line may be displayed if oversampling is in use – this second
line informs you about the internal frequency range used by the plug-in at this
moment. Note that until you start the audio playback the red line may not be placed
correctly, because the plug-in may not know the correct input sample rate before the
audio processing was started.
Note that by default Voxengo plug-ins use 4.5 dB per octave slope for the spectrum
display which makes it look considerably “elevated” towards the higher frequencies in
comparison to most other spectrum analyzers available on the market. This setting
can be changed in the “Spectrum Mode Editor” window.
If the spectrum does not fit the display, you may adjust the visible spectrum range in
the “Spectrum Mode Editor” window.
Equalizer – Narrow-Band Sweeping
You may enable the “narrow-band sweeping” function by first holding the “Ctrl”
(“Command” on Mac OS X) key and then dragging the control surface with the left
mouse button. As a result of this action you will see the curve of the band-pass filter
that only passes the selected frequency range. You may adjust the bandwidth of the
filter with the mouse wheel. Such mode is useful at highlighting the resonances in the
sound.
Note that the band-pass filter’s curve is applied on top of the existing equalizer curve,
and so the curve you see when engaging the narrow-band sweeping is composed of
the existing equalizer curve and band-pass filter’s own equalizer curve.
Copyright © 2007-2018 Aleksey Vaneev
Loading...