crusher-X Help |
| P anels and the main screen
About the main panel | crusher-X is fully controllable from the main panel. Also, you can open additional windows but to control the sound, use the faders and buttons on the main panel: The panel is divided into the following sections:
F ile Input | Find the File Input section on the left side of the screen. You can choose four simultaneously playing .wav files for the crusher. Open a soundfile with the directory button. Then choose Loop mode. If the file is in stereo, you must select the right or left channel because the input of the crusher section is mono. Vary the pitch of the file by sliding the fader. Press Play to hear the file. If you do not hear any sound, make sure that the associated fader and output faders in the mixer are not muted. When the faders are muted, the file automatically stops playing to reduce the workload on the DSP system.
Input DCOs | The DCO Input panel has four independent Digitally Controlled Oscillators. Set the DCO frequency with the left slider or enter a specific frequency in the field below the slider. Pick a waveform from the list. Adjust the phase of the oscillator with the phase fader; try using the phase fader with non-rectangular waves to enrich the sound. The random function pseudo-randomly fills the small DCO buffer with random sound, but does so periodically. With the modulation fader, you can choose the depth of the pitch control from the next DCO. DCO1 is controlled by DCO2, DCO2 is controlled by DCO3, DCO3 is controlled by DCO4 and DCO4 is controlled by DCO1. This control scheme allows you to create very complex FM sounds. For very fast strange FM sounds, try the DCO button on the random panel.
C rusher panel | All inputs are routed through the mixer and combined. The resulting sound is crushed in the crusher section. The faders and controllers in the crusher panel enable real-time control of the crusher-X process. For details about this section see the crusher panel help.
Control panel | With this panel, you can start and stop the DSP as well as edit your previous actions. Before you hear any sound, you must start the crusher. If something is wrong with the Direct-X system, you will get an error. If something strange happens, just press Panic to stop the crusher. When you move one fader or change one value, the entire status of the crusher is streamed into memory; you can undo this change by pressing the Undo button. Soon, the blue markers inside the fader will disappear, which means that the next memory location of the undo/redo system is enabled. No changes are stored in the undo/redo system until the blue markers disappear. If you load a new crusher-sheet you can also undo this action.
Mixer | The mixer allows full volume control of all relevant elements. Group the faders together by pressing the little numbered buttons. Note that the grouped faders move relative to their original positions. The Cloud In fader refers to the input of the crusher. If you open the I/O Level window you can gauge the input. Note that the internal 32-bit structures allow internal overload close to +40dB! Only the output levels should be under 0dB because of the 16-bit soundcard. Direct after the crusher output the Stereo Booster is added. With this faders you can spread the sound in the stereo field. Adjust the level and the delay time of this effect. With the Feedback Fader you can send the stereo output of the Stereo Booster back to the input of the crusher. Please note that there is an additional small delay that comes from the internal DSP structure. You can adjust this delay by setting the DSP buffer size. Combined with the limiter/compressor/expander you can produce extreme effects with these faders. All volume faders have their own fading delay which allows smooth fading and muting - even with a massive volume change resulting from using the undo/redo function or altering another parameter! Open the DSP Structure window to see which element of the crusher will be affected if you move the faders or change the values. The Input faders are disabled if there is no input device selected in the DSP Setup. You can control the Faders by the Z-Axis of the Joystick.
L oadlist | The Loadlist is a very useful tool for live and studio performance. With the Insert button, you can add crusher-sheets (files) from your hard disk. To delete and move the entries in the list use the Delete, Up and Down buttons. By entering a number in the number field or pressing the up and down arrows, you can load the next file into the crusher. Press Open to load a new Loadlist (*.cxl) file. You can save the Loadlist by using Load-List on the main menu. If you turn on Auto Save mode, all actual changes will be written to the file. Use Auto Save mode with care because it irrevocably changes your files! The function keys on the keyboard F1 through F10 offer direct access to the Loadlist positions 1-10 (This is a special idea from KP Ludwig John, Thank you KP! Greetings to your family! ). To move back up the list use F11, to move forward use F12. You can use the joystick buttons to control the list. Note that you can't save the Loadlist without registering crusher-X!
Recording | This panel enables you to record the output of crusher-X. Choose a file name and press Realtime to save the sound to a 16-bit stereo .wav file. After recording you can playback the file by using the speaker button. The recorded file is feeded into the mixer. To hear only this file and not the other crusher sounds mute the Crusher Input and the Thru faders during the file playback. If your PC doesn't have enough processing power or if you want to process many cloud generators, you can choose the OffLine button. In OffLine mode real-time input is not possible, but all other functions are available. You can control the realtime recording using a Joystick Button. Without registering you cannot record the output of crusher-X. Sorry!
Generator panel | The Generator panel enables access to the main crusher settings. Choose the number of generators, the length of the crusher buffer (not to be confused with the Device or DSP buffer) in milliseconds, and the Window Type amplitude (Blackman, etc.) for each particle of sound generated by the buffer. The trigger section allows you to disable the continuous update of the buffer. The Manual button triggers one update event or you can use a Joystick Button. If Auto is disabled, you can trigger the buffer with the real-time input levels. Choose the desired trigger level with the fader. Monitor the level with the I/O level window. The little numbered buttons below the Buffer Size field correspond to the 4 input files in the File Input section. When you press the buttons, the crusher buffer length will be set to the exact file length of the corresponding file. With this feature you can move the contents of one file into the buffer. To do this, you should disable the Auto update, unmute the file and cloud input faders in the mixer, mute the thru faders, set the trigger level to maximum, start playing the file and then press the Manual trigger button. After the file is transferred, you can use crusher-X for old-fashioned granular synthesis. Without registering crusher-X you cannot set up a sound buffer longer than 1 second or use more than 3 generators. Sorry! To prevent noisy switching sounds between the grains, each grain is windowed by an envelope. This envelope can be selected in the Window Type list. Take a look at the Cloud 3D window to see a graphic representation of the windowing envelope. If you like the switching sounds between the grains, select a rectangular window.
Limiter | crusher-X has a limiter/expander/compressor which has many uses, including preventing an overloaded output! The limiter is necessary if you use internal feedback. Pressing -3db sets up a -3db limiter. Reset disables the limiter/expander/compressor. To create your own curve, press the Setup button. Attack defines the attack time of the envelope. Hold determines the duration of the envelope level before it Decays. Look at the I/O Level window to explore the results of different fader settings. The limiter consumes processing power from your CPU. If you don't have enough power, press Reset. The settings are also saved in the crusher-sheets. If you want to preserve the limiter settings, load a new crusher-sheet (use File | Open or the Loadlist) and select the disable option in the options window.
Cloud Oscillator | Along with the internal crusher modulation there is an additional Cloud Oscillator. It can be mixed with the modulation using the cloud fader on the crusher panels. Use the Cloud fader for general cloud modulation depth.
Manual Sliders | Every crusher modulation panel allows you to use one of the manual sliders instead of the oscillator, so you can control complex modulations manually. Use the joysticks X- and Y-axis to control the sliders. Use the Cloud Oscillator to augment the modulation of the manual sliders.
Random | The random panel helps you create very fast, very complex sounds. Just like the DCOs, each crusher modulation panel can be assigned randomized values. Use the Undo/Redo buttons to undo results that sound too strange.
J oystick | The Force Feeback panel allows direct access to the Joystick and Force Feedback Setup Dialog.
Status bar | At the bottom of the screen, you'll find a status bar with useful information about the status of the crusher. Some faders also have ToolTips to help you.