sympathizer - panel controls

Panel Overview

The panel of the Sympathizer shows two main groups of control sections:

user panel

Resonator Banks A,B,C,D

Global Controls

click on a section name to jump to the referring paragraph.

Resonator Banks A,B,C,D

the Sympathizer resonators are grouped in four banks. The Bank controls show a column of five knob controls to the left and seven pitch control fields to the right. 

Resonator Properties

  • Symp_logo.pngLevel: Level of the bank output signal
  • Material: Changes the string material. Turn the knob left for a gut/nylon like sound turn right to achieve a more brilliant/metallic sound.
  • Sustain: Controls the decay of the sympathetic string cluster.
  • Width: The width control generates a stereo signal by spreading the StringVerb resonators in the stereo field. Turn all left for a mono signal turn right to widen the stereo image.
  • Pan: Panorama position of the Banks output signal. Note: The effect of the width setting can be reduced when extreme panning positions are chosen.
  • Fader Group: Use the fader group buttons to apply a change that  is made to one of the knobs to all four banks. 
    Knobs can be grouped [gang] to quickly change settings globally or ganged Symp_fader_gang.png in reverse [rev] to make adjustments to a single bank while still preserving the overall balance of the preset. Select [copy] to apply the same value to all four banks. Setting the button to [off] will ungroup the knobs. 

Pitch Controls

The tuning controls allow precise retuning of the seven resonators. They are designed to allow fast and convinient retuning of a single string or of the entire StringVerb effect.
  • Symp_logo.png
  • To change the pitch of a string: make sure that the note button in the upper button row is activated. Now click on one of the note names and enter the desired value as note name or the midi note number. (the text field is not case sensitive) The pitch can be set in the range between F-1 (17) and C6 (96)
  • The arrow buttons to the left and right of the entry field can be used to raise or decrease the pitch. The stepper uses the interval that has been entered in the note shift textfield at the bottom of the pitch controls.
  • Symp_damp_ctrl1.pngUse the stepper buttons to the left and right of the note shift entry to transpose the entire Sympathizer effect with a single mouse click. Note: The global stepper buttons have no effect on a bank that is currently switched off
  • To fine tune the strings click the tune button in the button row at the top of the section. The entry fields show now the fine tuning amount in cent.
    Note: while only a range of -50 ... +50 cent is displayed (+-1 semitone) it is still possible to enter values outside this range or to exceed the range using the stepper buttons. In this case the tuning display wraps around while the pitch jumps to the next semitone.
  • Click on the freq button to view and change the resonator pitch as frequency values.
  • use the on/off button to switch a bank off. A disabled bank will not consume any cpu ressources.
  • Symp_damp_ctrl1.pngUse the load and save buttons to load or write a resonator pitch list as text file to disk. Click here to see an example.

Midi/Remote Control

Apply MIDI control or VST host automation on damper and output volume to achieve pedal action or gate effects.

Damper

  • Status LED: This LED shows the current status of the damper control. It is sensitive to incoming MIDI or VST host automation signals(LED bright: damper lifted, LED dark: damper is active)
  • Symp_damp_ctrl1.pngDamper Ctrl: use a midi controler, the pitch wheel or VST host automation to change the damper ratio. Click on the entry field and drag the mouse up or down to slide through the available options.
    Note: VST host automation data for the damper parameter is only read or written when the damper ctrl selection is set to host.
  • Switch/Continous: The selected midi controler can switch (button white) two damper states or continously fade (button blue) from a high to a low damping factor.
  • Thres: Set the switch threshold. When a controler value below threshold is received the damper is on otherwise it is switched off. (only active when the switch/cont button is set to switch)
  • Symp_damp_ctrl2.png
  • Slope: Set the slope of the damper response curve. (only active when the switch/cont button is set to cont)
  • Ctrl Depth: Controls the damping factor of the activated damper.
  • Forward/Inverse: Inverts the damper action.

Volume

  • Status LED: This LED reacts to incoming MIDI or host automation events and shows the current status of the volume control.(LED bright: no attenuation, LED dark: effect is muted.)
  • Symp_damp_ctrl1.pngVolume Ctrl: use a midi controler, the pitch wheel or assign a key range to control the output volume via Midi. Click on the entry field and drag the mouse up or down to slide through the available options.
    Note: VST host automation data for the volume parameter is only read or written when the volume ctrl selection is set to host.
  • Switch/Cont: The selected midi controler can switch (button white) the output signal on and off or continously fade (button blue) the output volume. (only active when key range is not selected as controler source.
  • Thres: Set the switch threshold. When a controler value below threshold is received the output volume is off otherwise it set to maximum. (only active when the switch/cont button is set to switch)
  • Symp_damp_ctrl2.png
  • Slope: Set the slope of the volume response curve. (only active when the switch/cont button is set to cont)
  • Range Lo/Hi: Keyrange selection that is controling the output volume.
  • Invert: Inverts the volume controler action.

Routing

Click on one of the bank symbols in the routing area to change the wiring and status of the selected resonator bank. Available settings are: 
  • Symp_mixer.pngon: Normal operation mode. The processed signal is sent to the output.
  • off: Bank is switched off. (use this setting to save CPU ressources if a smaller number of resonators is required.).
  • invert: The processed signal is inverted and sent to the output.
    Usage: Adding two banks with the exact same settings with one of them inverted would completely cancel out the output signal. The fun starts when you choose different sustain values for the combined banks. Now only the Attack will be erased while the tail of the bank with the longer sustain slowly builds up. Experiment with different material settings or with transposed banks (chose a harmonic interval like octave or fifth for good results)
  • Symp_mixer.pngchain: The output of a bank in chain mode is used as input signal for the following bank. Banks can be chained in pairs (1->2 and
    3->4). Chaining banks creates a slow attack of the reverb tail. The sound of the chained banks can be a bit reminiscent of a bowed string ensemble. (depending on the input signal of course)
 

Mixer

  • Symp_mixer.png Gain: input signal gain.
  • Volume: output signal volume.
  • Dry - Wet: controls the mix of the original dry signal with the effected wet signal.

Value Display

value displayThis section shows the value of the currently used knob control. Touch or turn one of the knobs to see the exact parameter value. Once a knob is selected you can even change its setting through the value display: Click it and insert the new value. Now hit the enter key (or click anywhere else on the panel) to update the knob that has the focus. 

Sympathizer Logo

Symp_logo.png
  • Logo: Click on the Sympathizer logo to bring up the splash screen.
  • Help: The help button opens the online help.