If you have just purchased Solid State Symphony, thank-you very much! Before you do anything else- Please BACK UP YOUR DOWNLOAD! Preferably on DVD, but please make sure that it s someplace that can t be corrupted if you ever have a problem with your computer. Here s hoping you don t, of course. You are welcome to install Solid State Symphony on any of your own computers. For most honest people it goes without saying, but please do not upload this product to a file-sharing site. We do enjoy our work, and would like to continue to stay in business. Indiginus is 2 people- not a big corporation that can absorb such losses. We have tried to make the operation of Solid State Symphony intuitive, and we hope that this User Guide will help to fill in the blanks. The User Guide does assume that the user has a basic knowledge of synthesis terms such as filter, envelope, key velocity, LFO, and so on. Anyway, enjoy Solid State Symphony! Sincerely, T Collins, Indiginus All samples and materials copyright 2012 A. Tracy Collins. All rights reserved.
Overview Solid State Symphony is a virtual orchestra created using samples of analogue synth waveforms instead of actual acoustic instruments. Solid State Symphony consists of 2 separate instruments: 1. The main instrument, which contains the Orchestra as well as some overtly synth elements, and some automated components. 2. Solid State Strings, which creates a string-section like sound.
Controls There are a lot of controls packed into the main instrument, so let s look at what s going on. Each of the 20 Elements contains a colored LED to the left of it s name, which turns that Element on or off. Element LEDs (on/off) Concerning the Strings Section: You can choose Marcato or Staccato, but not both. The Strings 1 and Marcato sample sets were created by re-sampling the output of Solid State Strings. Square LED button turns off the entire section. Section Volume Knob The CRT will display parameter information, as well as the Orchestra animation, which can be turned on with the button. As you play, the display will show which sections are being triggered according to how the key and velocity ranges are set. CRT Display Editing Element Parameters To edit an Element s parameters, click on the Element s name. You will see the name highlighted in grey and the parameter controls will appear in the CRT display. Here you can set that Element s low velocity point, volume, transposition (+/- 12 semitones), key range, reverb send, and delay send. Click on name to display controls in CRT.
Sections The main instrument is divided into 3 sections: The Orchestra Panels The Animation Panel The Synth Panel
The Orchestra The orchestra is divided into 3 sections- Strings, Winds, and Percussion. Each element is turned on or off by the colored LED next to it s name. The square button in each section turns the entire section on or off, and the large knobs control the volume for each section. Each element has controls for low velocity point, volume, transposition (+/- 12 semitones), key range, reverb send, and delay send, which can be accessed by clicking on it s name. The Orch Presets Panel contains 2 pull-down menus. The first one allows you to choose from several Orchestra presets, while the second allows you to save your edits to any preset location, which will permanently over-write the original (which is why you should make a DVD-rom backup of Solid State Symphony as soon as it finishes downloading). Below that is the button, which turns on the orchestra animation in the CRT. As you play, the display will show which sections are being triggered according to how the key and velocity ranges are set. This is very useful when making these settings, as well as being cool eye candy. Below that is the button, which will display some master reverb and delay controls in the CRT. The Ramp control. This control is for softening the Low Velocity points. For instance, if you have the Trumpets/ Trombones element set to play at velocities above 90, it can feel abrupt when they just jump in as you reach those velocities. The Ramp control allows you to add a buffer that ramps velocities from zero to the Low Velocity point. This control is global, and so will effect every element.
The Animation Panel The Animation Panel contains only one element, Gated Pad, but also controls the actions of several other elements in the Synth Panel. The Steps knob sets how many steps are active for automation (up to 16). There is also a Resolution selector for setting beat divisions. These 2 controls are global for all automated elements. The 16 Step Selector buttons will flash green as the automation runs. The tempo is set either by the Master Editor in the Kontakt control bar, or by the host tempo (when running Kontakt as a plug-in). Gated Pad When the Gated Pad is active (by turning on it s LED), the 16 Step Selector Buttons allow you to create a pattern that turns on or cuts off a held pad, chosen in the pull-down menu. There is also a Depth control to determine the strength of the effect. As always, you can click on the name of the element Gated Pad to edit it s parameters. Clicking the button will display additional controls for the Gated Pad in the CRT. Here you ll find filter cutoff and resonance controls, as well as filter LFO amount and frequency for adding some additional movement to the sound.
The Synth Panel The Synth Panel contains 6 elements. PadScapes Some useful pads with varying degrees of movement. PitchMod 1 and PitchMod2 are synth waves whose pitches are modulated according to a sequence of up to 16 steps. The wave of either PitchMod element can be chosen in the pulldown menus. The number of steps is controlled by the Steps knob in the Animation Panel. Clicking on the button will display the pattern tables in the CRT. Just click and drag the bars to change their values, which have a range of +/- 1 octave. There are several preset patterns, and you can save your edited pattern to any location, which will over-write the original. The button will display the PitchMod controls in the CRT. The button will display the PitchMod filter controls in the CRT. Here you will find filter cutoff and resonance controls, as well as filter LFO amount and frequency controls. Separate pan knobs for both PitchMod elements are here also.
The Synth Panel The Bass element has several bass sounds to choose from, which are triggered by a simple step sequencer. You can adjust the velocity of each step by clicking the Bass element s button, which will bring up this display in the CRT: Just click and drag on a bar to adjust that step s velocity. A velocity of zero will cause that step to be silent. The number of steps is controlled by the Steps knob in the Animation Panel. The Rhythm element is triggered by a simple step sequencer. You can adjust the velocity of each step by clicking the Rhythm element s button, which will bring up this display in the CRT: Just click and drag on a bar to adjust that step s velocity. A velocity of zero will cause that step to be silent. The number of steps is controlled by the Steps knob in the Animation Panel. Low velocities will trigger the HiHat sound only. Middle range velocities will trigger HiHat + Kick. Higher velocities will trigger HiHat + Kick + Snare. You ll also find controls here for filter cutoff, resonance, and envelope amount. There are several preset patterns, and you can save your edited pattern to any location, which will over-write the original.
Solid State Strings Solid State Strings uses eight slightly different voices (you can think of it as an eight-oscillator synthesizer) to create a string ensemble sound. Each voice has an independent LFO (vibrato) and pitch envelope to simulate the sound of separate instruments in a string section. The Pitch Spread knob has three settings that determine the intensities of the pitch envelopes of the individual voices. Tight means that the envelopes are not changing the pitches very much, so the voices pitches stay close together for the duration of a note. Loose means that the pitch envelopes affect the voices much more to simulate the sound of string instruments playing slightly out of tune. The Slides button activates a slight upward slide to each note. You can use your keyboard s Pitch Bend wheel to control the slide effect. Rate controls slide time. Add Oct allows you to add a second voice an octave higher starting at a certain point on the keyboard. In the above screenshot, notes played on B2 or below are played singly, while notes above B2 have the added octave. This is handy if you would like to play chords with your left hand while you play a melody with the octave with your right. Just click and drag on the note number to change the split point. The Adagio button softens the attack of the notes. In the Amp section there are sliders to control the attack and release of the amp envelope, and a knob to set the Amount of effect that controllers will have on the volume. You can choose Mod (mod wheel CC#1) or Exp (expression CC#11) to control the volume. The higher the Amount knob is set, the more the controller will affect the volume.
Solid State Strings cont. Vibrato Control There are 2 ways to control the amount of vibrato in your strings section: You can use a midi controller, either Mod (mod wheel CC#1) or Exp (expression CC#11) to control the vibrato. The higher the Amount knob is set, the more the controller will affect the volume. Or, you can use the ADHSR envelope to automate the process. This way, you can set the vibrato to swell at the beginning on notes and die out in the sustain portion. The Vib Env Depth knob determines how much the ADHSR envelope affects the vibrato amount. The Filter Cutoff knob controls the filter cutoff. No surprise there. A Reverb knob controls the amount of on-board reverb effect.