Solid State Logic Vocalstrip manual

V ocalstrip™ One S top V ocal P rocessing Plug-in for SSL Duende – a U ser’ s Guide Duende. This is SSL.[...]

Contents 1. Introduction 1 Key F eatures 2 Hardwar e Limitations 3 V ocalstrip Graphical U ser Interface 4 2. System R equirements 5 Apple M acintosh 5 Windo ws/PC 5 3. Installation & Authorisation 6 4. V ocalstrip In Detail 8 4.1 De-esser 8 4.2 De-ploser 8 4.3 Equaliser 9 4.4 Compander 10 4.5 P rocess Order 10 5. G raphical Displays 11 5.1 Gra[...]

1. Introduction Thank you for purchasing the V ocalstrip plug-in for the SSL D uende platform. V ocalstrip is a one stop solution for superior vocal processing, with all the tools you need to take y our vocal sound into the big league. V ocalstrip features 4 configurable processing blocks to take car e of unwanted artefacts, dynamics and equalisati[...]

K ey F eatures • Intelligent De-esser • Intelligent De-ploser • 3 band EQ • Compander featuring compression, downwar ds expansion and output drive • Extensive visual feedback including a real-time FFT analyser showing the result of the EQ processing on the audio spectrum • Complete control o ver process order • Extensive control optio[...]

P age 3 Hardwar e Limitations Because of the many processor -intensive processes that ar e part of V ocalstrip, this plug-in uses a large number of Duende DSP cycles. Although this is un-noticeable for most ‘ normal’ use, it does mean that if 6 or more V ocalstrips are loaded onto one Duende DSP at 44.1/48kHz and all of the modules are enabled [...]

V ocalstrip Graphical User Interface P age 4 1 P reset Management buttons 2 Input gain control 3 Equalisation module 4 Input meter 5 Latency free plug-in bypass 6 De-esser 7 De-ploser 8 Compander response graph 9 EQ graph (not shown) will show here – with optional FFT display 10 Amplitude histogram 11 Duende logo * 12 Output meter 13 Compander 14[...]

2. System R equirements Apple M acintosh • SSL Duende runn ing V2.59 softwar e and 2.19 firmware • Mac P owerPC G4/G5 or I ntel 1Ghz or higher • 512MB RAM (1GB recommended) • Mac OS X (‘T iger’ 10.4.11 or ‘Leopard’ 10.5.2 or higher) • 60MB of free Har d Disk space • Aud io U nits, VST or R T AS* compatibl e host application • [...]

P age 6 3. Installation & Authorisation A tim e limi ted tr ial ve rsio n of V ocal stri p will b e ins tall ed dur ing th e Due nde v2 .6 sof twar e upd ate. This al low s V ocals trip to be run in evaluation mode, which means the plug-in can be used with full functionality until a certain number of sampl es of audio h ave been p roces sed. At[...]

P age 7 5. In step 3. of the purchase y ou will be asked to enter the Authentication ID (see step 1. above). 6. If your Duende har dware is not already regist ered you will be asked to register it her e. 7. Enter your payment details and your or der will be completed and you will be provided with the U nlock Key . 8. Return to the P roduct Activati[...]

P age 8 4. V ocalstrip In Detail 4.1 De-esser Sibi lance is a res onance often f ound in voca l recor dings which ca n cause undesi rable distor tion artefacts which sounds like the ‘S’ constants are o verly high in level. The D e-esser in V ocalstrip intelligently detects these sounds and gives you contro l over how much attenuat ion to apply [...]

P age 9 4.3 Equaliser Thr ee popu lar EQ ty pes ar e pro vided to al low y ou to cut l ow fr eque ncies , find and attenuate r esonances and sh ape the top end of the signa l. Each EQ type features independent in/out switching: • The low cut filter operates in the range of 30Hz to 300Hz – you will see from the graphical EQ display that it cause[...]

P age 10 4.4 Compander The term Compander is a hybrid of Compressor and Expander . F irst the signal enters the downwards expander , which has a fixed ratio of 1.5:1 and is designed to reduce room ambience, spill or br eath noise that is often brought up by the subsequent compression. The Thresh (threshold) ran ges f rom 0 dB FS d own to – 96d B [...]

P age 11 5. Graphical Displays V ocal strip fe atur es an assi gnable d isplay i n the top ri ght hand c orner of t he plug- in GUI. This toggle s betwe en sho wing the Compander Law Graph and the EQ r esponse curve. Clicking on any of the controls in either the Compander or EQ section will switch to the appropriate display . Whe n dis pla yi ng th[...]

P age 12 5.3 Compander Law Display This shows the output level for any given input lev el according to the Compander controls which are currently being used. Y ou can see both the compressor and expander threshold, indicated by the two knees. As the ratio of the compressor is increased, y ou can see the top portion flatten out indicating that the o[...]

P age 13 5.5 Meters The V ocalstrip input and output meter displays are, in fact, three meters in one. They offer various ways to easily read the P eak and RMS levels of a signal o ver time, and the ‘ dynamic history ’ meter allows you to see at a glance ho w the amplitude has been changing over the past second or so. A 30dB range from 0dB FS d[...]

P age 14 6. Control Options M ove the mo use cursor either up/ down or in a cir cular mo vement o ver a knob to adjust it s parameter val ue. The exac t nature of the mov ement you need to make to change a knob value is dictated by your DA W . • The scroll wheel can also be used to alter parameter values here • P ress <Shift> whilst scrol[...]

P age 15 Clicking the Load button with the left mouse button will b ring u p a stand ard M acintos h OS X or W indo ws dialogue box asking you to choose a file to load. The Save button behaves in the same manner , and when clicked will ask you choose a destination to store the file. It is suggested that V ocalstrip presets are stor ed in an SS L Pr[...]

P age 16 Tip: Copy from locatio n A to location B • Save the preset to a temporary location on your hard disk whilst in location A • T oggle to location B • Load the stored preset 6.3 Automation E very V ocalstrip plug-in parameter can be automated as long as parameter automation is supported by the host application. The method for r ecording[...]

P age 17 7. V ocalstrip Par ameters & Control R anges Equaliser De-esser and De-ploser Compander Control Range Compressor Ratio 1:1 to 50:1 Compressor Thr eshold 0dB to –48dB Attack 0.1ms to 100ms Release 0.5ms to 2s Knee Soft/Har d Expander Threshold 0db to –96dB Make-up Gain 0db to 48db Control Range Threshold –48dB to 0dB Amount 0 to 1[...]

P age 18 8. V ocalstrip Support Support F AQs T o access the latest support information on Duende, please visit our online support site at: www .solid-state-logic.com/music/Duende/Classic/faq.asp The information within the F AQ is kept up to date to ensure all information is accurate and av ailable to you 24/7. If you can’t find your answer or a [...]

Visit SSL at: www .solid-state-logic.com 82S6MC160A © Solid S tate Logic All Rights reserved under International and P an-American Copyright Conventions Duende and V ocalstrip are trademarks of Solid State Logic All other product names and trademarks are the pr operty of their respective owners and are her eby acknowledged No part of this publicat[...]