Related Manuals for u-he Bazille
Summary of Contents for u-he Bazille
- Page 1 FM S Modular & ynthesizer user guide version 1.1.1 19. Nov 2020 u-he • Heckmann Audio GmbH • BERLIN...
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Page 2: Table Of Contents
Introduction Installation ............Resources ............Synth Overview ........... GUI Components ..........MIDI Specialities ..........The Control Bar ........... Multicore / HQ ........... Oscilloscope ............Patch Browser Overview ............Directory Panel ..........Presets Panel ............ Patch Info ............Drag & Drop Functions ........ - Page 3 Modulation Sequencer Divide, Time and Trigger ........Snapshot Dial / Rotate ........Snapshot Values ..........How to Trigger Envelopes ......... Tweaks & FX Overview ............Voice ..............Pitch ..............Glide ..............Stack Voice Tuning ........... Microtuning ............Mapping Generators ......... Envelope Extras ..........
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Page 4: Introduction
CPU cores, can help maximize the number of playable voices. Note: Due to inherent technical limitations of the synthesis method, Bazille’s PD-based oscillators are prone to aliasing. If you have Bazille installed on a high-performance system you should try activating the HQ (higher quality) option. -
Page 5: Resources
Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/u-he/Themes/ Online resources • For downloads, news articles and support, go to the u-he website • For lively discussions about u-he products, go to the u-he forum • For friendship and informal news, go to the u-he facebook page •... -
Page 6: Synth Overview
‘multiples’ in analogue modular synths, these can be used as mixers, ring modulators, amplitude modulators and more. Owners of Bazille’s little cousin ACE should be in familiar territory here! At the bottom right is the MODULATION SEQUENCER with which you can morph or step through up to 8 snapshots of 16 steps each, splittable via the 4 outputs (“taps”). -
Page 7: Gui Components
INTRODUCTION GUI Components This section is an introduction to the basic components of Bazille’s user interface. Knobs and sliders There are two types of controls: unipolar and bipolar. Unipolar knobs and sliders only allow positive values, while the bipolar knobs and sliders allow negative values, often within a range of -100 to +100. -
Page 8: Midi Specialities
While individual parameter locking is great for keeping the Microtuning or Fine tuning fixed while changing presets, it is less suitable for sequencer values, for instance, as locking them all would mean working with 8 x 16 = 128 locks! Future versions of Bazille might include panel locking. GUI size and skin Right-clicking anywhere in the background opens a context menu containing the user interface size options as percentage and width x height in pixels. -
Page 9: The Control Bar
New feature: If you drag a Bazille preset from elsewhere (e.g. your desktop) and drop it onto the data display, that preset will be loaded but not automatically saved anywhere. See Drag &... -
Page 10: Multicore / Hq
(Twitter, Facebook, YouTube). At the bottom of the u-he badge menu is the entry Install Soundset… Unless you are running Linux, you should not need this – see Installing soundsets. -
Page 11: Patch Browser
Default preset Whenever Bazille starts it checks whether the Local root contains a preset called default, which is then loaded instead of the demo sound. Note that default will not appear in the browser. -
Page 12: Directory Panel
PATCH BROWSER Directory Panel If you don’t see this panel on the left of Bazille’s Presets browser, click on the DIRECTORY tab. Local Bazille’s factory presets are sorted into folders 1 through 10. We recommend that you do not add or remove any presets here, but save all your creations in the User folder (see below). - Page 13 PATCH BROWSER Smart Folders The other folders do not contain files, but display the results of querying a database of presets. The content is therefore dynamic i.e. it will change whenever the underlying data changes. Search History Click on this folder to display the results of past searches (maximum 10). Whenever you need to make the results of a search more permanent, right-click and select Save Search...
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Page 14: Presets Panel
Show in Finder / Explorer: Opens a system window for the selected preset. Windows users: After adding, removing or renaming preset files outside of Bazille’s own browser, remember to Refresh the directory (see previous page). -
Page 15: Patch Info
PATCH BROWSER Restore While in the browser you can audition presets without losing track of the one that was previously loaded: Click the [Restore] button to get back to where you were before entering the browser. Scan / ready In the top right of the presets panel is a dark rectangle normally labelled ‘ready’. Whenever you use the refresh function (see the Directory context menu on the previous page), this turns into a progress indicator while the preset database is being refreshed. -
Page 16: Drag & Drop Functions
To install, drag & drop the file into Bazille (anywhere will do). The soundset will appear in the User folder. If a soundset already exists with the same name, any modified files will be backed up automatically and the location displayed. -
Page 17: Tagging
PATCH BROWSER Tagging Tags are elements of metadata, information added to presets so you can find them more easily. IMPORTANT Tags are updated automatically – clicking on the [SAVE] button isn’t required! The main advantage is that presets don’t have to be saved every time you edit a tag. The main caveat is that you should only edit tags after saving your preset…... -
Page 18: Search Functions
PATCH BROWSER Search Functions Search by Tags Click on the TAGS tab to open this view. The buttons here let you set up search criteria according to existing tags with just a few mouse clicks: Below the Search field are four sets of buttons (CATEGORIES, FEATURES, CHARACTER and FAVOURITES). - Page 19 /Local. The [X] button to the right sets the search path to the default Local plus User (i.e. all Bazille presets), and the preset folders become visible again. Alternatively, you can navigate directly to any higher level by right-clicking on the path.
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Page 20: Oscillators
OSCILLATORS Oscillators Bazille is highly unusual for a modular synth. Although the filters are traditional analogue models, the oscillators are unashamedly digital: They combine the two technologies that made digital synthesis affordable (and analogue synths suddenly unfashionable!) in the 1980s – FM (frequency modulation, more correctly ‘phase modulation’) and PD (phase distortion). -
Page 21: Pitch
OSCILLATORS Pitch Together, the knobs labeled Tune and Modify control the oscillator’s basic pitch. Both have mode selectors that make the oscillators suitable for a wide variety of functions e.g. as FM operators, undertone generators or even as host-synchronized LFOs... Tune A value between 0.00 and 24.00 –... -
Page 22: Phase / Fm
OSCILLATORS Phase / FM Bazille’s oscillators are capable of all kinds of ‘FM’ sounds by plugging an audio-frequency source into the phase modulation input. ‘FM synthesis’ is a bit of a misnomer, as this technology was actually based on phase modulation (see Wikipedia articles on... -
Page 23: Phase Distortion
Casio CZ synthesizers. Whenever you start a fresh instance of Bazille, a version of the init patch is automatically loaded. In this version, PD is set to maximum, resulting in a bright sawtooth-like wave. Try turning PD all the way down (as in the above image) for a pure sine wave, then modulate the phase distortion by connecting e.g. -
Page 24: Fractal Resonance
Multiple cycles of the waveform are ‘packed’ into the wave specified by the selector, which then serves as a kind of ‘window’. Watch the effect of fractal resonance in Bazille’s oscilloscope. For example, here is a square wave packed into a triangular window: Fractalize The righthand knob controls the number of cycles of the original wave in each ‘window’. -
Page 25: Lfos
LFOs LFOs At the top left and top right of Bazille’s window are two dedicated low frequency oscillators. Each has 3 parallel outputs at the bottom of the panel. Note that LFO 1 is also responsible for vibrato. Unipolar (+) ‘Unipolar’... - Page 26 LFOs Wave This knob affects the basic LFO waveforms in the following ways: triangle from falling saw though triangle to rising saw ....pulse pulse width from 1% through 50% to 99% (approximate values) ....... random smoothness control ....For more LFO waveforms, try modulating the LFO’s own amplitude recursively (i.e. from the same LFO).
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Page 27: Filters
Gain / inputs Filter input level (negative values) as well as overdrive amount (positive values). Like the main OUTs, each filter has two audio inputs. Note: Bazille’s filters have not been ‘tamed’! Cutoff Filter 1: Cutoff frequency is measured in semitones from 0.00 to 150.00 for a total range of about 12 octaves. - Page 28 Try everything, experiment! Key Follow Key follow causes the cutoff to track MIDI notes, with a variable amount. As in all other u-he synthesizers, key follow pivots around E3 (MIDI note 52). This is the only note that remains unaffected, whatever the value of Key Follow.
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Page 29: Envelopes
ENVELOPES Envelopes Bazille has 4 identical envelope generators, any one of which can be selected as “amp envelope” in the output modules, or connected to any input you like. To reduce clutter in the SYNTH page, controls we thought the average user would adjust less often while creating patches have been relegated to the TWEAKS &... -
Page 30: Outputs
In analogue synthesizers this is often a VCA (Voltage Controlled Amplifier). The output VCAs in polyphonic synths usually have dedicated envelopes, while Bazille offers you a choice. Even modular synths should be stereo, so Bazille gives you two channels with pan controls: the two Output panels Parallel inputs Each output channel has two signal inputs, which are summed together. -
Page 31: Processors
PROCESSORS Processors The panels below each LFO contain various signal processors which will accept any kind of input, control or audio. See the Processor tricks for practical examples. The two processor panels, with Sample & Hold on the left, Quantizer on the right Inverter Simply inverts the phase of the input signal. -
Page 32: Midi & More
KeyF 2. For more details, see Glide. Note: Bazille’s pivot note is the E below middle C i.e. MIDI note 52. Below this particular note, KeyF 1 and KeyF 2 send negative values, while above it they send positive values. -
Page 33: Internal Control Sources
CV Inputs Although control-rate modulation targets (LFO and envelope rates / levels, pan) would normally only accept control-rate sources, Bazille includes a pair of inputs that inject any signal you like into the modulation source drop-down menus. The CV inputs are particularly useful for pre-processed (e.g. added, multiplied, lagged etc.) control- rate sources, but patching audio-rate signals into a CV can also lead to interesting results. -
Page 34: Multiplex
As Bazille’s output sockets can accommodate several cables, the humble multiple underwent a serious redesign at u-he, emerging as something so flexible that we had to rename it MULTIPLEX. output... - Page 35 The knob on the right crossfades from the original to the AM signal. RM can be written as y = a * mod, and AM as y = a * (1 + mod). In Bazille’s multiplex, however, AM is actually y = a * (1 - mod).
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Page 36: Modulation Sequencer
MODULATION SEQUENCER Modulation Sequencer At the bottom right of Bazille’s window is a panel containing a dial and 16 sliders. It’s a good old step sequencer, isn’t it? Well, not quite – though it can be made to behave like one... -
Page 37: Snapshot Dial / Rotate
MODULATION SEQUENCER Snapshot Dial / Rotate The large dial is the ‘snapshot control center’. It combines several functions and indicators: Snapshot selectors 1 to 8 currently selected snapshot realtime snapshot position indicator snapshot position pointer snapshot position control rotation modulation input rotation modulation amount if socket used, auto-rotate speed if socket unused Clicking on one of the 8 snapshot selectors in the outer rim activates that snapshot for editing via the 16 sliders. -
Page 38: Snapshot Values
MODULATION SEQUENCER Snapshot Values To the right of the dial are 16 sliders used for editing the data in each snapshot: tap speed factor 4 taps (output sockets) 16 bipolar sliders 16 sliders Select a snapshot with the dial, then edit its values using the sliders. Tip: If you are using the sequencer for standard pitches, the easiest way to get precise semitones is to set the oscillator pitch modulation amount to 50.00 and the sequencer sliders to double whatever transposition you want: Up a wholetone would be +4, up a fifth (7 semitones) -
Page 39: How To Trigger Envelopes
MODULATION SEQUENCER How to Trigger Envelopes Although the sequencer was conceived primarily as a complex modulation source, it would have been a shame not to have allowed it to trigger envelopes somehow. Here’s how… ModSeq1 and ModSeq2 The list of envelope trigger options (see the envelope panels in TWEAKS & FX) includes two ‘ModSeq’... -
Page 40: Tweaks & Fx
TWEAKS & FX Tweaks & FX Overview This view combines what we call ‘TWEAKS’ (all parameters that wouldn’t fit comfortably into the SYNTH panel) with the Distortion, Delay, Phaser and Spring Reverb effects (FX): the TWEAKS & FX page Everything in the upper row has to do with voice allocation and/or tuning, with the oscilloscope, Multicore and HQ switches retained from the SYNTH page in the centre. -
Page 41: Voice
TWEAKS & FX Voice The top lefthand panel contains six options that affect how each voice is created: Mode poly polyphonic ....mono monophonic, each new note retriggers the envelopes ....legato like Mono, but doesn’t retrigger until a space is left between consecutive notes .... -
Page 42: Pitch
Most MIDI keyboards include a performance control called a ‘pitch bender’ (often a centre- sprung wheel) which is used for bending the overall pitch up and down. Bazille’s PB up and down selectors specify the up and down ranges independently, from 0 to 24 semitones then 36 (3 octaves) or 48 (4 octaves). -
Page 43: Stack Voice Tuning
....they are closer together Range Glide ‘strength’, a u-he speciality. Lower values shift the start of each glide closer to the target note, which can cause unusual or subtle intonation effects. Stack Voice Tuning The 8 knobs set a pitch offset for each stacked voice (range +/- 2 octaves). See stack above. -
Page 44: Mapping Generators
TWEAKS & FX Mapping Generators Bazille’s two mapping generators are lists that can hold up to 128 values. They can be used either for processing modulation sources, or as oscillator waveforms via the TapMap option. maps can have up to 128 steps, and the drawing tools help you create custom shapes... - Page 45 TWEAKS & FX Drawing and Selection To edit a map, simply draw in the windows by clicking and dragging. If you want to draw straight lines, hold down ctrl (Win) or opt (Mac) beforehand. Note for Mac users: The ⌥ key was once labelled alt and more recently option.
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Page 46: Envelope Extras
TWEAKS & FX Envelope Extras These four little panels contain a few extra envelope parameters: Snappy This switch makes the Decay and Release more exponential. Although it drops faster at first, it slows down considerably so that the envelope will often seem longer overall: F/R Range See also Fall/Rise. -
Page 47: Filters 3 And 4
TWEAKS & FX Filters 3 and 4 Although the panels for filters 3 and 4 look different from those in the SYNTH page, the parameter set is almost the same: Note: In filters 3 & 4 the amount of resonance cannot be modulated, the cutoff modulation sources are selected instead of patched, and they only have LP24, BP6 and HP12 outputs (see Filters). -
Page 48: Effects
(bright) or off (dark), click and drag up or down to reorder the effects. Distortion Bazille’s Distortion unit creates traditional tube as well as transistor-type saturation. It can emulate a complete guitar amp including the speaker cabinet. Tip: You can use the Distortion effect as a fairly clean EQ if you keep the input level down. - Page 49 EFFECTS Type Tube Class A Simulates a complete tube preamp. ‘Class-A’ means a single vacuum ....tube with DC bias that creates odd and even harmonics. Due to the asymmetry of the curve, class-A distortion sounds relatively warm. Tube Class AB Simulates a preamp with a pair of tubes in a ‘push-pull’...
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Page 50: Delay
EFFECTS Delay A host-synchronized stereo delay with ‘tape wow’ and filtered feedback: Center / Left / Right Delay times relative to host tempo, separate for each stereo channel. Precise integer values are semiquavers (16ths). Center defines the overall Feedback time. This is unusual, it means that you can set a repeat rate without actually hearing that particular ‘tap’... -
Page 51: Phaser
EFFECTS Phaser Bazille’s Phaser emulates two classic stomp-boxes, but also includes a host-syncable motion LFO. Type The Stoned option is pure but very ‘trippy’, the Flanged option is highly resonant – particularly dramatic when applied to very bright or noisy sounds. -
Page 52: Spring Reverb
And finally... a spring reverb! This is a highly unusual effect to be modeled in a synthesizer. The idea was to offer a kind of reverb that was (oddly) suitable for Bazille sounds, something that could add a special sheen not available in other synths. Bazille’s spring reverb emulates a typical dual spring system, with junctions near the middle. -
Page 53: Configuration
Configuration Click on the cogwheel icon at the top right to open the global configuration pages, where you can adjust the UI size and brightness as well as connect Bazille parameters to MIDI continuous controllers. A vertical row of 4 buttons will appear: Close [X], MIDI Learn [L], MIDI Table [≣] and Preferences [tools]. -
Page 54: Midi Table
CC#01 = modulation wheel CC#64 = sustain pedal Bazille version 1 also offered the sources Breath (CC#02) and Expression (CC#11), which we have replaced with the user definable ‘Control A’ and ‘Control B’. See Preferences below. You don’t actually need a breath controller (for instance) or an expression pedal to make use of CC messages. -
Page 55: Preferences
The GUI size for each new instance. Default Skin Selects one of currently 2 skins and sets this as the global default. Bazille experts are likely to favour the GearPorn skin, as all parameters appear in a single window. Gamma Controls overall brightness. - Page 56 CPU load and memory usage of all our plug-ins. For example. if the number of samples to be processed is 41, Bazille will process the first 32 and keep the remaining 9 in a small buffer (16 samples is big enough). Those 9 samples are then processed at the start of the next call…...
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Page 57: Tips & Tricks
The next few pages are chock full of more or less useful programming techniques, several of which were kindly supplied by early adopters of Bazille. Somemay seem too obvious, while others are so twisted that they will take a good while to grasp! Most of the tricks have corresponding example presets you will find in the TIPS &... -
Page 58: Oscillator Tricks
/ envelopes 3 and 4... Finally, switch the Tune mode of one of both oscillators back to Semitone and experiment further! Ponder this: Bazille is actually capable of 8-operator FM by using all four oscillators plus four self-oscillating filters. - Page 59 First, there’s the classic FM method of turning the sine wave into a kind of sawtooth by making an operator phase-modulate itself. Perhaps more useful in Bazille is the triangle-ish to square- ish waveform you can get by rectifying the oscillator’s raw output before it goes to the phase modulation input.
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Page 60: Lfo Tricks
The organ ‘percussion’ effect only happens on newly played notes after any other notes have all been released. Although Bazille doesn’t have such ‘global envelopes’, you can use the Delay of a very slow LFO in single mode to emulate one. The Delay is your ramp, which you can re- shape using a mapping generator if you like. -
Page 61: Stacking Tricks
Tip: You can easily pan two voices apart by setting Alternate or StackVoice as the Pan source. Depth Clever use of the Stack Voice modulator is key to making the most of Bazille’s stacking feature. Use it to pan voices apart, to multiply LFO rates, to shift cutoff or even the sequencer’s Rotate... -
Page 62: Mapping Tricks
TIPS & TRICKS Mapping Tricks 2-step maps Even tiny maps can be useful. For instance, if you want the output of your modulation wheel to suddenly ‘jump’ in the middle of its throw, set 2 steps, switch the mode to Map Quantize and the source to ModWhl. -
Page 63: Multiplex Tricks
TIPS & TRICKS Double triangle Rectifying a triangle wave doubles the frequency but doesn’t alter the shape. Smoother when faster (tricks by 3ee) If you want your LFO modulation to be more subtle as you increase the speed, send the LFO (e.g. -
Page 64: Sequencer Tricks
TIPS & TRICKS Sequencer Tricks See also How to Trigger Envelopes. Precise pitches While using the sequencer for conventionally tuned patterns, getting all the steps perfectly tuned can be tricky at best, and downright tedious at worst. The following method (already mentioned in the chapter about the sequencer) ensures that you only need to set integers. -
Page 65: Envelope Tricks
Wave controls the width of the gate from 0% to 100%. Note that there is no retriggering at either of those extremes. If the Phase value is smaller than the Wave value, there is also a trigger each time Bazille receives a MIDI Note On.
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