Synclavier REGEN User Manual

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USER MANUAL

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Page 2 In the intervening years, there have been software emulations that have largely sought to recreate the experience and feature-set of the Synclavier II. This product is more than that. It contains the same Synclavier II DSP engine, but it’s been extended and enhanced to take advantage of the increased computing power available today, and to make it compelling in a modern setting, just as the original was compelling for the many happy owners of its era.
Page 3 WARNINGS Synclavier Regen comes with a 12 month warranty on manufacturing defects. If you look after your Regen, it is going to be operational for many years to come. Safety instructions Please read and follow these safety instructions. Treat the unit itself and the power adapter with equal care.
Page 4 Do not use ﬂammable substances such as alcohol or gasoline near the product. • For service and repairs, use only shops authorized by Synclavier Digital Corporation Ltd. • Do not open the casing on this product. There are no user repairable parts inside.
Page 5 Properly shielded and grounded cables and connectors must be used in order to meet FCC emission limits. Synclavier Digital is not responsible for any radio or television interference caused by using other than recommended cables and connectors or by unauthorized changes or modiﬁcations to this equipment.
Page 6: Table Of Contents
CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1.1. Using this Manual 1.2. Getting around Regen 1.3. Conﬁgurations 1.4. Panels Summary USER SETTINGS 2.1. Home & Settings 2.2. Help LIBRARY 3.1. Preset Timbres 3.2. Tags 3.3. Samples 3.4. Reverbs 3.5. Sessions 3.6. Saving SESSION 4.1. Tracks 4.2.
Page 7 6.1. Taking the Red Pill 6.2. Additive Synthesis 6.3. Envelopes 6.4. Subtractive Synthesis 6.5. Soundﬁles 6.6. Partial-level Effects 6.7. Partial Crossfader 6.8. Modulators 6.9. Frames TROUBLESHOOTING GLOSSARY...
Page 8: Introduction
Synclavier Regen was designed to be intuitive, so users with previous synthesizer experience should become productive without extensive reference to this manual, but at some point in your journey, it’s advisable to read it. Regen has also been designed to be a deep sound design platform, and some techniques and shortcuts will not be self-evident solely from experimentation with the machine.
Page 9 Labels are titles that appear on the main display, and sometimes they will be selectable from a list. Labels also appear capitalized in the manual, as they are on Regen,. Pro tips and asides are written in text surrounded by a border.
Page 10: Getting Around Regen
Stereo pair of XLR connections for master audio output. DC coupled. +4 dBU with 11.4dB headroom. GND LIFT Synclavier Regen is designed to be connected to a variety of commercial and pro- level audio gear. If you experience clipping of output, you may want to set the Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 11 Synclavier Digital via the website for advice on a replacement. HOST USB-B connection. When Regen is in DAW mode, you can connect a USB cable here to a computer “host” (Mac, Windows, Linux). “Synclavier Regen” will show in your host machine’s MIDI destinations and you can send MIDI data to it from a DAW or similar software.
Page 12 MIDI controller. NB: When Regen is in DAW mode, these ports do not function and all interfaces would have to connect to your host computer. These ports would also be where you would connect a USB Audio Interface if you wanted to use your own, and a Synclavier®...
Page 13 Using one will mean you can get your Regen in the position and angle you desire for an ergonomic setup. Follow the instructions that come with the bracket. Most brackets will accommodate the 100 by 100 mm hole pattern and carry the 1.8kg Regen weight with attached cabling, but do check...
Page 14 The Switcher button can be red or blue. These two colours indicate the two main layers of Regen. If the Switcher button is lit Red, this means the machine is in PARTIALS view and the 12 selector buttons on the right-hand-side represent the 12 partials;...
Page 15: Configurations
1.3. Configurations Synclavier Regen supports two mutually-exclusive modes: Controller and DAW. Controller Mode Select this mode from the Home page’s Settings to operate Synclavier Regen as the MIDI host. An example connections conﬁguration is shown below: Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 16 It’s likely you’ll want to use the power adapter supplied with the audio interface even if it can be bus-powered, as this will mean less burden on the Regen power, and possibly less power-supply noise. Also, some keyboards that Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 17 LEDs will state in their manual that they only work at full brightness when connected to a dedicated power adapter. DAW Mode Select this mode from the Home page’s Settings to operate Synclavier Regen as a MIDI client. An example connections conﬁguration is shown below: Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 18: Panels Summary
You can assign multiple MIDI tracks (up to 12) in your DAW for Regen and conﬁgure each to send data on a MIDI channel that you have a Regen instrument assigned. If you connect the audio from Regen to your Audio Interface, you should be able to record the audio mix back to your DAW on an AUDIO track.
Page 19 VK DISPLAY The VK DISPLAY is so called, because it mimics the display from the Synclavier II VPK edition. As per its namesake, it’s the area that displays the most pertinent Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 20 The Home button, no matter what state the system is in, will return you to the home page. From here, you can view or change settings, or put the unit to sleep. Press Home twice and any playing sounds will be muted (sometimes called a MIDI panic feature). Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 21 If you’re playing many tracks at once and suspect that you may have some clipping distortion, you can check the VUs and if you’re in the red, dial back the Volume a notch or two. Similarly, if you think you’re overdriving a pre-amp with Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 22 Regen output, this is where you would dial the volume back (although the VU meter is of less use in this scenario). There’s also a live time-domain display, sometimes referred to as an oscilloscope, in the top third.. Also, if you’re playing a lot of tracks at once and there are a lot of notes playing on each track, it’s possible you may overload the CPU and some of those...
Page 23 The one parameter on this page is again MASTER Volume. Synclavier Regen contains a 4-core CPU and all loads are summed and presented on the CPU level, accessible from the MASTER Volume page. This is a useful page to check if certain combinations of timbres and TIMBRE Effects (reverbs and ﬁlters) will cause a high CPU usage: the meter will roam into the...
Page 24 Blue is for TRACKS and red is for PARTIALS. When blue, the 12 selector buttons represent the 12 tracks of Synclavier Regen. You can assign MIDI channels to the tracks using the Track Crossfader page (covered in the SESSION chapter). When red, the selector buttons represent the 12 partials of the last-selected track.
Page 25 — the other tracks will be muted. Or, if you’re working in PARTIAL view, you can select Solo to hear only the selected partials in isolation. When soloing partials, you’re also soloing the track of the timbre the partials are contained in. Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 26 The Selector buttons are back-lit with RGB LEDs. The increased palette of colours available afforded Regen designers the capability of representing different states to the user per partial or per track. These modes are helpful to the user, so we’ve conveyed this information in other methods, additional to distinguishing colours, such as legends on the display, as well as the Solo and Switcher buttons states (as stated above).
Page 27 LIBRARY. Library was the original term Synclavier used for a disk of timbres. The old 5¼ ﬂoppy disks would hold 64 user timbres that were organized in 8 banks of 8.
Page 28 TIMBRE Panel, they’re more concerned with the performance of a track than the character of the timbre. Here you switch on Arpeggiate and Repeat functions, for instance. Synclavier considers this an element of sound design and so this is part Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 29 The Switcher button atop the 12 selector buttons will be blue when the selector buttons represent tracks, red for partials. Tap to switch. Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 30 Similarly, you can toggle the Auto Tune option from the Choose File page. If lit, when you tap Enter to load a sample, Regen will set the Base Key and Tuning Offset. This can be altered after the fact from the Deﬁne Pitch page.
Page 31: User Settings
Setup option and you can Sleep the unit. If you’re not going to use Regen for some time, it’s advised to put it in sleep mode. This will save power and reduce wear levels of many internal components. When the system goes into sleep mode, all user settings and the current system state are preserved, ready for when the system next wakes.
Page 32 This level of redundancy is good. Regen can be used in different settings with different gain-staging and can play many voices (up to 98) simultaneously. With this level of performance built-in, Regen is never going to be the weakest link in your audio chain.
Page 33 Some USB audio interfaces are “bus” powered, meaning they draw power from the USB cable. Synclavier Regen supports this and can feed up to 1AMP of power shared across all USB peripherals. If this is exceeded, all ports will shutdown.
Page 34 (mapping sources to destinations are covered later in the manual in the Modulators section). So why didn’t we use a higher sample rate on Regen? There’s a trade off. The more audio samples Regen has to create per millisecond, the more it crunches the CPU.
Page 35 From here you can elect to listen to or mute MIDI devices by selecting them. Also, if you have an MPE-compatible device, you can tell Regen to accept MPE messages for that unit. As a convenience, the system will remember previously listened to MIDI devices and automatically unmute them.
Page 36: Help
This manual, of course, expands greatly on the help pages, whose primary role is to act as a reminder when a user has taken a break from Regen. In time, we also plan to ﬁlm tutorial videos, each focusing on a different part of Regen, and they will be made available on our youtube channel: https:// www.youtube.com/c/Synclavier...
Page 37: Library
Timbre, Reverb, or Session. Timbres On some synths the word for timbre is preset, but Regen has factory presets for timbres, sessions, and reverbs. The word timbre has always been the term used on Synclavier machines.
Page 38 We invite you to explore the Regen Warehouse library ﬁrst, since this has a wide range of presets designed speciﬁcally to bring out the best of Synclavier Regen. In addition to this, Synclavier Digital partnered with accomplished sound designers Anthony Marinelli, Paul Schilling, Red Sky Lullaby, Leith Fleming- Smith, Gary Chang, and Drew A Neumann to bring world-class presets to your ﬁngertips.
Page 39 Libraries are organized in 8 banks of 8, just like the original Synclavier II, and to the left of the entries you’ll see the code. For example, 2-4 refers to bank 2 and entry 4.
Page 40 Sorting by tag operates in a similar way. All timbres are “tagged” with meaningful keywords (covered further in the following section). In by tag sort mode, you’re presented with an alphabetical list of tags and can scroll through Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 41: Tags
+Tag you can then scroll within the ﬁrst tag — for instance, you may want to peruse all #bass timbres that are also #vintage. If you Arrow Right with those tags highlighted you’ll ﬁnd that Regen offers Mild FM [D 2-1] and Oscar Bass [RW 5-4] as options for you.
Page 42 #template is a special category tag — its timbres will be an example of a technique or a starting point for sound design, and these are mainly found in the Synclavier Regen Tutorial library. #textures and #beatloops are special categories of timbres worth describing.
Page 43 #mpe is another special tag that highlights those timbres as being designed such that using an MPE controller will be the best way to extract their full potential. #mpe tagged timbres will typically have modulation sources such as pressure Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 44: Samples
(sometimes called aftertouch), velocity and slide (mod wheel) mapped to interesting timbre parameters. See https://youtu.be/Q6bvRj4GTQ4 for an explanation of 5D touch, but note that lift is not currently supported on Regen. #mpe timbres will sound best with an #mpe keyboard, but if you have an #mpe keyboard, lots of other timbres will be very playable, and using the synth engine, it’s easy to map one of the MPE dimensions to a timbre parameter for...
Page 45 Soundﬁles section of the chapter Partials & Sound Design. Using your own Samples If you have samples, you can load them onto an SD card for use with Regen. Many common formats, such as .wav and .ﬂac are recognized. To use an SD card,...
Page 46 SD card. Regen looks for a speciﬁc directory structure. It will create this directory structure the ﬁrst time you save a timbre to your SD Card. But if you want to load your samples ﬁrst, you can create the directory structure yourself:...
Page 47: Reverbs
There are 3 levels of zoom, as usual, and you can load one of these reverb presets to the MASTER reverb via the Enter button. Since many Synclavier timbres beneﬁt from a small amount of reverb, the default MASTER reverb is Studio A [1-1].
Page 48: Sessions
3.5. Sessions Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 49 Factory content for sessions is divided into 3 categories: Stacks, Mixes, and Beatloops. None of these is meant to be a comprehensive suite, but they act as examples of what can be done with Regen and can be used as starting point or templates for your own work.
Page 50 Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 51 1 is for drums, channel 2 has bass, channel 3 will have a preset useful for chords, and channel 4 for a lead sound. That’s enough to get a groove going, but some Mixes contain further channels with accompaniment sounds. Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 52 The supplied beatloops are pedagogical in nature and intended to provide inspiration, but if you end up using a beatloop in a production of your own, that’s ﬁne, since all Regen content is royalty free. Follow along with this walkthrough to get the idea: Load one of these beatloops.
Page 53 If you set the same BPM and bar count on your sequencer, you can send notes at the start of each pattern. Now you have a beat going, you have the other MIDI channels free to send other instruments to Regen to play along on other tracks.
Page 54 SD Card. Most of the common .mid format functions are recognized. NB: MIDI tracks 1-12 are mapped to Regen Tracks 1-12 during playback and there is no way to change that. If track one has tempo/meter events and...
Page 55: Saving
SD card. Enter your card and push so it locks in place. Tap Load and wait for the indexing to complete. Tap Save and you will see the list of user libraries on this card. If this is the ﬁrst Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 56 Save. The timbre from the last- selected track will be cue’d to save in this slot and you’ll see its title with a version number appended (since it’s no longer the original). The timbre description is not Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 57 Edit Info. Then tap the Save option and your timbre will be saved on your SD card. Regen will create the necessary directory structure on the SD card as it needs to: SD Card:/ /Libraries...
Page 58 SD Card. Regen recognizes Go! timbres, but not the other way around — the synth engine on Regen is more sophisticated that that of Go! with lots of advanced features, so it makes little sense to load Regen timbres onto the Go! app —...
Page 59 Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 60: Session
SESSION 4.1. Tracks Synclavier Regen is multitimbral, meaning more than one timbre can sound simultaneously. This is made possible through the use of tracks. NB: In some synthesizers this feature may be referred to as layers, since you can layer many sounds.
Page 61 The last track selected* is shown on all parameter pages in the top-left of the main display on a cyan-coloured blob, so this is a good place to keep an eye on. Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 62 One of the time-saving features of Synclavier Regen is that you can change multiple values at once, even if you can’t see each value when more than one is selected. And in solo mode, all solo’d partials will change. The way this works, is that the *last selected track can increase or decrease to its extents, but it drags the other selected tracks along with it —...
Page 63 When armed, Synclavier Regen is going to listen for the next MIDI note on event to set the selected range limit. The graphic of the keyboard employs shading to highlight the chosen range for the current track.
Page 64 Mixing It might seem silly to state, but getting the levels of instruments correct in a mix is paramount. Things that are ﬁxed with EQs and effect plugins during the Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 65 It’s much better if the frequency content you don’t want isn’t there in the ﬁrst place, and this is something to bear in mind when using additive synthesizers such as Synclavier Regen. Additive synthesis will be covered in detail in the Partials & Sound Design chapter.
Page 66: Studio
Novation Zero, Studio Logic SL Mixface, Nektar Panorama, Korg NANOKONTROL, AKAI Professional MIDImix, iCON iControls, Faderfox EC4, Electra One, Livi Alias 8, and so on. Example of MIDI keyboard with CC controls Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 67 Levels page. Now adjust the encoder and you’ll see the VU for that track change as well as the value in the VK Display. Now you can play your keyboard and manually adjust the amplitude without recourse to the Regen Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 68 The Synclavier Regen, once set-up, could be on the other side of the studio to you, and you could be controlling the Pan and Volume of all 12 tracks remotely over USB. NB: When you save your session, it will save your current Volume and Pan levels regardless of how you last modiﬁed them (by Regen Swiper or by CC...
Page 69 NB: If you don’t have an SD card, you can’t save or load studios, but the current studio settings will be stored when you put Regen to sleep and recalled when you next use Regen. Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 70: Playing With Timbres
5.1. Timbres Synclavier II VPK model From its inception, The Synclavier has always been a many-buttons one-knob interface. Great efforts were made to get the feel and accuracy of the knob as good as possible, and since there was only one per unit, no expense was spared.
Page 71 Having many low-proﬁle buttons meant you could select multiple at a time (multiple parameters or multiple partials) and change them in concert. That ethos has carried through to this product. Regen doesn’t have a knob, but a touch-sensitive value Swiper, and rest assured we’ve invested great energies to get the Swiper as responsive and easy to use as the knob.
Page 72 Now reduce the parameter value, as you play some notes. You’ll hear the sound become cleaner as those upper harmonics are reduced. By about -30%, the timbre will have no FM applied to it. So this button, as Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 73 Indeed, the keen listener will tell the difference of 100% and 101% on this timbre. It’s also a key element to Synclavier sound design. Whereas the FM ± button should be considered a character changer, the idea of the FM % button is to provide a parameter to ﬁne-tune the level of FM on a timbre without...
Page 74 Chorus is an effect on many synthesizers. It creates a chorus voice, tuned slightly different to the base voice. Sometimes chorus is referred to as detune or unison on analog synths. If you tap on Chorus, you’ll see the options: Smart Chorus | Hyper Chorus | Fine Chorus Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 75 On the Chorus page, the main display provides a Combined Values pane, which shows the chorus as a ratio, semitone difference, and cents difference. You may be used to valuing chorus by one of these method, so all are provided. NB: A Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 76: Timbre Effects
Bit Depth sets the bit depth for each additive partial in a timbre. The default bit depth for Regen, as per earlier Synclaviers, is 12-bits for additive generators. Many wave shapes change dramatically as the bit depth is changed. The Alias Filter, when on, will interpolate linearly for every sample point.
Page 77 Below is a graphic of one period of a sine wave. The internal DAC of Regen is set to 50kHz, just like Synclavier II. This means, every 20µs, come rain or come shine, Regen needs to output a sample.
Page 78 A 12-bit facsimile of a sine wave has much less error and the quantization distortion is inaudible, having been pushed out of the audible range. If you change Bit Depth to 2-bit, you’ll see extreme castellation, and the sound is distorted into something unlike the original. Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 79 ﬁt (an exact level for the current bit depth) are the peak and troughs of the wave. The other points, rather than go to the nearest level, are interpolated linearly (along a straight line) — and you’ll get a triangle wave. You’ll see this Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 80 Bit Depth and Grunge controls cannot be MIDI- linked unlike most timbre parameters. Effects Filter New to Synclavier with Regen, a timbre can have ﬁlter and reverb settings. Use the following options to conﬁgure your ﬁlter: Filter Type | Cut Off | Resonance You can select Filter Types of Low Pass, High Pass, and Band Pass, with 12dB (shallow) or 24db (steep) roll off.
Page 81 The keen-eyed among you will have noticed that Wet/Dry is repeated. This is a technique found in a few spots to cut down on ﬁnger athletics. As mentioned previously, the Regen designers have endeavoured to place commonly-related controls close to one another, so users aren’t going back and forth all around the houses.
Page 82 Regen comes with a MASTER Reverb that will affect every track, after mixing. Many Synclavier timbres come alive with a modicum of reverb, so it’s typical to leave the master reverb algorithm set to a mild or moderate amount as you’re browsing and playing timbres —...
Page 83 Timbre Detune is a curious control that the Synclavier inventors had the foresight to include on the original to make it less digital. It’s interesting to note that the ﬁrst crop of digital synthesizers focused on recreating sounds of...
Page 84 “digital”). The original level of “detune” is the default Synclavier II setting. But with Regen, we’ve also enabled you to increase this effect from +1 to +10, and also switch it off, if desired when you want something to sound “digital”.
Page 85 MIDI-linked to CC controls, so you can effectively have a row of shape-shifting sliders/knobs on your MIDI controller as part of your sound creation arsenal. Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 86: Note Fx
If you’ve mastered these controls, and yearn to go deeper, it’s time to check out some partial-level stuff. 5.3. Note FX Regen contains the classic Synclavier arpeggiator feature. The two Arpeggiator buttons are related, as evidenced by the little horizontal bar between the buttons. Under the left button, you have the options:...
Page 87 — picture a trombone player moving the slide, rapidly at ﬁrst and then smoothly and ﬁnally an abrupt stop. Here’s a table describing the polyphony modes supported by Regen. There’s some inter-related behaviour between polyphony mode and soundﬁle loop mode, so keep this table in mind when we discuss soundﬁle modes later in the...
Page 88 The Poly Retrig mode is very natural for sounds with a long final decay such as bells or gongs. E.g. Regen Vibes [RW 3-5]. Mono Same as Poly Retrig except that any note on will cause the retrigger,...
Page 89: Note Filter
Regen supports 1 Roll Off ﬁlter per partial, 1 Effect Filter per track, and 1 Note Filter per note. That can add up to a lot of active ﬁlters. We have made the ﬁlter algorithm as efﬁcient as we can to make the theoretical possible, but there’s a limit.
Page 90 And then there’s the Note Filter at the end of the chain, affecting the whole timbre. There’s a symbiotic relationship between NOTE FX and the TIMBRE panels. All the parameters on these buttons are saved and recalled with the timbre. Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 91: Partials & Sound Design
PARTIALS & SOUND DESIGN 6.1. Taking the Red Pill Partials have always been essential to Synclavier sound design. Indeed, a patent was ﬁled in 1984 on the “Partial Timbre Sound Synthesis Method and Instrument” by the inventors. When designing a timbre, very complex and dynamic sounds can be created by choosing different sounds for two or more partials.
Page 92 In PARTIALS view, press the Solo button. One or more partials will show green to show that they are soloed. Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 93 2 being tuned slightly sharp of partial 1. With partial 2 selected, tap Wave and you will see the tuning on the main display, showing 441.4 Hz. Partial 1 is the default middle A tuning of 440 Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 94 To erase a partial, typically it’s enough to set the Partial Volume level to zero, but you can use cut to clear everything (and put it in the clipboard). Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 95: Additive Synthesis
This section will focus on how to design a sound using the Synclavier Regen interface. If you want to learn more theory than is presented here, search for “additive synthesis" on your favourite search engine.
Page 96 The sine waves of a complex waveform can be represented on a frequency spectrum, which shows the relative volume of each harmonic. Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 97 Harmonics Okay, let’s put this in the context of sound design on Synclavier Regen. Harmonic coefﬁcients determine the relative volume of each harmonic. A coefﬁcient of 0.0% means the harmonic is not present in the waveform. A coefﬁcient of 100.0% means the harmonic is present at full magnitude.
Page 98 Then use the Swiper to add a value to those harmonics. On the graphical display, you’ll see vertical bars appear next to the fundamental. Play the sound again and you’ll notice it’s timbre has changed. In fact, it only takes Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 99 (partials) together and apply effects to partials, such as FM modulation, tremolo, vibrato, chorus. And, with Regen, you can use synthesis techniques other than additive to generate your waveforms.
Page 100 Quick Wave or manipulation of individual harmonics: Synclavier Regen lets you design complex harmonic behaviour into both carrier and modulator waveforms. The modulation wave defaults to off (all the harmonic coefﬁcients are zero). ...
Page 101 Sound Design Tutorial library as a starting point, but there are dozens of factory timbres you could draw inspiration from. The following diagram shows the signal ﬂow of a partial through Regen’s synth engine and should help to clarify how this key element of Synclavier...
Page 102: Envelopes
The ﬁnal decay or release stage is prompted by the release of that ﬁnger. Regen also supports the shape of the decay. In the diagram below, a linear shape is shown, but you can also set curves decays which affect the character of the sound.
Page 103 C. The units are percentage of decay per octave. Applying some additional Decay Adjust to #chime and #percussion timbres can make the results more natural sounding. Applies to all decays (initial and final) for Volume and FM envelopes. Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 104 Decay The original shape of the Synclavier II decay was an approximate Shape parabolic curve, since it was efficient to compute on the hardware of the time. This is one of the many small characteristics of the original that contributed to its signature sound and is available for selection on Regen.
Page 105 Select the FM Env Release option and swipe down to 0ms. Also tap FM Env Decay and reduce this to around 12ms. Now if you play a note or chord, you’ll hear that you’ve quickly turned a grungy lead sound into an Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 106 Time — the input (x-axis) is of course time, as with the other envelopes, and the units used are milliseconds. The Peak Level occurs at the end of this attack time, and can also be set above or below the Sustain Level of the cut off frequency for the Note Filter. Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 107: Subtractive Synthesis
With the Carrier wave selected on the OSCILLATOR panel, tap the Wave button and change the Synth Mode to Subtractive. Now if you Arrow Right or tap Edit, you’ll see: Wave | Roll Off | Pulse Width Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 108 If you select single and play a note, you’ll see the waveform of a saw on the main display. Adding more voices will super-impose additional saw waves, hence the name “super” saw. Each voice quantity has a distinctive style to it. Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 109 — it’s continuous (or as continuous as a digital synth will allow) — as if you sampled an analogue saw wave with no anti-aliasing ﬁlter (well, actually a special antialiasing ﬁlter, as Regen does something clever with the samples to prevent any nasty artifacts from this synthesis technique).
Page 110: Soundfiles
Played through the DC-coupled outputs of Synclavier Regen you can shake the room! Regen Pad #1 [RW 3-6] and Regen Pad #2 [RW 3-7] is a simple #pad sound that is created with several blended saw waveforms, some additive and some subtractive.
Page 111 Regen has pulled out all the stops for sample playback: each partial contains a patchlist of up to 48 soundﬁles; different sample playback modes are implemented, such as loop and one-shot; and over 555 varied sample ﬁles have been included factory-installed for royalty-free use in your productions.
Page 112 Ranges cannot overlap — Regen will select the ﬁrst soundﬁle with a valid note range for each MIDI note the partial receives. However, each MIDI note...
Page 113 ﬁles in the libraries, as usual. While browsing for a sample, the Edit button to blinks to remind you that you are looking for a sample to add to your patchlist. You’ll see a screen such as this: Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 114 Another convenience feature than can be used before you tap Enter to select the soundﬁle is Auto Tune. Synclavier uses a fast Fourier transform technique to identify the Base Key of the sample. All the factory samples are pre-tuned, so this step is unnecessary, but if you’re loading user samples from an SD card, you may...
Page 115 MIDI speciﬁcation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ General_MIDI#Percussive) and contains 67 drums plus 2 metronomes, each on their speciﬁed MIDI key. Notice the information on the main display as you peruse these patchlists. On the top line, you have the Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 116 This will become more useful on other pages where the Nudge Up and Nudge Dn are used to modify values. Tap the Deﬁne button (or Arrow Right) and you’ll see a lot of information on the currently selected soundﬁle: Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 117 This Deﬁne page can be considered a menu, since it leads to other subpages. There are a few drum kits included in Regen that comprise samples, but here are some examples of non-percussive multi-sampled instruments for you to take a...
Page 118 You can use the Swiper and Nudge buttons to set the Base Key and Tuning Offset, or you can ask Synclavier Regen to Auto Tune the sample for you by tapping Base Key and Tuning Offset simultaneously. Regen will analyze the sample ﬁle and pick out the fundamental frequency using discrete Fourier...
Page 119 NB: All the soundﬁle tuning information will be saved with your timbre when you’ve ﬁnished designing it, but if you load up the same soundﬁle on another timbre, Regen won’t remember how you last had it tuned. If a soundﬁle is not accurately tuned, it may sound playable in one octave, but stretched in another, as the perceived tuning error increases across the keyboard range.
Page 120 Flux Capacitor In the good old days of Synclavier II, the voice cards used variable-sample rate DACs. The DACs worked very differently to the DACs of today — which we won’t discuss here, as it’s a huge topic — sufﬁce to say the old DACs were of the sample-and-hold variety.
Page 121 Typically, a DAC output would be sent to a reconstruction ﬁlter which would smooth out the rough edges and re-create the original sine wave. As it happens, the Synclavier II voice cards didn’t include any ﬁltering. To a certain extent, the nominal capacitance, inductance and resistance present in the output wires and coupling would provide some ﬁltering, but many of the higher frequency...
Page 122 Sampling Real Instruments If you intend to sample an instrument of your own for use in Regen, it pays to be aware of a few things. Firstly, the more notes you can sample, the more realistic Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 123 Regen supports up to 48 samples per partial — (see the Sample Patchlists section above) The more samples, the smaller range each one will occupy. If you are stretching one sample across the whole keyboard range it will start to “squeal”...
Page 124 If you have such a sample, you can have it loaded on your patchlist several times with different Start and End Times on each occurrence, but Regen will hold only one copy in memory. As you adjust the markers, you’ll notice that the unplayed region (outside of Start Time and End Time) will be shown on the sample waveform display in a grey colour, the played region will be green and the looped region will be yellow.
Page 125: Partial-Level Effects
Of course, this defaults to On. If you want to lock pitch regardless of keyboard key, for instance, in the case of sound effects or certain percussion sounds, you can set this to Off. Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 126 If you set Vib Depth to 100% and the Vib Attack to 12s or so, you should be able to hear and see (on the graphical display) the difference between s-curve and linear attack. Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 127 Remember that you can put the Swiper into ﬁne mode by holding your thumb on the Down Nudge and use your ﬁnger to operate ﬁne mode. Vib/ Wave Shape LFO A sine triangle ramp (sawtooth) inverted ramp square Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 128 25% of its full amplitude. Trm/LFO B The tremolo increases gradually to its full depth from the beginning Attack of the note to the end of the selected attack time, which can be set between 0 and 30 seconds. Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 129 Tremolo LFO to destinations such as filter Cut-off. Sync Off is great for emulating real-life instruments or when using Tremolo for panning at a low Rate: each note can appear and disappear at a different spot on the stereo field. Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 130: Partial Crossfader
The Track Crossfader ﬁlters based on MIDI channel, and, optionally, keyboard range, and can apply fade-in and fade-out based on the keyboard range (to effectively crossfade). This is useful for playing Regen multi-timbrally, or for layering several timbres together. The Partial Crossfader, cannot ﬁlter based on MIDI-channel — that’s the job of the tracks ––...
Page 131 2 is a harpsichord sample set for maximum value from note B3 and down. Splitting the keyboard for bass and treble is commonly done, and can easily be achieved with the use of the Timbre Crossfader, but this happens to have been done Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 132 Let’s look at a more complicated example that actually crossfades: Call up Dulcimer Multi #1 [SDT 5-1], and, on the Crossfader page, you’ll see the main display as below: Here we have four groupings of transfer functions. This is a multi-sampled instrument for a dulcimer. Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 133 The Synclavier Regen Tutorial directory contains 12 samples of a hammered dulcimer. Strings D3, D4, D5, and D6 have been recorded for soft, medium, and hard strikes. It should be noted that these samples are by no means the ﬁnal word on multi-sampled dulcimer instruments —...
Page 134 (the ﬂavour of interpolation Regen applies varies depending on whether it has to transpose the sample up or down). For this example, that would mean setting a range for the D4 sample of D4 to C#5, or D#3 to D4, respectively.
Page 135 The x-axis units are 0-127 since that is the MIDI input Regen receives for Velocity messages. Fades of 20 have been used for partial 1 to 2 (soft to medium), but for partial 2 to 3 (medium to hard), a steeper fade of 10 was employed.
Page 136 Regen is smart enough to only keep one copy of the soundﬁle in memory when using this timbre.
Page 137 All MIDI messages are coded for channel, including the mod wheel, so, for example, if you’re sending mod wheel messages on a channel that’s ﬁltered out by the track, you won’t affect the sound of the timbre on that track, because those messages won’t reach the Partial Crossfader. Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 138: Modulators
6.8. Modulators Welcome to the most complicated section of Synclavier Regen. As complicated and powerful as it is, our aim was to present Modulators to the user in as straightforward a way as possible. We spent a lot of time carefully thinking through the modulator interface and believe we’ve developed a system that’s...
Page 139 ﬁerceness of hammer strike. If you load this timbre, go to the modulator in question, and tap Deﬁne Range, you’ll see this screen: Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 140 127 (full) applied when the Velocity was at its minimum setting, and the Volume would reduce all the way to a multiplier of 0 (off) when the Velocity was at the highest setting. So, we hear partial 1 at its loudest Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 141 à la Crossfader, and reduced screen real estate means you only get the values of half of the partials at once, e.g.: Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 142 Partial 2 is also pitch-locked, so won’t change based on the note played, but it does change pitch as it has an extreme 25 semitone vibrato applied at 10Hz. If you Solo Partial 2, you’ll hear the pitch jumping around as Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 143 To ﬁgure that out, we’ll have to investigate the Note Filter settings. Tap Filter and you’ll see we have a low pass ﬁlter with a 24dB slope. Tap Filter Setup and you’ll see a page like this: Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 144 Resonance is cranked way up at 90% and, as such, this ﬁlter is able to self- oscillate. The Filters on Regen are of the IIR variety, which use feedback loops to attenuate frequencies. With resonance, certain frequencies around the cut off point are reinforced rather than attenuated, and once these frequencies are bouncing around in the ﬁlter, they can linger, even after a note’s ﬁnal decay is...
Page 145 And if you map “Each Partial” to a timbre-level or note destination, such as ﬁlter Cut Off, partial 1 is selected as the source for the modulator. If you tap Edit then Edit Range you’ll see a page like this: Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 146 One neat trick used in FM Swell [SDT 3-8] is to match the curve steepness to the ﬁlter and route the same source to Cut Off and Volume (with an inverse relationship), so as the ﬁlter position is changed to remove some upper Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 147 If you set Tuning as a route destination, you’ll have an option for Bend Depth, which corresponds to how many semitones the full range is. • If you set Chorus/Detune as a destination, Regen will modulate Chorus on Additive and Samples partials and Unison Detune for Subtractive Synclavier Regen User Manual...
Page 148 You can route an LFO A to an LFO B parameter (Depth, Rate, Attack) or B to A, but you cannot route A to A or B to B to avoid circular dependencies. Many more creative uses of Modulators can be found in Synclavier Selects Vol 3. Here’s a few examples: Dueling Harps [SDT 4-1] routes an LFO to Pan so that the two harp samples move in the stereo ﬁeld and cross each other at the midpoint.
Page 149: Frames
Even two weeks of practice on a timbre is a mere fraction of the time compared to an acoustic equivalent, and although the Regen doesn’t pretend to do the same things an acoustic instrument can, the power of the modulators means there’s a lot of expression to be coaxed out under an experienced pair of hands.
Page 150: Troubleshooting
TROUBLESHOOTING Before troubleshooting, please check our website at www.synclavier.com/ manuals for software updates. Instructions on how to update your Regen to the latest ﬁrmware is given there. No Sound • Try switching on the Audio Test function. This will narrow down the focus to the outgoing chain: Regen will ⁃...
Page 151 If you’re using a USB audio interface, check the sample rate matches what Regen reports on the Audio Settings page. If your audio interface as a control panel it may be possible to change the sample rate without Regen’s knowledge. It is better to set the sample rate from the Regen Audio Settings page.
Page 152 Regen. • Are you drawing too much current? Regen can handle 1 amp total on its 4 USB A ports. More than this, and ⁃ all 4 USB ports are shutdown as a precaution against faulty USB hardware.
Page 153 If you are using a USB Audio Interface, it might not be fast enough to keep up ⁃ with the Regen clock. Try increasing the latency value on the Regen settings screen. If the above guide fails to help, you could try Google or Youtube to see if anyone has had a similar problem and solved it.

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