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Sintefex Audio FX8000 User Manual

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THE
SINTEFEX AUDIO
FX8000
REPLICATOR
User Guide

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Summary of Contents for Sintefex Audio FX8000

  • Page 1 SINTEFEX AUDIO FX8000 REPLICATOR User Guide...
  • Page 2 Page 2 Sintefex FX8000 Analogue Sampling Digital EQ / Compressor / Effects Unit...
  • Page 3 User Guide v3.0 Notice: Whilst all reasonable effort has been made to ensure that the information in this manual is accurate, Sintefex Audio Lda accepts no liability for inadvertent errors, omissions or changes in operating software or hardware specification re- ferred to in this manual.

  • Page 4: Table Of Contents

    Page 4 Sintefex FX8000 Analogue Sampling Digital EQ / Compressor / Effects Unit Contents Introduction ............................6 Welcome to the SINTEFEX FX8000 REPLICATOR. Software Versions Software Registration About this Guide Overview ............................... 7 What is the SINTEFEX FX8000 REPLICATOR? Main components of the REPLICATOR...
  • Page 5 Page 5 User Guide Version 3.0 Copyright © 2001 - 2003 Sintefex Audio Lda General Information ........................... 63 Warning and Error Messages Status Display Messages File Types Glossary Technical Specification MIDI: The gory details... MIDI Implementation Chart and Parameter Numbers...

  • Page 6: Introduction

    The basic operation of the FX8000 is straightforward and you probably won’t need this guide. However we recommend that after you have experimented a little you read it through to gain a better understanding of what is going on and how to make Replicator create the exact effect you need for mastering, mixing or track- ing or indeed any audio processing application.

  • Page 7: Software Registration

    2 Overview What is the SINTEFEX FX8000 REPLICATOR? The SINTEFEX FX8000 REPLICATOR is a unique product which can capture an analogue signal path and reproduce it digitally, accurately simulating the frequency response and distortion characteristics of the origi- nal. For the first time you can •...

  • Page 8: Main Components Of The Replicator

    Familiarity The SINTEFEX FX8000 REPLICATOR may be digital but it has a lot of familiar controls. We put a lot more knobs and buttons than the average digital effects unit so you can get going as quickly as possible. We even have simulated VU meters (or you can use bar meters with peak holds if you prefer).

  • Page 9: What Of Surround Sound

    Familiar layout of the on-screen compressor If you are using a sampled compressor the SINTEFEX FX8000 REPLICATOR can recreate both the sound of the compressor and the way it changes with gain reduction and the ‘curve’ of the compressor, allowing soft knee effects to be accurately recreated.

  • Page 10: Presets: Programs, Samples And Effects

    Page 10 Sintefex FX8000 Analogue Sampling Digital EQ / Compressor / Effects Unit Surround Sound compressor example screen shot. A four channel Replicator may be used for surround mixes where it is not required to process a centre or sub woofer channel.

  • Page 11: Midi Control

    Mounting the unit and connecting AC power The FX8000 is a standard 2U rack mount unit. It is fan cooled and accordingly does not require cooling space above or below the unit, giving the maximum packing density in a rack installation. Ventilation holes must not be obstructed and a free flow of air should be available at the sides of the unit and from the fan at the rear.
  • Page 12 The connectors for unbalanced audio, balanced analysis signals, clock, optical and coaxial SPDIF are all clearly labelled. The FX8000 is supplied with multi-way break-out leads to provide access to the balance audio inputs and outputs and AES inputs and outputs. One break-out lead is required for each pair of chan- nels.

  • Page 13: System Block Diagram

    Page 13 User Guide Version 3.0 Copyright © 2001 - 2003 Sintefex Audio Lda System Block Diagram SPDIF/ADAT router mixer / SPDIF/ADAT digital in router digital out instrument Stereo 24-bit to channels from channels analogue in D-A converter 3 - 8...

  • Page 14: The Displays And Controls

    Page 14 Sintefex FX8000 Analogue Sampling Digital EQ / Compressor / Effects Unit The Displays and Controls Replicator Displays and Controls Select Button 1 - selects option displayed on screen Select Button 2 Select Button 3 Select Button 4 Select Button 5...

  • Page 15: Input Level And Gain Reduction Display

    Page 15 User Guide Version 3.0 Copyright © 2001 - 2003 Sintefex Audio Lda Input Level and Gain Reduction Display Depending on the number of channels fitted, the Input Level Display takes on different appearances: 2-channel unit 4-channel unit 6-channel unit...

  • Page 16: How Do I

    Page 16 Sintefex FX8000 Analogue Sampling Digital EQ / Compressor / Effects Unit 3 How Do I? Adjust the Compressor Slope to a precise value between the steps normally provided? Select "display setup" from the compressor page. COMP -> display setup Move the CURSOR DOWN to the Slope Control field at the bottom of the screen.

  • Page 17: Clear The View Angle If The Screen Is Not Viewable

    Page 17 User Guide Version 3.0 Copyright © 2001 - 2003 Sintefex Audio Lda The "view adjust" field shows the adjustment number that you may become familiar with. For adjustments later you can select the start page again SYSTEM -> start screen or you can go tot he "screen and LED"...

  • Page 18: Connect Up The Midi

    Page 18 Sintefex FX8000 Analogue Sampling Digital EQ / Compressor / Effects Unit Connect up the MIDI? The MIDI IN and MIDI OUT connections are clearly labelled on the rear panel of Replicator. These are in- tended for connection to a MIDI sequencer for real time control of some parameters and for program loading.

  • Page 19: Edit Names Of Programs Quickly

    Page 19 User Guide Version 3.0 Copyright © 2001 - 2003 Sintefex Audio Lda The preferred USB setup is "standard" and Windows will request that a disk is inserted with the appropriate hardware driver. Windows can then be told to look in the drivers folder of the Replimat software which you have downloaded from www.sintefex.com.

  • Page 20: Pitch Shift

    Page 20 Sintefex FX8000 Analogue Sampling Digital EQ / Compressor / Effects Unit You can vary any of these parameters but the change is not immediate. You must press “re-load sam- ple” to hear the effect. This is non-destructive editing - the sample on disk is not altered.
  • Page 21 Page 21 User Guide Version 3.0 Copyright © 2001 - 2003 Sintefex Audio Lda impulse and care should be taken not to trim off too much and affect the sound, but this may be a trade off between processing delay and sound quality.

  • Page 22: Hold Peaks On Meters For Longer Than Half A Second

    Page 22 Sintefex FX8000 Analogue Sampling Digital EQ / Compressor / Effects Unit If it is possible to sample the original recording equipment and to reverse the response, a lot of the group de- lay problems can be cancelled out. In fact the frequency response is the same as the original so some extra EQ correction may be needed, but the group delay is equalised out which is otherwise almost impossible to achieve, and the overall effect can be used to restore stereo imaging precision in older recordings.

  • Page 23: Find A Particular Page Or Window

    Page 23 User Guide Version 3.0 Copyright © 2001 - 2003 Sintefex Audio Lda Find a particular page or window? There are quite a lot of pages for the LCD screen which control different aspects of Replicator. Quite a lot of these link to other pages which you need to get to quickly.

  • Page 24: Get Analogue Levels Dead Right Into Replicator

    Page 24 Sintefex FX8000 Analogue Sampling Digital EQ / Compressor / Effects Unit You will see a page like the one shown here. The input gain and the output gain may be selected to operate from the front panel control by selecting Inp Gain: “control”...

  • Page 25: Get Rid Of The Limit Light Or Excessive Distortion When Replicating My Effect

    Turn any monitoring down until you have levels set up. It is then useful to monitor the FX8000 main output quietly to hear the effect of the test pulses - you can become familiar with signs of excessive distortion for instance.
  • Page 26 Page 26 Sintefex FX8000 Analogue Sampling Digital EQ / Compressor / Effects Unit SYSTEM -> setup & sample -> sample -> level setup. The example screen shows the typical results of sampling a "transparent" piece of equipment. The waveform will vary according to the effect of the system being sampled.

  • Page 27: Link Compressor Gain For Special Effects

    Page 27 User Guide Version 3.0 Copyright © 2001 - 2003 Sintefex Audio Lda Link Compressor Gain for Special Effects Stereo Gain linking is straightforward in normal use. Simply select a stereo pair of channels and press the LINK button to link or unlink the gains. As you can see on the meters, the channel gains are linked so the same gain is applied on both channels, preventing the stereo image shifting.
  • Page 28 Page 28 Sintefex FX8000 Analogue Sampling Digital EQ / Compressor / Effects Unit Another option may be that you do not want the Low Frequency Effects channel, or even perhaps the centre dialogue channels, to have any gain reduction at all. Simply set it to "off". In this setting its gain is not af- fected at all but it shares the sound of passing through the same signal path as all the other channels for con- sistency across a surround mix.

  • Page 29: Link Compressor Gain Between More Than One Replicator

    If you select "external link" on the Gain Linkage Setup page, you will see the following page: Here you can see that you can select the FX8000 external gain linkage to be off, or for the machine to a master or slave.
  • Page 30 Gain Data Format The gain data format is proprietary to Sintefex Audio but may be recorded on any digital recorder proved that it does not alter the signal in any way. The format uses 24-bits of data, but the method described above will work fine with a 16-bit recorder.

  • Page 31: Listen To A Sample

    Page 31 User Guide Version 3.0 Copyright © 2001 - 2003 Sintefex Audio Lda Avoid monitoring the gain reduction signal. The signal (if treated as audio) will have a lot of DC and bass content and if fed to monitors may cause damage. In particular transients in the gain profile may create loud impulsive signals.

  • Page 32: Load New Software Or Presets From Usb (Or Midi)

    Load New Software or Presets from USB (or MIDI)? Sintefex Audio makes new software and presets available on its web site. These are downloadable from the internet using your normal browser or using an FTP file transfer program and are ready for transfer to Repli- cator.
  • Page 33 Page 33 User Guide Version 3.0 Copyright © 2001 - 2003 Sintefex Audio Lda To use REPLIMAT on a PC equipped with Windows XP, Windows 98(SE) or better and a USB (or MIDI) port see “How do I Connect up the USB?”, or see “How do I Connect up the MIDI?”.
  • Page 34 Page 34 Sintefex FX8000 Analogue Sampling Digital EQ / Compressor / Effects Unit Select “PC to Replicator”, Make sure the boxes for sending Programs, Samples and Effects are unticked. Tick "Main" to update the main Operating Software on Replicator. Click on the browse button and browse to a folder which contains the .LDR file containing the desired software to send.

  • Page 35: Make The Controls Work - They Do Not Seem To Affect What I Am Listening To

    Page 35 User Guide Version 3.0 Copyright © 2001 - 2003 Sintefex Audio Lda If you requested to load a program bank 2 number 7, REPLIMAT will transfer the first occurrence of a file matching the name program bank 2 #7*.rpg where the * matches any name.

  • Page 36: Make Replicator Start Up The Way I Want

    Page 36 Sintefex FX8000 Analogue Sampling Digital EQ / Compressor / Effects Unit Make Replicator start up the way I want? SYSTEM -> setup & sample -> more setup -> power-up options provides a page which allows you to make certain decisions about power-up.
  • Page 37 Page 37 User Guide Version 3.0 Copyright © 2001 - 2003 Sintefex Audio Lda ple set-up “Save samples from:all” . If you choose more than one a sequence of memories will be highlighted for you to verify that the destination locations are free.

  • Page 38: Register This Software

    Provided you have entered the code correctly you will see a confirming message. If the message reports that there is an error in the code, simply check it against the code you have received from Sintefex Audio and cor- rect any errors.

  • Page 39: Reload Replicator Software From Scratch

    Replicator software and all the latest effects library. You may need to reload your own effects afterwards us- ing Replimat - see "How do I Load New Software or Presets from USB or MIDI?" Sintefex Audio can also supply a replacement disk preloaded with the standard release software to authorised technicians.

  • Page 40: Sample An Analogue Tape Recorder

    Make sure you have a PC with a USB interface available, and that you have the latest copy of REPLIMAT, the Sintefex Audio Replicator remote access program running on the PC. You must have Replicator software (usually called r*.ldr, for example rm2-1-00.ldr or repapp.ldr). You also may want to have a copy of the Engineering Software (usually called en*.ldr - where the * could be any sequence of...
  • Page 41 Page 41 User Guide Version 3.0 Copyright © 2001 - 2003 Sintefex Audio Lda You need to press "level setup" each time you change the delay setting to see the effect as this restarts the sampling timers. If the pulse test signal is now being fed through the tape machine back into Replicator, it should be possible to see the pulse signal in the usual way on Replicator's Snapshot Sampling screen.

  • Page 42: Sample A Vinyl Or Acetate Disk

    Page 42 Sintefex FX8000 Analogue Sampling Digital EQ / Compressor / Effects Unit the machine or a different machine line-up to avoid this. However if this is not possible all is not lost; the of- fending sample can be deleted at the sample load stage by using the "Level low-high" option of the edit page.

  • Page 43: Sample Compressor Curves

    Page 43 User Guide Version 3.0 Copyright © 2001 - 2003 Sintefex Audio Lda During this adjustment you can frequently restart the disk, press "go" again to restart the counter (if you let it get to zero it will go to the sample save screen and you will have to press "back" to continue as you are not ready to save yet.
  • Page 44 Page 44 Sintefex FX8000 Analogue Sampling Digital EQ / Compressor / Effects Unit Snapshot sampling can capture the basic sound of the compressor signal path and this is a necessary step in compressor sampling. However in addition you need to capture the gain reduction curve – and this is what we mean by sampling the compressor curve.
  • Page 45 Page 45 User Guide Version 3.0 Copyright © 2001 - 2003 Sintefex Audio Lda You can use the data knob to move through all 24 compressor curve memories – they are going to be all empty at this stage unless Replicator has already been used for compressor sampling. If it has you will see something like shown on the right above.
  • Page 46 Page 46 Sintefex FX8000 Analogue Sampling Digital EQ / Compressor / Effects Unit Snapshot Sampling the Compressor This is pretty much the same as ordinary snapshot sampling. The only difference when taking a snapshot is that we want the compressor to have a fixed non varying gain during the process.

  • Page 47: Sample Effects "Off-Line

    Applications Your FX8000 is busy in the studio but you are going to another session. Take a recording of the analysis tone and run it through any nice sounding signal paths to a recorder. Sample it later when you get back to your FX8000.
  • Page 48 Page 48 Sintefex FX8000 Analogue Sampling Digital EQ / Compressor / Effects Unit Connecting Things Analysis Output XLR Break-out Lead pro interface Optional 6 or 12dB pad XLRs female 1 (3,5,7) left input Optional pad right input female 2 (4,6,8)
  • Page 49 Page 49 User Guide Version 3.0 Copyright © 2001 - 2003 Sintefex Audio Lda It is advisable to press “level setup” to run a tone through the device you want to sample. You should see this arriving back at the input of Replicator by observing the meters and the graph and you can hear it if monitoring through Replicator.

  • Page 50: Save The Setup For The Next Session

    If you were using a Classic EQ effect, this cannot be uploaded. It could be • Part of the standard Replicator library which may be obtained from the Sintefex Audio web site, or • A special effect created for a Replicator customer - you would need to obtain a copy from the owner of the Replicator to be able to reproduce it.

  • Page 51: Speed Up The Midi Or Usb

    SPDIF and ADAT. Suitable equipped FX8000 systems also offer "Analogue DC" as an input option. This is the same as "Ana- logue" except that the digital high pass filter present in the Analogue to Digital converter is switched off. This is usually inaudible and should not be necessary but some engineers prefer this option.

  • Page 52: Switch The Whole System In And Out (Bypass) For Comparing The Effect

    Delay Compensation allows the FX8000 system delay to be set according to a number of options. • Minimum Delay: This causes FX8000 to operate with minimum processing delay at all times (this is the way the FX8000 has worked until now).

  • Page 53: Use Delay Effects (In The Afx Section)

    Page 53 User Guide Version 3.0 Copyright © 2001 - 2003 Sintefex Audio Lda SYSTEM -> setup & sample A different mode may be used on each channel if working in mono or on each group of channels in a multi- channel system.

  • Page 54: Use Different Samples On Different Channels

    Page 54 Sintefex FX8000 Analogue Sampling Digital EQ / Compressor / Effects Unit This shows that each of the 5 taps can be faded in and out and mixed together. The field "50% effect" can be altered from 0% (no effect) to 100% (all delays and no input signal). The delay of each tap can be set in 1mS increments between 1mS and 32-seconds (16 seconds above 48k sampling).

  • Page 55: Use Reverberation

    Page 55 User Guide Version 3.0 Copyright © 2001 - 2003 Sintefex Audio Lda There are two panes to this window. Select a sample for one of the channels in the lower pane, then move the cursor to the upper pane and select a channel to place the sample in. The press “select to list”.
  • Page 56 Page 56 Sintefex FX8000 Analogue Sampling Digital EQ / Compressor / Effects Unit Press "select preset" to load the new preset. You will see a screen like this, which we will now explain... • You may see up to four faders in the "levels" section. The options available depend on the reverb pro- gram and other factors, described below.

  • Page 57: Input Section

    FX8000 can do at the same time. However it is possible to use any one other process of the FX8000 with reverberation. In this way you can apply compression, digital EQ or Classic EQ to the reverb signal either before or after the reverberation proc- ess.
  • Page 58 If you wish to balance the sampled early reflections with the reverberation field and still have a wet/dry mix available within the FX8000, you can tie the sampled effect into the AFX reverberation by means of an AFX loop. This enables AFX to "include" other FX8000 sections within its wet/dry control.
  • Page 59 The stereo signal is mixed into the reverb path immediately before the reverb, which then may be mixed back with the stereo signal within the FX8000 if a desired for wet/dry mix. Multi-channel operation is the same as stereo - all the channel get summed into the reverb feed.

  • Page 60: Use The Data Wheel, Cursor Keys And Select Buttons

    Page 60 Sintefex FX8000 Analogue Sampling Digital EQ / Compressor / Effects Unit Signal Path when AFX loop includes the Replicator PROCESS sample sec- tion. wet/dry simulate early mix reflections mix reverb reverb feed simulate early mix reflections wet/dry process...

  • Page 61: Use The Expander/Gate

    Page 61 User Guide Version 3.0 Copyright © 2001 - 2003 Sintefex Audio Lda Use the Expander/Gate? Select the COMPRESSOR VIEW button, then touch the OPTION SELECT buttons to get the options shown here. Touch the "expander/gate" OPTION to select the Exp/Gate page shown here.

  • Page 62: Use Two Mono Channels On A Stereo Machine, Or Channel Combinations On A Multi-Channel Machine

    Page 62 Sintefex FX8000 Analogue Sampling Digital EQ / Compressor / Effects Unit Use Two Mono Channels on a stereo machine, or channel combi- nations on a multi-channel machine? A two channel machine may be used as a stereo processor or as two separate mono processors.

  • Page 63: General Information

    Page 63 User Guide Version 3.0 Copyright © 2001 - 2003 Sintefex Audio Lda 4 General Information Warning and Error Messages These are some of the warning and error messages you may get, what they mean and what to do about them.

  • Page 64: Status Display Messages

    If it is an analogue input you will need to reduce the IN CLIP peak digital signals (clips). This signal level into the FX8000. If it is a digital input you may be acceptable if your ears need to reduce the output of the device sending digi- tell you that the clipping is not a tal signals.

  • Page 65: File Types

    Settings of all controls on Replicator are a program. When .rpg stored on a PC they have this format. Replicator Sample FX8000 users can create samples of signal paths, and the .rsm FX8000 library contains some of these. They can also be used on FX2000.

  • Page 66: Glossary

    FX2000 or FX8000. Thus an machine may separately store Programs (that contain the settings of the machine), Effects (which contain the information about how to sound like an EQ of Compressor). In addition Samples can be separately stored on an FX8000 Expander An audio processor that increases the dynamic range of programme material by turning down the level of quieter passages below a threshold.
  • Page 67 Program Often called a "preset". This is a snapshot of the settings of an FX8000 unit saved on the internal hard disk for recall at a later date. Such a program may also be uploaded to a PC using the Replimat software for transfer to other machines or for archiving.

  • Page 68: Technical Specification

    FX8000 will receive SPDIF audio provided the signal source is located fairly close to the FX8000, or for sample rates up to 48k, the SPDIF may be fed to the coaxial or optical SPDIF input of the FX8000.

  • Page 69: Master Section

    Page 69 User Guide Version 3.0 Copyright © 2001 - 2003 Sintefex Audio Lda Outputs 2 channel electronically balanced output on multiway connector: +18dBu (± 1dB) from peak digital sine wave. AES balanced output (2-channel) on multiway connector: Meets AES-3 1992 specification when wired to appropriate XLR connector using approved cable types. Also supports up to 96kHz 2-channel sampling as proposed for standard revision.

  • Page 70: Midi: The Gory Details

    MIDI Manufacturers' Association. Channel Selection Because an FX8000 has up to 8 channels, it is able to transmit and receive commands on more than one MIDI channel. MIDI channels map directly onto physical channels. For example MIDI channel 1 will control FX8000 channel 1.
  • Page 71 Bank select commands may be issued with either the LSB or the MSB MIDI bank select command. Since values other than 1 - 8 are ignored, a full MSB, LSB pair will work fine too. The FX8000 sends bank select as an LSB only.

  • Page 72: Midi Implementation Chart And Parameter Numbers

    The FX8000 will not re-transmit a change it receives via MIDI, so "infinite loops" cannot occur. MIDI Implementation Chart and Parameter Numbers...
  • Page 73 LSByte. These are updated whenever an MSByte is received. In addition to this, it is possible to set the FX8000 so that all parameters are restricted to 7-bits (on reception only), in which case only an MSByte is required and any LSByte is ignored. This is for control by a MIDI con- troller that can output only 7-bit parameters, e.g.
  • Page 74 Note 2: Parameters numbers are split into MIDI MSBytes and LSBytes, i.e. 514 is (4,2). These may be re- ceived in either order. To avoid confusion a 127 in either byte is considered illegal and will set the FX8000 parameter number to invalid. This has the same effect as a RPN NULL (127,127).
  • Page 75 Page 75 User Guide Version 3.0 Copyright © 2001 - 2003 Sintefex Audio Lda The NRPN assignment table lists the centre value for most parameters. This is coded to the MIDI value (64,0) as this is the centre of the MIDI control range.
  • Page 76 MIDI Note 6: BANK SELECT FX8000 accepts bank select commands for either the LSB or MSB of the bank. Either are treated as setting the internal bank provided they contain the value 1 - 8. All other values including zero are ignored. The FX8000 transmits an LSB bank select when the user selects a program, prior to sending a bank load com- mand.

  • Page 77: Acknowledgements, Disclaimers And Licensing

    Evaluators and Distributors ("Demo Users") who are not end-users are entitled to use the software for evalua- tion and demonstration of the Sintefex product for a period to be set by Sintefex Audio. Demo Users in good standing will be permitted unlimited renewals of the evaluation period. Good standing means that all agree- ments between Sintefex and the Demo Users and between Distributors and Evaluators have been honoured by the user.

  • Page 78: Software Registration Form

    A Software Registration form appears on the following page. Please feel free to photo-copy this form and, after filling it in, return it to Sintefex Audio Lda to complete the software registration. You can also supply the information via our web site at www.sintefex.com.
  • Page 79 Evaluation User Licence. Evaluators and Distributors ("Demo Users") who are not end-users are entitled to use the software for evaluation and demonstration of the Sintefex product for a period to be set by Sintefex Audio. Demo Users in good standing will be permitted unlimited renewals of the evaluation period.

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