PD Space Guitar Synthesizer Forum

On screen preset for some classic bleusy fusion jamming with Space Guitar. Just set the dials as shown here, and channel your inner "whoeverisyourguidingspiritinmusic"
the Harley Benton Big Tone used here works just fine: it's bridge is easy to setup for nice action and the neck is nice to play on. It's quiet orange. that is perhaps the least attractive part, but I matched it here with some fitting shirt.

The preset manager is allways visible on screen on ipad in standalone mode.
On iphone or when used as an AUv3 and the plugin window is small, the preset manaqger is hidden untill you click on the <presetnamehere> - PRESETS button.
In the AUv3, making the pluginwindow bigger will automatically switch to the standalone layout with preset manager allwyas on screen.


Left top:
The presetname can be changed here. (note: the name is only stored once you've saved it)

SAVE AS
clicking here will bring the manager in save mode: you simply then click on the presetknob where you want the current preset to be. The presetmanager will only save presets in the USER bank, so if you are in FACTORY bank, it will show automatically the USER area to save your preset in.

SAVE
clikcing here will safe the current preset. If the current preset is a factory preset, it will behave like "SAVE AS", and show you the USER banks to pick a spot for your preset. Factory presets can not be overwritten.

<< MANUAL >> Opens the manual pages you are currently reading.

++IMPORTANT NOTES++

• the USER preset bank is not overwritten when the app is updated. Only the factory updates come fresh with any update of S
• On iOS the USER presets of the standalone and AUv3 are different. You can not save a preset in the standalone and use it in the AUv3, and vice versa.
  

1. MIDI PC is limited to 0-99
MIDI Program changes will be only work normally when in the range 0-99 (MIDI hardware PC number is 0 based, your controller may show 1-100..)

2. Small MIDI controller hack
MIDI PC's in range 100-109 (1 base controller: 101-110) will choose from the 10 current presets on SG screen. You only need to program your footcontroller's pedals once. This is ideal for MIDI controllers that have no bankswitch: e.g. you can have 4 switches with PC 100,101,102,103: These will engage the first 4 presets from the bank on screen.
Basically you can make a bank for your song, and the footswitch works as a songpart selector.
Bankchanges then ofcourse need to be done manually on screen.

3. Automatic Preset range clamping to current range
- An SG range is 100 presets
- incoming MIDI PC will clamp to the current SG preset range.
This allows for parallel changes in multiple SG instances, which is extremely usefull for doubleneck, stickplayers & stereo/hex setups.
E.g.: SG instance 1 is on 110, SG instance 2 is on 210
Now incoming MIDI PC 1 will switch SG instance 1 to 101, and SG instance 2 to 201

the REMOTE tab has 3 assignable channels to remotely control lots of internal parameters in PD Space Guitar. Please note that these parameters are not exposed otherwise to the host of the plugin.
So automating these sliders or feeding MIDI cc's into the AUv3 are 2 methods of reaching those params.
The assignable channels can also have ENV as input source (your normal guitar sound): this means that your picking strength can steer the fx.
ENV2 uses the second channel of your interface, (it will just not work when only 1 channel is chosen for input, no harm done however)

The 3 assignable remote chanels have on to
<DESTINATION> chooser with 14 options available here
ENV/ENV2/CCx source chooser with 14 options available here
The sliders can also be used manually, but as soon the source generates data it will ofcourse be overruled. So



WHAMMY  -

• MAX SHIFT - The shift is summed upon the normal shift that is determined by OCT and PITCH.
• GLIDE - sets the transposition time
• MARGIN -This will ignore a certain percentage of your footpedal's range at the heel and toe. This assures that your guitar will sound in tune. More extreme settings will make this a pitch switch instead of whammy. You can use the GLIDE knob to make the switch smooth

HOLD  -

• LEVEL - Level of the signal on hold
• DECAY - The decay time of the hold signa (max 29.9 secs) All the way to the right at 30 secs, is INFINITE
• DAMPING - Often it is unnatural to have the higher frequencies sustained that long. A higher setting here will shorten the life of the higer frequencies in the holdbuffer.
• HOLD - the knob on the bottom is the master hold switch: it can work like a normal piano hold pedal
• RETRIGGER - whenever HOLD is activated, this determines the level at which the hold buffer will be refreshed with new sound.This retrigger will not delete the sound that is allready on hold.
  Turned the knob all the way to the right will turn of retriggering: only the HOLD switch will hold sounds then.
• GRAB TIME the minimal time a sound has to be sounding before it is worthy of sustaining
• CC x the MIDI cc that can turn the HOLD button on/off
• MANUAL HOLD click here to engage/disengage the HOLD. At every activation the current sound is hold, independent from the retrigger setting. Toggable by CC

SWIPE EQ turns the graphical equaliser on/off
MIX mixes the neutral position of the 11 bands with the postions on screen. Normal use is 100%. The mix is remotable, so you e.g. can use it as solo boost
16 ..  16744 These indicate the centerfrequencies of the 11 sliders. The EQ bands have a low Q factor, but the sliders go to absolute zero. This is kind of simular to a tube amps tomne stack.
FLAT switches all sliders to neutral position.
DEFEAT sets all sliders to 0: after this you can just pull up a few centers to have a more pronounced color.

The frequency display zooms in to the top 20 dB of the sound: that way you can see better which are dominant frequencies you might want to alter.



CABINET - turn the speakersim on
MIX  - mixlevel mixes the speaker response with the original signal. Using the a negative mix will flip the phase of the speaker and create different colours.


REVERB - turn the convolution reverb on
LEVEL  - mixlevel
DELAY - predelay for the reverb
TONE  - lowpass filter, helps to make some rooms a bit warmer
TIME  - when Simple verb is chosen, you can alter the verb time here.

The dark button is clickable and opens a popup to choose from a list of reverb IR's.
The Simple Verb is not a convolution reverb but a simple oldschool thingy. It is however quiet nice when you need sound that fills in the time direction, without filling up your stereo space.

The FX tab contains 2 timebased effects: modulator and delay


MOD - the centered label is also the on/off switch of this modulator
CHORUS/ROTOR/PHASER - choose between a chorus and a rotating speaker sim.
BLEND - mixes the dry signal with the modulated signal. The mix of 50% gives the most rich sound.
FREQ - speed with which the modulator delay changes.
DEPTH - how much time the modulator is using at the max.
STEREO - chorus: phase difference between l & R rotor: depth of stereo phaser: speed difference between L & R
FEEDBACK - feedback in a delayed signal leads to colorisation, which with changing time constants leads to a bit of caleidoscopic flavour.
CENTER - center frequency for the phaser

DELAY - the centered label is also the on/off switch of this delay
LEVEL - mixlevel
REPEATS - repeats ( multiple playhead emulation)
TIME - delay time in milliseconds
FEEDBACK - determines how many repeats you get
TONE - a bandpass filter to colorise the delayed tone..
Q - ..the severness of this colorisation. Keep  this at 0 for straight delays. the colorisation is incremental with every repeat of the delay: this is used to get a bit of oldschool delay flavour
SYNC here you can sync to the BPM that is declared in the SETUP tab, which can also be the host BPM.
OFF - uses the TIME knob, other positions are based upon the master BPM.
X 1.5 makes the SYN knob use a dotted time, 1.5 times longer than the BPM note.
Setting 1/2 is half a quarter note, which is an eight note
Setting 1/3 is fit for 12/8 in a 4/4

To avoid confusion at forehand: this is not trying to be a tube guitaramp!
It is an easy to use "MULTIMODE FILTER-LIMITER-WAVESHAPER-CHANNELSTRIP".
For guitarsynths, fullfledged tubeamp emulations are often way too thick, the aim from this amp is to be fully transparent when needed: the polyphonic waveshaper can create a lot of extra harmonics, the amps should be able to handle this without adding too much extra.


BANDPASS / LOWPASS / HIGHPASS FILTER / BANDPASS2 / LOWPASS2 / HIGHPASS FILTER2 chooser
The ENV/CC chooser selects the source of automation. ENV is the clean guitar envelop from the input.
** The 2 versions are optimised for auto filter use: when you hear crackles using the normal filters, please try the 2 versions **

GAIN - is the depth of the filter when in Bandpass/Bandpass2 mode-
FREQ - the default cutoff frequency
RESO - the resonance of the filter

SENSE  - is used for setting the sensivitiy for the ENV/ENV2 sources.
ATTACK - is the speed of reaction.t
FREQ  - target cutoff frequency

Now the botton row with the normal amp section:
LOW CUT - highpass filter, the displayed numbers are midinotes. 28-Bassguitar low E', 40-guitar low E. Note that for leads, often a very high LOW CUT is used in productions, to focus the guitar more into a violin range. Same goes for acoustic guitars!
MID - this 800hz "mid scoop" is a typical feature of electric guitaramps.
GATE - A simple noisegate
GAIN - GAIN pumps up the volume until it limits, so this is a 1 knob sustainer
OVERDRIVE - Symmetric waveshaping clipper, adding odd harmonics.
SQUEEL - Assymetric waveshaper, adds even harmonics.
ATTACK - Automically adds smooth attacks when you silence the guitar a bit before plucking a new note. this is the classic mono version of the polyphonic ATTACK knob in the shaper: it is however not obsolete because of that. A classic attack knob like this is sometimes more suitable, especially for legato playing.
TONE - A simple treble knob

COMP->DRIVE - in this mode you get the max sustain with a more constant edge of the overdrive
DRIVE->COMP - in this mode you get more dynamics with a more dynamic edge of the overdrive

First tab is SHAPER



BLEND -  blends the dry guitarsignal with the synth signal: the output is send to the AMP
TRESHOLD - this is not a normal gate, it is a spectral gate, meaning every frequency component indivdually has to cross the treshold to be heard.

PRESERVE is for the shifter to preserve the original spectral shape, it is a simple "formant preserve" function. So if you shift down an octave, with hx off, preserve will make it brighter
ATTACK - this knob can slow down the attack, for every frequency component independently
OCT - pitches the whole spectrum in octave steps
PITCH - pitches the whole spectrum in halfnote steps
DROP - splits the spectrum into 2 parts: the lower part is dropped ("lowered") 1 octave. There is a 1 octave transition zone to provide smoothness at the drop border.
DOUBLER - The doubler has 3 modes:
1) DOUBLER  - The Doubler knob has fifths and octaves with varying degrees of detune.
2) OVERTONE  - The X knob chooses the overtone.
3) Harmonisers (12 keys)  - The HARM knob chooses from a ascending range of chordal notes within the current key. The chord range is a simple root-third-fifth structure.
-The MIX knob allways rules the volume of this extra voice.
-The positon in the stereo image is determined by SPREAD (see SPACE tab) and the stereo setting there.
-Setting AMP to QUATRO will give the doubled voice a separate amp! In DOUBLE mode the 2 shaper voices share 1 amp, in SINGLE mode normal guitar and shaper voices are mixed mono before being fed into 1 stereo amp.

Now we get to the additive synthesis part:
HX OFF - no extra harmonics are added. You basically hear a representation of your normal guitar.
SAW - adds all multiples of the source frequency components.
SQUARE - adds odd multiples of the source frequency components.
BRIGHT - adds even multiples of the source frequency components.

The level of the added harmonics are ruled by a filtering scheme:
LP  - (Low Pass) the harmonics are added from 0 up to the cutoff frequency.
HP - (High Pass) the harmonics are added from cutoff frequency onward.
BP  - (Band Pass) the harmonics are only added around the cutoff frequency.

+ORIG The filterschemes above can mute the sound. If you want to allways have the original frequencies in the output, this knob will do just that!
FOCUSmakes the tone darker, focused on the root note. It is for getting the low notes darker.
RANGE - a lowpass for the seeds going into the harmonics generator.
SENSE - the sensitivity to the input: high sense will move the cutoff from MIN to MAX
ATTACK - the SENSE envelop can be slowed doen here to create interesting attack filter effects.
MIN - this is the rest position of the cuttof. If SENSE is 0, this will 100% determine the cutoff position. (Note that REMOTE/Filter uses this as min too!)
MAX - This is the MAX position which can be reached by SENSE. (Note that REMOTE/Filter uses this as a max too!)
RESONANCE - In LP and HP mode, this determines the height of the bulge at the cutoff frequency. In BP mode there is only this bulge, so it will work there as a pure volume for the filtered harmonics.
TONE - The added harmonics can be much brighter than your guitar. Therefore this knob can tone down the synthy sound. Note that the +ORIG knob's original spectrum contribution will be not affected by this. This means you can have bright guitar, filled in by synth in the lower frequencies.


At last, but not least, there is the dynamic modulation section:
OFF - no dynamic modulation
TREM - a tremolo with depth DEPTH, speed FREQ. The ATTACK above 0 will postpone the effect on newly plucked sound. ATTACK below 0 will only use the effect on newly p lucked sound.
DETUNE - A detune with 1 octave max DEPTH. The ATTACK above 0 will start the note at a lower point to glide into the normal frequency. ATTACK below 0 will glide in from above.
VIB - a stereo vibrato with depth DEPTH, speed FREQ. The ATTACK above 0 will postpone the effect on newly plucked sound. ATTACK below 0 will only use the effect on newly p lucked sound.

Preset 1, Fluteway to heaven
For those who missed the hint in the name

Got an anonymous feedback about being stuck in config screen:
If you are stuck in Space Guitar's config window (standalone), it is because the audio settings are not compatible.
This is like 99,9% of the case with bleutooth headsets.
The current beta version 1.3.41 does not ignore bleutooth audio, so you have to turn of the headset or bleutooth.

A little live jam with PD Space Guitar 1.3.42 BETA.
the adaptive rotor and amp attack give a great playfeel