User Manual

Designed and created by Davide Carbone

Consultation and additional production
by Josh Abrahams
Factory Presets by Davide Carbone
and Josh Abrahams
Built at samplify.com.au
Programmed by Elliot Rigets
Graphics by Jonathon Clemens
Additional consultation and graphic design
by Phillipe Decuyper
Distributed and marketed by Plugin Boutique
(c) 2014 Plugin Boutique

Manual
click to continue

Introduction

page 2

Introduction
Carbon Electra is a powerful and intuitive synth built
by producers, for producers. Its a four-oscillator
subtractive synth with a modern feature set. It has
been developed as an advanced learning tool
whilst also being a powerful and easy to program
synth. It is based on vintage analogue routing and
features flexible modulation options including an
editable stepper and note performer. The graphical
displays act as a comprehensive information tool
and as an accurate guide to each parameter
change. The digital display also offers precise
information on every editable parameter.
Carbon Electra is fun, powerful and easy to make
great presets with.

page 3

Getting Started
The layout of the synth has been designed to be
familiar to experienced programmers. All the
parameters live within the Oscillator, Envelope, Mixer,
Filter, LFO, Effect, Step Envelope and Master sections.
Carbon Electra utilises many of the more popular
synthesis techniques such as oscillator sync,
frequency modulation, pulse width adjustment,
sample and hold pitchable noise, routable LFOs,
distortion, unison, glide, effects and a flexible
modulation envelope. It combines these classic
techniques with modern features such as a powerful
and intuitive step envelope, vocal filter, and note
programmer.

Introduce effects to change the dynamics.

Adjust the glide and unison settings in the master to

thicken the sound.

Utilise the step envelope to create grooves and

musical sequences.

Adjust the final volume of your preset and limit the

sound if required.

Save or export your sound

Select your oscillator type and pitch to create your

initial sound.

To load a preset you need to click load and select a

preset from the drop down menu. You can also use
the + and buttons to flick through the presets. To
save a preset you click save, and select a position in
the drop down menu to save / overwrite to. You can
also enter a name for your preset by clicking on the
name and entering text. You can also import and
export individual presets or entire banks to share with
other users.

Adjust your envelope to alter the shape of your

sound.

To start with a new preset click LOAD and select INIT

from either the user bank or the factory bank.

Adjust the volumes of the oscillators in the mixer

section.

Select and adjust the filter to alter the timbre and tone
of the sound.

All knobs can be reset to their default value by

command-clicking, double clicking or middle
clicking (wheel).

Utilise the LFOs to create movement and

syncopation.

All of the synths parameters are visible and therefore

easy to find and tweak. A standard preset creation
workflow could be as follows:

To learn more about Carbon Electra and synthesis

in general please read through our tutorial section
whilst using the tutorial bank in the synth.

page 4

The Sections
Preset Selector
The preset selector allows for saving and loading of
presets and for exporting and importing of presets
and banks. It also allows for loading of the INIT preset,
which allows you to design your sounds from scratch.
The Carbon Electra presets are split between factory
and user banks. Factory banks and presets cannot
be overwritten although they can be edited and
saved to user banks. To load a sound simply click
LOAD and select a preset from the dropdown
list. You may also use the + and buttons to scroll
through presets. Within the load menu you may also
IMPORT individual presets or entire user banks. When
importing presets you may alter them or save them
to your user bank where they will then permanently
reside. Please be aware that importing a user bank
will overwrite your current user bank. You may want
to export your current user bank prior to importing a
new user bank.

Further functions are available when holding the SHIFT

key whilst clicking LOAD or SAVE. These include the
ability to customise the init and reset values. The Init
is used when you load the Init preset. Reset is used
when you double click or shift-click to reset a knob. For
example you might want the default mixer level to be
zero rather than one or likewise for the cutoff.

When a preset is altered the SAVE button flashes

blue to indicate that the sound must be saved or
changes will be lost. To save a sound simply click
save and select the position within the user bank
that the preset will be saved to. You can rename
the preset simply by clicking in the bottom text field
and entering a name prior to saving. Within the save
menu you may also EXPORT the preset or your entire
user bank to share with other users and computers.

page 5

The Sections
Info Display Pane
The info display pane displays information relating to
every parameter altered by the user. This gives the
user accurate and concise feedback on parameter
values and settings. The info display pane also has
digital readouts for gain reduction (G.R.) which
displays the amount of gain attenuated by the
limiter and overall volume (VOL).

page 6

The Sections
Automation & CC Control
Within the display pane you will see a learn button
for external midi control. Press the learn button then
adjust a knob or switch on the GUI and then the
external controller knob you would like it assigned
to. Any MIDI cc will now be learned for that control
immediately once received. For automation of all of
the Carbon Electra parameters please refer to the
documentation of your Digital Audio Workstation.

page 7

The Sections
Oscillator
There are four oscillators to choose from each with
five wave shapes (Pulse / Saw / Triangle / Sine /
Noise) and knobs for adjusting pitch, fine-tune and
pulse width. Oscillator one features a frequency
modulation knob, which dials in an aggressive tone
and both oscillator one, and three are sync-able to
oscillator two and four respectively. The sync feature
generates a screaming effect when adjusting the
pitch of the synced oscillator.

Pitch
Adjusts the coarse tune of the pitch in semi-tones
across six octaves from -36 to +36

FM
Featured in oscillator one. Adjusts frequency
modulation depth of the oscillator from a sine
transposed at -2 octaves and can be used as a
powerful synthesis tool

Wavetypes
You can select on of five wave shapes - Pulse / Saw /
Triangle / Sine / Noise. When selecting Pulse you may
also alter the pulse width knob that offers a chorus or
slightly de-tuned effect. The S&H noise wave shape
is pitch-able so it responds to keyboard tracking and
pitch modulation

Sync 1 & 2 / Sync 3 & 4

The sync button (SYNC 1&2 for example) will slave
oscillator 2 to oscillator 1 forcing oscillator 2 to reset
with every cycle from the master (oscillator 1).
Adjusting the pitch of the slave (oscillator 2) creates
a sound that is rich in harmonics and harsh but
musical, much like a screaming effect.

Trig
With the Trig option enabled, the oscillator will reset
to same position (starting phase) with each note on.

Tune
Adjusts the fine-tune of oscillator 2, 3 and four and
can be used as a detuning effect to thicken a sound

Width
Adjusts the width of the pulse waveform

page 8

The Sections
Envelope
There are two envelopes in the envelope section. The
first envelope AMPLIFIER is always assigned to the
amplifier and features ATTACK, DECAY, SUSTAIN and
RELEASE which adjusts the shape of the overall sound.
The amplifier envelope also features an AMPLITUDE
knob that adjusts the volume level of the synth preeffect and before the limiter. This can be used to
normalize the level going into the distortion effect. The
amplifier envelope also features an EXP switch that
provides an exponential slope for the attack phase,
enabling a more gradual attack. The MODULATION
envelope can be assigned to filter cut off, oscillator 2 &
4 pitch, and overall pitch. Both envelopes offer velocity
and keyboard tracking amounts.

page 9

The Sections
Mixer

Filter

The mixer section adjusts the overall volume of each

oscillator and also offers an independent noise
oscillator. The mixer section features a detailed
oscilloscope with a quick response. The waveform
shows a capture of between 4 and 39 milliseconds
dependent upon the pitch and sample rate
received by the oscilloscope. The scope is also
syncd to oscillator 1.

The filter section features five filter types including a

vocal filter and a saturation button. The filter can be
controlled by the modulation envelope in positive
or negative values with the MODENV dial or tracked
by the keyboard with the KBT knob. The filter section
also has a frequency spectrum display, which can
be changed to post filter oscilloscope by clicking on
the display.

The mixer +12DB boost switch adds 12db to the mix

level. The values printed when adjusting knobs are
adjusted to reflect this. Levels normally range from
-90db to +0db, with the +12db switch enabled they
range from -78db to +12db. This extra range allows
you to overdrive the filter. Overdrive of the filter
will provide more harmonic content, will introduce
more even harmonic vs. odd and will temper the
oscillation by limiting its variability and dynamics
over time. This can be used in all sorts of ways such
as to get just the right timbre for a flute sound, to add
a bit of harmonic to a lead or to introduce more
varied dynamics to a sound.

The SAT filter saturation switch enables signal path

saturation. With this switch disabled, only the
feedback is saturated. With it enabled the entire
signal passing through the filter is saturated. This
changes the filter timbre most with high resonance
settings, introducing a significant amount of even
harmonic which helps create a warm timbre.

page 10

The Sections
LFO
Carbon Electra features three flexible LFOs that
can be assigned to individual oscillator pitch
and volume, frequency modulation, pulse width,
cut off, resonance, LFO rate and overall volume.
Each destination parameter features a knob that
effectively acts as an amount. The three LFOs can
also be controlled by modulation wheel.
In poly mode the LFO will always run from a random
starting phase at the set rate for every voice. This
allows a more dynamic feel for vibrato or other
modulation relative to the syncd unison effect of a
single shared LFO.

I. Pulse:
Pulse can have its duty-cycle adjusted fully with the
width control.

II. Ramp / Triangle:

The ramp waveform is adjustable from down-ramp
to triangular to up-ramp continuously using the width
control.

When set to MONO, the LFO will sync to the host

playback position for all voices. When trigger [TRIG]
key-sync is enabled the LFO will be forced to sync to
the phase set with the phase control on every new
key press. For poly mode this can be used for echo
effects.
In mono mode, when trigger key-sync is enabled,
the LFO no longer can sync to the host playback
position as its phase is determined by when notes
are played.
Notes about trigger and mono/poly also apply to
the step envelope.
The following wave shapes can control the LFO:

page 11

The Sections
LFO (cont.)
III. S-Curve / Sine:
The sine is identical to the triangle but also shaped
with a sine-like function. The result of this is that the
delta is continuously varied unlike the triangle that
alternates between fixed up/down rates. This gives
the sine waveform a smoother effect when used to
modulate pulse width, as one example.

IV. Filtered noise:

V. S&H Noise / Ramp&Hold

/ Random:
This waveform is a ramp&hold of white noise. The
width control allows adjustment of the ramp time
relative to the LFO sampling frequency. Fully left the
ramp time will be zero and the wave will abruptly
jump to a new value for every cycle. Moving the
control clockwise will increase the length of time
during which the wave moves from the old value to
the new, up to the full length of a cycle.

This waveform is white noise filtered by a low-pass filter

and the result normalized in level. The width control
adjusts the distribution of the wave between saturated,
linear and exponential. You can test this by applying
LFO.1 to Pitch. With width fully left the saturated noise
will detune the pitch a majority of the time, returning
to the origin only briefly. With width fully clockwise the
pitch will remain at the origin for a majority of the time,
briefly spiking in one direction and returning quickly.
Centered, the waveform will move up and down in a
balanced fashion.

page 12

The Sections
Effect
Carbon Electras effects section features chorus,
delay, phaser, distortion and EQ settings. An ON
switch activates each individual effect.
The CHORUS section features a stereo chorus
with individual left/right controls for rate and time.
The chorus section is capable of emulating chorus
sections featured in classic analogue synths.
The DELAY section can operate in CROSS, STEREO
or PING PONG mode and features knobs for TIME,
feedback [FB], modulation [MOD] and MIX. The
delay can also be OFFSET which adds an additional
delay in-series to the wet signal coming from the
delay which can be used to create shuffle-like
delay effect. High end or low-end frequencies can
be cut out from the resulting delay with the LOCUT
and HICUT knobs. The delay can also run in SYNC
with your DAW.

The PHASER section has controls for RATE, STEREO and

feedback [FB].
Carbon Electra also features a DISTORTION section that
uses diode saturation when in HARD mode (default) or
a smooth function when the SOFT button is activated.
The distortion section also features a BOOST control and
HICUT controls which rolls off the top end of the resulting
distortion.
The EQ section features a sweepable MID and HIGH eq.
There is also a control for fixed BASS boost or cut. The mid
and high frequency can be selected by their respective
FREQ knobs. The BASS, MID and HIGH knobs act as boosts
or cuts.

page 13

The Sections
The Step Envelope
The STEP ENVELOPE section has been specifically
designed to work as a powerful and fully editable
sculpting tool for the Carbon Electra synth. The step
envelope can control overall volume of the synth
[AMP], filter CUTOFF and oscillator 2 & 4 PITCH. The step
envelope can also be used as a note performer by
clicking the NOTE button, this automatically activates
snap mode. When programming in note mode, the
SNAP button fixes the step envelope wave editing to
increments of semi-tones (from +1 to +15 semitones), thus
making it easy to write musical sequences. The step
envelope works concurrently with the LFO section,
which enables unique cross-modulation effects.
The step envelope is always running in sync with your
DAW clock and the RATE knob controls its speed. The
modulation can run in MONO mode and can be
retriggered on note press by clicking the TRIG button.
The step envelope has several flexible modes of
editing. You can select a wave shape in the WAVE
SELECTOR and apply that wave by clicking in any one
of the sixteen gridded sections of the display.

You may then alter the amount of each wave. Clicking

and dragging through the available shapes in the
wave selector can select different wave shapes.
There are a total of 17 available wave shapes and
a dedicated EDIT mode. EDIT mode can also be
activated after using one the of available wave
shapes to contour its wave.
In EDIT mode you can double click anywhere on the
display to create a node. Clicking or shift clicking on
a node deletes nodes. You can change the linearity
(slope) of each curve by clicking and dragging on the
actual curve. You can adjust the shape of each wave by
shift clicking and dragging. You can select and move a
node by clicking and moving each individual node.
To assist in edit mode, hovering over a node will make it
turn red. This makes selecting individual nodes easier.
The step length of the step envelope can be adjusted
(between 1 and 16 steps) by clicking and or clicking
and dragging anywhere in the step length bar at the
bottom of the step length envelope.

page 14

The Sections
Master
The MASTER section features parameters for overall
VOLUME and TUNE. THE PB RANGE sets the range of
pitch bend from 0 to +24 semitones. GLIDE sets the
master glide between off and four seconds and
work in both monophonic and polyphonic modes.
The POLY setting allows you to set your polyphony
from one voice (monophonic) to up sixteen voices.
The UNISON setting allows up to four voices in
unison and the TUNE and STEREO dials allows you
to spread the detune and left and right panning
across the selected voices from 0 to 100%. This helps
create a wider effect with reasonable defaults. The
master section also features a LIMIT button, which
by default is on; this places a limiter at final output
stage ensuring that presets are free from clipping.
This feature can be disabled. Finally the master
section features a RETRIG button that retriggers both
envelopes on key press and a LEGATO button, which
only allows GLIDE to work when notes are played
LEGATO.

page 15

Tutorial
click to continue

Introduction
Carbon Electra is a four oscillator subtractive
synthesiser. Its made up of eight basic sections:
oscillator, envelope, mixer, filter, lfo (low frequency
oscillator), effect, step envelope, and master. Using
the presets in the Tutorial presets folder, we will
examine the function of each of these sections.

page 17

Oscillator & Mixer

Waveform
The first two main things to look at with an oscillator
are its waveform (which determines the timbre or
sound quality), and its pitch.
First lets look at the waveform.
Open tutorial preset 1, called Oscillator Waveform.
If you look at the OSCILLATOR section of the
Synthesiser, you will see that each of the four
oscillators in this preset are set to a different
waveform; osc (short for oscillator) 1 is set to a
Pulse waveform, osc 2 to Saw, osc 3 to Triangle, and
oscillator 4 to Sine.
If you look at the MIXER section you will see that osc
1 is set to a mix level of about -7 dB, and the others
are all set to the minimum mix level, effectively off, so
when you play a note you will only hear osc 1.
Have a listen to the timbre of the sound its
probably easiest to study the timbre by playing
single notes rather than chords.
In the MIXER section you will see the info display
pane, a visual representation of what is being heard,
in this case a simple square pulse wave.
Now, with your mouse, grab the osc 1 knob in the
mixeR section and pull it down until its all the way
off, and you hear nothing when you play a note.
(Notice that when you adjust any parameter on the
SYNTH, information will appear in the top middle

area of the GUI, describing which parameter is

being changed, and how it is being changed. So, as
you pull that osc 1 mix knob down you will see the
information changing.)
Now turn up the mix knob of osc 2 to about -7 dB,
play a few notes and listen to the timbre of that
waveform, trying to notice the difference between
the sound of the Saw and Pulse waveforms.
You can repeat this process going through all four
oscillators, and familiarise yourself with the sound of
each waveform.
The next thing to look at is the sound produced by
different combinations of waveforms. Go back to
the original preset osc mix levels; osc 1 set to about
-7 dB and all the others off. Now, while holding down
a note, slowly add in osc 2 by turning the osc 2 knob
in the mixer section, and pay attention to how this
changes the timbre. Try various combinations to
see how they affect the timbre. (Note how they also
affect the picture of the waveform in the info display
pane.) In a later preset we will look at how we
can use LFO 3 to modulate the mix level of various
oscillators.

page 18

Oscillator & Mixer

Pitch
Next lets look at the pitch knobs in the OSCILLATOR section.

Adjust the pitch knobs to the following settings:

Open tutorial preset 2, called Oscillator Pitch.

osc 1: -12, osc 2: +0, osc 3:+12, osc 4: +24. This means that
by playing one note we are hearing four octaves at
once. Try playing chords, it will sound like a 60s Farfisa
organ. This type of settings is a building block for creating
many presets.

You will see in the OSCILLATOR section that the waveform

for all four oscillators is set to Pulse. The pitch for each
oscillator is different; osc pitch is set at 0, osc 2 is +4
(meaning 4 semitones above 0), osc 3 is +7, and osc 4 is
+12. In the MIXER section only osc 1 is turned up. Play and
hold the note middle C, and turn up osc 2 in the MIXER
section to the same level as osc 1. We are now hearing
two notes at once; osc 1 is playing the note played,
middle C (+0 semitones), osc 2 is voicing E above middle
C, which is a major third (+4 semitones above the note
played). While still holding middle C, add in osc 3 to the
same level as the first two. Its voicing G above middle
C, which is a perfect fifth (+7 semitones above the note
played). Finally mix in osc 4 which is voicing A above
middle C, being a major sixth (+9 semitones above the
note being played). With all 4 oscillators turned up in the
mix, just by playing the C note you are hearing a C Major
Sixth chord. (Its ok if you dont follow any of this music
theory, its enough to understand that using the pitch
knob transposes the note being voiced by that oscillator).
Youll find that if you play more than one note at a time
with the current settings, it doesnt really sound very good,
just a messy bunch of clashing notes. Lets try setting the
osc pitches so that they are useful for playing chords.

Try adjusting the mix level of various oscillators in the

MIXER section, noticing the effect on the sound. You
could also try switching to different waveforms in
the various oscillators to see how a combination of
waveforms and pitches can create a complex sound
even when holding just the one note. As an example,
open the Avent preset from the Bass I folder in the
factory bank, and see how using different octaves can
create an electro house bass.
Now open tutorial preset 1 again called WAVEFORM,
and turn up the level of osc 2 in the MIXER section so
that its about the same level as osc 1. You will see a
knob labelled TUNE in the osc 2 area of the OSCILLATOR
section. While playing a single note, adjust this knob
either way. This is the fine tune control for osc 2, and with
it we can create a rich sound by detuning one oscillator
against another by varying amounts. From the Bass II
folder in the factory bank, open the Prodigy Bass (MW)
preset (MW stands for mod wheel, and indicates that a
parameter can be changed with the mod wheel, in this
case the high pass filter cutoff amount). Notice how osc
1 and 2 are very detuned to create a rich bass sound.

page 19

Oscillator & Mixer

FM, Width & Sync.
The best way to learn what these parameters do is to just
experiment with them.
Open tutorial preset 3, called FM, WIDTH, SYNC.
We have only osc 1 turned up in the MIXER section, and it
is set to a Pulse waveform.
While playing a single note, move the FM knob of osc 1
up and down in the OSCILLATOR section. The higher it
is, the greater effect it has on the pitch and timbre. Its
great for creating dirty complex sounds, hard basses,
screaming leads.

octave above the pitch of osc 1 which is set at +0.

Click on the SYNC 1&2 button in the OSCILLATOR section.
Adjust the PITCH of osc 2, and notice the sound. Rather
than getting a detuned sound, osc 2 now sounds like an
upper harmonic of osc 1. This is more noticeable if you
turn down the level of osc 1 to zero in the MIXER section.
To see an example of how this type of sound can be
useful, look near the bottom of the ENVELOPE section,
and find the knob labelled 2. Turn this knob up to
around 25%, play a note to hear the effect. This sound
can be called a sync sweep.

Now set the FM knob back to 0 and adjust the WIDTH

knob. This changes the width of the Pulse waveform,
notice that you can see the waveform change in the
info pane as you shift the knob, showing the resulting
waveform, and you can hear the more you change it
either way the thinner the sound becomes.
{Note that the WIDTH parameter only affects the oscillator
if it is set to Pulse wave, WIDTH does not affect the other
waveforms).
In a later section we will see how you can use the LFO
section to constantly change these parameters to create
a thick chorus style effect, and to create more complex
tones.
Now set the WIDTH knob back to zero, and turn up osc
2 in the MIXER section so that it is about the same level
as osc 1. Notice that the pitch of osc 2 is set at +12, an

page 20

Envelope
There are two envelope generators in the ENVELOPE
section; the top one (AMPLIFIER) is dedicated to changing
the total amplitude (volume output) of Carbon Electra,
while the bottom envelope (MODULATION) can be used
to change the FILTER cutoff frequency, overall pitch, or the
pitch of osc 2 or 4.
Open tutorial preset 4, called ENVELOPE.
This preset has all four oscillators turned up in the MIXER section,
each set at different octaves and various waveforms.
First lets look at the top envelope, the AMPLIFIER ENVELOPE.
Notice the settings; ATTACK time is set at minimum, DECAY
time at 150 ms, SUSTAIN at 18% and RELEASE time at 18ms.
The effect of these settings is a very quick decay in volume,
a fairly low level while the note is held, and no remaining
sound when the note is released. These are typical settings
for bass sounds or plucky synth and keys sounds.
Experiment with adjusting the ATTACK and RELEASE settings
of the top envelope to see how they change the sound.
Now set the ATTACK back to zero, and release to around 18
ms, and turn the VELOCITY knob up to 100%. The effect of
this is that the harder you play a note, the louder it is heard.
Set the VELOCITY knob back to zero (you can do this by
double clicking on the knob, double clicking on any knob
sets it back to its default position).

Now we will look at the MODULATION ENVELOPE.

First we will use it to modulate (change) the filter cutoff. In the
FILTER section, turn the CUTOFF knob down about halfway,
to around 490 Hz (remember you can see the amount you
change it to in the top middle area of the GUI). This has the
effect of removing the higher frequencies from the output.
Now in the FILTER section turn the MODENV knob up to 40%. If
you look at settings for the MODULATION ENVELOPE they are
minimum attack, very quick decay, very low sustain and very
quick release time, giving us a plucking type sound.
Experiment with adjusting the ATTACK and DECAY settings
for the MODULATION ENVELOPE, and see how they change
the sound.
Also, turn the VELOCITY knob of the MODULATION
ENVELOPE up full, and notice that now the harder you play
a note, the greater the effect that the envelope has on the
filter if you play very softly it hardly affects the filter at all.
Now turn the ATTACK and VELOCITY knobs to minimum,
and experiment with the PITCH knob. If you turn it to the
right, the envelope affects the pitch of all four oscillators
as expected, starting at a high note and dropping away
quickly, it kind of sounds the way the display of the envelope
shape looks.
Next turn the PITCH knob all the way to the left, now the
envelope is effecting the pitch by -100%, the exact opposite
of the way the display of the envelope shape looks. Reset
the PITCH knob by double clicking on it, and experiment
with the knobs on either side, noting they only affect the
pitch of either oscillator 2 or 4.
page 21

Filter
Open tutorial preset 5, called FILTER.
This preset is a typical pad type sound, with two
oscillators set slightly detuned on a SAW waveform,
and a third oscillator set one octave above, and
with quite long attack and release times set on
the AMPLIFIER ENVELOPE (note the EXP button
is switched on in the AMPLIFIER ENVELOPE, this
changes the shape of the ATTACK curve, and can
create a smoother attack for pad type sounds).

Repeat this process with all of the other filter types;

HP (high pass), BR (band reject) and VO (vocal filter).
Now click it back onto LP and set the CUTOFF to
around 270 Hz, and turn the KBT (keyboard track)
knob to maximum. This means that the cutoff
frequency is affected by the pitch of the note
played the higher the note played, the higher the
cutoff. Play low and high notes alternatively to hear
how this sounds.

Look at the FILTER section and notice that the

CUTOFF knob is set about halfway, and the RES
(resonance) knob is turned up a small amount. While
playing a chord, experiment with the CUTOFF knob;
observe how different settings change the sound.
Now set the RES knob about halfway, and adjust the
CUTOFF setting, to see how increasing the resonance
changes the sound.
Next to the MODENV knob you will see a row
of buttons, the LP (low pass) button is currently
selected. These are all the different filter types
available. Click on the next one down, BP ( band
pass) and move the CUTOFF knob to get to know
the sound of the band pass filter (set the RES knob to
about 20% first).

page 22

LFO
The Carbon Electra has 3 LFOs (low frequency
oscillators). These can be used to modulate varied
parameters such as pitch, amplitude, FM, pulse width,
oscillator mix and cutoff.
Open tutorial preset 6, called LFO A.
We have 2 oscillators turned up int the MIXER section,
and osc 2 is pitched a perfect fifth above osc 1. Look
at the LFO section, and see that with LFO 1 we can
modulate the pitch of each of the four oscillators
and AMP level (total output volume), with LFO 2 we
can modulate the FM of osc 1, the PWM (pulse width
modulation) of osc 2 and 3, and the rate of LFO 1, and
with LFO 3 we can modulate the mix level of each of
the four oscillators, and cutoff frequency. While holding
down a note, in LFO 1 turn the PITCH 1 knob to about
20%, then do the same to the PITCH 2 knob, creating
a vibrato effect. Turn the MOD WH (mod wheel) knob
up full. The effect of this is that you now need to turn the
mod wheel on your controller keyboard up full in order
to hear the full amount of PITCH modulation you have
dialled in. This way you can control the amount of
vibrato as you play.
Double click PITCH 1 and 2 and MOD WH knobs to
reset them to zero, and turn the AMP knob up full. This
creates a tremolo effect. Notice the difference when
you click the MONO button - with MONO switched
on, when you play more than one note, the LFO is
triggered only by the first note in the chord, with it
switched off each note played has its own LFO, which
can sometimes sound messy.

While holding down a note, adjust the RATE knob to

see how this changes the sound.
Now double click the AMP knob to set it to zero, and,
while holding a note, slowly adjust the FM 1 knob. This
enables LFO 2 to modulate the amount of FM on osc 1.
Reset the FM knob in LFO 2, and slowly adjust the PWM
2 knob. This creates pulse width modulation of the osc
2 waveform (only if osc 2 is set to the Pulse waveform).
Adjust the RATE knob of LFO to see the effect this has
on the sound.
Reset the PWM 2 knob and do similar experimentation
with LFO 3.
We have not gone into any detail about the functions
of the DELAY, WIDTH and PHASE knobs in the LFO,
nor the various waveforms available, these are all
explained in the manual. Presets 7,8 and 9 (called LFO
B, LFO C, and LFO D) all demonstrate various settings
and uses of the LFO section.
Preset LFO B demonstrates use of the TIRG, WIDTH
and PHASE settings.
Preset LFO C demonstrates use of the LFO noise
waveform to modulate pitch and pulse width.
Preset D demonstrates use of DELAY within the LFO,
as well as using SYNC to synchronise the LFO rate to
the DAW tempo.

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Effect
The EFFECT section is made up of five subsections;
CHORUS, DELAY, PHASER, DISTORTION, and EQ.
Open tutorial preset 10, called EFFECT.
(It is a very basic sound, with no modulation. The
purpose of this is that you will hear very clearly the
result of switching on each of the effects).
Hold down a chord, then in the EFFECT section and
CHORUS subsection, click on the ON button (furthest
to the left). Note the change to the sound. While still
holding the chord try changing various settings in the
CHORUS subsection, starting with the STEREO knob.
Note that if you set both RATE knobs very low, say less
than 5%, you can achieve a flanged type effect.
Now lets look at the DELAY subsection.
Switch off the CHORUS effect, and click the ON button
in the DELAY subsection.
Play the keyboard in a more staccato manner,and again
try changing various settings to familiarise yourself with
what can be achieved with the delay effect.
Repeat this process with the PHASER, DISTORTION and
EQ effects.
Tutorial preset 11, EFFECT STACK, demonstrates using all
five effects at once.

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Step Envelope
As described in the CARBON ELECTRA manual,
the step envelope can control overall volume of
the synth [AMP], filter CUTOFF, and oscillator 2 &
4 PITCH. The step envelope can also be used as
a note performer by clicking the NOTE button,
this automatically activates snap mode. When
programming in note mode, the SNAP button fixes
the step envelope wave editing to increments of
semi-tones (from +1 to +15 semitones), so it can be
used as a step sequencer.
Open tutorial preset 12, called STEP A.

Now open tutorial preset 13, called STEP B.

Play a single key, observing that the NOTE button is
turned on in the STEP ENVELOPE. This setting is using
the envelope as a step sequencer. Experiment with
clicking on the various steps, seeing how dragging
the mouse up and down within a step changes the
pitch of the note that it plays.
Now turn up the CUTOFF knob in the envelope, and
you will hear that each step is modulating cutoff as
well as pitch.

Play a chord and observe that the STEP ENVELOPE is

being used to modulate AMP and CUTOFF. This type
of setting can be used to create a rhythmic pulsing
while playing long notes.
Notice the small black rectangles running along the
bottom of the STEP ENVELOPE; these determine how
many steps are being used before the envelope
loops back to the beginning. Now click on the
window below the words WAVE SELECTOR, and drag
your mouse up and down, noticing the changing
wave shape options. Experiment with selecting
different wave shapes and then clicking in one of
the steps in the envelope to see the effect. Click on
the rectangle under the second step, there should
only be two dark rectangles now, indicating that
the envelope loops back to the beginning after the
second step. This way we can chose up to sixteen
steps.

page 25

Master
The MASTER section controls such things as the amount of
pitch GLIDE between notes (also know as portamento),
POLY (the number of voices available to be played
simultaneously), UNISON (the number of voices stacked
on each note played), and overall VOLUME output (this
can be used so that if you have made a very loud preset
and its overloading your DAW channel but you dont
want to change the settings, you can reduce the overall
output with this knob).
Open tutorial preset 14, called MASTER A.

Open tutorial preset 15, called MASTER B.

Notice the POLY is set to 1, so we can only play one
note at a time, meaning our sound is monophonic.
Many bass and lead sounds are monophonic.
In the UNISON subsection the VOICES are set to 4,
the TUNE is set to 11% and the STEREO is set to 100%,
giving a rich wide sound. The GLIDE is set to 39 ms
so we hear a small amount of portamento between
notes played.

This preset has the POLY set to 3, meaning only three

voices can be heard at once, and if a fourth note
is played in a chord, the voice is stolen from the first
note played. Notice that in the UNISON subsection,
the VOICES knob is set to 2, while TUNE and STEREO
are each set to 50%. This gives a wide, chorusing
sound. Experiment with adjusting the TUNE and
STEREO knobs to see how they change the sound.
Note that the changes in this subsection are not real
time, you must release and play a note or chords
after each adjustment to hear the change.

page 26

VST Plug-Ins SDK

VSTGUI: Graphical User Interface Framework for VST plugins : Version 4.0
VSTGUI LICENSE
(c) 2011, Steinberg Media Technologies, All Rights Reserved
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are
permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of
conditions and the following disclaimer.
Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this
list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other
materials provided with the distribution.
Neither the name of the Steinberg Media Technologies nor the names of its
contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this
software without specific prior written permission.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS AS
IS AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.
IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR
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DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
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refer to Steinbergs copyrights and trademarks in the following way:
a.) Steinbergs copyright notice should be included in the documentation,
regardless of the media used to supply the documentation. Copyright
notice:VST is a trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH
b.) The VST Logo has to appear on packages and promotional material. The
VST Logo artwork and usage guidelines are part of the Licensed Software
Developer Kit and are supplied by Steinberg in digital format.
c.) In the about box of the product in one of the following formats:
- VST PlugIn Technology by Steinberg,
- VST PlugIn Interface Technology by Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH.

page 27

 2014