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Quetzalcoatl quick guide

Rick edited this page Aug 9, 2024 · 14 revisions

Quetzalcoatl is essentially 8 sample based synth voices stacked together with independent control over several key parameters. In traditional synthesise terms you could say a single Quetzalcoatl “voice” in has a signal chain something like this:

VCO (sample) > VCA (pre XF Gain) > VCA (For X-Fade) > - Filter - VCA (envelope).

In Quetzalcoatl, one of these voices is called a stage.

X-FADE

Crossfader

Apply several different crossfading and layering effects to the 8 voices.

Controls:

  • X-fade - crossfade between the voices
  • Fade Mode - Select one of five x-fade modes
  • Stages - Select between 8, 4 & 2 active voices*
  • Smooth - Smooths out the levels between crossfades
  • Mod - Applies modulation to the x-fade
  • Vel - Applies velocity modulation to the x-fade
  • AT - Applies channel aftertouch the x-fade
  • Trk - Applies keyboard tracking to the x-fade

Video Tutorial.

*Reducing the number of stages should improve performance.

STAGES

Use the stages menu to switch between pages.

Tuning

Tuning

  • Tuning - The 8 sliders control the pitch of a single voice
  • Pitch mode - Select one of several pitch modes. These will lock (or not**) the pitch of the voice to a particular scale or tuning.
  • Offset - Offsets the relative position of each of the tuning sliders
  • Mod - Applies modulation to the offset value
  • Vel - Applies velocity modulation to the offset value
  • AT - Applies channel aftertouch the offset value
  • Trk - Applies keyboard tracking to the offset value
  • Mod 1-8 - Per stage modulation
  • Glide 1-8 - per stage glide

Video Tutorial.

Gain

Gain

  • Gain - The 8 sliders control the gain (pre Xfade) of a single voice
  • Offset - Offsets the relative position of each of the gain sliders
  • Mod 1-8 - Per stage modulation
  • Out 1-8 - Sets the output channel when using the Multi-output plugin

Filter

Filter

  • Cutoff - The 8 sliders control the cutoff of a single voice
  • Mode - Select between low pass, high pass, band pass, all pass, ring mod & fold filter modes
  • Offset - Offsets the relative position of each of the cutoff sliders
  • Mod - Applies Modulation to the cutoff offset
  • Vel - Applies velocity modulation to the offset value
  • AT - Applies channel aftertouch the offset value
  • Trk - Applies keyboard tracking to the offset value
  • **Mod 1-8 ** - Per stage modulation

Wavefolder

Fold

When in fold mode the filter is switched with a wavefolder and a resonant low pass filter in placed at the end of the signal chain, as such the controls are somewhat different.

  • Fold - The 8 sliders control the amount of wavefolding on a single voice
  • Offset - Offsets the relative position of each of the fold sliders
  • Range - The range of the wavefolder, at maximum the folder will go from near silence to extreme distortion.
  • Cut - The cutoff of the lowpass filter
  • Q - The resonance of the lowpass filter

Overview

Overview

Gives quick access to the main pitch, gain and filter controls.

Amp

Amp

  • Envelope - A standard ADSR envelope controlling the gain
  • Vol - Controls master volume
  • Vel - Velocity modulation of the master volume
  • Pan - 8 sliders control the pan of each of the voices

FX

A multistage effect FX switchable between delay or chorus.

Delay

Amp

  • Time - 8 sliders control the delay time
  • Offset - Offsets the relative position of each of the delay sliders (adjacent switch selects between free and synced modes)
  • Time Mod - modulates the delay time offset
  • Div - divide the delay time
  • Cut - Applies a low filter to the delay signal
  • Cut Mod - modulates the cutoff
  • Feedback - delay feedback
  • Mix - mix between wet and dry

Chorus

Amp

Files

Files

  • Load Expansion - Select an expansion pack to load
  • Presets - load, save and manage presets
  • Samples - Load multi-samples, change sample modes, import user waves and SFZs

Samples Page

Load and manage sample files.

Sample Loading

Video Tutorial.

Poly Mods

Mod A

Polyphonic modulators start with each key press.

  • Tempo - set the tempo of the step and LFO modulators
  • **Div **- Divide the tempo rate
  • Modę - switch between step, table and envelope modes
  • One shot - The modulator only plays once
  • Steps - set the number of stages in the step modulator

Mono Mods

Mod B

  • Tempo - set the tempo of the step and LFO modulators
  • **Div **- Divide the tempo rate
  • Modę - switch between step and table modes
  • One shot - The modulator only plays once
  • Steps - set the number of stages in the step modulator
  • Mod - Modulate the tempo
  • Trig - set a trigger source (free, on key press or another modulator)

Video Tutorial.

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