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Quetzalcoatl quick guide

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Rick edited this page Sep 22, 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.

  • 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

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. When this is set to "off" CPU use will be decreased significantly.
  • 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

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

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. When set to off CPU usage will be reduced
  • 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
  • Fold - Displays the wavefolder

Wavefolder

  • Fold - The amount of wavefolding (applied to all voices)
  • Mod - Modulates the fold
  • SRC - Sets the modulation source
  • Mix - Dry/wet control for the wavefolder
  • Mod - Modulates the mix controls
  • SRC - Sets the modulation source
  • Mode - Switches between 1 of 5 folding/shaping algorithms
  • Pre/Post Filter - places the wavefolder before or after the filter

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

Samples and Modes

Files

  • Mode - Mod select between one of several sample playback modes.
  • Load All - Loads a sample into all 8 layers
  • Edit - Displays edit parameters for the specified layer
  • Load - Loads sample into specified layer

Modes

  • Wave - Quetzalcoatl uses the built-in sound bank

  • User - User mode allows for importing wav & aif files into the plugin

  • MultiSamples - Loads multi-samples

  • SFZ - Import Sfz files

  • Wavetable - Instead of samples, each layer becomes a simple wavetable synth with additional controls

Video Tutorial.

Poly Mods

Mod A

Polyphonic modulators start with each key press.

  • On/Off - Turns the modulator on or off. Disabling poly mods can significantly reduce CPU usage.
  • 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

  • On/Off - Turns the modulator on or off. Disabling mono mods can somewhat reduce CPU usage.
  • Tempo - set the tempo of the step and LFO modulators
  • **Div **- Divide the tempo rate
  • Shape - Switches between several LFO shapes
  • Modifier - modifies the LFO shape with one of several waveshapers
  • Adjust - Meta parameter that changes the behaviour of the modifier
  • 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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