GLEETCHLAB3

Operators Manual v 1.0 Aknowledgements Written by Giorgio Sancristoforo, www.gleetchplug.com

Testers Giuseppe Cordaro Tim Kahn Francesco Mulassano Ludwig Kuckartz Additional testers BT Giona Francesco Vinti Dj FuQ Daniele Ciabattoni

Minimum Requirements:
Apple Mac with Intel Processor 1 GB RAM OSX 10.4.11 or above

Built with MAX5 language (www.cycling74.com) 2009 GLEETCHPLUG.COM

Thank you for choosing GLEETCHLAB 3!!! Please take some time to read this manual to fully appreciate your GLEETCH experience. Foreword Dear friends, its been a long time since V2.3 was released and today Im proud to present you the 3rd version of this little monster. As you may have noticed, GLEETCHLAB is no longer freeware. Nevertheless dont panic! It costs just 10 (little more than 10 US$). The idea of releasing a commercial version of this software has been on my mind for a long time. The donationware experiment was a total failure. 40.000 downloads per year and just less than 200US$ of donations forced me to think commercially, although I really believed in donations philosophy until the very last day. Software design takes a lot of time and a huge amount of site bandwidth and GLEETCHLAB is not endorsed by any company, nor do I have the economical resources to keep working for free in my spare time... Without going commercial, this release would have never been possible, and GLEETCHLAB would have been soon forgotten. A commercial release of V2 was never realized due to the huge amount of CPU power needed to run the program. As you may understand, I could not sell something so CPU intensive, plus It was useless to rewrite the program as Leopard was coming out of the bush, so I have waited until a good stable version of MAX5 was at hand. And here we are Some months ago I re-wrote the thing from scratch. As you will see soon, I have changed many things without betraying the original formula that made GLEETCHLAB a popular program among IDM musicians and sound engineers. Some old features have been substituted with (in my opinion) more interesting ones, such as the Stutter Processor, Tierre simple drum machine, Mephi 2009 GLEETCHPLUG.COM

sto, Feedback and Distowave processors. Stuff like Threshbass and Strange Attractors are no more, while Convolution, Spectralter, Cosmo (now called Granulator), Skipper, Mixer, are still with us, improved here and there. But the big thing in V3 isnt really in the DSPsalthough those new little goblins do great stuff ;) I believe that the great change lies in three new main features called RECALL, QUADRIMIX and MIDIGLEETCH. Well see them accurately in the next chapters of this manual, but here is a glimpse: RECALL is a temporary storage system that allows you to store and recall selected GLEETCHLAB parameters, with the push of a button. This is GLEETCHLAB to the power of TEN!!! So dont underestimate it! QUADRIMIX is a 4 channel QUADRIPHONIC mixer. Users with multiple output soundcards can now enjoy performing GLEETCH music with surround sound systems (or premix earphone monitoring). Quadrimix can also record 4 mono les (L R Ls Rs format) that can be encoded in Dolby Digital AC3 with other software like Apple Compressor and burnt onto audio DVDs for 5.1 surround sound systems. MIDIGLITCH is the long awaited MIDI implementation that gives the possibility to use MIDI control changes with almost every GLEETCHLAB feature so users with MIDI controllers can tweak real knobs and faders. But of course there is a lot more in GLEETCHLAB 3, so fasten your seat belts and get ready to take off in the new shiny version of your favourite noisemaker software :-) Yours Giorgio

Before you mail me with questions I kindly ask you to read this FAQ. Q) When a Microsoft Windows version will be available? A)Never... GLEETCHLAB is Mac OS only and so it will be forever. I do not have the time and money to spend in porting, nor does it interest me. However, Ive been told of OSX hackers running GLEETCHLAB with non Apple Hardware using OSX86, though I do not ofcially support this. Q) How can I save settings? A) You can do so with RECALL. Although, settings will be stored in memory untill you quit the program. I intentionally avoided including save and load functions. Why? It is an important part of my musical approach. In my analog synthesizer days there were no save functions at all but pencil and paper. Each time you approach a reset machine you are forced to do something new and with little time and patience, you can master GLEETCHLAB much better. This idea is very underestimated in modern technology. Nowadays every machine and software has editable examples and huge memory-storing functions. Many kids just press a couple of preset buttons and hey presto... the sound theyre looking for is at hand. In my opinion, starting from scratch every time is much more fun and educational. If you have an explorers attitude, you will quickly learn how powerful such an approach is. GLEETCHLAB is indeed a lab. Everytime after you use a laboratory you clean everything up. ;)

It is a realtime composition and processing audio software, a tool for odd sound design and glitch music (which I love by the way). If youre looking for a traditional remixing software (like Ableton Live) GLEETCHLAB is not the right tool. Q) Where can I get a VST/RTAS version of GLEETCHLAB? A) You cant... Its a stand-alone software. if you plan to use GLEETCHLAB with other softwares (like Ableton Live) consider using Soundower, a free audio driver downloadable from Cycling74.com Q) How can I authorize my demo? A) Pay for the software with Paypal. in 24/48 hours a serial number will be sent to your Paypal email account. Go to the upper menu bar, click Authorization > Unlock your demo then 1) Input your Paypal email address 2) Input the serial number (with spaces) For problems regarding authorization process, please write to sales@gleetchplug.com Please test the software on your computer before buying. I cant assure that GLEETCHLAB will run without problems in certain situations. For example Ive been told by Cycling74, that some software like QUICKSILVER could cause problems. Also apple G4 and G5 and PC with OSX86 are not ofcially supported.

Q) Can I use my MIDI controller with GLEETCHLAB3? A) YES! Q) Is GLEETCHLAB a remix tool? A) Not literally.
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CHAPTER 1 Setting the soundcard: Before using GLEETCHLAB for the rst time, take a few moments to set the soundcard options and run a little test. The main GLEETCHLAB menu is located in the user interface on the right of the screen. Just scroll the menu and choose DSP. The DSP window will pop up. Check the following: Audio: Should be ON (Usually this should be switched ON automatically at startup). Driver: Select your soundcard to determine audio input and output. Sampling rate: Sets the desired sampling rate. The I/O Vector Size (I/O stands for input/output) controls the number of samples that are transferred to and from the audio interface at one time. The Signal Vector Size sets the number of samples that are calculated by MSP objects at one time. This can be less than or equal to the I/O Vector Size, but not more. The I/O Vector Size may have an effect on latency and overall performance. A smaller vector size may reduce the inherent delay between audio input and audio output, because MSP has to perform calculations for a smaller chunk of time. On the other
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hand, there is an additional computational burden each time MSP prepares to calculate another vector (the next chunk of audio), so it is easier over-all for the processor to compute a larger vector. However, there is another side to this story. When MSP calculates a vector of audio, it does so in what is known as an interrupt. If MSP is running on your computer, whatever you happen to be doing (word processing, for example) is interrupted and an I/O vector's worth of audio is calculated and played. Then the computer returns to its normally scheduled program. If the vector size is large enough, the computer may get a bit behind and the audio output may start to click because the processing took longer than the computer expected. Reducing the I/O Vector Size may solve this problem, or it may not. On the other hand, if you try to generate too many interrupts, the computer will slow down trying to process them. Therefore, you'll typically nd the smaller I/O Vector Sizes consume a greater percentage of the computer's resources. Op-

timizing the performance of any particular signal network when you are close to the limit of your CPU's capability is a trialand-error process. That's why MSP provides you with a choice of vector sizes. From the max5 Manual Max Scheduler in Overdrive and Scheduler Audio Interrupt should both be ON. Input /Output Channels: Select the desired stereo IN/OUT couples. Other Audio IN/OUT options for multi I/O soundcards are located in the I/O Mappings menu. Vector Optimization: Should be ON CPU Limit: Should be 0% Audio driver Setup button: Opens your soundcard setup menu TESTING YOUR SOUNDCARD: If you run GLEETCHLAB for the rst time or prepare your setup for a live gig, I suggest using the handy signal test generator included in GLEETCHLAB3. Just go to the main menu and select TEST, the Test window will pop up. Press the ON button. You should hear instantaneously a 400Hz sine @ -18dBFS. If the sine wave is clean and without strange distortion and drops then all is ne. If you hear a dropped signal, then try adjusting I/O Vector Size and Signal Vector Size until the sine wave is smooth and clean. Check also that Tierre or Mephisto tempo markers are not strangely slow. they should perform a 1/16 beat of the master tempo. If no sound can be listened check your sound system, soundcard options, hardware output volume etc...

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2 CHAPTER 2 The GLEETCHLAB main user interface GLEETCHLAB uses a simple and intuitive user interface. On the upper right corner you can see a set of buttons menus and sliders that control the main GLEETCHLAB features. 5 6 4 3 7 9

1 - Main Menu (everything is here!) 2 - Master Tempo 3 - Color selector (changes color to every LAB window) 4 - MASTER OUT Volume 5 - MASTER OUT Audio Recorder 6 - MASTER OUT VST Load
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7 - MASTER OUT VST Edit 8 - MASTER OUT VST Bypass/ON 9 - SYNCRO START (restart tempo on every looper and tempo synced DSP like Tierre and Mephisto)

Now lets take a look to the loopers: 13 6 5 8 7

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When you load a sample (.aiff or .wav) in the GLEETCHLAB loopers, theyre automatically played in a loop. In order to listen to each looper, you MUST patch the Looper OUTPUT to the MASTER OUT or QUADRIMIX (see next chapter: THE MATRIX for further details about signal routing). 1 - Sample waveform 2 - Loop IN/OUT zone 3 - Looper Volume Fader 4 - PPM meter 5 - Load sample button 6 - Tool selector: Select tool - select loop IN/OUT points Loop tool - move and expand IN/OUT Zoom tool - magnify waveform Draw tool - pencil tool 7 - Stereo/Mono selector If your sample is mono, select Mono 8 - Randomize Loop Points 9 - Timing of Randomization 10 - PLAY/RECORD toggle If a signal is patched to a LOOPER through the matrix, you can record the signal into the selected looper. By default record time is 4.33 seconds but you can change the length (see 13). 11 - Sample reading speed and direction 1 = normal forward playing -1 = reverse playing

12 - Looper EQ (4 bands) Low shelf, 2 mid full parametric, High Shelf 13 - Looper length (to record INTO looper via Matrix connection).
- if you load a sample into a looper, the buffer size will change accordingly - if a sample is loaded, changing the buffer size will erase the sample from memory.

About TEMPO and loopers GLEETCHLAB does not perform any kind of warping ala Live. That means that samples will not play in tempo if they have different BPM. There are two reasons for this behavior. The rst is aesthetic. Since its birth GLEETCHLAB was not intended to be an Ableton Live clone, it was designed to manipulate samples in realtime, not to put them in time to make dance remixes. The Master Tempo in the main window sets the BPM for the timing of random loop points and other internal plugins that needs tempo, like Tierre and Mephisto. If you need samples to play at the same BPM, you must import samples with the same BPM and set the master tempo accordingly. The second reason is nancial. Nowadays it is possible to write these loopers with warping features, but this would have raised the software price DRAMATICALLY to pay for third party licenses. Since Im not that interested in warping and I want to keep the price as low as possible, this feature is not included in GLEETCHLAB. (also please note, warping samples takes a lot of CPU).

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CHAPTER 3 - The MATRIX The Matrix is the most important feature to understand how GLEETCHLAB works. The Matrix makes GLEETCHLAB a modular software. Instead of using graphical patch cords, a matrix is a simple and clean way to route all processor ins and outs. To open the Matrix window select Matrix in the main menu. Remember: OUTPUTS are on TOP of the grid, INPUTS are on the left of the grid. In the image, ve loopers are patched each one to a mixer channel, then the mixer is routed to the MAIN OUT. NOTE: WITHOUT PATCHING THE MATRIX YOU CANT HEAR OR RECORD ANYTHING!

If you feed GLEETCHLAB with an EXTERNAL INPUT (a guitar, a microphone etc) that uses one channel, you must set the S/M (stereo/mono) toggle to M, this button is placed over each EXTERNAL INPUT label in the MATRIX. In MONO, only inputs 1, 3, 5 and 7 will work, while inputs 2, 4, 6 and 8 will be disabled. You have two ways of listening and recording in GLEETCHLAB: 1) routing the signals to MASTER OUT 2) routing the signals to QUADRIMIX

All signals in GLEETCHLAB are STEREO COUPLED. That means, for example, that the Looper 1 column contains both Left and Right channels.
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CHAPTER 4 - RECALL Recall is a new feature of version 3, that literally multiply GLEETCHLAB features by 10! Basically it is a way to temporally store and recall almost every GLEETCHLAB parameter with 10 presets at the touch of a key. The stored settings remain in memory until you quit the program. Ive intentionally avoided a save to disk option. This way you are forced to try new possibilities every time. To recall mixer settings, for example, just press the Mixer button on the right and press one of the 10 presets on your computer keyboard (Q W E R T Y U I O P) or use the mouse or MIDI cc (refer to MIDIGleetch for the MIDI implementation chart). To store press STORE button or key S on your keyboard. To delete, press DELETE button or key D on your computer keyboard.

About the loopers and recall: in the loopers, you can store speed and direction value and volume. EQ, Random ON/OFF and Random Timing cant be stored in this version.

Loopers

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CHAPTER 5 - MIXER The new Gleetchlab3 Mixer features many improovements from the past versions. As in v2, every mixer channel is stereo. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

1 - Mixer activation. As you will see, almost every DSP in version 3 has a ON/OFF toggle that activate the DSP itself. This was necessary to save cpu time when not used. 2 - Channel Volume Fader. 3 - Balance (PAN). 4 - Automatic pan L or R. When activated, this button will engage automatic pan from full left (or right) to full right (or left) at the speed indicated by the fade time selector (6). 5 - Fade in button. Fade from -inf to Unity Gain at a speed indicated by the time selector (6). Once activated

it cant be stopped until the fader reaches Unity Gain. Do not press fade out meanwhile! 6 - Fade time selector (seconds). 7 - Fade out button. From current position of the fader to -inf, at the speed indicated by the Fade time selector (6). Once activated it cant be stopped until the fader reaches -inf. Do not press fade IN meanwhile! 8 - VST plugin bypass/ON selector. 9 - VST plugin window. 10 - Load VST plugin. VST plugins that require tempo from host are not supported in this version.

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CHAPTER 6 - STUTTER The GLEETCHLAB Stutter will break and repeat audio, literally stuttering. The processed signal can be be further changed in sample frequency and bit resolution. 5 4 3 2 6 7 1

1 - Stutter activation. 2 - Input threshold. Stutter will occur when the signal goes above this point. 3 - Peak meter, useful to set thresholds. 4 - Out threshold. Stuttering will end when signal goes below this point. 5 - High pass lter (effects input level). Useful if you want to cut low freqs of stuttered signal. 6 - Dry signal volume. 7 - Wet signal volume. 8 - Stutter timing. When a signal is ABOVE the input threshold, Stutter will repeat samples, changing the time randomly at a speed you set here (refer to master tempo).
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9 - Stuttered signal can be degraded by lowering sampling frequency and bit resolution.

CHAPTER 7 - REVERB A simple smart reverb. 1 - Reverb activation. 2 - DRY and WET signal volumes. 3 - Reverb time - from 0 to 12 seconds. 4 - PHASE 0/180. This toggle inverts the phase of the reverbed signal. It can be useful if you patch the reverb out to a Quadrimix output panned to rear speakers. 5 - MANUAL/ANIMATE. In ANIMATE mode, reverb time will change program dependent That means that it will work 2 dynamically, giving short times for low signals and long times for high level signals.

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CHAPTER 8 - MEPHISTO Mephisto is a step sequenced delay with downsample. With Mephisto you can create rhythmic effects out of pads, for example. The TEMPO is set from the MASTER TEMPO in the main Gleetchlab window. Each step is a 1/16th of a note. 1 - Mephisto activation. 2 - DRY/WET volume. 3 - Feedback values steps. 4 - Feedback one shot randomization. 5 - Delay time steps. 6 - Delay time one shot randomization. 7 - Downsample values steps. 8 - Downsample one shot randomization. 9 - All authomatic randomization every 4 beats. 10 - Maximum delay value. 11 - Step markers.

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CHAPTER 9 - TIERRE Tierre is a simple 6 track 16 step drum machine step sequencer. The TEMPO is set from the MASTER TEMPO in the main Gleetchlab window. Each step is a 1/16th of a note.

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1 - Load a sample to track. 2 - Track volume fader. 3 - Track pan. 4 - Track sequence. 5 - Master fader. 6 - Clear track sequence.

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CHAPTER 10 - DISTOWAVE Distowave is a waveshaping overdrive unit. Waveshaping can sound like the audio is passing through a badly tuned TV or radio, plus there is an analog-like overdrive effect. 1 - Distowave activation. 2 - DRY/WET volume. 3 - Waveshaping INPUT volume. 4 - Lookup table size. 5 - Lookup table oscillator frequency. 6 - Overdrive amount. 7 - Overdrive OUTPUT volume. 1 2 3 4

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CHAPTER 11 - SKIPPER A simple CD Skip simulator.

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1 - Skipper volume fader. 2 - CD skip pitch (negative reads backward). 3 - Randomize pitch.

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CHAPTER 12 - CONVOLUTION Convolution is known as complex multiplication. In other words it is a 1024 band spectral vocoder. In order to obtain convolution, you need to patch 2 signals into the matrix. A MODULATOR signal into CONV MOD and a CARRIER signal into CONV CAR. Try a drum as modulator and a pad as carrier. Or a voice sample as modulator and a 100Hz saw wave sample as carrier. 1 1 - Convolution activation. 2 - Input peak meters. 2

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CHAPTER 13 - SPECTRAFILTER Spectralter is a 128 band graphic EQ. With so many bands you can sculpt frequencies of sounds very precisely or design your own lter. 2 3 4

1 - Spectralter activation. 2 - Some example presets. 3 - DRY /WET Volume. 4 - Use the mouse to design your EQ.

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CHAPTER 14 - GRANULATOR This is a new version of the Cosmo plugin. Basically it is a tool that granulates sounds, generating deep pads out of any kind of sound. Try selecting a small portion of a piano sample and send it to granulator to obtain a piano pad! 2

1 - Granulator activation. 2 - DRY/WET Volume. 3 - Horiz Axis: grains size; Vertical Axis: grains stereo spread. 4 - Grains delay (ms).

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CHAPTER 15 - REDUCER This is a sample rate and bit depth reducer. 1 2 3

1 - Reducer Activation. 2 - Output volume. 3 - Sample rate. 4 - Bit depth.

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CHAPTER 15 - QUADRIMIX Quadrimix is a 4 channel quadriphonic mixer/recorder. If you have a multi output (you need 4) sound card you can use this tool to use GLEETCHLAB in surround sound OR use the rear outputs to feed a premix headphone monitoring. To record quadriphonic les you must rst press CREATE L R Ls Rs FILES button, then REC. STOP to nish recording. 4 mono .aif les will be created in your gleetchlab folder with the names L.aif R.aif Ls.aif Rs.aif You can use this 4 mono les in surround sound software, or encode them to Dolby AC3 with Apple Compressor and make surround audio DVDs.

1 - Quadrimix Activation. 2 - Quadriphonic pan. 3 - Manual /Animate. Animate will perform random autopan. 4 - Speed and amount of animation range. 5 - Resets pan cursor to default center position. 6 - Quadriphonic channel volume fader. 7 - Select front outs from your sound card (affects also MASTER OUT). 8 - Select rear outputs from your sound card. 1 5 3 4 2 6

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CHAPTER 16 - FEEDBACK STATION A stereo feedback processor. 1

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1 - Feedback Station activation. 2 - WET/DRY Volume. 3 - Input Volume. 4 - Feedback amount. 5 - Q of lters (the smaller the Q the higher the resonance effect). 6 - Delay time. 7 - L/R high frequencies feedback volume faders. 8 - L/R low frequencies feedback volume faders.

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CHAPTER 17 - WOW simulator Wow is the technical term that describes a slow form of pitch variations of a transport (LP decks, tape recorders etc). You can apply WOW to any of the 6 loopers. When activated, wow will perform tiny random pitch variations of the samples in the selected looper. Try two identical samples synced and apply wow to one of the two loopers, to obtain phase music.

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CHAPTER 17 - THEORB 2 more sample players but different. Loopers load samples into a buffer on your computers RAM. THEORB performs direct from disk reading. This is useful, if you want to play very long samples (like a 1 hour speech). This two sample players play one shot by default, but you can loop selecting the loop on button. Each sampler has a High Pass Filter and a digital delay with feedback. Both the samplers output their sound from the same output located in the MATRIX.

1 - THEORB Activation. 2 - Load a sample. 3 - Loop OFF/ON. 4 - Play the sample. 5 - Stop the sample. 6 - High Pass Filter. 7 - Dry signal volume fader. 8 - Delayed signal volume fader. 9 - Delay time. 10 - Delay Feedback (repetitions).

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CHAPTER 18 - HOW TO RECORD AUDIO FROM THE MASTER OUT In the main GLEETCHLAB window press RECORDER button. This window will pop-up:

TO RECORD AUDIO WITH THIS FUNCTION, SOUND MUST BE PATCHED TO MASTER OUT IN THE MATRIX HOW TO RECORD: 1) Press Save File as 2) Press REC 3) When nished, press STOP

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CHAPTER 18 - MIDI IMPLEMENTATION CHART Gleetchlab 3 can be controlled with any MIDI controller. There is no AUTOMAP (sorry) only the good old MIDI implementation chart Almost everything can be controlled by Control Change messages. Set the desired control changes in your hardware and start tweaking
TO SEE THE MIDI IMPLEMENTATION CHART SELECT MIDIGLEETCH IN THE MAIN MENU

In the current version it is not possible to control with MIDI, the VST plugs parameters.

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