UNIQUE

USER MANUAL

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Unique User Manual

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Introduction ................................................................................................. 3 Installation ................................................................................................... 5 Overview ..................................................................................................... 6 Interface ................................................................................................... 6 Controls .................................................................................................... 7 Presets.......................................................................................................... 9 Sections ..................................................................................................... 11 Oscillators .............................................................................................. 11 Sawtooth: ............................................................................................ 11 Triple Saw:.......................................................................................... 12 Pulse:................................................................................................... 12 Triple FM:........................................................................................... 13 Noise: .................................................................................................. 13 MIX........................................................................................................ 14 Filter .......................................................................................................... 15 The 5 Filter Types .................................................................................. 15 Standard Filter Controls ......................................................................... 16 Vowel mode ........................................................................................... 16 Working modes ...................................................................................... 17 Envelope: ............................................................................................ 17 LFO:.................................................................................................... 18 4 Step: ................................................................................................. 19 Pitchbend: ........................................................................................... 20 Modwheel: .......................................................................................... 20 Effects........................................................................................................ 21 Delay ...................................................................................................... 21 Reverb .................................................................................................... 22 Phaser ..................................................................................................... 22 LOFI....................................................................................................... 23 Filter ....................................................................................................... 23 Chorus .................................................................................................... 24 MIDI IN..................................................................................................... 25 Controllers ................................................................................................. 26 LFO ........................................................................................................ 26 Envelope................................................................................................. 27 Sequencer ............................................................................................... 27 Motion .................................................................................................... 28 Pitch and Modwheel .................................................................................. 28 Master........................................................................................................ 29 Aboutscreen............................................................................................... 30
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Introduction
Unique is a virtual synthesizer which has been created to deliver new sounds and new ways of playing a virtual instrument. Unique is not just another analogue emulation of classical hardware. Modern CPUs offer lots of possibilities to create and shape sounds. Unique uses these capabilities to offer stunning sounds which are truly new and unique. The sound and the functionality of Unique have been designed together with musicians and sound designers in order to cover a wide range of sounds and possibilities. The user interface is simple but powerful. Unique is optimized for live usage but also fits perfectly into a studio setup. With Unique you will explore a new world of amazing sounds.

Oscillators
The Unique oscillators are specially designed to cover a wide spectrum of sounds. Each oscillator can produce 8 voices in full stereo. The oscillators are anti-aliased for a clear sound in high frequencies. That enables them to produce all kinds of sounds, from dark basses and strong leads to very warm pad sounds.

Filter
The filters in Unique are the real invention which makes this synthesizer stand apart from its competitors. There are 5 filter types which can be used in 2 modes that give you a total of 10 different filter types to use. Furthermore there is the possibility to add a master filter to give your sound the final polish. One of the filter modes is the Vowel
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Filter mode. This mode is completely new and unheard in modern digital synthesis. In this mode actually 2 filters are working together to produce these special vocal sounds that make Unique an outstanding addition to your virtual instruments collection.

Modulation
Each parameter in Unique can be modulated, automated or controlled via MIDI. Beside classical envelopes for amplitude and filter, there are 4 different modulators available to be freely assigned to any parameter. The assignment process is easy and simple. With just a rightclick you can bring life to a parameter.

Effects
Of course Unique has built-in effects to finalize the sound and add another dimension of sound design possibilities. There are 2 effect sections where 6 different effects can be selected. All the effect parameters can be modulated and adapted to fit your needs.

Arpeggiator
Unique has a built in arpeggiator to support you in playing and to offer you new ideas of playing. The arpeggiator can be independently applied to the oscillator, which offers quite interesting sounds and melodies. There is an intelligent double voice mode which is another reason to call this synthesiser Unique. Note that Unique was developed to perfectly fit into your studio setup. For example all speed and time relevant parameters are synced to the BPM value of your song.

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Installation
Unique is a VST/AudioUnit plugin, which means you need a host program like Logic or Cubase to run the plugin. Use the installer to install Unique on your system. On windows take care where you put the Unique.dll. It should be installed into the VST directory of your host. For example: C:\Program Files\Steinberg\VSTPlugins\ Refer to your host manual for more information.

Minimum System requirements

1,5 GHZ CPU 128 MB RAM 20 MB free harddisk space Windows or Mac OSX (10.3.9) VSTi or AudioUnit compatible host

Demo Version
In the demo version of Unique there are some limitations. no saving of presets no total recall runs for 30 minutes runs for 30 days no bouncing

To order the full version visit: www.sugar-bytes.de

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Overview

Interface

The interface of unique consists of 5 main sections. The arpeggiator section (top-left) also contains some general settings regarding the MIDI input. Right beside is the Oscillator section and the MIX section which is used to mix and (auto-)pan the oscillators. On the bottom you find the Filter section (left), the Effect section (middle) and the Master section (right). On top you find the presets, you can open the menu to choose a preset from a certain category or you can simply step through the presets via the < > buttons. The Controllers button beside the presets opens the modulation sections, containing 4 freely assignable modulators. In the top right corner is the Unique logo which opens the aboutscreen when you click on it. In the aboutscreen there are additional settings and functions.
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Controls

Knobs The main controls in Unique are knobs. Just click them and drag your mouse up or down to turn them. While moving them, a small display appears showing the value and unit of the parameter. The knobs have different colours which reflect certain functionalities. Green: are modulation-related parameters Red: are midi-related parameters Blue: are general sound design parameters Yellow: are amplification parameters

Each knob in unique has a default setting. Just doubleclick a knob to reset it to its default value. All knobs can be modulated with internal modulators or controlled by MIDI or Host Automation. Just right-click on a parameter and a menu with certain modulation sources comes up.

The first 5 entries assign a modulator to the knob you just clicked on. The entry MIDI LEARN puts the knob into MIDI learn mode. Then the next MIDI-CC message you send to Unique will control this knob. To clear any assignment, just hit the entry CLEAR.
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NOTE: If you assigned a knob to a modulator or to a MIDI-CC you should not use Host Automation for this knob. Otherwise the parameter will receive multiple values at the same time, which might cause unpredictable behaviours. Menus

There are a lot of menus in Unique. For example different filter types, oscillator types or effects are selected with menus. Just click on the text field and the menu will pop up, giving you the possibility to select one of the available options.

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Presets

The presets in Unique are accessible via the preset menu in the top left area of the interface. You can easily step through the presets with the arrow buttons on the left and right side. When the preset name is clicked, a menu will come up showing all preset categories.

We sorted the presets by categories which correspond to folders on your hard drive. So every category is represented by a folder and every preset is represented by a single file with a .sbu extension. There are 2 folders which have a special function. The Midi Programs folder is used for MIDI programchange messages. So if you want to switch presets by MIDI prgChange, just put all presets you want to use into this folder. The other special folder is the User folder. This folder is empty and is meant to store the presets you created. Of course you can create more folders and rearrange them as you like.
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Note the first 3 entries in the preset menu. Select Folder lets you select another preset location. Take care with this option, normally you wont need it, its just in case you want to create your own preset location. The Save Preset entry is for saving presets. It should automatically navigate you to the User folder on your hard drive. Although not recommended, you can save your preset wherever you like. The Load Preset entry is normally not needed since you have full access to the presets via the preset menu. But just in case there is a preset file placed somewhere else, you can choose this option and a file dialog will come up for loading a single preset file.

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Sections
Oscillators

Unique has 2 main Oscillators each providing 5 different algorithms. These algorithms are different from each other and are specially optimized for real-time usage. Sawtooth:

The sawtooth is the most basic oscillator and contains the spectral content of all natural sounds. The anti-aliased algorithm produces a crystal clear sound even in high frequency ranges. This oscillator is very efficient regarding CPU consumption. The parameters of the sawtooth oscillator are the standard parameters all oscillator types in unique have. Octave: changes the pitch in octaves. Detune: changes the pitch in semitones.

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The typical ADSR parameter: Attack: adjust the attack time of the amplitude envelope. Decay: the time after the attack phase until sustain. Sustain: adjust the amplitude level after the decay. Release: adjust the release time of the envelope. Triple Saw:

The Triple Saw algorithm internally uses 3 hardsynced Sawtooth oscillators to produce a very rich frequency spectrum. Using the Spread Parameter, a pitch offset between the 3 oscillators is introduced, resulting in a fat sound. With this oscillator you can create string- and organ sounds, as well as sharp sync leads. Pulse:

The Pulse oscillator can create very dominant and analogue sounding signals. Its the perfect oscillator for strong analoguish synthesizer sounds. With the ability to determine and modulate the pulsewidth, you get a wide range of sounds out of this oscillator. PW: the pulsewidth of the pulse waveform PWM RATE: speed of the pw modulation (bpm-synced)
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Triple FM:

The Triple FM algorithm is based on frequency modulation of three oscillators with an additional sound-shaping algorithm. This oscillator provides classic FM sounds, but also unheard and inspiring material, from thin and pianolike to fat, detuned and distorted. FM: intensity of internal frequency modulation. SHAPE: amount of the shape algorithm.

Noise:

The Noise oscillator offers an intelligent noise-generator, which contains a multimode filter that can be linked to the current pitch. At high resonance values, the noise oscillator can produce weird tonal sounds close to voices, choir or monster sounds. Color: adjust the cutoff frequency of internal filter. Reso: resonance of the internal filter. Type: filter type (LP, HP, BP). Track: connect voice-pitch to filter frequency. In Track mode, the Colour control is used to detune the oscillator.

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MIX

Between the oscillators you find the Mix section. Here you can adjust level and pan for each oscillator individually. Some pretty innovative features are covered in this section. Top left and top right you find the Poly/Single Buttons which decide if the panning is handled monophonic or polyphonic. In Single mode, the pan is monophonic, like you know it from a classical pan control. In Poly mode, each voice has its own position in the stereo field. The Pan control is then used to spread the played voices more to the left or more to the right side. Since a new voice is started with each note that you play, every new note will receive a new position in the stereo field, that results in a stereo image which is always changing. Below the Level and Pan controls you can see the controls for the auto-pan feature. Autopan is a well known effect, but here some specials come in. You have an individual auto-pan for each oscillator, also the autopan can work monophonic or polyphonic, like the Pan control mentioned above. So in polyphonic mode, each voice will auto-panned individually. So if you play 2 oscillators with 8 voices using auto-pan, you can have 16 sounds moving around in the stereo field. This is a pretty uncommon feature which covers some truly stunning possibilities. Level: individual level for each oscillator Pan: individual panning for each oscillator Autopan: amount of automatic, LFO controlled panning Rate: speed of the LFO which controls the pan

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Filter

The filter section of Unique is the most important and most innovative part of this synthesizer. The Vowel Mode is a new way of working with filters, it emulates the human mouth, opening possibilities that you know from a talk box or a vocoder. Beside the classic vocals A-E-I-O-U we also added mutated vowels like AE and German umlauts. The filter has 5 different working modes to give you an optimal toolset to shape your sound.

The 5 Filter Types

Highpass 2 Pole: Only frequencies above the cutoff frequency are heard. Bandpass 2 Pole: Only the cutoff frequency is heard. Fits perfectly into the Vowel Mode. Bandpass 4 Pole: Only the cutoff frequency is heard with a smaller bandwith the the 2 Pole. Gives you an even stronger vowel sound when used in Vowel Mode. Lowpass 4 Pole: Only frequencies below the cutoff frequency are heard.
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Comb Filter: This Filter is based on a feedback algorithm with delay times that correspond to filter frequencies. In Vowel Mode, this filter mutates to a monster mouth, providing strong, scary and weird sounds.

Standard Filter Controls In the filter section are some controls which exist in all working modes. Reso: adjusts the resonance of the filter. Drive: adds overdrive to the filter. Mix: mixes the dry with the filtered signal. Note that the appearance of the cutoff (knob) and vowel (letter) parameter depends on the working mode of the filter.

Vowel mode The vowel mode is the main invention of Unique and offers new sound dimensions. When the vowel mode is powered on, all cutoff parameters are changing to vowel parameters.

You can use a vowel parameter in the same way as the cutoff knob, just click and drag to select different vowels.

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Working modes The filter can work in 5 different ways to offer a wide range of possibilities.

Envelope:

In this mode there is an ADSR envelope which modulates the cutoff frequency. Cutoff and Peak You can set the start/end frequency with the Cutoff parameter, and the destination (modulation amount) frequency with the Peak parameter. That means, in the attack phase the cutoff frequency moves from the start Cutoff to the Peak frequency. In the release phase, the cutoff will move from the Peak back to the cutoff frequency. The blue (yellow in vowel mode) bar below the Cutoff and Peak parameter are indicating the movement caused by the ADSR. (See Oscillator chapter for ADSR controls.) Trigger The trigger parameter determines when the ADSR envelope is restarted. The default here is Each, that means that every voice starts its own envelope when triggered.
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Other voice related modes are First, Lowest and Loudest. That means, all voices are sharing the same cutoff frequency and the ADSR envelope is restarted by a particular event. Lowest means the tonally lowest voice will trigger and retrigger (if there are already notes held) the envelope. Loudest will only trigger and retrigger if there is a note played with a higher velocity then before. First will only trigger the envelope, when the first voice is played after all keys have been released. Another trigger mode is the Arp mode. In this mode the ADSR is triggered by the Arpeggiator engine. That means, the ADSR is constantly triggered in a certain interval, set by the Arpeggiator tempo.

LFO:

With the LFO you can modulate between 2 filter frequencies or 2 vowels in Vowel Mode. Like with the envelope you select a start frequency (Cutoff) and a destination frequency (Peak). Rate: the speed of the LFO (synced to the host BPM) Fade: fades in the LFO rate, so the LFO will accelerate until the final speed is reached. Fade In: time until the full LFO amount is reached. Note that the LFO has one more retrigger option than the envelope. This is the Clock Start trigger mode. In this
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mode the LFO is retriggered when you hit play in your host. 4 Step:

With the 4 Step working mode you can define 4 different frequencies (or vowels) to be played in series. These steps can be played back at a defined speed and different directions. Tempo: the playback speed of the 4Step sequencer. Glide: time to fade from one step to the next. C1-C4/V1-V4: frequency/vowel values of the steps. Direction Modes: This is a simple forward mode. In this mode the steps are playing backward. This is a ping pong mode starting on the left side. This is an inverse ping pong mode starting right. In this mode steps are chosen randomly. Note that these directions modes are also used in the modulation sequencer and arpeggiator section described later.

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Pitchbend:

With the Pitchbend working mode you automatically assign the pitchbend wheel to morph between 2 frequencies. These 2 frequencies are defined by the Cutoff and the Peak parameter. With the Slope parameter you can define the fading curve. If the parameter is in middle position you have a linear fading between the frequencies. A higher Slope value results in a larger controlling range for the Cutoff parameter while a lower value does the opposite.

Modwheel:

The Modwheel mode works in the same way as the Pitchbend mode, except that it assigns the MIDI modulation wheel to fade between 2 frequencies (or vowels).

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Effects

The effect section of Unique consists of 2 multieffect units running in series. Each unit contains 5 effects. They basically offer the same effects with the exception that Effect 1 offers a Filter where Effect 2 offers a Chorus. That means, altogether there are 6 different effects available.

Delay

Time: adjusts the delay time. (synced to Host-BPM). Feedback: intensity of the internal feedback circuit. Cutoff: controls the cutoff of the built in low-pass filter. Reso: controls the resonance of the built in filter. Mix: controls the dry/wet mix of the signal.

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Reverb

Room: size of the reverberation room. Damp: adjust damping properties of the room. Width: controls the stereo widening. Hipass: controls the cutoff of the internal hi-pass filter. Mix: controls the dry/wet mix of the signal.

Phaser

Rate: phasing speed synced to host-BPM. Feedback: internal feedback level. Width: controls the stereo widening. Stages: number of stacked phasing stages. Mix: controls the dry/wet mix of the signal.

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LOFI

Crush: bit-crushing intensity. S-Rate: amount of sample-rate reduction. Mix: controls the dry/wet mix of the signal.

Filter

Cutoff: the filter cutoff frequency. Reso: resonance of the filter. Type: 5 filter-types (LP, LPBP, BP, BPHP, HP). Mix: controls the dry/wet mix of the signal.

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Chorus

Rate: chorus speed synced to host-BPM. Feedback: internal feedback level. Depth: intensity of the chorus. Width: controls the stereo widening. Mix: controls the dry/wet mix of the signal.

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MIDI IN

In this section you can control how your incoming midi signals are processed. In the headline of this section you find you find a little lamp which flashes when midi notes are received. In the right upper corner is a menu to switch between Poly and Unison. The Poly mode is the classical 8 voice polyphonic mode while Unison is a special mode where Unique turns into a monophonic synthesizer with 8 voices playing simultaneously. With the Spread parameter you can adjust a slight pitch offset between the voices. The Velocity adjusts the velocity behaviour of your incoming MIDI notes. When turned down the velocity has nearly no impact on the overall volume like you know from analogue synthesizer. If its turned up, the volume reacts more and more sensitive to your played velocity. The Glide (Portamento) parameter sets a certain glide time. While playing, this time is needed to move from the previous note pitch to the currently pressed note pitch. In Poly mode, Unique offers a polyphonic glide, where a glide happens from the last voice to all new voices. The Arpeggiator can be turned on independently for each oscillator with the OSC1 and OSC2 buttons. It has a Tempo parameter which sets the speed of the arpeggio (synced to your host-BPM). It also has certain Trigger options to decide how the arpeggiator is restarted. (See Filter/Envelope/Trigger) The Double button makes the arpeggiator play two notes at once, another brand new feature invented by Sugar Bytes. The arpeggiator has 5 playing Styles. Up, Down, Up and Down, Down and Up and Random. Just press a chord and play around.
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Controllers

The Controllers section is opened with the Controllers button in the top part of the interface beside the preset menu. It consists of 4 powerful modulators. To assign them to a parameter, just right-click the destination parameter and choose from the available modulators.

LFO

The LFO Modulator has a BPM synced Rate parameter. This Rate can be faded in, using the Fade Rate knob right beside. The classical LFO waveforms (sine, saw, square, tri) can be morphed using the Wave parameter. Just click and drag the Wave view. You also can fade in the LFO intensity by using the Fade parameter. There are several Trigger modes to restart the LFO. For detailed description of them see Filter/Envelope/Trigger. The Range parameter gives you the power to perfectly adjust the range in which the LFO will work. You can adjust the minimum and the maximum value.

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Envelope

This is a classical ADSR envelope with the already known Trigger modes (see Filter/Envelope/Trigger). It also comes with a Range parameter for setting the working range. And of course the typical ADSR parameters Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release.

Sequencer

The 8 step sequencer gives you 8 steps for repeated modulations. The speed can be adjusted by the Tempo parameter and is of course BPM-synced to your host BPM. With the Glide parameter you can smooth the output of the sequencer, because the Glide time defines a fading time between the steps. The sequencer features different Direction modes. (see Filter/4Step/Direction modes) Again there are the different Trigger modes for retriggering.(see Filter/Envelope/Trigger) And finally the Range parameter for calibrating the working range.

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Motion

The Motion modulator is a very easy to use modulator, where you just record movements in order to assign them to one or two parameters. To do so, just turn on Record and click and move the green square as you like. Then you can assign the X and Y movements independently to a parameter of your choice. With the Smooth parameter you can smoothen the movements. Again there are the different Trigger modes for restarting the motion.(see Filter/Envelope/Trigger)

Pitch and Modwheel

In this section you can assign a Pitch LFO to the MIDI modulation wheel (CC 1). Just click the On/Off button to do so. Underneath this button you can adjust the Speed of the LFO. At the bottom you can define the pitchbend range of the MIDI - pitchbend wheel.

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Master

In the master section of Unique there are additional useful features to finally shape the sound to your needs. Of course there is the Master volume control to adjust the overall volume. A special feature of the Master Section is the Sub Oscillator which uses a Sine waveform. It is connected with Oscillator 1, so it uses the amp-envelope and the arpeggiator assignment of Oscillator 1. The SubOsc parameter adjusts the volume and the Oct parameter adjusts the pitch octave. This sub oscillator is very handy if you want to add bass to your sound, but also if you want to add another sound dimension on top. The Master section also contains a Vibrato effect which modulates the final volume with an internal LFO. With the Vibrato parameter you control the intensity of the vibrato, the Rate parameter defines the speed (BPM-synced) and the Fade parameter defines a fade in time for the vibrato. Note that the vibrato fade time is triggered by the first note you press.

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Aboutscreen

In the aboutscreen you find some global settings and functions. Controller Map Since each parameter in Unique can be remoted with MIDI CCs, it makes sense to save and restore your assignments. That can be done with the Load and Save buttons in the about screen.

Links With the Website button you can directly open up our website and look for updates or additional content. The Manual button brings up this manual.

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Serial Number If you are using the full version, your serial number will be shown here. If you entered a wrong serial it will be marked as invalid here. The serial is needed for downloading updates and additional content. Pitch LFO Amount Here you can define the amount of pitch modulation caused by the Pitch LFO in the Modwheel section. Ignore Programchange This option allows you to completely ignore MIDI programchange message from the host. If you dont want to work with MIDI program change, you should ignore these messages, because some hosts tend to use it in a destructive way. If you want to use program changes uncheck this option. Global Tune With the Global Tune parameter you can change the overall tuning of Unique in order to adapt it to other sound sources.