Phonolyth Cascade 1.0 Reverb and Diffusion Processor User Manual

Phonolyth Cascade 1.0 Reverb and Diffusion Processor

Product Information

Cascade Reverb and Diffusion Processor
Cascade is a versatile reverb and diffusion processor that can create expansive modulated supernatural spaces, stereo widening effects, transient smearing, hybrid delay/reverb, and chorus/flanger/resonator-like effects. It features an experimental edge and an extensive set of controls for exploring various sonic territories.

User Interface
The Cascade user interface window is freely resizable by dragging on its bottom right corner. Note that in Logic Pro, you have to drag the corner of the plugin UI itself, not the window around it. The user interface has the following elements:

• Preset Bar: Located at the top of the Cascade user interface, the Preset Bar lets you load and save presets, as well as access several other features.
• Parameter Controls: The Parameter Controls section is where you can adjust the input processing, diffusion parameters, distance, spread, stereo and inertia controls.

Product Usage Instruction

Parameter Controls

Input
The Input section controls the processing of the input signal before it gets sent to the diffusion and feedback stages. It has a single Width control that adjusts the stereo width of the processed signal. The High Cut and Low Cut controls adjust the cutoff frequency of the high-cut and low-cut filters applied before the diffusion and feedback stages.

Diffusion
The Diffusion section controls the parameters of the diffusion stage, which can affect the length, density, envelope, and overall character of the effect. It has the following controls:

• Stages: Determines the number of all-pass diffuser stages to use. Using more stages generally results in higher diffusion density and longer decay. Depending on Shape, this may also result in a slower reverb onset.
• Shape: Controls the feedback/feedforward gain of the active all pass diffusers, which simultaneously affects the amount of diffusion and envelope of the effect. The knob graphic schematically shows the impulse response of a single diffuser. The Shape control has five positions, each representing a different impulse response:
  • a single delay repeat
  • progressively more diffusion with a reverse-like envelope
  • even more diffusion with a ‘normal’ envelope
  • the progressively dry signal
  • dry signal only

Distance and Spread
The Distance and Spread controls determine the delay time and spacing between successive diffusion stages, respectively. They have the following controls:

• Distance: Sets the delay time of the first diffusion stage. Higher values result in longer decay and a more neutral response, while lower ones can sound more ‘metallic’ or ‘boxy’. Try setting high Distance and low Spread values for a pulsating or fluttering effect.
• Spread: Sets the spacing between successive diffusion stages relative to the first. Higher values make the reflections more spread out in time.
• Distance/Spread Link: Links Spread to Distance. The resulting coupled parameter can be thought of as a regular reverb size parameter, while using different values for Spread and Distance can further tweak the reverb character or make for unusual sounding effects.

Stereo and Inertia
The Stereo and Inertia control adjust the stereo-opposed time offsets for the left and right allpass diffuser stages, and the amount of time it takes for new Distance, Spread, and/or Stereo values to settle, respectively. The Inertia control doesn’t have an effect unless any of the mentioned parameters are being changed.

Experiment with the various controls to create unique and interesting reverb and diffusion effects.

Overview

Cascade is a reverb and diffusion processor with an experimental edge. Designed first and foremost with expansive modulated supernatural spaces in mind, it features an extensive set of controls to explore other sonic territories such as stereo widening, transient smearing, hybrid delay/reverb and chorus/flanger /resonator-like effects.

How It Works

If this sounds too technical, feel free to skip ahead – you don’t need to know or understand this to use Cascade.

At its core, Cascade uses a chain, or cascade, of 24 allpass delay (a.k.a. allpass diffuser) stages for each of the left and right channels. Each of these stages smears and diffuses the incoming signal a bit, and chaining enough of these together results in a lengthy and diffuse reverberation effect. A notable feature of the allpass delay is its ability to produce various kinds of non- exponential responses, which works great for out-of-this-world effects like blooming and super long reverberation.

Now, this structure can sound somewhat static if allpass delay times are constant, so Cascade employs a randomized modulation scheme where each of the delay times is modulated by a dedicated LFO that is purposefully out of sync with others, thus adding a sense of motion to the sound. Last but not least, Cascade incorporates a feedback loop around the entire chain, making infinite reverb and delay-infused diffusion textures possible. The feedback loop is complemented by damping filters to modify the frequency response over time.

User Interface

• Cascade user interface window is freely resizeable. To resize the window, simply drag on its bottom right corner.
• Note that in Logic Pro, you have to drag the corner of the plugin UI itself, not the window around it.

Preset Bar
Located at the top of the Cascade user interface, the Preset Bar lets you load and save presets, as well as access several other features.

• Click to open the About page, where you can check plugin version information and access support resources.

• Midrange:
  Shows the name of the current preset. Click to show or hide preset browser (see Presets).

• Click to switch to the previous or next preset in the list.

• Switches between dark and light UI color schemes.

• Toggles the visibility of UI element tooltips located at the bottom of the plugin window.

Parameter Controls

Input
This section controls the processing of the input signal before it gets sent to the diffusion and feedback stages.

• Width Stereo width of the input signal.
  0% – sum to mono, 100% – preserve full width, -100% – swap left and right channels. If the input signal is panned to the side, this control can be used for stereo effects such as the wet signal appearing on the opposite side of the input, or, in conjunction with Cross-Feedback, starting on one side and gradually spreading across the whole stereo spectrum.

• High Cut, Low Cut:
  Cutoff frequency of the high-cut and low-cut filters respectively, applied before diffusion and feedback stages.

Diffusion
This section controls the parameters of the diffusion stage, which can affect length, density, envelope and overall character of the effect.

• Stages
  Determines the number of allpass diffuser stages to use. Generally, using more stages results in higher diffusion density and longer decay. Depending on Shape, this may also result in a slower reverb onset.

• Shape
  Controls the feeback/feedforward gain of the active allpass diffusers, which simultaneously affects the amount of diffusion and envelope of the effect. The knob graphic schematically shows the impulse response of a single diffuser.

  • Try .85–.99 to find a sweet spot for long decays, or around .5-.618 for reverse reverb effects.

• Distance
  Delay time of the first diffusion stage. Higher values result in longer decay and a more neutral response, while lower ones can sound more ‘metallic’ or ‘boxy’. Try setting high Distance and low Spread values for a pulsating or fluttering effect.

• Spread
  Spacing between succesive diffusion stages relative to the first. Higher values make the reflections more spread out in time.

• Distance/Spread Link:
  Links Spread to Distance. The resulting coupled parameter can be thought of as a regular reverb size parameter, while using different values for Spread and Distance can further tweak the reverb character or make for unusual sounding effects.

• Stereo
  Controls the stereo-opposed time offsets for the left and right allpass diffuser stages.

• Inertia
  Controls the amount of time it takes for new Distance, Spread and/or Stereo values to settle. This parameter doesn’t have an effect unless any of the mentioned parameters are being changed.

Stage Delays Visualizer

Located at the bottom of the plugin interface, this element visualizes the delay times of diffusion stages, reacting to changes in the parameters Stages, Distance, Spread and Stereo. It can give a general idea of the response length; however, that also strongly depends on Shape and Feedback.

Thicker dots represent currently active stages and grid lines are spaced 10 ms apart.

Loop
This section controls the parameters of the feedback loop around the diffusion stage, as well as delay and loop delay times.

• Feedback Polarity
  When enabled, the signal polarity is flipped with each pass through the feedback loop. Depending on other parameters, this can have little effect on the sound or a very pronounced effect, e.g., with low Delay and non-zero Feedback, or when Shape is close to 1.

• Cross-Feedback
  Swaps the left and right channels of the feedback signal. With feedback engaged and depending on other parameters, this may alter the stereo quality of the resulting effect and/or increase modulation complexity.

• Feedback
  The amount of feedback around the diffusion stage. Generally speaking, more feedback results in longer decay. Keep in mind that with low Delay, this can also impact the frequency response and volume of the effect due to comb- filtering.

• Infinite
  Sets feedback to 100% for infinite decay while still letting new signals in.

• Freeze
  Sets feedback to 100%, stops accepting incoming signal, pauses modulation and progressive damping of the recirculating signal, thus effectively freezing the current content of the diffusion stage.

• Pre-delay
  Delay time is applied before sending the input signal through the diffusion stage. This can be used to perceptually separate the dry and wet signals, or make the reverb signal appear farther.

• Delay
  Delay time applied to the diffused signal being fed back to the diffusion stage input. Besides affecting the decay length, this can have a big impact on the frequency response and volume of the effect, i.e. different frequencies being boosted and cut due to comb-filtering. The delay has no effect if Feedback is 0%.

• Delay Sync
  Allows setting Predelay and Delay as rhythmic subdivisions of the host tempo.

• Delay Link
  Links Delay parameter to Predelay.

Mod
This section controls the parameters of modulation applied to all pass delay times. The modulation employs multiple LFOs that operate asynchronously, resulting in intricate modulation patterns. This can help reduce ringing in the reverb tail and add a sense of motion to the sound.

• Rate Sets the average rate of random modulation of diffusion stages’ delay times.
• Depth Contols the amount of pitch change induced by the modulation.

Damping
This section controls the damping filters parameters. These filters are positioned after the diffusion stage and before the feedback loop send, meaning that the signal passes through them at least once (with zero feedback) and with each pass through the feedback loop. You can adjust the filter parameters in the response plot itself for a more hands-on approach, or use the controls below for better accuracy.

• Frequency response of the damping filter. Drag vertical lines to adjust crossover frequencies. Drag up and down to adjust shelving gains.

• Low, Mid, High
  Control the shelving gain of the low-, mid-, and high-frequency bands respectively.

• Low Freq, High Freq
  Control the crossover frequencies of the frequency bands.

Output

• Mix
  Controls the blend between the dry and wet signals. 0% – dry only, 50% – equal amounts of both, 100% – wet only.

• Mix Lock
  If enabled, the Mix setting will not change when switching presets.

• Gain
  Controls the output level of the sum of dry and wet signals. Generally, thisshould be set to 0 dB for reverb effects, but it can be useful to lower the output level when using Cascade as a chorus/flanger/resonator effect.

Parameter Automation
All parameters are available for host control and automation. For more details on how to use this feature, check the documentation for your host.

Presets

The preset button (located in the top center of Cascade window) shows the name of the current preset. Click this button to open the preset browser, which allows you to load, save and manage presets. (To close the browser, click the button again.)

• Cascade comes with a number of presets available in the Factory bank on the left. These presets cannot be deleted. The presets you save will be located in the User bank.
• To load a preset, click the preset name in the list.
• To save a preset, click Save and enter the preset name. If a preset with this name already exists, you will be asked if you want to replace it.
• To delete a preset, select it in the list, click Delete and confirm deletion in the popup dialog.
• Alternatively, click Select, put checkmarks against the presets that you want to delete and click Delete.

Import/Export (iOS)
To export a preset, select it in the list (or tap Select and check multiple presets), then tap Export and choose the desired sharing option in the system dialog. To import presets, tap Import, select the presets you want to import in the presented system file browser, and tap Open.

Import/Export (macOS/Windows)
As the desktop operating systems provide free access to the file system, you can import and export presets by copying preset files to and from the designated user preset folders:

• macOS: ~/Music/Phonolyth/Cascade/Presets
• Windows: Documents\Phonolyth\Cascade\Presets

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