S K Y STUDIOS S.K.Y. Keys Studio App User Manual
- June 16, 2024
- S K Y STUDIOS
Table of Contents
S K Y STUDIOS S.K.Y. Keys Studio App
WELCOME
Thank you so much for your purchase of S.K.Y. Keys.
At the time of creating this I am a one man team.
Originally building this plug-in for personal use, I’m excited that this tool
I built selfishly is being used by anyone else.
It really is my dream sampler instrument and I hope you find some inspiration
in it too.
Dedicated to my father, Jeff Young – who I lost in the middle of making this
plug-in. He is one of the greatest keyboard players that has ever lived – and
my biggest hero.
Love, Skyler Young
SOUNDS
This plugin offers over 230 meticulously curated synth sounds and instruments.
I recorded over 2,400 with the goal of picking only the very best 200 (Ended
up with about 230 because I really loved all these sounds too much).
The sounds are divided into four main categories:
Synth Sounds – Sampled from iconic synthesizers such as a Jupiter 8,
Prophet 5, Prophet 6, Moog Model D, Deckards Dream, Subsequent 37, and various
others.
Effected Sounds – Mostly synths, Wurlitzers, and Rhodes, being ran
through guitar pedals, tape delays, spring reverbs, and other distinct
processors to create sounds that are full of inspiration – perfect for
interesting tones that you’ve never head before.
Vintage Tape Sounds – Captured from vintage Mellotron and Orchestrons,
providing classic tones and textures.
Acoustic Sounds – Samples of acoustic instruments like Pianos, Guitars,
Marimbas, Pipe Organs, etc.
All sounds are multi-sampled – none are one shots
BROWSER
The browser is where you can select your currently playing sampler instrument
and search for specific sounds.
You can sort through the settings by selecting any of the categories.
With the search bar you can type in any instrument or sound name to quickly
find it. Only searches selected browser group.
FAVORITE
The star in the browser is for favorited sounds, to favorite a sound simply
click the star on the left of the select sounds name in the browser. Once this
is yellow it will now be included in the favorited sounds. The favorite
selector can be used with another browser selector. For example to only see
favorited pluck sounds or acoustic sounds that you have favorited. Your
favorited sounds are remembered for every new instance of the plugin in any
project.
EFFECTS
There are 6 distinct effects modules in S.K.Y. Keys, located at the bottom of
the plugin window.
Tone Shift:
When I was using other sampler instruments I found this cool trick where you
could pitch all the samples up or down by changing the playing speed and then
transpose your midi to compensate and all of a sudden all the sounds would
have a new tone.
The Shift Knob does exactly that in one knob.
The Shift Knob manipulates which samples you access for each note played. For
example you shift it +12 and play C1 it will take the sample from C0 and play
it at double speed – changing the character of the sound sometimes
drastically. If the range knob is at 50% and shift is at 0 and you play C0 it
will use the sample from G0 (because it’s 50% the distance from C1) and if you
play C2 it will use the sample from G1 – also has interesting effects on the
sound.
The Range Knob is the result of a realization I had when making the plugin – I
realized that some sounds work better when every note across the keyboard is a
different sample and other sounds are more interesting when you pitch one
sample across the entire keyboard – the range knob essentially allows you to
chose how many samples are used across the keyboard – at 100% every sample is
being used, at 50% half of the available samples are being used and at 0% a
single one shot is being pitched around for every note played. The Shift Knob
controls which sample is used as the center when you’re not at 100% range.
Reverse:
When producing I would find myself bouncing MIDI to audio and then chopping it
up so I could reverse it and have it stay in time. With the reverse effect you
don’t have to do that. This syncs your bpm to the reverse length. You can
select continuous to loop the section and add a pumping or side chain effect
with the fade in button.
The location of the reversed section can be controlled with the green slider
thumbs under the waveform.
Vibrato:
This vibrato effect can give you a subtle pitch wobble or a lo-fi degrading
tape sound when increased.
The wow curves is based on my favorite vibrato pedal, the shallow water by
Fairfield circuitry – the way it maintains the pitch and then randomly begins
to falls then catches up. And the flutter gives you very rapid movement.
Each voice actually has there own randomized wave – an effect that you can’t
get from just adding a vibrato plugin afterwards.
Filter:
The filter effect helps shape the tone of your sounds. The High-Pass Filter
and Low-Pass Filter are actually key tracking which means each note has its
own filter and their cut off frequencies move in correlation to the notes you
play.
The Slope button controls how steep the cutoff is. Either 12db/oct or 24db/
oct.
Reverb:
The reverb effect gives you a lush hall reverb to add to your sounds.
WARNING – it is very CPU intensive on the HQ mode, but sounds so good.
It can be switched to a less CPUintensive setting if needed by turning off the
HQ button.
Saturation:
This little flame Saturation Knob can give you a hint of drive or substantial
overdrive.
I know it may not be obvious at first – but I like to think of it as a hidden
gem.
WAVEFORM
The waveform in the center shows a representation of the current sound
selected, the sliders at the bottom change where the start position of the
samples are and where the loop area is if loop is enabled in settings, or the
reverse loop section if reverse is enabled.
All instruments are multi-sampled – none are simply one-shots. The waveform is
a display of a single sample just to give a representation of what the
instrument will likely sound like throughout the range.
Note Start:
This white slider tab selects where in the sample the note is played from.
Loop Start and End:
The yellow slider tabs select the start and end of the looped section if loop is enabled. This plugin automatically detects the most seamless loop points, they search in a small range around these selected points so they may not be completely location accurate.
Reverse Start and End:
The green slider tabs select where in the loop of the note is played from if the reverse effect is enabled.
DRAG & DROP
You are also able to drag and drop any sample into S.K.Y. Keys and use all the
effects with it. It even auto detects the pitch, but you’re free to fine-tune
it using the sample note selector.
Accepts .wav, .aif, .flac, .mp3, and .m4a files.
ATTACK
Adjusts the attack time of the current instrument.
RELEASE
Adjusts the release time of the current instrument.
Notes cut off at the end of the sample file.
MENU BAR
Octave:
These buttons transpose the sound up an octave (+1) or down an octave (-1). They move the transpose value in settings. There is a limit of -36 or +36 semitones.
Stereo:
When on, two different samples of the instrument are played, one on the left and one on the right. This creates a wide stereo image. When off, a single mono sample is played.
Overlap:
When you play a new note, any note that has been released and is trailing off (in its release state) is immediately cut off. This can change the character of a keyboard part quite notably. This can clean up a complex part or make chords sound like a sample chop.
Output:
Output volume post effects.
Show Settings:
Opens the settings window.
Save Setting to Sound:
Saves current settings to the currently selected sound as its default settings for every instance of this plug-in. I encourage you to create your own settings and sounds with this plugin so I do not have a revert to factory function!
Lock Settings:
When this is off, every time you load a new sound the settings will go to that sounds default settings. When this is enabled, every setting will stay the same when changing sounds. When you have a part you like in a track, try locking this and switching the sound – you may stumble on something you prefer.
SETTINGS MENU
Transpose:
Changes the midi note inputted by this many semitones.
Loop:
Turns on or off the loop function. This loop function automatically finds the nearest good sounding loop location. If a loop is crossfading out of phase it will create a noticeable volume dropout. This automatically keeps it in phase.
Voices:
The number of individual notes available to be played at one time.
Pitch Bend Range:
The amount of semitones the pitch bend wheel can effect the sound.
Glide Note Start:
The amount of milliseconds each note will pitch glide when it is first played.
The notes glide from the last played pitch on that voice or the nearest octave
above or below, which ever is further. If the previous note played on that
voice was 4 semitones above it will glide from an octave above the played
pitch, down to the played pitch. If the previous note played on that voice was
4 semitones lower it will glide from an octave below up to the played pitch.
Glide Legato:
If every voice is currently being played and a new note is played, it will glide the nearest note in pitch to the newly played note over this many milliseconds. This allows you to play chords in one hand and a gliding melody above or sliding bass part below simultaneously.
Stereo Doubler:
When I record analog synths in the studio I usually play 2 takes and pan one left and one right, to give it a wide and interesting sound. With the doubler knob this allows you to recreate this effect without having to go through the trouble of re-recording parts. It randomly adds a slight humanized delay to one side of every note and you can adjust the randomized time range with the percentage. Only works when Stereo is on.
Rotate L/R:
When stereo is on, this switches the left and right samples back and forth every time a note is replayed. When stereo is off, this changes the audio sample of each note every time one is replayed.
Velocity Range:
The range of the volume difference between a note being played at its maximum velocity and a note being played at its minimum velocity.
Pan Spread:
Pans every note slightly to one side, the side alternates every time a note is played. Creates stereo separation.
Humanize Velocity:
If every midi note being played is at the exact same velocity, the plugin will detect that and randomly adjust every notes velocity by an amount determined by this range knob. Turns clicked in midi notes into something more organic feeling. If you are playing live on a velocity sensitive midi keyboard this will not effect your notes.
Humanize Timing:
If your midi notes are perfectly quantized, the plugin will detect that and randomly delay every notes timing by a very small amount determined by this range knob. I analyzed the timing of world class keyboard players and found that when they are most in the pocket they are very slightly late. I measured the exact timing fluctuations between every note and this value adds a percent of their timing to your quantized midi.
Move Files Location
You are able to move the location of the samples for this plugin from the
default spot. Simply move the entire S.K.Y. Keys file where ever you like and
next time you open a new instance of this plugin it will ask you where the new
location is. It will remember this location going forward.
Default location on Mac is User/Library/Application Support/S.K.Y.
Studios/S.K.Y. Keys.
Default location on Windows is User/Documents/S.K.Y. Studios/S.K.Y. Keys.
Modulation Wheel / CC
Assign to Modulation Wheel:
Almost all parameters are able to be assigned to your mod wheel. Just right click a slider or knob and select Learn Knob/Slider. Then simply move your modulation wheel and it will automatically assign. Right click and select Forget to unlink the parameter.
Learn Knob/Slider:
Almost all parameters are able to be assigned to a CC control. Just right
click a slider or knob and select Learn Knob/Slider. Then simply move your the
CC control you want to assign and it will automatically assign. Right click
and select Forget to unlink the parameter.
