steinberg Materials Wood and Water User Manual
- June 12, 2024
- steinberg
Table of Contents
Wood & Water
Operation Manual
Materials Wood and Water
The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does
not represent a commitment on the part of Magnetic 96. The software described
by this document is subject to a License Agreement and may not be copied to
other media except as specifically allowed in the License Agreement. No part
of this publication may be copied, reproduced, or otherwise transmitted or
recorded, for any purpose, without prior written permission by Magnetic 96.
All product and company names are TM or ® trademarks of their respective
owners.
© Magnetic 96. All rights reserved.
Materials – Wood & Water 1.0
Introduction
1.1 Welcome to Materials – Wood & Water
Thank you for your interest in the second installment of our Materials series
– Wood & Water.
This instrument series is all about
Materials, captured with several sound design methods to deliver playable
instruments with a sonic aesthetic of specific materials, like in this case
wood and water.
1.2 Library Info
The library consists of 157 materials. On the one hand, it includes multi
samples of real instruments like an orchestral string ensemble, acoustic
guitar, mallets, piano, rare synthesizers or sound effects and field
recordings. In total, the multi-sampled content amounts to more than 6.3 GB.
On the other hand, you will find many synth materials that make use of the
granular and wavetable synth engines. All materials were designed with two
mindsets: covering the sound aesthetics of wood and water and being able to
sound unique, useful and inspiring in a layered context.
Materials – Wood & Water comes with 170 program presets, which are master
presets comprised of multi-layered Material combinations with carefully
adjusted parameters and added effects within the instrument.
We hope that you will enjoy exploring this extensive choice of ready-to-play
sounds, and we are confident that you will draw creative inspiration from Wood
& Water.
Make sure to always use the latest version of HALion or HALion Sonic SE.
1.3 Markup Info
All bold wording in this manual refers to menus, names and functions on the
user interface.
The Instrument
2.1 Basic Navigation
After loading a program preset, you will find yourself on the main page with
the big wooden sculpture on water. In case you just want to play the
instrument without sophisticated editing, you only need to know this page and
maybe the Materials browser (next paragraph).
For a basic understanding of the instrument it helps to be aware of the 4
horizontally arranged slots below the wooden sculpture. Each slot can be
filled with one Material.
In case you want to delve deeper and edit sounds, click on one of the loaded
Materials names in the lower area and this will take you to the edit page
section, which consists of a main page and several sub-pages. For a detailed
description, see chapter 2.3 Materials Edit.
2.2 Exchanging a Material
Load a program preset and make sure you are on the main page with the big
wooden sculpture.
Now click the little magnifying glass that appears when your mouse cursor
hovers over the Material name of one of the loaded Materials slots in the
lower area. This action opens the browser page and allows you to exchange the
Material of the selected slot. Click on the icon of any Material to load it,
which takes up to 3 seconds. For a better overview you can filter the
Materials list by Instruments, Synths, SFX or just select All by clicking on
the filter buttons on the menu bar at the top of the browser page.
The
buttons in the upper right area labeled as 1 to 4 highlight the Material slot
you are about to fill with a new Material from the browser list. Select and
click one of the numbered buttons to load a Material into it.
Exchanging a Material within a program preset changes the source content of
the selected Material slot. This maintains envelope and filter settings as
well as motion parameters and effect settings will maintain the value of the
previously selected program preset, which may blur the sound of the most
recently selected Material. To start the sound design from scratch, use the
Init layer preset instead of an already designed program preset.
2.3 Materials Edit
Load a preset and make sure you are on the main page with the big wooden
sculpture.
Now click one of the Materials names in one of the loaded Materials slots in
the lower area. This will take you to the edit section, which consists of a
main page and several sub-pages. The sub-pages can be switched by clicking on
the icons in the lower area. There are either 4 or 5 edit pages, depending on
the type of Material loaded into the slot. For example, when loading a
wavetable preset, the Synth Edit icon appears to the right of the Control
icon. The four buttons in the upper right area labeled with the numbers 1 to 4
allow you to switch between all Materials or close the edit page when clicking
the X. All changes on any edit page are only applied to the selected Material
via those buttons, a very important detail for editing.
A shortcut for accessing the browser directly from the edit page area is found
in the header next to the name of the Material. Click on the magnifying glass.
To return to the edit pages from the browser, click the mixer button in the
same location on the browser page.
2.3.1 Control Page
The Control page is available for all Materials. It allows you to define the
Polyphony or to set a Material to Mono playback.
Some Materials encompass
two layers, Layer A and Layer B. You can control their individual volumes via
the faders below the envelope faders. Thanks to the two layers, for the
corresponding Materials, the available Material slots are doubled, that is,
you can use up to eight instead of four slots. Such layers for one Material
are sonic variations of the sounds, like close and distant microphone
positions for several acoustic instruments or two layers of a field recording
for sound effects.
A potential use case for the three send effects on the right: Imagine you have
a mixing desk for each Materials preset with three master send effects. Using
the three send effect sliders you can send each Material to those effects
individually. For more information on those Master Effects, see 2.5.1 Send FX.
2.3.2 Synth Edit Page
This edit page you will only find for all wavetable and granular based
Materials. Above the controls you see either the naming Granular or Wavetable,
to be aware of the type of Material.
2.3.2.1 Wavetable Synth Edit
On the Wavetable Synth Edit page, you can define the wavetable
parameters.
Voices defines the amount of multi voices used to enrich the wavetable source.
The controls for Detune, Pan, and Formant are only displayed if the Voices
value exceeds 1.0.
Detune controls the amount of detuning of the multi voices, Pan controls the
panorama spread of the multi voices.
Position controls the wavetable position, Speed, the playback speed for
wavetable scanning.
Spread allows position spreading in case the Voices parameter is set to a
value greater than 1.0.
Formant is an on/off switch that controls formant shifting of the wavetable,
which can significantly change the wavetable sound.
The wavetable display on the right side of the page is a dynamic
representation of the waveform, which displays midi input as moving waves.
2.3.2.2 Granular Synth Edit
On the Granular Synth Edit page, you can define the granular
parameters.
Voices defines the amount of granular voices used to enrich the granular
source.
Vintage mode is an on/off switch and activates several vintage sample playback
settings, such as a 12 bit or a 26 kHz sample rate.
Below that button, the waveform display visualizes the changes dynamically, to
help you understand their impact on the sound.
Position sets the start position of the granular playback, Speed controls the
playback speed.
Duration defines the grain duration, Length allows you to adjust the length of
the grains.
The three Random parameters on the right define the amount of randomization of
the parameters, allowing you to create unusual and unique sonic results,
beyond the basic granular sample.
2.3.3 Filter Page
The Filter page is available for all Materials. It allows you to adjust all
relevant filter parameters including distortion types and filter envelopes.
The Distortion area can be used to add
Schmutz to a Material, while the Amount of Distortion can be modulated, see
2.3.5 Motion Page and 2.4 Macro Modulation.
2.3.4 FX Page
The FX page is available for all Materials. It allows you to add four slots of
insert effects to each Material. On the right side there is a Channel EQ for
each Material. 
To load an effect, click on a None field on the
left, and choose an effect from the list.
Alternatively, click on the name of a selected effect, and replace it with
another effect.
You can now adjust the effect parameters in the center of the page. Note
that the parameters that are available depend on the type of effect.
As you can see in the screenshot below, the Flanger effect, for examples,
provides a number of presets, which can be selected via the Preset drop-down
menu in the center of the page. You can define the Rate (free or sync), Depth,
and the overall Mix of this effect.
2.3.5 Motion Page
The Motion page is available for all Materials. Three modulation sources are
available at thsame time: LFO, Step, and Arp.
2.3.5.1 LFO
To become familiar with the possibilities offered by the Motion page, start by
activating LFO via the on/off button. Adjust the LFO Rate on the left side.
When using Sync, two Sync Modes available in addition to a Retrigger on/off
switch.
In the center of the page, you can choose the LFO Waveform.
Activate the Retrigger switch on the left to adjust the two Phase parameters.
Above the Waveform display, there is a small but important Modwheel switch.
When switched off, modulation is running continuously. When switched on, the
modulation wheel (midi CC#1) controls the intensity of the modulation.
In the right area, you can define two modulation destinations (Destination 1
and Destination 2) by choosing them from the drop-down menus.
Note: Do not choose a wavetable modulation, such as WT Speed, if the source is
not a wavetable material.
Use the Strength sliders to define the intensity of the modulation for the
individual destinations.
2.3.5.2 Step Sequencer
Click the Step button to access a flexible step sequencer as a second
modulation source.
After activating this modulation source, choose a Preset on the left side of
the page. Wood & Water offers nearly 40 presets that allow you to make full
use of the modulation possibilities. Below the Preset area, you can use the
Speed and Sync option, which are very similar to LFO modulation.
You can customize the waveforms or adjust values for each step in the step
sequencer window in the center of the page by clicking and dragging. Below
this window, you can define the amount of Steps and activate Soft Edges, a
feature to soften the corners of each step, which results in smooth
modulations. The arrows right of the controls allow you to move the whole step
sequence by one step, left and right or to reverse the entire sequence.
Above the Step Sequencer display, there is the small but important Modwheel
switch again. When switched off, modulation is running continuously. When
switched on, the modulation wheel (midi CC#1) controls the intensity of the
modulation.
The right area of the page is identical for all three modulation sources (see
2.3.5.1 LFO).
You can define two destinations for the modulation and adjust its intensity.
2.3.5.3 Arpeggiator
Select Arp to access a flexible arpeggiator as a third modulation source with
focus on midi notes. After activating this modulation source, select a Preset
from the drop-down menu on the left side of the page. We created about 60
presets in 4 categories, which enable you to fully exploit the potential of
the arpeggiator.
The Mode, Trigger, and Restart
parameters allow you to choose from several options.
Right of the controls, you can make settings for Speed, Gate, Swing, and
Octave. We recommend to run an arpeggio and to experiment with the controls
and the settings to explore the options and to modify the sequences according
to your needs and ideas.
2.4 Macro Modulation
The main page with the image of the big wooden sculpture enables you to access
the socalled macro-modulation, which can control several parameters via a
modwheel or a selfrunning LFO. 
Click the up arrow button on the right
side of the page.
The control area for all Material slots is displayed on the page. You can set
the following four parameters for each individual slot: Volume, Pan, Cutoff,
and (filter) Distortion. The horizontal sliders define the modulation range of
the parameters. The four vertical sliders surrounding the image of the big
wooden sculpture, control the overall intensity of each parameter.
The left and right round edges of the sliders can be moved. They specify the
modulation range. Moving a slider all the way to the left sets it to the zero
position, that is, the modwheel in its lowest position. Moving a slider all
the way to the right sets it to maximum
position that is, the modwheel is in its top position.
Example 1:
Imagine you want to control the Panorama of two Materials for an opposing
rotation. The small invert icon above each slider allows you to invert a
modulation. For Pan, this refers to a rotation from right to left instead of
from left to right.
Example 2:
Imagine you want to control Volume for slots 1 and 2, but not for slots 3 and
4. In this case, open the horizontal Volume sliders for slot 1 and 2. Move the
vertical master Volume slider is all the way up. Turn the modwheel. As a
result, the small slider on the left border of the page starts moving. This
allows you to control Volume (and the Pan, Cutoff and Distortion) within the
defined ranges. Hover your mouse cursor over the slider and click Auto. As a
result, the movement is automatically controlled by an LFO, and you can define
the speed of the LFO via the slider. 2.5 Master Effects
On the main page with the big wooden sculpture, you see the Master. Clicking
opens the Master effect area, which features three send effects and a chain of
mastering insert effects. The buttons in the lower area of the center of the
page allow you to switch from Send FX to Post FX.
2.5.1 Send FX
Three insert effects enable you to add another sonic dimension to the
Materials. They allow you to adjust the levels for each individual
Material.
The following effects are displayed, from left to right, each offering a
selection of parameters to choose from:
Reverb is a high-quality effect to add space, size and air to your Materials.
Choose a Type, and set the parameters below to suit your needs and
preferences.
Delay offers several delay types. Choose a Mode, and set the parameters below
to suit your needs and preferences.
Transform is a convolution reverb. This feature is not equipped with standard
reverbs. We recorded and designed several impulse responses, with the Wood &
Water theme in mind.
Choose a Type to load one of 20 impulse responses and set the parameters below
to suit your needs and preferences.
In the Transform effect area an EQ allows you to tone down disturbing
frequencies, which might be caused by the combination of Material source with
a particular Transform effect.
You can click the Control and EQ buttons to switch views.
To adjust the effect sends for individual materials, click on the Sends field,
which is located above the Send FX and Post FX buttons.
In this view, you can adjust
the effect levels for individual Materials. To return to the send effect
settings, click on the Sends field again, which is now located below Delay in
the center of the page.
2.5.2 Post FX
Wood & Water offers four post effects to polish and master the Materials.
To access the post effects, click on the central Post FX button in the lower
area of the page.
Activate the Equalizer with the corresponding toggle button left. You can
activate the remaining three effects the same way.
For each of the four effects, you can choose from a selection of parameters,
presets, and modes.
The Compressor is equipped with three mastering presets. Select a preset from
the Mode drop-down menu. Set the intensity of the compressor with the Strength
control.
The Saturator offers two different styles. Select a style from the Style drop-
down menu. Set the intensity of the Saturator with the Strength control.
The Optimizer offers less options than the other mastering effects. Softclip
adds weight and warmth to the sound, while achieving maximum loudness. Gain
increases the signal level that is sent to the Optimizer effect.
Credits
Concept & Production: Magnetic 96
Sound Content: Tobias Menguser, Stephan Lembke, Heiko Lohmann
Lua Scripting: Robin Mussmann, Matthias Klag, Florian Oellerer
Graphics: Ingo Hermes, Michael Ruf, Sebastian Wolter
QA & Library Assistance: Frank Seidel, Matthias Klag
Marketing: Florian Haack, Julius Farahwaran