Noise Engineering Ruina Versatile Stereo Multi Distortion User Guide

Ruina
Versatile stereo multi-distortion with wave folding,
socializing, phase shifting, multiband saturation,
filtering, and DOOM

User Guide

Welcome to Ruina.
Ruina is a creative stereo distortion plugin built on digital distortion algorithms: no emulations here. Intuitive and fully automatable controls make it easy to get a gentle, nuanced color, obliviate a signal, or dial in anything in between. Don’t feel like tweaking the parameters? Ruina comes with tons of presets to fit any need.
Ruina has a  wavefolder, a multiband saturator, a chaotic suboctave generator, an octave, and a phase shifter. It also features a notch or bandpass filter with adjustable tracking, and a control to set the order of the distortions in the signal flow to further customize your sound. Last but not least, Overdrive adds up to 128x gain for maximal destruction.
Run any sound through Ruina for warm, lush distortion, or crank the sliders to unleash complete destruction. With seven distortion types, it’s easy to turn your sounds into something new and unique with Ruina.

Installation

Account creation

1. Go to portal.noiseengineering.us

2. Enter your email and a secure password, then press “Log in”.

3. Confirm your password by re-entering it in the next box, then fill in your desired display name.

4. Read the Terms and Conditions, End-User License Agreement, Privacy Policy, and Cookies Policy documents, then check the boxes to confirm you agree to comply with them and are over 16 years of age.

5. Click “Sign Up”.

6. Check the email account you signed up with for an email with a confirmation link.
   Click that link to verify your account.

7. Press “Continue” on the page that opens.

8. Enter your email and password and press “Log In”.

Plugin installation

1. While logged into portal.noiseengineering.us you’ll see download links in the “Software” tab labeled “Download Plugin Manager”.
2. Click the W64 link if you are using Windows, or the OSX link if you are using Mac.
   This will download the installer, and it is then ready to be installed.

Windows installation

1. Navigate to the installer you downloaded in the previous step and double-click on it to run it.
2.  A window will appear: “Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device?” Click “Yes”.
3. If a web browser window opens, log in using your Portal account credentials.
4. Navigate back to the Plugin Manager, click “Online Install” then click “Install/Update Plugins”.

Mac installation

1. Open Finder and navigate to the installer you downloaded in the last step.
2. Double-click the installer to open it and follow the instructions it provides.
3. When it finishes installing, Plugin Manager should run automatically. The installer can be closed and deleted.
4. If a web browser window opens, log in using your Portal account credentials.
5.  Navigate back to the Plugin Manager, click “Online Install” then click “Install/Update Plugins”.

About the Preset Names

Our names are a bit unusual. It’s true. Product names, preset names… Let us explain.
At Noise Engineering, we think it’s our job to make the tools, but not our job to tell you how to use them. Often, when products are described by a specific function (e.g.,  “drum module”), people grab the product for that function…and then don’t explore what it can do beyond that space. Our synths are designed to be versatile and not serve a  single function, and our effects are generally non-standard.
So you’ll find that our product names are deliberately created to not tell you what to do with them. You decide how they best fit your workflow. Is this one for percussion? Is it
smooth? Is it harsh? Is it for all your pads?
We give each plugin a load of presets meant to hit a wide range of sounds so that you can step through for a quick taste. We started out with descriptive names like everyone else uses…and then realized that even within the team, people had different perceptions of sounds and how we would name them. And so we went back to our core practice of
making the tool and not telling you how to use it: we chose not to be prescriptive.
So, about those preset names.
We are a small team of nerds. And faced with a daunting task like naming 1,000 presets for a single plugin, we do what we do best: we automate. We briefly considered using a dictionary, but if you’ve ever read a dictionary (at least one of us has), you’ll know there are some words in there that at least one of our users is bound to not want to pop up in their plugin. So we did a workaround. Stephen, our chief noisemaker and also head engineer, went to the nerdiest resource he could find: the IETF, or the Internet
Engineering Task Force. They produce documents for voluntary Internet standards.
They are technical and cover things like Network File Systems, MD5, ISCSI, Secure Shell-2, and others. Want a nerdy list? Check it out here.
The Requests for Comments series contains technical and organizational notes about the Internet. So we grabbed some of those and made our own dictionary. If some of the presets have very weird terms — there is probably an esoteric technical meaning to it. If Joseph or some other name pops up, you can thank them for their contribution to trying to make the Internet a slightly more sane place. Of course, there was still the occasional questionable word here or there, so we went in and made a few adjustments. You may one day find a preset with the name Puppies_rainbows or with Unicorn in the name. You can thank Kris for that.
We randomly selected names from this list. These presets were then organized into categories. Each plugin has its own theme, including articles of clothing, keyboard keys, and tea. Have fun with them and explore. We hope that our products will help unleash your creativity and help inspire you to think outside the box…and then get back in. Tone page

Volume In (automatable): Input audio level.
Volume Out (automatable): Master output level.
Blend (automatable): Dry/wet balance control. When fully left, the unmodified input signal is passed through. Fully right, only the processed signal is heard. Points in the middle give you a mix of both.
Overdrive (automatable): Amount of gain (up to 128x) added to a signal before it hits the rest of the distortion types.
Phase (automatable): Phase shifts the left and right signals to create stereo-width and/or phasing effects.
Fold (automatable): Wavefolder, based on the Noise Engineering Infinifolder that appears on many Eurorack modules like the Basimilus Iteritas Alter.
Center (automatable): Width and position of the multiband-saturator center band, and of the filter when set to “Mobile”.
Saturate (automatable): Multiband saturator, inspired by our analog Seca Ruina distortion module. Emphasizes the four different bands, isolating the lowest when fully left and the highest when turned fully right. Blends through low, low-mid, high-mid, and high bands at other settings.

Octave (automatable): A full-wave rectification distortion, inspired by our analog Pura Ruina distortion module.
Doom (automatable) : Doom is a suboctave chorus. Imagine it like a suboctave
generator, but evil: as you turn it up, the louder the suboctave is, and the more out-of-tune it becomes.
Buzz (automatable): Adds overtone buzz to a signal, creating width and high-frequency content.
Filter Level (automatable): Sets the intensity of the filter.
Filter Track (automatable): Sets the filter to a fixed frequency or to follow the frequency of the Center parameter.
Filter Type (automatable): Changes the filter from a notch in “Cancilla” mode and a resonant and aggressive bandpass filter in “Boscio” mode.
Flow (automatable) : Changes the signal chain of the distortion.
• UND: Fold -> DOOM -> Octavize-> Saturate
• X: Fold -> Saturate -> Octavize-> DOOM
• OVR: Fold -> DOOM -> Octavize-> Saturate -> Fold (again)

load: Opens the preset directory in the file browser.
save: Saves the current settings to the selected preset.
saveas: Opens the file browser to save/rename a preset.
nudge: Applies a small amount of randomization to all 6 Tone parameters. Useful for creating slight variations of sounds.
rand: Completely randomizes all distortion parameters and settings. Use this to create inspiring new sounds and ideas.
reset: Resets all parameters to their default settings.
Arrow buttons < >: The top pair of arrows navigate through preset categories and the bottom through presets within those categories.

Config – Graphics page

Hue (automatable): Sets the color scheme of the plugin.
Size: Sets the size of the plugin window. Note that “Tiny” is optimized for monitors 800px in height.
Fire : Adds some attitude to the plugin GUI.

Config – Help page
Frequently Asked Questions: Opens the FAQ page on our website.
Report Problem: Sends anonymized system information to our server for use in support tickets, and opens the plugin contact page on our website.

MIDI Page
This page contains a list of all parameters with adjustable counters next to each. The number on each counter represents the MIDI CC that the parameter will respond to; change the number with the arrows next to each number to change the CC the control responds to.
reset from : This button allows all MIDI CCs to be reassigned in one click.  The number on the counter to the right is the first CC, and the rest of the parameters are assigned numerically ascending ccs from there.
CC Enabled: This button enables or disables CC control of Ruina’s parameters.

About NE

Noise Engineering is located in Los Angeles, California. We started around 2014 when Chief Noisemaker Stephen McCaul wanted a hobby for his off time from his day job and started making Eurorack modules in a spare bedroom at home. One thing led to another and a couple of years later, he and his wife Kris Kaiser quit their day jobs and took the company full time. Noise Engineering has since grown in size and has established itself as a well-regarded and innovative synthesizer brand, with products in Eurorack, 5U,  and multiple software platforms.

Special Thanks

Boris Koenig

And a huge thank you to every single one of our beta testers!

References

• Noise Engineering Customer Portal

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