SUGAR BYTES Unique Analogue Synth Keen on Vocals User Manual

SUGAR BYTES Unique Analogue Synth Keen on Vocals

About

Unique is a pretty versatile virtual instrument. It is a well-crafted emulation of synthesizers from the golden age of analog keyboard sounds, delivering a wide spectrum of sound-design options: from dark basses and strong leads to warm pads. Unique comes with a state-of-the-art vowel filter. The engine of this filter is the result of years of development here at Sugar Bytes in Berlin and it’s fair to say that it shaped the sound and workflow of many high-profile electronic musicians since its release. Unique also includes two effect sections with Sugar Bytes’ arsenal of signature effects to pimp your productions. The sound and 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. With Unique you will explore a new world of amazing sounds.

Basic Structure

On top of the screen, you find the PRESET SYSTEM, 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 Arpeggiator section (top-left) also contains some general settings regarding the MIDI input. Right beside is the Oscillator section and the MIX SECTION (mix and panning). On the bottom there’s the Filter section (left), the Effect section (middle) and the Master section (right). The Controllers sections contains 4 freely assignable modulators. Right beside the Controller section you find the SETTINGS SCREEN which offers additional settings and functions and a link to the manual.

The User Interface

Unique’s user interface has 5 main elements

Oscillators
Unique’s oscillators (upper third of the GUI) are specially designed to cover a wide spectrum of sounds: from dark basses and strong leads to very warm pad sounds.
There are 5 generator setups in total:

• Saw Tooth
• Triple Saw
• Pulse
• Triple FM
• Noise (white-noise generator)

Each oscillator can produce 8 voices in full stereo. The oscillators are anti- aliased for clearer sound at high frequencies.

Filters
The Filter section (middle on the left side of the GUI) offers 5 filter types:

• High Pass (2-Pole)
• Band Pass (2-Pole)
• Band Pass (4-Pole)
• Low Pass (4-Pole)
• Comb Filter

Each of these five filter types can also be used in Vowel Mode, where two filters concentrating on vowels can be used in interaction with each other. This little miracle engine makes it easy to create humanoid line sensations in your setup.

Controllers
If you tap the red Controllers icon, the upper third of Unique’s GUI will change and show the four modulators:

• LFO
• Envelope
• Sequencer
• Motion (an x/y pad)

Each and every parameter in Unique can be modulated, automated or controlled via MIDI. The assignment process is easy and simple. Right click any knob to open the modulation assignment screen.

Effects
Unique comes with a line up of Sugar Bytes’ signature effects. There are 2 effect sections with a total of 6 effects:

• Delay
• Reverb
• Phaser
• LoFi
• Filter on effect 1 / Chorus on effect 2

Arpeggiator
Unique has a built-in arpeggiator in the MIDI-IN section in the top-left corner. The arpeggiator can be applied independently to the oscillator, letting you explore interesting sounds and melodies. There is an intelligent double voice mode.

Oscillator section

Unique has two main oscillators with five generator options each.

• Sawtooth
• Triple Saw
• Pulse
• Triple FM
• Noise

Both oscillators offer 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 The Octave knob (attenuated) sets the rootnote. The five positions allow for adding/subtracting one or two octaves. Detune will detune the voices slightly. Usually a good way to add some analogue and warm impression.

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.

Triple Saw
Triple Saw uses 3 hard synced Sawtooth oscillators to produce a very rich frequency spectrum. Spread, a pitch offset between the 3 oscillators, results in a fatter 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. Modulate pulse width to get a wide range of sounds out of this oscillator.

• PW: the pulse width of the pulse waveform
• PWM RATE: speed of pw modulation (bpm-synced)

Triple FM
Triple FM is based on frequency modulation of three oscillators. This oscillator provides classic FM sounds, but also unheard-of and inspiring material, from thin and piano-like 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. It contains a multimode filter that can be linked to the current pitch. At high resonance values, the noise oscillator can produce weird sounds close to voices, choir or monster sounds.

• Type: filter type (LP, HP, BP)
• Color: adjust the cutoff frequency of internal filter
• Reso: resonance of the internal filter
• Track: connect voice pitch to filter frequency

In Track mode, the Color control is used to detune the oscillator.

Filter section

Unique’s Filter section is an outstanding creative tool. Its expressive potential should not be underestimated.

The 5 Filter Types

• Highpass 2 Pole:
  Only frequencies above cutoff are passed. A two-pole has a slope of 12 dB/oct.

• Bandpass 2 Pole:
  Only signals around cutoff are passed. Fits perfectly into the Vowel Mode.

• Bandpass 4 Pole:
  The 4-pole BP has a smaller bandwidth than the 2 Pole. Good fit for the vowel mode. A four-pole has a slope of 24 dB/oct.

• Lowpass 4 Pole:
  Only frequencies below cutoff are heard.

• 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

These controls are identical across all filter types:

• Reso: adjusts the resonance of the filter
• Drive: adds overdrive to the filter
• Mix: mixes the dry with the filtered signal

Modulation of Filter Parameters

There are five modulation sources:

• Envelope
• LFO
• Four Step
• Pitchbend
• Modwheel

Envelope
In this mode there is an ADSR envelope, which modulates the cutoff frequency.

Cutoff and Peak
Use the cutoff and peak knobs to set the start and end of envelope modulation. During the attack phase, the cutoff frequency moves from its starting point to the defined peak frequency. In the release phase, the cutoff will move from the peak back to the cutoff frequency.

Trigger
Trigger determines on which particular event the envelope is restarted.

• Each: each new note retriggers
• Lowest: triggers, if a note played is lower than the notes played before (in Legato only)
• Loudest: will only retrigger if a note played has a higher velocity than before
• First: triggers on the first note played
• Arp: the arpeggiator’s tempo sets the trigger interval

LOF

LFO lets you 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 frequency rate of the LFO (synced to the host BPM)
  Fade: fades in the LFO rate
  Fade In: time until the full LFO amount is reached

Note: The LFO has one more retrigger option than the envelope. This is the Clock Start trigger mode. In this mode the LFO is retriggered when you hit play in your host.

4 Step
4 Step lets you setup 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 4-Step sequencer
• Glide: time to fade from one step to the next
• C1-C4/V1-V4: frequency/vowel values of the steps

Direction Modes

• Forward mode
• Backward mode
• Ping-Pong
• Inverse Ping-Pong
• Random

Note that these directions modes are also used in the modulation sequencer and arpeggiator section described later.

Pitchbend
Morph between two frequencies with the Pitchwheel. These 2 frequencies are once again 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).

Vowel mode
The Vowel Mode 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 vowel mode is the main feature of Unique and the result of years of hard work at Sugar Bytes. It offers new sound dimensions. When the vowel mode is powered on, the 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.

Controllers

This section gives you access to the control panel for 4 powerful modulators:

• LFO
• Envelope
• Sequencer
• Motion Pad (x + y axis)

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. The classic 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.

Trigger:
trigger determines on which particular event the envelope is restarted

• Each: each new note retriggers
• Lowest: triggers, if a note played is lower than the notes played before (in Legato only)
• Loudest: will only retrigger if a note played has a higher velocity than before
• First: triggers on the first note played
• Arp: the arpeggiator’s tempo sets the trigger interval

Via the Range parameter you can adjust the minimum and the maximum value of the LFO.

Envelope

A classic ADSR envelope. Use Range to limit min/max amount.

Sequencer
Eight steps to create individual modulation sequences. The speed can be adjusted by the Tempo (synced to your host BPM). Glide defines a fading time between the steps to smooth step transitions. The sequencer features different Direction modes:

Direction Modes

• Forward mode
• Backward mode
• Ping-Pong
• Inverse Ping-Pong
• Random

And finally the Range parameter for calibrating the working range.

Motion
Use the Motion Pad with your finger to record movements. Each modulation target can then read out the current x and the y value. To do so, just turn on Record and click and move the red circle. With the Smooth parameter you can smooth the movements. Again there are the different Trigger modes for restarting the motion. (See Filter/Envelope/Trigger) Trigger determines on which particular event the envelope is restarted.

• Each: each new note retriggers
• Lowest: triggers, if a note played is lower than the notes played before (in Legato only)
• Loudest: will only retrigger if a note played has a higher velocity than before
• First: triggers on the first note played
• Arp: the arpeggiator’s tempo sets the trigger interval

Pitch and Modwheel
Assign a Pitch LFO to the MIDI modulation wheel (CC 1). Just click the LFO button in the Settings Screen of Unique and adjust the Speed of the LFO. There you can also define the pitchbend range of the MIDI – pitchbend wheel.

Main Controls

The main controls in Unique are knobs. Just click them and drag up or down to turn them. While moving them, a display appears showing the value and unit of the parameter.

The knobs have different colors, which reflect certain functionalities.

• White: are modulation-related parameters
• Red: are midi-related parameters
• Blue: are general sound design parameters
• Yellow: are amplification parameters

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’.

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 behaviors.

Arpeggiator Section

In this section you can control how your incoming MIDI signals are processed (see MIDI IN indicator). In the right upper corner is a menu to switch between Poly and Unison. Poly is a classic 8-voice polyphonic mode. Unison turns Unique into a monophonic synthesizer with 8 voices playing simultaneously.

Spread adjusts a pitch offset of the eight voices. Glide sets the time 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. Tapping the ARP button will open the arpeggiator’s menu. The arpeggiator has 5 playing Styles. Up, Down, Up and Down, Down and Up and Random. Tempo sets the speed of the arpeggio (synced to your host).

Arp Trigger Settings:

• ClockStart: Clock triggers Arp
• Each Note: new note played retriggers Arp
• First Note: Arp starts on first note pressed
• Lowest: if a note sets a new low – triggers arp (Legato)
• Highest: if a note sets a new high – triggers arp (Legato)

MIX section

Right between the two oscillators is Unique’s Mix section. Here you can adjust level and pan for each oscillator. Top left and top right you find the Poly 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. Pan defines the width of the stereo effect for each oscillator. Level controls volume for each oscillator.

Autopan: LFO-controlled Panning There’s an individual auto-pan for each oscillator. Also the auto- pan can work monophonic or polyphonic, like the Pan control mentioned above. So in polyphonic mode, each voice will be auto-panned individually. If you play 2 oscillators with 8 voices using auto-pan, you can have 16 sounds moving around in the stereo field.

Rate sets the frequency of the LFO controlling auto-pan.

Effects

Two 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 has a Chorus instead.

Delay

• Time: adjusts delay time (synced to Host-BPM)
• Feedback: intensity of internal feedback
• 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

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

Login

• 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

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

Master section

The master section gives you all tools to finally shape the sound. 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 Sub- Osc parameter adjusts its volume. The 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. Define its pitch octave via the Oct knob. The Master section also contains a Tremolo effect which modulates the final volume with an internal LFO. Tremolo controls its intensity, the Rate defines the speed (BPM-synced) and the Fade parameter defines a fade in time for the tremolo. Note that the tremolo fade time is triggered by the first note you press.

Preset System

Unique’s presets are accessible via the preset menu in the top 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 from the top area of Unique, a menu will come up showing all preset categories. A special folder is the User folder. This folder is empty and is meant to store the presets you created. The little disc icon opens the ‘Save Preset’ entry and is for saving presets. It should automatically save the preset into the User folder.

Settings Screen

In the settings screen you find some global settings and functions.

Pitch LFO
Here you can define the amount of pitch modulation caused by the Pitch LFO in the Modwheel section and adjust the Speed of the LFO.

Pitch Bend
The Range parameter defines the pitchbend range of the MIDI – pitchbend wheel.

Global
Velocity Adjusts the velocity behavior of your incoming MIDI notes.

Glide On First Note
When activated Glide will work on the first note.

Tune
With the Global Tune parameter you can change the overall tuning of Unique in order to adapt it to other sound sources.

MIDI
CC Recall Lock When active MIDI Learn Settings will be kept and not be changed when selecting a different preset.

Installation

Download (requires login) the latest version here. Double-click on the installer and follow exactly the instructions provided by the installation process. The standalone version and manual will be installed to:

• Windows: C:\Program Files\Sugar Bytes\Unique
• macOS: /Applications/Sugar Bytes/Unique

Presets will be installed into Documents\Sugar Bytes\Unique.

Important: Do not relocate Unique presets after installation!

WINDOWS

Default installation paths:

• VST2 C:\Program Files\VSTPlugins
• VST3 C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3
• AAX C:\Program Files\Common Files\Avid\Audio\Plug-Ins

macOS

Default installation paths:

• VST2 /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/
• VST3 /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/
• AU /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/
• AAX /Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio/Plug-Ins

Uninstallation

To uninstall Unique, please follow the instructions:

Windows
Uninstall Unique under Control Panel>Add/Remove Software.

macOS
Delete all the following files and folders:

• /Applications/Sugar Bytes/Unique
• /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/Unique.vst
• /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/Unique.vst3
• /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/Unique.component
• /Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio/Plug-Ins/Unique.aaxplugin
  • /Documents/Sugar Bytes/Unique
  • /Library/Preferences/com.sugar-bytes.Unique.plist
• /Library/Application Support/Sugar Bytes/Unique
• /Library/Application Support/Native Instruments/Service Center/Unique.xml
• /Library/Preferences/com.native-instruments.Unique.plist

means: /Users/YOURLOGINNAME (your home folder) (Please note that in macOS 10.7 and later, the user Library folder is hidden. In case you cannot locate your Library folder in the Finder: Select „Go to Folder“ from the Finder‘s Go menu and enter ‚~/Library‘.)

Authorization

The serial number is requested during installation. If the serial number is missing or incorrect, the product will not produce any sound. Check the the top area of the Unique interface to verify whether your serial number is VALID. Manually entering the correct serial number there or performing a quick reinstall, should fix any issues. License
License covers both the macOS and Windows version and can be activated for two computers. For use on more than two computers, please buy an additional license.

Host integration

Unique works as a VST2 / VST3/ AU / AAX plugin in the most commen DAW hosts. Make sure that Unique is installed in the Plugins folder used by your DAW. Some hosts need to perform a plugin rescan when a newly installed plugin is launched for the first time. Please find all detailed instructions for your DAW below.

Cubase
Perform a full rescan in the Cubase plugin manager. Make sure that the Unique.dll/Unique.vst3 (Win) or Unique.vst/Unique.vst3 (macOS)file is contained in Cubase‘s assigned VST Plugins folder. Load Unique as Instrument into an Instrument track.

Ableton Live
When using macOS, we recommend using the VST version of Unique in Live.

Please note: With Ableton Live, plugins sometimes will be marked as unloadable and not rescanned automatically. If this happens to be the case, force a rescan by unchecking and checking the ‚Use custom VST Folder‘ checkbox in Preferences/File Folder/Plug-In Sources. Set up a MIDI track and insert Unique as instrument.

ProTools
When installing Unique, select AAX plug-in format. (AAX is supported by Pro Tools 10.3.5 and higher.) Use Unique as an instrument.

Studio One
Go to the Studio One menu and choose Options. Click Locations, then VST Plug- Ins. Click the Add… button and select your VST Plugins folder. Press OK. Create an instrument track and pick Unique up from the Instrument list.

Sonar
Make sure that Unique is installed in the VST Plugins folder used by Sonar. Insert Unique as a „soft synth“.

Logic
Select Unique as an AU-Instrument from the I/O dialogue of a Software Instrument track.

FL Studio
Go to Channels>Add one>More…There you should find Unique and perform a refresh. You can now open Unique in the Mixer Inserts.

Native Kontrol Standard NKS

Unique supports Native’s NKS standard, giving you the same deep integration with NI controllers like Komplete Instruments. The main features are a plug- and-play support of Unique‘s preset browser and trouble-free tagging/organisation for inclusion in the powerful Komplete Kontrol / Maschine browser. This lets you search the presets by sound type (e.g. synth lead), character (e.g. dark), or any combination thereof. We have strived for highly profound control of Unique‘s sound engine. Knobs and faders can be mapped to match those on the Kontrol and Maschine hardware in logical ways, with similar controls grouped by pages. For example: Skip to the Filter page and you will find the set of controls related to the filter characteristics. All presets have been wrapped into .nksf files which contain preset and tagging information as well as mapped out controls. Different genre and mood categories will speed up the producers’ workflow when browsing
through libraries, and help you keep your eyes off the computer screen.

Controller Mapping

We have strived for highly profound control of Unique‘s sound engine. All mappings are consistent throughout the different presets. There are seven pages available:

Page 1: Master
Features the level and pan controls as well as the sub level and drive parameter.

Page 2 and 3: Osc1/Osc2 + Env1/Env2
Here you will find the controls of Unique‘s Osc 1 and Osc2. Octave, Detune and the Osc’s related envelope controls. Depending on the oscillator model selected, you will find the knobs of the Osc mirrored in NI Maschine, e.g.:

• Pulse: PW and PWM Rate.
• Triple FM: FM and Shape and so on.

Page 4 and 5: FX1 + FX2
These two pages feature the controls for Unique‘s effects slots. Depending on the effect type selected, you will find the corresponding effect parameters (e.g. Rate, Feedback, Depth and Width for „Chorus“). The Mix parameter is provided with every effect type.

Page 6: Filter + ENV
Here are the controls of Unique‘s filter section. The Resonance and Mix parameter are provided with every filter type. Depending on the modulation source selected and on if Vowel mode is active or inactive, we have the knobs e.g.: Vowel1, Vowel2 and the envelope controls for Vowel with Envelope as modulation souce.

Page 7: Modulation
This page contains all important controls for easy sound modulation like Unique‘s Spread, Glide, Tremolo (and its Rate parameters) as well as the LFO- controlled Panning controls (Autopan).

Videos

Here are some links to youtube videos with short tutorials on Unique. They are using the old GUI version so the GUI design is different and the layout differs here and there, but they are very useful understanding some concepts.

• OVERVIEW 01:34 (NO VOICEOVER)
• MAKING MINIMAL PADS 10:01 (DAN-D, PART 1)
• MODULATION & CONTROLLERS 06:58 (DAN-D, PART 2)
• A 70’S BASS 05:15
• DEMO 03:09 – HAVE A LOOK AT THIS TO SEE HOW MUCH FUN UNIQUE IS

Contact

• Sugar Bytes GmbH | Made of passion
• Greifswalder Str. 29 | 10405 Berlin, Germany
• phone:+493060920395
• info@sugar-bytes.de
• www.sugar-bytes.com

References

• IT-Service IT-Vertrieb und Webdesign aus Wuppertal - WUPPERBYTES
• Sugar Bytes | Made of Passion
• Sugar Bytes | Made of Passion
• Sugar Bytes | Log in

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