Ringotron
User's guide

Introduction

Ringotron is a 2-way parallel ring modulator that provides deeper control over the transformational effects inherent to traditional ring modulation.

The plugin has two core features that assist in limiting the extent of intermodulation effects and any resulting inharmonicity. This opens up a wider range of sound design possibilities and extends the applicability of ring modulation to a larger, more general variety of possible input sounds.

Core concepts

Ringotron contains 2 ring modulator elements (subsequently referred to as elements), both of which apply to specific parts of the audio spectrum (frequency bands).

The modulator wave is a pure sine wave. The output of each element is allowed to go beyond their band boundaries (the input is filtered according to the multi-band configuration).

The two principal parameters are therefore the modulator frequency and the center frequency of the band. These are also the two most relevant parameters for modulation purposes, i.e. tweaking them can be more often part of the performance, as opposed to just using them for setting up the effect.

User Interface

Element controls

Central to its design, controls for the two ring modulator elements are laid out in the following way on the UI (parameters not highlighted in the image below are common, and apply to the entire patch):

MAIN tab

The main tab contains the main element parameters, navigable via the large < and > buttons.

MOD tab

The modulation tab contains time-varying modulation parameters for each element, navigable via the large < and > buttons.

Visualizer

Situated at the top center, a visualizer display provides instant feedback about the key characteristics of the current effect configuration.

Certain features in the visualizer depend on a running audio engine - when the plugin is not receiving any audio, these will be omitted from the display.

Parameters with visual representation:

• Band center frequency
• Modulator wave frequency (color-coded)
• Gain
• F2G (frequency to gain)
• Soften
• Stereo center frequency
• Time-varying modulation as it's applied to the above parameters

Ring modulation parameters

Gain

The gain parameter controls the overall amplitude of the given band.

Q

The Q factor controls the sharpness of the frequency band. Essentially, it's the inverse term for bandwidth. The plugin may override high Q settings towards the lower end of the spectrum.

Depth

The two endpoints (100% and 200%) represent slightly different ring modulation algorithms. Increasing the DEPTH may have a number of effects:

• Gain increase
• Modulator wave frequency doubling
• Altering the effect of the ST.PHASE (stereo phase) and PHASE (phase offset) parameters; opening up additional characteristics for these parameters beyond their original range
• Different interactions between dry and wet signals

Visual overlays are added for the ST.PHASE and PHASE controls to show the scaling effect caused by the current DEPTH setting, which allows retaining original stereo and phase alignment (tempo sync) characteristics when changing the DEPTH parameter, or to have a reference in general when doing adjustments.

Soften

The SOFTEN setting adds a specially configured, secondary ring modulator that can counter certain modulation effects. By suppressing these effects, it essentially turns the multi-band framework into a resonant peaking filter.

When working with medium to high bandwidths (mid/low Q), this parameter is key to achieving mildly phaser-like sounds, but can also lead to an uneven BLEND curve due to cancellation effects (a white noise input source can be effectively used to double check this effect).

At higher center frequencies and narrower bands, the secondary ring modulator can act more like a standalone modulator element on its own.

Stereo separation

Stereo Phase (ST.PHASE)

Phase difference between L/R channels of the modulator wave.

Stereo center frequency (ST.F)

When non-zero, band center frequencies will be shifted in opposite directions for the L/R channels, creating an asymmetric stereo effect. The polarity of the setting dictates whether the R or the L channel will have the higher band center frequency.

Stereo modulator wave frequency (ST.M)

Using the same mechanism as ST.F, but for the modulator wave frequencies of the L/R channels.

Syncing & alignment

Tempo sync (TEMPO.S)

When active, the modulator wave's frequency will be synced to the project tempo, which will imply much lower frequencies more akin to LFO ranges than audio ones.

Phase

Shifts the modulator wave phase. Mostly useful in tempo-synced configurations to shift a low-speed modulation along the timeline, especially to create a separation between the two ring modulator elements.

Frequency-dependent gain scaling

Steepness / Slope (F2G)

When positive, incremenents in center frequency will cause increments in gain (note: the scaling is only logarithmic in terms of frequency; the scaling value itself is linear, hence it's not expressed in dB/octave units). Conversely, a negative setting will have the gain increasing towards the lower end of the center frequency range.

Center mode (F2G.MODE)

An important characteristic of the F2G feature is the reference point where the scaling factor is 1. It is the neutral center of the "tilt" in the scaling function. Two modes are available:

• REL: Relative. Scaling will only occur when modulation is used, the reference point being the given center freqency.
• ABS: Absolute. A pre-defined reference point will be used (at 800Hz, which is the midpoint of the center frequency range, plus an octave).

Visualization

When the controls are displayed, the visualizer will display the scaling function for all active elements.

The vertical display range corresponds to the 0% - 200% linear scaling range.

Common Parameters

Mode

In MIX mode, effects are added on top of the dry signal. In FILTER mode, the dry signal is gradually removed as BLEND is increased.

Gain Profile

Element gains are calculated in a way that aims to keep the same overall amplitude of the wet signal. The initial calculation is for a flat spectrum, like that of a white noise audio input, which is then further refined using gain profiles.

Gain profiles incorporate measurement data that's derived from processing a lot of real-world audio samples. These tell Ringotron what gain adjustment to apply for a specific center frequency and Q setting. Differences between profiles and their finer details are more pronounced at high Q settings (more so when ultra-high resonances are enabled).

Using the right gain profile is especially important when the center frequency is changed or modulated, but can give an overall better experience by providing results that require less adjustment.

• MIXED: A generic profile, can be used for various polyphonic tracks or, multi-timbral track groups. Has a strong character in the high-mids (center freq.).
• CLEAN: A profile for warmer, non-harsh instruments with most acoustic energy concentrated in typical tonal ranges. It can reduce bright atonal qualities that typically occur between 1.5 - 3.5 kHz (center freq.) for all kinds of sounds.
• BASS: A profile for low notes that are either naturally dark or heavily filtered. For such sounds, this profile makes it possible to enrich even mids and highs with various effects such as formant-like fx, growl, grit, sparkles, etc.

Blend

In MIX mode, this parameter controls the gain of the wet signal.

In FILTER mode, it serves as a cross-fade control between dry and wet signals.

Ultra-high resonances

This setting allows using sharper bands, allowing near self-oscillatory behaviour. When high Q settings are used in this mode, the input will essentially provide the volume envelope for the oscillations (except when the center frequency of a band exactly coincides with a strong harmonic component in the signal, in which case a very strong resonance will occur).

Limiter & Clipper

The built-in dynamics processing elements follow a zero-latency design, which excludes features like lookahead, true peak detection and oversampling. This in turn maximizes flexibility and the number of choices when the plugin is used in effects chains or routing schemes, allowing a modular approach where each plugin focuses on a specific task it's best at.

Limiter

The built-in limiter allows output level increases up to +6 dB, with respect to the dry signal. This allows the overall response to be linear on a macro scale, i.e. processing will generally be independent of the input gain.

Soft clipper

The soft clipper has an absolute reference value of 0 dB (so its operation will depend on the input gain).

The clipper is primarily included as a quick, hard safeguard against volume spikes. It's not intended to be used in the same way as an authentic, high-precision or even analog saturation effect.

The clipper is forced when the square (SQR) oscillator waveform is used in parameter modulation.

Locking

Whether they are enabled or disabled, the limiter and clipper switches can be locked, preventing preset loads to change these settings.