Attention

This is the documentation stub to the upcoming TBD V2 release.

It is incomplete and subject to future changes.

Retroactor (Stereo)

Description

Warning

Please be careful when using high resonance-levels of the filter or high feedback-levels.**

As typical for a diode-ladder filter and feedback-experiments the sound can become quite nasty, so be sure to try with low volumes first! Please note: Retroactor does not offer real stereo processing but the feedback processing needs many resources, so it still takes up both slots of the TBD. Here is a little demo-track done only with Retroactor with quite a bit of reverb added in the DAW: https://soundcloud.com/taitekatto/retroactor-for-tbd

The idea of Retroactor is to have a simple yet flexible to control feedback / drone-noise generator.The plugin uses a wavefolder, as diode-ladder filter and a resonant combfilter by Carlos Laguna Ruiz implemented in his VULT language, for more details on the topic please look here: https://github.com/modlfo/vult Retroactor’s signal-flow is visualized downwards from the top to the bottom of the GUI. Because of the feedback structure this yet may be not entirely obvious. Here is a screenshot of a very similar patch, also using VULT-technology, done in VCV Rack to make it more obvious:

../_images/retraktor.png

Parameters

Section 1: Global

  • Master Pitch (map CV here if desired)

  • Master Tune +- 1200 Cent

  • Master Volume

Section 2: Voice

  • Pitch smooth Sine A (Sine A is a pure Sine, very smooth - for

    overtones consider Sine B)

  • Smooth Sine A +-1 Octave

  • Distort Sine B n/y (This will give you a Sine wave with more

    overtones due to aliasing)

  • Pitch variable Sine B (Sine B can be rougher, beware of

    unwanted scratchy sounds, though)

  • Variable Sine B +-1 Octave

Section 3: Feedback Loop

  • ResetFeedbackLoop (Click here, if the feedback has stopped and

    you want to restart it)

  • Combfilter Cutoff

  • Combfilter Resonance

  • Combfilter Tone

  • Diode Ladder Cutoff

  • Diode Ladder Resonance

  • Vintage Resonance pitching n/y

  • Wavefolder Amount

  • Isolate Feedback-Loop n/y (Sinewaves will be excluded from the

    feedback-line)

Section 4: Mixer

  • Disable Sinus Waves n/y (Shut off sinewaves)

  • VolSineBoost (Decrease or up to triple loudness increase the

    volume of the waves)

  • Vol smooth Sine A (Sine A is a pure Sine, very smooth - for

    overtones distort Sine B)

  • Vol variable Sine B (Sine B can be rougher, beware of unwanted

    scratchy sounds, though)

  • Sinewaves Mix

  • Vol Feedback Loop

  • Vol Wavefolder

Usage / Patch Ideas

Please note that if you want to make use of Retroactor’s feedback capabilities you have to feed the feedback-loop with some kind of signal (sine waves and/or filter-feedback) first.

The general idea here is, then to find some “sweet spots” where the feedback and the distortion sounds interesting and then play around with some parameters in a way that makes sense in the (musical) context you want to use it. It’s a good idea to use lots of reverb and maybe also echo and/or some kind of modulation like a phaser. In the VCV Rack screenshot above for instance, the module Plateau got used.