Avid Technology Xpand! User manual

Xpand!
Version 1.0
™

Copyright
© 2006 Digidesign, a division of Avid Technology, Inc. All rights
reserved. This guide may not be duplicated in whole or in part
without the express written consent of Digidesign.
Digidesign, Avid, Pro Tools, Pro Tools|HD, Pro Tools LE,
Pro Tools M-Powered, Digidesign Digi 002,
Digidesign Command|8, Digidesign Control|24,
Digidesign D-Command, Digidesign D-Control,
Digidesign ProControl, and RTAS are either trademarks or
registered trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. in the US and
other countries. All other trademarks contained herein are the
property of their respective owners.
Product features, specifications, system requirements, and
availability are subject to change without notice.
PN 9329-19038-00 REV A 1/06

Contents iii
contents
Chapter 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Working With Plug-ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Conventions Used in This Guide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Chapter 2. Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Installing Xpand! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Removing Xpand! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Chapter 3. Operate Xpand! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Editing Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Assigning Parameters to MIDI Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Smart Knobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Edit Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Mix (Mixer) Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Mod (Modulation) Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Arp (Arpeggiator) Page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
FX (Effects) Page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Appendix A. MIDI Controller Assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Appendix B. Available Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Appendix C. Arpeggiator Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Appendix D. Effects And Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Contents

Xpand! Plug-In Guide iv

Chapter 1: Introduction 1
chapter 1
Introduction
Welcome to the Xpand!™ virtual workstation
plug-in.
Xpand! is a plug-in instrument that is developed
with the musician, arranger, composer and mu-
sic producer in mind—a sonic powerhouse,
which features a thousand high-quality factory
sounds, suitable for any music genre. Its intui-
tive interface allows users, no matter their level
of sound-designing skill, to quickly create or ad-
just sounds to their needs in virtually no time.
The Xpand! engine consists of a sample play-
back, FM, wavetable, and virtual analogue synth
architecture, capable of creating complex
sounds very efficiently, allowing for multiple si-
multaneous patches with integrated effects on
any Pro Tools system.
Features
Supported Formats
Xpand! is only available in RTAS® format for
Windows XP and Mac OS X.
Supported Systems
Xpand! is supported on the following systems:
•Pro Tools|HD®
•Pro Tools LE™
•Pro Tools M-Powered™
Xpand! requires Pro Tools 7.0 or higher.
Sample Rate and Channel Format
Support
Xpand! supports 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 88.2 kHz,
96 kHz, 176.4 kHz, and 192 kHz sample rates.
Xpand! works with mono and stereo formats
only.
Control Surface Support
Xpand! can be operated from the following con-
trol surfaces:
• Digidesign® Digi 002®
• Digidesign Command|8®
• Digidesign Control|24™
• Digidesign D-Command ™
• Digidesign D-Control™
• Digidesign ProControl®
• Mackie HUI-compatible controllers

Xpand! Plug-In Guide 2
System Requirements
To use Xpand!, you need the following:
•ADigidesign-qualified Pro Tools|HD sys-
tem, Pro Tools LE system, or Pro Tools M-
Powered system
Compatibility Information
Digidesign can only assure compatibility and
provide support for hardware and software it
has tested and approved.
For a list of Digidesign-qualified computers, op-
erating systems, hard drives, and third-party de-
vices, refer to the latest compatibility informa-
tion on the Digidesign Web site
(www.digidesign.com).
Working With Plug-ins
Refer to the DigiRack Plug-Ins Guide for informa-
tion on working with plug-ins, including:
• Using Plug-Ins as Inserts
• The Plug-In Window
• Adjusting Plug-In Parameters
• Automating Plug-Ins
• Using the Plug-In Settings Librarian
Conventions Used in This
Guide
All Digidesign guides use the following conven-
tions to indicate menu choices and key com-
mands:
:
The following symbols are used to highlight im-
portant information:
Convention Action
File > Save Session Choose Save Session
from the File menu
Control+N Hold down the Control
key and press the N key
Control-click Hold down the Control
key and click the mouse
button
Right-click Click with the right
mouse button
User Tips are helpful hints for getting the
most from your Pro Tools system.
Important Notices include information that
could affect your Pro Tools session data or
the performance of your Pro Tools system.
Shortcuts show you useful keyboard or
mouse shortcuts.
Cross References point to related sections in
this guide or other Pro Tools Guides.

Chapter 2: Installation 3
chapter 2
Installation
Installing Xpand!
To install Xpand!:
1 Double-click the Xpand! installer application.
2 Follow the on-screen instructions to complete
the installation.
The Xpand! installer puts the Xpand! plug-in
files in the following location:
On Windows Program Files\Common Files\
Digidesign\DAE\Plug-Ins
On Mac OS X /Library/Application Support/
Digidesign/Plug-Ins
By default, the Xpand! installer puts the plug-
in’s content file (Xpand!.dat) in the following
location (content folder):
On Windows Program Files\Digidesign\Xpand!
On Mac OS X /Library/Application Support/
Digidesign/ Xpand!
Removing Xpand!
If you need to remove the Xpand! plug-in from
your system, follow the instructions below for
your computer platform.
Windows XP
To remove the Xpand! plug-in:
1 From the Start menu, choose Settings > Con-
trol Panel > Software.
2 Select the Xpand! plug-in from the list of in-
stalled applications and click the Change/Re-
move button.
3 Follow the on-screen instructions to remove
the plug-in.
Mac OS X
To remove the Xpand! plug-in:
■
Drag all files with “Xpand!” in their names
from the Plug-Ins and the content folder to the
Trash, or to the Plug-Ins (Unused) folder.
The Xpand! plug-in is not copy-protected
and does not need to be authorized.

Xpand! Plug-In Guide 4

Chapter 3: Operate Xpand! 5
chapter 3
Operate Xpand!
Xpand! is a virtual music workstation featuring
a broad range of sound generation possibilities
including multi-sampled instruments as well as
FM, wavetable, and virtual analogue synthesis.
Getting started with Xpand! is very easy and
self-explanatory, especially if you are already fa-
miliar with virtual instruments or hardware
workstations.
Note that Xpand! is not multi-timbral—one in-
stance is assigned to one MIDI channel and pro-
vides four synthesizer slots, each with individ-
ual Mix, MIDI, Arpeggiator, Modulation and
Effects settings. A slot can hold one of 500 syn-
thesizer presets, called
Parts .
The settings of all four slots and their respective
Parts can be saved as a single
Patch . Xpand!
comes with a set of over 1000 Patches, created
by renowned sound designers. It’s worth brows-
ing through these Patches to get an impression
of the versatility of Xpand!.
Editing Parameters
Using a Mouse
You can adjust Xpand! plug-in controls by click-
ing and dragging the control’s slider or knob, or
by moving over it and scrolling up or down with
the scroll wheel.
Adjust rotary controls by clicking and dragging
horizontally or vertically. Parameter values in-
crease as you drag upward or to the right, and
decrease as you drag downward or to the left.
Keyboard Shortcuts
◆ For finer adjustments, hold down Control
(Windows) or Command (Macintosh) while
moving the control.
◆
To return a control to its default value, Alt-
click (Windows) or Option-click (Macintosh)
the control.
Patch is another name for the plug-in set-
tings. Refer to the DigiRack Plug-Ins Guide
for information on working with RTAS
plug-ins.
Dragging a control

Xpand! Plug-In Guide 6
Using a Control Surface
Xpand! can be controlled from any control sur-
face supported by Pro Tools. Refer to the appro-
priate controller product guide for more infor-
mation.
Assigning Parameters to MIDI
Controllers
In addition to pre-assigned MIDI controllers
such as Sustain Pedal and Volume, you can as-
sign MIDI controllers to Xpand! parameters for
automation or real-time control from a MIDI
keyboard or control surface. MIDI assignments
are saved per Patch.
To assign Xpand! parameters of to a MIDI
controller:
■ Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac-
intosh) the control, select “Assign” and choose a
controller number from the pop-up MIDI CC
list.
-or-
■ Right-click (Windows)/Control-click (Macin-
tosh) the control, select “Learn” from the menu
and move the desired knob or controller on
your MIDI keyboard or sequencer. Xpand! will
set this MIDI controller to the parameter you
have chosen.
To remove a MIDI controller assignment:
■ Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac-
intosh) an assigned control and choose “Forget”
to remove its MIDI controller assignment
.
Smart Knobs
The upper section of Xpand! provides 6 useful
pre-assigned controls called Smart knobs. These
are intended for quickly adapting a preset Part
or Patch to your session in terms of feel, timbre,
enveloping and other settings. For each Part, the
Smart knobs are intelligently pre-assigned to im-
portant parameters by professional sound de-
signers to make working with Xpand! as easy as
possible. The assigned parameter is displayed in
the black field below each knob.
Smart Knob Assignment List
Select from the list on the left to set whether
Xpand! displays the Smart knobs for the whole
Patch (Global) or for a specific Part (A, B, C, D).
See Appendix A for a list of MIDI controllers
and their standard assignment to parame-
ters.
Xpand! has pre-defined parameter assign-
ments for Digidesign and supported third
party hardware control surfaces.

Chapter 3: Operate Xpand! 7
Level (Master Volume)
On the right-hand of the Smart knob section
there is a master Volume control as well as a Clip
indicator.
Smart Display
The Smart display is a context-sensitive text dis-
play. When you select a Patch or Part, it displays
some descriptive text. When editing knobs or
controls, it displays the parameter name and
value. It does not display parameter values of in-
coming automation. Click parameters (without
moving the mouse) to show their current value
without changing it.
Select “Global” from the Smart Knob Assign-
ment list to show a short description of the cur-
rently selected Patch.
Edit Pages
Below the Smart knob section are four tabs for
accessing different control pages where you can
edit the Parts in more detail. Click one of the
four tabs on either side of the Smart display to
display the respective page.
Tab Controls
MIX Mixer, Panning, FX Sends, MIDI
MOD Modulation Matrix Settings
ARP Arpeggiator Settings
FX Load & Edit Effects

Xpand! Plug-In Guide 8
Mix (Mixer) Page
This page is where you set up each Part’s vol-
ume, position in the stereo field and its send
amount to the built-in effects. There are also set-
tings for MIDI input transposition and key
range to set up split layers.
Select and Load Parts
Activate or deactivate the slot by clicking its
blue button.When the slot is activated the but-
ton is lit.
Click the area surrounding the On/Off button to
select the Part, so its Smart knobs are displayed.
To load a Part into the slot, click into the black
Name field and choose a Part from the pop-up
list. You can also browse through the Parts by
moving the mouse cursor above the Name field
and moving the scroll wheel up or down.
Level
Move the slider to set the Part’s volume level, in-
creasing volume to the right and decreasing to
the left. The blue meter shows the slot’s audio
output. The Level control appears on all four
pages—on Mix and Arp pages as a slider, on the
Mod and FX pages as a knob.
Pan (Panning)
Move to the right or left to set the Part’s position
in the stereo field. The Panning control appears
also on the Arpeggiator and the FX page.
FX1
This knob is the Part’s send amount to FX1. Ad-
just the Part’s feed into the effect by moving the
knob.
FX2
This knob is the Part’s send amount to FX2. Ad-
just the Part’s feed into the effect by moving the
knob.
See Appendix B for a list of all available
Parts.
On/Off button
Part selector Name field

Chapter 3: Operate Xpand! 9
Tr/Fine
The Tr/Fine (Transpose/Fine) section includes
two different controls for transposing incoming
MIDI notes. The Semitone control (the upper
control) transposes incoming notes up or down
in semitones. For finer control, use the Cents
control (the lower control), which transposes
notes up or down in cents.
Click the control and drag up or down to in-
crease or descrease its value.
Hi/Lo Key
Use the Hi/Lo Key controls to assign Parts to dif-
ferent keyboard ranges. This can be useful for
splitting your keyboard across different Parts.
For example, Part A holding a bass sound could
be assigned C-1 to B2 and Part 2 your synth lead
assigned C3 to G8.
To assign a Part to a certain key range do the
following:
■ Click the Upper/Lower key range limit control
and drag up or down to increase or decrease its
value.
-or-
■ Do the following:
• Right-click the control and choose Learn.
• Then press the appropriate key on your
MIDI keyboard.
Cent
Semitone
Upper key range limit
Lower key range limit

Xpand! Plug-In Guide 10
Mod (Modulation) Page
The Mod page lets you easily create sophisti-
cated modulation settings for shaping a Part.
Your MIDI keyboard’s modulation wheel and
pressure (also called aftertouch) can be used as
modulation sources.
Normally, the modulation wheel provides a pe-
riodically repeating modulation such as vibrato,
and aftertouch provides a static offset to the se-
lected destination such as volume or filter
swells.
Many Xpand! Patches and Parts have pre-as-
signed settings for modulation wheel and pres-
sure. With the following controls you can adapt
them or create your own.
Modulation Wheel Controls
Shape & Destination
Select the waveform shape for the modulation
from the upper pop-up list—an LFO waveform
used to modulate the selected destination. For
most waveforms there is a choice of a freely ad-
justable and a tempo-synchronized setting
(Sync), except for “Off” and “Random.” If the
pop-up is set to Off the movements of the mod-
ulation wheel will directly modulate the desti-
nation without a time varying waveform.
Select a destination for the modulation by your
MIDI keyboard’s modulation wheel from the
lower pop-up list:
Rate
Move this knob to set the speed or rate of the
modulation wheel’s modulation. When using a
synchronized shape (such as Saw Sync), the Rate
control sets the speed in fixed, tempo synchro-
nized steps. When using other shapes (such as
Sine, Tri, and Saw), the LFO speed is freely ad-
justable.
Depth
This knob sets the strength or amount of how
much the signal is affected by the modulation.
Depth is a bipolar control, which means that it
can be set to positive or negative values.
Destination Description
Pitch Affects the Part’s pitch.
Wave Changes the sound based on its
Part. For example, shaping wave-
forms, FM modulation depth,
sample start point offset, detun-
ing.
Filter Affects the Part’s filter cutoff fre-
quency.
Volume Affects the Part’s volume level.
Pan Affects the Part’s position in the
stereo field.
For example, with the modulation wheel’s
shape set to Off and destination to Pan,
moving the mod wheel up makes the signal
go to the left (negative Depth value) or to the
right (positive Depth value).

Chapter 3: Operate Xpand! 11
Pressure Controls
Many MIDI keyboards provide pressure (also
called aftertouch) to generate a MIDI control
signal which depends on how hard you press
down held keys after the initial “note on.”
With Xpand! you can use this control signal to
modulate a number of useful controls.
Destination
Select a destination for the modulation by your
MIDI keyboard’s pressure from the pop-up list:
Depth
This knob sets how much the signal is affected
by the pressure control signal. Depth is a bipolar
control, which means that it can be set to posi-
tive and negative values.
Destination Description
Pitch Affects the Part’s pitch.
Wave Changes the sound based on its
Part. For example, shaping wave-
forms, FM modulation depth,
sample start point offset, detun-
ing.
Filter Affects the Part’s filter cutoff fre-
quency.
Volume Affects the Part’s volume level.
For example, with destination set to Filter,
applying aftertouch increases (positive
Depth value) or decreases (negative Depth
value) the filter cutoff frequency.

Xpand! Plug-In Guide 12
Arp (Arpeggiator) Page
The arpeggiator automatically triggers the notes
that are played simultaneously in pre-defined
rhythmical patterns. Each Part has its own Ar-
peggiator.
Some Parts, such as Action Pads and Loops, au-
tomatically switch on the Arpeggiator as it
forms an integral part of their sound.
On/Off
Click this button to activate or deactivate the
Arpeggiator. The Arpeggiator will trigger the in-
put notes in the selected pattern as long as the
notes are held. When the Arpeggiator is acti-
vated the button is lit.
Latch
Click the Latch button to activate Latch mode
playback. In this mode, the Part’s Arpeggiator
will continue to play after releasing keys until
playback is stopped. Released keys are only re-
moved from the arpeggio when new keys are
pressed. When Latch mode is activated, the but-
ton is lit.
Mode
Click the Mode display to select an Arpeggiator
mode from the appearing pop-up list. An Arpeg-
giator Mode is a pre-defined rhythmical pattern
the Arpeggiator uses to trigger held notes.
Rate
Click the Rate display to select the arpeggiator’s
Rate or speed from the list. For example “1”
stands for a whole note and “32” stands for a
1/32nd note. Dotted and triplet timing are indi-
cated by an asterisk (*) or “T” respectively.
When the Arpeggiator is switched on, the
Sustain pedal acts as a Latch switch to keep
the arpeggiator running.
See Appendix C for details of the available
Arpeggiator modes.

Chapter 3: Operate Xpand! 13
FX (Effects) Page
Xpand! provides two FX (effects) per instance.
Send controls for each Part are located on the
Mix and FX pages.
On/Off
Click the button to activate or deactivate the ef-
fect. The button is lit when the effect is acti-
vated.
Type
Click the FX type display to select an effect from
the pop-up list.
Parameters 1 & 2
Edit the selected effect by two parameters. The
parameters are varying and depend on the type
of effect.
To FX1 (FX2 Send to FX1)
This control lets you send a percentage of the
FX2 output signal into FX1, instead of directly
to the output. At 0%, no signal is sent to FX1. At
100%, all of the FX2 output signal is sent to FX1.
See Appendix D for a list of all Effects and
their available parameters.

Xpand! Plug-In Guide14

Appendix A: MIDI Controller Assignment 15
appendix a
MIDI Controller Assignment
Default controller assignments to parameters:
Some controllers have a standard function if the
controller is not assigned to a parameter:
Some controllers have a standard function and cannot
be assigned to a parameter:
Supported RPNs:
MIDI CC Standard Function
7 Master Output Level
10 Part A Pan
16 Part A Smart Knob 1
17 Part A Smart Knob 2
18 Part A Smart Knob 3
19 Part A Smart Knob 4
72 Global Release
73 Global Attack
74 Global Cutoff
75 Global Decay
79 Global Filter Env Depth
80 Part A Smart Knob 5
81 Part A Smart Knob 6
91 Part A FX1 Send
93 Part A FX2 Send
Universal real-time octave tuning SysEx
messages are supported!
MIDI CC Standard Function
1 Modulation Wheel
5 Glide Time
11 Expression
64 Sustain Pedal
65 Glide On/Off
MIDI CC Standard Function
6 RPN Data Entry
100 RPN Select (LSB)
101 RPN Select (MSB)
120 All Sound Off
121 Reset Controllers
123 All Notes Off
0 Example: Pitch Bend Range
CC100 = 0, CC101 = 0,
CC6 = bend range in semitones
1 Example: Fine Tune
CC100 = 0, CC101 = 1,
CC6 = fine tune amount

Xpand! Plug-In Guide16