FORS Superberry Instruction Manual

Superberry
user’s handbook
digital & delicious
synthesizer

Thank you.
This year we found a way to nurture a sense of togetherness, while
being far apart, by working on new tools for making music. We spent
hours, days, exploring and talking about different ideas.
We are both endlessly inspired by music, and this synthesizer is no ex-
ception. Our adoration for melodramatic 00’s trance melodies lead to
an exploration of that sound; the supersaw. We wanted to be able to
have that sound at the tip of our fingers, just a knob twist away from
that single tear running down your cheek in bullet time.
Our concept grew and after a few weeks, we had something that
used the supersaw as a springboard into a whole new whirlpool of
sound, using an unorthodox synthesis core into a pair of out of focus
delays.
We hope you enjoy using this synthesizer as much as we did making it.
Much love and appreciation,
Ess & Felisha

Index
1. Introduction
2. The Synth Engine
2 ... The Supersaw
3 ... The Sub Oscillator
4 ... The Amp Envelope
5 ... Voice Settings
6. The Bokeh Delay(s)
6 ... Delay A
7 ... Delay B
8. The LFO
10. The Roulette Sequencer
11 ... Pitch, Transposition & Trig
12 ... Polymeters & Asymmetry
14. Standalone
14 ... Settings
15 ... Recording
16 ... Colors
17. Max for Live
Credits

Superberry
Fors 2020

1
A delicious synthesizer for
macOS & Max for Live featuring:
1 × Super sharp Supersaw Oscillator
1 × Stackable Sub Oscillator
1 × Ordinary AHR Envelope
2 × Diffusing Bokeh Delay
1 × Poly/Asymmetric Roulette Sequencer
1 × Flexible LFO Modulator

The Supersaw
This oscillator is a cluster of seven voices that
can be spread apart in pitch, creating a buzzy
and animated sound simulating a chorus.
Detune controls the amount of pitch spread
of the cluster oscillators. At 0% there is no
detuning, and at 80% it is maximum supersaw.
At 100% it shifts the oscillators into octaves.
2
Detune Mix controls the balance between
the output of a single oscillator and the rest
of the cluster.
Brightness controls the amount of harmonics
in the Supersaw. At 0% the oscillators take
the shape of a simple sine wave, and at 100%
it turns it to a supersharp saw wave.
The Link button next to it lets Brightness af-
fect the harmonics of the sub osc as well.

3
The Sub Oscillator
This oscillator follows the Supersaw, and can
be transposed in octaves above or below it,
useful for adding some sparkle or low end.
Sub Mix controls the balance between the
Supersaw and the Sub Oscillator.
Sub Oct sets the octave of the Sub Oscillator
relative to the Supersaw.
The Buttons select between a pulse wave
(top) and a triangle (bottom) for the Sub Osc.
Width sets the narrowness of the pulse
wave, or the amount of wavefolding of the
triangle wave.

4
The Amp Envelope
This AHD envelope controls the dynamics of
the synthesizer voice, attenuating the volume
over time.
Attack sets the duration of the initial stage
of the envelope, which fades in the sound. At
0 the envelope will be very clicky, and a small
fade in around 0.5 is recommended for softer
onsets if desired.
Hold sets the duration of how long the enve-
lope will hold the maximum volume after the
Attack stage, until entering the Release.
Release sets the duration of the fade out of
the envelope and is the last stage. At 0 the
sound will cut immediately when Hold is done,
and a value above 0 is recommended to avoid
clicking.
Bright sets the amount of which the envelope
affects Brightness.

5
Voice Control
These parameters control the entire synth
voice, including both of the oscillators.
The triangle next to Voice opens a menu
where you can set the number of voices that
are at disposal.
Pitch sets the transposition of the received
note into the synthesizer. This mainly affects
the sequencer and follows any scale settings.
Slide controls the amount of portamento be-
tween received notes.
Volume controls the loudness of the synthe-
sizer voice. Note that this does not affect the
synthesizer volume into the delays.

6
The Bokeh Delay(s) - A
This effects pair creates a rhythmic echoing
delay that can be diffused and filtered to turn
into a reverb-like sound.
ms sets the delay time in milliseconds and can
be set to a note value by opening the triangle
menu.
Volume controls the loudness of the delay.
Tone controls the tonal balance of the delay,
negative values removes high frequencies and
vice versa.
Fbk controls the feedback amount of the de-
lay, high values will repeat the echoes longer.
Blur controls the amount of diffusion, making
the repeats softer in sound. At higher values
it starts to sound reverb-like.

7
The Bokeh Delay(s) - B
Delay B differs from A in that it’s in stereo and
has a more dramatic Blur effect. It can also
use Delay A as input for maximum ambience.
The controls of Delay B are the same as A
with the exception of two extra features:
Send controls the amount of signal received
from Delay A. The Volume of Delay A does not
affect the Send level.
The Buttons control whether the delay is in
ping-pong (top) or centric mode (bottom).
Ping-pong will distribute the repeats in the
left/right stereo channels while centric keeps
it in the middle, useful for reverb-like sounds.

The LFO
The Low Frequency Oscillator is a modulation
source that can be routed to some synth pa-
rameters and animate the sound.
To change the LFO destination, click on the
Arrow icon (1) then click on any of the knobs
with a Dot (2) next to it to select it. The LFO
will then display the new destination (3)
Depth sets the modulation amount.
Speed sets the modulation frequency. If the
LFO is synced to the BPM or Note, divisons of
5 are used as the base multiple.
The Pad Lock toggles BPM-sync
The Musical Note toggles pitch tracking
The Arrows toggle between free running and
synced to trigger - meaning it will reset the
phase of the LFO on every note trig.
8
Fade adds a fade (-/+) envelope that is trig-
gered by the sequencer.

9
Here's a trick!
If you use the LFO with pitch track-
ing enabled and assign it to Pitch it
will modulate the phase of the os-
cillators, making the Superberry a
2-OP FM synth*
*The Superberry is already an FM synth

The Roulette Sequencer
The sequencer sends note and rhythm data
to the synth engine for generating melodies.
It is entirely polymetric and asymmetric.
10
Start/Stop BPM
Velocity pattern
Pattern
Length
Note
Triggers
Pitch
Data
Clock
Divider
Pitch Offset
Musical
Scale
Tonic
Pattern
Length
Selected
Pitch

Pitch, Transposition & Trig
The sequencer starts with 'Pitch' for its base
note. It then goes through two transposition
stages and is finally sent as a note by Trig.
Pitch is a list of pitches that can have a length
of up to 16 values set by Len. In the Pitch
section, you can also set a Tonic and a Scale
which will quantize all notes as desired.
Trigs sends out the current pitch, a result of
Pitch + 1st Transp + 2nd Transp. Reset deter-
mines the length of the Trig pattern.
The Velocity lane can be used like transpose
to introduce different velocities for the trigs.
Transpose is a list of intervals in semitones
that affects the incoming notes in succession.
The intervals are changed by typing into the
Transpose text fields. For example; "0 5 7" is
a pattern length of 3 wherein 0 will have no
effect, 5 is a perfect fourth and 7 is a perfect
fifth. Each number needs a space in between.
Div divides the incoming clock and will repeat
each number according to the division.
11

Polymeters & Asymmetry
As mentioned previously, the sequencer is always polymetric and also
asymmetric. This means that the pitch information is detached from
the trig events. This means you can create complex sequences that
evolve over time depending on the numerical relationships of the dif-
ferent sequence lengths and how they create a continually rotating
pattern. You could see it as an algorithmic arpeggiator, and can take a
while to fully grasp. We highly recommend setting a Scale.
G2 C3 F3 G2 C3 F3
G2 F2 C4
+0 -7 +7
( -5 0 +5 )
=
+
G2 C3 F3 G2 C3 F3
+0 -7
G2 C3 F3 G2 C3 F3
G2 F2 F3
Monometric Polymetric
=
C2 C3 A#2 ...
+0 -7 +0 -7 +0 -7
( -5 0 +5 ) +
The sequences have the same length The sequences have different lengths
12

Don't worry!
Set the Scale to something nice like
'Phrygian' and type in some random
numbers. You don't need to know
how this works, really.
13

Settings
The standalone version of the Superberry has
a settings page where you can select your
sound output and MIDI input, etc.
14
The Settings menu is opened by clicking on
the cog-wheel icon.
In this menu you can configure your audio in-
terface, sample rate and change the perfor-
mance of the audio engine. A samplerate of at
least 48kHz is recommended, and vector sizes
as low as possible without causing clicks. If
you're hearing irregularities or clicking in the
audio, try higher vector sizes.
You can also choose the MIDI Input device for
note input, you can set this to play the Super-
berry with a MIDI keyboard.
In the Synth Settings you can enable Oscilla-
tor Drift, which will introduce some random
detuning to the synth voices, this is useful for
making it sound more organic.