Panda-Audio Future Impact I User manual

Bass Guitar Synthesizer and
Analog Modeling MIDI Synthesizer
Expander
from Panda-Audio Ltd
User Guide Version 1 0
Dec. 22, 2015
Panda-Audio Ltd.
www.panda-audio.com
Product web site: www.pandamidi.com

Page | 2
EU Directives on the Protection of the Environment
RoHS This product is compliant with the EU Directive 2002/95/EG for the Restriction of the use of
Certain azardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment. No lead (Pb) cadmium (Cd),
mercury ( g), hexavalent chromium (Cr + 6), PBB or PBDE is intentionally added to this device. Any traces
of impurities of these substances contained in the parts are below the Ro S specified threshold levels.
REACh This product is compliant with the European Union Directive EC1907/206 and contains none or
less than 0.1% of the chemicals listed as hazardous chemicals in the REACh regulation.
WEEE As with the disposal of all old electrical and electronic equipment, this product is not to be treated
as regular household waste. Instead it shall be handed over to the applicable collection point for
recycling of electrical and electronic equipment.
This product complies with the European Union Council Directives and Standards relating to
electromagnetic compatibility EMC Directive (2006/95/EC) and the Low Voltage Directive (2004/108/EC).
EMC compliance test report: EMC – 130930/1
Operation is subject to the following two conditions:
(1) This device may not cause harmful interference, and;
(2) This device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause
undesired operation.
Panda-Audio Ltd.
Széchenyi u. 8
2040 Budaörs, UNGARY
Tel.: [phone]
Email: [email protected]
Parts of the package:
1. A Future Impact I pedal
2. Quick Start Guide.
Part that you will need, but not contained in this delivery:
1. A 9V stabilized, 100mA, Rola d-Boss type supply with mi us pole i the middle.
2. Additio ally, if you use it with a computer: PC with a MIDI i terface a d two MIDI cables.
Mi imum scree resolutio of the PC: X>=1280, Y>=900. XP or Wi dows 7/32, or
Wi dows 7/64 i XP compatibility mode.
Warranty
If your Future Impact I system defects or malfu ctio s as a result of a y defected electro ic
parts or our desig fault we provide you two years warra ty of repairi g or replaci g it.
WARNING: NEVER press the Ba k butto by foot. It must be co trolled by ha d o ly. Damage
of the Ba k switch will ot be covered by warra ty.
Introduction
The Future Impact I. (FI) is a synthesizer e ect or bass guitar players. Additio-
nally it can be used through the MIDI input as a monophonic synthesizer
expander using it with a keyboard, a wind controller, a computer or any MIDI
source. You ind in the FI_quickstart-V10.pd document how to use it on stage,
with a bass guitar. This in ormation will not be repeated here, so read
FI_quickstart-V10.pd irst.

Page | 3
Using the editor
Copy the so tware package into any directory on your computer, connect your
MIDI inter ace to the computer and start FIprog100b.exe. The FI is a very
complex device with more than 100 parameters or a sound. In order to get an
overview it is worth to investigate irst the block diagrams o the FI algorithms
in the Appendix. On the irst page you ind the whole device, except the
e ects. However, the oscillators appear here just as a rough outline, the
detailed picture o the oscillators is on the second page. The third page shows
how the e ect block is inserted into the structure o FI.
FI has two basic sound sources: The harmonizer/bass guitar sound block and
the synthesizer block. The synthesizer is driven by the in ormation derived
rom the bass guitar sound. The bass guitar must be played with clean,
monophonic ri s. The whole range o 6 string bass guitars is supported.
Slapping, tapping or chord playing does not provide appropriate in ormation
about the pitch o the vibration, this can result in alse notes o the
synthesizer. The sounds o FI can be created rom the synthesizer sound, the
harmonizer/bass guitar sound, or a mixture o the two.
In the MIDI pull-down menu you have to select the MIDI IN and MIDI OUT
ports that you want to use. I you want to write sound programs into your FI
then you must have two MIDI connections between FI and the computer, one
cable rom the MIDI OUT o the inter ace to the MIDI IN o FI, and one rom
the MIDI OUT o FI into MIDI IN on the computer. I you just want to edit
sounds and experiment with them, without writing them into FI, then it is
enough to have one MIDI connection, rom MIDI OUT o the computer into
MIDI IN o FI. In this case, i you want to design a sound using a keyboard
instead o the bass guitar you can connect the MIDI OUT o the keyboard into
the MIDI IN o the computer, and the computer will per orm a through
unction or the keyboard signals.
In the FILE pull-down menu you ind ive options, plus Exit. In Select Directory
you have to select the directory where you keep the sound programs. With
Load Program you can load a sound program into the FI, and with Save
Program you can save a sound program that you edited. You can save and load
a sound program with any name, but i you want to write it into the FI then the
name determines the location where it will be written to.
The first two characters must be a number between 01...99 in order to
address a memory location in FI.
Write Program from File to FI will select one sound program, and write it into
FI. You have to select a sound program here that has the appropriate number
at the beginning o the name. I it does not, then Load it and Save it with an
appropriate name. While this option will work even i you have just one cable
rom the PC to FI, the computer program will not get a con irmation o the
writing action and an error message will appear, so it is recommended to use
both cables. Write All Programs from Files to FI will copy all sound programs

Page | 4
rom your selected directory into FI in a single run. When you use this option
then you must have a connection with two cables between FI and the
computer, otherwise a ter writing the irst ile the action will break down with
an error message. I the directory contains several iles that have the same
leading number then the program will show an error message and it will not
per orm this option until you remove all duplicates. I the directory contains
holes, some o the locations 01...99 are not illed, then the program will ask
you how to proceed. You can select between two options, holes will be
skipped or illed with the de ault which is the sound program with the smallest
number.
In the lower le t part o the screen you ind a keyboard. I you do not have a
bass guitar handy (and the bass sound is not part o the sound that you design)
then you can use this keyboard to trigger notes in order to test the sound.
Parameters
We will discuss separately the parameter blocks o FI.
VCO Block
FI contains our identical Voltage Controlled Oscillators (VCOs). The VCOs have
the ollowing parameters:
PITCH COA SE (-12..48): Determines the pitch o the oscillator in semitones. 0
will generate the same pitch as the input bass signal.
PITCH FINE (-63..63): You can detune the oscillator with a small musical inter-
val. E.g. you can use this option to correct the imper ect harmonies o the well-
tempered scale to per ectly clean intervals.
PITCH BEAT (-63..63): This serves also or detuning, but instead o a ixed
musical interval it detunes with a ix number o Hz. The most important
unction o this parameter can be explained with the example when you use
two oscillators in unison, and detune them in order to have a beating between
them. I you adjust a pleasant beating in the deep range o the sound with
FINE, and then you play it in the high range, the beating will become pain ully
“out o tune”, since detuning will scale with the pitch. I you use BEAT instead,
then the beating between the two oscillators will remain independent o the
pitch.
AMPLITUDE SAW/SQ /T I (0..127): The FI oscillators have three wave orms,
saw, triangle and square. Here you can mix these in arbitrary proportion.
AMPLITUDE VOLUME (0..127): This is the master volume o the oscillator. This
will have an especially important role by the oldover distortion.
PULSE WIDTH OFFSET (0..127): The pulse width o the square wave orm can
be adjusted between symmetric (0) and very thin pulse (127).

Page | 5
PULSE WIDTH LFO F Q (1..127): Every oscillator has its own LFO (low requen-
cy oscillator) or modulating the pulse width o the square signal. Here you can
adjust the LFO requency.
PULSE WIDTH LFO DEPTH (0..127): This controls the amount o LFO modula-
tion. It is the programmer’s responsibility to make sure that a combination o
OFFSET and LFO DEPTH will not get out o the useable range o modulation.
SAW VCA DECAY TIME (0..127): As a special unction, the amplitude o the saw
wave orm can have an individual decay envelope which is triggered every time
when you pick the bass. This parameter adjusts the decay time.
SAW VCA SAW DECAY (-63..63): This parameter determines the amplitude o
the decaying portion o the saw wave orm. A combination o SAW AMPLITUDE
and SAW DECAY allows you to have a wide range o possibilities. E.g. see the
ollowing examples:
SAW AMPLITUDE=64, SAW DECAY=0; a steady saw wave orm.
SAW AMPLITUDE=0, SAW DECAY=63; a decaying wave orm that ades out.
SAW AMPLITUDE=32, SAW DECAY=63; a decaying wave orm, that
becomes steady a ter the decay.
SAW AMPLITUDE=64, SAW DECAY=-63; the saw wave orm will ade in.
Foldover Distortion: A very unique eature o FI is the oldover distortion.
Depending on the implemented algorithm, when a signal processor is over-
loaded it will either clip the peak o the signal, or it will old over. While
clipping is o ten used to generate a moderate amount o overtones, oldover is
practically never used since it generates such a high overtone content that will
make the sound unusable due to out o tune aliasing products. However, the
huge processing power used in FI allows to generate the oscillators with a 512
kHz oversampling rate, guaranteeing that the aliasing portion in the sound
remains negligible. Foldover Distortion will happen either in one oscillator
alone, or as a combination o separate oscillators.
Every oscillator wave orm will drive the summation to maximum amplitude
alone, i it is set to 127. Foldover Distortion will happen i the sum o all wave-
orm amplitudes becomes more than 127 (or, at least it can happen,
depending on the phase o the components). Since every oscillator can have
two dynamically changing portions o the sound, the pulse width modulation
and the SAW VCA, these can be used to generate a sound with dynamically
changing spectrum, even without a ilter.
Another step o oldover distortion can happen between separate oscillators.
When the our oscillators are summed, the sum will old over i the sum o the
amplitudes is higher than 127. There ore, in clean de ault sounds the oscillator
master volumes are set to 32, so oldover cannot happen. The e ect o
oldover distortion between oscillators that are tuned to di erent requencies
or just beating is rather unpredictable, it leaves a lot o reedom or
experimenting.

Page | 6
Harmonizer Block
The Harmonizer Block consists o the harmonizer with three transposed voices,
and the Distortion. The input to the Distortion is a mixture o our voices, the
original bass and the three harmonized voices.
MIXE BASS/VOICE1/VOICE2/VOICE3 (0..127): You can set an arbitrary pro-
portion between these our sound sources. VOICE1 is ixed at +1 octave
transposition, the other two are variable in steps o 5
T
, octave, octave+5
T
,
two octaves.
HA MONIZE T ANSPOSE VOICE2/VOICE3 (0..3): For two voices the trans-
position is variable. Identical settings o the two voices are scaled so, that they
are not exactly equal, they will have a slight beating between them.
DISTO TION G ADE (0..31): The degree o distortion can be adjusted here.
Even at zero the distortion is not turned o .
DISTO TION TONE (0..127): The tone o the harmonizer/distortion part can be
set here. The ilter is an equalizer set to 2100 Hz and Q=0.8. The controller can
adjust a cut or boost at this requency. 0-> -11dB; 64-> 0dB; 127->+11dB.
Envelope Generator Block
VCA ATTACK/ ELEASE, VCF ATTACK/DECAY, NOISE ATTACK/DECAY (1..127):
FI has three envelope generators that control the Voltage Controlled Ampli ier
(VCA), the Voltage Controlled Filter (VCF) and the Noise Generator. All three o
them are triggered with every picking o the bass, but there is an important
di erence between them: the envelope generator o the VCA is an Attack-
Release envelope, while the other two are Attack-Decay envelopes. This
means, the VCA envelope will start with an attack rom zero, and when it
reaches the maximum level this will be kept until the end o the sound; then it
will ade out with a release time.
The other two envelopes will start rom zero with an attack, and when they
reach the maximum they immediately turn back and decay to zero. As a
urther twist, the VCA envelope works this way as described here only when it
is driven rom a keyboard or a computer; when it is driven rom a bass, then
the sound decays either with the release time o the envelope, or with the
natural release o the bass sound as the sound is stopped, whichever is
shorter. This allows much more natural sounds rom the bass guitar.
Please note that while the synthesizer sound is gated with the VCA envelope,
the noise source is not; there ore, i you play short notes and the NOISE DECAY
is long it can be sustained longer than the note itsel .

Page | 7
Voltage Controlled Filter Block
The Voltage Controlled Filter (VCF) Block consists o three parts, an audio
mixer, the ilter cuto modulation part, and the ilter parameters.
AUDIO BASS / DIST / A .DIST / SYNTH / NOISE (0..127): This is a our channel
mixer at the input o the VCF. The irst channel is the direct bass guitar sound
itsel . The output o the Harmonizer / Distortion Block is connected to the
second input channel. The ourth channel is the synthesizer sound, and the
i th is the noise generator. The third channel has a very special unction,
which is coupled with the unction o the ourth channel, the synthesizer
sound.
As we discussed earlier, the synthesizer sound is passing through the VCA. This
means, i you adjust a signi icant attack time, then the note will start with a
delay a ter picking. The AR.DIST channel consists o the distorted sound (like
the second channel) but processed through another VCA which is controlled by
the inverse envelope o the synthesizer VCA. This way, i you adjust roughly
same loudness levels or AR.DIST and SYNTH, and adjust a signi icant attack
time then you will get a sound which starts as a sound with Harmonizer/
Distortion, and ades through to a synthesizer sound. Although relatively ew
o the demo sounds use this eature, this can be used to cover per ectly an
eventual tracking error/delay o the synthesizer sound.
MODULATION F Q VINTAGE (-1..80) / F Q NEW (36..122): These are two
controllers or the same unction, the basic requency o the VCF. While the
Deep Impact had an inaccurate approximation o the necessary exponential
ilter control characteristic, The Future Impact has a per ect implementation.
However, in order to emulate the Deep Impact sounds it was necessary to
emulate the imper ection o the ilter. There ore, in the Deep Impact emula-
tion sounds (the irst 9 o the de ault set) FRQ VINTAGE is used to set the ilter
requency, and the setting o FRQ NEW is irrelevant. I FRQ VINTAGE is set to
-1, then FRQ NEW becomes active. The scaling o these parameters is roughly
10 units/octave or FRQ VINTAGE, and the number on the slider o FRQ NEW is
exactly the MIDI number o the ilter requency.
MODULATION ENVELOPE FOLLOWE (0..127) / AD(0..127) / PITCH FOLLOW
(0..1): The requency o the ilter can be modulated dynamically rom di erent
sources. The Envelope Follower signal is ollowing exactly the loudness
envelope o the bass guitar, so a portion o the control rom this source can
give a very dynamic modulation to the sound. The AD modulation is the VCF
Envelope Generator signal, with adjustable attack and decay times. Pitch
Follow can be set to either 0 or 1. I it is set to 0, the ilter requency is steady,
independent rom the bass guitar signal. I it is 1, the ilter requency is
accurately tracking the bass guitar signal. This can be used or many purposes,
among others to generate whistling sounds with very sharp ilter adjustment.
MODULATION F Q 2
ND
(0..24): FI has not only one VCF, but two o them. They
are connected in parallel. The second one has a single adjustable parameter,
FRQ 2
ND
. The resonance (Q) parameter is the same as the irst one, the ilter is

Page | 8
always in Bandpass mode. The cuto control signal is the same as or the irst
one, except that FRQ 2
ND
is an adjustable o set corresponding to a ixed
harmonic interval between them. Using two resonances provides an excellent
way to generate sounds with vowel-like ormants, resembling human voice.
The o set is de ined in semitone steps. I you set it to zero, then the second
ilter is turned o .
FILTE TYPE (0..3): The ilter type can be selected here. It can be LOWPASS,
HIGHPASS, BANDPASS, NOTCH or OFF. OFF means that the ilter is bypassed.
FILTE ESONANCE (Q) (7..127): The resonance sharpness o the ilter can be
adjusted on the scale o Q=0.7...12.7).
24 dB / 12 dB (0..1): The ilter mode can be set as 24 dB/octave (1) or 12
dB/octave (0).
LFO Block
A dedicated LFO can be used to modulate the VCF and the VCO.
LFO F EQ (1..127): Sets the requency o the LFO.
LFO DELAY (0..127): An envelope is started at every picking o the bass that
ades in the LFO amplitude with a variable delay. I it is set to zero then the LFO
amplitude is set immediately.
LFO VCF DEPTH / VCO DEPTH (0..127): The LFO amplitude can be set or both
destinations.
Portamento + MIDI + eyboard Block
The parameters in this block are relevant only i FI is used through MIDI IN.
Actually FI has internally separate modes or using it with bass or using it
through MIDI IN, but it does not require a “switch”. Switching between these
modes happens automatically. Whenever a proper audio signal appears at the
bass input, it switches to Bass Mode, and whenever a NOTE ON appears at the
MIDI IN it switches to MIDI Mode. So, i you want to use it through the MIDI
input then take care that no audio signal appears on the bass input. While in
Bass Mode the ilter cuto can be controlled by the envelope o the bass
signal, in Keyboard Mode this control will adjust the e ect o key velocity on
the VCF cuto .
PO TAMENTO TIME (0..127): I this is set to non-zero value, the pitch will glide
rom one note to the other with an adjustable time.
PO TAMENTO MODE (0..1): FIX TM (0) means that the portamento time will
always be the same, no matter how large is the pitch step. FIX RT (1) means
that the portamento rate will always be the same, so the time to reach the
target note will depend on the distance between the starting note and the
target.

Page | 9
MIDI CHANNEL (0..16): 0 means OMNI MODE, so all MIDI channels will be
accepted. Otherwise, 1...16 will determine which MIDI channel will FI listen to.
PBD ANGE (0..12): Pitch Bend Range in number o semitones. Determines
how FI will react on modi ication o the pitch with the pitch bend wheel.
T ANSP OCTAVE (-2..1): The incoming MIDI in ormation can be transposed by
-2, -1, 0 or +1 octaves in order to match the external source to the sounds o FI.
T IG/GATE (0..1): In GATE MODE (0) a new attack o the sound will be started
only i you release all keys be ore starting a new one. In TRIGGER MODE (1) a
new attack will be started every time when a key is pressed.
P IO ITY (0..3): This parameter will determine what happens i you play more
than one note at a time. LOWER: Whichever note is the lowest it will be
played. UPPER: Whichever note is the highest it will be played. FIRST:
Whichever not was pressed irst it will be played. LAST: Whichever note was
pressed last it will be played.
Output Mixer Block
This is a simple two channel mixer, be ore the inal output to the e ect
section.
BASS / VCF (0..127): Setting these will determine the loudness ratio between
the direct bass sound and the sound coming rom the synthesizer / harmonizer
through the VCF.
Effect Block
The e ect block contains three e ects at the time o the product release, and
it will be enhanced urther later.
TYPE (0..3): The e ect type can be selected here. The choices are: BYPASS (0),
CHORUS / FLANGER / SLAPBACK / REVERB (1), OVERDRIVE (2), EQUALIZER (3).
The parameters o the di erent e ects will be discussed separately.
BASS/VCF (0..127) or (0..1): With these controls you can determine which o
the two main signals (BASS and VCF) will be routed through the e ect section.
This is slightly di erent or e ect type 1 and 2 or 3. For the time modulation
e ect you can determine on a 0..127 continuous scale the blend ratio between
the dry and the e ected signal. In case o Overdrive or Equalizer such a blend
control makes no sense, so the controller is either 0 or dry only or 1 or e ect
only.

Page | 10
Effect 1 : Chorus/Flanger/Slapback/Reverb
This e ect has a very lexible set o blocks and control parameters, which
enable it to be con igured as a Chorus, a Flanger, a Slapback Echo or a simple
Reverb by just setting the parameters di erently.
This e ect consists o two delay lines that can be modulated, and two LFOs
that can be used as modulator. However, the two LFOs are not assigned to the
two delay lines in a ixed con iguration, each can modulate either delay line.
LFO A F Q, LFO B F Q (0..127): The requency o the two LFOs can be adjusted
here.
LEVEL1, LEVEL2 (-64..63): The output level o the two delay lines. The ampli-
tude can be negative, which is important or langer sounds i the delay value is
very small, or i the two delay values are very close to each other.
DELAY1, DELAY2 (0..127): The delay time can be adjusted here. The maximum
value is about 160 msec. It is the sound designer’s responsibility that (delay +-
modulation) remains within the range that makes sense.
MOD1A, MOD1B, MOD2A, MOD2B (0..127): The modulation amplitudes o
the LFOs A and B to the delay lines 1 and 2.
FBCK LEVEL (0..127): Feedback level. It is the sound designer’s responsibility to
set the eedback level moderately so that no oscillation happens. Oscillation
can completely block the sound.
FBCK DMP (0..127): Feedback Damp. A lowpass ilter applied to the eedback
path. It can emulate the natural damping o walls in a room.
Effect 2: Overdrive
D IVE (0..127): This will adjust the amount o distortion.
LEVEL (-6..+6): Output level adjustment in dB steps. Adjusting DRIVE will also
change the level o the signal in a somewhat unpredictable manner, there ore
an output level adjustment is necessary here.
Effect 3: Equalizer
The Equalizer consists o a bass shel tone control, two parametric band equali-
zer stages, and a treble shel tone control.
BASS F Q (0..127): This control will adjust the requency o the bass shel ilter
in the range o 50...270 Hz.
BASS SLOPE (0..127): the steepness o the bass ilter can be adjusted here in a
range o 3...10dB/octave.
BASS BOOST (-20..+20): The bass can be boosted or cut by up to 20dB.