Poly Digit User manual

If you’re ever confused by anything or need help please contact me. This manual is a compliment to the
videos. Please watch the videos at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwQ9E6imYd0qFPMEuEZjcdw
Manual is always being improved, please contact me with any suggestions.
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CONTENTS
I. Gettings started 5
1. Start here 5
1.1. Power .......................................... 5
1.2. Modules ......................................... 5
1.3. Add a module ...................................... 5
1.4. Connect a module .................................... 6
1.5. Change settings ..................................... 7
1.6. Knobs .......................................... 7
1.7. Presets ......................................... 8
1.8. Toggle Effects with Foot switches ............................ 8
1.9. Foot Switches as CV or Tempo Sources ......................... 8
1.10. LFO / control signals ................................... 9
1.11. Firmware update .................................... 11
1.12. Inputs as effects loops .................................. 12
1.13. Rhythmic delays ..................................... 12
1.14. Import reverbs / cabs .................................. 13
1.15. Import / Export Presets ................................. 13
2. MIDI 14
2.1. Changing Presets .................................... 14
2.2. CC Controls ....................................... 14
3. Regulatory / Licencing 14
4. Thanks 14
II. Modules 14
5. Effects 14
5.1. Algo Reverb ....................................... 14
5.2. Amp Bass ........................................ 15
5.3. Auto Swell ........................................ 16
5.4. Bitmangle ........................................ 16
5.5. Chorus D ......................................... 17
5.6. Chorus D Ext ....................................... 17
5.7. Delay ........................................... 18
5.8. Doppler Panner ..................................... 19
5.9. Flanger ......................................... 19
5.10. Flanger Ext ....................................... 20
5.11. Freeze .......................................... 20
5.12. Harmonic Trem Ext ................................... 21
5.13. Harmonic Tremolo .................................... 21
5.14. J Chorus ......................................... 21
5.15. Looping Delay ...................................... 22
5.16. Mono Eq ......................................... 23
5.17. Mono Cab ........................................ 24
5.18. Mono Compressor .................................... 24
5.19. Mono Reverb ....................................... 25
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5.20. Pan ............................................ 25
5.21. Phaser .......................................... 26
5.22. Phaser Ext ........................................ 26
5.23. Phaser Stereo Ext .................................... 27
5.24. Power Amp Cream .................................... 27
5.25. Power Amp Super .................................... 28
5.26. Quad Ir Cab ....................................... 28
5.27. Quad Ir Reverb ...................................... 29
5.28. Reverse ......................................... 29
5.29. Rotary .......................................... 30
5.30. Rotary Advanced .................................... 30
5.31. Saturator ......................................... 31
5.32. Stereo Eq ........................................ 32
5.33. Stereo Cab ........................................ 33
5.34. Stereo Compress .................................... 34
5.35. Stereo Phaser ...................................... 34
5.36. Stereo Reverb ...................................... 35
5.37. Thruzero Flange ..................................... 35
5.38. Turntable Stop ...................................... 36
5.39. Twist Delay ....................................... 36
5.40. Vibrato .......................................... 37
5.41. Vibrato Ext ........................................ 37
5.42. Warmth ......................................... 38
5.43. Wet Dry ......................................... 38
5.44. Wet Dry Stereo ...................................... 39
6. Input / Output 39
6.1. Cv To Midi Cc ....................................... 39
6.2. Foot Switch A ...................................... 40
6.3. Foot Switch B ...................................... 40
6.4. Foot Switch C ...................................... 41
6.5. Midi Cc .......................................... 41
6.6. Midi Clock In ....................................... 42
6.7. Midi Clock Out ...................................... 42
6.8. Midi Note To Cv ..................................... 42
6.9. Poly Note To Cv ..................................... 43
7. Controls 44
7.1. Ad Env Level ....................................... 44
7.2. Ad Envelope ....................................... 44
7.3. Adsr ........................................... 45
7.4. Attenuverter ....................................... 45
7.5. Dahdsr .......................................... 46
7.6. Difference ........................................ 46
7.7. Drum Patterns ...................................... 47
7.8. Env Follower ....................................... 47
7.9. Lfo ............................................ 48
7.10. Max ........................................... 48
7.11. Min ............................................ 49
7.12. Onset Detect ....................................... 49
7.13. Pitch Detect ....................................... 50
7.14. Product ......................................... 50
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7.15. Ratio ........................................... 51
7.16. Rectify Value ....................................... 51
7.17. Sample Hold ....................................... 51
7.18. Slew Limiter ....................................... 52
7.19. Step Sequencer ..................................... 52
7.20. Step Sequencer Ext ................................... 53
7.21. Sum ........................................... 54
7.22. Tempo Ratio ....................................... 54
7.23. Toggle .......................................... 55
7.24. Vca ............................................ 55
8. Synthesis / Weird 56
8.1. Diode Ladder Lpf .................................... 56
8.2. Filter ........................................... 56
8.3. Granular ......................................... 57
8.4. K Org Hpf ......................................... 57
8.5. K Org Lpf ......................................... 58
8.6. Macro Osc ........................................ 58
8.7. Meta Modulation ..................................... 59
8.8. Oog Half Lpf ....................................... 59
8.9. Pitch Shift ........................................ 60
8.10. Resonestor ....................................... 60
8.11. Time Stretch ....................................... 61
8.12. Uberheim Filter ..................................... 62
8.13. Wavefolder ....................................... 62
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Part I.
Gettings started
1. START HERE
1.1. POWER
The rst thing to do is power the pedal. It’s 9V center negative and requires at least 500mA. After
that it’ll start up. Start up time is currently a bit long, so don’t panic if nothing is happening for a few
seconds.
Once Digit / Beebo has started up we’re at the main screen, with the default preset (the rst one in your
set list) loaded. From here we can add modules, change the settings of existing modules, connect
modules or load a preset. This leads to the question, what is a module?
1.2. MODULES
Modules are the basic blocks you connect. Think of them as individual effect pedals on a pedal board
that you place and connect. There are some modules that process audio, and some modules that you
can use to control other modules. The ability to control modules is the powerful modular / eurorack
style workow that differentiates Digit / Beebo from many other systems.
1.3. ADD A MODULE
To start, we’ll add a delay to the default preset. To do this, tap plus and choose delay.
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The new delay will appear on the screen and you can now drag it to a comfortable spot. You can drag
any module at any time to move it.
To start I recommend tapping the help button (the ? mark) which will turn on the extra help labels.
Remember that single modules can be very powerful, so start with a small number of them and
understand them before adding more. It’ll be much easier to work out what is going on. The standard
delay module has many features compared to standalone delay pedals!
1.4. CONNECT A MODULE
You’ll now want to connect up the delay. Hold input 1, then with another nger tap the delay you’ve
added. This multi touch stuff is really much easier to see on a video. Any recent video should show
this connection style.
This is just the same as connecting up pedals on a pedal board, but you can split and merge signals
easily. You choose a source and then a module to connect to. So now hold delay 1 and then tap output
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1 to connect them. If you’re connecting things with multiple inputs or outputs a screen will appear
where you can select which to use.
1.5. CHANGE SETTINGS
We can now change the settings of the delay. Tap on it to get up the controls. Many modules have
extra controls in the side menus.
1.6. KNOBS
Once you touch any slider to change it, it automatically maps to the knobs. The right knob changes
the value a lot (coarse) and the left by a little (ne).
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1.7. PRESETS
To save or load a preset tap the oppy disk icon. You’ll also see a set list option. This is what order you
move through the presets in your set list when pressing both center and right or center and left foot
switches together.
1.8. TOGGLE EFFECTS WITH FOOT SWITCHES
By default, the right most foot switch is bypass and the two others don’t do anything. Foot switches
can act as tempo sources or as control sources.
If you just want to enable or disable something with a foot switch, hold the module you want to control
and the press the physical foot switch you want to use. A small letter in a circle will appear showing
the foot switch you choose to use. You can remap all 3 foot switches like this. You can also assign a
single foot switch to multiple modules.
If you want to toggle between to delays for example, set one to disabled then assign both to the same
foot switch, they will now toggle which is active.
1.9. FOOT SWITCHES AS CV OR TEMPO SOURCES
If you want to control a specic parameter with a foot switch, tap add (+) and then select foot switch A
or B. A is the left one, B is the center, C is the right.
Now tap the foot switch module you’ve added and then tap connect. You can now connect it to things
you want to control. There are two outputs, the tap tempo and its value. Value is if it’s up or pressed
down. To connect tap tempo from the foot switch, hold the foot swtich and tap the delay. Then choose
the BPM out.
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1.10. LFO / CONTROL SIGNALS
As you saw with foot switches, one module can control another. If we now add a low frequency
oscillator (LFO) we can use that to control other settings on the delay. Add the LFO then hold it and tap
the delay. Then choose warp in the screen that appears.
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Control signals are coloured green.
The effect will be quite strong, so if we want to reduce we can tap on the LFO and reduce the level. A
uni polar LFO will only got from 0-1 (positive) but if you set that to zero it’ll go negative and positive.
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We can also add other modules in between such as the attenuverter that act on the control signals.
We can invert the phase or reduce the level with this as well, in case we want the same LFO to control
two different things at different amounts or phase.
The attenuverter attenuates and/or inverts a signal. It has two inputs which can be either be controlled
by the sliders or by a control input. You can attenuate / invert one control signal with another allowing
you ring mod / AM style control possibilities.
1.11. FIRMWARE UPDATE
If you have a very early Digit and currently have version 1.something (eg 1.7) rmware installed (check
in the setting menu) please contact me before updating.
For Beebo or January 2020 or later versions of Digit, please grab the packages in the ’upgrade_from_2’
folder from here and put them on a usb ash drive and click upgrade. It should be very quick. It’ll
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restart itself. The packages need to all be on the USB drive and not in a zip. The current packages are
frontend, modules, ingen and extra-content. If you’ve updated recently and know that one le hasn’t
changed then you don’t need to include it on the USB ash drive next update and it’ll update a little
faster.
The USB ash drive must be formatted FAT32 and have one partition on it. If the update fails, please try
pressing export presets in the settings screen. If that also fails then the USB ash drive is unreadable,
either due to having no partitions (partitonless drive) or being the wrong format. Please contact me
for help. Please use a normal USB ash drive and not an external hard drive. The cheap NXT ones
from Staples work well. All Sandisk ones tested also worked well. Verbatim ones tested have failed.
1.12. INPUTS AS EFFECTS LOOPS
You can use the input / outputs of Digit as effect loops. For example, physically connect output 3 to an
external phaser pedal, then connect the output of the phaser to input 3. Then on Digit, connect a delay
to output 3, and then connect input 3 directly to output 1. The repeats of that delay will now be running
through the phaser. Be careful not to create feedback paths, or route dry in parallel where some signal
goes through external pedals. The extra latency / phase difference between the direct and effected
signals can cause weird effects. So it’s always safer just to effect things like delays / reverb tails.
1.13. RHYTHMIC DELAYS
Tap a delay to see the details.
There are two modes. If you choose beats you can set a BPM and then choose a subdivision in the
right drop down menu.
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You can also set time in milliseconds, tap the time button and then you can type in a number if you
press the milliseconds eld, or just slide the slider to an approximate position.
The amount of milliseconds won’t follow your tap tempo, so if you have a tempo input plugged in the
times here won’t be relevant and you should use the beat setting.
1.14. IMPORT REVERBS / CABS
To import new cab or reverb IRs onto Digit, copy them onto a USB ash drive in folders called reverbs
and cabs for each. Then go to settings and tap Copy IRs. The les must be 48 kHz wavs.
1.15. IMPORT / EXPORT PRESETS
Press the oppy disk icon to get to the preset screen. Then press export preset where it’ll ask you if
you want to export the current preset or all presets.
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2. MIDI
The MIDI cable is type B, 3.5 mm TRS.
2.1. CHANGING PRESETS
To change a preset with a program message, press the oppy disk icon to get to the preset screen.
Tap set list and add preset here. The number next to them is what program change message you
should send to change to that preset. This is also the order the foot switch pairs with D and E will step
through them.
2.2. CC CONTROLS
To learn a control, press the MIDI icon next to the slider. It will then pulse until it detects a CC.
3. REGULATORY / LICENCING
This device complies with Part 15 of FCC rules. 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
Digit includes code and art (such as fonts) under a variety of licenses including GPL / LGPL / MIT / BSD
/ OFL. More details of this are available here: https://github.com/polyeffects/
4. THANKS
A giant collection of people have helped Poly Effects and Digit specically. These include Helen
Davison (my mum), Claire Jeddou, Celeste Reno, Jo Gardiner, David Robillard, Michelle Lam, Bernie
Tschirren, Lisa Bryant, Ed Pettersen, Josh Smith, Jordan Rudess, Leon Todd, Filipe Coelho and Robin
Gareus.
Part II.
Modules
5. EFFECTS
5.1. ALGO REVERB
Included in Beebo And Digit.
A special effects algorthmic reverb, featuring longer tails than the convolution reverb.
This eurorack based algorithmic reverb is designed to be modulated by control values. It’s great for
special effects, and general weirdness. It isn’t well suited to realistic sounds. It’s capable of pitch
shifting and self oscilliation.
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Inputs
Audio L In, R In
CV Blend, Damp, Decay, Diffusion, Hold, Modulation Amount, Modulation Speed, Pitch, Reverse, Size,
Trigger, Pre-Delay
Outputs
Audio L Out, R Out
Controls
• Blend
• Damp
• Decay
• Diffusion
• Hold
• Modulation Amount
• Modulation Speed
• Pitch
• Pre-Delay
• Reverse
• Size
5.2. AMP BASS
Included in Digit.
SVT40 bass amp sim
A bass amp emulation. The tone stack has sections that can be tuned. Run a cab after this.
Inputs
Audio In
Outputs
Audio Out
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Controls
• Bass
• Cabswitch
• Highswitch
• Lowswitch
• Middle
• Midswitch
• Treble
• Volume
5.3. AUTO SWELL
Included in Beebo And Digit.
Automatically swells volume to remove note attack
Auto swell is a similar effect to using your volume knob but instead it automatically detects when to
swell.If you are looking for something more complex, you can combine an envelope follower and VCA
to create your own
Inputs
Audio In
CV Threshold
Outputs
Audio Out
Controls
• Downtime
• Threshold
• Uptime
5.4. BITMANGLE
Included in Beebo And Digit.
Brutal bitmangler. Warning, can get very loud.
The bit mangler isn’t a normal bit crusher, instead it degredation and cross modulationthe bitwise
AND is much louder than the bitwise XOR end, so I recommend a compressor or something aftwards
to control levels.
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Inputs
Audio Carrier, Modulator
CV Bit Cv, Input Amp 2 Cv, Input Amp Cv, Xor Vs And Cv
Outputs
Audio Aux, Out
Controls
• Amp Or Freq
• Bits
• Input Amplitude 2
• Int Osc
• Xor Vs And
5.5. CHORUS D
Included in Beebo.
8 voice multi dimensional chorus
Inputs
Audio In
Tempo Bpm
Outputs
Audio Out L, Out R
Controls
• Bpm
• Delay
• Depth
• Deviation
5.6. CHORUS D EXT
Included in Beebo.
8 voice multi dimensional chorus CV LFO
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Inputs
Audio In
CV Lfo Cv
Outputs
Audio Out L, Out R
Controls
• Delay
• Depth
• Deviation
5.7. DELAY
Included in Beebo And Digit.
Flexible delay module. Add modules on the repeats for variations.
Inputs
Audio In
Tempo Bpm
CV Feedback, Glide, Level, Time, Tone, Warp
Outputs
Audio Out
Controls
• Bpm
• Enabled
• Feedback
• Glide
• Level
• Time
• Tone
• Warp
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5.8. DOPPLER PANNER
Included in Beebo.
binaural panner, allows positioning in 3D.
Inputs
Audio Left In, Right In
CV Lfo Frequency Cv, Lfo Amplitude Cv, X Coordinate Cv, Y Coordinate Cv
Outputs
Audio Left Out, Right Out
Controls
• Lfo Amplitude
• Lfo Frequency
• Space Size
• X Coordinate
• Y Coordinate
5.9. FLANGER
Included in Beebo.
anger with internal LFO
Inputs
Audio In
Tempo Bpm
Outputs
Audio Out0
Controls
• Bpm
• Delay
• Depth
• Feedback
• Invert
• Waveshape
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5.10. FLANGER EXT
Included in Beebo.
anger with CV for LFO
Inputs
Audio In
CV Lfo Cv
Outputs
Audio Out0
Controls
• Delay
• Depth
• Feedback
• Invert
5.11. FREEZE
Included in Beebo And Digit.
Holds what you’re playing when the control level is active, creating a drone.
Inputs
Audio Audio In
CV Freeze
Outputs
Audio Audio Out
Controls
• Drone Gain
• Freeze
• Release
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