INSTRUMENTS / GENERATORS

Toxic Biohazard - Effects

Effects

The effects are important to add a final 'polish' to your sounds. Toxic Biohazard has a global distortion, equalizer and two user selectable effects banks as shown above in the left and right 'pods'. Select one of 6 FX algorithms in the drop down menu (delay, chorus, reverb, flanger, phaser or lo-fi) and the display will change to show the controls relevant to that plugin. FX work according to the following signal path:

INPUT - Distortion - Effect 1 (left pod) - Effect 2 (right pod) - Equalizer - OUTPUT

NOTE: The order of effects banks 1 and 2 can be reversed with the OPTIONS menu - 'Swap effects' command. Sometimes it's important, for example, when you have phaser and reverb, phaser is better to keep before reverb and so on.

Equalizer

Toxic Biohazard includes a high quality 8 band graphic EQ with +/- 18 dB range. To activate the equalizer, click on the button left of the "EQ" label and move your mouse up/down to boost/cut the respective frequencies

Delay

Toxic Biohazard uses a multi-tap delay with 6 delay lines. Delay is an echo-effect.

  • TIME: Relative spacing between echoes.
  • SYNC: Sync's the delay time to host tempo (select from a menu of tempo multipliers). This syncs the delay with the host tempo.
  • FDBK: Amount of feedback applied to the delay. Increases the decay time of the echoes.
  • RATE: LFO relative detune speed between echoes.
  • DEPTH: Amount of relative detune between echoes. Creates a chorus-like effect.
  • BLUR: Works in the same manner as a 'diffusion' dial on a reverb. This control 'blends' the wet sound, that is achieved by using the higher number of delay lines.
  • MIX: Mix between the wet and dry signal. Effect level in other words.

Chorus

Chorus is an effect created by the slight detuning of multiple copies of the input sound (similar to a choir of voices).The controls contain parameters that affect the rate, time offset, shape and depth of detune. Chorus is similar to 'Unison' on the Master panel, however Unison is a per-voice effect, while the chorus here affects all voices.

  • DEPTH: Amount of relative detune between voices.
  • RATE: LFO relative detune speed between voices.
  • MIX: Mix between the wet and dry signal. Effect level in other words.

Reverb

Reverb, short for reverberation, simulates acoustic spaces. If you clap your hands in a bathroom and in a concert hall, the two sounds will be quite different. In enclosed spaces reflections overlap one another to create a 'reverberant' sound. Toxic Biohazard's reverb parameters allow you to simulate different types of acoustic spaces. If you want to give your patches a realistic (live) feel, then use of reverb is critical.

  • DECAY: The time it takes the reverberation to fade away.Higher values make the room sound like it has hard shiny surfaces. Lower values more muted and padded.
  • HI-CUT: Changes the cut-off frequency of a low-pass filter. Use this to remove high frequencies from the reverb, or to make the room sound duller.
  • DAMP: Damping, adjusts damping of the high frequencies in the reverb signal. Damping refers to the rate at which the high frequencies decay relative to the low frequencies. This effect causes the sound to become gradually muffled and warmer.The frequencies affected are controlled by the HI-CUT knob.
  • MIX: Mix between the wet and dry signal. Effect level in other words.

Flanger

Flanging is a form of phase cancellation created by combining multiple, variously delayed copies of the input sound.

  • DELAY: Phase offset between voices.
  • FDBK: Feedback, increases the amount of signal fed back into the flanger.
  • RATE: LFO relative detune speed between voices.
  • DEPTH: Amount of detune between echoes. Creates a chorus-like effect.
  • INV. MIX: Invert mix, inverts the polarity of the wet signal. Aqua when active.
  • MIX: Mix between the wet and dry signal. Effect level in other words.
  • INV. FDBK: Invert feedback, inverts the polarity of the feedback signal. Aqua when active.

Phaser

Phasing is closely related to Flanging. Various frequencies in the original signal are delayed by different amounts, causing peaks and troughs in the output signal which are not spaced evenly. Phasing and flanging sound similar, as both come from combining delayed versions of the signal with the original. However, the Phasing effect is significantly more intense, with a greater 'sweeping' effect across the spectrum.

  • FREQ: Phasing frequency.
  • FDBK: Increases the amount of signal fed back into the phaser.
  • RATE: LFO relative speed of the phasing effect.
  • DEPTH: Amount of LFO applied to the phasing effect.
  • MIX: Mix between the wet and dry signal. Effect level in other words.

Lo-Fi

The low-fi effect works by lowering the sampling frequency (adding in more aliasing sounds) and reducing bit-depth (adding in quantizing noise). These effects can add a crunchy distorted effect to the sound. Useful for imitating 1980's era samplers and digital synthesizers.

  • BITS: Vary the bit-depth from 2 (harsh) to 9 bits (sizzle).
  • SAMPLES: Adds a different kind of distortion to the Bit effect.
  • FILTER: Low-pass filter cutoff frequency. Reduce high frequency noise.