Antares kantos 10 user manual

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Floor: kantos ignores signals below this level. Set this above any hum,
residual noise, etc. so kantos isn’t confused by these signals.
Hold: Sets a minimum time before a note off occurs, regardless of what the
input signal is doing.
Note: kantos is happiest with a hot signal level. Set the Input Level
control so that the overload light at the top of the input meter light on
strong signal peaks.
The following example shows a signal’s amplitude envelope. The (1) On
setting is too high, as it misses some of the notes. The (2) On setting it too
low, because all the notes are above it, so there’s only a trigger generated
at the beginning. The On setting (3) is just right.
 1 (too high)
 3 (just right)

 2 (too low)
The Off setting is usually around the same level as the On setting. However,
you can set it lower if the material is very percussive, with fast, high attacks
and quick decays. In the following drawing, Off setting (1) is too high,
because it hardly lets any of the note through. Off setting (2) is too low,
because the note never turns off. Off setting (3) is just right.
 1 (too high)
 3 (just right)
 2 (too low) 
						

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Here’s the final result. The bottom shows how the correct On and Off
settings generate triggers that respond to the note duration. Note that
kantos also tracks the dynamics, so the final result can sound as dynamic as
the original signal.
 KANTOS 
   TRIGGERS
 OFF 
 ON
TUTORIAL: SETTING GATE GENERATOR PARAMETERS
By now you should have a pretty good idea of how kantos works, so load
any audio file into your hard disk recording program of choice (or use one
of the tutorial files) and loop it.
 ON HANDLE

 OFF HANDLE
 HOLD HANDLE
 THRESHOLD HANDLE
 LEVEL HANDLE  GATE ON INDICATOR 
 INPUT METER CLIP INDICATOR 
						

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Set Input Level so that the input meter clip indicators flash on peaks.
Set the GG parameters as follows: On = 0 dB, off = -1 dB, floor = -80 dB,
hold = approximately 100 ms.
Enable the Amp Envelope ON button.
Start your sequencer. You probably won’t hear anything, because the
On parameter will be higher than the audio.
Place your cursor on the On parameter arrow and drag down slowly.
You’ll start hearing the notes as kantos triggers them. The Gate On
light should flash with every new note.
Set the Off parameter to about 5-10 dB less than the On parameter.
The Gate On light should hopefully trigger reliably on every note; if
not, adjust until it does.
Raise the Floor parameter to determine if cutting out very low-level
signals improves the triggering.
Experiment with the Hold parameter. At minimum, the Gate On light
lights with every note. Now change Hold to maximum (999 ms).
Whenever the gate goes on, it’s forced on for 999 ms before it can
retrigger. The Gate light will stay on most of the time at maximum
Hold times. Hold is useful if there’s a trill or “flamming” type effect you
want kantos to “mask” (ignore).
You can trigger the gate manually at any time by clicking on the
Manual Gate button or pressing “G” on the keyboard.
The Modulation Matrix
You are not a kantos master until you understand the modulation section.
This is actually “deeper” than any other section of kantos and offers
creative possibilities that will boggle your mind. Caution: Some kantos users
have had their heads explode when they realized the awesome power of
the modulation section. Ease into this part slowly so you don’t encounter a
similar problem.
kantos has eight possible modulation routings, each of which can send any
one of seven sources to any one of 35 destinations. Each of the routings is
created identically, using the following process:
Select the modulation source intended to modulate a particular
destination. Do this by clicking on one of the Source boxes and select-
ing the source from the pop-up menu.
Select the corresponding modulation destination. Click on the Destina-
tion box to the right of the Source box and select one of the 35
destinations from the pop-up menu. 
						

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Determine how the source will affect the destination with the AMT
slider (located between the Source and Destination boxes). Positive
amounts add the source signal to the parameter. For example, when
using the input signal dynamics to control filter frequency, a positive
amount will kick the filter frequency higher with higher input dynam-
ics. Negative amounts do the opposite: higher input dynamics will
lower the filter frequency. Note that you can also enter the AMT value
in the numerical to the right of the Destination box.
Modulation Sources
The seven modulation sources are:
Input dynamics: Generates a control signal proportional to the original
audio signal’s dynamics. The louder the incoming signal, the higher the
control signal.
Input timbre: Generates a control signal proportional to the original
audio signal’s harmonic structure. Brighter signals produce a higher
control signal.
Input pitch: Generates a control signal proportional to the original
audio signal’s pitch. A higher-pitched note produces a higher control
signal.
Amp envelope: Provides a control signal from the amplitude envelope.
Envelopes will be covered in more detail later.
Mod envelope: Provides a control signal from the modulation enve-
lope. Envelopes will be covered in more detail later.
LFO1: Provides the periodic waveform from LFO1. LFOs will be covered
in more detail later.
LFO2: Provides the periodic waveform from LFO2. LFOs will be covered
in more detail later. 
						

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Modulation Destinations
The 35 destinations are:
OSCILLATOR/FILTER-RELATED PARAMETERS
Pitch 1
Pitch 2
Semitone 1
Semitone 2
Chorus Freq 1
Chorus Depth 1
Chorus Freq 2
Chorus Depth 2
Filter Freq 1
Filter Q 1
Filter Freq 2
Filter Q 2
Filter Freq 3
Filter Q 3
PROCESSING-RELATED PARAMETERS
Articulation Amount
Articulation Q
Formant Offset
Delay Time
Delay Feedback
MIXER-RELATED PARAMETERS
Osc 1 Level
Sine 1 (Fund 1) Level
Osc 2 Level
Sine 2 (Fund 2) Level
Noise Level
Delay Level
MODULATION-RELATED PARAMETERS
LFO 1 Freq
LFO 2 Freq
Mod Amount 1
Mod Amount 2
Mod Amount 3
Mod Amount 4
Mod Amount 5
Mod Amount 6
Mod Amount 7
Mod Amount 8
The Mod Amount parameter is a special case, and will be discussed after we
cover LFOs and Envelopes. 
						

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LFOs (Low Frequency Oscillators)
LFOs generate low-speed
control waveforms. We
already had a close encoun-
ter with an LFO when
checking out the Chorus; the
Chorus Rate and Level
controls set the speed and
depth of an LFO dedicated to
the Chorus. LFO1 and LFO2
are general purpose modula-
tion sources.
There are two adjustable
parameters for each LFO. The parameter with the arrow chooses the LFO
waveform. Choices are:
Sine is the traditional LFO waveform that provides a smooth periodic
control signal.
Triangle is similar to sine, but has peaks at the highest and lowest
levels.
Ramp Up rises up to maximum, then snaps down to zero before
repeating.
Ramp Down snaps up to maximum, then falls down to zero before
repeating.
Square alternates between the highest and lowest levels.
Random spits out varying levels at varying times.
LFO Tempo Sync/Tap Tempo
You can synchronize the LFO time
to song tempo (one LFO cycle = 1
measure) in two ways:
TRIANGLE RAMP UP RAMP DOWNSQUARE
RANDOM SINE 
						

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Click your mouse button on the Tap button in the Tempo section, or hit
the keyboard “T” key, on quarter notes of the song’s tempo. The more
taps you give kantos, the more accurate the reading because the taps
are averaged over time. Note: keyboards often scan keys fairly slowly,
so if you tap the T key really fast, it might not register. Make sure each
T key tap is more than a few milliseconds long.
Enter the song tempo in the tempo sync numerical box
In either case, the setting affects whichever LFO is enabled in the Tempo
box.
About Envelopes
kantos has two ADSR envelopes. These generate a control signal when
triggered (as indicated by the Gate On light illuminating after being off).
The control signal follows a particular pattern, as described by the name
ADSR (attack, decay, sustain, release). Each phase lasts for a specific period
of time before moving to the next phase.
Attack: After triggering, this is the time required to go from full off to
maximum level.
Decay: After reaching maximum level, decay sets the amount of time
until the envelope reaches the sustain level.
Sustain: The envelope stays at this level for as long as the trigger
remains on.
Release: After the trigger turns off, this sets the time required for the
envelope to go from the sustain level back to zero.
EDITING ENVELOPES
There are two ways to edit envelope parameters.
Enter numbers in the numericals
Click and drag the envelope shapes to create the shape you want. 
						

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Here’s the deal with click/dragging:
Set attack time: Click in the rectangle containing the attack curve. If
you host application supports custom cursors, the cursor changes to a
double-arrow; drag left or right to change the attack time.
Set decay time and sustain level: Click in the decay or sustain section.
The cursor turns into a quad arrow if your host can handle this. Drag
up or down to set the sustain level, left or right to set decay time.
Set release time: Click in the rectangle containing the release curve;
drag the cursor left or right to change the release time.
AMP ENV VS. MOD ENV
The two envelopes have identical parameters, but the functionality differs.
Normally, a preset’s dynamics are derived from the dynamics of the
input audio. However, enabling the Amp Envelope’s “On” button
controls dynamics with the Amp envelope. The Amp envelope is still
available as a modulation source.
The Mod envelope exists solely as a modulation source.
Modulation Amount Destinations
Mod Amount 1-8 are special destinations. Modulating the Amt parameter
changes the way in which a source modulates a destination. The easiest
way to explain this is with an example.
Suppose you have selected LFO as a modulation Source in modulation slot 1
and Osc 1 Pitch as its Destination (a basic setup for adding vibrato). But you
want the LFO to fade in over about 950 ms rather than come on instanta-
neously. Here’s how to do it:
Set LFO modulation AMT for the maximum desired vibrato depth.
Use another modulation routing to assign the Mod Envelope to control
Mod Amount 1.
Set the Mod Envelope Attack time to 950 ms and the Sustain to 100%.
The Mod Envelope now causes the LFO to fade in over 950 ms. 
						

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Triggering New Parts From Loops
This is not a tutorial per se, but a demonstration of how you can use what
you’ve learned about triggering and modulation to create entirely new
parts from drum loops. We’ve included a few tutorial presets and an audio
file for this purpose:
Load the tutorial audio file DrumBeefLoop.aif
Use it to drive the presets BasicLoop1 through BasicLoop4. These
presets include the original input audio in the mix, so you can immedi-
ately hear how kantos creates new parts from the loop.
Try adjusting the Gate Generator settings, the Pitch Constrain settings
and various modulation routings to hear the effect they have on
kantos’s output. 
						

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