Steinberg Hypersonic User Manual

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Hyperknobs
Speed and ease of use are among the most important prerequisites 
for music production tools. Great ideas are evanescent, so you don’t 
want to encounter any limitations in the process of turning your ideas 
into reality.
When working with a synthesizer, after finding a patch you almost 
always have to adapt it to your tune by adjusting the feel, timbre, 
enveloping, etc.
Hyperknobs offer many advantages: No sound design skills required. 
Good overview, with easy handling and fast, complex changes at the 
turn of a knob.
The concept of Hyperknobs
Hypersonic 2 focuses on very fast and easy sound-tweaking options 
that don’t stop you from making music. However, “easy” doesn’t mean 
“limited”. This is why we devised the concept of Hyper patches and 
their controls – Hyperknobs:
•For each patch, a professional sound designer has decided which six attributes 
are most relevant for that patch, and thus need to be tweakable.
•Multiple parameters are assigned (over particular ranges) to each knob so they 
work together to modify the desired attribute. This process of continuous vari-
ation of multiple parameters is sometimes called “morphing.” Doing the same 
changes in a generic editor would take considerable time, and require reason-
able sound design skills.
•We pre-assigned a musically meaningful label to each knob. As a Hypersonic 2 
user you don’t have to bother about whether “richness” is a result of more PWM 
depth plus Chorus plus Detuning plus some subtle panning – for you it’s “rich-
ness,” which is probably all you really care about when making music.
•On the Edit page you can assign functions to Hyperknobs and edit their rout-
ing. Read more about this in the PDF document “The Mod Page” on the 
Hypersonic 2 DVD.  
						

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Using Hyperknobs
The following properties of a Hyperknob have been carefully set by 
the sound designer:
•Name
•Assignment to sound parameters (multiple per patch, individual range per 
assignment)
•Knob Range
•Knob Mode (Switch, Control)
•Knob default setting.
Upon loading a patch, all Hyperknobs are automatically configured 
and set to a sensible default setting, as defined by the programmer.
What’s the point of Hyperknobs and the Hyper display anyway?
After loading a patch, we recommend you look at the info provided by 
the Hyper display so you can get acquainted with the Hyperknob op-
tions for that patch.
Here’s an example. We’ve loaded the Rock Organ patch from the pre-
set Organs bank:
The Hyper display tells you that it’s a gritty, classic-style rock organ 
with rotary speaker. It also notes you can change the rotary speed 
with the modulation wheel (built-in documentation – nice!).
Now check out the Hyperknobs. Instead of generic “Attack,” “Cutoff,” 
or “Velo” controls that have little to do with this kind of instrument, 
they’re exactly the controls you’d expect on a Rock Organ: Percus-
sion, Color, Tone, Key Click, Rotary Speed and Dirt.  
						

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Let’s take a look at another, more exotic example – the “Sad Strings 
Velo Swell” from the Orchestra bank:
Again – look at the info and the Hyperknobs. The display reads that this 
is a string patch with minor 7th and sus 4 intervals, and that velocity 
controls attack time. Consequently, the Hyperknobs are set to adjust 
the levels of the intervals; you can also control overall tone, resonance, 
attack time, and release time. 
Now consider what the Hyperknobs do in these two patches, and then 
imagine how long it would take you to find the respective parameters in 
a conventional synthesizer editor – let alone that one Hyperknob con-
trols multiple parameters at once. The more you need to tweak sounds 
quickly, the more you’ll appreciate Hyperknobs.
When you load an unfamiliar patch, you can just fiddle around with the 
knobs to find out what they do. You can always click with [Ctrl] (Win)/
[Command] (Mac) pressed to reset the knob to its default setting.
Reference of most common knob labels
Our sound designers have created dozens of knob labels, most of 
which are self-explanatory – such as Brilliance, Delay Speed, and 
Chorus Depth. However, a few may seem ambiguous at first; see the 
following table for more detailed explanations.
Knob Label Description
Attack Shape“Percussiveness” of a sound. Turning up the knob moves the sample 
start point towards the end (multisample elements) or reduces attack-
creating parameters in the patch.
BalanceAdjusts the balance between the different elements of a patch. 
Extreme left or right mutes elements.
ColorCreates a change in the oscillator source (e.g. multisample shift, 
oscillator waveform, wavetable position).  
						

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Assigning MIDI controls to Hyperknobs
You can remote control the Hyperknobs using MIDI continuous con-
troller messages. This comes in handy if you use a USB remote key-
board with hardware knobs, or any other remote control surface.
There are two ways to assign a Hyperknob to a MIDI controller:
1.Right-click (Win)/[Ctrl]-click (Mac) the parameter, then click “CC” 
and choose a controller number from the drop-down list.
2.Right-click (Win)/[Ctrl]-click (Mac) the parameter, select “Learn” and 
move the desired knob or controller on your MIDI keyboard or se-
quencer host. Hypersonic 2 will set this MIDI controller to the para-
meter you have chosen.
Many remote MIDI keyboards offer a set of 4 to 8 hardware knobs, 
which you most probably want to assign to the Hyperknobs.
DriveOverdrive, harmonic content. Often created using amp simulation, but 
can also be FM modulator level or wavetable sweep.
EQTurning to the right adds brightness; left reduces brightness. 
Filter SelectChanges the filter mode. Available modes from left to right are Off, Low 
24, Low 12, Band 18, Band 12, High 12, Peak EQ, Presence, Damper.
OctavesTransposes one or more elements within the patch by an octave while 
leaving others unaffected.
Pitch On/OffTurns keyboard pitch key tracking on or off.
Select …Selects different sources (e.g., waveforms, samples).
ThumpAdds a percussive attack element.
ToneBrightness – sort of a smart version of “cutoff.” 
Velocity … Adjusts the influence of velocity on a parameter (tone, attack time, level).
WarmthAdjusts the amount of modulation effect in the patch (such as chorus, 
flanger, phaser).
Width Stereo width.
In single-element patches: Sets how key tracking affects pan position.
In multiple-element patches: Moves elements towards extreme left and 
right positions. Knob Label Description 
						

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Sound generation structure
To work and make music with Hypersonic 2, you needn’t bother about 
how the sounds are actually created. Thanks to Hyperknobs, you 
don’t even have to deal with cryptic synthesizers parameters.
However, a basic understanding of the sound generation structure 
can help you to understand what’s going on inside Hypersonic 2 and 
what makes it “tick”.
Combi
The top level in the Hypersonic 2 structure is the combi. A combi is a 
complete setting or status of the instrument including loaded patches, 
part settings, temporary edits and parts of the setup.
Combis can be fully edited and loaded and stored to disk.
Patch
A patch is one sound (otherwise referred to as program, voice or pre-
set) that can be loaded into a part slot. 
A patch is built from up to 16 elements (drumkits: up to 64).
Patches can be loaded from and stored to disk. They can be effectively 
tweaked using the Hyperknobs and fine-tweaked in the Edit page.
Element
An element is the smallest building block of a patch. Any element within 
a patch can be either a synthesis element or an FX element. Elements 
can be found and edited on the edit page. For more details, see “The 
Edit page” on page 58. 
						

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Technical synthesis details
If you’re not technically inclined, you can skip this section. You don’t need 
to learn technical synthesis details to make full use of Hypersonic 2.
The voice structure of a synthesis element always consists of a sound 
generator section (explained in more detail below), a multimode/multi 
slope filter, three envelopes, and one LFO. Two more LFOs and an ar-
peggiator are common to all elements.
For the sound generator section, five synthesis methods are available:
•Multisampled waveforms – The oscillator plays back multisamples, which are 
stored in Wave “ROM” (or in an optional Hyper module).
•Virtual Analog – Three analog oscillators with multiple waveforms, PWM and 
Sync capabilities.
•FM (Frequency Modulation) – Three FM operators (one carrier, two modula-
tors in parallel).
•Wavetable – A wavetable oscillator and an analog oscillator.
•Sliced Wave Loop – The arpeggiator is “abused” for playing back a number of 
waveforms, usually extracted from a sliced rhythmic loop (drumloop, sequence), 
synced with the song tempo.
Depending on the complexity of a patch, its editor may hold hundreds of 
pages of parameters. Although the Hyperknobs spare you from having 
to deal with this, you can edit patches and elements in the Edit page.
The number, type, or combination of elements within a patch has been 
programmed by the sound designers. You can’t delete or add elements, 
but you can access element parameters on the Edit page. For more de-
tails, see “The Edit page” on page 58. 
						

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Browsing, searching, loading and saving
One of the most important requirements in music production is finding 
the right sounds quickly. So, we’ve put a lot of time and effort into mak-
ing the Hypersonic 2 patch browser the fastest and most effective 
patch accessing tool ever. 
All patches have been sorted into meaningful banks, extensively tagged 
as parts of clearly-defined categories, and given attributes for tone, 
character and effect. As a result, you can search for names or select-
able search terms like “warm” or “metallic,” and obtain relevant search 
results with minimal redundancy.
Browsing, searching and selecting patches is all done in the Load page.
Browsing patch banks
The Load page’s default status displays a list of available patch banks. 
•Use the scroll bar to see more banks.
•Open a bank by clicking its little triangle to the left.  
						

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Loading a patch into a part slot
Before loading a patch, make sure the correct destination part is high-
lighted, otherwise you might lose a previously edited patch.
Within a bank:
•Double-click on a patch name to load the patch into the selected part 
slot, or
•Drag-and-drop the patch into the part slot.
Patches marked with ≈ are layers of different sounds in one patch, such 
as piano and strings. This is often more convenient and saves part slots.
Selecting patches from within the host application
In VST 2.0 compatible hosts such as Cubase SX or Nuendo, you can 
select patches directly from the track inspector. With this ideal level of 
integration, Hypersonic 2 truly becomes a transparent part of the re-
cording environment.  
						

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Loading patches from disk
You can load any Hypersonic 2 FXP files (patches) from disk and into 
the highlighted part slot.
•If your host provides a file menu, load the patch from there.
•If your host does not provide a file menu, the Setup page provides 
loading and saving options:
Browsing the patch library
When you have loaded a patch into a part slot in the Part area and this 
part slot is highlighted, holding [Shift] and pressing the up-arrow key 
or the down-arrow key on your computer keyboard will load the next 
or previous patch in the library into that part slot.
This is a convenient way to preview the patches available in the patch 
library.   
						

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Finding patches
The Load page is where you find the search function described previ-
ously. You can search for text strings (e.g., parts of names, sound 
properties), or select attributes from a menu of pre-defined terms. 
Text search
The text search function looks for strings in patch names, categories 
and attributes.
•Type text into the Load page’s top row and hit [Return].
Hypersonic 2 appends a new “temporary bank” called “Search Results” 
to the patch bank list and displays the results. From here you can select 
patches. Search results are memorized until the next search.
You can search for multiple text strings at a time. Just enter them sepa-
rated by a space, e.g. “piano warm chorus.” The search logic is always 
AND, so the search function returns only those patches matching all 
search strings.