Steinberg Hypersonic User Manual

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Preload Mode
The Preload Mode lets you define how much sample content of your 
Combi Chain is preloaded into RAM for quicker access. Click on the 
Preload Mode button and choose:
•“Off” – no preloading of sample content into RAM
•“Next” – only the next Combi in the chain is preloaded
•“Full” – all Combis in the chain are preloaded into RAM
Master Volume
This is the same Hypersonic Master Volume control as featured on the 
setup page.
Panic
This MIDI panic button sends an “All Notes Off” MIDI message on all 
channels. 
						

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The MIDI page
The MIDI page is where you assign keyboard range, velocity range, 
transposition and tuning to your parts. It’s like a mixing console for 
MIDI parameters.
Key Range
To specify the range of notes over which a part will play, edit the note 
values in the Key Range column. This allows you to create hard key-
board splits or soft keyboard crossfades; anything from a simple key-
board bass/piano split to a complex 16-part zone crossfade is possible.
Setting upper and lower limit
The left value sets the part’s lower key limit, the right value sets the 
high key limit. For details on editing values, refer to the section “Knobs 
and sliders” on page 26.   
						

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Setting a key range crossfade
You can set a part’s crossfade range so that the part fades smoothly 
over the selected range.
1.Click the hyphen between the two values to open the crossfade pop-
up menu.
2.Choose the crossfade note range (values represent semitones).
The crossfade range will be added, and the fade will occur between 
the note limit and crossfade limit. For example, if you set the right note 
limit to C4 and the crossfade range to +12, the part will fade out 
smoothly between C4 and C5.
To create hard or soft gaps in the middle of the MIDI note range, set the 
left note limit to a higher value than the right one. For example, if you set 
the key range to “C4-C3,” the part will play over the whole key range ex-
cept between C3 and C4.
Velocity range
Similar to the key range, each part’s velocity range can be limited to 
create velocity switches or crossfades. Possibilities are unlimited here 
as well – from a smooth velocity crossfade between a soft pad and a 
brilliant brass stab to a 16-part velocity switch that almost creates 
random sounds.
Setting upper and lower limit
•The left value sets the part’s lower velocity limit.
•The right value sets the part’s upper velocity limit.
To create hard or soft gaps in the middle of the velocity range, set the left 
parameter to a higher value than the right one. This way you can make a 
part play over the whole velocity range except for the specified zone.  
						

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Setting a velocity range crossfade
You can set a Velocity Crossfade for a part, which means that the part 
will fade in and out smoothly outside the set velocity range.
1.Click the hyphen between the two Vel Range values to open the 
crossfade pop-up menu.
2.Choose the crossfade range.
For example, to create a smooth velocity crossfade between part 1 and 
part 2, set part 1 to “0 x 64” and part 2 to “65 x 127” with a crossfade 
range of 36.
Transposing and tuning
Semi
The Semi parameter transposes incoming MIDI notes up or down by 
up to 36 notes.
Cent
The Cent parameter tunes the part in cents (100 cents = one semi-
tone). Maximum range is 100 cents.
Voices
You can limit the polyphony of a certain part using the Voices para-
meter. Restricting parts to use no more voices than needed improves 
system performance. 
Note that the number of voices does not necessarily correspond to the 
actual number of notes being played. In many patches (e.g. layered 
ones), one note plays two or more voices, so increase the voice count 
accordingly.  
						

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Parameter lock
To prevent MIDI and Mix page parameters from being reset when 
loading a new patch, activate the parameter lock (the lock symbol is 
highlighted).
Usually when loading a new patch you will want transposition or key 
zones to be reset to default. However, when you have a complex key 
split combi and just want to replace patches, lock the split zones so they 
remain unaffected by the new patches you load in.  
						

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The Mix page
The Mix page is the mixer of Hypersonic 2. Here you can set the pan-
ning for each patch, manage the FX sends and select whether the 
patch prefers global or patch FX. You can route patches to single out-
puts and also lock the patch’s mixer settings.
Move the black slider in the blue fields to edit settings. Click the “P” and 
Lock knobs to enable, enabled knobs appear black.
Pan
This determines the part position in the stereo field. Move the slider to 
the right or to the left to edit the patch’s stereo position.
Output
This selects the Hypersonic 2 output on which a part’s output will 
appear. For more details, see “Configuring outputs” on page 90.  
						

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FX sends
The four FX sends determine the signal level sent to the correspond-
ing FX section. For more information on using and editing FX, see 
“The Edit page” on page 58 and “The Setup Page” on page 90.
“P” – Patch FX switch
Activating this switch causes the part to use its patch FX (if any) 
rather than the global FX. For more details about FX elements, patch 
FX and global FX, refer to the section “The Edit page” on page 58.
Parameter Lock
This function is identical to the Parameter Lock parameter on the MIDI 
page. See page 55 for details.  
						

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The Edit page
The Edit page is a built-in patch editor that offers in-depth patch ad-
justments. You can edit and mute elements, edit patch parameters, 
and make individual adjustments to the element parameters. The Edit 
page allows you to create your own patches in Hypersonic 2.
The Edit page is the only page in Hypersonic 2 that partly presumes some 
synth programming skills. If your focus is entirely on making music rather 
than sound design, you won’t need it. Yet, it’s a very useful feature if you’re 
more into tweaking patches and creating your own special sounds.
When creating your own patches, you always start with an existing 
patch – so be careful to choose a patch that contains the “raw mate-
rials” you need for your own patch. One tip is to find a patch from the 
same category as the one you want to create, and search for a patch 
that has a similar (or bigger) patch structure. You can always mute 
elements, but you can’t add any, so make sure your original patch has 
enough elements of the desired type.  
						

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The editing concept of Hypersonic 2 makes it very easy to create great-
sounding patches and to tweak existing ones in less time, with less ef-
fort and less programming skills required, than with conventional synth 
editors or user interfaces. If you haven’t been into editing sounds before, 
we encourage you to get creative and explore the world of synthesis that 
Hypersonic 2 brings to you.
Managing elements
The left column of the Edit page shows the patch structure, i.e., the ele-
ments used in that patch. Up to 16 elements are available, and you can 
select, mute, copy, paste and tweak them separately.
The patch structure
The patch structure reflects the combination and routing of elements 
used in the patch. You can’t change the structure, but you can mute 
elements.
An element can either be a Synthesizer or an FX element (for more 
info, refer to “Technical synthesis details” on page 36).  
						

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Element type display
The capital letters in the icons indicate the element types used in the 
patch. This makes it easy to analyze which elements make up a patch:
•S: Sample-based. This can either be a Multisample or a Sliced Loop, which 
are equivalent on an element level.
•A: Analog. This is a virtual analog element with up to 3 oscillators.
•F: FM. A classic frequency modulation synthesizer with one carrier and two 
modulators.
•W: Wavetable. A classic wavetable synthesizer with 45 wavetables contain-
ing 64 waves each.
•FX: Effect element, explained in “FX Management” on page 87.
•P: Piano element, appears in the GP2 expansion patches.
•O: Organ element, appears in the NB3 expansion patches.
An FX element that breaks the chain indicates signal routing to the 
output from this point. Here are two examples:
•In drumkits, a group of instruments (such as kicks, hi-hats or toms) usually 
uses its own FX, most probably some kind of ambience. Each group feeds 
into the part output separately, so in the patch structure the FX elements 
break the chain between the group outputs and the part output.
•In instrument sounds, all elements usually are chained together even if there 
are FX elements in between. 
For example, by inserting a chorus the sound designer has chosen all 
Synth elements above the Chorus element to get chorused, while the 
ones below aren’t. Yet, all elements run through any delay FX at the end 
of the chain.