UNIFY as VST - a DAW within a DAW

Here is UNIFY being used to house two separate instances of Arturia's KORG MS-20 V software synth. The upper INST (Layer) is the bass and the lower the synth harp.

Here's what it sounds like (The Drums are supplied by Cherry Audio's CR-78):

BoBox UNIFY KORG INSTs

What I have learned:

To change the name on the left of the INST (Layer) double-click and start typing.

To add a set of prepapared MASTER effects (FlexEQ, Enforcer and LoudMax) to the MASTER Layer, left-click the roundel (circle within a circle) to the right of the purple strip (see in the image) and follow the menus thus:

-> Layer Operations -> Replace from layer preset -> Unify USL MASTER presets -> MASTER optimiser JL [or] Lite

Another two-tier example can be found here: https://forums.pluginguru.com/postid/20698/

I have been learning more about subtractive synthesis which you can find here:

Favourite Plugins - Arturia MS20 V

In the following patch, I used UNIFY as a background including one patch for the drums from John's firework drum set and atmospheric rain / animal chirps from his Signs of Life - Unify Special Edition.

BoBox KORG MS-20 V Recorder Patch 01

What I have learned:

1. At the bottom of the patch list is a dropdown combo box as illustrated below. By choosing a different option to 'Normal' you can add a new INST or complete UNIFY patch to the already open patch.
2. It's easy to silence certain drum hits using MIDIBox by changing the Output note range to either include or exclude start and end notes of your choosing. I chose to remove the bass drum in the above example.

Applying my expanded knowledge of subtractive synthesis, to Cherry Audio's free Surrealistic MG-1 Plus, I created a synth brass sound. The settings can be seen below (right-click on image and choose open in new tab to see the bigger picture):

..and here is what it sounds like within UNIFY using an AUX INST and MASTER, both with supplied FX settings:

Bobox Cherry Audio Surrealistic MG-1 Plus BRASS 01

Here is the same patch without the FX frills supplied by UNIFY:

BoBox Cherry Audio Surrealistic MG-1 Plus BRASS 01 - Dry (no frills)

What I have learned:

You can add an INST layer with settings already supplied by clicking the '+' sign in a circle next to the word 'Layer' at the top left of UNIFY's window under the UNiFY logo text.

Creating a 'pleasant' pluck sound using GuruSampler...

BoBox UNIFY GuruSampler Square Pluck 01

I also added an updated Synthesizer V 2 voicebank from Audiologie US - this is the perhaps the most boring AI voicebank I have in my collection ! I think I'll use him (because I bought it) in vocal ensembles and not (at the moment) for solo work, unless I'm feeling the need to be bored - j'en ai si marre !!!

Updated the 'pluck' sound and trying to make the singer less boring !

BoBox UNIFY GuruSampler Square Pluck 01b

I am loving my journey into synthesis and would highly recommend it to any who'll listen 😜 

Using UNiFY to supply a suitable bass and rhythm for my continued venture, this time using AAS (Applied Acoustic Systems) CV-3 'modular' synth.

BoBox AAS CV-3 Patch 01

..and here is a visual of the patch.

What I Learned

1. You can easily adjust all INST volume by first holding down the ALT (OPT on mac) key and dragging the slider with your mouse.
2. Holding down ALT (OPT on a mac) and clicking the roundel (circle within a circle) on the INST's header to the right will delete the layer - great if you're trying out new patches. You can always load as many as you like and mute them before deciding on your final choice.

PS: AAS have just released an updated Lounge Lizard EP-5

I have also started reading books on Mixing and Mastering in my quest for better understanding...

One tip I'll share with you, though I'm sure most of you know it already, is this:

TPB (ms) = 60,000 / BPM

A simple formula to convert from Tempo (Beats per minute) to Milliseconds (ms), ie if you have a song at 120 BPM and want to know how long each beat is in milliseconds (thousands of a second), you divide 60,000 by 120 to get 500 ms or 0.5 seconds (½ a second).

TPB (Time per beat)
BPM (Beats per minute)
ms (millisecond, ie a small division of a second where 1000 of them equals a second)

CC RIDER

Having fun learning this slope-driven MIDI CC# value generator.

In the above example (right-click and choose 'Open image in new tab' to see the bigger picture), I've used CC Rider to spit out rhythmical values to CC# 20. To get this to actually drive Plugin Guru's Sampler I had to add this as a nested Unify plugin so I could read the CC#20 values and then convert them to the volume in the sampler. Sounds complicated? You can get a better idea by watching video No 3 of the 6 lessons John produced. You can also get the various points to snap to the 8th divisions by holding the shift key whilst positioning them.

Hopefully there is enough info in the above image to trace the midi flow and below is what it sounds like. Just a series of block chords were played and the rhythm is produced by CC Rider - just scratching the surface thus far...

BoBox UNIFY CCRider Example 01

NOTE: To get this to sound right - I had to export in realtime from Cubase Pro 14.

In the above context, I found a great plugin from Polyverse called Gatekeeper (image below - right-click and choose "Open image in new tab' to see the bigger picture) that not only throws out MIDI CC, but also can manipulate audio. I tested it with a simple UNIFY instrument track as both a MIDI 'rider' and an acoustic one. The acoustic usage was far better! Plus the plugin allows for greater precision when creating graphs to use as gated envelopes that can loop at any point. There's more to discover, so like I said before - just scratching the surface. 

Trying something else...

Using TATAT to drive an interesting random sequence of given notes (right-click on image and choose "Open image in new tab" to see the bigger picture).

What it sounds like:

Bobox TATAT MIDI random note generator

TATAT will generate the moment MIDI clock START is received. To stop this, as you will see from the image, I changed the way Unify synchronises to the DAW - not great over a longer period of play as there will be drifting.

BlueARP ... does it need any kind of verbiage - image tells all (right-click and choose 'Open image in new tab' for the bigger picture) !

What it sounds like:

BoBox BlueARP 01