Serato style stem FX

I am trying my hand on a first mod for the D2 (I assume it also applies to the S8?).

I basically added the stem mute and fx send pad behavior from the S5 to the D2. I also added filter on/off.

But the main challenge I set myself was trying to add Serato style stem FX.

Now I am still not entirely happy with how the effects sound but I now have build infrastructure in the form of two functions that make it fairly easy to tweak the specific effect behavior.

Now in the long term I will probably integrate all of this into one of the bigger mods that also tweak the waveforms etc. But this is just me trying my hand at a basic and advanced mod.

PS: For those who have not seen it, but I leveraged AI heavily to create this mod with the QML manual I have also build using AI.

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Sûlherokhh

Can you explain what happens FX Unit -wise?

lsmith

Are you asking about the FX specifically or how I set them up?

The fundamental idea is that depending on the button you press and hold, a different effect is applied to a different set of stem slots. Once you release the button, the effect is removed and the relevant stem slots are muted. If you then press again, the given stem slots are unmuted. Note for the instrumental stem FX, that affect 3 stem slots, if one stem slot is unmuted, it will apply the effect rather than unmute any muted
stem slots.

For the “echo” effects, I use a delay+freeze (not yet entirely happy how it sounds and I was wondering if I should try to work on a fade out).

For the “breaker” I use turntable FX. I have never really used this effect before, I am ok how it sounds but it is not yet clear to me why it takes 6-10 beats to trigger at all (might be related to processing needed for stems?). I have figured how to impact how quickly it then stops, so that part I am happy with. I was wondering if the “unmute” step here should emulate a vinyl rap up, since I just want to unmute the stem slots, I can just tap “instrumental echo”.

In terms of how it is wired up. The sfxFxUnitStart() function “cleans” up the FX Unit 4 to get it to a deterministic state and removes the FX Unit 4 from other decks. It selects the effect using a timer, so that I am sure the effect has been loaded before applying any settings. On release sfxFxUnitTeardown() again cleans up the state of the FX Unit 4, so that I also leave the FX Unit 4 in a clean deterministic state afterwards and ends the timer. That is technically not necessary but in case I decide to use FX Unit 4 for other stuff, this way I know that no setting will accidentally remain.

Does this answer your question?

I am also still thinking about what color coding to use for the pads, ie. the pads obviously should use dimming to denote the mute state. But not sure what colors to use for the pads themselves.

Sûlherokhh

:) I was curious about the the effect combination and the exact parameter values used. But i can study the code for all those details.

For echo out, use delay or delayT3 with freeze (as you mentioned). Use a low to medium decay (or what it's called) and LP/HP Filter set at least to 0.6 so every repeat will take away more and more of the freq range.

Toltemic

I've done stem effects on my rane mapping, and I had enable fx send on initial press, and then mute slot on release, this is useful for tailing effects, as it acts as a gate when held down- however, when it comes to capture type effects such as break and beatmasher ect it won't work, you'd technically need an individual effect per slot. Shame there's no like stem effect type that uses group effects in parallel instead of series

lsmith

« For echo out, use delay or delayT3 with freeze (as you mentioned). Use a low to medium decay (or what it's called) and LP/HP Filter set at least to 0.6 so every repeat will take away more and more of the freq range. »

yeah I need to fiddle with the settings a bit more, especially with the FILTER

do you have any idea why the Turntable FX only trigger after ~8 beats? do you have a way to test my mapping to check if this is also the behavior you are seeing?

« enable fx send on initial press, and then mute slot on release »

yeah that is what I am doing.

Sûlherokhh

TT FX need to activate and run for 4 beats (~) to fill the FX audio buffer, then it works. You will notice that when activated a second time, it works right away. That's why i don't use it and use a complicated TT break function that actually stops the track instead. Not good for this particular case. :)

Toltemic

wouldn't group fx be better for this? that is if you can only press one pad at a time, so turntable fx on effect 1, delay and filter on 2 and 3 respectively, activate turntable button on vocal break ect only, vice versa for echo out- then you vinyl buffer is always loaded, but down side is you get a quite reso filter and lose freeze

Sûlherokhh

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/257067#Comment_257067

Just a reminder; there are actually 4 FX Units that can be used, extending the number of SINGLE mode FX.

lsmith

@Toltemic yeah using a group effect here might be a better solution to avoid the complexity of switching effect units around. will explore this. I briefly tried with mixer FX but they don't work with individual stem slots :(

lsmith

I now implemented the approach with Group Mode for the FX unit. It works well for the Turntable FX, but for the Delay it is really missing the Freeze button to have a significant audible impact.

lsmith

I now switched to a Delay T3 and added a Reverb, still not as effectful as the Delay+Freeze but getting to a decent point and the Group Mode does reduce a lot of complexity. That being said, the one time init also means that any manual changes to the FX unit afterwards “break” the setup. I guess I could add an “emergency” button tap combo to force a reset.

Toltemic

well that's good to hear! It'd be interesting to see stem effects outside of serato's offerings, considering you've got the marco effects and other audio capture effects like reverse grain. I would implement decaying wet/dry knob ect if using other audio capture effects

lsmith

Yeah I might experiment more. Right now I like the “instrumental break” and the “vocal echo”. I do see use for the “drum echo” in mixes but for now in my testing I have not really tested mixes. So I might drop the “instrumental echo” in favor of another FX setup.

And also now comes the big question of which advanced D2 mod I will integrate all of this with. Also what type of workflow for keeping the two merged I will come up with. Right now I am hoping that I write a small script that pulls all the mods I want to combine together so that I can keep things in sync if any of those source mods change. That of course hinges on the question of merge conflicts and overlapping button assignments.

Stevan

I use the following values for the Delay (not T3).

Dry Wet = .3

Knob 1 = .7

Knob 2 = 0 (shortest tail)

Knob 3 = .3 or .6

Indeed, the TTFX buffer audio kinda sucks. This is why I have inplemented additional beatjump command to return the track to it's original position once the effect does the stop.

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