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Mac OS X Windows Morgana R EFE R ENCE MANUAL VE R SION 1 . 2 . 8 © 2005-2015 Q UICK I NDEX 1. 112dB logo (click to access the Morgana website) 2. Info display 3. Zone settings (page 19) 4. Morgana logo/Setup page (page 24) 5. Preamp section (page 18) 6. Zone section (page 19) 7. Oscillator section (page 21) 8. Amplitude Envelope (VCA) section (page 21) 9. Analog Filter (VCF) section (page 22) 10. Low-Frequency Oscillator (LFO) section (page 23) 11. Wavesample editor (page 17) 12. Sample section (page 15) 13. Interface Preferences (page 20) 14. Sample Browser (page 13/14) 15. Lower/Upper Layer selection (page 19) 16. Keyboard controls (page 23) 17. Virtual keyboard and zone editor (page 14) 2 W HAT IS M ORGANA ? At its heart, Morgana is a sampler. It takes a recorded sound and allows the user to play it back at various pitches. “So what?”, you may ask. Indeed, the idea of a software sampler isn’t a new one—but Morgana’s approach to software sampling is unique. Instead of trying to cram every possible feature into Morgana in an attempt to be the most “cutting edge” sampler plugin on the market, we decided to look to the past. When sampling technology was in its infancy, multi sample instruments using several gigabytes of memory were unconceivable. Indeed, multisamples comprised of more than a couple of megabytes were beyond the reach of all but the most wealthy musicians. Samplers lacked the CPU power required for high-quality interpolation and filtering algorithms, and D/A (Digital-to-Analog) converters were primitive, resulting in poor amplitude and frequency resolution. The sounds that went into these machines did not sound the same coming out of them. Sounds came out grittier and darker, but also warmer and punchier. Those same qualities that “degraded” the audio from a technical standpoint had the effect of enhancing the audio from an artistic standpoint. Lower sample rates meant the top end was rolled off, making sounds fit into a mix better. Low bit-depth gave drums, basses, and stabs a more aggressive touch, helping them to cut through a mix. Voltage-controlled filters, largely considered obsolete technology outside of the realm of analog synthesizers, gave samples an organic feel to them, belying their digital origins. 3 And although these machines often had primitive user interfaces, sampling was almost always a very quick process, no more than a couple button presses away. It had to be this way, the massive libraries covering every conceivable instrument that we know today did not exist, and the musician often had to take matters into their own hands to get what they wanted. It was more work, but the process of sampling (and resampling) inspired creativity, and allowed the musician to use things not normally considered instruments (like dishes, toys, natural objects, and even pets!) in an entirely different context. But where are these instruments today? Where are the instruments that add their own touch to everything that passes through them instead of endeavoring to produce an exact carbon copy? Why is it that nearly every software sampler on the market lacks the ability to do the thing which gives it its namesake—the ability to sample? We asked ourselves those very questions, and we couldn’t come up with any good reasons. So we decided to change that. Enter Morgana. Morgana is inspired by the early days of sampling, when a multisampling instrument was first available (and affordable) to the consumer market. Morgana doesn’t try to boast the most impressive spec sheet, or the most transparent sound. Instead, Morgana is an authentic representation of an early digital sampler, designed to be musical rather than accurate. Perhaps more importantly, Morgana can not only sample, it has facilities to simulate the effects of the sampling process on any pre-recorded sound. Morgana is an accurate representation of a vintage sampler, without the clumsy interface or sub- megabyte RAM limitations. This is not by accident! Extensive research and countless hours have gone into making Morgana sound just like “the real thing” and feel more like an instrument than a digital plugin. 4 Here is a partial list of some of the behaviors we have modeled to ensure accuracy of sound: • Morgana does not use “stock” filter algorithms. Instead, Morgana uses a specialized and highly tuned filter algorithm based on a CEM (Curtis) OTA-type filter, the same kind used in some older hardware samplers. • Some vintage samplers were supplied with an internal preamp for the input stage to allow for easy sampling from a variety of sources. These preamps often introduced a lot of noise—but not just the static that most of us associate with “noise”. Instead they actually picked up surrounding circuit activity, a phenomenon known as “crosstalk”. This has been faithfully emulated in Morgana, and is proportional to the input gain on the simulated preamp. • It is widely known that vintage samplers generally featured lower sample rates and bit depths. Often overlooked are some of the other ‘shortcomings’ in these older digital/analog conversion stages, such as clock jitter and imperfect or entirely absent anti-aliasing filters. Morgana faithfully emulates these characteristics. • At the dawn of sampling, quality interpolation routines were not feasible given the computing power available at the time. Interpolation (used for pitch transposition) was rudimentary if it was present at all. Morgana does not interpolate samples in the way that we are most familiar with (either linear interpolation or more advanced techniques such as cubic interpolation), instead it merely uses a zeroth-order or “nearest-neighbor” routine. This results in a more gritty, aggressive sound, and is almost impossible to achieve with any sort of post-processing. • In some cases, sample management routines did not allow for a “root key”. This meant that a sample was always interpolated, as it had an arbitrary sample length that usually did not correspond to any chromatic pitch. Morgana offers the best of both worlds by allowing a user to assign a root key while resampling the audio such that even the root key is transposed. Confused? Don’t worry, the important thing is that it sounds raw and grimy! • Modulation sources (such as envelope generators and LFOs) on old devices were often generated by a primitive microprocessor or microcontroller, and had a very low resolution. This gave a rough, “stairstepped” sound to any voice to which these modulators were applied. If you haven’t guessed, we’ve got this covered in Morgana! This effect can be surprisingly expressive if used appropriately, and as a voice-level behavior, it is not something your typical “lo-fi” plugin can reproduce, particularly for polyphonic sounds. 5 I NSTALLATION M AC OS X Morgana comes in the form of a single installer for all available plugin formats: AAX, VST, and Audio Units. The installer will overwrite an existing Morgana installation, while leaving your files, preferences, and license key intact. 1. If you have not already done so, please download and run the latest Morgana installer from 112dB.com/ download. Double click the icon to mount it. A window similar to the one shown appears. 2. By default Morgana installs to your system drive. In general, it is not recommended to change this but if you have a compelling reason to do so, you may select a different disk during the installation setup. (step 4 Installation type: “Change Install Location”) 3. The installer detects whether you already have VST, AU or AAX plugins on your system and selects the plugin formats it installs accordingly. If you wish you may override this choice and manually select your desired plugin formats by choosing “Customize”. 4. You may be prompted for your Mac password to complete the installation. 5. It is recommended to view the readme if this is a new installation or an update, as it may contain important last-minute information that was not available at the time of writing. 6. After the installation finishes you may safely eject the disk image. 6 W INDO W S Morgana comes in the form of a single installer for both available plugin formats: AAX, and VST. The installer will overwrite an existing Morgana installation, while leaving your files, preferences, and license key intact. 1. If you have not already done so, please download and run the latest Morgana installer from 112dB. com/download. Double click the Morgana Installer to run the setup program . 2. The setup program detects whether you already have VST or AAX plugins on your system and selects the plugin formats it installs accordingly. If you wish you may override this choice and manually select your desired plugin formats. 3. By default Morgana installs to \Program Files\112dB\ Morgana. In general, it is not recommended to change this but if you have a compelling reason to do so, either type in the desired directory in the Destination Folder box, or click on the Browse button to the right of the Destination Folder box and select the directory within which you would like Morgana installed. 4. If you opted to install the VST plugin, the Choose VST Location step is one you should pay attention to. The setup program should detect your default plugin folder, but you may prefer another directory for your plugins – particularly if you use multiple hosts – in which case you will need to manually direct the installer to the desired directory. The process for this is identical to that in the previous step. 5. The Start Menu Folder step is for convenience and for quick access to troubleshooting files (Windows 7 only).

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