Steinberg Hypersonic User Manual

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Selecting elements
There are two possible ways to select an element for editing:
•Click on the element’s icon in the patch structure, or
•click into the Edit field at the Edit page’s top right. A pop-up menu 
opens where you can select elements by their names.
To get back to the Patch Settings Element, you can either click on the “P” 
icon in the structure or select the first entry in the Edit selector menu.
Drumkits
In drumkits, each drum instrument (residing on its own key) has its own 
sample element. Thus, you can tweak drumkits easily by exchanging 
instruments, tuning them, or adjusting their individual sound character-
istics.
Muting elements
You can mute elements – for example while tweaking others, or to thin 
out a patch. 
•To mute an element, right-click (Win)/[Ctrl]-click (Mac) the element 
icon.
•Another right-click (Win)/[Ctrl]-click (Mac) unmutes it.  
						

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The Patch Settings [P]
The Edit page first appears with the patch settings selected. The patch 
settings page is indicated by the “P” in the signal chain on the left hand. 
Here, you can edit a number of the patch’s most common settings. This 
page also features the powerful arpeggiator which is described in “The 
Arpeggiator” on page 64.
Mono Mode
You can change the default mono mode preset setting:
•Select “On” to force the patch to mono mode (monophonic).
•Select “Off” to disable the patch’s mono mode (polyphonic).
Glide Mode
Use this control to enable pitch glide between two notes played legato. 
The Glide Time knob on the right adjusts the time it takes for the pitch 
to glide between notes played legato.  
						

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Glide Time
Sets the glide time as a percentage relative to glide time values pre-
programmed in the elements:
•-100%: short glide time
•0: uses the element’s default glide time
•+100%: long glide time
Bend Up/Down
This sets the Pitch bend range and behavior separately for the up and 
down ranges:
•Any number sets the Pitch bend range in semitones – e.g., 12 is a range of 
one octave.
•12 Q: One octave range, quantized to semitones (glissando).
•Harm: Harmonic sequence (one octave range) with the 3rd harmonic at the 
center.
For a lead guitar e.g., you would typically set Bend Up to 2 and Bend 
Down to 24. 
						

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The Arpeggiator
Arpeggiator ON/OFF
Switches the arpeggiator on or off.
Rate
Sets the arpeggio rate in note values. The arpeggiator is always 
synced to song tempo.
Mode
•Up, Down, Up+Down: Arpeggiator plays only upwards, downwards, or com-
bined (cycles back and forth between the lowest and highest note).
•As Played: Notes arpeggiate in the order played.
•Random: Notes arpeggiate in a random order.
•Step Seq/Ctrl Seq/Rand Seq/Elem Seq: These are special functions using 
the Arpeggiator’s step sequencer and will be explained later on.
•Phrase: 
Set the Arpeggiator to “Phrase” to play one of 200 categorized 
MIDI phrases. See “Phrase” below.
Octaves
Sets the number of octaves spanned by the arpeggio pattern.
Steps
Sets the number of steps before the arpeggio pattern resets. 
For example, when you press three keys and set Steps to 5, the arpeg-
giator will play 1-2-3-1-2 and repeat.  
						

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Sync
This determines the way in which you can manually reset the arpeg-
giator:
•1st note: After releasing all keys, hitting a new one resets the arpeggiator.
•Retrig: Hitting a new key retriggers the arpeggio pattern.
•Beat: Like Retrig, but retriggering waits until the next song beat (often referred 
to as input quantization).
Latch
When activated, the arpeggiator continues playing even after you re-
lease the keys. You can use the sustain pedal to temporarily put the 
arpeggiator into latch mode.
Phrase
When the Arpeggiator “Mode” is set to “Phrase”, you can use this 
drop-down menu to select from over 200 categorized MIDI phrases, 
designed to suit any musical style or instrument. You can also select 
“Import” from the list. This allows you to import your own short MIDI 
files that will trigger the arpeggiator.
Key
Selecting a scale from the drop-down menu forces the Arpeggiator to 
use only notes of this scale in its performance.  
						

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Gate
Adjust the length of MIDI notes played by the Arpeggiator.
Swing
Swing allows you to adjust the feel of the Arpeggiator’s performance. 
Technically speaking, Swing allows you to move the offbeats of a bar 
earlier or later. You can get the Arpeggiator to play exact triplets by 
setting Swing to 100%.
The Arpeggiator’s programmable step sequencer
Hypersonic 2 features a programmable 16-step sequencer in the 
arpeggiator section. 
To use the step sequencer, proceed as follows:
1.Load a patch.
2.Click Edit.
3.Select the Patch Settings page.
4.Set the Arpeggiator Mode to “Step Seq”.
5.Click the Edit button in the Arpeggiator section.  
						

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Creating sequences
The Hypersonic 2 step sequencer is very easy to use and an effective 
and creative patch making tool.
To create your own step sequences for any patch, simply set a pitch 
value for each step (displayed in semitone increments) in the “Note” 
column and set a velocity amount in the neighboring “Vel” column. The 
step sequencer responds to the arpeggio Rate and Steps controls on 
the Patch Settings page, to allow you to adjust the playback speed 
and number of steps to be played.
Also displayed on the Step Sequencer edit page are two extra columns, 
Seq 1 and Seq 2. These allow you to generate and edit control se-
quences for use in the powerful modulation matrix on the Edit page. 
Control Sequences can be used, for example, to create gating effects, 
automate panning or to sweep wavetables, the possibilities are endless. 
Random Seq 
When you select this option from the Arpeggio Mode menu, sequencer 
steps will be played in a random sequence.
Ctrl Seq
When you select this option from the Arpeggio Mode menu, only the 
Seq 1 and Seq 1 controller sequences will be sent to the Modulation 
Matrix while the arpeggiator is running. Any notes held are not arpeg-
giated.
Elem Seq
Similar to Step Seq mod, but triggers notes in the range C1-D#2, and 
applies a transposition depending on the held notes. 
						

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Editing synth elements
For the editing of the synth elements Sample, Virtual Analog, Wave-
table and FM, Hypersonic 2 features three sub-pages. 
Easy
This is the page to tweak general settings for a synth element, such as 
tuning, voices, levels, panning, velocity sensitivity and amp and filter 
envelopes.
Osc
This is short for Oscillators. Here you will find particular controls for 
each type of synth element explained in detail later on.
Mod
The Modulation Matrix page. This is the place to go for the literally li-
mitless modulation possibilities and some ‘expert’ features such as 
the assigning and routing of Hyperknobs.
For detailed explanations of the Mod page please refer to the PDF 
document “The Mod Page” on the Hypersonic 2 DVD. 
						

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The Easy Page
Octave/Semi/Cent
These three controls adjust the element’s pitch in octave, semitone or 
cent increments.
Max Voices
This parameter limits the number of voices (polyphony) the element 
can play.
Filter mode
Each Hypersonic 2 element features a multimode, multislope filter. 
Changing the filter mode drastically alters the sound’s timbre and 
“color”, particularly when swept. The following modes are available:
•Filter Off – Filter is bypassed.
•Lowpass 24/12 dB: The lowpass filter rolls off frequencies above the cutoff 
frequency while leaving the lower ones unaffected. The higher the frequency 
is compared to the cutoff frequency, the greater the degree of attenuation. 
This degree is set by the slope rate, in dB/octave. A 24 dB/octave slope is 
steeper and good for synth sounds, while 12 dB/octave sounds less artificial 
and is better-suited to acoustic/natural sounds.  
						

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•Bandpass 18/12 dB: A bandpass filter rolls off frequencies both below and 
above the cutoff frequency, thus “peaking” a certain range of frequencies. 
This response is good for synthetic filter sweeps and thinning out the sound 
character.
•Highpass 12 dB: The highpass filter is a mirror image of the lowpass filter; it 
rolls off frequencies below the cutoff frequency. This type of response empha-
sizes the upper frequency ranges and thins out the overall sound.
•Peaking EQ: This is similar to a bandpass response but is more drastic, and 
amplifies or attenuates the frequency range around the cutoff frequency. Use 
this for emphasizing resonances or formants within a sound.
•Presence: This shelving EQ response boosts the high frequency range. Cut-
off adjusts the low frequency limit above which boosting occurs.
•Damper: This type of shelving EQ gently attenuates the high frequency range. 
Cutoff adjusts the low frequency limit above which attenuation occurs.
Cutoff
This adjusts the frequency where the filter starts affecting the sound. 
Cutoff’s precise effect depends on the chosen filter mode (see above).
Reso
This boosts the frequency range around the cutoff frequency, making 
the filter effect sharper and more resonant. High values can cause the 
filter to self-oscillate, creating a sine wave pitched at the cutoff fre-
quency.
Vel->Cutoff / Key->Cutoff
This sets whether the velocity or the keyboard note affect the cutoff 
frequency. For example, acoustic instruments often become brighter 
when struck or played more forcefully. You can simulate this effect by 
tying cutoff to velocity, adjusted using this control.
Env (Depth)
Sets how much the filter envelope level affects the cutoff frequency.
Vel->Env
The extent to which velocity influences the Env Depth can be adjusted 
using this control.