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Copyright © ACCUSONUS INC.All rights reserved.

Accusonus Inc.Lexington, MassachusettsUSA

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Contents

Introduction 4Welcome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Installation & Activation 6System requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Supported formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Supported sample rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Supported plug-in hosts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Beatformer Operation 8Air . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Punch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Squash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10High Split . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Boom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Input-Output Gains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Limiter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Bypass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Preset Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Resizing the plug-in window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Support 15Get in touch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

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Introduction

Welcome

Thank you for choosing accusonus Beatformer. In order to better understand themain concepts and operation of Beatformer, please take the time to read this usermanual.

You can also check out the FAQ or blog section of our site for educational contentand follow us on Facebook and YouTube for tips & tutorials.

Overview

Beatformer is an audio effect plug-in that focuses on quickly adjusting four basiccharacteristics of a beat sound:

• Transients. Quickly adjust the behavior of the transients of the input signal.

• Harmonics. Enhance the timbre of the sound with the dynamic creation ofextra harmonics.

• Dynamics. Control the dynamic feel of the beat with a single knob.

• Low End. Smoothly boost the low end of the signal without the use of EQing.

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Figure 1: Accusonus Beatformer

Features

- Semantic Knobs

- Simple and streamlined user interface

- Tuned algorithms for quick dynamics detection

- Subtle-to-Extreme audio processing

- Uncompromised sound quality

- Transparent Limiter

- Low latency (4ms)

- Resizable UI

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Installation & Activation

You can find the latest Beatformer installer in your accusonus ”My Account” page,in the Downloads section (http://accusonus.com/dashboard). For more informationabout installation and activation see the Activation Manual, which you can find alongwith the installer.

System requirements

Your computer must have:

• a modern architecture CPU.

• a minimum of 2GB RAM memory.

• at least 50MB free space on your hard disk.

• a minimum screen resolution of 800x600 pixels.

Supported formats

Beatformer is available as a mono or stereo audio effect plug-in in the followingformats:

Mac

• AU (64-bit)

• VST (64-bit)

• AAX Native (64-bit)

for macOS 10.10 or later

Windows

• VST (64-bit)

• AAX Native (64-bit)

for Windows 7 (with SP1) or later

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Warning: Beatformer is designed to be used as an audio effect plug-in in-side Digital Audio Workstations or Non-Linear Editing systems. Only the plug-informats listed above are supported.

Supported sample rates

Beatformer supports the following sample rates: 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 88.2 kHz, 96kHz.

Supported plug-in hosts

Beatformer is fully tested in the following DAWs and NLEs:

• Apple Logic Pro 10.4

• Ableton Live 10

• ImageLine FLStudio 12

• Propellerheads Reason 10

• Presonus StudioOne 3.2

• Cockos Reaper 5.80

Warning: There are just too many combinations of DAWs and plug-in formatsout there, so there’s always something we might have not tested. If you don’t seeyour DAW above, you can always download the free, fully-functional 14-day trialand see if Beatformer is supported for yourself. If you encounter any problems,let us know at support@accusonus.com.

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Beatformer Operation

Behind the simple and intuitive user interface of Beatformer is a complex signalflow which is described in the diagram. In the following sections we will discuss eachof Beatform control in more detail.

Figure 2: Beatformer Signal Flow Diagram

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Air

Figure 3: Air Knob

You can use Air to excite the high end or tame excessive high frequencies. Airis a bipolar control. From 0.0 to 10.0 Air will dynamically add harmonics to the highfrequencies of the signal. On the other hand from 0.0 to -10.0 Air will dampen thesound. Behind the scenes Air includes a transient shaper and a soft saturation unit,with different settings for M/S (mid/side) or L/R (stereo) processing, and creates anexciter-like effect for values greater than 0.0 and a subtle high-frequency suppressorfor values less than 0.0.

Punch

Figure 4: Punch Knob

Punch affects the transient of the input signal. Punch is a bipolar control. Forvalues between 0.0 and 1.0 the attack of the signal is enhanced while for valuesbetween 0.0 and -10.0 the attack is reduced. The dynamics processing behind thescenes, using a transient shaping paradigm, adjusts the attack and sustain parts of

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the signal to add more punch (for positive values) or flatten the attacks (for nega-tive values). Punch will affect lower frequencies than the ones Air controls, givingmore emphasis to the mid-frequency range of the signal and sounds like snares,percussion etc.

Figure 5: Punch effect on sound

Squash

Figure 6: Squash Knob

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Squash affects the dynamic range of the signal. It is a bipolar control. For valuesbetween 0.0 and 10.0 the signal is squashed by bringing the lower-in-gain parts ofthe signal closer to its peaks. For values between 0.0 and -10.0 this control willcreate more space between them. Squash operates after the Punch, on the samefrequencies, to control the dynamics, after the transients have been processed withPunch and will follow the same Mid-Side or Left-Right processing.

Figure 7: Squash effect on sound

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High Split

Figure 8: High-Split Knob

The High Split control allows you to select the crossover frequency beween Airand Punch/Squash. You can select values between 4kHz and 12kHz. This controlenables you to find the sweet spot in the frequency spectrum that will separate in-struments of interest, like for example the hi-hats from the snare, the tambourinefrom the congas etc.

Boom

Figure 9: Boom Knob

Boom smoothly enhances the low frequencies of the signal by dynamically addingextra harmonics to the low end. The drop-down menu under the control can beused to blend the created harmonics with an event-driven tone generation. The keyspecified will change the pitch of the effect for tuning the low-end sounds like thekick-drum, toms etc as preferred.

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Input-Output Gains

Figure 10: Input-Output Gain Knobs

You can adjust the Input Gain between -24dB and +24dB and the Output Gainbetween -12dB, and +12dB. The Input Gain adjusts the gain of the signal beforehitting the dynamic processors found in Air, Punch, Squash and Boom. This meansthat the behavior of these processors may change if the signal is being pushed withlarge input gain levels. The Output Gain, on the other hand, is applied after allprocessing but before the limiter.

Limiter

Figure 11: Limiter Switch

You can use the Limit switch to enable or disable the limit at the end of the signalflow before the plug-in output. This limiter has an automatic release time and is setat a 0dB threshold. It helps control excessive peaks that may result with extreme set-tings of the four main controls. It is a transparent limiter that only acts as a safety net.You can use the Output Gain to drive the processed signal to the limiter input.TheOutput Gain is being placed after these processors and before the Limiter to give acontrol over the preferred pushing of the gain to the altered signal inside the Limiter.

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Bypass

When the Bypass button is active, all processing is bypassed and the originalsignal comes through Beatformer untouched.

Tip: It is usually better to use and automate this button to bypass processing,since this will keep the audio in sync (retain the declared latency to your DAW)with the rest of the DAW tracks.

Preset Menu

Beatformer comes with a set of Presets that can help you quickly find a suitablecharacteristic sound to your beat or catch a glimpse of how the plugin tranforms thesound. You can load any of the factory Presets or create your own and store them inBeatformer.

Figure 12: Preset Menu

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Resizing the plug-in window

Beatformer offers the option to resize the plug-in window. This can be especiallyhelpful if you have large or high-resolution screens or you just want to focus on aspecific task. Click the zoom icon at the top right corner and choose between threesettings.

Figure 13: Window Resize

Support

Get in touch

Use this form to contact our technical support team, if you haven’t found an answerto your question in our FAQ section.

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