How does the "CA2600 FX" VST plugin work?

[Phileosophos]

I've been taking a musical inventory of late, going through all my plugins and classifying everything to prune stuff that isn't worth using anymore, when I discovered something: both the CA2600 and the PS-20 synthesizers can be loaded as insert effects as well. In particular, I loaded up what appears to be the effects version of the plugin tonight, named "CA2600 FX" to distinguish it from the instrument plugin I assume, but couldn't ever seem to get the audio output working or find any effect-specific presets that worked.

I'm still pretty much a newbie where these two synths are concerned, so I can't help but think maybe I have to patch some cables or something to make it work? But so far I haven't found anything in the docs or forums that has helped me understand. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks!

[utdgrant]

I don't have CA2600 but I do own Arturia's 2600-V. It offers a similar approach, with an FX version of the plug-in available alongside the main 'instrument' version. It allows you to use the processors of the 2600 and apply them to a signal from an external instrument or a recorded audio track.

It is really intended for hosting within a DAW or similar environment. You would use the 'Insert FX' slot in your DAW's track/channel, inserting CA2600 FX in place of an effect VST (reverb, for example). Here is an example of 2600-V FX being used to process the signal from the Thor synth in Reason:

Thor through 2600V-FX in Reason.jpg (83.45 KiB) Viewed 5330 times

I then set up a patch which took the external signal and ran it through the spring reverb of the 2600-V.

2600 Spring Reverb.jpg (127.4 KiB) Viewed 5330 times

As I say, I don't own CA2600, but I expect the procedure to be very similar.

Have you read the manual?

[huggermugger]

utdgrant is right on about the Preamplifier, that's where the audio will come in to the Arp. When used as an effect insert in your DAW, I believe the audio will automatically arrive at the Input/Sidechain. You'll have to turn the GAIN dial up.

The PREAMP Output can be patched wherever you want for audio processing. In the Arturia example that utdgrant posted, the only processing you've got is the level control and pan on the mixer, plus the spring reverb which is included in the mixer. But there are more options in the Arturia, and even more in the Cherry version. These include processing thru the VCF, or thru any of the three effects (unique to the Cherry version).

In this image, the solid yellow would be a patch cable from the PREAMP into the VCF. The dotted yellow is a normalled connection from the VCF into the Mixer.

The solid blue is a patch from the PREAMP into the VCA. The dotted blue lines are normalled connections from the VCA into the Distortion, Delay, and Reverb, and the dotted blue box shows the outputs of the three effects normalled into the mixer.

Sorry, I couldn't find an image of the synth that didn't already have patch cables, so please ignore those.

This is a good start to getting the signal flow working. Once you get there, you can do so much more by engaging things like the LFO, Ringmod, Envelopes, etc.

[Phileosophos]

First, thanks for the quickie patch diagram! That seems like great advice. I hooked it all up like that, or at least I think I have (see the screenshot below) and still don't get any audio. Any suggestions as to what I've done wrong or what else I need to do?

CA2600 FX Patch 1.png (644.62 KiB) Viewed 5295 times

[Steve W]

I am pretty sure I did something with using one or both to process audio (quick test of concept things). Not sure if I saved the test presets. With something, I took apart a CA2600 factory preset to see how it worked when looking at an issue someone mentioned and I recall there was something that struck me as odd with regard to the audio chain. I will see if I can job my memory in case that will help.

[huggermugger]

First, thanks for the quickie patch diagram! That seems like great advice. I hooked it all up like that, or at least I think I have (see the screenshot below) and still don't get any audio. Any suggestions as to what I've done wrong or what else I need to do?

CA2600 FX Patch 1.png

One thing you haven't done yet is turn up these two faders in your yellow VCF processing patch...

CA2600 FX Patch 1.png (196.25 KiB) Viewed 5290 times

But the blue effects patch looks like it should work. So, a question for you. When you have audio coming in from your DAW, do you see LED activity in the LED's in the upper LH corner, next to the INPUT plug of the PREAMP section? I think you need to see activity on those LEDS to know there's even any audio coming in.

CA2600 FX Patch 1-1.png (102.09 KiB) Viewed 5290 times

[huggermugger]

Also, I think you might have to turn up the Initial Gain on the VCA...

[Phileosophos]

Aha! I've made some progress, thanks to the good advice with which y'all have blessed me, so thanks for that. Let me try to respond to some questions and provide some new information.

First, thanks, huggermugger, for pointing me at the "Initial Gain" on the VCA! As soon as I turned that up, I had audio coming through from my Pianoteq VST instrument feeding the effect. That's great! And in answer to your question from the previous post, yes, I had the lights in the preamp section showing incoming audio all the while I wasn't hearing anything.

Interestingly, I started with your earlier suggestion that I should "...turn up these two faders in your yellow VCF processing patch...", referring to the ring mod fader on the VCF and the VCF fader on the mixer. That didn't give me audio from my Pianoteq VST instrument, but turning up the latter immediately gave me an unending deep analog oscillator growl! That was a bit of a surprise. It reminds me of old-school modular oscillators going like mad until you connected a keyboard input to their incoming control port back in the day. Maybe that's what's actually happening with the CA2600 too? Again, I'm a newbie, so I don't understand it yet.

Thanks to all who helped. I saved that most basic effect patch for future use. I think it's time for me to hit the manual for the CA2600 and figure out what needs patching and what doesn't.

[huggermugger]

Interestingly, I started with your earlier suggestion that I should "...turn up these two faders in your yellow VCF processing patch...", referring to the ring mod fader on the VCF and the VCF fader on the mixer. That didn't give me audio from my Pianoteq VST instrument, but turning up the latter immediately gave me an unending deep analog oscillator growl! That was a bit of a surprise. It reminds me of old-school modular oscillators going like mad until you connected a keyboard input to their incoming control port back in the day. Maybe that's what's actually happening with the CA2600 too? Again, I'm a newbie, so I don't understand it yet.

Good news that you have audio! The surprise audio growls are my fault, as the settings I presented only took into account the incoming audio. On the ARP, there are normalled patch cables wherever you see an orange box with an arrow pointing up from it. That's an 'automatic' connection. It was ARP's clever way of minimizing the need for patch cables, unlike the Moog Modulars, which needed cables for EVERYTHING. So, when you see a fader above an orange box, whatever's in that box is patched in by default (normalled), and the fader controls its volume. So on the VCF, you would have heard Pianoteq, but also the sound of the ARP's own VCO1, VCO2, and VCO3, because they were turned up. See my image. Turn those down, so the only audio coming into the VCF is Pianoteq.

Notice that by patching Pianoteq into the fader called RING MOD, you broke the RING MOD connection and replaced it with Pianoteq. That's how the 2600 works. Default, normalled patching, plus the ability to override with your own patch cable.

[huggermugger]

By the way, I don't own the CA2600 and can't trial it, so I was just going by my understanding of how the Arturia version works (which I do own) and the basic logic behind the 2600. Otherwise, I would have been able to test my 'theories' before leading you down the garden path lol.