Thursday, 22.

July 2021

User Guide
Version 1.0.1

Heckmann Audio GmbH • Berlin

 Thursday, 22. July 2021

Table of Contents

Introduction 3
About Colour Copy .............................................3

Installation ...........................................................3

u-he Online .........................................................4

Credits ................................................................4

Overview .............................................................5

Controls 6
Control Bar ..........................................................6

Main Panel ..........................................................7

Lower Panel ........................................................9

Preset Browser 12
Directory Panel .................................................13

Presets Panel ....................................................16

Preset Info Panel ...............................................18

Installing Presets ...............................................19

Preset Tagging ..................................................20

Search Functions ..............................................21

Configuration 23
MIDI Remote Control ........................................23

Preferences .......................................................25

NKS 27
 INTRODUCTION

Introduction
About Colour Copy
Colour Copy grew out of Lyrebird, the delay unit we built into our Repro synthesizers. We soon
realised that the sound was too good NOT to be developed further. So here it is…

Two important details

1) Like a real BBD (bucket-brigade delay), Colour Copy’s RATE knob does not affect the number
of samples used, but the rate at which the fixed number of "buckets" pass on their content. If
you quickly adjust the delay on most digital delays, unmusical glitches appear as the length of
the buffer changes. Like a real BBD, this doesn’t happen in Colour Copy: it is smooth.

2) The tap positions (L, R) don't set the time between repeats, but the time between the dry
signal and the first echos, which are then repeated at the rate set by TIME BASE and RATE.
The animated graphic clearly shows that the signal always reaches the end of the delay line
before reappearing on the left, irrespective of the tap positions.

Installation
Go to www.u-he.com/colourcopy, download the installer for your system (Mac or PC) and unzip
the compressed file. Open the “ColourCopy” folder, start the installer and follow instructions.

The only demo restriction is a mild crackling at irregular intervals. This disappears after entering a
valid serial number. For more information including our terms of use, please refer to the ReadMe
file that comes with the installer.

Colour Copy uses the following directories by default:

Windows
Presets (local) C:\Users\YOU\Documents\u-he\ColourCopy.data\Presets\ColourCopy\

Presets (user) C:\Users\YOU\Documents\u-he\ColourCopy.data\UserPresets\ColourCopy\

Preferences C:\Users\YOU\Documents\u-he\ColourCopy.data\Support\ (*.txt files)

Alt. skins C:\Users\YOU\Documents\u-he\ColourCopy.data\Support\Themes\

Paths that contain non-standard characters are not supported. If a previous installation into the
VstPlugins folder did not cause file permissions problems, you can safely reinstall there.

macOS
Presets (local) Macintosh HD/Library/Audio/Presets/u-he/ColourCopy/

Presets (user) Macintosh HD/Users/YOU/Library/Audio/Presets/u-he/ColourCopy/

Preferences Macintosh HD/Users/YOU/Library/AppSupport/u-he/com.u-he.ColourCopy...

Alt. skins Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/u-he/Themes/

For more information, including our terms of use, please refer to the text files that came with the
installer (click on the u-he badge and select Docs Folder).


3
 INTRODUCTION

u-he Online
For downloads, news articles and customer support, go to the u-he website

For lively discussions about u-he products, go to the KVR u-he forum

For friendship and informal news updates, go to u-he facebook page

For video tutorials and more, go to the u-he youtube channel

For our soundsets and bundles, go to u-he soundsets

For 3rd party presets, go to Patchlib

Credits

Colour Copy code by William Rodewald

Team 2021 (Q3)

Urs Heckmann (boss code, concepts)

Jayney Klimek (office management)

Howard Scarr (user guides, synth presets, necessary grump)

Rob Clifton-Harvey (IT admin, backend development)

Sebastian Greger (GUI design, 3D stuff)

Jan Storm (framework, more code)

Alexandre Bique (all things Linux)

Oddvar Manlig (business development)

Viktor Weimer (support, presets, the voice)

Thomas Binek (QA, bug-hunting, presets)

Henna Gramentz (office supervision, support)

Frank Hoffmann (framework, new browser)

Alf Klimek (tagging, rock-stardom, studio)

Sebastian Hübert (media, synthwave)

David Schornsheim (more code)

Stephan Eckes (yet more code)

Luca Christakopoulos (communication design)

Special thanks
to all our beta testers for your invaluable help!

to Brian Rzycki for maintaining the original preset library


4
 INTRODUCTION

Overview

Click on the numbers to go directly to the appropriate section of this user guide.


03
01 02 04 05 06 07 08

12
09 10 11 14 15 16
13

17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

36 38
28 29 31 32 35 37 39

26 27 30 33 34

01. BYPASS
14. Stereo WIDTH
27. Ducking Target

02. Undo / Redo

15. Dry/Wet MIX
28. Ducking THRESHOLD

03. Data Display

16. OUTPUT Gain
29. COLOUR

04. HQ (higher quality)

17. MAKEUP
30. Noise Floor

05. PRESETS
18. KEY CONTROL
31. BRIGHTNESS

06. SAVE
19. TIME BASE
32. SATURATION

07. u-he badge

20. PANIC
33. LFO Target

08. Configuration
21. INPUT Routing
34. LFO Waveform

09. INPUT Gain

22. FEEDBACK Routing
35. LFO FREQUENCY

10. Delay RATE

23. Feedback INVERT
36. LFO Freq. DYNAMIC

11. REGEN (regeneration)

24. Label
37. LFO DEPTH

12. Left Tap Position

25. Freeze
38. LFO Depth DYNAMIC

13. Right Tap Position

26. Ducking Mode
39. LFO STEREO PHASE


Basic Signal Flow

All routes in this diagram are stereo. LFO modulation paths are not shown here. The filters and
compressor/expander are controlled by the Feedback Colouration parameters.


input amp dry/wet mix output amp

IN routing lowpass

highpass compressor delay lines

ducking regen FB routing expander lowpass

= jump to this page! 5

 CONTROLS

Controls
Adjust knob values by clicking and dragging. For fine control, hold a SHIFT key first. Alternatively,
hover over any control and roll the mouse wheel. Double-click to reset to the default value.

The delay tap positions L and R are adjusted by dragging them horizontally, also with fine control
via SHIFT. Hold down cmd (Mac) or alt (Win) to force L or R to snap to the nearest note value.

Control Bar
The narrow bar along the top of the window offers various global tools and options:

BYPASS
Connects the input directly to the output so that the audio signal is not processed. Although
the status of the BYPASS button is not saved with each preset, it can differ per instance.

Undo / Redo
The curved arrows can be used to fix recent mistakes. Although the number of undo steps is
limited to 10, you can even undo a change of preset – so switching presets before saving
doesn’t mean losing your work.

Data display
The display field at the top normally shows the name of the preset. While a parameter is being
edited it shows the name and value of that parameter. Simply moving the mouse pointer
(“hovering”) over a control also displays its value.

You can also load presets here: Click on the arrows to step through them or click on the data
display to open a drop-down list (for the current folder only). Right-click to load the initialize
preset (init). Colour Copy also features a complete Preset Browser.

Finally: If you drag & drop a preset from elsewhere (e.g. the desktop) onto the data display, it
will be loaded but not saved.

SAVE
Opens a dialog box in which you can enter some helpful text before finally storing the preset
with the ‘Apply’ button. If you can’t see your newly saved preset in the currently selected
folder, check the status of the preference Save Presets To.

Right-click on the SAVE button beforehand to specify the format. The standard is .h2p, which
has the advantage of being cross-platform compatible. The .h2p extended format is the same
but also allows per-line comments. If you have loaded the VST2 version of Colour Copy you
will also see the option .nksfx at the bottom of the list – see the NKS chapter.

PRESETS
Opens the browser (see the Preset Browser chapter).


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 CONTROLS

HQ
Higher quality at the cost of CPU usage (44.1kHz or 48kHz only). Like BYPASS, the HQ status
is not saved with each preset, but may differ per instance.

Note: To ensure phase alignment, the dry signal is delayed with the same latency as the wet
signal, and this value depends on the HQ status. Colour Copy reports any change in latency to
the host (i.e. your sequencer) on reset, but how the host reacts is beyond Colour Copy’s
control. If switching HQ on adds a significant delay, please check the host documentation for
details, and contact the host developer if necessary.

u-he badge
Click on the badge for direct access to our website, to this user guide and
other Colour Copy documents, to our user support forum at KVR and to
our social network pages.

At the bottom of the menu is the entry Install Soundset… Unless you are running Linux, you
probably won’t need this – see Installing extra presets.

Configuration
Clicking on the cogwheel icon at the top right opens the configuration pages for access to
MIDI control and to several global preferences. See the Configuration chapter.

Main Panel
The main panel contains the basic elements you will find on most delay units plus a few extras
that are unique to Colour Copy:

INPUT Gain
-24.00dB to +24.00dB. Like a real BBD stomp box, Colour Copy’s delay “circuitry” is sensitive
to input levels: Adjust INPUT just like you would your instrument volume before the BBD. The
green saturation indicator turns red whenever clipping occurs. See also OUTPUT below.

RATE
RATE is a bipolar speed factor relative to the selected TIME BASE (see below). The range is 1/4
speed at minimum (-100) to 4x speed at maximum (+100).

REGEN
Regeneration, the amount of delayed signal that is fed back into the input. Note that values
above 70% can cause delays to build up instead of decaying – see PANIC below.

MAKEUP
Global option: The INPUT knob automatically adjusts OUTPUT gain in the opposite direction.

KEY CTRL
The delay rate can be modulated by MIDI note: Try setting up very short delays and turning up
REGEN (regeneration). For details about how to route MIDI into effect plug-ins such as Colour
Copy, please refer to the host (DAW/sequencer) documentation.

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 CONTROLS

TIME BASE
Duration of the delay when RATE is 0.00. The options are absolute times 1s / .1s / .01s / .001s
as well as times that are synchronized to the the song (host BPM). The latter are listed as 4/4
bar divisions from 1/32 to 2/1, including dotted notes and triplets.

PANIC
Immediately stops feedback. Whenever you hear delays building up instead of
decaying, click here. Before resuming work, either turn REGEN down a bit or adjust
the Colour parameters until the feedback is under control.

L/R Tap Positions

To reposition the taps, click anywhere along the delay lines or click and drag the L and R
pointers horizontally. You can also “hover” anywhere and roll the mouse wheel. Hold down a
SHIFT key for fine control. Double-click to set the maximum. To snap to the nearest note value,
hold down cmd (Mac) or alt (Windows) before clicking & dragging.

INPUT Routing
Even the input routing in Colour Copy is flexible, allowing the two channels to be swapped or
mixed to either delay channel. In combination with feedback routing (see below), a wide variety
of effects is possible, although the differences depend on the audio being processed.

Click on the INPUT routing icon for the following options:

INPUT INPUT

L L
STEREO CROSS
R R

INPUT INPUT INPUT

L L L
MONO MONO-L MONO-R
R R R

Stereo .................Inputs are routed to the same delay lines (R to R and L to L).

Cross ..................Inputs are routed to the other delay lines (R to L and L to R).

Mono ..................Inputs are summed and routed to both delay lines.

Mono-L ...............Inputs are summed and sent to the left delay line only.

Mono-R ..............Inputs are summed and sent to the right delay line only.

FEEDBACK Routing

Colour Copy offers a similar degree of control over how the signal is fed back: The two
channels can be swapped or mixed together. Note that you will only hear a difference between
these three options if the left and right channels of the signal being fed back differ in some way,
for instance with a stereo input signal or via stereo rate modulation.

FEEDBACK FEEDBACK FEEDBACK

L L L
STEREO CROSS MIX
R R R

Stereo .................Delay outputs are fed back into the same inputs (R to R and L to L).

Cross ..................Delay outputs are fed back into the other inputs (R to L and L to R).

Mix ......................Delay outputs are partially summed (70% same channel, 30% other channel)
and fed back into both inputs.

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 CONTROLS

WIDTH
Stereo width of the delay signal.

MIX
Balance between wet and dry signals.

OUTPUT Gain
-24.00dB to +24.00dB. As Colour Copy’s circuit models are also sensitive to output levels, we
decided to include an output gain control. Whenever clipping occurs, the indicator turns red.
See INPUT Gain above.

INVERT
Inverts the feedback signal. Often rather subtle, the effect of activating INVERT is especially
noticeable if the TIME BASE is so short that regeneration results in a pitched note (in which
case INVERT drops the pitch an octave and often gives the sound a hollow quality).

Label
Double-click on the “air vent” between the invert and freeze buttons to add a text label
(maximum 16 characters). Right-click there to select the background colour. Tip: Use different
colours to distinguish between multiple instances of Colour Copy more easily.

FREEZE
This loops the delay indefinitely. All feedback distortion, filters, gains etc. are
ignored, but modulation will still affect the sound. Note: The feedback routing is
automatically switched to FREEZE (this is practically the same as STEREO mode).

IMPORTANT: Cubase has a preference “suspend VST3 plug-in processing when no audio
signals are received” which cuts off FREEZE after a few seconds unless you keep sending
audio or MIDI. The same option also silences normal regenerating delays after a short while. If
you are using VST3 and your host includes such an option, either disable it or load Colour
Copy in a format other than VST3 (e.g. VST2)!

Lower Panel

DUCKING
Regeneration is suppressed by any transients in the input signal that exceed the specified
Threshold (see below). Traditionally used to prevent delays from overpowering the direct signal.

MODE (unlabelled)
Ducking response OFF / FAST / MEDIUM / SLOW. Listen to all these options at various
threshold levels (see below) and let your ear decide on the most appropriate mode for the
audio you are currently processing.


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 CONTROLS

TARGET (unlabelled)

AMP ...............Standard ducking – the amplitude of the entire delay signal is suppressed.

FB ..................Only the feedback signal is suppressed so that the very first delay remains
unaffected! This unusual method results in a more subtle ducking effect as it
preserves the overall stereo space while reducing the sonic mayhem that
regeneration can easily cause.

THRESHOLD
Sets the minimum input signal level (-48dB to +24dB) at which ducking occurs.

FEEDBACK COLOURATION
COLOUR
Morphs smoothly between the 5 colours – different sets of values for a bunch of internal
variables (filters, distortion, compression etc.). Note that the dry signal remains 100% clean.

RESO ................Well-behaved resonant colour with mild distortion and mild lowpass filtering. The
compander is set to react quite slowly. Its wide working range but low ceiling
helps prevent resonance build-up without adding too much distortion. Although
the frequency range only goes up to 5kHz, the strong resonance ensures plenty
of highs.

SPARKLE ........The brightest mode, with early distortion and shallow lowpass / highpass filtering
(-6dB filter response at cutoff). The compander has a moderate working range
and a slow response. When the regeneration is turned up, feedback noise tends
to build up more quickly than it does with the other colours.

FUZZ ................. Very similar to u-he Repro’s Lyrebird effect in dark mode, with quite a strong
resonance. This colour has several unique characteristics, for instance that filter
cutoff depends on the Rate. To recreate the original Lyrebird sound, adjust the
input gain to about +12dB and compensate by turning the output gain down.

SNAP ................This colour has a wide, flat frequency response with a steep cutoff at both ends
of the spectrum. The compander has a narrow working range and reacts rather
quickly. The timing offset between the compression and expansion accentuates
any transients in the signal.

DUSK ................With its quite narrow, bass-focussed response, this colour quickly loses high
frequencies and has very soft distortion. The compander timing is set up to
soften transients, and because its working range starts so low, the noise floor is
pushed up whenever the signal gets stronger.

Depending on the REGEN, MIX and SATURATION settings, the differences between these
colours might not be obvious at first… Listening to a 100% wet signal with minimum latency
makes their characters clearer: Set both taps to the left (0%) and turn MIX and SATURATION
both up to maximum.

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 CONTROLS

FLOOR
Switch this up to VINTAGE to add a BBD-typical constant noise floor, or set it to LOW for the
minimum noise floor.

BRIGHTNESS
Adjusts feedback filter parameters to successively dampen or brighten the delay signal.

SATURATION
Set to 0% for the cleanest possible delays, or to 100% for maximum analogue colouration.

Note: Under certain conditions e.g. heavily modulating the tap positions while applying heavy
DYN, the compander can cause serious peaks in the delay buffer. If you notice this effect, try
turning SATURATION down a little.

MODULATION
These parameters give the delay some cyclic animation. Modulation is not only essential for
chorus or flanger type effects, but is also useful for creating more “lively” spaces.

TARGET (unlabelled)
RATE ................. The LFO modulates RATE. The depth depends on the length of the delay so that
the modulation depth appears fairly constant, whatever the TIME BASE / RATE.

RATE + ............. The LFO modulates RATE, but this mode always gives you the full modulation
range from 4 times slower to 4 times faster.

TAP POS ..........The LFO modulates both tap positions for a chorus effect on top of the delay.

AMP ..................The LFO modulates the amplitude of both channels for pan or tremolo effects.

WAVEFORM (unlabelled)
Sine or triangle wave modulation.

FREQUENCY
Controls the speed of the LFO between 0.05Hz and 20Hz (as times: 20s to 50ms).

DYN (FREQUENCY DYNAMIC)

How much the input signal (via an envelope follower) modulates LFO Frequency.

DEPTH
Modulation intensity.

DYN (DEPTH DYNAMIC)

How much the input signal (via an envelope follower) modulates LFO depth.

STEREO PHASE
Controls the phase difference between the left and right LFO signal: At 0°, modulation is the
same in both channels, while at 180° it moves in perfect opposition – turn up the DEPTH and
watch those indicators!


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 PRESET BROWSER

Preset Browser
“You will only recognize the beauty of a preset if you run the ‘right’ audio through it”

As mentioned above you can load presets by clicking on the data display, or step through them
by clicking on the arrow symbols. However, Colour Copy also includes a powerful preset browser.
Click on the PRESETS button and select the DIRECTORY tab to open this view:

Folders appear on the left, presets are listed in the centre and information about the currently
loaded preset will appear on the right (PRESET INFO: the path, author, description etc.. won’t
appear until a preset is selected).

The ‘Local’ root contains a small selection of presets copied from the subfolders. After loading a
preset (by clicking on its name) you can step through all the others using the cursor keys.

If no presets appear in the central area, click on ‘Local’ or one of its subfolders. If you don’t see a
‘PRESET INFO’ label on the right, click on the [≡] button (top right) and select Show Preset Info.

that’s all you need to know for now…

If you would like to dig deeper, however, Colour Copy’s browser offers several interesting features
including a powerful search engine. For details, read the rest of this chapter.

Default preset
Whenever a new instance of Colour Copy is started it checks whether the Local root directory
contains a preset called ‘default’. If this file exists it is loaded, replacing the demo preset. Note
that default will not appear in the browser.

If you want Colour Copy to start with personalized settings, right-click on the data display and
select init (initialize). Check that the ‘Local’ root directory is currently open then [SAVE] under the
name ‘default’. If a fresh instance of Colour Copy does not automatically load your new default
preset, it probably landed in the ‘User’ folder – see the Save Presets To preference.


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 PRESET BROWSER

Directory Panel
If DIRECTORY is selected you will see a list of folders. This is the default view (top level only):

Local
The factory presets are sorted into 7 subfolders in ‘Local’. It’s worth finding out where the ‘Local’
folder resides on your computer: Right-click on ‘Local’ and select Open in Finder / Explorer. Tip: It
is best not to touch the contents of ‘Local’, but to put all your own creations and third party
presets in the ‘User’ folder.

MIDI Programs
The ‘Local’ root also contains a folder called ‘MIDI Programs’ which is normally empty. When the
first instance of Colour Copy starts, all presets (up to 128) in this folder are loaded into memory so
they can be selected via MIDI “Program Change”.

Note: Some hosts (e.g. Reaper) route all received MIDI data directly into effect plug-ins by default,
while others expect you to set this up yourself. For information on how to do this, please refer to
the documentation of your host application / DAW.

As the presets in MIDI Programs are accessed in alphabetical order it is best to rename them,
prefixing each one with an index. For instance “000 rest-of-name” to “127 rest-of-name”.

Unlike regular presets, MIDI Programs cannot be added, removed or renamed on the fly. Any
changes are only updated after the host application has been restarted.

MIDI Programs can contain up to 127 sub-folders (of 128 presets each), switchable by a MIDI
‘Bank Select’ message (CC#0) before the Program Change message. ‘MIDI Programs’ is bank 0,
while any sub-folders are addressed in alphabetical order starting with bank 1.

When Colour Copy receives a MIDI Program Change message, it will display the bank and
program numbers to the left of the preset name (e.g. “0:0” for the first preset in the first bank). In
certain hosts, however, the first bank / preset is designated “1” instead of the correct “0”.

To avoid another possible source of confusion, please make sure that there are no junked presets
in the MIDI Programs folder: All files there are addressed, even those that are hidden.


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 PRESET BROWSER

User
The best address for your own creations as well as presets from other sources. You can either
select ‘User’ immediately before saving, or set a global preference ensuring that it will always be
saved to this folder (or a sub-folder) – see the preference Save Presets To. Tip: It’s worth finding
out where the ‘User’ folder resides: Right-click on ‘User’ and select Open in Finder / Explorer.

Smart Folders
The other folders do not contain files, but display the results of querying a database of presets.
The content is therefore dynamic i.e. it will change whenever the underlying data changes.

You can drag & drop any smart folder content onto e.g. ‘User’ or the desktop (see External
Drag & Drop) to create folders containing real copies of those presets!

Search History
Click on this folder to display the results of past searches (maximum 10). If you want the search
results to be more permanent, right-click and select Save Search... – see below. To remove all
searches from the list, right-click on the ‘Search History’ folder and select Clear.

Saved Searches
This folder contains searches that have been saved via right click from the Search History. To
remove individual saved searches, right-click on the search and select Delete.

Banks
These smart folders reference metadata about preset origin – the version of the factory or third
party library with which the preset was installed. See Preset Info a few pages down. Banks are
predefined for factory presets.

You can create your own banks: Drag & drop one or more presets onto the ‘Bank’ folder then
enter a suitable name into the dialogue box.

To remove Bank attributes from selected presets, either drag & drop them onto the ‘no Bank’
folder you will see at the bottom of the Bank list, or right-click on the Bank and select Remove
Presets from Bank. Empty Banks will disappear.

Favourites
8 smart folders, one for each Favourite colour (1-8). See Presets Context Menu a few pages
down. Presets dropped onto one of the ‘Favourites’ folders will be marked as such. Only one
Favourite colour/number can be set per preset. The Favourite status can be removed from all
presets of one particular colour / index by right-clicking on the ‘Favourite’ folder and selecting
Remove All Favourite (n) Marks.

Junk
A smart folder pointing to all junked presets. See Presets Context Menu on the next page. Presets
dropped here will disappear from the rest of the browser unless made visible (see Show junk in
the Presets context menu).

Like Favourites, Junk can be exported/imported (as Junk.uhe-fav). See External Drag & Drop.


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 PRESET BROWSER

Tags
Smart folders for each Category, Application and Character tag. Presets dropped onto these
folders will inherit the corresponding tag. Presets dropped onto the ‘[no Tags]’ smart folder will
have all Category, Application and Character tags removed.

Author
Smart folders for each preset author. Tip: Instead of signing each of your creations individually
you could sign just one of them then select and drag-drop them all onto your own author folder.
As the process cannot be undone, please use this feature with caution!

Directory Context Menu

Right-clicking on any folder within ‘Local’ or ‘User’ will open a menu:

Refresh
Create New…
Rename…
Open in Finder *

Move to Trash
On Open Expand to
Show Folder Icons

Refresh
Update the browser contents (necessary for Windows users after altering any files in Explorer).

Create New…
Insert an empty subdirectory.

Rename…
Edit a folder’s name.

Open in Finder / Explorer

Open a system window for the selected folder. Hold option (Mac) or ctrl (Windows) to switch this
to Show in Finder / Explorer, which highlights the folder instead of opening it.

On Open Expand to
These options determine how deeply the browser will open subdirectories whenever the GUI is
reopened or Refresh is called.

Show Folder Icons

Deselect this option if you find the folder icons distracting.


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 PRESET BROWSER

Presets Panel
The central, unlabelled area of the browser is where you click to load presets...

Presets Context Menu

Right-click to open a menu containing functions that can be applied to individual presets.

Mark as Favourite 1
Mark as Favourite 2
Mark as Favourite 3
Mark as Favourite 4
Mark as Favourite 5
Mark as Favourite 6
Mark as Favourite 7
Mark as Favourite 8
Mark as Junk

Show Junk
Select All
Deselect
Rename…
Copy to User Folder *
Show in Finder *
Convert to h2p *

Move to Trash *

Mark as Favourite
Choose one of 8 Favourite marks. The selected entry will be replaced with Unmark as Favourite.

Mark as Junk / Show Junk

Instead of deleting unloved presets, mark them as ‘junk’ so that they disappear from the browser.
Activate Show Junk to display junked files instead, marking them with a STOP symbol.

Select All, Deselect

See ‘Multiple selection’ on the next page.

Rename
Change the name of a preset using this function.

Duplicate / Copy to User Folder

This entry depends on the status of the preference Save Presets To and whether the source
presets are in the Local or User folder. Selected presets are copied with an index appended to the
name (like the Auto Versioning preference).

Show in Finder / Explorer

Opens a system window for the right-clicked file. In smart folders only, holding down an option
key (Mac) or ctrl key (Windows) replaces this entry with Show in Browser, which shows the
currently selected file in its original location within Colour Copy’s browser.

Convert to native / h2p / h2p extended / nksfx

Converts the selected preset(s) to the format previously selected via right-click on the SAVE
button. The nksfx option is only available in the VST2 version – see the NKS chapter.

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 PRESET BROWSER

Move to Trash / Recycle Bin

This function moves all selected preset(s) to the system trash. Caution: This also works on files in
smart folders i.e. the originals will land in the system trash.

Restore
While in the browser you can audition as many presets as you like without losing track of the one
that was previously loaded: Clicking RESTORE will always get you back to where you started.

Multiple Selection
A block of adjacent presets can be selected via shift+click, and individual presets can be added to
the selection via cmd+click (Mac) / alt+click (Windows). Presets can be moved to a different folder
via drag & drop. To deselect, either click on a deselected preset or choose Deselect from the
context menu.

Internal Drag & Drop

You can drag and drop single or multiple files from the preset panel onto any folders in the
directory panel. Files dragged onto regular folders will be moved unless you hold opt (macOS) or
ctrl (Windows), in which case they will be copied instead. Files dropped onto smart folders will
adopt the attribute of that folder: For instance, you can set the Author or Favourite status of
several presets at once.

External Drag & Drop

To manage your preset library externally you can drag presets and folders between Colour Copy’s
browser and your desktop (or any system window). On the Mac most Finder operations will
automatically update the browser. Updating might not be immediate when using multiple formats
or multiple host applications, but all it usually takes is a click on the GUI or in the directory tree
(sets focus to the clicked instance of Colour Copy). On Windows systems, a manual Refresh (see
Directory context menu) will be required before changes to the contents of the browser appear.

Another little helper: If you drag a Colour Copy preset from e.g. your desktop and drop it onto the
Data Display, that preset will be loaded (but not automatically saved).

Exporting smart folders

Drag any smart folder onto the desktop to create a new folder containing those presets. Drag an
entry from your Search History, or the Category ‘Comb’, Favourites or one of the Authors.

Exporting favourite / junk status

You can export Favourite status, all at once or individually: Shift+click and drag the ‘Favourites’
folder onto the desktop to create a file called Favourites.uhe-fav. Similar for sub-folders: If you
shift+click and drag e.g. ‘Favourites 5’, this will create a file called Favourite 5.uhe-fav.

The same method works for Junk status, creating a file called Junk.uhe-fav. Such files can be
imported into Colour Copy’s browser on a different computer (for instance), via drag & drop onto
or anywhere within the Favourites folder, or to the Junk folder.

Note that importing .uhe-fav files from another computer will only work 100% correctly if all preset
names and locations are identical on both computers!

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 PRESET BROWSER

Preset Info Panel

The panel to the right displays information about the selected preset:

If you can’t see this panel, click on the button in the top right corner and tick Show Preset Info.

Show Preset Info

Show Tags in Preset Info

Below the preset name you should see its path (from /Local or /User), the Bank and the Author
(which also appear as Smart Folders).

DESCRIPTION and USAGE text is entered immediately before saving a patch. CATEGORIES,
APPLICATION and CHARACTER are the tags for the current preset. You can remove or add tags
directly – see ‘Tagging via PRESET INFO’ a few pages down.

If you prefer to see less information, hide the tags only or the entire PRESET INFO panel.


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 PRESET BROWSER

Installing Presets
Any extra presets we distribute ourselves will be available in .uhe-soundset format. Third parties
are also encouraged to use this package format for their own commercial presets (for details
please contact our support team).

Standard Method
To install, drag & drop the .uhe-soundset file into Colour Copy – anywhere will work. The soundset
should appear in the ‘User’ folder. If a soundset with the same name already exists there, any
modified files will be backed up and the location of the backup file will be displayed.

Alternative Method
Soundsets in .uhe-soundset format can also be installed by clicking on the u-he badge, selecting
Install Soundset... from the menu and navigating to the .uhe-soundset file. This option is
especially useful for Linux, as the browser version for that platform does not support drag & drop.

Regular Folders
Folders containing Colour Copy presets can be manually copied or moved into the ‘User’ folder.
You might have to refresh the browser (see Directory context menu) before they appear there. A
refresh is generally necessary in Windows but not in macOS.

Note: As .uhe-soundset files are basically ZIP-compressed folders, you can rename them i.e.
replace the long file extension with ’zip’, then extract the presets and documentation.


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 PRESET BROWSER

Preset Tagging
“Tags” are bits of metadata, information you can add to presets so that they can be found
according to certain attributes.

IMPORTANT
Tags are updated automatically – clicking on the [SAVE] button isn’t required! The main
advantage is that presets don’t have to be saved every time you edit a tag. The main caveat
is that you should only edit tags after saving your preset.

For instance, if you decide to edit tags while creating a 2nd version of an existing preset,
please remember that you are actually changing the tags in the original preset!

The Tagging Window

Right-click on the [SAVE] button and select Tag this Patch:

Category Application Character

Delay Drums Bright Dark

Room Bass Short Long

Comb Guitar Subtle Extreme

Tone Keys Slow Fast

Chorus Vocal Wide Narrow

Flanger Synth Fixed Modulated

Vibrato Pad

Pitch FX Winds

Tremolo FX

Panner Mix

Templates

In Colour Copy, the Category tags describe a preset according to the type of effect, Application
tags describe typical usage, and Character tags are pairs of more or less opposite attributes from
which you can choose just one.

Tagging via PRESET INFO

In the PRESET INFO panel, right-click on CATEGORIES, APPLICATION or CHARACTER and
select or deselect tags from the menu. Tip: If you right-click on an existing tag, the first option in
the menu becomes Remove Tag...

The function Create Search from Tags looks for presets with all the same tags.

Tagging via smart folder

You can also tag presets by dragging & dropping them onto one of the ‘Tags’ smart folders. To
remove all tags, drag them onto the ‘[no Tags]’ smart folder.

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 PRESET BROWSER

Search Functions

Search By Tags
In the preset browser, click on the [TAGS] tab. The buttons let you set up search criteria according
to existing tags with just a few mouse clicks.

DIRECTORY TAGS

Search
CATEGORIES
Delay Room Comb Tone Chorus Flanger Vibrato Pitch FX
Tremolo Panner Templates

APPLICATION
Drums Bass Guitar Keys Vocal Synth Pad Winds FX Mix

CHARACTER
Bright Dark Short Long Subtle Extreme Slow Fast Wide Narrow

Fixed Modulated

FAVOURITES
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

There are four sets of buttons: The first three correspond to the tags in the tagging window (see
the previous page), while the bottom row lets you find any presets tagged as Favourites. Clicking
on the [^] icon to the right of each label hides the options for that set of tags.

Practically…
Click on the [DIRECTORY] tab, right-click on the ‘Search History’ folder and select Clear. Double-
click on ‘Local’ to restrict the scope to that folder (presets in the ‘User’ folder will not appear in
the search results now). The selected path appears immediately below the Search field. To exit the
“restriction” folder again, click on the [^] symbol to the left.

Click on the [TAGS] tab and select the [Chorus] and [Panner] categories. Presets tagged with
either will appear in the presets panel. Click on the DIRECTORY tab again: “#Modulation:Chorus
#Dynamics:Panner” appears in the Search field as well as in ‘Search History’. Adventurous souls
can try editing the contents of the Search field now – the results will be updated accordingly.

Note: Unlike selecting multiple Categories tags, which expands the scope of the search, selecting
APPLICATION, CHARACTER or FAVOURITES tags refines the search – you will get fewer hits.


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 PRESET BROWSER

Search by Text
The Search field lets you find presets according to a string of text. Here’s an easy example: If you
remember that the preset you’re looking for has the word “space” in either its name or the
description, simply enter “space” into the Search field and hit [Return].

The search routine normally looks into the preset name, the author, the DESCRIPTION and
USAGE (see the PRESET INFO panel). Searches are not case-sensitive, and quotes are not
required unless you need to include spaces between multiple words.

Search Path
To restrict the search to a particular search path, double click on a folder. The path will appear
below the Search field. The [^] button to the left moves the search path up one level, while the [X]
button to the right resets the search path to the default (i.e. all Colour Copy presets). Alternatively,
you can navigate directly to any higher level by right-clicking on the search path.

Try it: Enter three or four characters then hit Return. For instance, “sta” will find all files containing
the text string “sta” (e.g. “instant” or “custard”). Entering "star wars" (including the quotes) would
find e.g. “Battlestar Warship”, if such a preset existed.

Scope
You can limit the scope of the search to just the preset name or specific parts of PRESET INFO by
using name (preset name), author, desc (description) or use (usage) followed by a colon. For
instance, “author:the” finds all presets by sound designers whose author names contain “the”.
Similarly, “desc:space” will find all presets with the word “space” in the description.

Logic
The following logical operators can be used between text strings, but not between tags:

AND requires that presets contain both words. It can be written explicitly or simply left out. For
example, “star AND wars” or “star wars” will find presets that contain both “star” and “wars”.

OR means that presets can contain just one of the words… or both. For example, “star OR wars”
will find presets that contain “star” as well as presets that contain “wars”.

NOT excludes presets containing the specified word. To find all presets that do contain “star” but
don’t contain “wars”, enter “star NOT wars”.

Including Tags in Text Searches

Tags can be entered into the Search field if preceded by a ‘#’. For example, “name:int #Delay” will
find all presets with "int" as part of the name that are also tagged with the [Delay] category.

In the current version of the browser, text items must appear before any tags. For technical
reasons, tags appear in the form #type:category (the type is invisible in the TAGS panel).


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 CONFIGURATION

Configuration
The cogwheel at the top right is your entrance to the global configuration pages. You can adjust
the window size and brightness as well as Colour Copy parameters via MIDI remote control…

Click on the cogwheel and select Close [X], MIDI Learn [L], MIDI Table [≡] or Preferences [tools].

MIDI Remote Control

For instructions on how to route MIDI into effect plug-ins, please refer to the documentation
of your host application.

Please note that MIDI assignments are truly global. They apply not only to all instances of Colour
Copy in the current project, but to ALL instances in ALL of your projects!

MIDI Learn
This page lets you assign MIDI CC (‘control change’) to individual parameters. The CC
data can be generated by hardware knobs / sliders or by tracks in the host application.

To open the MIDI Learn page, click on the [L] button. It should look something like this:

This window shows all MIDI-learnable elements as selectable outlines. Those that are already
assigned will appear filled (like INPUT and PANIC in the above image), and the currently active
control i.e. the one ready to be MIDI-learned is highlighted (like RATE here).

Try it: Click on the RATE knob then send Colour Copy some MIDI CC data: Wiggle a knob or slider
on your MIDI controller to make the assignment.

If you don’t want to keep the new CC connection, double-click on the knob to remove it.


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 CONFIGURATION

MIDI Table
The MIDI Table page lets you review and edit the MIDI assignments created using MIDI
Learn (see the previous page). If a few assignments have already been made, it will
look something like this:

MIDI Table

Parameter Channel Controller Mode Type

1 Delay:Input Gain 1 2 normal continuous7bit

2 Delay:Panic 1 11 normal continuous7bit

3 -not assigned- 1 1 normal continuous7bit

Add Delete All

The Parameter field shows the assigned target. Click to select a different one.

An experimental feature: Select Last Clicked Control, enter the number of an unused controller
your hardware can send and exit the config pages. The most recently clicked knob / switch will
respond to that CC. The Fine option is similar, but with a significantly reduced range.

The Channel and Controller fields specify the MIDI channel (1 to 16) and CC number (0-127).

The Mode setting specifies the range and/or resolution of values...

normal ...............................full range, continuous

integer ...............................full range, whole numbers only

fine ......................................0.01 steps between the two integers closest to the current value

The Type setting specifies the kind of hardware used (the most common is Continuous 7-bit)

Encoder127 .....................‘relative mode’ endless rotary controls that repeatedly send the CC
value 1 when turned in the positive direction, or 127 (interpreted as -1)
when turned in the negative direction

Encoder64 .......................‘relative mode’ endless rotary controls that repeatedly send the CC
value 65 when turned in the positive direction, or 63 when turned in the
negative direction

Continuous7bit ...............7-bit MIDI CC (normal resolution, common)

Continuous14bit ............ 14-bit MIDI CC (high resolution, rare)

Adding more assignments

You can either MIDI-learn them as described above, or click on the [Add] button at the bottom of
the window then select Parameter, Channel etc. from the options lists.

Removing assignments
Individual assignments can be removed by clicking on the small [x] to the right of each line. To
remove all assignments at once, click on the [Delete All] button at the bottom of the window.

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 CONFIGURATION

Preferences
Click on the ‘tools’ button to open the ‘Preferences’ page, where you can set several
global defaults to suit your mouse and monitor:

Preferences
CONTROLS

Mouse Wheel Raster on

Switch Behaviour toggle

APPEARANCE

Default Size 100%

Gamma neutral

Scope Effect fast

Text Antialiasing on

PRESETS

Auto Versioning on

Save Presets To user folder

Scan On Startup on

OTHERS

* Base Latency 16 Samples

Controls
Mouse Wheel Raster
If your mouse wheel is rastered (you can feel it clicking slightly as you roll the wheel), set this to
on so that each click increments / decrements in sensible value steps.

Switch Behaviour
The ‘drag’ option lets you drag switches up/down while ‘toggle’ lets you click anywhere on the
2-way switches. In these modes you can also switch over by clicking directly on the position
you want. The ‘iterate’ option steps to the next position down, but clicking directly on a
position no longer works in this mode. Note: Like the knobs, switches respond to rolling the
mouse wheel – no clicks required!

Appearance
Default Size
Sets the default GUI size for each new instance. You can temporarily change the GUI size
without entering the Preferences – simply right-click in the background.

Gamma
Determines GUI brightness.

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 CONFIGURATION

Scope Effect
Affects how the waveform appears: eco, fast, glow, fire or wind (in order of CPU usage).

Text Antialiasing
Switches the smoothing of labels and values on / off. Only in certain cases will switching it off
improve readability.

Presets
Auto-Versioning
If ‘on’, an index is automatically appended to the name and incremented each time it is saved.
Saving ‘Space’ 3 times in a row would give you 3 files: ‘Space’, ‘Space 2’ and ‘Space 3’.

Save Presets To
Choose the ‘user folder’ option if you want all saved presets to land in the User folder instead
of the currently selected one.

Scan On Startup
Determines whether the preset library should be scanned and the database recreated when the
first instance of Colour Copy is started, e.g. when you reopen a project.

Others
Base Latency
If you are sure that your audio system – hardware and software – uses buffers that are a
multiple of 16 samples in size (refer to the respective documentation), you can safely disable
this. Otherwise leave it set to the default ‘16 samples’ to prevent crackles.

Note that the new Base Latency only takes effect when the host allows, e.g. on playback or
after the sample rate is switched. Reloading Colour Copy will always update Base Latency.


MORE ABOUT BUFFERS

Internally, Colour Copy processes audio in chunks of n x 16 samples. The ‘block

processing’ method reduces the CPU load and memory usage of all our plug-ins.

For example. if the number of samples to be processed is 41, Colour Copy will
process the first 32 and keep the remaining 9 in a buffer (16 samples is enough).
Those 9 samples are then processed at the start of the next call... and so on.

The extra buffer is only necessary if the host application or audio driver processes
‘unusual’ audio buffer sizes. Many hosts process buffers of 64, 128, 256 or 512
samples (all multiples of 16), in which case you could try switching off Base Latency
so that Colour Copy can work latency-free.

26
 NKS

NKS
Colour Copy supports Native Instruments NKSFX format so that it can be integrated into the
Komplete Kontrol software or Maschine environments. Colour Copy’s factory presets are
optionally also installed as tagged .nksfx files. A few pages of performance controls mapped to
common parameters are automatically generated and saved together with each .nksfx preset.

Saving as .nksfx is only possible in the VST2 version

Mac owners can use – temporarily if necessary – any host application that supports VST2

Saving in NKS format

While the native, h2p and h2p extended options cause Colour Copy to save presets into the
currently selected preset directory, .nksfx files go directly into the preset location used for
Komplete Kontrol or Maschine, so they do not appear in Colour Copy’s preset browser. To make
them visible in Komplete Kontrol, open its preferences and rescan the preset locations.

Batch conversion
First, right-click the [save] button and set the target format to nksfx. Via cmd-click (Mac) or alt-
click (Win), select all presets in the current folder you want to convert, then right-click any of the
selected presets and choose convert to nksfx. Note: The original files are not affected.

What to do if Colour Copy doesn't show up in Komplete Kontrol / Maschine.

First of all, make sure your NKS software is up to date: Komplete Kontrol V1.5+ or Maschine V2.4
are the minimum requirements for u-he. In Windows, Komplete Kontrol must know the Vstplugins
folder containing Colour Copy: Open Komplete Kontrol preferences, go to Locations and add your
Vstplugins directory if necessary, hit Rescan and check whether Colour Copy appears. Maybe the
NKS preset folder is empty? If so, please reinstall Colour Copy with the correct VST path and the
NKS-option checked. Here are the preset folder locations:

Mac Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/u-he/ColourCopy/NKS/ColourCopy/

Win C:\Users\YOU\Documents\u-he\ColourCopy.data\NKS\ColourCopy\

Perhaps the XML-File is missing from this location:

Mac Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/Native Instruments/Service Center/


u-he-ColourCopy.xml

Win C:\Program Files\Common Files\Native Instruments\Service Center\u-he-ColourCopy.xml

A re-install with the NKS-option checked should also remedy this issue.

What to do if Komplete Kontrol / Maschine is unable to load Colour Copy

Either Colour Copy wasn't installed as VST2, or it wasn’t installed with the correct path. The
default VST path is fixed in MacOSX, but in Windows it can be freely assigned during installation:

Mac Macintosh HD/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/u-he/

Win <User VST Folder> / (path for the VST plug-in set during installation)

If Colour Copy’s VST plug-in cannot be found in one of these locations, run the installer again
making sure that you set the correct path and have activated ‘VST’ as installation option.

27