Blue Cat's FreqAnalyst Computer Music

(CM) Edition User Manual

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Blue Cat's FreqAnalyst CM User Manual
Copyright (c) 2008 Blue Cat Audio
Table of Contents
Blue Cat's FreqAnalyst Computer Music (CM) Edition User Manual..........................1
The FreqAnalyst CM Plug-in.....................................................................................3
Description....................................................................................................................3
Parameters....................................................................................................................3
Curves..........................................................................................................................4
Included Skin and Controls..............................................................................................5
Controls................................................................................................................7
Controls examples..........................................................................................................7
General Behavior............................................................................................................7
Keys.............................................................................................................................7
Common behavior....................................................................................................................7
Button specific behavior............................................................................................................8
Mouse...........................................................................................................................8
Main Menu & Settings.............................................................................................9
The Main Menu And Toolbar.............................................................................................9
Menu......................................................................................................................................9
Toolbar...................................................................................................................................9
Commands..............................................................................................................................9
The Global Settings Window...........................................................................................10
Global Skin............................................................................................................................11
Global MIDI Input Settings.......................................................................................................11
Current Preset Settings Window......................................................................................13
Skin......................................................................................................................................13
Preset MIDI Input Settings.......................................................................................................13
Skins..................................................................................................................15
About Skins.................................................................................................................15
Changing the Skin........................................................................................................15
Create a Custom Skin....................................................................................................15
Troubleshooting....................................................................................................16
Installation..................................................................................................................16
I have installed my plug-in and it does not show up in my host application......................................16
More...................................................................................................................17

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Blue Cat's FreqAnalyst CM User Manual
Copyright (c) 2008 Blue Cat Audio
The FreqAnalyst CM Plug-in

Description

Blue Cat's FreqAnalyst CM is a real time spectrum analyzer. It has been designed to provide extreme
smoothness and high resolution for both time and frequency.

The frequency analysis can be fine tuned in details: manage its precision and rate, apply an offset or
slope to the measured spectrum. Two thresholding systems are available, and the time response can
be changed thanks to the attack and release parameters.

Up to three modes are offered for each channel: instant, peak or average response can be displayed
on the same graph. Zooming capabilities and coordinates display let you exactly measure the
characteristics of the spectrum.

The memory slots let you store any curve in memory: it helps you make comparisons between
several tracks or effects setup very easily.

Thanks to Blue Cat's skinning language support and the included window opacity management
feature, you can adapt the plug-in user interface to your personal needs and enhance your workflow:
work faster and more efficiently.

Parameters

The input parameters of this plug-in are the following:

Param id Name Unit Description

General
dsp.input0 Bypass Bypass the effect.
dsp.input1 Precision Precision of the audio to frequencies transform.
The higher the setting, the higher the frequency
precision, and the higher the CPU consumption
dsp.input2 Speed % Rate of the audio to frequencies transform. The
higher this value, the better time resolution (and
perceived smoothness). Beware that above 100%
CPU consumption might increase, especially when
the precision is high.
dsp.input3 Attack ms Attack time for the frequencies envelope follower.
dsp.input4 Release ms Release time for the frequencies envelope follower.
dsp.input5 Peak Reset dB/s Rate of the peak curve reset. If set to 0, the peaks
will never decrease and will represent the
maximum value.
dsp.input6 Abs Threshold dB Absolute threshold for spectrum display. All
frequency bins which value is below this threshold
are set to -120 dB)
dsp.input7 Rel threshold % Relative threshold for spectrum display
(percentage of the maximum value). All frequency
bins which value is below this threshold are set to
-120 dB)
dsp.input8 Slope dB/Oct Slope added to the frequency response curve. Can
be used to correct the response curve (for example

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Blue Cat's FreqAnalyst CM User Manual
Copyright (c) 2008 Blue Cat Audio
 Param id Name Unit Description
tune the plug-in so that pink noise frequency
response is flat)
dsp.input9 Offset dB Offset added to the frequency response curve. Can
be used to correct the response curve.
dsp.input10 Reset Peak Command to reset peak curves (value changes are
considered as reset commands)
dsp.input11 Reset Average Command to reset average curves (value changes
are considered as reset commands)
The param id field is used when designing a new skin. See the Skins section for more information.

Curves

The FreqAnalyst CM plug-in provides visual feedback about the frequency content of the audio signal
thanks to output curves:

Name Description
Instant Spectrum Instant frequency content of the audio signal.
Peak Spectrum Maximum value of the frequency content over
time.
Average Spectrum Average value of the frequency content over
time.

And for the stereo version, you have more choice (combinations of the left and right channels):

Name Description
Instant Spectrum(L) Instant frequency content for the left channel.
Peak Spectrum(L) Maximum value of the frequency content for
the left channel over time.
Instant Spectrum(R) Instant frequency content for the right
channel.
Peak Spectrum(R) Maximum value of the frequency content for
the right channel over time.
Instant LR Average Spectrum Instant frequency content (left and right
average).
Peak LR Average Spectrum Maximum value of the frequency content (left
and right average) over time.
Average LR Average Spectrum Average value of the frequency content (left
and right average) over time.
Instant LR Maximum Spectrum Instant maximum values of the frequency
content for the left and right channels.
Peak LR Maximum Spectrum Absolute maximum values of the frequency
content for the left and right channels over
time.
Average LR Maximum Spectrum Average maximum values of the frequency
content for the left and right channels over
time.
The curve id field is used when designing a new skin. See the Skins section for more information.

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Blue Cat's FreqAnalyst CM User Manual
Copyright (c) 2008 Blue Cat Audio
Included Skin and Controls

This chapter describes the functionalities offered by the FreqAnalyst CM user interface in the stereo
version (the mono plug-in has the same user interface but with a single channel). Note that the
settings described in the parameters section are available below the graph view. The absolute
threshold can also be controlled by the vertical slider on the right of the spectrum display.

More information about the toolbar and generic plugin functionalities is available in next sections.

(1) Freeze display.

(2) You can modify the opacity of the window that contains the plug-in user interface. Note that
the result depends on the host application you are using.

(3) Two functions are available for the mouse on the graph view: either drag the graph when
zoomed or display the coordinates of the graph below the mouse pointer and zoom by
selecting an area of the screen:

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Blue Cat's FreqAnalyst CM User Manual
Copyright (c) 2008 Blue Cat Audio
At any time, right click on the graph to unzoom.

(4) Select the channel(s) to display on the screen: for the chosen channels you can choose to
display either the “instant” curve or the “peak” curve (maximum over time) or “average” curve
(averaged over time).

(5) The three “A B C” buttons let you store the curve to one of the proposed memory slots. The
curves stored into these slots can be shown/hidden with the buttons available in (6).

(6) Show/Hide curves stored in memory.

(7) Reset the average or peak curves.

(8) These two sliders let you control the x and y zoom for the graph. When the display has been
zoomed, you can drag the graph with the mouse (click on the graph when the cursor is a small
hand and drag to move in the graph).

(9) Show/Hide filled curves. You can deactivate filled curves if you want to display many spectra at
the same time. Showing filled curves can be CPU intensives on some computer configurations.

(10)The main controls: these knobs control the parameters described in the parameters section.

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Blue Cat's FreqAnalyst CM User Manual
Copyright (c) 2008 Blue Cat Audio
Controls
Blue Cat's FreqAnalyst CM plug-in uses a skinnable user interface. The appearance and behavior of
the user interface can thus change a lot depending on the chosen skin. This section will expose you
the different controls you may encounter in these skins and the way they can behave. A well designed
skin should be easy to use anyway.

You can control the plug-in via MIDI Control Change messages as well and customize the way you
interact with MIDI messages. See the main menu section for more information.

Controls examples

Here are a few examples of possibles controls you may encounter in the user interface:

fader slider knob button Text control

General Behavior

Setting the keyboard focus on a control (so that it receives key events) may be automatic (when you
pass the mouse over it it gets focus) or manual (you have to click on the control to set the focus on
it).

It is usually made obvious to you to know the active surfaces of the skin (the places where you can
click): the mouse cursor usually changes when you can do something on a control. In the default
skins delivered with the plug-in, the cursor changes to a small hand to tell you when your mouse is
over an active control.

Keys

All control widgets support the following keys (note that some of them are caught by the host and
thus never forwarded to the control. For example in Steinberg Cubase SX you cannot us the arrow
keys):

Common behavior
Key Action
Up Arrow Small increment of the position (up or right)
Down Arrow Small increment of the position (down or left)
Left Arrow Same as Down Arrow
Right Arrow Same as Up Arrow
Page Up Large increment of the position (up or right)
Page Down Large decrement of the position (down or left)
+ Small increment of the value of the control
- Small decrement of the value of the control

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Blue Cat's FreqAnalyst CM User Manual
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 Key Action
d Set to default value (same as mouse right click)
e Opens the 'fine tuning' window to precisely set
the parameter:

SHIFT When the key is down, the fine tuning mode is

on, and you can modify the value with better
precision when moving the mouse, the mouse
wheel or using the keyboard. Just release the key
to get back to the normal mode.

Button specific behavior

Key Action
Space Bar Pushes the button
Enter Pushes the button

Mouse

You can change the value of the parameter with the mouse:

Mouse Event Action

Left Click Acquire focus and start dragging or push (button)
Left Double Click Acquire focus and launch the “fine tuning” edit
box (except button):

Right Click or Left Click + Alt key Set the value to default
Mouse Wheel Increment or decrement the position (focus
required)
Mouse Drag Change the control position depending on mouse
movement (except button)

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Blue Cat's FreqAnalyst CM User Manual
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Main Menu & Settings

The Main Menu And Toolbar

Menu
If you right click on the background of the plug-in, the following pop-up menu appears:

The commands descriptions are available below.

Toolbar
In some skins an optional toolbar gives you access to the some of the functionalities of the main
menu.

Icon Name Function

Menu Open the main menu

Undo Undo

Redo Redo

Load Load Preset

Save Save Preset

Manual User Manual

About About

Visit www.bluecataudio.com Opens our website

Commands
The Commands available from the main menu or the toolbar are the following:

● Set Preset Skin: change the skin for the current preset.

● Use Global Skin: use the skin defined in the global settings for the current preset. This item is
enabled only if a skin has been defined for the current preset.

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Blue Cat's FreqAnalyst CM User Manual
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 ● Undo/Redo: undo or redo the latest modifications. This includes all changes made to the
current preset settings.

● Load Preset: load preset from file.

● Save Preset: save current preset to file.

● Presets Settings: open the presets settings window. It enables you to change the skin and
MIDI settings for the current preset.

● Global Settings:

● User Manual: open this user manual.

● Check Updates: check the updates for this software on our website.

● Get More Skins: get more skins for this software.

● About: displays the “about” dialog box.

The Global Settings Window

The settings you change in this window apply to all instances of the plug-in, for all presets. Consider
these settings as “default” settings.

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Blue Cat's FreqAnalyst CM User Manual
Copyright (c) 2008 Blue Cat Audio
Global Skin

You can change the default skin for all instances of the plug-in:write the skin file path in the text edit
box or click on the button to open a file chooser dialog. If you have several instances of the plug-in
opened in your session, you will have to re-open the user interfaces of these plug-ins to see the skin
change.

Global MIDI Input Settings

For each parameter you can define a default MIDI channel and CC number. You can then control the
plug-in with an external MIDI controller or one of our plug-ins that generate MIDI messages.

The following settings are available for each plug-in parameter:

● Channel: MIDI Channel for the parameter control. If set to 0, the plug-ins will accept Control
Change Messages from all MIDI Channels (MIDI Omni mode).

● CC: Control Change Number.

● Learn: click on this button to activate the MIDI learn functionality. When it is activated, you
can move your MIDI controller, and the plug-in will automatically set the MIDI Channel and CC

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Blue Cat's FreqAnalyst CM User Manual
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 Number.

● Enabled: enable/disable the MIDI control of the parameter.

● Response: response curve of the MIDI control: from very fast to slow control.

● Min: minimal value of the parameter when MIDI controlled.

● Max: Maximum value of the parameter when MIDI controlled.

(generic screen shot, does not correspond to the actual plug-in parameters)

Note: if the Min value is higher than the Max value, the response curve will be reversed: increasing
the MIDI controller value will decrease the parameter value.

Note: if you double click on the parameter text control boxes for the max and min values, a “fine
tuning” edit box will appear and let you change the min and max values with more precision:

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Blue Cat's FreqAnalyst CM User Manual
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Current Preset Settings Window

This window lets you change the settings for the current preset of the current plug-in only.

Skin

You can choose to use the global skin setting or to change the skin for the current preset. This way
you can have different skins for different instances of the plug-in in the same session in order to
differentiate them.

Preset MIDI Input Settings

Use the global settings or override them for the current preset. The parameters are the same as for
the global MIDI input settings.

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Blue Cat's FreqAnalyst CM User Manual
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Blue Cat's FreqAnalyst CM User Manual
Copyright (c) 2008 Blue Cat Audio
Skins

About Skins

Blue Cat's Triple EQ integrates Blue Cat's skinning engine that allows you to customize the user
interface of the plug-in. You can download new skins for you plug-in at the following address:

http://www.bluecataudio.com/Skins

If you don't find a skin that you like or if you want to use your graphic skills, you can choose to create
your own skin.

Changing the Skin

You have two ways to change the skin of your plug-in: you can change the default (or 'global') skin in
the global settings, or change the skin for the current preset only. The global skin applies to all plug-
in instances, whereas the current preset skin only applies to the current preset of the current plug-in
instance.

See the main menu to see how to access these options.

On some hosts the plug-in window won't resize automatically. In this case, just close the window and
re-open it, it will be displayed with the right size.

Create a Custom Skin

You can create custom skins for your plug-in in order to adapt it to your exact needs. Change its look
and make it integrated in your virtual studio!

Just read the Blue Cat's Skinning Language user manual and download the samples for the tutorial on
http://www.bluecataudio.com/Skins. You can get ready to create your own skins in a few minutes.

You can then share your skins on our website. Show your talent and share your knowledge with the
users community!

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Blue Cat's FreqAnalyst CM User Manual
Copyright (c) 2008 Blue Cat Audio
Troubleshooting

Installation

I have installed my plug-in and it does not show up in my host application

First check that you application supports Direct X or VST plug-ins.

If you are using the Direct X version, check that your host application supports DXi plug-ins (MIDI-
enabled Direct X plug-ins). If it does not, it may remove it from the Direct X plug-ins list (some
applications such as Sony Vegas 5 and Cool Edit Pro are known to do this). In this case, use our
freeware DXi Manager and disable the MIDI capabilities of the plug-in. You may need to reinstall the
software again before it shows up into your host application.

If you are using the Direct X version and your host application supports DXi, check that the plug-in
does not appear in the 'virtual synth' or 'synthesizers' category. If you wish not to use the MIDI
capabilities of the plug-in and use it as a regular Direct X plug-in, you can download the freeware DXi
Manager and disable the MIDI capabilities of the plug-in.

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Blue Cat's FreqAnalyst CM User Manual
Copyright (c) 2008 Blue Cat Audio
More
This manual only covers the very basics of the FreqAnalyst CM plug-in. For more information and tips
about how to use the FreqAnalyst CM, please check our website for the latest tutorials or simply open
your Computer Music Magazine issue!

Upgrades, tutorials, more skins and plug-ins are available on our website:

www.bluecataudio.com

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Blue Cat's FreqAnalyst CM User Manual
Copyright (c) 2008 Blue Cat Audio