2.2. Turntable Controls

2.2.1. Turntable Audio-Display

The complete audio-file loaded into a turntable is displayed in the green-on-black audio-widget. When playing terminatorX will indicate the current position within the sample with a red cursor (a blue/green cursor indicates the turntable is muted).

Additionaly there are some controls above the audio-display:

• Turntable Label

  This label indicates the turntables name. The name can be set via the control panel

• File Button

  This button holds the name of the audio-file currently loaded. When there's no sample loaded the button will read "NONE" to indicate the current status. Click on this button to select a file to load from a file-selection-dialog. Alternatively you can drag'n'drop files over the audio-display to load them.

• Edit Button

  This button will run the external audiofile-editor (that can be specified via the options-dialog) with the current audio-file as a parameter. Click the reload button after editing and saving the file.

• Reload Button

  Click this button to re-read the audio-file.

• X/Y Mapping Selection

  terminatorX allows mapping misc parameters to the mouse axis of your choice. These mappings will be activated in grab mode. Since Version 3.70 this mappings are no longer hardcoded to built-in controls but available for all parameters that qualify as "mappable". Note that this includes plugins' controls as well.

2.2.2. Turntable Controls

These controls are now grouped within functional panels. The number of panels depends on the number of plugins loaded. terminatorX allows hiding the controls not required via the yellow triangle button. To un-hide just click the button again. The first panels are the standard controls for a turntable, then follows the dynamic FX-section and below that follow the pitch and volume controls.

2.2.3. The Effect Queue

With release 3.70 the effects are no longer hardcoded into the turntable. The effects are now arranged within an per-turntable effect-queue. The effect sequence is configurable by the user. To move an effect to higher position within the queue, press the blue upward arrow button. This will cause the effect to be renderd before the following effects. The blue downward arrow button will move the effect down by one position. It will then be rendered after the preceding effects.

There are two types of effects: the traditional built-in effects (Lowpass and Echo) and LADSPA plugins. The built-in effects are always available and cannot be removed (but disabled). There can be only one instance of a built-in effect. The LADSPA plugins on the other hand may be instanciated multiple times and can be removed from the effect queue. Press the blue cross button to achieve this.

Now since release 3.71 the built-in echo effect is treated differently from other effects. Where all other effects feed their signal back into the effect queue the echo effect doesn't touch the input signal. It's echo-signal is mixed seperately from the turntable's main signal to allow a different panning value for the echo-signal. This mode of operation does have some side-effects: imagine a lowpass filter with a position after the echo effect in the effect queue. This will result in the turntable's main signal being lowpassed but it will leave the echo-signal un-lowpassed.

Some may call this behaviour a bug - whereas I would consider it a feature ;). Anyway if the above description didn't clear things up maybe the displayed figure does. It shows a schematic effect queue with the built-in effects and two LADSPA effects enabled. Now with this setup you will not hear anything from the second LADSPA effect in the echo-signal.

For more information on a LADSPA plugin, press it's panel's label and a small info box will pop up.

• FX Button

  Press this button to load a LADSPA plugin into the effect queue of the turntable. A menu holding the available (terminatorX-"compatible") LADSPA-plugins will pop up. The plugins are grouped within submenus according to the modules the plugins are contained in. Simply select the plugin you want to load from this menu and a panel for it will pop up at the end of the effect queue.

  Note that due to the wide parameter ranges some LADSPA plugins have they sometimes might be hard to control with the knob widget. In these cases you might want to use the text field to enter values. For more details on Plugins see Section 2.7 (LASDPA).

2.2.4. Lowpass Panel

terminatorX features a builtin resonating lowpass filter that can be configured with this panel.

• Enable Button

  Activating this button will enable the lowpass filter for this turntable.

• Input Gain Control

  With this parameter you can amplify the signal that goes into the lowpass filter if required.

• Frequency Control

  Use this parameter to set the cutoff frequency for the lowpass filter. Minimum: 0=0Hz, Maximum: 1=22KHz.

• Resonance

  Use this parameter to set the resonance-value. Minimum: 0=no resonance, Maximum: 1=max resonance.

2.2.5. Echo Panel

Additionaly terminatorX features a built-in echo effect. It can be configured with this panel.

• Enable Button

  Activating this button will enable the echo effect for this turntable.

• Duration Control

  Use this parameter to set the length of the echo. The duration parameter scales to the actual sample length: so if you set it to 0.5 you will hear the echo when the red playback cursor is half way through the sample. This is true for samples that are shorter than terminatorX' maximum echo buffer size only.

• Feedback Control

  Set the echo's feedback amount with this parameter.

• Volume Control

  This parameter can additionally amplify the echo signal. Unlike the feedback parameter above this parameter has no influence on the signal fed back into the echo-buffer, it effects merely the playback volume of the echo signal.

• Pan Control

  The echo effect differs from other effects as it's output signal will be mixed seperately. The main goal here is to allow positioning the echo signal at a position in the stereo panorama that differs from the main panning positon of the turntable to achieve a somewhat spacial effect. The easy example is: turntable's panning left, echo's panning right. As both pan parameters are sequencable you can create nice motion effects from this starting point.