This section aims to introduce the user to Zyn’s UI elements and explain their behaviour in detail.
When you run Zyn-Fusion you’ll be presented with this window:
As you can see it is divided into multiple panels, each with their own use. When navigating between different views, you’ll consistently see the status panel on top of the window, the navigation panel on the left, and the bottom the virtual keyboard. In the middle of all of those is the content view which you can expect to change when navigating around Zyn-Fusion
The status panel is where you’ll find a few global parameters, the file menu, automation-learn/fine-tuning mode selectors, the panic button, master VU meter, and the information tray. It is always situated at the top of Zyn’s UI. We will be reading the status panel right-to-left, since you’ll most often be using the righthand side.
- Panic button
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When getting started you’ll want to be familiar with the panic button as it will instantly silence the audio produced by Zyn, no matter what state the synth is in. It’s a safety device in case the sounds go out of control.
- Master VU meter
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This meter will display the current audio output levels. It can be useful for a few things:
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It’ll let you decide on choosing an optimal sound level for your patch.
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It might be helpful to find out which instance of Zyn-Fusion is currently making sounds, if you’re working with a few of them at once.
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It’ll help you make sure your MIDI keyboard is connected properly.
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- VOLUME slider
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This slider is used to change the global volume of ZynAddSubFX.
- KEY SHIFT slider
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Allows shifting the relation between which note would be played originally and which is played now. 64 means no keyshifting. Setting the key shift below 64 shifts the keys down by the absolute difference between 64 and the key shift value. Setting it above 64 does the same, except that it shifts the keys up. For example, 63 shift all the keys down by 1, and 65 shifts them up by 1.
- Fine indicator
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This indicator shows when parameters are being finely adjusted. Fine adjust is trigged by holding SHIFT and it can be toggled by clicking on the indicator.
- BPM panel
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This panel allows setting the BPM used by the project. This BPM is used by LFOs whose frequency is defined with a numerator and denominator.
- Information Tray
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The information tray will show tooltips about Zyn’s parameters, current parameter values, as well as other status information. Image below.
- MIDI Learn indicator
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This indicator shows when MIDI contoller learning is in progress.
- Learn indicator
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This indicator shows when automation learning is in progress.
- "FILE" button
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This button is used to handle all file operations, such as saving, loading and clearing instruments, MIDI bindings, microtonal settings, etc.
- Stop/Pause/Play buttons
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Used for the WAV recording feature.
- Zyn-Fusion logo box
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Clicking on the Zyn-Fusion logo toggles two different windows, one of them is a wall of text dedicated to all the maintainer of Zyn-Fusion and modern ZynAddSubFX, while the other one, more important to you as the user, is the configuration window.
The navigation panel is situated on the left side of the Zyn-Fusion UI and, much like the status panel, is always present there.
It is used to change what the main panel is actively presenting. The options, from top to bottom, include:
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The part selection grid
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The kit selection grid
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The ADDSynth voice grid
Each grid houses multiple elements with the same functionality, and has one lit-up square, which is the currently displayed element. Each active element has a border around it. To view an element in the grid, left-mouse click it. To enable an element in the grid, middle-mouse click it.
The main panel is where most of the action happens.
The scope of that is, understandably, very large, so it warrants its own section in this part of the manual, visible below.
While it is true that you will most often pass notes to ZynAddSubFX using MIDI, the virutal keyboard panel exists as a way to pass notes directly from the Zyn-Fusion UI!
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Note
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How does playing notes from Zyn-Fusion work?
You can play notes from Zyn-Fusion either by clicking on the notes in the vritual keyboard in the UI,
or pressing on your computer keyboard, which will trigger the notes the same way as mouse-clicking them!
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From-left-to-right, the panel features a modulation wheel, the keyboard, a set of parameters, those being the note velocity, velocity randomness, the octave shift, the MIDI CC value and selection.
The main panel covers all the core functionality in Zyn-Fusion, in regard to sound design, effects, mixing, and so on.
We’ll go over each subpanel from top to bottom as seen in the navigation panel.
This subpanel is dedicated to setting up each the properties of each part.
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Note
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What is a part?
A part is a single element in ZynAddSubFX capable of generating sound.
In one part, any of ZynAddSubFX’s three synths can be active.
So, think of parts like mini synths inside ZynAddSubFX
which you can use to have multiple layers to sounds,
or have multiple sounds, maybe with different timbres, on one keyboard,
and so on.
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This subpanel consists of pairs of a button and a text input box. The button enables the appropriate part, and the input box allows naming the part.
Here, we set up basic MIDI-related properties of the part. This includes properties such as the volume, panning, in what range it accepts MIDI notes, velocity sensing and randomness, key shifting, etc.
The minimum and maximum key knobs are used to set the minimum and maximum key that the part will play.
Additionally, you can use the Mn and Mx buttons to store the last key ZynAddSubFX accepted as the
minimum and maximum keys. R resets the range to cover the full keyboard!
The "CH-" dropdown box is used to select which MIDI channel the part will accept notes from. Since there are 16 parts and 16 MIDI channels, by default each part is assigned to each channel. If you layer multiple parts together, you should set them all to the same MIDI channel, so they play the same notes!
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Note
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Layering sounds
If you want to layer multiple parts, set them all to accept notes from the same MIDI channel (usually CH1).
This way, they’ll all play the same notes!
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Note
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Live play
If you play Zyn-Fusion live using a MIDI keyboard, you can have one instrument on one part of the keyboard, another one on another one, etc.
For example, you can have a bass in range A1-A3, a piano in range A3-A6, and strings in range A6-C7.
This means you can play three instruments not only using one keyboard, but on Zyn-Fusion instance!
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You can also set the polyphony type using the "Poly/Mono/Legato/Latch" dropdown.
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"Poly" means you can play as many notes as the voice limit allows you to play! Use this mode for any case of stacked notes (e.g. chords).
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"Mono" means you can only play one key. If you play two notes at the same time, only one will actually make a sound (e.g. arppegio).
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"Legato" is similar to "Mono", except that it will shift the frequency from the perviously played note to the current one (e.g. lead instrument).
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"Latch" means that any keys currently playing will keep playing, even when not held down, until a new key, or new keys, are played (e.g. live play).
You may have noticed that "Poly" can only play as many notes as the voice limit allows. Keep in mind that, if the voice limit is set to 0, it can a practically infinite number of voices.
This section is dedicated to MIDI CC and is useful for automation or live play!
MIDI CC (Continous Controllers) is, essentially, used to automate certain properties of your MIDI playback. The ones you should be met with are the MIDI modwheel, filter cutoff, filter resonance and pitch-bending.
Use the tooltips visible in the information tray to get information about each knob and button.
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Note
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I produce on a DAW. Should I care about these settings?
YES! Specifically, you should care about "PCH.D", the pitchbend depth.
In DAWs with MIDI CC automation support (such as Ardour), you can automate pitch-bending, which is very useful.
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Portamento is a term that describes a pitch-slide from one note to another.
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Note
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When to use it
Use portamento whenever you want to play only one note at a time and have a smooth transition between your notes.
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Once enabled, you can change a couple properties of your portamento.
You can change how long it takes it to slide using the "Time" knob.
The "THRESH" number field allows you to set a semitone distance at which the portamento takes place.
The > / < buttons set how the limit behaves.
> sets the portamento to be active when the distance between the notes is more than the limit, and vice versa.
You can change if the portamento slides up or down faster using the "UP/DWN" knob. If less than the middle value, it will slide down faster than up, and vice versa.
Allows browsing the ZynAddSubFX collection of ready-made sounds. It features a search bar and 4 columns, which can all be clicked to be toggled:
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BANK: The actual preset collection. Hovering over each one shows you where it is in the filesystem.
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TYPE: Allows selecting a specific type of preset. Useful for filtering.
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TAG: Further filtering using tags.
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PRESET: The actual list of presets.
The mixer allows mixing of each part (the part mixer strip) as well as the output signal (labeled as "MASTER", the master mixer strip).
The master mixer strip features two vertical segments, one being the VU meter, and the other being the vertical global volume fader. This fader is actually the same one seen in the status panel!
From top to bottom, the part strip contains:
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A PART ENABLE button, which toggles the part on and off.
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The same VU meter and volume fader as in the master strip, only applied to the part.
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Part panning. 64 is the default and is also the middle-point.
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Active MIDI channel dropdown, identical to the one in the instrument settings.
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The EDIT button, which sets the current part as the one you can edit in part settings.
Even though the part settings offer a volume knob, you can always use the mixer to have visual feedback on how loud your parts are relative to each other!
This panel allows you to effictively configure ZynAddSubFX into a kit.
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Note
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What is a kit?
Think of a kit as a subsection of a part. Each part has 16 kits, each of which can be assigned an instance of
ADDSynth, SUBSynth and PADSynth, as well as any combation of them. A kit gets its name from the fact that it allows
you to turn any part into a sound kit, with 16 sounds at most. A good example of a kit is a drum kit, where you
set up each drum to be on a different note (e.g. kick drum is on part 1 and plays on C4, snare is on part 2 and plays on C#4, etc).
Another example might be a collection of sound effects.
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The first settings you’ll run into, just above the big wall of repeating settings, is three buttons that determine how the part’s kits will act.
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For "NO KITS", only the first kit can be active, while the rest are off
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For "MULTI-KIT", for any played note, every kit that has that note in its key range will play
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For "SINGLE-KIT", for any played note, only the first kit that has that note in its key range will play
As for the big wall of settings, we’ve already ran into these settings perviously, in part settings. They function identically as in the part settings, except that they apply to the kit. The only new addition is the effect route.
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Note
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The effect route
A part has an effect chain consisting of three effects. The order they are processed in is FX1 to FX3.
The effect route dropdown allows setting the starting point of the effect processing for that kit.
By default, a kit starts at FX1, meaning that it goes through all three effects.
There is, of course, an option to not route the kit through the effect chain, in the dropdown.
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This panel is where all non-MIDI related automation happens!
Zyn-Fusion gives you the ability to assign almost every knob and fader in the synth to any of the 16 automation slots. ("ALMOST every?" Yes, the only thing you can’t automate with the automation slots are the automation slots!) Each slot can house 4 different parameters, each of which can be automated with different slopes, meaning that some paramteres can move up, while others move down, all using the same automation slot!
"So how do I automate a parameter?" I hear you ask! Select the "Learn" button, which is right next to the information tray, at the top of the UI, and change the value of the parameter you wanna automate. This will bind it to the active automation slot. You may have noticed there are two types of learning, which you can see above the parameter automation slopes, those being "Normal learn" (One slope per parameter), or "Macro learn" (One slope for all move parameters).
The panel is split in two halves.
The left half is dedicated to clearing, naming and focusing the automation slot.
Once you focus an automation slot of your choice, using the triangle button, the right half will display the four automation parameter slopes.
This panel allows adding effects to your sound.
There are three types of effects you can add. We’ll list them from right to left, since you’ll most commonly be using them in that order:
Part insertion effects are added to the part output. Each part has its own part insertion effects. The effects are processed in-order (1 through 3). You can bypass any effect, allowing you to test how the part sounds with and without it. This is the only type of effect stack that exports with the instrument.
Insertion effects allow you to insert any effect to any part, or directly to the output signal (labeled as "master" in the dropdown menu). There are 8 available slots, which are also processed in-order.
System effects are quite different from the previous two. You have four effect slots, which are shared by each part. What each part doesn’t share is the amount of the dry signal sent to each of the effects. After effect 1 is processed, you can send a certain amount of it to effect 2. You can then send the outputs of effect 1 and 2 to 3. The same logic applies for effect 4. You choose how much of the part sound is sent to effects using the faders below the effect dropdown, and how much of each effect is sent to the next effect using the fader matrix at the bottom of the tab.
As you probably know, ZynAddSubFX features three synthesis engines. Of course, they all have a lot to talk about, so they’re described in detail in their own separate sections. Feel free to click on any of them to read more about them!
The synthesis engines are: