Smugi manual

The big knobs set the volume of each filter band. Drag one left to make the band quieter, down to -90 dB, which is silence. Drag it right to boost it, up to +6 dB.

There are twelve knobs on the interface. Behind them the filter still runs its full set of bands. Only the controls are simple, for playing rather than for looking at.

The numbers under each knob are the frequencies of the filters. Click a number to mute that band instantly. This is where the ghostly sounds come from. Leave a couple of bands on and the source turns into something else.

Like almost everything on the interface, you can automate the mutes or map them to a MIDI controller. Not on Pro Tools, though. Pro Tools does not allow it, so use the sequencer there instead.

Adjusts all twelve filters at once. On Tilt it sways the response around the middle frequencies. Drag left to boost the bottom and cut the top, drag right for the opposite.

On LPF and HPF the filter bank becomes one large filter instead.

The left channel modulates the signal of the right one.

Try it on a group. Pan a vocal on one track left, pan a synth line on another right, then group both and put Smugi on the group. Then crank the Movement macro at the bottom of the interface, which raises Movement on every band at once.

Creates movement across the stereo field, based on how much the signal drives each band.

As everywhere else in Smugi, the input gain is what makes it work. Experiment with it.

Use it for metallic effects, almost-acoustic resonances, or plain madness.

The character depends on your input gain, which makes it worth automating.

The macros at the bottom of the interface set Movement, Flutter and Feedback on all bands at once.

Pre-wired to the band volume, and the quickest way to put movement, subtle or otherwise, into the processed signal.

The symbols are modulation intensity, shape and speed. Drag the speed to the right and it shows sync values. From there it follows the tempo of your DAW.

To start the sequencer, press play in your DAW.

The lanes mute or attenuate individual filter bands in time with your music.

You can click and drag across a lane to set values for several steps at once.

Sets the time division the lane syncs to.

You can set a different time division for each lane, which makes textural polyrhythms possible.

The global controls underneath the lanes, the ones the long lines lead to, do the same for every band at once.

Sets the number of steps on a lane.

The global controls underneath the lanes, the ones the long lines lead to, do the same for every band at once.

Smooths the transitions between steps.

Set it to a low value for rhythmic effects. Increase it for smooth morphing transitions.

The R buttons randomise the steps of one lane. The global R does every lane at once.

In the analogue domain, how a device responds depends on how much the signal drives it. Smugi works the same way.

The input volume sets the saturation of the output stage, the response of the filters, and the intensity of Movement, Flutter and Feedback. If you cannot hear one of those three, the signal going in is probably too quiet.

Input and output gain are linked by default. Raise the input and the output drops to match, so the overall level stays steady while you experiment.

Click the line connecting them to unlink them.

Click the Smugi text to open the preset selection window.