Strum
Intro
Strum is a “Sound Strummer” designed to work with the AU, AAX, and VST3 plugin standards, on Windows & Mac OS. This manual serves as a full explanation into every parameter and system featured within the scope of the plugin. It will be updated along with the program itself.
Be sure to check out the Common Features page to learn about capabilities that every Lese plugin has.
Controls
These controls are listed from top to bottom, for clarity’s sake. Some of these controls may not make sense unless they are cross referenced with others, which we will attempt to deal with.
Band Controller
Strum’s primary & most important control system is the band control system which lies on the upper half of the plugin’s interface. The delay times of each filter band, as well as the feedback values of each band, are determined by adjusting these bands. They work the same way that conventional filter controls on a graphical EQ do, but they are not filters; Instead, they act as high-level control cues for the internal delay algorithm.
By default, only the middle band is enabled, which behaves similar to a bandpass filter. However, clicking the enablement buttons underneath the main controller allows you to enable up to three different factor bands for controlling the delay system.
You switch to controlling the feedback values by switching from the pink button with a clock icon on it, to the blue button with the repeating icon on it. These bands control the same as the others do, but instead of adjusting delay times, adjust the feedback values (from 95% at maximum to 0% at minimum).
The way that the bands behave can also be flipped, so (for instance) instead of increasing delay time from zero you would be decreasing delay time from the maximum delay. You enable this flipped mode by pressing the “Flip” button underneath the band enablement icons.
In between the Flip button & the Delay / Feedback control switch lies the band skew, which changes the way that (when operating in analog mode) the delay bands are distributed. Increasing the band skew puts the filters more densely in the upper ranges of the frequency spectrum, while decreasing it clusters them more into the lower end of the spectrum. This control does nothing when operating in spectral mode.
Control Panel
The Control Panel is the collection of controls that are underneath the Band Controller. The modulation section will be covered in the next section of the manual.
The “Bands” knob controls the number of audio bands that are used when operating in analog mode. This control is not enabled when operating in spectral mode. Spectral mode is entered by pressing the bottom of the two buttons in between the Bands / Delay knobs. Spectral mode uses a digital FFT to do delaying and is not as controllable as the analog mode.
The “Delay / Steps” control adjusts either the maximum delay length in milliseconds, or the number of time-synced steps when operating in Sync mode (which is done by pressing the “Sync” button next to the knob). The “Division” knob underneath is enabled when in Sync mode, which sets the time-synchronized division that Strum will use.
In cases where the delay feels like it’s going on for too long, the “Reset” button to the right of the Delay Length / Steps knob will clear the internal audio of all of the delay banks.
Modulation
The Modulation section is found to the bottom left of the control panel, and has a few controls that can modulate the delay lengths of Strum’s audio bands.
There are two modulation modes that Strum can operate in, one is “Flutter” (which modulates in a cyclical fashion, like a normal LFO) and “Random”. The modes are switched with the multi-select button in the bottom-middle of the interface.
The depth of modulation is controlled with the “Modulation” knob. The rate at which the modulation runs at is adjusted by the “Rate” knob. The “Skew” knob (and its buttons which link it to the depth & rate controls) adjust how deep the modulation is and how fast the modulation runs at as the frequency of the delay band changes.
Getting the skew to do this involves clicking either the “Rate Toggle” or the “Depth Toggle”. Adjusting the “Skew” knob in this state makes the skew factor increase at higher frequencies & decrease at lower frequencies.