Beef User Manual v1.

Contents
Equaliser - Page 2
Noise/Rate Modulation - Page 3
Saturation - Page 4
Crush and Shaping - Page 5
Limiter and Output - Page 6
Preset Mode - Page 7
Signal Chain - Page 7

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 Equaliser Noise/Rate Modulation

Beef has a parametric Equaliser module with four bands; Sub, Low, Mid The Noise/Rate Modulation module uses filtered white noise to control
and High. The section in total has 5 controls: the playback rate of the incoming audio. It has 3 controls:
• The amount of boost/reduction for each frequency band is control-able • Freq controls the frequency of the filter used on the noise.
via +/-15dB gain dials.
• Q controls the q value of the filter used on the noise. Low q values will
• The frequency of the mid band can be set with the sweepable Mid Freq make a wide band filter whilst high q values will make the filter a thin
control. band.
• Amount controls the amount that the noise affects playback rate.
EQ information:
• The sub band is a low shelf, the high band is a high shelf whilst the low The noise module uses rate modulation, meaning it doesn’t directly add
and mid are peak filters. noise to an incoming signal. The noise signal is used as a control voltage
to change the playback speed. Due to the rapidly changing nature of the
• All frequency bands are wide, this allows for effective tone shaping, not modulation signal, noisy texture is added to the sound instead.
surgical EQ.
The effect achieved by using this technique creates a sound where the
• The EQ is doubled in Beef’s signal chain, once before the distortion and perceived noise becomes part of the sound and texture instead of
once after. The first instance boosts the frequency bands into something that has just been added on top.
saturation module whilst the second instance makes up for any gain
reduction lost from clipping after the saturation module. Tip - 808s not coming through on mobile device speakers? Try adding High
Freq & High Q Noise/Rate Modulation with a low percentage on Amount to
Tip - A low-end heavy kick will cut through your mix more effectively with a add presence and significance on any sound system.
high frequency boost to emphasise the click of the transient in the
saturation module.

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 Saturation Saturation
Crush and Shaping

Audio is driven into the Saturation module with the Drive parameter to add Beef has a Crush module to apply distortion through digital artefacts.
harmonics. The Tone control can then be used to tame high frequencies
to prevent harshness. There are 6 different saturation modes, which are: • Rate Divide divides the sample rate by the chosen factor causing
aliasing and a reduced frequency response.
• OD (Overdrive) - Overdrive your sounds without removing headroom
through clipping. Can be used for more subtle and less extreme effects. • Bit Depth reduces the data size for each sample, reducing the number
of available amplitudes and creating a bit crush effect.
• Dist (Distortion) - This setting boosts your sounds into softish clipping
to create extensive harmonics. • Smoothing applies smoothing ramps between the bit crushed
amplitudes to make the sound less harsh. It can also filter out
• Fuzz - A bias is applied to a soft clipper to create extra even harmonics frequencies introduced from the Rate Divide control.
and a fuzzy sound.
• Amount is a mix control for the crush module.
• Tube - A distortion algorithm inspired by tube distortion (soft clipping
with headroom).
• Tape - A warm algorithm inspired by our tape effects plugins. The Shaping module has two simple controls:

• Rect (Rectify) - Alters the polarity of the negative wave. When selected • Attack controls the gain of the attack section of the transient.
the Drive parameter acts in a different way. When at -35dB the wave is
unaffected, when at +35dB the negative amplitudes are fully inverted • Sustain controls the gain of sustained transients.
whilst there is a linear scale in between. This adds a huge amount of
even harmonics.
Tip - Try Rectify on vocals with a low mix %. Altering the polarity of the Tip - Experiment with the Attack & Sustain controls, you may be surprised
negative wave can create some interesting formant sounding effects. which transients are emphasised in your track. Consider boosting Attack
on a roomy drum mix to accentuate the drum hits.

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 Saturation
Limiter and Output Saturation
Preset Mode

Beef has a Limiter just before its output: Beef’s Preset Mode completely changes the user interface. This is
designed for browsing presets and finding sounds with ease. When in this
• Gain controls the volume of the signal going into the limiter mode the Mix parameter will not change when a preset is changed,
therefore allowing for easy comparison between presets.
• Release determines how quickly the limiter stops working after the
signal drops below the threshold (-0.03db).
There is an output Gain slider between the output LED meters. This
controls the volume of the effected signal. This can then be mixed into the
dry signal with the Mix parameter. Signal Chain
Tip - Driving the limiter with a short release time creates incredibly
powerful sounds, however consider increasing the release time for some
great pumping effects to add more interesting energy to your sounds.

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