Reference

This chapter is the lookup layer of the manual: what Phaseburn One runs on, the engine-level settings, every parameter with its range and default, and the published research the engine builds on. Everything in the tables below is generated directly from the instrument’s own parameter definitions — when the synth changes, these tables change with it.

Formats and system requirements

Phaseburn One ships as VST3 and CLAP plug-ins.

Any host that loads VST3 or CLAP should work. Phaseburn One is v0.1.0 early access — if a specific host misbehaves, please report it through the contact form.

Control conventions

A handful of behaviors are the same on every panel, so they are worth learning once here rather than meeting them one chapter at a time.

Knobs. Drag up or down to move a knob; hold Shift while dragging for fine resolution. Scrolling over a knob steps it. Double-click returns it to its factory default. Tick captions around a dial are click targets — clicking one jumps the knob exactly to that value, so a labelled ring doubles as a set of presets for that control.

The S badge. Some knobs carry a small S in the top-left of their caption. That is a snap switch, and it constrains the knob to a musical grid rather than to its own raw units: whole ratios on the PLL’s MULT and DIV, semitones against middle C on the delay’s SHIFT. Lit, the knob lands only on those stops and drags one stop at a time; unlit, it sweeps the full continuous range. Toggling the badge never moves the value — it changes how the knob travels, not where it is — so you can find a setting free-hand and then lock the dial to the grid. The badge is a real switch: it is saved with the preset, and a host can automate it.

Modulation rings. A thin arc outside a knob’s own indicator shows where modulation is currently pushing it — the ring moves in real time while the sound plays. Any source can draw it: an LFO, either step modulator, aftertouch, velocity, the note-character module or the distortion’s input envelope.

The right-click menu. Every parameter control has one, and it carries the same entries everywhere: set to default, unlink modulation, MIDI learn and forget, and open in manual. The MIDI and modulation entries are covered in MIDI learn (Chapter 10 — MIDI & Your DAW).

The help line. The strip under the header names whatever the pointer is over and describes it in one line. It is the single place the instrument explains itself — nothing ever floats over the control you are working on — and clicking Manual opens the chapter that covers the control in a reader inside the plug-in.

Engine settings

Two settings govern the engine’s precision-versus-CPU trade: how many times the signal is oversampled, and what internal sample rate it runs at. Neither has a panel control — both ship at the values tuned for running inside a DAW (2x oversampling, Auto base rate), and both remain real host parameters your session can automate or a preset can override.

The core signal path — oscillators, envelopes, filters — runs in 64-bit floating point, with strong alias suppression on the stages that need it. Internal figures quoted anywhere in this manual are our own measured targets, not third-party lab results.

Full parameter index

Every parameter the instrument exposes, grouped by module. Chapters embed the same tables with a “what it does” column; this index is the compact, complete listing.

Research credits

Phaseburn One implements published techniques together with algorithms of our own, and emulates no specific hardware or software instrument. Credited foundations: Vector Phase Shaping (Kleimola, Lazzarini, Timoney & Välimäki, 2011); zero-delay-feedback filter design after Zavalishin; nonlinear ladder filtering after D’Angelo & Välimäki (IEEE 2014); antiderivative anti-aliasing (Parker, Zavalishin & Le Bivic, 2016); feedback-delay-network reverberation in the Jot / Stautner–Puckette lineage; single-sideband frequency shifting after Bode; the probability-sequencer concept builds on ideas by Alexey Kurkin (Parasense). Attribution of a published technique does not imply endorsement.

Trademarks

VST is a registered trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, registered in Europe and other countries. All other product names, brands and trademarks are the property of their respective owners; any reference to them is descriptive only and implies no affiliation, sponsorship or endorsement.