Thank you for downloading Orbit. We hope you enjoy using this plugin and that it inspires new ideas.

Introduction

Orbit is a 3-band auto-panner and stereo sculptor. Rather than one pan control fighting over your whole mix, Orbit splits your signal into Low, Mid and High bands at two crossover points, and lets each band move independently. Each band is panned, widened and pushed in volume on its own schedule, at its own rate.

Every one of those three destinations: Position, Width and Volume, is driven by its own modulator. Choose a shape (a handful of classic LFO waveforms, or a live Envelope follower that reacts to how loud that band actually is), then decide how far it swings and in which direction.

Installation

Once you've downloaded the file, extract the ZIP and run the installer.

By default, the plugin is installed into:

Once installed, open your preferred DAW. Orbit is a VST3 and AU plugin, so you'll need to ensure your DAW is set up correctly to find and load the plugin. The above directories are where most DAWs expect these files to be. Otherwise, some hosts can't find a plugin on the machine. E.g. this is the case for FL Studio or Cubase with VST3 files.

Using Orbit

Orbit is an effect plugin, so to get started, load Orbit into an effects slot inside your DAW. It's a stereo plugin, so ensure the track is stereo.

All our plugins are designed to be quick and easy to use. Orbit is arranged in 5 sections, top to bottom. Let's walk through each.

Stereo Field

A live rectangular view of what your 3 bands are actually doing. Each band gets its own coloured dot: blue for Low, green for Mid, red for High. It moves left and right with Position, and rises and falls with Volume. A ring around the dot grows and shrinks with Width, and no ring at all means that band is collapsed to mono.

Spectrum

Shows the frequency content of your incoming signal, before any crossover splitting or panning happens. Use it alongside the crossover strip below to help decide where to place your two split points.

Crossover

Two draggable markers split your signal into Low, Mid and High bands (250Hz and 2.5kHz by default). Drag either marker to move that split point. The live frequency reads out above the strip as you drag.

Band Rows

Below the crossover sit the 3 band rows: High, Mid and Low, colour-coded to match the stereo field above. Each gets an identical row of controls. Whatever a band's modulator Mode/Rate/Threshold controls are currently set to edit, all 3 of that band's modulators, Position, Width and Volume, keep running independently and simultaneously. Simply click any modulation input on the row to open and edit the modulator.

Randomise

The die icon on the left of each row randomises everything in the row, including the modulators.

Reset

Hover the coloured dot beside the row's name and it swaps to read “reset”. Click while it does to return all 3 of that band's modulators and controls to their defaults in one go: Mode back to Static, Amount back to 0, and every other Position/Width/Volume setting back to its own resting value.

Position / Width / Volume

The 3 large knobs in the middle of each row are the main controls. Position pans the band left/right, Width narrows or widens its stereo image (0 = mono, 1 = unchanged, 2 = extra wide), and Volume turns it up or down (0 = silent, 1 = unchanged, 2 = double).

Each knob has a modulator ring. Hover over a knob and it will appear. Here's how they work:

• Drag the centre knob to set the knob's own resting value, exactly like a normal knob.
• Drag the ring around it to set how far modulation swings away from that resting value. The ring stays a thin line at rest, and thickens up as soon as you hover or drag it.
• Ctrl-click anywhere on the knob to flip between Bipolar (the ring swings both ways from the resting value) and Unipolar (it swings only one way).
• A small tick travels around the ring, showing exactly where that knob's live, modulated value currently sits.

Double-click the knob to reset the resting value to default; double-click the ring to reset the modulation amount to 0.

Mode Indicator / Patch Cable

The small input circle at the top-right corner of each of the 3 knobs is that modulator's own indicator. Click it to select and edit that modulator. A cable animates across to show you which knob you're now controlling. Double-click a dot to instantly reset that one modulator back to Static, so it works like a normal knob with no modulation.

Modulator Mode

There are 9 modulation shapes to choose from. The default is ‘Static’. Simply click the shape to open the dropdown and select a different one. The shapes are:

• Static: no movement. Modulation is off entirely, regardless of Amount or Bipolar.
• Sine: a smooth, symmetric wave, free-running at your own Rate or synced to your DAW's tempo, like the 4 shapes below.
• Triangle: the same cycle as Sine, with straight edges instead of a curve.
• Square: snaps between two levels each half-cycle.
• Saw Up: ramps up, then drops instantly.
• Saw Down: ramps down, then rises instantly.
• Random: a new random value is drawn once per cycle and held until the next one, a stepped, jumpy wander.
• Stray: the same once-per-cycle random draw, but smoothed across the cycle instead of held, for an organic wander with no sudden jumps.
• Envelope: instead of a fixed shape, this modulator follows how loud the band's own signal actually is, in real time.

Sync / Rate / Division

Next to the Mode icons, you'll see a wave icon and a clock icon for switching between Hz and sync modes. Click the wave icon for a free rate in Hz, or the clock icon to lock to tempo, in which case a note-division knob (1/16, 1 Bar, etc.) takes Rate's place. Not shown for Static (nothing to cycle) or Envelope (see Attack/Release/Threshold below, which take their place).

Attack / Release / Threshold

Envelope mode's own controls, shown in place of Sync/Rate/Division: 3 ordinary knobs. Attack and Release set how quickly the follower reacts to a rise or fall in level. Threshold sets how loud the band needs to get before the modulator reaches full swing. Lower it to make quieter material swing further, raise it so only the loudest hits register.

Mod Saturation

Push any modulator ring far enough and the modulator will begin to clip. You'll notice this when you reach the end of a modulation ring. It fades from the band's own colour toward amber instead of growing any further, showing how far past it you've pushed. This is a unique feature that is prevalent in analogue systems, such as modular synthesizers. On a Sine or Triangle shape this is the most audible: instead of a smooth curve, each peak gets a small flat pause where the value is held at its limit.

Stray gets that same small pause, since it eases toward its own targets the same gentle way Sine does. Saw Up and Saw Down only pause on their ramping side, right before the snap back to the start. Square and Random are already made of flat, held levels rather than a moving curve, so pushing past saturation there just limits how far apart those levels can be, without adding anything new to listen for. And Envelope simply stops adding extra swing once the loudest parts of your material are already maxing it out. Give it a try!

Mono Correlation

The bar at the very bottom of the plugin provides a running readout of how mono-compatible your final, summed output is: +1 means your left and right channels are identical (fully mono-safe), 0 means they're independent (wide, uncorrelated stereo), and -1 means they're fully out of phase. That's a sign your mix will thin out or disappear if it's ever played back in mono. Pushing Width or panning several bands to extremes is the most common way to end up in negative territory. It's a useful readout for those that want mono-compatible content.

Presets

The 4 icons in the header let you browse, save, and step through presets. Presets are saved to /Library/Application Support/SoundGhost/Orbit/Presets on Mac, C:\ProgramData\SoundGhost\Orbit\Presets on Windows. Browse and Save open your OS's own file dialog, while the previous/next arrows step alphabetically through whatever folder your current preset lives in.

Resize Plugin Window

If you wish to resize the plugin window, just drag the bottom-right corner to set your desired window size. Orbit keeps its own proportions locked as you do.

Plugin Version

Click the SoundGhost logo (top right of the window) to see the current version number, along with links back to our website and this manual.

Uninstalling

If you wish to uninstall the plugin, delete the Orbit files from the following locations:

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