Chapter 1

Welcome to Terrain

Terrain is a multi-instrument and sound design engine by Waves Crate. Eight oscillators, eight engines, 123 filters, sixteen effects, a modular Patcher, a sampler and slicer, a tape deck and a memory that never stops listening. Build your own world.

What Terrain is#

Terrain on the SYN page with the Shaper, Arp, Robin and Glitch cards popped out around it

Terrain is one instrument that behaves like a whole studio rack. Every oscillator can run any of eight sound engines, from wavetables and FM to physical models and deeply sampled acoustic instruments. You shape the result with two filters drawn from 123 types, move it with ten LFOs, five envelopes and nine macros, run it through a rack of sixteen effects, and animate it in time with the song through four flow cards: the Shaper, the Arp, Glitch and Robin.

Underneath the main page sits the Patcher, a canvas where every oscillator, filter, effect and card is a module you can cable in any order. Next to it lives CHOP, a sampler and slicer for your own audio, the Tape Deck, which records what you play into a tempo-synced loop, and Capture, which keeps the last ten minutes of everything Terrain played, ready to drag into your DAW.

And when you want to work on audio that already exists, Terrain FX brings the effects, the Patcher and the modulation onto any track as an effect plug-in. It is included with Terrain.

Terrain in numbers#

Part	What you get
Oscillators	8 oscillators, A to H, each able to run any of the 8 engines.
Engines	Wavetable, Sample, Granular, FM, Resynth, Harmonic, Modal and Organics (74 sampled acoustic instruments).
Sound content	500 wavetables, 2,177 one-shots, 13 noise colours, 74 Organics instruments.
Filters	Two filters in series or parallel, 123 filter types in eleven families.
Effects	16 effects: Reverb, Delay, Distortion, Granular, Filter, Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Tape, Equalizer, Widen, Compress, Multiband, Bode, Splitter and Utility, each with its own types and a back panel of deeper controls.
Modulation	10 LFOs (including drawn shapes, Path and two chaotic attractors), 5 envelopes, 9 macros, MIDI and audio sources, a MOD page with a full matrix, and drag-to-modulate on every knob.
Flow cards	Shaper, Arp, Glitch and Robin, each with 12 pattern slots and a chain playlist.
Presets	717 presets in 25 packs: the Waves Crate, Macshooter, and Artist Packs. The Artist Packs come from 23 producers and sound designers.
Looks	30 themes, plus your own.
Formats	VST3, AU (Mac) and Standalone on macOS 12 or later (Apple Silicon and Intel) and Windows 10/11 64-bit. Terrain FX included.

How to read this manual#

The manual follows the instrument. The first chapters get Terrain installed and show you around the window. Then it walks the signal: oscillators and their engines, noise, filters, envelopes and LFOs, the flow cards, modulation, effects and the Patcher. After that come the pages and tools around the sound: CHOP, the Tape Deck and Capture, voicing, presets, the dice, Settings and Terrain FX, and finally shortcuts, troubleshooting and credits.

Every panel is introduced with a picture of the real interface. A thin line runs from each labelled control to its name and a one-line definition beside the picture, and tables name every control with what it does, its range and what a double-click or right-click does to it. Boxes marked Try this give you a move worth making right away; boxes marked Good to know explain a behaviour that might surprise you.

First time here?Take the tour of the window. Sound designStart with the oscillators and engines. Build your own worldGo straight to the Patcher. Your own audioChop it, stretch it, play it. Record and layerThe Tape Deck and Capture. Just play717 presets, 25 packs.

Try this You never need to leave Terrain to learn it. Point at any control and the strip at the bottom of the window explains it in one line. This manual goes deeper; the strip is always one glance away.

The pictures in this manual show the Night theme, Terrain's signature look. Your Terrain may wear any of the 30 themes; every control sits in the same place in all of them. Use the Night / Daylight button at the top right of this page to read the manual in the light or the dark, and press / to search it. Inside Terrain, Settings › About › Manual opens this manual in your browser.

Chapter 2

Installing, Trial, Activation and Updates

From the download to your first note in a few minutes. This chapter covers what Terrain needs, what the installer puts on your computer, the 10-day free trial, activating your licence, your Waves Crate account and how updates reach you.

System requirements#

Item	Requirement
macOS	macOS 12 Monterey or later, on Apple Silicon or Intel (one universal installer).
Windows	Windows 10 or Windows 11, 64-bit.
Plug-in formats	VST3 on Mac and Windows, AU on Mac. Both Terrain and Terrain FX.
Standalone	Terrain and Terrain FX also run as their own apps, with their own audio and MIDI settings (Settings › Audio & MIDI).
Internet	Needed once to start the trial or to activate, and now and then to keep the licence checked in. Terrain plays offline.
Display	The window opens at 820 × 672 and scales; drag the corner of the strip at the bottom, or pick a size in Settings › Interface.

Installing Terrain#

Download the installer for your system from your Waves Crate account (or the link in your trial or order email) and run it. One installer brings everything: Terrain, Terrain FX, the sound content (one-shots, wavetables, noises and the Organics instruments) and the preset packs.

On a Mac

Open the .pkg and follow the steps. The installer places:

What	Where
VST3	Macintosh HD › Library › Audio › Plug-Ins › VST3 (Terrain.vst3, Terrain FX.vst3)
AU	Macintosh HD › Library › Audio › Plug-Ins › Components (Terrain.component, Terrain FX.component)
Apps	Applications (Terrain, Terrain FX)
Sound content	Macintosh HD › Library › Application Support › Waves Crate › Terrain

On Windows

Run the installer. Everything (recommended) installs the lot; Choose lets you pick the parts you want. The Terrain VST3 and the sound content are always installed.

What	Where
VST3	C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3 (Terrain.vst3, Terrain FX.vst3)
Apps	C:\Program Files\Waves Crate (Terrain, Terrain FX), with Start menu shortcuts
Sound content	C:\ProgramData\Waves Crate\Terrain

Good to know Installing a preset pack again merges it: your own presets and the edits you saved are never replaced.

Finding Terrain in your DAW

Rescan plug-ins in your DAW if it doesn't see Terrain right away. Terrain is an instrument (load it on an instrument or MIDI track); Terrain FX is an audio effect (load it on any audio track, bus or the master). Both appear under Waves Crate.

The first launch#

The first time Terrain opens, a welcome card greets you. From there it takes a minute:

Start 10-day free trial, or Activate if you bought Terrain (see below).
A few welcome slides show what is inside. Next steps through them, Skip jumps straight to the instrument, Start playing closes the last one.
Your name: Terrain signs every preset you save with it. Your real name or your artist name; you can change it any time in Settings › Account.
Capture: keep it on and Terrain holds up to 10 minutes of what you play, ready to drag from the strip at the bottom into your DAW (Capture). Keep capture on or Turn it off; change it later in Settings › Performance or by right-clicking the strip.
Anonymous usage: OK shares anonymous counts of how Terrain gets used (like which engines are popular) with Waves Crate. Never audio, files, names or your email. No thanks sends nothing. Change it any time in Settings › Account.

The 10-day free trial#

The trial is the full instrument: every engine, every effect, every preset pack, the Patcher, CHOP, the Tape Deck and Terrain FX, for 10 days on this computer. Press Start 10-day free trial on the welcome card. Terrain needs the internet once to start the trial; after that it plays offline.

While the trial runs, the time left counts down under the TERRAIN wordmark in the header. Click it whenever you are ready: the card that opens has Activate and Buy Terrain.

When the trial ends, Terrain tells you, and makes no sound until it is activated (Terrain FX passes your audio through untouched). Your presets are safe: nothing is changed or deleted, and the card lets you export the packs you made. Activate with your licence key and you carry on exactly where you left off.

Good to know The trial runs once per computer.

Activating your licence#

Buy Terrain at wavescrate.com. Your order email carries the three things Terrain asks for:

Field	What to type
Email	The address you bought Terrain with, exactly as it appears on your order email.
Licence key	`TRRN` and twelve letters and numbers, like `TRRN-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX`. Paste it with or without the dashes. A licence key never contains 0, O, 1 or I, so if Terrain says it has a typo, compare those characters with your email.
Order no.	Your order number, like `#1042`. The # is optional.

Open the sheet from the welcome card, from the trial timer under the wordmark, or from Settings › Account › Activate Terrain, fill in the three fields and press Activate. Terrain checks them with Waves Crate and unlocks on this computer. One licence covers both Terrain and Terrain FX.

Moving to another computer

To move Terrain, open Settings › Account on the old computer and choose Deactivate. That frees the activation so you can activate on the new one with the same three details. Deactivating never touches your presets.

Staying activated

Terrain checks in with Waves Crate quietly by itself whenever you are online. If a computer has been offline for a long time (60 days), Terrain asks you to connect once; it then unlocks by itself, with your presets untouched.

Your Waves Crate account#

Your purchase comes with a Waves Crate account. The email that follows your order invites you to set a password; after that, sign in at wavescrate.com and open your profile (wavescrate.com/profile). Under Your products you find:

the Terrain download for Mac and Windows, always the newest version;
your licence key, hidden until you reveal it, with a copy button;
your order number, the price paid and your receipt, ready to download for your records.

Keep your order email and your account: they are all you need to reinstall or move Terrain.

Updates#

Updates are free for Terrain V1 owners. Terrain looks for a newer version once a day (switch that off in Settings › About › Check automatically, or press Check now there). When there is one, a notice appears in the strip at the bottom of the window:

What's new opens Settings › About with the full list of changes.
Get the update opens your Waves Crate account in your browser, where your purchase has the new download.
The × dismisses the notice for this version; a newer version brings it back.

Nothing ever downloads or installs by itself. Run the new installer over the old one: your licence, presets, packs and settings stay as they are.

Chapter 3

A Tour of the Window

One window, four pages, one strip that explains everything. Here is where things live, so the rest of the manual has a map to hang on.

The SYN page at a glance#

Terrain opens on the SYN page, the instrument itself (Settings › Interface › Open on can change that). Everything that makes and shapes a sound sits on one screen: two oscillator slots and the noise at the top, the filter and the flow box in the middle, the envelope and LFO below them, and the effect rack with the voice column along the bottom.

The whole Terrain window on the SYN page — The SYN page with a factory preset loaded. Every part links to its own chapter below.

Each part has its own chapter: Oscillators, Noise, Filters, Flow cards (and the Randomizer map), Envelopes, LFOs, Effects and Voicing. The header along the top is described next.

The header#

The header runs across every page, so the preset, the pages, undo, the dice and Settings are always one click away.

The Terrain header — The header: presets on the left, the wordmark and undo in the middle, pages, dice and Settings on the right.

Control	What it does
+	The save menu: Save, Save as, Import, Init preset (a plain, blank sound) and Recently deleted. See Saving presets.
‹ ›	Previous and next preset in the current pack or folder. Keep clicking to audition sounds one by one; with the browser open they step through the rows on screen.
Preset name	Click for the quick menu: packs (folders of presets), Favourites, Artist Packs, categories and folders, with the presets on the right.
Folder	Opens the full preset browser to search, sort, tag and favourite every pack. Click again to close it.
TERRAIN	The wordmark. "by Waves Crate" opens wavescrate.com in your browser. While the trial runs, the time left shows here; click it for Activate and Buy. With the CPU meter on (Settings › Performance), a small number left of the wordmark shows how hard Terrain works the processor.
↶ ↷	Undo and Redo. The tooltip names the step you would undo or redo. See Undo and redo.
SYN	The main sound page. Click it again while you are on it and you go to the Patcher; click once more to come back.
CHOP	The sampler and slicer page. See CHOP.
MOD	The modulation page: every route from every source to every knob. See Modulation.
Dice	Click to roll a new sound in the style you chose; right-click to choose the style, which parts change and how far it goes. See Dice.
Settings	Opens Settings. Click again (or press ×) to close. See Settings.

The four pages#

The Patcher page — The Patcher: every part of the sound as a module you cable.

The CHOP page — CHOP: a sample sliced into chops across four layers.

The MOD page — MOD: the modulation matrix.

SYN: The instrument: oscillators, noise, filters, flow tiles, envelopes, LFOs, effects and voicing, all on one screen.
Patcher: The same instrument as a modular canvas. Every oscillator (all eight, A to H), filter, effect, flow card, the Tape Deck and more is a module; cable them in any order. Reach it by clicking SYN while you are on the SYN page. The Patcher.
CHOP: Drop in your own audio, play it pitched across the keys or sliced into chops, across four layers, with stems you can drag into your DAW. CHOP.
MOD: Every modulation route in one list or as cables, with curves, polarity and aux sources. The MOD page.

Settings and the preset browser open over whatever page you are on and close back to it.

The strip: tips and Capture#

The thin strip along the bottom of the window does three jobs.

A tip for every control

Point at anything (a knob, a pill, a menu row, a module on the Patcher, a setting) and the strip says what it does, in one line, at once. Move away and it gives the strip back. While you hold a knob, the tip stays with it. Popped-out cards send their tips to the strip too. Turn tips off in Settings › Interface › Tooltips.

Capture

When nothing is pointed at, the strip is Capture: Terrain keeps up to the last 10 minutes of what it played. Drag the strip into your DAW and the recording drops in as audio. Right-click it to turn Capture on or off. The whole story is in Capture.

Notices

Short messages appear here too: an Undo button for a moment after you delete something, the name of the step you just undid, where a file was saved, and the update notice with What's new and Get the update.

Resizing the window

Drag the corner at the right end of the strip to make the whole window bigger or smaller. Settings › Interface › Window size sets the size new windows open at.

Knobs, pills and menus#

A knob with a modulation mark under its label — A knob. The short line under its label means something modulates it.

Gesture	What it does
Drag up / down	Turns a knob. The value shows inside the ring while you turn (switch that in Settings › Interface › Values while turning). Settings › Interface can make knobs turn with a vertical, circular or horizontal drag.
`Shift` + drag	Fine adjustment.
Mouse wheel	Nudges the knob under the pointer (Settings › Interface › Mouse wheel turns knobs).
Double-click	Resets the knob to its default, or opens a box to type a value, depending on Settings › Interface › Double-click a knob.
Right-click	The control menu: Modulate (pick a source), Copy and Paste modulators, Remove all modulators, Reset to default, MIDI Learn and, on many knobs, their modes (Warp mode, sync to tempo and so on).
Drag a source onto a knob	Drag an LFO number, an envelope chip, a macro name, the words Velocity or Key, the noise wave or the word Filter onto any knob to make it move that knob. Drag to modulate.
Pills	Outlined buttons. Lit (accent outline) means on. Some pills are also values you drag, like Sub or Warp 2 on an oscillator's back panel.
Back panels	Oscillators, the filter and every effect have a back with more controls. The swap arrow in their header flips them over.

Try this Hold Shift while you drag a cutoff for the last few hertz of a sweep, then double-click it to snap back to where it started.

Cards and popping out#

Many parts of Terrain open a card: a floating panel with every setting of that part. The flow tiles open the Shaper, Arp, Glitch and Robin cards; the LFO panel opens the LFO card; an oscillator's Warp opens its curve card; the filter opens a big filter view (right-click › Extend).

The Shaper card — A card: title bar, Mix, presets, Pop out and close along the top.

Drag the title bar to move a card anywhere; drag its corner to resize it, double-click the corner for the default size.
Pop out moves the card into its own floating window outside the plug-in, perfect for a second screen. Dock puts it back.
Closing a card never stops it: its settings stay and keep playing.

Your first five minutes#

Click the preset name and pick a pack. Play. Use the arrows to walk through the sounds.
Turn WT Pos and Warp on oscillator A, and the filter's Cutoff. Every knob tells you what it does in the strip.
Click the Arp tile in the flow box and hold a chord.
Drag the 1 of the LFO panel onto any knob: it moves. Drag the line under the knob's label to set how far.
Click SYN again to see the same sound as cables on the Patcher.
Play for a minute, then drag the strip at the bottom into your DAW. That was Capture.

Chapter 4

Oscillators

Eight oscillators, eight engines, one panel grammar. Every oscillator can be a wavetable, a sample, a grain cloud, an FM voice, a resynthesised recording, a bank of pure partials, a struck or bowed physical model, or one of 74 sampled acoustic instruments. Pick an engine, flip the panel, bend it with its neighbours. Build your own world from here.

Eight oscillators, A to H#

Terrain has eight oscillators, lettered A to H. Each one runs any of the eight engines, has its own unison, its own tuning, its own sub, four blend slots that let another source bend it, and its own sends into the two filters. They all play at once; what you see on screen only decides which one you are editing.

The SYN page shows two oscillator slots in its top row, with the noise strip between them. The left slot holds A and B, the right slot holds C and D. Click the letter box in a slot's header to flip it: on A it shows B, on B it shows A, and the same between C and D. Flipping never mutes anything — both oscillators keep playing, the letter only picks which one you edit.

Oscillators E, F, G and H live on the Patcher as nodes, with exactly the same panels, engines and menus. See The Patcher for how to add, cable and arrange them.

The full Terrain window on the SYN page: Oscillator A on the left, the noise strip in the middle, Oscillator C on the right, with the oscillator quick menu open over Osc A — The SYN page: the A/B slot, the noise strip and the C/D slot, with Osc A's quick menu open.

Good to know A fresh patch starts with only Osc A switched on. Every oscillator starts at 50% Level, so B, C or D sound the moment you click its power dot.

Anatomy of an oscillator panel#

Every engine wears the same frame. The header carries the power dot, the engine picker, the engine's own source picker (a wavetable, a sample, a family, an instrument), the letter box and the swap button. Below sits the engine's display, and below that one row of knobs that you page through with the arrows.

Oscillator A running the Wavetable engine, front panel: power dot, engine name, the table name between arrows, the A letter box, the plus swap button, the wave display and five knobs WT Pos, Warp, Spectral, Fold and Feedback between two arrows — Oscillator A on the Wavetable engine (front panel).

Power and the engine picker

The purple dot at the far left of the header is the oscillator's power. Off means silent and free: an oscillator that is off costs nothing. Next to it, the engine name opens the engine picker. Changing engine keeps the oscillator's tuning, level, pan, sends, sub and blend slots; only the front of the panel changes.

Engine	What it does
Wavetable	A row of wave shapes (frames) you sweep through with WT Pos; 500 factory tables, plus your own imports.
Sample	Plays a recorded sound tuned across the keys. Drop your own file on the waveform.
Granular	Cuts a sample into grains (tiny slices) and sprays them into clouds and textures.
FM	Frequency modulation: two hidden waves wobble a wavetable's pitch at audio rate for bells, keys and metal.
Resynth	Rebuilds a sample from the tones inside it, so you can stretch, freeze, sieve and reshape it.
Harmonic	Builds a tone from up to 512 partials (pure sine tones), read from a wavetable.
Modal	A physical model: a virtual string, pipe, bar, bell or drum, struck, plucked, bowed or blown.
Organics	Plays 74 deeply sampled acoustic instruments with their own articulations.

Front and back

Each oscillator has two faces. The front belongs to the engine: its display and its knob sets. The back is the part every engine shares: blend slots, filter sends, sub, the second warp, phase, coarse pitch, and the tuning and mix knobs. Click the + in the header to flip to the back, and the arrow that replaces it to flip home. Both faces stay live while you look at the other one.

Knob sets and the arrows

The knob row holds five or six controls at a time. The thin arrows on either side step through the engine's sets, one set per click, always in the same order: the engine's first set, its second set if it has one, and Unison last on every engine.

Engine	Sets, in order
Wavetable	WT Pos · Warp · Spectral · Fold · Feedback → Unison
Sample	Scan · Stretch · Formant · Spray · X-Fade · Air → Blend knobs (after a blend) → Unison
Granular	Scan · Density · Size · Spray · Shape · Key → Position · Pitch · P.Spray · Width · Dir · Skew → Unison
FM	Algo · Ratio 1 · FM 1 · Ratio 2 · FM 2 · Feedback → Strike · Age · Rust · Quake · Scorch · Storm → the wavetable set → Unison
Resynth	Scan · Stretch · Sieve · Shape · Drive → Quality · Formant · Tilt · Crush · Start · Melt → Unison
Harmonic	Hue · Partials · Lean · Fan · Grit · Braid → Carve · Churn · Root · Shine · Wilt · Forge → Unison
Modal	Hard · Pos · Decay · Material · Breath → Stretch · Bloom · Halo · Age · Body → Unison
Organics	Dynamics · Tone · Body · Vibrato · Human → Attack · Release · Sustain · Velocity · Image → Unison

Every knob, every engine

All oscillator knobs share the house gestures. Drag up or down to turn. Double-click to return to the default. Right-click for the control menu: Modulate, reset, MIDI learn, and — on knobs that have them — a mode row such as Warp mode ›, Spectral mode ›, Fold shape ›, Interpolation ›, Stretch mode ›, Formant mode ›, Sieve mode ›, Drive mode ›, Shape › or Sync to tempo. Drag an LFO number, an envelope chip or the noise wave onto any knob to modulate it; Modulation covers routing depth.

A single WT Pos knob with a purple underline showing it is modulated — A modulated knob wears an accent underline under its label.

Unison#

Unison stacks several copies of the oscillator on every note and spreads them in pitch and stereo. It is the last set on every engine: page right with the arrow until you see Voices. One voice is a single clean oscillator; sixteen is a wall.

Control	What it does
Voices	How many copies play on every note, 1 to 16, shown as a number. Drag to step; double-click returns to 1. More voices = thicker, and more CPU.
Stack	The one unison control that changes harmony rather than thickness: it stacks the copies in octaves or fifths. Choices: Off (a plain detuned spread), 12 (1x), 12 (2x), 12 (3x) (one, two or three octaves), 12+7 (1x), 12+7 (2x), 12+7 (3x) (octaves plus fifths), Center-12 and Center-24.
Range	The scale of the detune fan, 5 to 4800 cents (100 cents = one semitone). Default 50. The knob is exponential, so every degree moves the same ratio. Detune works inside this range.
Detune	How far the copies are pulled out of tune with each other, within Range. Up = a wide, chorus-like shimmer; down = tight. Needs Voices above 1.
Blend	The middle copy against the outer, detuned ones. Down = focused on the centre; up = more of the wide copies.
Width	How far the copies spread left and right. 0 = mono; up = wider; below 0 swaps the sides.

Try this On a saw table, set Voices to 7, Stack to 12 (1x) and Detune to about a third. You get the classic supersaw with an octave underneath, ready for a lead — then push Range to a few hundred cents for a smeared, detuned cinematic texture.

The back panel#

Flip any oscillator with the + and you land on the same back panel whatever the engine: blend slots and filter sends on top, five pills in the middle, the tuning and mix knobs below. Two engines change it slightly: on Sample, Granular, Resynth, Harmonic and Modal the second pill is a shaper rather than Warp 2, and Organics swaps the middle row for its own player pills (see Organics). The Low and High knobs appear on Wavetable, FM and Resynth only.

Oscillator A back panel: pills B1 B2 B3 B4 F1 F2, then Sub, None, Phase, Rand and Coarse pills, then knobs Oct, Semi, Cent, Level, Pan, Low and High — Oscillator A, back panel (Wavetable engine).

Blend slots and filter sends

Control	What it does
B1 · B2 · B3 · B4	Four blend slots: each lets another oscillator, the noise, an LFO's shape or the oscillator itself bend this one at audio rate. Right-click a slot for the control menu, then Blend mode › to pick a mode and a source. Drag up or down for depth, 0 to 100%. An active slot reads its mode and source, for example FM(D); hover it to see the depth. Full detail in Blend modes.
F1	How much of this oscillator runs through Filter 1. It starts at 0: nothing is filtered until you fill it. Drag up or down or scroll; the purple fill shows the amount. Double-click returns to 0.
F2	The same for Filter 2. The two sends are independent, so one oscillator can feed both filters at different amounts. The filter's own A–D pills toggle the same sends; see the filter's back panel.

Good to know An oscillator with both sends at 0 plays dry, past the filters. If a filter sweep seems to do nothing, check that the oscillator's F1 or F2 is filled.

The pill row

Control	What it does
Sub	A sub: an extra low tone layered under this oscillator, one per voice, always centred. It starts at 0 — drag up to hear it. Right-click to choose what the pill drags: Octave (1, 2 or 3 octaves under the note), Shape (sine, triangle, square or saw), Level (0 = off) or Drive (warms and saturates the sub so it cuts through on small speakers). Drop an LFO on it to move the sub level.
Warp 2	On Wavetable and FM: a second warp slot, chained after the front Warp, with the same list of modes (see Warp modes). The pill shows the mode name on top and the amount below. Drag for the amount; right-click for the mode, and for Extend to open its curve card.
Shaper (Sample, Granular, Resynth, Harmonic, Modal)	On these engines the same pill drives a shaper on the engine's output: Off, Sine Shaper (bell-like overtones), Rectify (flips the lower half up for a buzzy octave), Fold (bright, buzzy wavefolding), Drive (warm saturation) or Crush (lower resolution for digital crunch). Drag for the amount, right-click for the mode.
Phase	Where in the wave's cycle each note starts, 0° to 360°. It is continuous: turn it while a note is held and the note moves with you. Set Rand to 0 to hear it clearly. Double-click returns to 0°.
Rand	How random each note's start point is, 0 to 100. At 0 every note starts exactly at Phase — punchy and identical, perfect for basses and plucks. At 100 every note starts somewhere new — loose and natural, perfect for pads.
Coarse	A smooth pitch offset of ±64 semitones that never snaps to the scale. Drag it, automate it, drop an LFO on it for sweeps and dives. Double-click returns to 0. Right-click to show Porta instead (this oscillator's own glide time between notes, Off up to 2 s) or Glide (the curve of that slide; 50 = even, either side bends it).

Tuning and mix knobs

Control	What it does
Oct	Shifts the pitch in octaves, −3 to +3. Down for bass, up for leads and bells.
Semi	Shifts the pitch in semitones, −12 to +12. Try 7 for a fifth or 12 for an octave.
Cent	Fine tune, −100 to +100 cents. A few cents against another oscillator sounds wide and alive.
Level	How loud this oscillator is in the mix. 0 = silent. Drag an LFO or envelope onto it to move it.
Pan	Places this oscillator left or right. Centre = middle.
Low	(Wavetable, FM, Resynth) A steep low cut that follows the note, removing the lowest harmonics. It is set in harmonic number rather than in hertz, so it rides with every note you play. Fully down = off.
High	(Wavetable, FM, Resynth) A steep high cut that follows the note, removing the top harmonics. Fully up = off. On Resynth these two knobs are the engine's own low and high cuts.

Try this On a bright wavetable, pull High down until only a handful of harmonics remain, then put a slow LFO on it. Because the cut follows the note, the sweep sounds the same on every key — an "in-oscillator filter" that never fights your main filters.

Blend modes: oscillators bending oscillators#

The four blend slots (B1 to B4) are where oscillators start talking to each other. Each slot takes a mode (how it bends) and a source (who bends). Right-click a slot, choose Blend mode ›, then pick the mode at the top of the menu and the source underneath. Drag the slot up or down to set its depth. All four slots can run at once, each with its own mode and source.

Phase distortion lives here: it is the PD mode. With Self (feedback) as its source, the oscillator bends its own read position for feedback edge.

Modes

Mode	What it does
Off	The slot does nothing.
FM	The source wobbles this oscillator's pitch at audio rate (frequency modulation) for bells, keys and growls.
FM Exp	FM measured in octaves, so small moves in the source are huge moves in pitch. It screams where plain FM growls.
FM Clamp	Linear FM that never runs the wave backwards: it stalls at zero instead, which splits the tone in two.
PD	Phase distortion: the source bends where this oscillator reads its wave, reshaping the cycle without changing its pitch.
AM	The source pumps this oscillator's volume at audio rate, adding side tones.
RM	Ring modulation: the two are multiplied for metallic, bell-like tones.
Warp	The source drives both of this oscillator's warp slots (Warp and Warp 2) at audio rate. Whatever the warps are set to is what gets modulated: a shaper becomes audio-rate distortion, a filter mode becomes filter FM, a drawn curve gets swept thousands of times a second. Wavetable and FM engines only.

Sources

Source	What it does
Osc A … Osc H	Any other oscillator, from either row of four, in a small scroll list. The source keeps modulating even with its own Level at 0, so a silent oscillator makes a perfect hidden modulator.
Noise	The noise layer as the modulator, for grit and air. Works with every mode.
Self (feedback)	The oscillator modulates itself. Offered with PD only.
LFO 1 … LFO 10	Uses that LFO's drawn shape as the curve the slot bends by, swept live. Ten rows in a small scroll list.

Try this Set Osc B to a sine, Level 0, Oct +1. On Osc A put FM from B in B1 and drag the depth to 30%. Then drop Env 2 (see Envelopes) on B1's depth with a short decay: instant FM pluck, built from two wavetables.

The wave view and its quick menu#

The display in the middle of the front panel shows what the engine plays: the current wave for Wavetable and FM, the waveform with its markers for Sample and Granular, a scrolling spectrum for Resynth, partial bars for Harmonic, the excitation picture for Modal and a drawing of the instrument for Organics. A playhead follows each held note.

On Wavetable, FM and Harmonic, click the display to switch between the flat wave and the 3D waterfall — every frame of the table stacked in depth with the playing frame highlighted. The view you choose is remembered with the patch.

The quick menu

Right-click the display for the oscillator's quick menu. It always carries copy and paste, solo and mute, and three sliders. Wavetable and FM add a Wavetable section; the sample engines add their sample tools (see Sample).

Row	What it does
Paste sample	Appears when you copied a sample on another oscillator: the oscillator switches to the Sample engine and plays the copied sound.
Copy oscillator	Copies this oscillator's engine, sound and every setting: the wavetable or sample, the drawn warp curves, the Organics instrument, a live blend.
Copy with mods & effects	Copies the oscillator plus every modulation connection on its knobs and its effects routing (which effects it is sent to). A toast tells you how many modulators and effects travelled.
Paste oscillator X	Appears on any other oscillator once something is copied. Replaces this oscillator with the copy; with mods and effects, its old connections give way to the copied ones.
Solo	Hear only this oscillator. Solo is exclusive: soloing one un-solos the others. `Shift`-click (or `Cmd`-click) to add to the solo set instead.
Mute	Silences this oscillator without turning it off.
Volume	The oscillator's level. Drag along the line; double-click resets.
Pan	Left or right. Drag the line; double-click returns to centre.
Semitone	The oscillator's pitch in whole semitones, ±12. Drag the line; double-click returns to 0.
256 · 512 · 1024 · 2048	(Wavetable section, imported tables only) The resolution of a table you made from your own audio, from 256 (sparse: fewer frames, smoother sweeps) to 2048 (the fullest table, every frame kept). It re-slices the original audio live.
Clear Wavetable	(Wavetable section) Removes an imported table and returns the oscillator to the factory Sine.

Dropping audio

Drag any audio file from Finder or Explorer onto an oscillator's display. What happens depends on the engine:

Dropped on	What you get
Wavetable	A menu asks where the sound should go: Sample (play it as a tuned sample), Granular (spray it as grains), Resynth (rebuild it from its frequencies) or Wavetable (turn it into a playable wavetable, named after the file).
Sample with a sound loaded	A menu asks Replace (the new file replaces the sample) or Blend (morphs the new file with the current sample into a new sound; the Blend knobs appear, see Sample).
Granular, Resynth, Modal	The file loads into the engine and the engine stays as it is; on Modal it becomes the strike that excites the resonator. If a sound is already loaded, you are asked Replace or Blend first.
FM, Harmonic, Organics, an empty Sample	The oscillator switches to the Sample engine and plays the file as a one-shot.

Good to know If Terrain cannot read a dropped file, a short message says so at the top of the window — a failed load is never silent.

The sound browser#

Wavetables, samples, noises and Organics instruments all open the same two-pane browser. Click a source name in an oscillator header (the table name, the sample name, the instrument name) to open it. Categories sit on the left, their contents on the right.

Control	What it does
Search	Type part of a name to find it across every category.
Path	Where you are in the folders. Click a part of it to go back up.
‹ ›	Step to the previous or next item without closing the browser.
Headphone (Preview)	While it is on, clicking an item also plays it, so you can hear it before you commit.
+	Add folder (point Terrain at one of your folders; it is remembered, and nothing is copied — a folder is a reference) or Import file (a single file).
✕	Closes the browser. What you picked stays on the oscillator.
Categories	All lists everything; the factory categories follow; User is always last and holds the folders and files you added.
Items	Click to load onto the oscillator; double-click to load and close.
Folder right-click	Locate Folder shows it on disk. On a folder you added yourself, Remove Folder takes it out of the list; your files on disk are never touched.

The factory categories depend on what you browse:

Wavetables — 500 tables in thirteen categories: Basic Shapes, Analog, Digital, Vocal, Metallic, Spectral, Chaos, Cinematic, Harmonic, Physical, Abstract, Processed and Textures.
Samples — the factory one-shot library (2,177 one-shots), grouped by category. Sample, Granular, Resynth and Modal all read it, and they share one User list.
Noise — the thirteen colours in Colors, Tape, Vinyl and Space, followed by the factory noise library (see Noise).
Instruments — the 74 Organics instruments in nine categories, plus User with Import SoundFont (see Organics).

Wavetable#

A wavetable is a row of single-cycle waves (frames). WT Pos picks which frame plays, so sweeping it morphs the tone from one shape to the next. Terrain ships 500 tables, from basic shapes to vocal, metallic, chaotic and cinematic ones, and turns any audio you drop into a new table. On top of the table sit four shapers — Warp, Spectral, Fold and Feedback — and a second warp on the back.

Oscillator A, Wavetable engine, back panel — Wavetable, back.

Oscillator A as a Patcher node showing the 3D waterfall: every frame of the Reverse Saw table stacked in depth, the playing frame drawn in purple — The 3D waterfall: every frame of the table in depth, the playing frame in purple. Click any wavetable display to switch view.

Header

The table name sits between two arrows. The arrows step one table back or forward; the name opens the browser with all 500 tables in thirteen categories, plus your own under User.

Front controls

Control	What it does
WT Pos	Which frame of the table plays. Sweep it with a slow LFO or an envelope for evolving tones. Right-click › Interpolation: Linear glides smoothly between frames, Stepped jumps from frame to frame for a stair-stepped, digital sweep.
Warp	Bends the wave's shape. The knob is the amount; the mode decides what bending means. Right-click › Warp mode › opens the warp browser with 46 modes in eleven families, plus None (see Warp modes). Right-click › Extend opens the warp's curve card.
Spectral	Reshapes the harmonics (the overtones above the note). Off until you pick a mode: right-click › Spectral mode ›. Up = stronger.
Fold	Wavefolding: when the wave gets too tall it folds back down, adding bright, buzzy overtones. Up = more folds. Right-click › Fold shape: Linear (sharp corners, bright and buzzy), Sine (smooth, rounder and bell-like) or Triangle (soft corners, in between).
Feedback	The oscillator feeds its own output back into how it reads the wave — both the position in the cycle and the frame. Low values thicken progressively; past halfway it turns into growl and scream.

Spectral modes

Mode	What it does
None	Off; the knob does nothing until you pick a mode.
Harmonic Stretch	Spreads the overtones apart: brighter, airy, then screaming.
Inharmonic Stretch	Pulls the overtones out of tune: bell, metal, clang.
Vocode	Shapes the overtones like a mouth: vowel sweeps.
Smear	Blurs the overtones together: soft, washy pads.
Random Amps	Rerolls the overtone levels: mutant, alien tones.
Data Compress	Throws overtones away: lo-fi, digital, destroyed.
Spectral Phaser	Sweeps gaps through the overtones: hollow, phaser-like.
Disperse	Smears the overtones in time: chirpy, dense zaps.

Importing your own tables

Drop any audio file on a Wavetable display and choose Wavetable: Terrain builds a band-limited table from the sound and names it after the file. You can also add a whole folder of tables through the browser's +; they appear under User. Right-click the display afterwards to set the imported table's resolution (256, 512, 1024 or 2048) or Clear Wavetable to go back to a factory table.

Try this Drop a spoken phrase on a Wavetable oscillator and pick Wavetable. Put a slow LFO on WT Pos, set Spectral to Vocode at a third, and you have a talking pad that never repeats.

Warp modes#

Warp is Terrain's wave bender, on the front Warp knob and the back Warp 2 pill of every Wavetable and FM oscillator. Right-click either control and choose Warp mode › to open the warp browser: families on the left, modes on the right, search across all of them. Click a mode to use it; double-click also closes the browser. Warp 2 runs after Warp, so you can stack two different bends.

Sync

Mode	What it does
Sync	Restarts the wave faster and faster (hard sync) for a tearing lead sweep.
Formant	A softened sync that slides a vowel-like peak up the tone.
Fractalize	Repeats the wave inside itself for buzzy, glassy layers.

Alt Warp

Mode	What it does
Bend +	Pushes the wave's energy toward the end of the cycle.
Bend -	Pulls the wave's energy toward the start of the cycle.
Bend +/-	Pinches both halves of the cycle for a nasal tone.
PWM	Squeezes the wave into a narrower pulse, like pulse width.
Asym +	Stretches the first half of the cycle and squeezes the second.
Asym -	Squeezes the first half of the cycle and stretches the second.
Asym +/-	Stretches and squeezes both halves in turn.
Flip	Flips part of the cycle upside down for a hollow, phasey tone.
Mirror	Mirrors the cycle back on itself for hollow, folded tones.
P-Quantize	Steps the read position for a crunchy, stair-stepped tone.
Odd/Even	Shifts the balance between odd and even overtones.

Draw

Mode	What it does
Draw	Your own drawn phase curve: where in the cycle to read. Draw it on the curve card.
Draw Amp	Your own drawn shaping curve: what to do to each sample of the wave. Draw it on the curve card.

Geometry

Mode	What it does
Bend	Bends the wave's timing for a brighter, vowel-like sweep.
Skew	Leans the wave's peak to one side for a sharper edge.

Filter

Mode	What it does
LP Filter	A low-pass filter (keeps the lows, darkens) that follows the note.
HP Filter	A high-pass filter (keeps the highs, thins) that follows the note.

The two filter modes have their own card: an XY pad you drag across, with the two values it moves shown underneath and the filter curve drawn against the harmonics.

Saturation

Mode	What it does
Sine Shaper	Runs the wave through a sine curve for bell-like overtones.
Tube	Warm tube saturation: rounder, thicker and louder.
Soft Sat.	Gentle saturation that thickens without harshness.
Overdrive	Pedal-style overdrive, crunchy and forward.
Tape Sat.	Tape-style saturation, warm and a little squashed.
Stomp Box	Fuzz-pedal distortion, raw and hairy.
Transformer	Iron-transformer saturation with thick low mids.

Clip

Mode	What it does
Soft Clip	Rounds the peaks off for a smooth grit.
Hard Clip	Cuts the wave's peaks flat for hard, buzzy grit.
Zero-Square	Squares the wave around zero for a hollow fuzz.

Diode & Asym

Mode	What it does
Diode 1	Squashes the peaks like a diode circuit, bright and edgy.
Diode 2	A harder diode-style squash with more bite.
Asym	Squashes the top and bottom of the wave unevenly, warm like a tube.

Fold

Mode	What it does
Linear Fold	Folds the peaks back in straight lines, bright and buzzy.
Sine Fold	Smooth wavefolding for rich, bell-like overtones.
West Coast	A classic wavefolder sound, rubbery and bright.
Overflow	Wraps the peaks around like a digital overflow, harsh.
Bias Fold	Offset wavefolding that adds even overtones.

Rectify

Mode	What it does
Rectify	Flips the lower half of the wave up for a buzzy, octave-up tone.
Half Rect	Cuts away the lower half of the wave for a thin buzz.
Doubler	Doubles the cycle for an octave-up tone.

Digital

Mode	What it does
Bitcrush	Lowers the sound's resolution for a stepped digital crunch.
Harmonics	Stacks extra overtones on top of the wave.
Cheby Odd	Adds odd overtones for a hollow, reedy edge.
Ripple	Adds a fine ripple to the wave for fizzy highs.
Exciter	Adds sparkling high harmonics for air.

None sits at the top of the list on its own: it turns the warp off.

The warp curve card

Right-click Warp or Warp 2 and choose Extend to open the warp's curve card: a big view of what the current mode does to the wave, drawn as a transfer curve over a faint diagonal (the unchanged wave). Draw on the curve to make the warp your own shape; this is how the Draw and Draw Amp modes get their curves.

Try this Pick Hard Clip on Warp 2, open its curve card and draw a small notch into the flat top. Then set a blend slot to Warp mode from another oscillator: your hand-drawn shaper is now swept at audio rate.

Sample#

The Sample engine plays a recording tuned across the keyboard. Load one of the factory one-shots from the browser or drop your own file on the waveform. Markers set where it starts, ends and loops; the knobs time-stretch, re-voice and scatter it; and a second dropped sound can be morphed into the first with the Blend knobs.

Oscillator A, Sample engine, back panel with blend slots, filter sends, the Sub, Off shaper, Phase, Rand and Coarse pills and the Oct, Semi, Cent, Level and Pan knobs — Sample, back.

Header

Control	What it does
Playback	How the sample plays: One-Shot (once from Start to End), Forward (loops forward between the loop markers), Reverse (plays backwards), Ping-Pong (loops forward then backward) or Tailed (loops while you hold the key, then plays out to the end on release).
Sample name	Click to browse the one-shot library and your own User folders. The arrows step one sample back or forward.

The waveform

Control	What it does
Start marker	Drag to set where the sample starts. `Shift`-drag draws a fade in.
End marker	Drag to set where it stops. `Shift`-drag draws a fade out.
Loop start · Loop end	Drag to set the loop region used by the looping playback modes.
Fade in · Fade out	The small squares in the corners: drag from a corner to fade the sample in or out. Longer = softer.
Fade curves	Drag a fade's curve handle up or down to bend it from quick to slow.
Chop editor	The corner icon opens this sample on the CHOP page to slice and play it (see CHOP).

Front controls

Control	What it does
Scan	Playback speed and direction. Centre = frozen in place, right = forward and faster, left = backwards. A notch right of centre is normal speed.
Stretch	Time-stretch: slows the sample down without changing its pitch. Right-click › Stretch mode: Tones (tuned for melodic material, keeps notes clean), Beats (tuned for drums, keeps hits sharp) or Texture (tuned for pads and noise, smooth and smeared).
Formant	The formant is a voice's size and vowel colour. Left = bigger, right = smaller, pitch unchanged. Right-click › Formant mode: Normal, Inverted (the knob works the other way round), Cross-Formant (swaps the voice shape for a strange, talking tone) or Spectral-Tilt (the knob tilts the tone darker or brighter).
Spray	Each note starts at a random spot in the sample. Up = more scatter, so repeated notes never sound identical.
X-Fade	Crossfades the sample in at Start and out at End, so loops and edges never click. Up = longer fades. These are the same fades `Shift`-dragging the markers draws.
Air	Adds high overtones for sparkle and breath.

Blend: morphing two sounds

Drop a second file on a loaded Sample oscillator and choose Blend. The current sound becomes the first layer, the dropped one the second, and the waveform visibly becomes the blend. A new set of knobs appears behind the Blend arrow; each one decides which layer owns one part of the sound.

Control	What it does
Morph	Slides from the first sound into the second. The knobs after it can override each layer.
Attack	Whose transients (the sharp first hit of each sound) you hear, the first sound's or the second's.
Body	Morphs the tonal core between the two; their pitches glide into each other instead of crossfading.
Breath	Whose noisy, breathy layer you hear. Centre follows Morph.
Sculpt	Borrows the tonal shape (the formant, its vowel colour) of one sound for the guts of the other.
Dice	Shuffles which sound owns each harmonic. 0 = off; every position is a new mix you can come back to.

The sample menu

Right-click the waveform for the sample tools, followed by the oscillator rows from the quick menu (copy and paste oscillator, solo, mute, volume, pan, semitone).

Row	What it does
Trim to loop	Cuts the sample down to the loop markers.
Normalize	Raises the sample to full level.
Fade in / out	Adds short fades at the start and end so it never clicks; choose it again to remove them.
Reset region	Puts the Start, End and loop markers back to the whole sample.
Snap loop to zero · On/Off	Moves the loop markers onto silent points (zero crossings) so the loop never clicks. Click to toggle.
Copy sample · Paste sample	Copies this sample to paste onto another oscillator; Paste puts a copied sample here.
Export one-shot	Saves what this oscillator plays as an audio file, blends included.
Undo blend	(After a blend) Goes back to the sample from before the blend; repeat to walk back further.
Delete sample	Removes the sample from this oscillator.

Try this Load a vocal one-shot, set playback to Tailed, then drop a bowed string on it and choose Blend. Keep Attack on the voice and turn Body toward the string: a sung consonant that blooms into a cello.

Granular#

Granular slices a sample into grains — tiny pieces from 2 to 500 ms — and plays many of them at once, scattered in time, pitch and stereo. Freeze a single moment into a pad, scrub through a loop like a tape head, or turn a drum hit into a shimmering cloud. It reads the same sample library as the Sample engine, and you drop files on it the same way.

Oscillator A, Granular engine, back panel — Granular, back.

First set: the grains

Control	What it does
Scan	How fast the grains travel through the sample. Centre = frozen, right = forward, left = backwards.
Density	How many grains start each second, 1 to 200. Up = a smooth cloud, down = separate pops. Right-click › Sync to tempo to step through note values (1/256 to 1 bar) that follow the song.
Size	How long each grain is, 2 to 500 ms. Small = buzzy, big = smooth. Right-click › Sync to tempo for note values.
Spray	Scatters where each grain starts around the play position. Up = a blurrier, wider cloud.
Shape	The fade in and out of each grain. Left = flatter and punchier, right = a soft bell shape that blends smoothly.
Key	Tunes the grains to an interval or a scale: Off (every grain at the note), Oct, 5th, Chord, Maj, Min or Penta.

Second set: the spread

Control	What it does
Position	Where in the sample the grains are taken from. Sweep it with an LFO to wander through the sound.
Pitch	Transposes every grain, −24 to +24 semitones. Try 12 for a shimmer an octave up.
P.Spray	Pitch spray: gives each grain a slightly random pitch. Up = a shimmering, out-of-tune cloud.
Width	Throws the grains between left and right. 0 = mono, up = wide.
Dir	Direction: which way grains play. Left = backwards, right = forwards, centre = a mix of both.
Skew	Leans each grain's fade. Left = sharp attack and slow fade (a pluck), right = slow swell and sharp end.

Right-clicking the waveform adds three grain extras to the usual sample menu: the Tones · Beats · Texture stretch type, a Stretch slider (slows the sample down without changing pitch) and an Air slider (adds high harmonics for sparkle).

Try this Load a short piano note, Scan at centre (frozen), Density high, Size around 200 ms, Key on Maj and P.Spray a touch up. One key now plays a slowly glittering major chord.

FM#

The FM engine is a wavetable carrier with two hidden modulators, Mod 1 and Mod 2, wobbling its pitch at audio rate. Whole-number ratios give musical tones — electric pianos, basses, brass — and in-between ratios give bells and metal. A second set of "weathering" controls ages, rusts and overdrives the modulators, and the full wavetable set (WT Pos, Warp, Spectral, Fold) still works on the carrier.

Oscillator C on the FM engine, front panel: the Vowel Morph table, the wave, and the Algo pill Stack followed by Ratio 1, FM 1, Ratio 2, FM 2 and Feedback — FM on Oscillator C, front.

Oscillator C on the FM engine, back panel — FM on Oscillator C, back.

Header

The header shows the carrier's wavetable, with the same arrows and browser as the Wavetable engine. A sine carrier gives classic FM; any of the 500 tables gives FM that nobody else can make.

First set: the operators

Control	What it does
Algo	How the modulators connect. Stack: Mod 2 feeds Mod 1, which feeds the wavetable. Split: both modulators hit the wavetable side by side. Ring: Mod 1 ring-modulates the output for metallic tones.
Ratio 1	The pitch of Mod 1 as a multiple of the note, 0.25 to 16. Whole numbers = musical, in-between = bells.
FM 1	How hard Mod 1 wobbles the wavetable's pitch. 0 = clean; up = brighter, metallic. Put an envelope on it.
Ratio 2	The pitch of Mod 2, 0.25 to 16. Try 1, 2 or 3.5 for new colours.
FM 2	How hard Mod 2 wobbles the pitch it is sent to (Algo decides where). Up = richer, harsher overtones.
Feedback	Mod 1 wobbles its own pitch with its own output. Low = a pure sine, up = saw-like buzz, top = growl.

Second set: weathering

Control	What it does
Strike	A burst of extra FM bite at the start of each note, harder when you play harder: pluck, mallet or brass blast.
Age	The modulators drift like old analogue gear, so no two notes beat the same. Up = more wander.
Rust	Pulls Mod 1 off the musical (harmonic) pitches. Low = shimmer, high = a corroded bell clang. Pair it with Storm.
Quake	Adds pitch wobble an octave below the note. Up = sub weight, then growl, then a crackly vocal fry.
Scorch	Distortion inside the FM loop. Low = warm, high = molten grit and fuzz.
Storm	The two modulators wobble each other too. Up = thicker, then a snarl, then controlled chaos.

Step on with the arrow for the wavetable set — WT Pos, Warp, Spectral and Fold, exactly as on the Wavetable engine — and then Unison.

Phase distortion and cross-oscillator FM

The FM engine's operators live inside one oscillator. To modulate between oscillators, use the back panel's blend slots: FM, FM Exp and FM Clamp for frequency modulation from any other oscillator, and PD for phase distortion — including Self (feedback) for an oscillator that bends its own read. See Blend modes.

Try this Sine carrier, Algo Stack, Ratio 1 at 1, Ratio 2 at 14, FM 2 low, FM 1 driven by Env 2 with a quick decay, and Strike at a third. That is a tine electric piano; nudge Age and it starts to sound old and loved.

Resynth#

Resynth listens to a sample, works out the tones inside it, and plays them back as its own oscillator bank. Because the sound is rebuilt rather than replayed, you can stretch it to a standstill, throw away parts of it, morph it toward a plain waveform, crush its detail or melt its attacks into a pad. The display is a scrolling spectrum of the rebuilt sound, with a playhead for each note.

Oscillator A, Resynth engine, back panel with Low and High knobs — Resynth, back.

First set: play

Control	What it does
Scan	How fast playback moves through the sample. 0 = hold still, centre = natural speed, up = faster.
Stretch	Slows playback down without changing pitch; all the way up freezes it into an endless pad.
Sieve	Throws away parts of the sound for broken, lo-fi textures. Up = more removed. Right-click › Sieve mode (see below).
Shape	Morphs the sample toward a plain waveform, keeping its pitch: the sample becomes the wave, missing harmonics and all. The knob's label shows the target. Right-click › Shape to choose Sine, Square, Saw, Triangle, Pulse, Organ, Half, Vowel or Metal.
Drive	Pushes the rebuilt sound into distortion for heat and grit. Right-click › Drive mode (see below).

Second set: sculpt

Control	What it does
Quality	How much detail the rebuilt sound keeps. High = clean and full, low = skeletal, lo-fi and broken.
Formant	The voice's size and vowel colour, from giant to chipmunk, without changing pitch.
Tilt	Tilts the tone like a seesaw. Left = darker, right = brighter.
Crush	Bitcrush and sample-rate reduction: an old-computer, lo-fi grit. Up = dirtier.
Start	The point in the recording where each note begins.
Melt	Smears the sound across time so the sharp starts dissolve into a pad. Turns any one-shot into a wash.

The back panel's Low and High knobs are Resynth's low and high cuts.

Sieve modes

Mode	What it does
Floor	Removes the quietest parts first.
Sparse	Keeps only a few strong parts.
Cloak	Hides the loudest parts, leaving a ghost.
Flicker	Parts drop in and out over time.
Rake	Removes evenly spaced bands, like a comb.
Parity	Keeps odd or even parts only.

Drive modes

Mode	What it does
Saturate	Warm, even saturation.
Bloom	Drive that opens the highs as it grows.
Glint	A bright, glassy edge.
Moire	Shimmering interference patterns.
Foldback	Wavefolding for buzzy overtones.
Ember	Dark, smouldering grit.

Try this Drop a field recording on Resynth, push Stretch to the top so it freezes, then sweep Sieve in Flicker mode with a slow LFO. The frozen moment breaks up and re-forms like a signal through bad weather.

Harmonic#

Harmonic is additive: it builds the sound from up to 512 partials — pure sine tones stacked above the note — and renders every one of them per voice. Its source is a wavetable: pick any table from the header, exactly as on the Wavetable engine, and Harmonic rebuilds each frame from pure sines. Then thin it, tilt it, scatter it in stereo, give each partial its own life, and sculpt the whole spectrum with the second set.

Oscillator A, Harmonic engine, back panel — Harmonic, back.

The partials display

The display draws the partials as thin lines rising from a centred line, one per partial, so you see the spectrum you are playing. Click it to switch to the 3D waterfall of the source table, with the frame Hue is reading highlighted. Right-click it for the quick menu: copy and paste the oscillator, solo, mute, volume, pan and semitone.

First set: the voice

Control	What it does
Hue	Picks the frame of the source table that the partials are built from — the Harmonic engine's WT Pos. Fully modulatable: sweep it for a morphing, pure-sine version of the table.
Partials	How many partials build the sound, 8 to 512. Down = hollow and skeletal, up = full spectrum. Loudness stays level as you turn it.
Lean	Tilts the balance of the partials. Left = dark, soft felt; right = glassy and bright. Centre is flat.
Fan	Spreads the partials across left and right, then lets them slowly orbit your head. Up = wider.
Grit	Each partial drifts a little, like analogue gear. Low = subtle wander, high = haunted machine.
Braid	Adds slightly out-of-tune twins to the loudest partials, like several players at once. Up = thicker beating.

Second set: the sculpt

Control	What it does
Carve	Tilts the spectrum around a sliding pivot: warmth first, then the pivot slides up and the lows duck into a megaphone. Past halfway it changes the shape, not only the amount.
Churn	Each note drifts through the table on its own, starting from wherever Hue put it, so a chord spreads out instead of moving as one block. Up = deeper and faster drift.
Root	Shields the root (the note itself) from the sculpt; past halfway it adds a ghost an octave below.
Shine	Adds a shimmering copy of the whole tone an octave up that slowly breathes.
Wilt	The note's time arrow. Left = highs fade away like a pluck; right = highs swell in like a bowed pad.
Forge	Analogue-style drive on the whole oscillator. Low = warm, middle = overdrive, top = screaming fuzz.

Try this Pick a vocal table, Partials at 64, Fan halfway, Churn a third, Wilt to the right. Play a chord: each note breathes through the vowels on its own while the highs swell in — a choir made of pure sines.

Modal#

Modal is a physical model: a bank of resonances shaped like a real body — a string, a pipe, a bar, a bell, a drum skin — set ringing by a strike, a pluck, a bow or a breath. Pick a family and one of its five forms in the header, then shape how it is played and what it is made of. Drop a one-shot on the display and that sound becomes the strike.

Oscillator A, Modal engine, back panel — Modal, back.

Header

Control	What it does
Playback	How a dropped strike sample plays (One-Shot, Forward, Reverse, Ping-Pong, Tailed), as on the Sample engine.
Family	The kind of body. Click to choose one of nine families, or Samples to open the sample browser and ring the resonator with a one-shot of your own.
Form	Which instrument of the family the model plays: five forms per family.

The display draws what the model plays for the current settings; with a strike sample loaded, it shows that sample instead.

Families and forms

Family	What it is · its five forms
Ivory	Piano strings struck by felt hammers · Vast, Tall, Bite, Felt, Silver
Wire	Plucked strings: guitar, lute, harp, sitar · Steel, Nylon, Worn, Open, Buzz
Silk	Bowed strings, violin to contrabass · High, Mid, Low, Deep, Gut
Air	Flutes and blown pipes · Pure, Warm, Hollow, Breathy, Cold
Rasp	Reeds: clarinet, sax, oboe, bassoon, duduk · Dark, Husky, Nasal, Deep, Mournful
Blaze	Brass: trumpet, horn, trombone, tuba · Bright, Round, Soft, Wide, Deep
Timber	Struck bars: marimba, vibes, xylophone, kalimba · Wood, Cool, Hard, Clear, Thumb
Glass	Bells: church, tubular, handbell, gong · Tower, Tube, Hand, Gong, Bowl
Skin	Drums: timpani, tom, snare, djembe, tabla · Boom, Tom, Snap, Slap, Talk
Samples	Your own one-shot rings the resonator. It opens the sample browser; the resonator family you had stays in place.

First set: the essentials

Control	What it does
Hard	How hard the body is struck. Left = soft mallet or felt, right = hard stick or pick.
Pos	Where it is struck, plucked or bowed, from the edge to the middle. Changes which overtones ring.
Decay	How long it rings. Left = tight and short, right = almost endless sustain.
Material	What it is made of. Left = dull wood or felt, right = ringing glass or metal.
Breath	Keeps driving the body like a bow or breath. Left = plucked or struck, right = a bowed or blown sustain with air.

Second set: the sculpt

Control	What it does
Stretch	Pulls the overtones out of tune. Left = pure, middle = a stiff piano string, right = bell or gong.
Bloom	Life after the strike. Left = dead, right = the sound blooms open and shimmers.
Halo	Sympathetic ringing, like the other strings of a piano humming along. Up = a beating, glowing halo.
Age	The instrument's condition. Left = pristine, right = worn, out of tune and buzzy, every note a little different.
Body	The resonant body around the string. Left = a raw string, right = a full body in wide stereo.

Try this Glass › Bowl, Breath three quarters up, Material high, Bloom and Halo halfway. Hold a note: a singing bowl that keeps sounding while you hold it. Then drop a snare one-shot on the display and play the same bowl with a drum stick.

Organics#

Organics plays 74 deeply sampled acoustic instruments — pianos, organs, strings, guitars, harps, winds, brass, mallets, bells, voices and percussion — with the articulations they were recorded with. The knobs do what a player does: pick a softer or harder take, brighten the tone, resize the body, add vibrato, loosen the timing, lengthen the release. And because it is an oscillator like any other, all of Terrain still applies: unison, blend slots, filters, flow and effects.

Oscillator A, Organics engine, back panel: pills Vibrato Off, Rate 5.5 Hz, Delay 0.35 s, Start 0 ms and Noise 50 above the Oct, Semi, Cent, Level and Pan knobs — Organics, back.

Header and display

Control	What it does
Instrument	Click to browse the 74 instruments by category, or scroll over the name to step through them. The ‹ › arrows step to the previous or next instrument in the same category. An instrument that is not installed shows dimmed in the browser.
Articulation	How the player plays this instrument — sustained, short, plucked and so on, depending on what was recorded. Click to pick another.
Display	A drawing of the instrument that reacts as you play. Right-click it for the quick menu.

Good to know If a preset asks for an instrument that is not installed on this computer, Organics plays the first installed instrument of the same family and the name's tooltip tells you which one it is standing in for.

First set: the player

Control	What it does
Dynamics	Which recording plays: soft takes (left) or hard ones (right). Loudness still follows your playing; this changes the timbre. It crossfades live, so the mod wheel or an LFO makes it breathe.
Tone	Tilts the brightness, about 9 dB either way. Left = dark and felted, right = open and bright.
Body	The instrument's size without changing its pitch, up to six semitones of formant either way. Right = bigger and darker, left = smaller and nasal.
Vibrato	A player's vibrato that eases in after the note starts, up to ±50 cents. Its rate and delay are on the back.
Human	Each note varies a little in tuning, level, timing and tone, like a real player. 0 = every note identical.

Second set: the mechanics

Control	What it does
Attack	How a note begins. 0 = tight (the air before the onset trimmed, the transient lifted), centre = as recorded, top = a slow swell of about 3 s.
Release	How long a note rings after you let go, 20 ms up to 12 s. Centre = as recorded.
Sustain	0 = the note dies away naturally; up = it crossfades into a held loop, and at the top a piano holds for ever.
Velocity	How much your playing strength sets loudness and brightness. 0 = every note full, 100 = the instrument's own natural curve.
Image	The recording's stereo width. 0 = mono, 67 = as recorded, 100 = extra wide.

A longer attack or release on Env 1 (the amp envelope) always lengthens these further.

The back panel

Organics keeps the blend slots, the filter sends and the tuning and mix knobs of every engine, and replaces the middle row with five player pills. Drag them up and down; double-click for the default.

Control	What it does
Vibrato	The same vibrato depth as the front knob, 0 to ±50 cents, sitting here next to its rate and delay. Double-click = Off.
Rate	How fast the vibrato swings, 3 to 9 Hz. Double-click = 5.5 Hz. Dimmed while Vibrato is off.
Delay	How long a note holds still before the vibrato eases in, 0 to 2 s. Double-click = 0.35 s. Dimmed while Vibrato is off.
Start	Skips into the recording, 0 to 2 s. 0 = the whole attack; higher = the note enters in its body, with no strike.
Noise	The player's mechanical sounds — hammers, pedals, frets, breath, key-ups — each note deciding for itself like a real player. 0 = never, 50 = as recorded, 100 = louder and more often. Greyed when an instrument has none. Right-click to make the pill show Coarse (smooth pitch, ±64 semitones), Porta (glide time, Off to 2 s) or Glide (the glide's curve) instead.

The 74 instruments

Category	Instruments
Keys (14)	Bright Grand, Clav, Clavisynth, Concert Grand, Concert Grand B, FM Electric Piano, Harpsichord, Old Upright, Osiris Piano, Pad Reed EP, Reed EP, Tine EP, Upright Piano, Warm Upright
Organs (5)	Accordion, Chamber Organ, Drawbar Organ, Pipe Organ, Rock Organ
Strings (10)	Bowed Bass Pad, Cello Section, Contrabass, Erhu, Jazz Pizz Bass, Solo Cello, Solo Violin, Upright Bass, Viola Section, Violin Section
Plucked (11)	Archtop Guitar, Celtic Harp, Clean Electric, Concert Harp, Dan Tranh, Ganjo, Hollowbody Guitars, Hungarian Zither, Jazz Bass, Medieval Lyre, Nylon Guitar
Winds (14)	Alto Recorder, Alto Sax, Alto Sax (Weresax), Baritone Sax, Bassoon, Clarinet, Flute, Harmonica, Oboe, Ocarina, Soprano Sax, Tenor Sax, Tenor Sax (VCSL), Vintage Bari Sax
Brass (5)	Folk Tuba, French Horn, Trombone, Trumpet, Tuba
Mallets & Bells (8)	Glockenspiel, Hand Chimes, Kalimba, Marimba, Mbira, Tubular Bells, Vibraphone, Xylophone
Choir & Voice (2)	Male Aah, Synth Choir
Percussion (5)	Balafon, Handpan, Steel Pan, Timpani, Water Glasses

The sample libraries behind these instruments and their licences are listed in Credits.

Importing a SoundFont

Bring your own sampled instruments into Organics. Open the instrument browser and choose Import SoundFont (the last row of the User category, or the browser's import button), then pick an .sfz, .sf2 or .sf3 file. Terrain converts it in the background and a toast reports progress. A SoundFont with several presets asks which one to import, or Import all presets; a very large file (over 500 MB) asks before it starts. Imported instruments live under User, play exactly like the factory ones, and can be removed with a right-click.

Try this Solo Cello, Dynamics on the mod wheel, Vibrato at a third with Delay at 0.5 s, Release a little past centre. Then set Osc B to a Harmonic pad an octave up and Blend the cello into it with a gentle AM from an LFO: a played instrument that turns into a texture as you hold it.

Chapter 5

Noise

Hiss, hum, crackle, wind. The noise strip sits between the oscillators and plays with every note: a breath under a pad, a click on a pluck, a vinyl bed under the whole patch. Pick a colour, load your own, and use it as a modulator too.

The noise strip#

The noise strip is the narrow panel in the middle of the SYN page's top row, between the A/B and C/D oscillator slots. It is one shared noise layer that plays under the oscillators on every note. It has thirteen built-in colours, a factory library of noise recordings, room for your own files, three knobs and a right-click menu for how it plays.

Control	What it does
Power	Turns the noise layer on or off. When it is on, it plays with every note, under the oscillators. A fresh patch starts with the noise off.
‹ ›	Steps to the previous or next noise. On the built-in colours it walks all thirteen; on a factory noise recording it walks the factory library; from one of your own files it returns to the colours.
Name	Shows what is playing — a colour's name, or the name of the loaded recording. Click it to open the noise browser. Drag it onto a knob to modulate that knob with the noise.
Display	Shows the noise moving as notes play. Click it to switch between a particle cloud (calm at rest, blooming when a note plays) and a waveform view. Drag it onto any knob to use the noise's loudness as a modulator. Drop an audio file on it to import a looping noise of your own.
Level	How loud the noise layer is, 0 to 100%. The knob is tapered for fine control at the quiet end: 25% is about −36 dB, 50% about −18 dB, 100% full level. A little adds breath and air; pair it with a short envelope for clicks and chiffs.
Scan	On a colour, its tone. On a loaded recording, its playback speed, from 0.10× through 1× (centre, natural) up to 2×.
Pan	Places the noise left or right. Centre = middle. The number in the ring is the distance from centre; the arc shows the side. Its stereo width is in the right-click menu.

All three knobs share the house gestures: drag to turn, double-click to reset, right-click to modulate.

The thirteen colours#

The built-in noises are generated live, so they never loop and never repeat. They come in four groups.

Colour	What it sounds like
Colors
White Noise	Bright, even hiss across every frequency.
Pink Noise	Softer, rain-like hiss with more low end.
Brown Noise	Deep, rumbling noise like distant surf.
Geiger	Dry random clicks and ticks, no hiss bed.
Tape
Tape Hiss	The soft hiss of a tape machine.
Tape Hum	A low mains hum with faint hiss under it.
Tape Air	Breathy tape air that slowly swells.
Tape Crackle	Sparse pops and crackles over faint hiss.
Vinyl
Clean Vinyl	A record's soft surface noise with light crackle.
Dirty Vinyl	A worn record: rumble, surface noise and dense crackle.
Space
Space Open	A wide, airy wash that gently sweeps.
Space Helium	A thin, high, resonant whistle of air.
Space Wind	Gusting wind through a sweeping band.

Browsing and loading your own noise#

Click the noise name to open the browser — the same two-pane browser the oscillators use (see The sound browser). On the left: All at the top, then the four colour groups, then the categories of the factory noise library, then User. Turn on the headphone to audition a colour or a recording before you pick it.

There are three ways to bring in your own noise:

Drop an audio file onto the noise display. It loads and loops as the noise layer.
In the browser, + › Add folder points Terrain at a folder of your own noises. It appears under User and is remembered; nothing is copied.
In the browser, + › Import file adds a single file.

Whatever you pick is saved with the preset, and the name in the strip always tells you what is actually playing. A loaded recording uses Scan as its speed.

Playback and stereo width#

Right-click the noise strip for its menu. The three Playback modes shape how a loaded recording (factory or your own) meets each note. The thirteen built-in colours are generated live and never repeat, so they play the same in every mode.

Row	What it does
Playback
Random	Every note starts the recording at a random spot and loops it, so no two hits sound alike. This is the default.
Envelope	Every note plays the recording once from its start, like a one-shot, then falls silent until the next note. Use it with a recording that has a shape — a breath, a crackle burst, a whoosh.
Free	The noise runs on like a tape that never stops; notes only open and close it. Perfect for a constant vinyl or tape bed.
Stereo Width
Width line	Drag along the line. Left = mono, the middle mark = normal, right = extra wide. Double-click returns to normal.

Noise as a modulator#

The noise is also a modulation source. Drag the noise display (or its name) onto any knob in Terrain: from then on, the noise's own loudness moves that knob. It keeps following even with the noise layer switched off, so you can use a silent noise purely as a source of jitter. Noise is also a source in the oscillators' blend slots (see Blend modes) and in the MOD page's Audio sources (see Modulation).

Try this Pick Geiger, switch the power off, and drag the noise display onto a filter's cutoff with a small depth. Every random tick now nudges the filter — a living, crackling movement no LFO shape gives you.

Routing, filters and Noise 2#

The noise goes to the mix on its own, past the filters. To filter it, light the N pill on a filter's back panel (see Filters); the noise then runs through that filter instead of past it. Each filter has its own N pill, so you can send the noise to Filter 1, Filter 2 or both.

A second, independent noise strip, Noise 2, lives on the Patcher alongside Oscillators E to H. It has the same colours, library, knobs, menu and import, with its own settings and its own selection. See The Patcher.

Try this For a breathy flute: Pink Noise, Playback Envelope, Level low, routed into Filter 1 with a band-pass type tracking the keyboard. Then drag Env 2 onto the noise Level with a quick attack and short decay for the chiff at the start of each note.

Chapter 6

Filters

Two filters, 123 types. Classic ladders and state-variables, combs that ring like strings, vowels that talk, phasers, frequency shifters, tiny reverbs and outright destruction. Route any oscillator into either filter, stack them or run them side by side, and drag the curve with your hands.

Filter 1 and Filter 2#

Terrain has two independent filters in one panel on the SYN page. The 1 and 2 pills choose which filter you are editing; each has its own type, curve, knobs, routing and back panel. Both can run at once — one after the other (Series) or side by side (Parallel).

A filter only hears what you send it. Each oscillator decides how much of itself goes to each filter with its F1 and F2 sends (on the oscillator's back, see the back panel), and the filter's own back panel has quick pills for the oscillators, the sub layers and the noise. A fresh oscillator sends nothing, so it plays dry until you route it, and both filters start on None, so pick a type before you expect to hear a change.

The filter panel, front: Ladder LP · 24 between arrows, pills 1, 2, K and a plus, a low-pass curve with a resonant peak, and four animated emblems for cutoff, resonance, drive and envelope — The filter, front panel (Filter 1, Ladder LP · 24).

The front panel#

Type picker

The type name sits at the top left between two arrows. The arrows step through the list one type at a time. Click the name to open the filter browser: families on the left, types on the right, and a search box — type part of a name, like comb, formant or acid. All lists every type and None (bypass) switches the filter off. The arrows skip None and wrap around at either end. Hover any type for a one-line description. The full list is at the end of this chapter, see All 123 filter types.

The curve

The filter's response curve is a control in its own right. Press anywhere on it and the cutoff and resonance jump to the pointer; drag left and right to move the cutoff, up and down to change the resonance. A readout shows both values while you drag. Right-click it and choose Extend for the big view (see The big filter view).

Front controls

The four front controls are drawn as small animated emblems instead of knobs: a cutoff slope, a resonance peak, a drive wave and an envelope. Drag each one up or down; right-click to modulate it or to learn a MIDI controller.

Control	What it does
Cut	The cutoff frequency, 20 Hz to 20 kHz; a new filter starts fully open at 20 kHz. On most types this is where the filter starts cutting; on combs, phasers, formants and the special types it means something else (see What the knobs mean per family).
Res	Resonance: boosts the frequencies right at the cutoff. Turn it up for a whistling, vocal edge.
Drive	Pushes the sound into the filter for warmth and grit. Up = louder and dirtier. (The back panel's Drive works after the filter.)
Env	How far the filter envelope opens (+) or closes (−) the cutoff on every note. The middle is none. Env has no sound of its own: it sets the depth of whichever envelope feeds this filter. When you drag it and no envelope (Env 2 to Env 5) feeds this filter yet, Terrain routes Env 2 to it for you, as long as Env 2 is not already routed elsewhere. If it is, a short message tells you where Env 2 goes, and Env does nothing until you route an envelope to the filter (see Envelopes).

The pills

Control	What it does
1	Edit Filter 1. Its type, curve, knobs and back panel fill the panel.
2	Edit Filter 2, with its own type and knobs.
K	Key Track: the cutoff follows the notes you play, so high notes stay as bright as low ones. A click switches it between off (Track 0) and full (Track 100%); fine-tune the amount with the Track knob on the back. K stays lit whenever Track is above 0.
+	Flips the filter to its back panel, and back again.

The Filter word as a modulator

The word Filter at the top left of the back panel is a drag source. Drag it onto any knob and the active filter's output level moves that knob — the filtered sound itself becomes the modulator. See Modulation.

Try this Ladder LP · 24, Cut a quarter up, Res halfway, then drag Env up. Terrain hooks Env 2 to the filter on the spot; shorten Env 2's decay (see Envelopes) and every note plucks.

The back panel#

Flip the filter with + to see what feeds it and how it sits in the mix. Like the front, the back follows the 1/2 pills: each filter has its own routing, spread, poles and knobs. Series/Parallel is shared by both.

The filter back panel: pills 1, 2, K and a back arrow; routing pills A, B, C, D, S and N; Series, Parallel, Spread 0% and Poles 6; knobs Mix, Drive, Env, Vel and Track — The filter, back panel.

Control	What it does
A · B · C · D	Route Oscillator A, B, C or D into this filter. Lit = it plays through the filter; unlit = it skips it. A click sets the oscillator's own F1/F2 send fully on or off; fine-tune the amount on the oscillator's back panel. A partly filled send also lights the pill.
S	Route the sub layers (every oscillator's Sub) into this filter.
N	Route the noise layer into this filter.
Series	Filter 1 feeds Filter 2, so the two stack. A low pass into a high pass makes a band.
Parallel	The two filters run side by side and mix together: two different tones at once.
Spread	Pulls the cutoff apart left and right for a wide stereo filter, 0 to 100%. Drag or scroll; double-click returns it to 0. Beautiful with resonance.
Poles	The slope — how sharply the filter cuts: 6, 12, 18 or 24 dB per octave (one to four poles; default 24). Drag up or down, or scroll. It acts on Ladder LP · 24, Ladder HP · 24 and German LP; on other types the pill dims, because their slope is fixed (for a dedicated 12 dB circuit, pick from the Two-Pole family).
Mix	Blends this filter with the dry sound. 100% = all filter; lower lets the original through too. Default 100%.
Drive	Saturation after the filter (the front Drive is before it). Right-click › Drive type for its flavour (see below).
Env	The same control as the front Env: how far the filter envelope opens or closes the cutoff, bipolar.
Vel	Harder hits open the cutoff further, so loud notes sound brighter. Great for expressive keys.
Track	Key tracking: how far the cutoff follows the notes you play, pivoting on middle C. 20% = one to one (play an octave higher, the cutoff moves an octave); 100% = five octaves of cutoff per octave played. While you drag, it reads as a ratio: Off, 1:1 up to 5:1. K switches between 0 and 100%.

Drive types

Type	What it does
Tube	Warm, rounded saturation after the filter, gentle even at high Drive.
Diode	A harder, buzzier clip with a bright edge.
Fold	Folds the wave back on itself for hollow, metallic overtones.
Hard	A hard clip, loud and square-edged.
Crush	Digital bit grit, lo-fi and crunchy.
Fuzz	A thick, woolly fuzz, like a guitar pedal.

Key tracking, explained

Without key tracking, a filter's cutoff stays where you set it: a low note may sound bright and a high note dull, because the high note's harmonics sit above the cutoff. With key tracking, the cutoff moves with the note. At Track 20% it moves exactly one to one, so every note keeps the same tone; lower values follow partly, and higher values exaggerate it, so the top of the keyboard opens up dramatically. The pivot is middle C, where tracking changes nothing. On combs and Karplus types, where Cut sets a pitch, key tracking makes the ring follow the notes you play.

Try this Route Osc A to Filter 1 and Osc B to Filter 2, set Parallel, give Filter 1 a low pass and Filter 2 a Comb Fifth, and turn Filter 2's Spread up. One oscillator keeps the body, the other rings wide in stereo.

The big filter view#

Right-click the filter curve on the front panel and choose Extend to open a large, floating view of the active filter. Drag left and right for cutoff, up and down for resonance, over a live spectrum of what is playing. Drag the title bar to move the window anywhere; close it with ✕. The filter keeps working when the view is closed.

What the knobs mean per family#

On the classic types (low pass, high pass, band pass, notch) Cut, Res and Drive do what you expect. Many of Terrain's types are not simple filters, and on those the same three controls take on the job that matters. Hover a control and its tooltip always tells you what it does for the type on screen.

Types	Cut	Res
Low pass	Where the highs start being cut. Up = brighter.	A whistling peak at the cutoff.
High pass	Where the lows start being removed. Up = thinner.	Boosts the frequencies right at the cutoff.
Band pass	The centre of the band that passes. Sweep it for wah-like moves.	Boosts the frequencies right at the cutoff.
Notch	Where the notch scoops out its slice. Sweep it slowly for a hollow, phasey movement.	Boosts the frequencies right at the cutoff.
Comb	The pitch of the ring.	How long it rings.
Flange	The flanger delay, about 0.1 to 10 ms.	Flanger feedback: a stronger, metallic jet.
Karplus	The pitch of the plucked string.	How long the string rings.
Formant A–U	The throat size: down = bigger voice, up = smaller.	How sharp the vowel is.
Formant Morph and voices	The vowel, sweeping a, e, i, o, u from left to right.	How sharp the vowels are.
Phaser	Where the notches sit.	Feedback: deeper notches.
Diffusor	The size of the smear: down = longer, slower.	How thick the smear is.
Bode	The frequency shift: centre = none, up to 2000 Hz either way.	Feedback: endless rising or falling swirls.
Tilt	The pivot point.	The tilt, up to ±9 dB: below half darker, above half brighter, middle flat.
Low / High EQ	The shelf's corner.	Shelf gain, up to ±12 dB; middle flat.
Band EQ	The centre of the bell.	Bell gain, up to ±12 dB; middle flat. Drive sets how narrow the bell is.
Air	Where the lift starts, never below 4 kHz.	How much air, 0 to 15 dB.
Add Bass	How deep the added bass reaches.	A little peak for a punchier low end.
Reverb Filter, Reverb Dark	The low pass before the little room.	The peak plus the bloom: a longer, wetter tail.
Reverb Filter 2, Reverb Metal	The size of the comb reverb.	Decay and wet amount.
Ring Mod	The frequency of the ring-mod sine: low = tremolo-like, high = clangy metal.	From a clean sine ring to a harsher diode ring.
Bit-Crush	The sample rate: down = harsher; fully up = clean.	The bit depth, 4 to 16 bits.
Waveshaper	The tone after the shaper: down = smoother, up = full and bright.	From soft clipping into wavefolding.
Grain Mask	The grain rate, 2 to 200 per second, and the band's centre.	Focuses the band: a more pitched, ringing texture.
Samp-Hold	How often the wave is held: down = coarse steps.	Feeds the steps back for a metallic ring.
Radio	Moves the narrow radio band, about 150 Hz to 8 kHz.	How narrow the band is: up = a tighter, more nasal radio.

On most types Drive pushes the sound into the filter for warmth and grit. On the EQ & Tone types it saturates after the EQ instead, and on Band EQ it sets how narrow the bell is. With the type set to None, the controls do nothing until you pick a type.

All 123 filter types#

Here is every type, in the order and the families of the filter browser: None plus 122 filters in eleven families.

The filter type browser open on the Ladder family — The filter browser: families on the left, types on the right, a search field for all 123.

None (1)

Type	What it does
None	No filter at all; the sound passes straight through.

Ladder (12)

Warm, classic low pass and high pass filters with a rich, squelchy resonance.

Type	What it does
Ladder LP · 24	The classic warm low pass, a steep cut of the highs. Add Resonance for a juicy squelch.
Ladder LP · 12	A gentler ladder low pass that keeps more top end. Smooth on pads, keys and chords.
Ladder LP · 6	The softest ladder slope, a subtle darkening. Tames harsh highs without dulling.
Ladder LP · 18	Between 12 and 24, a firm but smooth cut. A good all-round choice for basses.
Ladder HP · 24	A high pass that removes the lows below the cutoff. Thins pads and clears room for the bass.
Diode LP	A buzzy, rubbery low pass with a gritty resonance. Great for squelchy acid and bass lines.
Acid LP	The squelchy bass-line filter. High Resonance plus Env gives the classic acid chirp on every note.
Acid Scream	The acid filter pushed into a screaming, overdriven resonance. Raise Drive for more bite.
German LP	A clean, polished ladder low pass with tamed resonance. Smooth on leads and pads.
Germanium LP	A fuzzy low pass with transistor grit; warmer and dirtier as you push Drive.
French LP	A low pass that reacts to how hard you feed it: louder input sounds brighter and edgier.
Raw LP	The brightest, most aggressive of the diode filters. Rude and loud, ideal for snarling basses.

Two-Pole (5)

Smooth 12 dB filters with analogue grit, including the screaming Sallen-Key pair.

Type	What it does
Two-Pole LP	A round, gentle low pass with analogue warmth. Musical on pads and strings.
Two-Pole BP	Keeps a band around the cutoff and trims lows and highs: a thin, nasal, telephone tone.
Two-Pole HP	A gentle high pass with analogue grit. Clears rumble smoothly.
Sallen-Key LP	A low pass with a clipped feedback loop; it screams as Resonance goes up.
Sallen-Key HP	A screaming high pass. High Resonance gives a sharp, nasal whistle.

Pole Mix (9)

One ladder, mixed into many shapes: high pass, band pass, notch and phase.

Type	What it does
POLE LP · 6	A soft one-pole low pass. Gently rounds off the top end.
POLE HP · 6	A soft high pass. Slightly thins the lows, very natural.
POLE HP · 12	A medium high pass. Clears the lows with a resonant edge.
POLE HP · 18	A steep high pass. Strongly removes the lows for thin, airy layers.
POLE BP · 6	A wide, gentle band pass. Keeps the middle and softly trims both ends.
POLE BP · 12	A band pass that cuts harder below than above: a focused, mid-heavy tone.
POLE BP · 24	A narrow, steep band pass. Very focused and vocal; sweep it for wah moves.
POLE Notch	Removes a slice at the cutoff and keeps the rest. Sweep it for a hollow, phasey move.
POLE Phase	Shifts the timing (phase) of frequencies around the ladder peak. Subtle alone, phaser-like when swept.

State-Variable (16)

Clean, precise filters of every shape, plus the vintage Gentle types and the gritty Wasp.

Type	What it does
SVF LP	A clean low pass. Neutral and smooth, a safe first choice.
SVF LP · 24	A clean low pass with a steeper cut. Darker and more focused than SVF LP.
SVF HP	A clean high pass. Use it to thin out a layer.
SVF HP · 24	A clean, steep high pass. Strips the lows hard for airy, thin sounds.
SVF BP	A clean band pass. Sweep it for wah-like moves.
SVF BP · 24	A narrower, steeper band pass: a tight, focused, nasal tone.
SVF Notch	Cuts a slim slice at the cutoff and keeps everything else. Sweep it for a gentle phasey sound.
SVF Notch · 24	A deeper, wider notch: a stronger hollow scoop as you sweep.
SVF Peak	Boosts a band at the cutoff instead of cutting. Raise Resonance for a ringing, vocal peak.
Morph SVF	A vintage multimode filter, halfway between low pass and band pass. Hollow, smooth and classic.
Gentle LP	A soft, vintage low pass with a mild peak. Warm and forgiving on anything.
Gentle Notch	A soft vintage notch. Natural, even when swept.
Gentle HP	A soft, vintage high pass that never sounds harsh.
Gentle BP	A soft, wide vintage band pass: a warm, mid-focused tone.
Wasp	A gritty, buzzy filter that is dirty even with Drive at zero. Nasty and full of character.
Grit LP	A dirty low pass that turns aggressive toward the top of Drive. Raw, edgy basses.

Multi (10)

Two filters at once: the first at the cutoff, the second two octaves above it.

Type	What it does
Multi LP+HP	A low pass at the cutoff and a high pass two octaves up, side by side.
Multi LP+BP	A low pass at the cutoff and a band pass two octaves up.
Multi LP+Notch	A low pass at the cutoff and a notch two octaves up.
Multi HP+BP	A high pass at the cutoff and a band pass two octaves up.
Multi HP+Notch	A high pass at the cutoff and a notch two octaves up.
Multi BP+BP	A band pass at the cutoff and a second band pass two octaves up.
Multi BP+Notch	A band pass at the cutoff and a notch two octaves up.
Multi Peak+Peak	A peak at the cutoff and a second peak two octaves up.
Multi Notch+Notch	A notch at the cutoff and a second notch two octaves up.
Multi Peak+HP	A peak at the cutoff and a high pass two octaves up.

Comb & Reso (18)

Tuned echoes that ring like strings, pipes and flangers. Cut sets the pitch.

Type	What it does
Comb +	A tiny echo fed back on itself: a pitched metallic ring. Cut sets the pitch, Res the ring.
Comb -	The comb with flipped feedback: a hollow ring that sounds an octave lower.
Comb Raw +	A comb with nothing damping it: a bright, open pipe that rings for seconds.
Comb Raw -	The undamped comb with flipped feedback, for a hollower open ring.
Comb Bright +	A comb with a high pass inside: a thin, tinny, tin-can ring.
Comb Bright -	The tin-can comb with flipped feedback.
Comb Band +	A comb with a band pass inside: a tuned, vocal resonator.
Comb Band -	The vocal resonator with flipped feedback.
Flange +	The comb at flanger settings, mixed half and half with the dry. Sweep Cut for the jet sound.
Flange -	The flanger with flipped feedback, for a hollower jet.
Comb Wide	Two combs slightly detuned left and right: a wide, shimmering stereo ring.
Comb Octave	Two combs an octave apart: a richer, organ-like ring.
Comb Fifth	Two combs a fifth apart: a chord-like ring. Lovely on plucks and pads.
Comb Damp	A soft, damped comb with drive inside the loop: a warm ring that saturates.
Comb Shimmer	A comb blended with a shimmering echo: an airy, glassy resonance.
Karplus-Strong	Turns the sound into a plucked string tuned by Cut. Short bright notes in, plucks out.
Karplus Bright	The plucked string with more sparkle in its ring.
Karplus Mute	The plucked string muted: a darker, palm-muted pluck.

Formant (11)

Vowel filters that make the sound talk, from bass to soprano voices.

Type	What it does
Formant · A	Makes the sound say "ah"; Cut changes the throat size. Great on saws for vocal leads.
Formant · E	Makes the sound say "eh".
Formant · I	Makes the sound say "ee".
Formant · O	Makes the sound say "oh".
Formant · U	Makes the sound say "oo".
Formant Morph	A talking filter: Cut sweeps the vowels a, e, i, o, u. Put an LFO on Cut to make it speak.
Formant Wide	The talking vowel sweep with broader, softer vowels.
Formant Growl	The vowel sweep with sharper vowels and doubled drive: a growling voice.
Formant Soprano	The vowel sweep tuned to a high soprano voice instead of the default bass.
Formant Tenor	The vowel sweep tuned to a tenor voice, between the bass and the alto.
Formant Alto	The vowel sweep tuned to an alto voice, bright and clear.

Phase & Diffuse (19)

Phasers, smearing diffusers and frequency shifters.

Type	What it does
Phaser 4P	A sweeping phaser with 4 stages; Cut moves its notches, Res deepens them.
Phaser 6P	A sweeping phaser with 6 stages.
Phaser 8P	A sweeping phaser with 8 stages.
Phaser 12P	A sweeping phaser with 12 stages.
Phaser 16P	A sweeping phaser with 16 stages.
Phaser 4P N	The flipped 4-stage phaser: its notches sit where the normal one peaks. A hollower sweep.
Phaser 6P N	The flipped 6-stage phaser.
Phaser 8P N	The flipped 8-stage phaser.
Phaser 12P N	The flipped 12-stage phaser.
Phaser 16P N	The flipped 16-stage phaser.
Phaser 24P	So many notches it becomes a comb with a vowel-like colour. Sweep slowly.
Phaser 24P N	The flipped 24-stage phaser: a dense comb with the notches in between.
Phaser 32P	So many notches it becomes a comb with a vowel-like colour. Sweep slowly.
Phaser 32P N	The flipped 32-stage phaser: a dense comb with the notches in between.
Phaser 48P	So many notches it becomes a comb with a vowel-like colour. Sweep slowly.
Phaser 48P N	The flipped 48-stage phaser: a dense comb with the notches in between.
Diffusor	Smears the sound through a chain of echoes, softening attacks into a blur. Res = more smear.
Bode Shifter	Moves every frequency up or down by the same number of hertz, for clangy tones. Cut in the middle = no shift.
Bode Down	The frequency shifter turned the other way round: Cut shifts in the opposite direction.

EQ & Tone (8)

Shelves, a bell, tilt and air: shaping the tone without a sweep.

Type	What it does
Tilt	Tilts the tone around the cutoff; Res below half = darker, above half = brighter.
Low EQ	A shelf that lifts or lowers everything below the cutoff; Res sets how much, the middle is flat.
High EQ	A shelf that lifts or lowers everything above the cutoff; Res sets how much, the middle is flat.
Low EQ 6	A gentle low shelf with no audible corner.
High EQ 6	A gentle high shelf with no audible corner.
Band EQ	Lifts or dips a band around the cutoff; Res sets how much, Drive sets how narrow.
Air	A bright, airy lift above about 4 kHz; Res sets how much, up to 15 dB.
Add Bass	Folds a rounded low pass back under the sound for fuller lows. Cut sets how deep it reaches.

Reverb (4)

Filters that bloom into a small room or a metallic plate.

Type	What it does
Reverb Filter	A resonant low pass that blooms into a tiny room. Res = a longer, wetter bloom.
Reverb Filter 2	A comb reverb with rippling teeth; Cut sets the size, Res the decay.
Reverb Dark	The reverb filter with a lower, softer bloom. Moody pads and distant tones.
Reverb Metal	A ringing, metallic comb reverb that clangs like a metal plate.

Dirty & Weird (10)

Ring mods, crushers, waveshapers, screamers and a radio.

Type	What it does
Ring Mod	Multiplies the sound by a sine at the Cut frequency, for bell-like, robotic tones.
Ring Mod X2	Two ring modulators, the second at 1.5× the Cut frequency. Even more clangorous bells.
Bit-Crush	Lo-fi digital grit; Cut sets the sample rate, Res the bits (low = crunchier).
Waveshaper	Bends the wave for new harmonics; Drive pushes it, Res folds it, Cut tames the top.
Grain Mask	Chops the sound into rhythmic grains through a resonant band. Cut sets the grain rate.
Samp-Hold	Freezes the wave in steps at the Cut rate: a gritty, stair-stepped, lo-fi sound.
Samp-Hold −	Keeps only what the sample-and-hold removes: a fizzy, thin digital grit.
Scream LP	A low pass with a feedback loop that screams; Drive sets how hard the loop clips.
Scream BP	A screaming feedback band pass, nasal and wild. Ride Res and Drive together.
Radio	Squeezes the sound into a narrow, crushed AM-radio band. Cut moves the band.

1 + 12 + 5 + 9 + 16 + 10 + 18 + 11 + 19 + 8 + 4 + 10 = 123 types.

Try this Put Karplus-Strong on Filter 1 with K on and Track at 20%, feed it the noise (N) with Noise Playback set to Envelope and a short envelope on the noise Level. Every key now plucks an in-tune string made from nothing but noise.

Chapter 7

Envelopes

An envelope is a shape that plays once per note: how it rises, holds, falls and fades. Env 1 shapes the volume of every note; the others move whatever you drag them onto. Draw the shape with your hands, bend every curve, and loop it when you want it to cycle.

Five envelopes, one panel#

Terrain has five envelopes, Env 1 to Env 5, edited in one panel on the SYN page. The panel shows one envelope at a time; the chip in its corner says which, and opens the envelope menu.

Env 1 is the amp envelope. It always shapes the volume of every note. (In Terrain FX, where there are no notes, Env 1 is free like the others.)
Env 2 is the filter envelope. Drag a filter's Env control (see Filters) while no envelope feeds that filter, and Env 2 is routed to it for you, as long as Env 2 is not already routed somewhere else.
Env 3, Env 4 and Env 5 are free. Like Env 2, they move nothing until you route them.

Routing an envelope is a drag: drag the envelope's chip onto any knob in Terrain and that knob now follows the envelope on every note. The amount and direction of each connection are set per destination — see Modulation. Need more than five? New Envelope in the envelope menu adds more.

The envelope panel showing Env 1: a curve rising from a short delay to a peak, holding, decaying to a sustain level and releasing, with readouts Dly 1ms, Atk 275ms, Hld 3ms, Dec 1.13s, Sus 62% and Rel 1.63s — The envelope panel, showing Env 1.

DAHDSR: the six stages#

Every envelope has six stages: Delay, Attack, Hold, Decay, Sustain and Release. A note waits through the delay, rises over the attack, stays at full for the hold, falls over the decay to the sustain level, stays there while you hold the key, and fades over the release when you let go. Letting go during any stage goes straight to release from wherever the envelope is, and a new note restarts from the current level rather than from zero, so nothing clicks.

Stage	What it does
Delay (Dly)	Waits before the envelope starts, 0 to 10 s. For late swells and echoes of a note.
Attack (Atk)	Time to rise to full, 1 ms to 10 s. Short = punchy, long = a swell.
Hold (Hld)	Time the envelope stays at full before decaying, 0 to 10 s.
Decay (Dec)	Time to fall to the sustain level, up to 10 s. Short = plucky.
Sustain (Sus)	The level held while the key is down, 0 to 100%. On Env 1, 0 makes every note fade out like a pluck.
Release (Rel)	How long the envelope takes to fade after you let go, 1 ms to 10 s. Long = a gentle tail.

A fresh or reset envelope starts at Delay 0, Attack 5 ms, Hold 0, Decay 200 ms, Sustain 70% and Release 300 ms.

Shaping an envelope#

On the graph

The graph is the editor. Drag the large points to set the times and the sustain level; drag the small dots between them to bend the curves. The Delay and Hold points only appear while those stages are on: switch them on from the right-click menu or type a value into Dly or Hld. A glowing dot follows each playing note along the shape, so you can see where the sound is.

Handle	What it does
Delay point	Drag right to wait before the envelope starts.
Attack point	Drag right for a slower fade-in, left for a snappy start.
Hold point	Drag right to stay at full level longer before the decay begins.
Sustain point	Up and down = the level held while the key is down; left and right = the decay time.
Release point	Drag right for a longer tail after you let go, left to stop sooner.
Attack curve	Bends the rise, from a slow swell to a fast snap.
Decay curve	Bends the fall to sustain, from a quick drop to a slow slope.
Release curve	Bends the tail, from a quick fade to a long, gentle one.

The readouts

Under the graph, Dly, Atk, Hld, Dec, Sus and Rel show the current values. Drag one up or down to nudge it; double-click to type an exact value and press Enter. Each readout is also a modulation target: drop an LFO or a macro on Atk, say, and the attack time itself moves.

The graph's right-click menu

Row	What it does
Loop	Turns the envelope into a cycling modulator: when it reaches the end of the decay, it starts the attack again instead of holding the sustain, for as long as the key is down. The release still plays when you let go.
Delay stage	Switches the delay stage on (at 100 ms) or off.
Hold stage	Switches the hold stage on (at 100 ms) or off.
Reset shape	Puts this envelope's times, levels and curves back to the default and turns Loop off.

Try this Route Env 3 to a wavetable's WT Pos, give it a 10 ms attack, a 400 ms decay and 0 sustain, then switch on Loop. The table now scans in a rhythmic, plucky cycle that restarts with every note — an LFO that always begins on the downbeat of your playing.

The envelope chip and menu#

The chip in the corner of the panel reads Env 1, Env 2 and so on. It does two jobs.

The envelope menu open under the Env chip — The envelope menu: Env 1 to Env 5 with what each one moves, New Envelope and the resets.

Drag it onto any knob, slider or pill to route that envelope there.
Click it to open the envelope menu.

Row	What it does
Env 1 … Env 5	Shows and edits that envelope. Each row carries a badge with what it moves: Env 1 reads Amp; a routed envelope shows its first destination (for example Level A) and how many more it drives. You can also drag a row straight onto a knob.
Env 6 and up	Envelopes you added with New Envelope, listed the same way.
− Remove Env N	Removes the last added envelope.
+ New Envelope	Adds another envelope, up to 32 in all, and opens it. Drag its chip onto a knob to use it.
↺ Reset Env N	Puts the envelope you are editing back to its default shape. On Env 2 to Env 5 it also clears the envelope's route.
↺ Reset all envelopes	Puts every envelope back to its default shape and clears the routes of Env 2 to Env 5.

Good to know Each envelope runs once per voice, so in a chord every note has its own envelope. That is what lets Env 2 pluck every note of a chord at once.

Envelopes on the Patcher#

On the Patcher, the envelope panel appears as one node with the same graph, readouts and chip. Use the chip to pick the envelope you want; a cable from the node routes the envelope it is showing. See The Patcher. In Terrain FX, where there are no notes, a trigger fires the envelopes instead: choose Transient, MIDI, Beat or Bar under Trigger at the bottom of the graph's right-click menu.

The envelope as a Patcher node, showing Env 1: the same graph and readouts in a node with cable ports — The envelope node on the Patcher.

Try this For a pad that opens slowly but stays punchy: leave Env 1 with a fast attack, then route Env 2 to the filter with a 2 s attack and Env 3 to the unison Width with a 4 s attack. The note starts narrow and focused and blooms wider and brighter the longer you hold it.

Chapter 8

LFOs

Ten LFOs — slow, repeating shapes that move knobs for you. Pick a classic wave, draw your own point by point, trace a free path, or let a chaotic attractor wander. Lock them to the song or let them run free, then drag a number onto any knob and watch it come alive.

Ten LFOs#

An LFO (low-frequency oscillator) is a wave too slow to hear that moves a control back and forth: vibrato on pitch, tremolo on level, a sweep on a filter, a rhythm on anything. Terrain has ten, LFO 1 to LFO 10. They live in the LFO panel on the SYN page, in a larger pop-out card, and in the LFO node on the Patcher. Every one of them has its own shape, rate, phase, depth and behaviour.

To use an LFO, drag its number onto a knob. That is the whole routing gesture; the amount and direction of each connection are set per destination (see Modulation), and the MOD page lists every route in one place.

The LFO panel#

Control	What it does
Tabs 1–5 · 6–10	Click a number to edit that LFO; selecting it also lights up the knobs it is routed to. › shows LFOs 6 to 10, ‹ returns to 1 to 5. Drag a number onto any knob to route that LFO there.
Shape chip	The icon and name of the current shape. Click to choose another (see Shapes). Once you edit the points, the chip reads the name the shape has earned, or Custom.
Rate	How fast the LFO moves. Drag up or down. In Hz it runs from 0.01 to 40 Hz (cycles a second; default 2 Hz). In BPM it shows a note length — click it for the list.
BPM · Hz	Click BPM to lock the LFO to the song tempo in note lengths, or Hz to let it run free. Right-click for Global BPM or Global Hz (see below).
Phase	Where in its cycle the LFO starts, 0° to 360° (one full lap). Drag left or right to shift the movement in time.
Dep	How strongly this LFO moves all of its knobs at once. Drag up or down; 0 stills it without removing any routes.

Note lengths

In BPM mode the rate is a note length, from very slow to very fast: 32 bar, 16 bar, 8 bar, 4 bar, 2 bar, 1 bar, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, 1/64, 1/128 and 1/256, then the dotted 1/4. and 1/8. and the triplets 1/4T, 1/8T and 1/16T. The fastest values move at audio-like speeds — a buzz rather than a wobble.

Global clocks

Right-click the BPM · Hz switch for one row: Global BPM when you right-click the word BPM, Global Hz when you right-click Hz. Turn it on and every LFO follows one shared clock — their own rates are set aside — so all ten move at the same speed and you can change the tempo of the whole patch's movement from one place. The same row, marked with a bullet, turns the global clock off.

Shapes#

Click the shape chip for the shape menu. The stock shapes are starting points: touch a point and the shape becomes your own, editable drawing.

The LFO shape menu open on the LFO panel — The shape menu: Sine, Tri, Saw, Saw↓, Sqr, S&H, Rand, Path, Lorenz and Rossler, plus your drawn shape.

Shape	What it does
Sine	A smooth, even rise and fall. The gentle wobble for vibrato and slow sweeps.
Tri	Triangle: straight ramps up and down. A slightly sharper wobble than the sine.
Saw	Rises steadily, then drops at once. Good for rhythmic swells and rising sweeps.
Saw↓	Saw down: drops at once, then falls steadily. Great for pumping and plucky filter moves.
Sqr	Square: flips between high and low. For trills, gates and on-off chops.
S&H	Sample and hold: jumps to a new random level each cycle. The classic random, robotic step.
Rand	Random: wanders smoothly between random levels. Natural, unpredictable movement.
Your shape	Once you have edited the points, your drawing appears in the list under the name it has earned (for example Gate 1/4) or Custom.
Path	A free shape you draw in two dimensions; the LFO follows the line you draw, in the order you drew it.
Lorenz	A chaotic motion that never quite repeats: organic, restless drift for textures.
Rossler	A swirling chaotic motion, smoother than Lorenz: living, evolving modulation.

The chaotic and random shapes (S&H, Rand, Lorenz, Rossler) draw their live trail in the editor while notes play. Path draws your line with a dot orbiting along it.

Drawing your own shapes#

The LFO editor is a drawing surface. A shape is a line through points; each segment between two points can be straight or curved.

Gesture	What it does
Drag a point	Reshapes the wave. The first and last points stay at the edges.
Double-click empty space	Adds a point.
Double-click a point	Deletes it.
Drag a curve dot	The small dot between two points bends that segment up or down.
Double-click a curve dot	Straightens the segment.
Right-click a point	Modulate X › and Modulate Y › let another source move that point in time or level (the two end points only move in level), with an amount slider for each; Delete point removes it. A thin bar on a point shows how far it is being moved.
Right-click a curve dot	Straighten curve.
Drag empty space	Draws a box that selects several points; drag one of them to move the group. `Delete` or `Backspace` removes the selection.
`Shift`-drag	Draws steps at the grid size.

The editor's right-click menu

Row	What it does
Level · Time	Two sliders set the grid, 2 to 32 divisions each: Level divides the height, Time the width. Double-click resets to 8.
Snap	Points snap to the grid while you draw.
Flip vertical	Mirrors the shape in level (upside down).
Flip horizontal	Mirrors the shape in time (backwards).
Copy shape · Paste shape	Copies the shape — only the points, never rate or depth — so you can paste it onto another LFO or onto a Shaper lane (see Flow). Paste stays dim until something is copied.
Random flat · Random curve · Random both	Rolls a new random shape: flat steps, curves, or both. The menu stays open, so keep clicking until you like one.
Shape	Brushes for drawing: Point · edit (the normal editing), Straight line, Ramp up, Ramp down, Square, Triangle and Sine. Pick one and draw across the grid.
Wavetable → LFO	Oscillator A to D: bakes that oscillator's current wave into this LFO's shape. The oscillator must be on a wavetable.
Extend	Opens the LFO card (see below).
Set loopback point here · Remove loopback point	Only in Env mode: plants the point the shape loops back to while the key is held (see Loop below).

With the Path shape, the right-click menu is shorter: New loop (a fresh closed path), Clear, Copy shape and Paste shape. Drag in the editor to draw, and the LFO orbits your drawing. This menu has no Extend row; switch to another shape to open the card from here.

Try this Right-click › Wavetable → LFO › Oscillator A on a vocal table, set the LFO to 1/4 and drop it on the filter cutoff. The filter now moves in the exact contour of the sound you are hearing.

The LFO card#

Right-click the LFO editor and choose Extend to open the LFO card: a larger editor with every behaviour switch, six knobs, a library of ready-made shapes and twelve pattern memories. Move it by its title bar, resize it from the corner, or pop it out into its own window — handy on a second screen. The card keeps working when it is closed.

Header

Control	What it does
Depth	The master amount of this LFO for all its routes, −100% to +100%. Drag left or right; double-click for 100.
Presets	Pick a ready-made shape or save your own. The factory library holds 70 shapes in five groups: Basic (Sine, Triangle, Saw up, Saw down, Square, pulses, half sine, exponential rises and falls), Rhythmic (gates at 1/4, 1/8 and 1/16, trance gates, offbeats, polyrhythms, clave), Breakbeat (chopped break patterns, shuffles, rolls and fills), IDM (bitcrush stairs, glitch scatter, tape stop, VHS warble and more) and Sidechain (pumps at 1/4, 1/2 and 1/8, soft ducks, hard slams, triplet and reverse pumps).
Pop out · Dock	Moves the card into its own floating window, outside the plug-in; Dock puts it back.
✕	Closes the card. Its settings stay and keep playing.

Behaviour buttons

Button	What it does
Free	The LFO runs on its own clock and never restarts. Notes join it wherever it is.
Retrig	The LFO restarts from the top on every note, so each note moves the same way.
Env	Plays the shape once per note and stops, like an envelope you can draw.
Loop	With Env: plays the start once, then keeps cycling from the loopback point while the key is held. Clicking Loop plants a loopback point at the middle; move it with a right-click on the graph › Set loopback point here. Outside Env mode the button is dimmed.
Mono	One shared LFO for every note, so chords move together instead of each note on its own.
Host	On by default. While your music app plays, a tempo-locked LFO in Free mode locks its phase to the song's bar position, so it lands the same way on every playback. With the transport stopped it keeps running at its tempo rate.
Reseed	Chaos and random shapes start fresh on every note, so each note gets new movement.
Fwd	Plays the shape left to right, the normal way.
Rev	Plays the shape backwards, right to left.
Ping	Bounces end to end, forward then backward.
Trip	Synced rates in triplet time: three in the space of two.
Dot	Synced rates one and a half times longer, for dotted, galloping rhythms.
BPM · Hz	Reads BPM or Hz for the current mode: click to switch between tempo-locked note lengths and free speed in hertz. Right-click it for the global clock (it then reads with a G· in front).
Uni	One-sided: the LFO only pushes up from the knob's setting. Off = it swings both up and down.

Knobs

Control	What it does
Rate	How fast the LFO moves, in hertz or note lengths (the same control as the panel's Rate). Double-click resets.
Rise	Fades the LFO in after each note starts, 0 to 2 s. Up = a slower fade, for vibrato that blooms.
Delay	Waits before the LFO starts after each note, 0 to 2 s. Pair it with Rise for late, natural vibrato.
Smooth	Glides the LFO output to round off hard edges, 0 to 100%. Up = softer steps and squares.
Phase	Where in its cycle the LFO starts, 0° to 360°.
Swing	Pushes every other beat late, 0 to 100%, for a shuffled, groovy movement.

Pattern slots and Chain

The row of twelve dots holds twelve pattern memories, each a complete LFO setup: shape and behaviour. Click a slot to switch to it; whatever you edit is saved into the current slot. Underneath, Chain plays patterns one after another, moving to the next step each time the LFO completes a cycle. + adds the current pattern to the end, up to eight steps; click a step and type 1 to 12 (0 removes it), drag it up and down, or double-click it to remove it.

Try this Set the LFO to 1 bar. Load a trance gate from the Rhythmic group into slot 1 and a break pattern from the Breakbeat group into slot 2, chain 1-1-1-2, and route the LFO to the level of your pad. Three bars of gating, then a broken bar, forever in time. (Presets load only the shape; the rate stays where you set it.)

Routing an LFO#

Drag an LFO's number from the panel's tabs and drop it on any knob, slider or pill in Terrain. The knob shows an accent underline while it is modulated, and selecting an LFO lights the knobs it drives. Hover a modulated knob for its list of routes; right-click it for the control menu. Modulation covers depth, direction and the MOD page.

A WT Pos knob with an accent underline showing it is modulated — A modulated knob.

An LFO as a Patcher node, with the same editor and controls as the panel — An LFO as a Patcher node.

An LFO's shape can also bend an oscillator directly at audio rate: choose LFO 1 to LFO 10 as the source of a blend slot (see Blend modes).

Try this For a vibrato that sounds played: Sine, 5 Hz in Hz mode, Retrig, Delay 0.4 s and Rise 0.8 s, routed to an oscillator's Coarse pitch with a small depth. Short notes stay clean; held notes start to sing.

Chapter 9

Flow

Flow is where Terrain starts to move on its own. Four cards — Shaper, Arp, Glitch and Robin — draw rhythm into the volume, turn chords into runs, chop the sound into stutters and pass your notes round the oscillators. Stack them, chain their patterns and let the groove write itself.

The Flow box#

The Flow box sits in the middle of the SYN page, under the oscillators. It holds four tiles, one per flow card, and the Randomizer map beside them. Each tile has a small animated emblem so you can tell at a glance which cards are working.

Adding cards to the chain

Click a dark tile to add that card to the flow chain; the tile lights up. Click a lit tile to take the card out again. The order you click them in is the order the sound travels: the Shaper and the Glitch process the audio one after the other in that order, while the Arp and Robin work on the notes themselves, before any sound is made, wherever they sit in the chain.

The moment you add a card, its Mix jumps to 100 so you hear it straight away. A freshly added Shaper also switches on its Volume lane if no lane of that card is lit yet, so the first thing you hear is the gate it was drawn with. A preset you load always plays exactly as it was saved.

Opening a card

Right-click any of the four tiles to open its card. The card is where every setting of that flow mode lives; the tile is only the on/off switch and the picture. A card keeps playing whether it is open or closed.

Gesture	What it does
Click a dark tile	Adds the card to the end of the flow chain and sets its Mix to 100.
Click a lit tile	Removes the card from the chain. Its settings stay, ready for next time.
Right-click a tile	Opens that card (Shaper, Arp, Glitch or Robin).

Good to know The SYN page shows one of each card. On the Patcher you can run up to four Arps, four Shapers and four Glitches side by side (Robin is one of a kind), each with its own settings.

The Randomizer map#

The contour map to the right of the tiles is the Randomizer. It is a one-click variation machine: every click re-rolls the settings of the modules it is cabled to, and only those. You make those connections on the Patcher, by dragging from the Randomizer's output to the small dot on top of any module (an oscillator, the filter, an envelope, an LFO, a rack effect, a flow card or the tape machine). Once it is cabled, the map works from any page.

If nothing is cabled, a click does nothing at all and a short message tells you to connect it first. Nothing outside the cabled modules is ever touched.

Reach

Right-click the map for the Randomizer menu. The first line lists what it is cabled to right now (or reads Not connected); below it you pick how far a roll may go. The reach is saved with the patch.

Reach	What a roll does
Light	Nudges its modules a little from where they are. Safe, subtle variations.
Medium	Changes its modules noticeably but keeps the sound recognisable. This is where a new patch starts.
Heavy	Moves its modules far from where they are. Big, surprising changes.
Wild	Can set its modules anywhere in their range. Anything can happen.
Crazy	The furthest reach: every roll lands somewhere new and extreme. For happy accidents.

Try this Cable the Randomizer to the Glitch and to one reverb only, set the reach to Medium and click the map every few bars while a loop plays. You keep the sound; only the chaos changes.

The Randomizer is separate from the dice in the header, which builds a whole new sound — see Dice.

What every card shares#

The four flow cards are built the same way: a header with the name, Mix, presets and window buttons; a picture of what the card is doing; three tabs of controls; and at the bottom twelve pattern slots with a chain that plays them in order. Learn it once and every card feels familiar.

The Shaper card popped out: header with Mix, Init preset, Pop out and close; the shape screen; eight lane tiles; Shape, Target and Clock tabs; twelve pattern slots and the chain — The Shaper card, showing the furniture every flow card shares.

The header

Control	What it does
Title bar	Drag the bar to move the card anywhere on the screen.
Mix	Blends the card against the dry, untouched sound; 100 = all card. Drag sideways; double-click for 100. On Robin, Mix sets how much Robin moves the notes round the oscillators. On the Arp, Shaper and Glitch, Mix is also a modulation destination, so you can play a card in and out.
Presets	Click the name for the card's preset menu: the factory presets, your own presets, and saving. Loading a preset starts from the card's defaults and lays the preset over them, so nothing carries over from before; it never changes Mix. To save, pick save, type a name and press `Enter`; if the name already exists the row asks you to confirm the overwrite with one more click. Presets you saved can be deleted from the same menu.
Pop out / Dock	Pop out moves the card into its own floating window outside the plug-in, handy on a second screen. In that window the button reads Dock, which puts the card back inside Terrain where it was.
Close (×)	Hides the card. Its settings stay and it keeps playing; right-click its tile to bring it back.
Resize corner	Drag the corner to scale the card up or down; double-click it for the normal size.

Pattern slots and the chain

Under the tabs sit twelve numbered dots. Each is a complete memory of the card — every lane, every knob. Click a slot to switch to it: whatever you were editing is stored in the slot you left, and the card loads the one you clicked. Edits always land in the current slot.

The Chain row below is a playlist of slots. It starts with one step (the current slot). Press + at the right to add the current slot to the end, up to eight steps. When the chain holds more than one step, the card plays them one after another, moving on each time the pattern comes round, and starts again from the first step when you play after a silence.

Gesture	What it does
Click a slot dot (1–12)	Saves the card into the current slot and switches to the one you clicked.
+ (Chain)	Appends the current slot to the chain (eight steps at most).
Click a chain step	Type a slot number from 1 to 12 and press `Enter`; type 0 (or clear it) to remove that step. `Esc` cancels.
Drag a chain step up or down	Steps through slot numbers 1 to 12.
Double-click a chain step	Removes it (the last remaining step always stays).

Try this On the Arp, draw a four-bar idea in slot 1, copy the feel into slot 2 with a different Pitch lane, then build the chain 1 › 1 › 2 › 1. You get a phrase with an answer, with no MIDI programming at all.

A preset saves the slots and the chain too, so a card preset can carry a whole arrangement.

Global: Free or Sync

The Shaper's Clock tab and the Glitch's Motion tab both carry a Global switch with two settings. Sync follows your music app's song position, so everything lines up with the bar. Free runs on Terrain's own clock and plays even when the transport is stopped — perfect for jamming in the standalone app. A fresh Shaper lane and a fresh Glitch both start on Free, so they move the moment you play. Global sets every Shaper lane and every Glitch at once; each lane or card can still be set on its own afterwards, and the Shaper's switch reads Mixed when they disagree.

Shaper#

The Shaper is a drawn, tempo-locked modulator wired straight into eight effect lanes. Draw a shape on the screen and it repeats every cycle — a 1/4 note, a bar, eight bars — pushing the lane's effect up and down with it. Volume gives you gates and sidechain pumps, Time gives you half-time, tape stops and rewinds, Filter gives you rhythmic sweeps, and so on. Every lit lane runs at the same time, each with its own shape, its own rate and its own settings: build your own groove machine.

The screen and drawing

The screen shows the shape of the lane you are looking at. Left to right is one cycle; bottom to top is how far the lane's effect is pushed. The two end points are pinned to the edges. A purple head travels across as it plays.

Gesture	What it does
Drag a point	Moves it. Drag a box around several points to select them and move them together.
Drag a curve dot	The small dot between two points bends the line between them, up or down. Double-click it to make the line straight again.
Double-click empty space	Adds a point.
Double-click a point	Deletes it.
Right-click the screen	Opens the shape menu (below).

Brush

The Brush chip at the bottom left of the screen sets what a click or a drag draws. Point is the editing brush (drag points and curve dots); the others stamp shapes into the grid cell you drag across: Line, Ramp up, Ramp down, Square, Triangle and Sine, and Free draw paints freehand as you move.

Shape library

The Shape chip in the middle of the screen opens a library of ready-made shapes for this lane. Pick one and it replaces the lane's points; it stays fully editable.

Group	Shapes
Basic	Sine, Triangle, Saw, Saw down, Square, Flat.
Gates	Gate 1/8, Gate 1/16, Gate 1/32, Trance 1, Trance 2, Trance 3, Offbeat.
Curves	Exp up, Exp down, Swell, Pluck, Sidechain (ducks the sound on every beat, as if a kick drum pushed it down), Bounce, Pump 1/4, Breath.
Steps	Stairs up, Stairs down, 4 steps, Random steps, Random curve, Random gate (the three Random shapes roll a new pattern every time you pick them).

The Time lane has its own library, because its shapes describe playback speed rather than level:

Group	Shapes
Basic	Unity (normal speed: the lane does nothing yet), Half time (half speed, an octave down — try it on drums for a heavy drop), Reverse (plays the cycle backwards).
Stutter	Stutter 1/8, Stutter 1/16, Stutter 1/32, Stutter build.
Tape	Tape stop (slows to a halt like pulling a plug), Tape start (starts stopped and winds up to normal), Scratch (back and forth like a turntable), Rewind (spins backwards), Half + back (half speed forward, then half speed back).

Good to know On the Time lane the vertical axis is how far back from "now" the lane plays. A flat line along the top is normal speed; a line falling one full height across the cycle is stopped; steeper than that plays in reverse; a rising line plays faster.

The shape menu

Right-click the screen for these tools (they act on the lane you are looking at):

Item	What it does
Grid	A slider for the drawing grid of this lane.
Snap	Points snap to the grid lines while you draw.
Flip vertical / Flip horizontal	Mirrors the shape upside down, or back to front in time.
Copy shape / Paste shape	Copies the lane's shape to a clipboard shared with the LFO editor, so you can move shapes between lanes, cards and LFOs. Paste is dimmed until something is copied.
Random flat / Random curve / Random both	Rolls a random stepped shape, a random curvy one, or a mix. The menu stays open, so keep clicking until one grooves.
Wavetable → Shape	Oscillator A, B, C or D: bakes that oscillator's current wave into the lane's shape.
Remove selected / Straighten selected	With points selected: deletes them, or flattens their curves.
Clear	Resets the lane to a flat line (Unity on the Time lane).

Lane type

Lanes that drive a whole engine show a third chip at the right of the screen, the lane type: the flavour of effect this lane pushes. Click it to choose.

Lane	Types
Filt	Every filter type in Terrain, sorted by family (see Filters).
Drive	The 23 distortion types: Tube, Tape, Transformer, Stomp Box, Overdrive, Soft Clip, Hard Clip, Zero-Square, Slew Clip, Diode 1, Diode 2, Asym, Rectify, Linear Fold, Sine Fold, West Coast, Shaper, Shaper Asym, Harmonics, Table, Downsample, Bitcrush, Overflow.
Phase	Phaser, Flanger, and the phase-family filter types.
Crush	Bits + Rate, Bits, Rate, Bit-Crush, Samp-Hold, Samp-Hold -, Radio, Downsample, Bitcrush, Overflow.
Reverb	Room, Plate, Hall, Shimmer.
Delay	Digital, Tape, BBD, Diffuse.
Chorus	Vintage, June, Pedal, Trio, Ensemble, Micro, Wow, Dark.
Widen	Throng, Twin, Steady, Twofold, Blur, Bands.
Tape	Studio, Cassette, Reel, Porta, Wire.
Grain	Cloud, Rise, Swarm, Suspend, Scatter, Rewind, Stretch, Pulverize.
Bode	Shift, Barberpole, Echobode, Detune, Ring, Spiral, Chorale, Freeze.
Noise	Opens the noise browser: White, Pink and Brown Noise, Geiger, Tape Hiss, Tape Hum, Tape Air, Tape Crackle, Clean Vinyl, Dirty Vinyl, Space Open, Space Helium, Space Wind.
Flange	Jet or BBD, each in eight characters (Jet: Silver, Compact, Deep Sweep, Hollow, Screamer, Drop, Thin Air, Twin Jet; BBD: Classic BBD, Deluxe, Dark Bucket, Squash, Matrix, Short Bucket, Long Bucket, Grind).

The effects behind these lanes are the same engines you find in the FX rack, so a type sounds the same wherever you meet it.

The lanes

The row of eight tiles under the screen is the Shaper's lane bank. The tile you are looking at is white; the dot under each tile is its switch.

Gesture	What it does
Click a tile	Turns that lane on (or off again, if it was on) and shows its shape and settings.
Click the dot under a tile	Turns the lane on or off without switching the screen to it.
Right-click a tile	Opens the list of all eighteen lane effects, A to Z. Pick one to put it at this position. If the effect you pick is already in the bank, the two swap places; if it is not, it replaces the one here.

Lane	What the shape does
Vol (Volume)	Turns the volume up and down with the shape, for gates, chops and pumping.
Time	Plays the audio faster, slower or backwards, like a turntable: half time, tape stops, rewinds.
Filt (Filter)	Sweeps a filter cutoff with the shape.
Pan	Moves the sound left and right.
Rep (Repeat)	Loops a grid slice while the shape is high, for stutters and rolls.
Drive	Pushes saturation up and down.
Phase (Phaser)	Sweeps a phaser.
Crush	Crushes the bits and sample rate.
Reverb	Opens a reverb with the shape.
Delay	Sends into a delay with the shape.
Chorus	Moves a chorus with the shape.
Widen	Widens the stereo image with the shape.
Multi (Multiband)	Drives a multiband squash with the shape.
Tape	Adds tape wobble and age with the shape.
Grain (Granular)	Feeds a grain cloud with the shape.
Bode	Shifts frequencies with the shape.
Noise	Adds noise in rhythm with the shape.
Flange (Flanger)	Sweeps a flanger with the shape.

Shape tab

How the drawn line is read for the lane on screen. The left box is named after the lane (Volume, Time …); the right box is the Cycle.

Control	What it does
Depth	How much of the drawn shape reaches the lane, 0 to 100. 0 = none, 100 = the full shape. Double-click resets (100; 50 on the Time lane). Depth is a modulation destination: put the mod wheel on it to play the effect in by hand.
Smooth	Rounds the shape's sharp edges so hard steps glide. Up = softer, click-free movement. Smooth plus Floor turns a hard gate into a pump.
Tension	Bends how the shape is read between points. Below half the curves sag (dip early), above half they bulge (dip late).
Floor	The shape never drops below this. Raise it so a volume gate never fully closes.
Phase	Slides the whole shape along the cycle, like moving it later in the bar.
Swing	Stretches the first half of each cycle and squeezes the second, for a shuffled, lazy feel.
Blend	This lane wet against dry. 100 = fully shaped; lower mixes the untouched sound back in.

Target tab

How the lane's own effect sounds while the shape moves it. Every lane has exactly four knobs here; the box on the right holds its stepped settings, where it has any.

Lane	Controls
Vol	Attack: how fast the volume opens on each rise; up = softer fade-ins. Release: how fast it closes on each fall; up = longer tails between chops. Punch: a short boost each time the gate opens; up = harder hits. Hold: keeps the volume open up to 250 ms after the shape drops. Mode: Gain follows the shape; Duck turns it upside down, so the shape pushes the volume down, like sidechain pumping.
Time	Fade: crossfades every time jump so stutters and reverses never click. Glide: slides to the new time instead of cutting, a turntable-like pitch bend. Range: how far the lane can speed up or slow down, from a quarter speed to four times (÷4 to ×4). Tone: darkens or brightens what the lane plays back.
Filt	Reso: resonance at the moving cutoff; up = a whistling, vocal sweep. Drive: pushes the lane filter into saturation. Spread: pulls the cutoff apart left and right for a stereo sweep. Punch: kicks the cutoff open on each rise, for snappy filter plucks. Poles: the slope, 6, 12, 18 or 24 dB per octave. Char: the drive flavour, Tube, Diode, Fold, Hard, Crush or Fuzz.
Pan	Width: narrows or widens the stereo image before the pan moves it. Bass: keeps the lows in the middle while the rest pans. Haas: delays the far side a few milliseconds as it pans, for a deeper, roomier swing. Tilt: lets the highs swing wider than the lows, or the other way round. Law: Power keeps the loudness even, Linear is plain, Width moves the stereo width instead of the position.
Rep	Seam: the crossfade where each repeat loops; up = smoother. Decay: every repeat quieter than the last. Pitch: every repeat steps higher or lower, up to 6 semitones, for risers. Tone: darkens or brightens the repeats. Mode: Slice repeats the grid slice, Reverse plays it backwards.
Drive	Tone: dark to bright after the drive. Makeup: the level after the drive, to match loudness with it on and off. Bias: pushes the wave off centre for lopsided, tube-like harmonics. Knee: how soft the clipping is; up = rounder. Char: the drive flavour, 1 to 8.
Phase	Feedbk: resonance of the phaser; up = sharper, more vocal swirls. Stereo: offsets left and right for a wide, spinning sweep. Drive: grit inside the phaser. Centre: where the sweep sits, about 60 Hz to 1 kHz.
Crush	Bits: how coarse the bit depth gets at the top of the shape; up = crunchier. Rate: how low the sample rate drops; up = more lo-fi. Tone: darkens or brightens the crushed sound. Stereo: crushes left and right on their own timing, for a wide digital fizz.
Reverb	Size, Decay, Tone, Diffuse.
Delay	Time, Feedbk, Tone, Width.
Chorus	Rate, Depth, Feedbk, Voice.
Widen	Amount, Width, Rate, Axis.
Multi	Speed, Lift, Char, Range.
Tape	Flutter, Drive, Age, Width.
Grain	Size, Density, Pitch, Spread.
Bode	Range, Feedbk, Spread, Blur.
Noise	Tone, Width, Scan, Drive.
Flange	Feedbk (bipolar: the centre is none), Centre (where the drawn sweep sits), Range, Stereo.

The knobs on the borrowed lanes (Reverb to Flange) work like their namesakes on the full rack effects — see Effects. Every Shape and Target knob is a modulation destination too.

Clock tab

Control	What it does
Rate	How long one cycle of the shape lasts: 1/16, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 1 bar, 2 bars, 4 bars or 8 bars. Short = fast chops, long = slow sweeps. Each lane has its own Rate, so a 1/8 gate can run against a four-bar filter sweep.
Grid	The snapping lines on the screen, and the slice size for the Repeat lane: 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/6, 1/8, 1/12, 1/16, 1/24 or 1/32.
Trigger	What restarts the shape. Sync: the song position. Free: its own clock, also with the transport stopped. MIDI: every new note. Audio: hits in the sound itself. A new lane starts on Free.
Sense	How hard a hit must be to restart a lane set to the Audio trigger, 0 to 100. Up = more sensitive.
Global	Free or Sync for every Shaper lane and every Glitch at once (see What every card shares). Reads Mixed when lanes differ.

Shaper presets

The factory menu gives you a starting point per lane: Init, Gate 16ths, Half time, Stutter 1/16, Reverse, Tape stop, Tape scrub, Acid sweep, Ladder pump, Pan swing, Repeats up, Tube ramp, Phaser wash, Flange 16ths, Crush stairs, Radio stairs and Gate + sweep.

Try this Light Vol with the Sidechain shape at 1/4, then light Time with Half time at 2 bars and turn its Depth down to 0. Map the mod wheel to the Time lane's Depth on the MOD page and you have a pumping pad that drops into half time whenever you push the wheel.

Arp#

The Arp turns held notes into a stepped pattern. It is a sixteen-step, multi-lane sequencer that reads your chord: draw the melody on the Pitch lane, then shape length, accent, octave, rolls, probability and timbre per step. It works on the notes, so whatever oscillators play them — and every effect after them — follow along.

The Arp card on the Pattern tab: a constellation of sixteen steps, the lanes Pitch, Gate, Vel, Oct, Roll, Chance and Wave, and four knobs Range, Curve, Quant and Slide — The Arp card, Pattern tab.

Drawing the pattern

The screen always shows the pitch path as a line of dots. The lane you select decides what dragging across the steps draws; on every lane except Pitch, the selected lane's value shows as the size and brightness of each dot.

Gesture	What it does
Drag across the steps (Pitch)	Sets each step's pitch row (seven rows, the middle one is the centre).
Double-click a step (Pitch)	Turns the step into a rest, or back into a note.
Drag (Gate, Vel, Chance, Wave)	Paints the step values by height.
Click a step (Oct)	Cycles that step an octave down, none, or an octave up.
Click a step (Roll)	Cycles the step through 1 to 4 fast repeats.

Pattern tab: the lanes

Lane	Knobs
Pitch — which note each step plays	Range: how many note rows the lane can jump across; up = wider melodies. Curve: bends the pitch shape so steps lean up or down. Quant: the odds that a step snaps to a note of your chord; up = more in tune. Slide: the odds that a step slides into the next note.
Gate — how long each step holds	Length: how long every step holds; down = short plucks, up = long legato. Curve: bends the gate lengths across the pattern. Random: humanises the lengths a little on each step. Slide: the odds that a step ties into the next one.
Vel — how hard each step hits	Range: how much the drawn velocities count; up = bigger accents. Curve: bends the velocity shape. Random: humanises how hard each step hits. Floor: the quietest a step can be.
Oct — octave jumps per step	Range: how many octaves the lane can jump, 0 to 4. Bias: leans the jumps down or up (−4 to +4). Random: the odds of a random octave jump. Spread: zigzags alternate steps apart in octave.
Roll — fast repeats in a step	Count: how many repeats a rolled step splits into, 1 to 4. Decay: each roll repeat gets quieter. Curve: the spacing of the repeats, even or speeding up. Amount: the odds that a programmed roll plays.
Chance — how likely each step is to play	Amount: how strongly the lane skips steps; up = more gaps. Bias: leans the odds toward playing or skipping (−50 to +50). Seed: rerolls the random pattern, 0 to 16; the same seed plays the same pattern. Drift: the pattern mutates a little every loop.
Wave — wavetable motion per step	Depth: how far the lane moves the wavetable per step. Curve: bends the wavetable moves. Slide: glides the wavetable between steps. Random: a little random move per step.

Play tab

Control	What it does
Rate	The step speed: 1/1, 1/2., 1/2, 1/4., 1/2T, 1/4, 1/8., 1/4T, 1/8, 1/16., 1/8T, 1/16, 1/32., 1/16T, 1/32, 1/32T, 1/64, 1/128 or 1/256 (a dot = dotted, T = triplet). 1/16 is the classic arp.
Direction	How it walks through your held notes: Up, Down, Up-Dn or Random. Direction shapes the notes, not the timeline: the step grid still runs left to right.
Octaves	How many octaves the pattern climbs, 1 to 4.
Latch	The arp keeps playing after you let go. Press new notes to change it.
Sorted	Plays held notes from low to high. On by default; switch it off and they play in the order you pressed them.

Motion tab

Control	What it does
Swing	Pushes every other step late for a shuffle. A little goes a long way.
Roll	The overall amount of fast repeats across the pattern, 0 to 100.
Timbre	The master amount for the Wave lane's wavetable moves, 0 to 100.
Glide	Slides between notes like a classic acid bass line; up = longer slides.

Swing, Roll, Timbre, Glide, Mix and several lane knobs (Pitch Range and Slide, Gate Length and Random, Velocity Range and Random, Octave Range and Random) are modulation destinations.

Factory presets include Init, Trance Anthem, Broken Chord, Octave Bass, Swung Pluck, Berlin School, Gated Pad, Stutter Build, Random Sparkle, Harp Gliss, As-Played Jam and Ambient Drift.

Try this Load Berlin School, put a Wavetable engine on Oscillator A and raise the Wave lane's Depth: every step now plays a different slice of the table, so the run changes colour as it climbs.

Glitch#

Glitch is a dice-driven stutter box. On every grid step it rolls to see whether a glitch fires; when one does, it grabs the sound and mangles it with one of eight effects — repeat, reverse, tape stop, gate, pitch, crush, freeze or scatter — for a number of steps, then lets go. Turn on several effects and each fire picks among them. Set a seed and the chaos becomes a repeatable pattern you can build a track on.

The monitor

The left of the screen reads out FX (what is firing), Grid, Seed and Status. Grid and Seed are live controls: drag either value up or down. Seed shows a number, or Free when every roll is new; the same seed always glitches the same way. Double-click Seed to go back to Free.

Fire tab

The eight tiles choose the effects. Click a tile to turn that effect on (or off again) and show its settings; its dot lights while it is on and flashes when it fires.

Tile	What it does
Rep	Repeats a slice, the classic stutter.
Rev	Plays the slice backwards.
Tape	Slows to a stop like pulling the plug on a turntable.
Gate	Chops the volume into rhythmic bursts.
Pit	Jumps the pitch up or down.
Crsh	Crushes the sound to lo-fi grit.
Frz	Holds one frozen grain, a buzzing freeze.
Sct	Scatters tiny pieces around.

Control	What it does
Chance	How often a glitch fires, 00 to 99 percent. Start around 30 for a lively loop.
Time	How fast each glitch plays what it grabbed — the stutter, the reverse, the tape, the frozen grain, the scatter's grains and the gate's chops — never when it fires (Grid and Chance own that). Right-click the knob to choose Steps (the default: ÷4, ÷3, ÷2, ÷1.5, ×1, ×1.5, ×2, ×3, ×4 — ÷2 is half speed, an octave down) or Smooth (a continuous sweep from ÷4 to ×4). At ×1.5 a repeated slice lasts a triplet of itself, at ÷1.5 a dotted one.
Hold	How many steps one glitch lasts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 or 8.
Loop	How many steps before the glitch pattern repeats: 2, 4, 8, 12 or 16.
Decay	Each glitch eases back to the dry sound; up = a quicker return.
Drop	The odds that a fire lands as silence, a hole punched in the loop.
Streak	The odds that a glitch repeats on the following steps too.
Stereo	Each fire bounces to the other side of the stereo field.

FX tab

Each effect has four knobs of its own and an Out box. Click a name in the row at the top to show its knobs; the dot under the name lights when that effect is on.

Effect	Knobs
Rep (Repeat)	Size: how big each repeated piece is; smaller = a faster stutter. Speed: each pass shrinks the loop for an accelerating roll. Fade: the repeats die away over time. Vary: the start point drifts a little on every repeat.
Rev (Reverse)	Len: how long the reverse plays. Fade: the reverse dies away. Sprd: reaches farther back for what it reverses. Snap: the odds each pass re-locks to the fire point; otherwise it walks backwards.
Tape (Tape Stop)	Curve: the shape of the slowdown, from a straight brake to a long coast. Time: when in the step the stop lands. Depth: how far the tape slows. Spin: winds back up to speed after the stop.
Gate	Rate: how many chops in the step: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12 or 16. Shape: hard or soft chop edges. Nudge: slides the chops off the beat. Amt: how deep the chops cut.
Pit (Pitch)	Shift: how far the pitch jumps, up to 12 semitones either way. Jump: the odds of an extra octave leap. Glide: slides between the pitches. Walk: each repeat steps the pitch further, a riser.
Crsh (Crush)	Bits: crunchier as it drops, 16 down to 4 bits. Rate: lowers the sample rate for aliasing. Tone: bright to dark. Amt: how much crush is blended in.
Frz (Freeze)	Size: the frozen grain, 15 to 200 ms. Spray: each pass grabs an older grain. Shine: adds an octave-up sparkle. Melt: blurs the frozen grain together.
Sct (Scatter)	Size: each scattered piece, 12 to 120 ms. Amt: how many pieces scatter. Vary: a little different every time. Width: spreads the pieces across the stereo field.

Out box	What it does
Grid	This effect's own step size. Main follows the card's Grid; or pick a note length from 1/1 to 1/256.
Trig	Sync fires on the beat; Free on its own drifting clock.
Pan	Puts this effect left (L), centre (C) or right (R).

Motion tab

Control	What it does
Grid	The step size every glitch fires on, from 1/1 to 1/256 (dotted and triplet values included). 1/16 is a good start. The same value as Grid on the monitor.
Quant	The timing grid a glitch punches in on: 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 or 1/32.
Rel	When a glitch lets go: End finishes the repeat, Now stops at once.
Clock	Free runs with the transport stopped; Sync follows the song. Double-click returns to Free.
Global	Free or Sync for every Glitch and every Shaper lane at once.
Swing	Pushes every other step late.
Chaos	More fires, other effects and shorter slices, at random.
Bend	A slow pitch warble on the glitches.

The Seed lives on the monitor (see above). Chance, Chaos, Swing, Decay, Drop, Streak, Stereo, Bend, Time and Mix are modulation destinations, and so are key knobs of the effects, such as Repeat Size and Speed, Pitch Shift, Crush Bits and Freeze Size.

Factory presets include Init, Half-Time, Tape Stop, Triplet Roll, Trance Gate, Reverse Flip, Riser Build, Vinyl Brake, Bit Rot, Freeze Frame, Scatter Spray, Ghost in the Machine, Stereo Machine, Loop Tamer and Waltz.

Try this Turn on Rep and Rev only, set Chance to 35, Hold to 2 and Loop to 8, then drag Seed until a fill lands right before the bar line. Now the "random" break plays the same way every time — record it, it is yours.

Robin#

Robin is a round robin for your oscillators. Each new note plays the next oscillator in the rotation — A, then B, then C — so repeated notes never sound machine-identical. Put four slightly different sounds on Oscillators A to D, light Robin, and a single repeated key turns into a living, human performance. Robin works on the notes, before any sound is made.

The wheel

Each station on the wheel is an oscillator, A to H. Stations in the rotation are drawn solid; the pointer jumps to the station that plays the next note. The readouts tell you which station is playing (Now), which comes Next, how many Notes have played, how many stations are In cycle, and the current Mode.

Cycle tab

Control	What it does
Stations A–H	Click a station to put that oscillator in the rotation or take it out. The rotation can never be empty. A station whose oscillator is switched off is dimmed and skipped.
A First	After a silence, the rotation always starts on the first station.
Retrig	Tied or legato notes restart the sound too.
Vary	Changes level and pan a little on every hit, so no two notes sound the same.
Drift	A slow pitch wander per station, up to 18 cents.
Wobble	Random late starts, up to 20 ms, for a looser feel.
Level	A fixed volume lean per station.
Pan	A fixed left-right lean per station.
After	How much silence resets the rotation, 0 to 5 s.

Behavior tab

Control	What it does
Mode	How it moves through the stations: Cycle (in order), Shuffle (shuffled), Random or Pong (back and forth).
Legato	Keep: tied notes stay on their station. New: they move on.
Steal	When voices run out: Follow moves on, Stay reuses the station.
Release	Hold reuses a ringing key's station; Free moves on.
Glide	Slides into each new station, 40 to 340 ms.
Overlap	The old station keeps ringing into the next.
Fade	How fast the old station's tail fades out.

Order tab

Control	What it does
1st … 8th	Which oscillator plays first, second and so on in the rotation. Picking a letter swaps it into place, so each station appears once.
Times	How many notes each station plays before moving on, 1 to 4.
Reset	When the rotation restarts: Free (it never forces a restart), Bar (every bar) or Phrase (after a silence).
Run	Plays the order Forward or Backward.

Vary, Drift, Wobble, Level, Pan, After, Glide, Overlap and Fade are modulation destinations. Factory presets: Init, Humanized, Shuffle Bag, Ping-Pong Stereo, Tape Wobble and Call & Answer.

Try this Load the same wavetable on Oscillators A and B, move WT Pos a touch on B, turn on Robin with Pong mode, Vary 30 and Wobble 20. Program a straight 1/16 hi-hat-style pattern on one key: it breathes like a drummer.

Putting the cards together#

The SYN window with the Shaper card popped out in front and the Arp, Robin and Glitch cards floating around it — All four cards popped out around the SYN page.

Because the Arp and Robin act on notes and the Shaper and Glitch act on audio, a full chain reads naturally: the Arp writes the notes, Robin hands each one to a different oscillator, the Shaper draws the groove into the result and the Glitch tears it up at the end. Pop the cards out and keep them open on a second screen while you play.

Try this Click Arp, then Robin, then Shaper, then Glitch. Hold a chord, set the Shaper's Vol lane to Trance 2 and the Glitch's Chance to 15 with only Rev and Tape lit. Then cable the Randomizer to the Glitch on the Patcher and click the map whenever the loop gets too comfortable.

Chapter 10

Modulation

Modulation is how a sound comes alive: a source moves a destination so you don't have to. In Terrain almost every knob is a destination, and wiring one up takes a single drag. The MOD page then shows every connection in one place, with the deeper controls to bend, scale and trim each one.

Sources, destinations, routes#

Every modulation in Terrain is a route: one source (an LFO, an envelope, a macro, how hard you play …) moving one destination (a knob) by an amount. The knob keeps its own value; the route adds movement on top of it, up or down. One source can move many knobs, and one knob can take many sources — they add up.

Destinations are everywhere: oscillator and engine knobs, the noise, both filters, the envelopes' times, the LFOs' rate, amount and phase, the macros, every knob of every rack effect (front and back), the flow cards' knobs, the Chop page's layer strips, and the global pitch, level and pan. If a knob shows a modulation mark when you drop a source on it, it is a destination.

Good to know Some sources play per note and some are shared. An envelope, an LFO, Velocity, Key, Random and the audio followers give every note its own value (the MOD page marks them V, per voice). Macros, the mod wheel and pitch bend are one value for the whole instrument (marked G, global).

Drag to modulate#

The fastest way to make a route is to grab a source and drop it on a knob. Wherever you see one of these, you can drag it:

Drag this	Source
An LFO's number tab (1, 2, 3 …) on the LFO panel	That LFO. See LFOs.
The envelope chip (Env 1, Env 2 …)	That envelope; rows in the envelope list drag out too. See Envelopes.
A macro's name in the Macros view	That macro.
The words Velocity and Key in the voice column	How hard you play, and which note you play (key tracking).
An oscillator's power dot (the dot that leads its header)	That oscillator's own loudness (Osc A–D).
The noise name or the noise waveform	The noise's loudness.
The word Filter on the filter panel	The output level of the filter slot you are looking at.

Drop it on any knob and the route exists, at a starting amount you then adjust. Drags work across popped-out card windows too.

The modulation mark

A single knob with its value and label, Warp 32, without modulation — A knob on its own.

A single knob, WT Pos, with the accent-coloured modulation mark under its label — A modulated knob: the mark under the label.

A modulated knob shows a short accent-coloured underline below its label — the modulation mark. It shows how far its sources move the knob and moves live while you play.

Gesture	What it does
Drag the mark up or down	Sets the amount of the route (the selected one when there are several).
Hover the mark	Opens the route list of this knob: one row per source, with its amount.
Click a source name in the list	Shows that source (opens its LFO, envelope …).
Drag the % in the list	Sets that route's amount; double-click it to type a number.
Click a row in the list	Picks that route, so dragging the mark edits it.
Extend icon in the list	Opens the route's curve editor (see The route curve).
× in the list	Removes the route. The knob goes back to its own value.

Try this Drag the noise waveform onto a filter's Cutoff with a small amount. Every hiss burst now opens the filter a little — an envelope follower made in one drag.

The knob's right-click menu#

Right-click any knob for its control menu. What it shows depends on the knob:

Item	What it does
Modulate ›	Opens the source browser (All, Envelopes, LFOs, Macros, Keys, Audio, MIDI, with a search field). Click a source to route it to this knob.
Route rows	One row per route on this knob: the source name, its amount (drag up or down; double-click for the default), the Extend icon for its curve, and × to remove it.
Remove all modulators	Deletes every route on this knob (shown when there are two or more). Its own value stays.
Control's own items	Some controls add their own rows here (for example the Glitch's Time knob offers Steps or Smooth).
Reset to default	Puts the knob back to its starting value, the same as a double-click.
MIDI Learn	Arms the knob: the row reads "waiting…" until you move a control on your MIDI controller, then the two are linked. Afterwards the row reads MIDI CC and the number, with a × to unlink it. The link is saved with the patch; manage all links in Settings.
Copy modulators	Copies every route on this knob (amounts, curves, bypass, aux).
Paste modulators	Puts the copied routes onto this knob, with the same amounts.

Every source#

The source browser groups the sources in six families. Each is also a drag source somewhere on the page, as listed above.

Family	Sources
Envelopes	Env 1 – Env 5: shapes that play once per note (delay, attack, hold, decay, sustain, release). Env 1 is the volume and Env 2 the filter by default. See Envelopes.
LFOs	LFO 1 – LFO 10: repeating waves for wobble, vibrato, tremolo and rhythmic movement, each with its own drawn shape. See LFOs.
Macros	Macro 1 – Macro 9 (or the names you gave them): one knob that moves many. See Macros.
Keys	Velocity: how hard you hit the key. Key: which note you play; higher notes move the destination further. Random: a new random value on every note (each route draws its own). Alt: flips between 0 and full on every other note.
Audio	Osc A, Osc B, Osc C, Osc D, Noise, Filter 1, Filter 2: the loudness of that part, so the audio itself becomes the modulator. An oscillator follower keeps following with its Level at 0, and the noise follower with the noise off — use a silent source as a pure control signal.
MIDI	Mod Wheel; Aftertouch (pressing harder into a key you already hold); Pitch Bend (both ways from the centre); Slide (on an MPE keyboard — one with per-note expression — moving your finger up and down a key).

Good to know Right-click the word Velocity in the voice column for Global velocity: with it on, every oscillator and the noise get louder the harder you play, with no route needed. Organics instruments keep their own velocity response.

The MOD page#

Click MOD in the header for the modulation page: every route of the sound in one list.

The header

Control	What it does
Search	Filters the rows by source, destination, aux or destination group as you type.
Basic	The simple route list: source, amount, destination, live output.
Pro	Adds a curve, polarity, an aux source with its own curve and invert, and an output trim to every route.
Matrix	Every route as an editable row.
Routes	Every route drawn as a cable from its source to its destination.
Route count	How many routes this sound has; reads Locked while Lock Matrix is on.
+ (Add route)	Makes a new route, a free LFO on Filter 1 Cutoff (or the next LFO and destination not yet routed); retarget its source and destination from there. + Add route under the last row does the same.
··· (menu)	Sorting, the matrix lock, clearing, templates and macro baking (below).

The menu

Item	What it does
Sort by Source	Orders the routes by their source: LFOs together, envelopes together.
Sort by Destination	Orders the routes by what they move.
Lock Matrix	Keeps these routes when you change presets, so your modulation setup carries over to the next sound.
Clear all routes	Deletes every route in this sound.
Create Vibrato	A free LFO on pitch, faded in by the mod wheel (the wheel is its aux). Push the wheel to wobble.
Create Velo → Amp	Velocity to level, with a gentle curve: harder playing, louder notes.
Create Filter Envelope	Env 2 opens Filter 1 Cutoff on every note, the classic pluck.
Create Wheel → Cutoff	The mod wheel opens the filter by hand.
Apply and Delete Macros	Bakes the current macro positions into the knobs they move and removes the macro routes. Routes that cannot be baked (pitch in semitones, for example) are kept, and the count tells you how many were baked and kept.

The columns

The MOD page in Pro view: columns Source, Crv, Amount, Pol, Destination, Out, Aux, Inv, Crv and Output for eight routes — Pro view: every column of every route.

Column	What it does
Handle (⋮⋮)	Drag up or down to move the route in the list.
Bypass dot	Click to bypass the route: it stays but stops moving its destination. Click again to turn it back on.
Source	Click the name for the source browser; the ‹ › arrows step to the previous or next source. In Pro the letter after it reads V (per voice) or G (global). Click the column title to sort by source.
Crv (Pro)	Bends how the source responds, gentle at first or fast at first. Drag up or down; double-click for straight.
Amount	How far the source moves the destination, −100% to +100%. Right of centre pushes up, left pushes down. Drag the bar sideways, or drag the percentage up or down (`Shift` for fine steps, or scroll); double-click the percentage to type a number. In Basic, a small dot beside the amount lights when Pro settings are shaping the route.
Pol (Pro)	Polarity. Uni pushes one way from the knob's value; Bi swings both up and down around it. LFOs and Pitch Bend start as Bi, everything else as Uni.
Destination	Click the name for the destination browser, grouped by module (Osc A–H, Noise, Filter 1 and 2, Envelopes, LFOs, Macros, FX Rack, Shaper, Arp, Glitch, Robin, Chop, Global, plus Patcher for extra effects and flow cards that live there), with a search field. The ‹ › arrows step through destinations. Click the column title to sort by destination.
Out	The live movement of this route right now. Play a note to see it move.
Aux (Pro)	A second source that scales the route ("Scale by"), like the mod wheel fading in an LFO. None = no scaling. Click to pick.
Inv (Pro)	Inverts the aux: more aux means less modulation, so the aux fades the route out instead of in.
Crv (Pro, aux)	Bends how the aux responds. Drag up or down; double-click for straight.
Output (Pro)	The final trim of the route after the aux and curve, 0 to 100%. Drag sideways.
×	Removes the route; the destination goes back to its own knob value.

Right-click a row for its own menu: Bypass (or Enable), Scale by (pick the aux), Duplicate (a copy with every setting), Straighten curves and Remove.

The route curve

The Crv column bends a route with one drag. For full control, open the route's curve card: click the Extend icon beside a route in a knob's hover list or right-click menu. The card is the same curve editor the Distortion uses (see Distortion): left to right is what the source puts out, bottom to top is what reaches the knob. The straight diagonal is the route as it is; draw any shape to remap it — a dead zone, a step, an S-curve, an upside-down response. Double-click resets it to straight. The card can pop out into its own window like the flow cards.

The curve card: a large curve editor with points and a grid, shown here on the Distortion — The curve card (shown on the Distortion; a route opens the same editor).

Try this Route Velocity to a filter's Cutoff, open its curve and draw it flat for the first two thirds, then steep. Soft playing stays dark; only your hardest hits open the filter.

Routes view

Routes view draws the same routes as cables: every source on the left, every destination on the right, grouped by module, with the live amount it is being moved by right now. Drag to scroll; click a cable to select its route. Switch back to Matrix to edit it.

Macros#

Terrain has nine macro knobs. A macro is a hand-played source: turn it and everything it is routed to moves at once — one gesture for "darker and wider", "more grit", "open the space". Build them into your presets so whoever plays the sound gets the moves you designed.

Gesture	What it does
Click Macros in the voice column	Shows the nine macro knobs in place of the voice settings.
Drag a macro knob up or down	Moves the macro, and everything routed to it.
Drag a macro's name onto a knob	Routes that macro to the knob. Or right-click a knob › Modulate › Macros.
Double-click a macro's name	Renames it. The new name shows everywhere: in the source browser, the MOD page and the route lists.
Right-click a macro knob	Rename, Reset to default and MIDI Learn — map your hardware knobs to the macros.

The macros are destinations too, so an LFO or envelope can turn a macro, which then turns everything under it. When a design is finished, Apply and Delete Macros on the MOD page bakes the current macro positions into the knobs.

Try this Rename Macro 1 "Space" and route it to the reverb's Mix, the delay's Mix and, with a negative amount, Filter 1 Cutoff. One knob now pushes the sound back into the room and darkens it as it goes.

Chapter 11

Effects

Build your own effect rack. Sixteen effects, each with its own types, voicings and a hidden back panel, chained left to right and routed per oscillator, so the pad can bloom in a hall while the bass stays bone dry. Every knob on every card is a modulation destination.

The FX rack#

The FX rack is the strip of effect cards along the bottom of the SYN page. Each card is one effect. Sound flows through the rack from left to right: the first card processes first, the next card hears the result, and so on to the end of the strip. Drag a card by its grip to change the order and you change the sound.

The rack is not one bus that everything has to pass through. Each card has a row of routing chips, one per sound source, and a source only passes through the cards where its chip is lit. That is how you send Oscillator A through a reverb and a delay while Oscillator B goes only through the distortion and the noise skips the rack entirely.

The FX rack on the SYN page with a Reverb card followed by a Delay card — The rack: a Reverb card, then a Delay card. Sound runs left to right.

Every card has a header (grip, name, type, preset, More, power and remove; see Card anatomy), a live picture, four front knobs ending in Mix, one to three pills and the routing chips. The Delay on the right hears whatever leaves the Reverb, for the sources routed through both.

The sixteen effects

Effect	What it does
Reverb	Puts the sound in a space, from a small room to a cave a minute long. Nine types, including Spring and Convolution.
Delay	Echoes in time, from clean digital to dark bucket-brigade and diffuse washes.
Distortion	23 types of drive, clipping, diode, wavefolding, drawn curves and digital destruction.
Granular	Records the sound and replays it as tiny grains: clouds, shimmers, freezes, stutters.
Filter	Any of Terrain's 123 filter types as a rack effect.
Chorus	Moving copies for width and thickness, from 80s keyboard chorus to warped-record wobble.
Flanger	The jet-plane whoosh of a very short, sweeping delay.
Phaser	Sweeping notches that make the sound swirl.
Tape	Tape machines for wobble, warmth, hiss and tape echo.
Equalizer	Four fixed bands plus up to four free bands, seven EQ personalities.
Widen	Spreads the sound across the stereo field with detuned or delayed copies.
Compress	Eight compressor designs, from transparent to a hard ceiling.
Multiband	Squash-and-lift in up to three bands for dense, loud sounds.
Bode	A frequency shifter: metallic, bell-like, spiralling and endless sounds.
Splitter	Cuts the sound into bands so each band can get its own chain of effects.
Utility	A channel strip: gain, width, pan, polarity, mono checks and basic tone.

You can run up to six of each effect at once: six reverbs, six delays, six distortions and so on, each with its own settings. The same cards also live in the Patcher, where you can cable them freely (see The Patcher), and in Terrain FX, where they process audio from your track (see Terrain FX).

Card anatomy#

Every effect shares the same chassis. Learn one card and you know all sixteen: a header, a picture, four front knobs with Mix last, one to three pills and the routing row. Click More and the card flips to its back: two menus and eight deeper knobs in the same footprint, so nothing around it moves.

A Reverb effect card, front panel, on the Hall type — A Reverb card, front panel.

Header controls

Control	What it does
Grip	The six dots. Drag the card left or right. Sound flows through the rack from left to right, so a distortion before a reverb sounds very different from a distortion after it.
Name	Which of the sixteen effects this card is. Hover it for a one-line summary.
Type	Picks the effect's type (Hall, Room, Plate … on Reverb). Every type has its own sound and, on most effects, its own eight Characters on the back. Values you set on the shared knobs carry across a type change, so you can audition types without losing your settings.
Preset	Opens the card's preset menu (below).
More	Flips to the back panel with eight deeper knobs and two menus. Click the arrow to come back. Three cases differ: the Filter and the Reel, Porta and Wire tape machines have no back panel (and no More button), and the Utility's back has eight knobs but no menus. See their sections.
Power dot	On or bypassed. A bypassed card keeps its settings and routing.
Remove	Deletes the card. Any modulation routes on its knobs go with it.

The preset menu

Click the preset pill to open the card's own preset menu. It is per type: a Plate reverb shows plate presets, a Spring reverb shows spring presets.

The SYN page with the Reverb card's preset menu open, showing Save Preset, Factory presets and the Card actions — The Reverb card's preset menu, opened from its preset pill.

Item	What it does
＋ Save Preset	At the top. Stores the current settings under a name you type, in the User list for this type.
Factory	Ready-made settings for the current type. Click one to load it.
User	Your saved presets. The cross on a row deletes it (Terrain asks first).
Copy Settings	Copies this card's settings so you can paste them onto another card of the same effect.
Paste Settings	Puts copied settings onto this card. Dimmed (and named after what you copied, e.g. "Paste Reverb Settings") when the clipboard holds a different effect.
Duplicate	Adds a second copy of this card with the same settings, right after it. Dimmed when six of this effect are already in the rack.

The Convolution reverb adds an Impulse response section: ＋ Load IR opens a file chooser for your own impulse response, followed by the built-in spaces.

Knobs

Drag a knob up or down to change it; double-click to reset it to its default. The value reads inside the ring in the unit that matters (milliseconds, note lengths, Hz, dB or a plain 0 to 100). Every front and back knob can be modulated; see Modulating effects.

Pills

Pills are on/off switches. A lit pill is on. Which pills a card has depends on the effect (most have two, Equalizer has one, Splitter three), and on Reverb and Distortion they change with the type. Each effect's section lists its pills.

Routing and Send#

The chips in the bottom-right corner of every card decide which sources play through it. Click a chip to light it; click again to unlight it.

Chip	Source
A, B, C, D	Oscillators A to D.
S	The Sub oscillator.
N	The Noise.
E, F, G, H, N2	Oscillators E to H and Noise 2. These extra chips appear on the cards in the Patcher, where the extra sources live.

Lit means the source plays through this card and carries on along the rack to the next card where its chip is lit. Unlit means the source skips this card. A source that is lit on no card at all never enters the rack.

Good to know A newly added effect arrives powered on but with every chip unlit, so it is silent until you choose its sources. Light the chips of the oscillators you want to process and you hear it at once.

Send

The first card in the rack (whichever effect it is) carries one extra chip at the end of the routing row, drawn as one line splitting into two. That is Send. Off, the routed oscillators go through the rack. On, the oscillators keep playing dry in the main mix and the rack receives a copy, like an aux send on a mixing desk. Use it for reverbs and delays where you want the full dry signal plus a wet return. Send belongs to the first slot: drag another card to the front and the chip moves with the position, not with the effect.

Try this Put a Reverb first in the rack with Mix at 100, turn Send on and light only A and B. Now the reverb behaves like a return channel: lower Mix no longer thins the dry sound, and the oscillators you left unlit stay completely dry.

Adding, removing and reordering#

The add button sits at the end of the rack. Click it for the list of all sixteen effects, sorted A to Z. A new card lands at the end of the rack. When the rack is empty, the whole strip shows Add Effects; click it to add your first effect.

The list shows how many of each effect are already in use (for example "Reverb ×2"). When six of one effect are in the rack, its row reads "(max)" and is greyed out: remove one to add another. Six is the limit per effect, not for the rack as a whole.

Action	How
Add an effect	Click the add button at the end of the rack and pick from the list.
Add a copy of a card	Preset menu › Duplicate. The copy lands right after the original.
Reorder	Drag the grip left or right.
Bypass	Click the power dot.
Remove	Click the cross. Modulation routes on the card's knobs are removed with it.
Add an effect inside a Splitter band	Click the + under a band in the Splitter's picture (see Splitter).

Modulating effects#

Every rack knob, front and back, is a modulation destination: up to twelve per card (four front, eight back). Drag a source onto a knob exactly as you would on an oscillator: an LFO number, an envelope chip, a macro name, the word Velocity or Key. The accent underline appears under the knob's label, and the route shows up on the MOD page with the effect's name. See Modulation for the full drag-to-modulate workflow, depth and curves.

Good targets: reverb Size on a slow LFO for a breathing space, delay Fdbk on the mod wheel for dub throws, distortion Drive on velocity so harder notes bite, Bode Shift on an envelope for a falling metallic sweep, Utility Width on a macro to open the stereo image in a drop.

Try this Drop Env 2 onto a Filter effect's Cutoff and an LFO onto its Res. You now have a second, fully modulated filter in the rack, after the reverb if you like, which the main filter can never be.

Reverb#

Reverb puts the sound in a space. Nine types cover simulated halls, rooms and plates, a physical spring tank, two classic digital racks, a vast dark cave, an octave-climbing shimmer and convolution with recorded spaces (or your own impulse responses). Pair it with Delay for big ambient tails.

Reverb card back panel with Character, Mod Mode and eight knobs — Back: two menus and eight knobs, in lanes.

The back is laid out in lanes: when the reverb starts (Pre-Delay over Attack), how smooth it is (the two Diffusions), how it moves (Mod Rate over Mod Depth) and its tone (High Cut over Low Cut).

Types

Type	Sound	Character options
Hall	A big, smooth concert-hall tail for pads, strings and leads.	Smooth, Random, Vintage, Cathedral, Chamber, Dark, Bright, Ethereal
Room	Distinct wall echoes and a short tail, so drums sit in a real room.	Studio, Booth, Bedroom, Live, Chamber, Tile, Garage, Warehouse
Plate	A bright, dense shimmer with no early echoes: the classic vocal and snare sheen.	Classic, Vintage, Modern, Vocal, Drum, Bright, Dark, Shimmer
Spring	The boingy, drippy chirp of a guitar-amp spring tank, for surf and dub. Has its own back panel.	Surf, Amp, Studio, Cheap, Outboard, Long Pipe, Dub, Lo-Fi
Digital	A lush, chorused late-70s studio rack, wide and glossy on pads.	Program: Concert B, Small A, Large B, Vocal Plate, Perc Plate, Constant, Chamber, Room A
Vintage	A grainy 80s digital rack with lo-fi grit, good for retro and gated sounds.	Classic, Bright, Metal, Space, Cheap, Warm, Gated, Cathedral
Basin	A huge, dark cave wash up to a minute long, for drones and film beds.	Basin, Cavern, Abyss, Glacier, Chasm, Fog, Void, Bloom
Shimmer	The tail climbs an octave and feeds back into an angelic cloud.	Shimmer, Angel, Ice, Choir, Sparkle, Deep, Ghost, Cascade
Convolution	A recorded real space instead of a simulated one.	Space: Hall, Room, Chamber, Cathedral, Plate, Ambience, Cave, Tunnel

When you switch type, the Character keeps its position in the list, so the third voicing of a Hall becomes the third voicing of a Plate.

Front

Control	What it does
Size	How big the space is. Up = a bigger hall, down = a small room. On Spring it is the spring tension: the time between boings, 12 to 120 ms, and their pitch. On Convolution it stretches the recorded space from 0.4× to 2×. Try Size up with Decay low for a big, short space.
Decay	How long the tail lasts. Up = a long wash, down = a quick room. On Spring it is the dwell: how long the springs keep ringing. Long decays love Low Cut on the back.
Tone	Dark to bright tail. 50 is neutral; darker tails sit behind the mix.
Mix	Dry against wet. 100 = only reverb. 20 to 35 keeps the sound in front.

Back (every type except Spring)

All types except Spring share the same eight back knobs, laid out in lanes: one column per job, the related control underneath. Values carry across a type change.

Control	What it does
Pre-Delay	A gap before the reverb starts, 0 to 250 ms. Up = the hit stays clear in front of the tail.
Attack	The tail swells in over 0 to 300 ms instead of arriving at once. 0 = off; up = a soft bloom.
Early Diffusion	Smears the first echoes together. Down = grainy, separate echoes; up = one smooth start.
Late Diffusion	Smears the tail together. Down = sparse, fluttery and metallic; up = a dense, glassy wash.
Mod Rate	Speed of the slow wobble in the tail, about 0.05 to 7 Hz. Needs Mod on.
Mod Depth	How far the tail wobbles in pitch. Up = a lush chorus, top = a clear warble. Needs Mod on.
High Cut	Removes treble from the tail, 1 to 20 kHz; all the way up reads "off". Down = a darker, older reverb.
Low Cut	Removes lows from the reverb, 20 to 1000 Hz. Up = less mud under bass and kicks.

Back (Spring)

Control	What it does
Pre-Delay	A gap before the springs answer, 0 to 150 ms.
Transition	How high the metallic zing of the spring chirp reaches. Down = a dark boing, up = brittle.
Shake	Rattle and turbulence, like kicking the amp. 0 = clean, up = noisy crash.
Dispersion	How big the spring chirp is. Down = clean, up = a huge laser boing.
Damping	High-end loss inside the springs. Up = darker drips.
Drive	Saturates the sound going into the tank. Up = dirtier, like a hot amp.
Low Cut	Removes lows from the reverb, 20 to 1000 Hz.
Width	Stereo width of the spring tail. Down = mono, up = wide.

Back menus

Menu	What it does
Character / Program / Space	Voices the type: decay, tone, damping and motion together (see the types table for each list). On Digital it is called Program and picks a classic studio-rack program; on Convolution it is Space and picks the recorded space.
Mod Mode	The style of the tail's wobble: Off, Subtle, Lush, Chorale, Random, Chaos, Drift, Ensemble. Needs Mod on. Lush is the classic.
Springs (Spring only)	How many springs, 1 Spring to 6 Springs. More = denser, smoother boings.

Pills

Pill	What it does
Mod	(Hall, Plate, Digital, Vintage, Basin, Shimmer, Convolution) Turns the slow wobble in the tail on or off. Off = a still, static tail.
Duck	(Room, Spring) The reverb dips while you play and blooms back in the gaps, so the notes stay clear.
Freeze	(every type except Convolution) Holds the current tail forever as a pad and stops new sound entering. Play dry over it.
Reverse	(Convolution) Plays the recorded space backwards, so the reverb swells up into each note.

The picture

The grid of squares blooms with the live tail; a bigger Size lights more of them. On the Convolution type you can drag an audio file straight onto the picture to load it as an impulse response, or use ＋ Load IR in the preset menu.

Try this Hall, Decay high, then hold a chord and hit Freeze. Play a melody over the frozen pad with a dry oscillator (its chip unlit on the reverb). Instant ambient bed.

Delay#

Delay repeats the sound in time. Lock it to the song with Sync, bounce it with Ping, and split the left and right times on the back for wide, uneven echoes.

Delay card back panel with Character, Sync and eight knobs — Back: Time L and Time R with the link between them.

Types

Type	Sound
Digital	Clean, exact repeats.
Tape	Each repeat gets warmer and dirtier, like tape echo.
BBD	Dark, gritty analog bucket-brigade echoes that darken as the time grows.
Diffuse	Echoes blur into a reverb-like wash.

Front

Control	What it does
Time	The gap between echoes, 1 ms to 8 s, or a note length with Sync on. Try 1/8 dotted for bounce.
Fdbk	Feedback: each echo is fed back in. Down = one echo, up = many; near the top it builds and howls.
Tone	Colours the echoes. Down = darker, up = thinner and brighter. 50 is neutral.
Mix	Dry against echoes. 100 = echoes only. 20 to 35 keeps leads clear.

Back

Control	What it does
Time L	The left echo time, the same as the front Time knob.
Time R	The right echo time. The link between Time L and Time R ties them together; click it to unlink and set the right side apart.
Spread	Delays the right side a little later than the left for a stereo bounce. Works while the times are linked.
Width	How far the echoes spread left and right. Down = mono, up = wide.
Mod Rate	Speed of the wobble on the echoes, 0.05 to 8 Hz. Needs Mod Depth up to be heard.
Mod Depth	How much the echoes wobble in pitch. 0 = steady; a little = tape-like chorus.
Hi Cut	Each repeat loses more treble, 1.2 to 18 kHz. Down = darker, dub-style echoes.
Low Cut	Each repeat loses more bass, 20 to 1000 Hz. Up = thin, clean echoes that stay out of the low end.

Back menus

Menu	Options
Character	Clean, Warm, Vintage, Modern, Lo-Fi, Bright, Dark, Wide. Adds warmth and grit; heard most on the Tape and BBD types.
Sync	Free, 4 bar, 2 bar, 1 bar, 1/2, 1/2D, 1/2T, 1/4, 1/4D, 1/4T, 1/8, 1/8D, 1/8T, 1/16, 1/16D, 1/16T, 1/32, 1/64, 1/128, 1/256. D = dotted, T = triplet. Free = milliseconds.

Pills

Pill	What it does
Sync	Echo times lock to the song tempo as note lengths (1/8, 1/4 and so on).
Ping	Ping-pong echoes that bounce left and right.

The picture draws each echo as a line: their spacing is Time, their fade is Fdbk.

Try this BBD type, Sync on, unlink the times and set Time L to 1/8 and Time R to 1/8D. Fdbk around 60, Hi Cut down. Dark, lopsided dub echoes that never land in the same place twice.

Distortion#

Distortion drives the sound until it bends: warm valve grit, pedal crunch, clipping, diodes, wavefolders, curves you draw yourself and broken digital noise. Its 23 types fall into six families. The family decides the label of the second front knob, the second pill and the eight back knobs; each type also has its own list of Characters, the circuit model inside it.

Distortion card back on Soft Clip with Character, Quality and eight knobs — Back, Clip family: Character, Quality and eight knobs.

The picture is the distortion's curve: the dotted line is clean, and the more the solid curve bends away from it, the more the sound distorts. Right-click it for Extend (see The curve card). The second front knob and the second pill change with the family: on the Clip types shown here they are Knee and Wrap.

Types and families

Type	Sound	Character options
Analog family (front knob Bias, pill Slam)
Tube	Warm valve drive with soft, even harmonics; great on keys and bass.	12AX7 Tight, 12AX7 Round, 12AU7 Line, 6V6 Power, Starved, Cold Clip, Blocking, Vari-Gain
Tape	Soft tape saturation that smooths and glues the attack.	Reel 15, Soft Reel, Reel 30, Cassette, Chrome II, Dub Plate, Worn, Under-Bias
Transformer	Iron saturation where the lows thicken first.	Round Iron, Snap Iron, Clean Iron, Bloom Iron, Cheap Line, Ge Radio, DC Magnet, Toroid
Stomp Box	A classic green pedal: clean bass, crunchy mids.	Green Drive, Yellow Drive, Blend Ge, Open Drive, LED Clip, MOSFET, Mid Scoop, Starved 9V
Overdrive	Pedal gain stages that square off into fuzz.	LM308 Dist, TL071 Dist, Tight Dist, Sustain Fuzz, Plexi, High-Gain, Slew Kill, Dying 9V
Clip family (front knob Knee, pill Wrap)
Soft Clip	Rounded clipping for clean, warm loudness.	Diff Pair, Glue, Dense, Growl
Hard Clip	Flat-topped clipping, bright and aggressive.	Razor, Rails, Wrap Tip, Modulo
Zero-Square	Turns the wave into a square: a gated, buzzy fuzz.	Comparator, Duty, Octave, Sub Oct, PWM Env
Slew Clip	Limits how fast the wave can move: dull and spitty.	Fast, Slow, Asym, Charge, Stick, Ring, Bounce, Stereo
Diode family (front knob Asym, pill Octave)
Diode 1	Diode-pair pedal crunch; pick the diode on the back.	Silicon, Germanium, LED, Schottky, Stacked, MOSFET, Log, Leaky
Diode 2	Crossover distortion: quiet parts sputter and break up.	Class B, Class AB, Gate, Ge Bridge, Push-Pull, Sputter, Half Gate, Ratchet
Asym	One-sided clipping with strong even harmonics.	Ge/Si, Si/LED, 2-Up-1-Dn, Grid Bias, Amp Curve, Half Hard, Screamer, Collapse
Rectify	Flips the low half of the wave up, for octave-up and ring tones.	Bridge, Half Wave, Doubler, Octave Up, Ringer, Rect Fuzz, Xformer, Over-Rect
Fold family (front knob Symm, pill Track)
Linear Fold	Folds the peaks back, bright and buzzy.	Tri Fold, Ladder, Compressed, Expanded, Lossy, Runaway, Rounded, Brk Mirror
Sine Fold	Smooth sine folding, bell-like and gentler.	Shaper, Bell, Brass, Formant, Cluster, Hollow, Ripple, Chime
West Coast	A multi-cell folder with metallic, vocal sweeps.	Five Cell, Extended, Deep Fold, Lockhart, Metalizer, Six Cell, Timbre Swp, Cold Solder
Shaper family (front knob Morph, pill Sym)
Shaper	Bends the wave through a curve you draw.	Clean, Log, Razor, Glass, Twice, Growl, Sticky, Squeeze
Shaper Asym	A drawn curve with different top and bottom halves.	Direct, Halves, Log Both, Razor, Glass, Twice, Growl, Bias Walk
Harmonics	Adds chosen overtones on top of the sound: draw bars 1 to 16.	Pure, Index, Odd Only, Even Only, Ramp, Comb, Stretch, Beyond
Table	Shapes the wave through a wavetable frame.	Frame, Sweep, Mip, Spectral, Half, Phase, Noise, Two-Table
Digital family (pill Clean; front knob per type)
Downsample	Lowers the sample rate for aliasing and lo-fi steps. Front knob: Rate.	Modern, Sampler 12, Sampler 8, Telephone, Warble, Trk + Hold, Peak Hold, Shatter
Bitcrush	Lowers the bit depth for grit and steps. Front knob: Bits.	Linear, Zero-Sq, Sputter, Telephone, A-Law, Shaped, 12-Bit, Overs
Overflow	Loud peaks wrap to the other side: harsh, broken-file noise. Front knob: Wrap.	Overflow, Twos Comp, Bounce, Mirror, XOR, Rotate, Soft Wrap, Melt

Front

Control	What it does
Drive	How hard the sound is pushed. Up = more distortion and grit, down = clean. Pair with Tone to tame fizz.
Bias (Analog)	Shifts the circuit's resting point. Off-centre = one side clips first, a warmer, rounder bite.
Knee (Clip)	How round the clipping corner is. Down = razor-sharp edges, up = softer and rounder.
Asym (Diode)	Makes one side of the wave clip before the other. Centre = even. On Rectify it is the rectify amount: centre = full flip for an octave up, top = over-rectified and harsh.
Symm (Fold)	Shifts the wave up or down before folding. Off-centre = lopsided, warmer folds.
Morph (Shaper)	From a straight line (0) to your full drawn curve (100). On Harmonics it blends between the two sets of harmonic bars; on Table it scans through the wavetable frames.
Rate / Bits / Wrap (Digital)	Rate lowers the sample rate (metallic, lo-fi grit); Bits lowers the bit depth from 16 bits down; Wrap sets how low the wrap-around point sits (up = peaks flip over sooner).
Tone	Tilts the distorted sound. Down = darker and smoother, up = brighter and fizzier. Centre = flat.
Mix	Clean against distorted. Lower it to blend in drive but keep the attack; 100 = all distortion.

Back, by family

Every family keeps Low Cut and Hi Cut on its back. Low Cut removes lows before the distortion (20 Hz to 1.2 kHz; up = tighter bass); Hi Cut removes harsh treble after it (350 Hz to 22 kHz; down = smoother). Most families also have Emphasis: which end distorts more (up = the highs fizz, down = the lows get fatter, centre = even). The rest change with the family.

Family	Back knobs
Analog	Low Cut, Hi Cut, Emphasis, Sag, Recovery, Drift, Drift Rate, Snarl
Clip	Low Cut, Hi Cut, Emphasis, Width, Bias, Gap, Punch, Feedback
Diode	Low Cut, Hi Cut, Emphasis, Width, Knee, Dead Zone, Slew, Snarl
Fold	Low Cut, Hi Cut, Emphasis, Stages, Spacing, Rebound, Corner, Width
Shaper	Low Cut, Hi Cut, Emphasis, Width, Smooth, Bias, Beyond, Squash
Digital	Low Cut, Hi Cut, Bits (Downsample) or Rate (Bitcrush, Overflow), Smooth, Dither, Jitter, Spread, Feedback

Control	What it does
Sag	Loud playing pulls the power supply down. Up = bloom, squash and darker swells.
Recovery	How fast the sag lets go. Down = sputtering, up = quick recovery.
Drift	A slow random wander of the circuit plus a little wobble. Up = more alive and unstable.
Drift Rate	Speed of that wander, 0.02 to 30 Hz.
Snarl	Analog types: extra feedback and memory in the circuit, a grittier growl. On Stomp Box it adds a square sub-octave that follows the note. Diode types: feedback around the diodes, a screaming, singing edge.
Width	Stereo drive. 50 = even; up = left and right drive differently; down = only the centre distorts.
Bias	Shifts the wave off centre before clipping, for a warmer, lopsided tone.
Gap	A dead zone where quiet parts drop out. Up = notes tear and sputter.
Punch	Centre = off. Down = attacks stay clean and the tail breaks up; up = attacks get smashed.
Feedback	Feeds the distortion back into itself; above about 75 it screams on its own. On Digital types it is digital feedback that rings and grows, the top half darker.
Knee	(Diode) How gently the diodes start to clip. Up = smoother.
Dead Zone	A level quiet parts must pass to be heard. Up = gated, sputtering breakup.
Slew	Slows the wave's edges. Up = sludgier, duller tone.
Stages	How many times the wave folds, 1 to 32. Up = brighter and buzzier.
Spacing	How far apart the folds sit. Changes the fold colour.
Rebound	How hard each fold bounces back.
Corner	Rounds the fold corners. Up = smoother.
Smooth	Shaper types: blurs the curve so harsh corners round off. Digital types: softens the digital steps.
Beyond	What happens past the curve's edge. 0 = clamp, 50 = fold back, 100 = wrap around.
Squash	Levels the input so quiet notes travel the whole curve too.
Bits / Rate	(Digital) A second crush on the back: bit depth or sample rate, whichever the front knob is not.
Dither	A whisper of noise before the crush that smooths harsh steps into soft hiss.
Jitter	Makes the digital clock unsteady. Up = a wobbly, warbly crush.
Spread	(Digital) Runs the right clock faster than the left for stereo crush. 0 = the same.

Back menus

Menu	What it does
Character	The circuit model inside this type (the lists are in the types table). The selected position carries across a type change.
Quality	Off, Standard, High, Ultra. Runs the distortion at a higher internal rate (oversampling). Higher = a cleaner top end and more CPU; Off = raw grit and aliasing.

Pills

Pill	What it does
Auto	(every type) Keeps the output about as loud as the input, so more Drive does not just mean louder.
Slam	(Analog) A big extra push before the circuit, about +20 dB, for heavy saturation.
Wrap	(Clip) Anything past the clip edge jumps to the other side: a screaming sawtooth edge.
Octave	(Diode) Flips the wave before the diodes for an octave up. With Rectify, two octaves.
Track	(Fold) The fold depth follows the note: low notes fold more, high notes less.
Sym	(Shaper) Makes the curve match top and bottom, removing warm even overtones and DC offset (a shift off centre that eats headroom).
Clean	(Digital) Filters before the crush for band-limited lo-fi, like a telephone or AM radio.

The curve card

The Distortion curve card showing the Tube type's live transfer curve — The curve card, here showing Tube.

Right-click the Distortion's picture and choose Extend to open the big curve card. On every type outside the Shaper family the card shows the type's real curve, live. Double-click it (or right-click the picture and choose Edit as Shaper curve) to turn that curve into points you own: the card switches the Distortion to Shaper Asym with the curve as its starting point, so you can edit a Tube or a West Coast fold by hand.

On Shaper and Shaper Asym you draw the curve directly: drag points, bend the lines between them, and use the footer's beyond value (the back panel's Beyond). On Harmonics the card shows bars 1 to 16; draw each bar's level, pull a bar below the line to flip its phase, and use Clear to start again. On Table, Morph sweeps the frame stack, and the footer lets you pick the source: Stock (the built-in table) or the wavetable of Oscillator A, B, C or D.

Try this West Coast, Drive around 60, then drop an envelope onto Symm. Every note sweeps through the folds with a vocal, metallic "yow". Turn on Track so the bass notes fold harder than the top.

Granular#

Granular records whatever passes through it and plays it back as tiny grains. Dense, long grains melt into a cloud; short, sparse ones stutter. Pitch the grains up for shimmer, freeze them into a pad, or play them backwards for reverse swells.

Granular effect card, back panel — Granular, back.

Types

Type	Sound
Cloud	A classic random grain cloud for smooth textures.
Rise	Every grain is pitched up, so the cloud climbs into shimmer.
Swarm	Short, scattered, detuned grains: a buzzing chorus.
Suspend	Holds the grains into a smeared, frozen pad.
Scatter	Grains locked to the tempo grid: a glitchy stutter.
Rewind	Every grain plays backwards, for reverse swells.
Stretch	Slows the read head way down for a time-smear.
Pulverize	Crunchy 8-bit grains.

Front

Control	What it does
Grains	How many grains play at once. Down = sparse stutter, up = a thick wall of sound.
Size	How long each grain is, 2 to 900 ms. Down = buzzy and choppy, up = smooth and long.
Decay	Feeds the grains back into the recording so the cloud sustains. Up = it keeps building.
Mix	Dry against grains. 100 = only grains.

Back

Control	What it does
Scan	How the play point moves through the recording. Centre = hold, right = toward now, left = into the past.
Window	How much recent sound the grains can pick from, 50 ms to 16 s. Up = older material mixes in. Snaps to note lengths with Sync on.
Spray	Scatters where each grain starts. Up = more random and smeared.
Pitch	Transposes the grains, up to 24 semitones either way. Try +12 for shimmer.
Detune	A slow tape-like wobble in the grains' pitch. Up = a chorus-like shimmer.
Shape	Each grain's fade. Down = hard and choppy, up = soft and airy. The knob draws the grain window it is using.
Width	Spreads the grains across the stereo field.
Freeze	Blends from recording to holding. Around 75 it starts to hold; 100 holds what was played.

Back menus and pills

Control	What it does
Character	Colours the recording: Clean, Tape, Cassette, Radio, Worn, Drift.
Key	Snaps each grain to an interval: Off, Oct, 5th, Chord, Maj, Min, Penta. Off = no pitching.
Freeze (pill)	Stops recording and loops the grains it holds. Play over the frozen cloud.
Sync (pill)	The grain Window snaps to note lengths of the song tempo.

The picture shows the recorded sound, the window the grains read from, and the live grains as dots.

Try this Rise type, Key on Oct, Size high, Grains high, Mix around 40. Play a simple pluck and an octave-up shimmer cloud trails every note.

Filter#

The Filter effect puts any of Terrain's 123 filter types in the rack: ladders, state-variable, multi-mode pairs, combs, formants, phasers, EQ tones, reverb filters and the dirty ones. It is the same filter engine as the main filters (see Filters), stripped to its essentials: no envelope and no key tracking, so it behaves like a plain filter box you can place anywhere in the chain and modulate from the outside.

Click the type in the header for the same categorised, searchable filter browser the main filter uses. The picture draws the live response curve over the sound arriving at the filter, so you see what it is taking away.

Front

Control	What it does
Cutoff	The frequency where the filter starts to cut, 20 Hz to 20 kHz. On a low-pass, down = darker. On combs, Karplus-Strong and ring modulation it sets the pitch.
Res	Resonance: boosts a narrow peak at the cutoff. Up = sharper and whistling; near the top it sings.
Drive	Pushes the filter into saturation. 0 = clean, up = growl. Great with Res on bass.
Mix	Dry against filtered. Lower it to keep some of the original.

Pills

Pill	What it does
Wide	Splits the cutoff a little between left and right for a stereo filter.
Punch	Makes the filter react to each hit's attack rather than the whole note.

Try this Put a Filter after a long Reverb, type Formant Morph, and drop a slow LFO onto Cutoff. The tail talks through the vowels while the dry notes stay untouched.

Chorus#

Chorus copies the sound with tiny moving delays so it sounds wider and thicker. Eight types span the classic pad chorus, the 80s keyboard chorus, string-machine ensembles, a clean doubler and warped-record wobble; each has its own eight Characters.

Chorus effect card, back panel — Chorus, back.

Types

Type	Sound	Character options
Vintage	One sweep per side whose width slowly breathes: the classic pad chorus.	Classic, Slow, Fast, Deep, Wide 106, Locked, Thick, Hiss
June	The classic 80s keyboard chorus, modes I and II.	I, II, I Plus II, Manual, Aged, Clean, Wide 106, Deep
Pedal	A guitar stomp-box chorus.	Chorus, Vibrato, Grit, Slow Amp, Fast Amp, Wet Flip, Warm, Thin
Trio	Three voices left, centre and right, lush and wide.	Preset, Manual, Enhance, Sides, Centre, Syrup, Rack 86, Glassy
Ensemble	A string-machine ensemble, thick and shimmering.	String Ens, Synth Ens, Choir, Random, Dark Wine, Brass, Slow Tide, Phase Wide
Micro	A tiny pitch-shift doubler with no wobble, for vocals and leads.	Studio I, Studio II, Wander, Dual Mono, Layers, Tape Head, Chorale, Subtle
Wow	Warped-record wobble, lo-fi and seasick.	Cassette, Vinyl 33, Vinyl 45, Dictaphone, Pro Reel, Dying Deck, Underwater, Breeze
Dark	A long, murky analog-chip chorus.	Standard, Double, Murk, Pumped, Hissy, Cheap, Slap Wide, Regen Box

Front

Control	What it does
Rate	How fast the chorus moves, 0.02 to 20 Hz. Slow = gentle shimmer, fast = vibrato.
Depth	How far it moves. Up = a wider, more seasick chorus; above about 60 it gets extreme.
Fdbk	Feeds the chorus back into itself. Up = more resonant and metallic.
Mix	Dry against chorus. 50 is the classic blend.

Back

Control	What it does
Time	The base delay of the chorus. Short = tight and shimmery, long = slow and seasick.
Detune	A small pitch shift, 0 to 50 cents (hundredths of a semitone), left up and right down. Up = thicker.
Width	Stereo width of the chorus. Down = mono, up = very wide.
Flutter	A fast second wobble on top. Up = more tape-like shake.
Drift	A slow random wander, like old analog gear.
Colour	Down = darker with old analog-chip grit, up = brighter and cleaner.
Low Keep	Lows below this point skip the chorus, 20 Hz to 1 kHz. Up = solid, centred bass.
Phase	How far the right side's sweep is offset from the left. Up = wider movement.

Back menus and pills

Control	What it does
Character	Eight voicings of the current type, each with its own speed, depth and colour.
Motion	The sweep shape: Type (the type's own shape), Triangle, Sine, Soft.
Sync (pill)	The chorus Rate locks to the song tempo in note lengths.
Wide (pill)	Pushes the chorus far wider than the Width knob can, while the centre stays put.

The picture draws two moving lines, one per side, swaying with the chorus.

Try this June type, Character II, Mix 40, Low Keep up a little. Put it on a plain saw pad and it instantly sounds like a vintage polyphonic keyboard.

Flanger#

Flanger is a very short delay that sweeps back and forth, carving a moving comb into the sound: the jet-plane whoosh. Push Fdbk above the centre for a bright, ringing jet; pull it below for a hollow, nasal one.

Flanger effect card, back panel — Flanger, back.

Types

Type	Sound	Character options
Jet	The classic pedal flanger swoosh.	Silver, Compact, Deep Sweep, Hollow, Screamer, Drop, Thin Air, Twin Jet
BBD	A darker, gritty analog flanger.	Classic BBD, Deluxe, Dark Bucket, Squash, Matrix, Short Bucket, Long Bucket, Grind
Endless	The sweep seems to rise or fall forever.	Rise, Fall, Rise Deep, Fall Deep, Double Helix, Stacked Rise, Soft Rise, Tight Rise
Envelope	The sweep follows how hard you play.	Up, Down, Snap, Slow Swell, Duck Zero, Hold, Wide Touch, Deep Touch
Step	The comb jumps between steps in time.	Random, Stair Up, Stair Down, Pendulum, Ratchet, Drunk, Wide Steps, Glide

Front

Control	What it does
Rate	How fast the flanger sweeps. Slow = a jet, very fast = a growling buzz.
Depth	How far the sweep travels. Up = a bigger whoosh.
Fdbk	Feedback, centred: 50 = none. Above 50 = a bright ringing jet, below 50 = hollow and nasal.
Mix	Dry against flanged. 50 gives the deepest whoosh.

Back

Control	What it does
Manual	The delay the sweep centres on, 0.1 to 20 ms. Down = a high, thin whoosh; up = a low, chorus-like one.
Spread	Offsets the left and right sweeps. Up = a wider, swirling flange.
Width	Stereo width of the flanged sound. 62.5 = normal.
Damping	Darkens the delay and each pass. Up = softer, warmer.
Shape	The sweep's waveform, from triangle through sine to ramp.
Bounce	Analog wobble and drift in the sweep.
Drive	Saturation inside the feedback. Up = high Fdbk growls instead of only ringing.
Low Cut	Keeps lows out of the flanger, 20 Hz to 1 kHz.

Back menus and pills

Control	What it does
Character	Eight voicings of the current type, each sweeping and colouring differently.
Route	How the feedback is wired: Normal, Cross (left and right swapped), Mono Sum, Wide.
Sync (pill)	The flanger Rate locks to the song tempo in note lengths.
Invert (pill)	Flips the feedback so peaks land where the notches were. No change when Fdbk is 50.

The picture shows the moving comb; the pinches are the notches sweeping.

Try this Endless type on a sustained pad, Rate slow, Fdbk around 75. The whoosh climbs and climbs without ever arriving: perfect under a build.

Phaser#

Phaser sweeps a set of notches (narrow dips in the sound) up and down the spectrum, so the sound swirls. Nine types cover pedal classics, a deep 12-stage, throbbing lamp vibes, endless barber-pole sweeps and an envelope-driven auto-wah.

Phaser effect card, back panel — Phaser, back.

Types

Type	Sound	Character options
Ninety	A four-stage pedal swoosh.	Script 74, Block 78, Two Stage, Eight Stage, Slow Lamp, Sine Sweep, Wide Stagger, Negative
Stone	A vocal, resonant phaser from a classic pedal.	Color Off, Color On, Deep Sweep, Two Loop Stages, Hot OTA, Cold OTA, Six Stage, Inverted
Duo	Two phasers on two related sweeps.	Series 1:1.33, Series 3:4, Parallel 1:1.33, Parallel Golden, Counter, Wide Duo, Slow B, Cross Feed
Twelve	A deep 12-stage phaser with many notches.	Full Range, Hi Range, Six Pole, Sixteen Pole, Resonant, Hollow, Aux Out, Fast Hollow
Kraut	A lopsided, psychedelic lamp phaser.	Slow Bulbs, Fast Bulbs, Hard Skew, Reverse Skew, Twelve Bulb, Four Bulb, Hot Loop, Cold Loop
Vibe	The throbbing lamp vibe of 70s guitar.	Chorus Lamp, Vibrato Lamp, Cold Bulb, Hot Bulb, Eight Cap, Even Caps, Wide Caps, Vibrato Deep
Barber	Notches that rise or fall forever.	Rise 8, Rise 12, Fall 8, Fall 12, Rise Wide, Fall Narrow, Sharp Notch, Deep Rise
Envy	Notches jump with your playing, like an auto-wah.	Fast Grab, Slow Swell, Transient, Smooth Follow, Four Stage, Ten Stage, Quack, Sink
Steps	The notches step between random positions.	Random 8, Random Wide, Ladder Up, Ladder Down, Pendulum, Register, Drunk, Trance Gate

Front

Control	What it does
Rate	How fast the notches sweep. Slow = a gentle swirl, fast = a wobble.
Depth	How far the notches travel, up to 4.5 octaves.
Fdbk	Feeds the phaser back into itself. Up = a sharper, more vocal sweep.
Mix	Dry against phased. Higher = deeper notches.

Back

Control	What it does
Center	Where the sweep sits, 40 Hz to 9 kHz. Down = a deep swoosh, up = a thin swirl.
Stages	How many filter steps the phaser stacks, so how many notches. Up = denser, more intense.
Spread	How far apart the notches sit. 0 = bunched together.
Stereo	Offsets the left and right sweeps for a wide, moving phaser.
Touch	50 = off. Up = louder playing pushes the notches up; down = it pushes them down.
Lag	How lazily the notches follow, 4 to 200 ms. Up = slower, smoother motion.
Floor	The lowest a notch can go, 20 Hz to 1 kHz. Up = the bass stays untouched.
Color	Darkens and saturates the feedback. Most audible with Fdbk up.

Back menus and pills

Control	What it does
Character	Eight voicings of the current type, each sweeping and colouring differently.
Motion	The sweep shape: Character (the voicing's own shape), Triangle, Sine, Soft Tri, Lamp Skew, Ramp, Sample-Hold.
Sync (pill)	The phaser Rate locks to the song tempo in note lengths.
Invert (pill)	Flips the feedback so the resonance moves onto the notches: a hollow honk.

The picture shows the notches as dips; the purple tick rides the lowest one.

Try this Envy type on a plucky bass, Touch above 50, Fdbk high. Every hard note opens the notches like a funky auto-wah, soft notes stay dark.

Tape#

Tape runs the sound through an old tape machine for wobble, warmth and hiss, and adds tape echo when you want it. Studio and Cassette are full cards with a back panel of echo and machine controls. Reel, Porta and Wire are three dedicated machines with three knobs and Mix, and no back panel.

Tape effect card, back panel — Tape, back.

Types

Type	Sound	Front knobs
Studio	A thin, broken vintage deck with honk and dropouts.	Wow, Saturate, Hiss, Mix
Cassette	Bright cassette warmth with bass thump and pumping.	Wow, Saturate, Hiss, Mix
Reel	A clean studio reel for saturation colour. No back panel.	Sculpt, Drive, Timbre, Mix
Porta	A hissy 4-track demo tape that breathes. No back panel.	Wow, Saturate, Hiss, Mix
Wire	A 1940s wire recorder: old-radio honk and deep wobble. No back panel.	Wow, Saturate, Hiss, Mix

Front

Control	What it does
Wow	Slow pitch wobble from the tape speed. Up = more seasick. A little on keys sounds vintage.
Saturate	Tape saturation. Up = warmer and more compressed.
Hiss	Tape noise under the sound, only while it plays. Up = more lo-fi air.
Sculpt (Reel)	Saturates the bass. Up = warm, thick lows.
Drive (Reel)	Fuzz on the mids and highs. Up = more edge and fold.
Timbre (Reel)	Centre = flat. Left = darker folds, right = a metallic, talking resonance.
Mix	Dry against tape. 100 = only the tape sound.

Switching between types keeps the values the new type shares with the old one, so Cassette to Porta keeps your Wow, Saturate and Hiss.

Back (Studio, Cassette)

Control	What it does
Time	The tape echo time, 10 ms to 8 s (note lengths with Sync on). Heard only with the Delay pill on.
Repeats	How many tape echoes return. Near the top it sings on its own. Needs Delay on.
Drive	How hot the sound hits the tape, up to +18 dB. Up = more saturation on the echoes too.
Age	Worn tape. Up = duller highs, dropouts and level drift.
Flutter	Fast pitch jitter. Up = a shakier, older machine.
Bump	The bass lift a real tape head adds, up to about +12 dB. Up = fatter, rounder lows.
Width	Stereo width of the tape sound. Down = mono, up = wide.
Duck	The tape sound dips while you play and comes back in the gaps.

Back menus and pills

Control	What it does
Character	The tape stock: Fresh, Ferric, Chrome, Vintage, Worn, Chewed, Hot, Cold.
Heads	Which tape heads play and where they pan, for echo patterns: Single, Dual, Triple, Quad, Spread, Swell, Ping, Cascade. Changes the sound even with Delay off.
Delay (pill)	Turns on tape echo, set on the back with Time and Repeats.
Sync (pill)	The tape echo time follows the song tempo in note lengths.

The picture shows the machine running; its reels and meters follow the sound.

Try this Cassette, Delay on, Heads on Swell, Repeats around 70, Age up. A drum loop or a chord stab turns into a wobbling, decaying space-echo tail.

Equalizer#

Equalizer turns frequencies up or down. It has four fixed bands with musical names (Low, Body, Bite and Air) plus up to four free bands you add on the picture, eight in all. Seven types give it seven personalities, from a clean scalpel to console curves, a vintage passive EQ and a dynamic EQ that moves with the music.

Equalizer card back with Character, Focus and eight knobs — Back: the four bands' frequency and gain, plus the type knob.

Types

Type	Sound	Eighth back knob	Character options
Surgical	Clean and exact.	Pinch	Plain, Tight, Broad, Steep, Scoop, Deep Pivot, Bright Pivot, Four Bells
British	Console-style curves that ease off when pushed.	Slope	Desk, Big Knob, Ahead, Iron Top, Sub Iron, Steep Iron, Full Swing, Mid Rise
American	Bands get narrower the harder you push them.	Taper	Proportional, Lasers, Mellow, Floor Lift, Boost Only, Cut Only, Shelf Ride, Bolt
Passive	A vintage passive EQ: boosting Low also dips just above it.	Dip	Baseline, Close Cut, Far Cut, Both Ends, Bell Top, Slow Top, Deep Atten, Revival
Open	Wide, smooth curves with a soft top end.	Silk	Gloss, Very Wide, Two Shelves, Twin Shelf, Deep Reach, Soft Knee, Hard Knee, Bell Air
Dynamic	Bands move with the music, cutting when loud and lifting when quiet.	Pivot	Program Ride, Quick, Lazy, Wideband, Upward, Hard Window, Soft Window, Peak Keep
Chisel	Narrow, ringing bands that can turn into true notches.	Sting	Resonator, Scalpel, Triple Notch, Gain Peak, Shallow, Handset, Sub Kill, Tin

Front

Control	What it does
Slant	Tilts the whole sound. Up = brighter (more treble, less bass), down = darker. Centre reads "flat".
Air	Turns the very top end up or down, up to 30 dB. Up = sparkle, down = soft.
Amount	Scales every boost and cut, 0 to 200 percent. Centre (100%) = as set, 0 = flat.
Mix	Dry against the EQ'd sound.

Back

Control	What it does
Low Hz	Where the Low band (the bass slice) sits, 20 to 500 Hz.
Low	Turns the Low band up or down, up to 30 dB. Up = more weight.
Body Hz	Where the Body band (the warm middle slice) sits, 100 Hz to 3 kHz.
Body	Turns the Body band up or down. Down = less boxiness.
Bite Hz	Where the Bite band (the presence slice) sits, 700 Hz to 14 kHz.
Bite	Turns the Bite band up or down. Up = more presence.
Reach	Where the Air band (the top sparkle) starts, 6 to 20 kHz.
Pinch (Surgical)	How narrow every band is (Q). Up = needle-thin, for removing one ring; down = wide and gentle.
Slope (British)	Adds a bump and dip where the Low and Air shelves begin. Up = a bigger bump.
Taper (American)	How fast bands narrow when pushed. Up = they stay wide longer.
Dip (Passive)	How much it cuts just above a Low boost. Works while Low is boosted.
Silk (Open)	Adds a second sheen above Air. Works while Air is not zero.
Pivot (Dynamic)	The level where bands start to react. Up = only loud parts get cut.
Sting (Chisel)	Band sharpness and ring. Up = sharper, more ringing bands.

Back menus and pill

Control	What it does
Character	How this EQ type behaves: band width, shelf steepness, cut depth.
Focus	Which part the EQ works on: Stereo (both sides), Mid (the centre), Side (the edges), Left, Right.
Delta (pill)	Hear only the difference the EQ makes. Handy for finding a harsh spot; switch it off afterwards.

The curve and its dots

The white line is what the EQ does. Each band is a dot on it.

Gesture	What it does
Drag a dot	Left or right for frequency, up or down for boost or cut.
Scroll over a dot	Changes the band's width (Q). Scroll up = narrower. On a cut it sets the corner resonance.
Double-click empty space	Adds a free band there, at 0 dB (so adding never changes the sound), up to 8 bands in all.
Double-click a dot	Resets that band.
Right-click a dot	The band menu. Its header shows the band's name, shape, frequency and Q. Free bands offer a shape (Bell, Low Cut, High Cut, Low Shelf, High Shelf) and Delete band; the Low and Air dots offer Add a Low Cut here / Add a High Cut here. Every band has Reset band. The four fixed bands cannot be deleted.

Low Cut and High Cut on a free band are steep 24 dB-per-octave cuts.

Try this Dynamic type on a bright lead, Bite boosted a few dB, Pivot up. The presence lift only bites on the quieter phrases and backs off on the loud ones.

Widen#

Widen spreads the sound across the stereo field with detuned or delayed copies, smeared sides or frequency bands sent left and right. The first front knob changes its name and job with the type.

Widen effect card, back panel — Widen, back.

Types

Type	Sound	First knob	Character options
Throng	A supersaw crowd of detuned copies.	Detune	JP Classic, Even Fan, Analog Drift, Tight Fan, Wide Fan, Octave Bloom, Sub Anchor, Three Phase
Twin	A smooth stereo pair with no obvious wobble.	Depth	Two Line, Four Line, Mode Two, Mode Three, No Compander, Dark BBD, Tremble, Hex
Steady	Static detuned copies with no movement.	Cents	Satin, Jab, Quaver, Fifth Up, Octave Down, Wide Slap, Gritty, Octave Pair
Twofold	Double-tracking with drifting late copies.	Sway	Lilt, Wide Room, Tape ADT, Tight Inst, Loose Crowd, Static Pair, Slapback, Seasick
Blur	Smears left and right apart with no pitch change.	Wash	Smooth Six, Deep Twelve, Plush, Low Anchor, Top Only, Seed B, Seed C, Opposed
Bands	Sends alternate frequency bands left and right.	Cleave	Coarse, Fine, Tilted, Rotor Slow, Rotor Fast, Guard, Deep Grid, Hard Split

Front

Control	What it does
Detune (Throng)	How far the copies are pulled out of tune, up to 190 cents. Up = a bigger, thicker crowd.
Depth (Twin)	How far the pair moves and cross-mixes. Up = wider and lusher.
Cents (Steady)	A fixed detune for the copies, up to 190 cents. No wobble.
Sway (Twofold)	How far the doubled copies drift in pitch. Up = looser double-tracking.
Wash (Blur)	How differently left and right are smeared. Up = wider, no pitch change.
Cleave (Bands)	How strongly the bands are split left and right. Mono-safe.
Width	50 = normal. Down = mono, up = wider; the top is so wide it vanishes in mono.
Rate	How fast the copies move, 0.08 to 14 Hz.
Mix	Dry against the widened copies.

Back

Control	What it does
Voices	How many copies, 3 to 8. Up = thicker.
Spread	How far the copies are panned. The top goes past hard pan on purpose.
Offset	Scales the copies' delay times. Down = tight, up = a slapback double.
Roam	Random wander of the copies, for life.
Low Keep	Lows below this stay mono and centred, 40 to 800 Hz.
Tone	Tilts the widened sound. Up = darker, down = brighter. 50 = flat.
Feedback	Feeds the copies back into a tail that darkens on each pass.
Balance	Centre copy against detuned copies. 100 = copies only.

Back menus and pills

Control	What it does
Character	Eight voicings of the current type, each spreading the copies differently.
Field	The stereo layout of the widened sound: Straight, Alternate, Orbit, Swap, Side Only, Gather.
Retrig (pill)	Restarts every copy's motion when switched on.
Mono (pill)	Folds the whole output to mono to check how it sounds on one speaker.

The picture fans each copy across the stereo field as a beam; the rail shows mono safety.

Try this Throng on a single saw oscillator, Detune around 40, Voices up, Low Keep at 150 Hz. A supersaw crowd with a bass that stays rock-solid in the centre.

Compress#

Compress evens out loud and quiet parts so the sound feels tighter and punchier. Eight compressor designs, from transparent to glue, aggressive FET, smooth opto, warm tube and a hard ceiling, each with eight Characters.

Compress effect card, back panel — Compress, back.

Types

Type	Sound	Character options
Exact	Clean and transparent.	Precise, Soft Touch, Loose Grip, Blunt, Deep Release, Line Attack, Poise, Judder
Bus	Mix-bus glue.	Quad Bus, Hand Set, Two Easy, Ten Punchy, Fast City, Big Desk, Pump Bus, No Diode
FET 76	Very fast and aggressive, with grit.	Blackface, Blue Stripe, All Buttons, Twenty Lock, Loose Four, Broken Bias, Waiting Fet, Two Pass
Opto	Smooth, slow, musical levelling.	Cell Classic, Fresh Cell, Tired Cell, Quick Cell, Even Pools, Crystal, Tube Stage, Bright Ears
Vari-Mu	Gentle tube compression that firms up when pushed.	Studio 670, Time One, Time Four, Auto Peaks, Long Haul, Push Pull, Lateral, Triode Soft
Wide Knee	A very soft knee that can go past squashing.	Gentle Knee, Hard 160, Infinity, Infinity Plus, Slow Window, Crush RMS, Decilinear, Anti
Ride	A leveller that lifts quiet parts and pulls loud ones down.	Level Rider, Deep Floor, Only Up, Only Down, Fast Clamp, Slow Iron, Bright Bias, Vocal Sit
Limit	A ceiling the sound cannot pass.	Clean Wall, Soft Ceiling, Hard Stop, Pump Limit, Loud War, Clip Guard, Springy, Porous

Front

Control	What it does
Push	Lowers the threshold, the level where squashing starts. Up = more squeeze, 0 = none.
Ratio	How strongly loud parts are held back, from 1:1 to a hard wall.
Lift	Makeup gain: turns the squashed sound back up, 0 to +24 dB, so it is not quieter.
Mix	Dry against compressed. Around 50 keeps the punch and adds body (parallel compression).

Back

Control	What it does
Attack	How fast it clamps down. Slow = punchy hits pass, fast = tames every peak.
Release	How fast it lets go. Fast = pumping, slow = smooth.
Round	The knee: how gently squashing begins near the threshold. Up = gentler, more transparent.
Hear Cut	Stops the compressor reacting to lows, 20 to 500 Hz, so bass does not pump everything.
Edge	Centre = neutral. Up = hits punch through, down = notes swell in.
Cling	Holds the squeeze up to 250 ms before letting go.
Tie	Stereo link. 100 = both sides squash together so the image holds; 0 = each side on its own.
Burn	Saturation that grows with the squeeze. 0 = clean.

Back menus and pill

Control	What it does
Character	How this compressor moves and colours.
Detect	What the compressor listens to: Native (the type's own choice), Peak, Average, Patient, Spike.
Auto (pill)	Turns the result back up by itself after squashing, so the level stays about the same.

The picture shows two lines; the gap between them is how much is squashed right now.

Try this FET 76 on a plucky bass, Push high, Mix at 50, Burn a little. The attack snaps through while the body thickens underneath.

Multiband#

Multiband squashes loud parts and lifts quiet parts separately in three bands (two on the Two Band type), for that dense, loud, everything-in-your-face sound. Turn it up for drama; blend it back with Mix to keep some punch.

Multiband effect card, back panel — Multiband, back.

Types

Type	Sound	Character options
Three Band	The classic squash-and-lift.	Straight Up, Sharp Ears, Long Ears, Wide Corner, One Detector, Slow Low, Twice Deep, Full Crest
Gentle	Slower and softer.	Round Corner, Slow Hands, Long Window, Half Slopes, Long Tail, Soft Top, Even Bands, Barely There
Heavy	Maximum squash with clipping.	Welded Shut, Band Clip, No Clip, Deeper Jaws, Fast Grind, Peak Grab, Wall Ears, Total Squeeze
Sheen	A shimmering top end.	Top Sheet, Higher Split, Lower Split, Glass Ceiling, Slow Shimmer, Fast Shimmer, Dark Source, Sheen Wall
Bass Safe	The low end is never lifted.	Anchor Low, Mono Low, Slower Low, Low Ceiling, Reese Guard, Free Low, Wide Corner Low, Tight Low
Surge	Lift only: brings quiet detail up.	Tail Riser, Deep Riser, Tied Rise, Fast Riser, Capped Riser, Top Riser, Mean Ears, Riser Wall
Two Band	One split; the halves duck each other.	Body Sparkle, Low Split, High Split, Hard Body, Soft Body, Sparkle Wall, Slow Pair, Fast Pair
Stagger	Bands react at different speeds.	Time Spread, Wider Spread, Narrow Spread, Reverse Spread, Slow Anchor, Fast Top, Deep Spread, Spread Wall

Front

Control	What it does
Amount	How strong the squash and lift are. 50 = the classic setting, 100 = everything flattened.
Chase	How fast it reacts. Down = breathing, up = grinding. 50 = the type's own speed.
Top Lift	Extra lift on the high band. Up = more sparkle.
Mix	Dry against squashed. Lower it to keep some punch.

Back

Control	What it does
Low Cross	Where the low band ends and the middle begins, 30 to 300 Hz.
High Cross	Where the high band begins, 1 to 8 kHz.
Raise	How strongly quiet parts are lifted.
Press	How strongly loud parts are pushed down.
Grip	Moves the levels where squashing and lifting start. Up = more squash, less lift.
Bass	Low band level, up to 12 dB either way.
Mids	Middle band level, up to 12 dB either way.
Treble	High band level, up to 12 dB either way.

Back menus and pill

Control	What it does
Character	Eight voicings of the current type, each squashing and lifting differently.
Stereo	Linked (one detector for both sides), Free Pair (each side on its own), Mid-Side (centre and edges apart).
Crest (pill)	Keeps the snap of each attack (transient) by pausing the lift for a moment on each hit.

The picture

The picture shows each band's level and how far it is being pushed down or lifted up. The two vertical lines are the crossovers: drag a line left or right to move where one band ends and the next begins (the same as Low Cross and High Cross).

Try this Surge on a reverb-heavy pad, Amount around 60, Crest on. The tail and room detail rise up between the notes without the attacks getting squashed.

Bode#

Bode is a frequency shifter. Unlike a pitch shifter, it moves every frequency by the same number of Hz, so harmonics stop lining up: a small shift gives slow beating and phasing, a larger one turns anything into metal, bells and alien speech. Feed it back on itself and the shifts spiral into endless staircases.

Bode effect card, back panel — Bode, back.

Types

Type	Sound
Shift	A clean frequency shift.
Barberpole	Each loop shifts again: an endless staircase.
Echobode	Echoes that shift further on every repeat.
Detune	Tiny shifts for slow beating and phasing.
Ring	Ring modulation, from tremolo to clang.
Spiral	Climbs and falls at once, like a helix.
Chorale	Three shifters spread into an inharmonic choir.
Freeze	Grabs a moment and holds it as a drone.

Front

Control	What it does
Shift	How many Hz every frequency moves. Centre = none; fine near the middle, huge at the ends. On Ring it is the carrier frequency: low = tremolo, high = clang.
Direction	100 = shift up, 0 = shift down, 50 = both ways at once (ring modulation, a bell-like clang).
Fdbk	Feeds the shifted sound back so each repeat shifts again. Up = spiralling.
Mix	Dry against shifted.

Back

Control	What it does
Fine	A small shift trim, a couple of Hz.
Stereo	100 = the right side shifts the opposite way. 0 = both the same.
Time	The loop or echo time. Longer = slower spirals and echoes. Note lengths with Sync on.
Diffusion	Smears the repeats inside the loop. On the Ring type this knob is Carrier: 0 = classic ring mod, 100 = tremolo with the carrier heard.
Low Keep	Lows below this skip the shifter, up to 2 kHz.
Damping	Darkens the repeats. Down = darker.
Env Shift	50 = off. Louder input pushes the shift up (above 50) or down (below).
Drift	A random wander of the shift, up to 40 Hz.

Back menus and pills

Control	What it does
Character	Drive and grit inside the shifter loop: Pristine, Dome '64, Tube 735, Leaky, Tape Loop, Crush, Iron, Ash.
Route	How the shifter loop is wired: Normal, Cross, Mono Sum, Wide, Shift First, Shift Last.
Sync (pill)	The loop Time follows the song tempo in note lengths.
Guard (pill)	On by default: a limiter stops the shifter getting too loud. Off = louder and uglier.

The picture

The white ghost is where the sound was; the purple is where it moved to. Drag the shift dot left or right to shift every frequency down or up. Double-click returns to no shift. Right-click for a menu with Up, Ring, Down (the Direction) and Reset shift.

Try this Barberpole on a pad, Shift a little off centre, Fdbk around 60, Sync on with Time at 1/8. The chord climbs an endless staircase in time with the song.

Splitter#

Splitter cuts the sound into bands (lows and highs, three or four frequency bands, mid and side, or left and right) so each band can get its own effects. Add a reverb only to the highs, distort only the mids, widen only the sides. Effects you add inside a band only hear that band; the bands are summed back together at the end.

Splitter effect card, back panel — Splitter, back.

Types

Type	Bands
Low / High	Two frequency bands.
Low / Mid / High	Three frequency bands.
Sub / Low / Mid / High	Four frequency bands.
Mid / Side	The centre and the edges.
Left / Right	The left and right channels.

Front

Control	What it does
Split	The lowest crossover point. Up = the low band reaches higher.
Balance	Tilts level across the bands. Up = top band louder, down = bottom band louder.
Spread	Stereo width across the bands. Up = lows mono, highs wide.
Mix	Dry against the split and processed sound.

Back, by type

The back knobs wear the names of the type's bands. A Gain knob sets a band's level, −60 to +12 dB (all the way down = off); a Width knob sets its stereo width, 0 to 200 percent; a Pan knob moves it left or right. Spacing sets how far apart the other crossovers sit. A knob marked "—" has no job in that type.

Type	Back knobs
Low / High	Low Gain, High Gain, Low Pan, —, —, Low Width, High Width, High Pan
Low / Mid / High	Low Gain, Mid Gain, High Gain, Mid Width, Spacing, Low Width, High Width, High Pan
Sub / Low / Mid / High	Sub Gain, Low Gain, Mid Gain, High Gain, Spacing, Sub Width, High Width, High Pan
Mid / Side	Mid Gain, Side Gain, Mid Pan, —, —, —, Side Width, Side Pan
Left / Right	Left Gain, Right Gain, Left Pan, —, —, Left Width, Right Width, Right Pan

Back menus and pills

Control	What it does
Slope	How steep the band edges are: 6 dB, 12 dB, 24 dB, 48 dB per octave. 6 dB = gentle overlap, 48 dB = sharp separation.
Solo Mode	How soloing behaves: Latching (Solo toggles), Exclusive (one band soloed at a time), Momentary (solos only while held).
Mute (pill)	Silences the selected band. Click a band in the picture first.
Solo (pill)	Hear only the selected band.
Flip (pill)	Turns the selected band's wave upside down (polarity), to fix cancelling between bands.

The picture: bands and their effects

Gesture	What it does
Click a band	Selects it, so Mute, Solo and Flip act on it and its band cards show in the rack.
Drag a crossover dot	Moves a band edge. The first dot is Split, the others Spacing. Double-click resets.
Click the + under a band	Opens the add list and puts the new effect inside that band, at the end of the band's own chain.
Right-click a band	Mute, Solo or Flip that band, Add a device in that band, and Reset crossovers.

An effect that lives inside a band shows a band tag next to its name. Click the tag to move the card to the next band; clicking past the last band takes it out of the Splitter and back into the main rack.

Try this Low / Mid / High on a full pad. Add a Distortion to the Mid band and a Reverb to the High band. The low end stays clean and tight, the mids growl and only the top end floats in the space.

Utility#

Utility is a channel strip: gain, width, pan, polarity flips, mono and dim checks, and simple tone shaping. Its five types are five ways of handling stereo width. It is the card you drop at the end of a chain to tidy up, or in front of a Distortion to drive it harder.

Utility effect card, back panel — Utility, back: eight knobs, no menus.

Types

Type	How Width works
Strip	Plain width: the centre (mid) against the edges (side).
Turn	Rotation width that can widen a mono sound.
Outer	Only the edges change; mono-safe.
Canopy	Width only above 350 Hz; the bass stays centred.
Cellar	Width only below 350 Hz.

Front

Control	What it does
Gain	Volume, −60 to +30 dB. The default is 0 dB; all the way down = silence.
Width	Stereo width. Centre = normal, down = mono, up = up to 300 percent.
Pan	Moves the sound left or right.
Mix	Dry against processed.

Back

The back has eight knobs and no menus, in signal order.

Control	What it does
High Pass	Removes lows, 40 Hz to 4 kHz; 0 = off.
Low Pass	Removes highs, 300 Hz to 16 kHz; top = off.
Bass	A low shelf at 100 Hz, up to 12 dB either way.
Air	A high shelf at 8 kHz, up to 12 dB either way.
Mono Below	Everything under this point becomes mono, 50 Hz to 1.5 kHz; 0 = off.
Rotate	Turns the stereo image, up to 40 degrees either way.
Haas	Delays one side up to 20 ms; the ear hears the earlier side as the direction, so the image leans. Centre = off.
Drive	Warm saturation. Up = denser and a little louder; 0 = off.

Switches

Three switches sit in the picture itself and act at the output; two more sit in the pill row.

Switch	What it does
Flip L	Turns the left wave upside down (polarity). Fixes a hollow sound when two sides cancel.
Flip R	Turns the right wave upside down (polarity).
Swap	Swaps left and right at the output.
Mono	Plays left and right as one centred signal, to check the sound on a single speaker.
Dim	Drops the level by 20 dB for a quick quiet check.

The picture draws the left and right wiring: crossing lines = Swap, merging lines = Mono, dashed = flipped.

Try this Put a Utility first, Gain up 6 dB, then a Distortion, then a second Utility with Gain down 6 dB and Mono Below at 120 Hz. More grit at the same level, and a bass that never smears across the speakers.

Chapter 12

Patcher

The Patcher is the same instrument with its wiring on show. Every oscillator, filter, effect, flow card and modulator becomes a module on an open canvas, and cables decide where the sound and the notes go. Run three oscillators into three different reverbs, put a Glitch in the middle of the rack, feed the Deck from one sound only: build your own world.

Opening the Patcher#

Terrain opens on the SYN page. Click the SYN pill in the header while you are on the SYN page and you switch to the Patcher; click it again to come back. Both views show the same sound: a knob you turn on one is turned on the other, and a module you add on the canvas appears on the SYN page wherever it has a home there. In Terrain FX the same pill reads FX and always shows the Patcher, with Audio In and Audio Out at the ends.

The Patcher with a full patch: four oscillators and the noise on the left, the filter and envelope in the middle, Reverb, Delay, Distortion and Equalizer modules on the right, cabled to the Out module, with the flow tiles, the Randomizer map, the mini map and the main volume slider — The Patcher, with the sound from the SYN page cabled up.

Under MIDI In on the left sit the flow modules on the note path. The effect modules on the right are the rack's cards, living on the canvas.

Moving around

Gesture	What it does
Scroll or swipe (empty canvas)	Pans the view. `Shift` + scroll pans sideways.
Drag empty canvas	Also pans the view. A click on empty canvas clears the selection.
`Cmd` / `Ctrl` + scroll, or pinch	Zooms in and out around the pointer, from 22 to 200 percent.
Scroll over a knob	Turns the knob, as on the SYN page.
Drag a module	Moves it.
`Shift`-click modules	Selects several at once.
`Delete` / `Backspace`	Removes the selected module (or the whole selection, in one undo step), or cuts the selected cable.
`Cmd`/`Ctrl` + `C`, then `V`	Copies the selected oscillators — settings, modulators, effect routes and flow cables — and pastes them as the next free oscillators.

Modules#

Everything on the SYN page is a module here, and the canvas holds more than the page has room for.

Module	What it is
Oscillators A–H	The eight sound sources, each with its engine (see Oscillators). Cable notes into the left side, sound out of the right.
Noise (and Noise 2)	The noise source; add it a second time for Noise 2. See Noise.
Samplers A–D	The CHOP page's four sample layers as modules, so a chopped loop can run through its own effects.
Filter	The main filter, plus up to six extra Filter modules (the rack's Filter effect), each with the full list of filter types. See Filters.
Envelope	The envelope panel; its output dot drags onto knob dots. See Envelopes.
LFO	The LFO panel; its output dot drags onto knob dots. See LFOs.
Effects	The rack effects, up to six of each type (add the Filter effect from the Filters shelf). Every effect module is a full rack card with front and back. See Effects.
Flow cards	Arp, Shaper and Glitch (up to four of each) and Robin (one). Arp and Robin carry notes; Shaper and Glitch carry sound. See Flow.
Deck	The tape looper: records whatever is cabled in and plays it back into the chain. See Tape Deck.
Voices	The voice settings (Mono, Legato, Poly, Voices, Glide …) on the canvas, with Velocity and Key ready to drag onto knobs.
Randomizer	The contour map from the Flow box. Cable it to modules and a click re-rolls them. See The Randomizer map.
MIDI In	The notes you play. Cable it to oscillators, the Arp or Robin.
Out	The main output with its level. Only what is cabled into it is heard.

The filter, the envelope, the LFO, the Randomizer, MIDI In and Out are part of the instrument and always stay on the canvas. The last oscillator stays too: you cannot delete every sound source.

The Oscillator A module: Wavetable engine with the Reverse Saw table, WT Pos, Warp, Spectral, Fold and Feedback knobs, a port on each side, a dot on top and a dot under each knob — An oscillator module and its ports.

The Reverb effect module: Hall type, Init preset, the reverb picture, Size, Decay, Tone and Mix knobs, Mod and Freeze pills, with ports on both sides, on top and under the knobs — An effect module: audio in on the left, out on the right.

The left port takes notes on an oscillator and sound on effects, filters, Shaper and Glitch. Every knob has its own dot underneath, and the dot on top is where the Randomizer plugs in.

Ports and cables#

Modules connect through ports, the small circles on their edges. Drag from an output to an input to make a cable. There are four kinds, each with its own job:

Port	What it does
Audio in	Feeds the module sound. Drag a cable from another module's audio out to here.
Audio out	Sends this module's sound on, to an effect's input or to Out.
Notes in	Cable MIDI In, the Arp or Robin here and the module plays those notes.
Notes out	On MIDI In, the Arp and Robin: drag to an oscillator's notes input.
Modulation out	On LFOs and envelopes: drag onto a knob's dot to make it move that knob. The route appears on the MOD page like any other.
Knob dot	The dots under a module's knobs: drop a modulation cable here.
Randomizer out	On the Randomizer: drag onto a module's top dot.
Dice dot	The dot on top of a module: cable the Randomizer here.

Cable	What it carries
Audio	Sound from one module to the next.
Notes	The notes you play.
Modulation	An LFO or envelope moving a knob.
Randomizer	Lets the dice map reshuffle a module.

Gesture	What it does
Drag from an output to an input	Makes a cable.
Click a cable	Selects it (`Delete` then cuts it).
Right-click a cable	Opens a one-item menu: Cut.
Right-click a port	Unplugs everything on that port.
Click a port, then `Delete`	Also unplugs that port.
Drop a cable on empty canvas	Opens the quick route menu (below).
`Shift`-drag a module onto a cable	Works on audio cables you can cut. The cable lights up; let go and the module is inserted into it (for example Oscillator A → Delay → Out). A cable the module cannot sit in never lights up, and nothing changes. It works on one module at a time, not on a selection.

A few cables show connections the engine makes on its own; those cannot be cut, and Terrain tells you so when you try.

Good to know An effect hears only the sources cabled into it — the cables on the canvas and the routing chips on the effect cards on the SYN page are the same thing seen two ways (see Routing).

Adding modules#

The module browser

Right-click empty canvas to open the module browser at that spot. Pick a shelf on the left, then a module on the right, and it lands where you clicked. Type in Search to find a module by name. Entries you cannot add any more are greyed out: an oscillator or Sampler already on the canvas, the Deck, the Voices, Noise once Noise 2 is on too, and a flow card once all its instances are in use. Effects are never greyed out; when six of one effect are on the canvas, a message tells you so.

The Patcher module browser: a search field, the shelves All, Oscillators, Chop, Filters, Flow, Effects and Utility, and a list starting with Oscillator A to H, Noise and Samplers, some greyed out — The module browser, All shelf.

The Patcher module browser with rev typed in the search field, showing Reverb — Type "rev" and Reverb is the only match.

Shelf	Modules
All	Everything you can add here.
Oscillators	Oscillator A to H and Noise (a second Noise adds Noise 2). A new oscillator arrives cabled to Out and nowhere else.
Chop	Sampler A to D, the CHOP page's layers.
Filters	Filter: another filter module with every filter type (the rack's Filter effect, up to six).
Flow	Arp, Shaper, Glitch and Robin. The list offers the next free instance; when all are on the canvas the entry says so.
Effects	Fifteen rack effects, from Reverb to Splitter. The Filter effect lives on the Filters shelf.
Utility	The Deck and the Voices panel.

The quick route menu

Drag a cable out of a port and let go over empty canvas. A small menu opens with a Search or add field and two lists: In this patch (the existing ports that can take this cable — pick one to connect to it) and Add new (modules that can take it — pick one and it is added at the drop point, already cabled). Type to narrow both lists; the arrow keys move through them, Enter picks and Esc closes. A module that cannot take the cable shows dimmed with the reason (for example "Takes audio, not notes"). It works the same when you drag out of an input. So: drag from Oscillator B's output, let go, type "reverb", pick it, and a new Reverb sits there with Oscillator B already running into it.

Dropping audio files

Drop an audio file on an oscillator module and that oscillator loads it on the Sample engine. Drop it on empty canvas and the first oscillator not yet on the canvas comes on at the drop point, switches to the Sample engine, loads the file and is cabled to Out. If every oscillator is in use, a message asks you to drop onto one. WAV, AIFF, FLAC and MP3 files work. In Terrain FX, file drops are off.

Tools, menus and the map#

The tool row

Tool	What it does
Undo	Steps back one change.
Redo	Brings back the change you undid.
Fit	Zooms and pans so every module is in view.
Tidy	Lines the modules up neatly by how the sound flows.
Eye	Hides the knob dots, the modulation cables and the remove and minimise buttons, for a clean look while you play. Audio and note cables stay in view. Click again to edit.

Module menus

A module's controls behave exactly as on the SYN page: an effect's power dot bypasses it, its × removes it, its knobs right-click for the control menu. On the canvas you also get:

Gesture	What it does
Right-click a flow module	A flow card on the canvas shows as its picture; right-click it to extend the full card in place. Its minimise button folds it back to the picture.
Right-click a selection	With several modules selected: a menu headed with the count, offering Tidy (lines up only those modules) and Cut all cables (unplugs every cable on them).
Right-click the Randomizer	Sets its reach: Light, Medium, Heavy, Wild or Crazy.

Shaper and Glitch inside the rack

A Shaper or Glitch normally processes the sound after the effect rack. Cable its output into an effect and it moves inside the rack, just before that effect — a Glitch into the reverb, so the stutters get the tail. Cut that cable and it goes back to running after the rack.

The mini map

The map in the corner shows the whole canvas in small, with a frame for what you are looking at. Click or drag in it to jump the view there; the view keeps following while you hold the button, even outside the map.

Main volume

The long slider along the bottom is the main volume: the final level of everything Terrain plays, up to +12 dB. Drag left or right; all the way left is silence; double-click for 0 dB. The Out module carries the same level.

Good to know The modules on the canvas can wear their own colour or the page's. Settings › Themes › Patcher modules: Solid makes every module a card in its own colour, the page's opposite, so it stands out; Blend gives the modules the page's colour. The SYN page looks the same either way. See Settings.

Modulators on the canvas#

The LFO module: the custom shape Glass Pulse at 0.42 Hz, BPM and Hz switch, 43 degree phase, LFO tabs 1 to 5 and a Depth knob, with an output dot on the right — The LFO module.

The envelope module: Env 1 with its delay, attack, hold, decay, sustain and release shape and an output dot — The envelope module.

The LFO and envelope modules are the same panels as on the SYN page, with an output dot. Drag from that dot onto the dot under any knob on any module and the LFO or envelope moves that knob — the quickest way to see modulation as wiring. Each cable is an ordinary route, so its amount, curve and aux live on the MOD page; cutting the cable removes the route.

The Filter module: Ladder LP 24 with its response curve, slot buttons 1 and 2, K and plus, four mini graphs, ports on both sides, on top and below — The Filter module: sound in on the left, out on the right.

Build your own world: a worked example#

Here is a patch the SYN page alone cannot make: two oscillators with completely separate effect chains, a stutter on one of them only, and a looper catching the result.

Open the Patcher (click SYN on the SYN page). Press Fit so you see everything.
Right-click empty canvas › Oscillators › Oscillator E. It arrives cabled to Out and nowhere else. Give it a sound that contrasts with Oscillator A — a long pad against A's pluck.
Drag a cable from Oscillator A's audio out, let go on empty canvas, type "chorus" and pick Chorus. Oscillator A now runs into a Chorus of its own, and the Chorus already reaches Out.
Do the same from Oscillator E with "reverb": E gets a private Reverb. Set its type to Shimmer.
Right-click canvas › Flow › Glitch and Shift-drag it onto the cable between Oscillator A and the Chorus. Light Rep and Rev on its card. Only A stutters, and the Chorus thickens the stutters; E's shimmer stays untouched.
Drag the LFO's output dot onto the dot under the Reverb's Size knob. The space breathes.
Right-click canvas › Utility › Deck, cable the Chorus's output into it. Press Record on the Deck and loop what you play (see Tape Deck).
Cable the Randomizer to the Glitch and the Chorus, set its reach to Medium, and click the map in the Flow box whenever you want a fresh variation.

Try this Put the Eye on once the patch is built: the canvas turns into a living picture of your sound, every display moving, with nothing to knock by accident while you perform.

Chapter 13

CHOP

Manipulate your own audio. Drop a vocal, a loop or a field recording onto CHOP, cut it into pieces, play the pieces from your keyboard and stack up to four samples on top of each other. Every chop has its own pitch, envelope and stretch, and every layer can leave Terrain as its own stem.

The page at a glance#

Click CHOP in the header to open the page. The top half is the sample itself: a large waveform with its cut markers, and a control bar underneath that sets how the sample plays. The bottom half is the layer mixer on the left and the trigger and stem controls on the right. The Main volume slider runs along the very bottom, the same one you see on every page: it sets the final level of everything Terrain plays, up to +12 dB (all the way left is silence; double-click returns it to 0 dB).

CHOP holds four sample layers, A to D. Each layer is a complete sampler with its own sample, chops, settings, volume and pan. You edit one layer at a time on the waveform and hear all of them together, in turns, at random, or split across the keyboard, depending on the trigger mode you pick.

The Terrain window on the CHOP page: a vocal sliced into eight chops, the control bar below it, the layer mixer and trigger controls underneath — The CHOP page with a vocal cut into eight chops (layer A, Slice mode).

Loading a sample#

Drag an audio file from Finder or Explorer straight onto the waveform. CHOP takes WAV and AIFF files, and FLAC and MP3 load as well. The file lands in the layer that is selected on the layer pads, and dropping another file replaces it. An empty layer shows Drop a sample here on the waveform until something arrives.

You can also start from Terrain's own sample library, the same collection of one-shots the oscillators' Sample engine uses (see Oscillators). Click the sample name in the control bar (it reads Sample Library while the layer is empty) to open the library browser. It is sorted into categories such as Pad, Keys, Bell, Pluck, Lead, Bass, 808, Chord, Vocal, Guitar, Strings, Brass, Drums, FX and Textures, with your own imports listed alongside. Click a sound to load it into the current layer.

Control	What it does
Sample name	Shows the sound in the current layer. Click to browse the library; the browser opens on the category of the sample you have loaded.
‹ (Previous sample)	Loads the sample before this one in the library into the layer.
› (Next sample)	Loads the next sample in the library into the layer. Step through the arrows while a loop plays to audition sounds in context.
Waveform (drop zone)	Drop a WAV or AIFF file here to load it into the current layer, or to replace what is there.

Good to know In Pitch mode a double-click on the waveform clears the sample from the layer. Use it on purpose: it is the fastest way to empty a layer, and the quickest way to lose one by accident.

Layers A–D#

The four letter pads next to the root note choose which layer you are editing. Click B and the waveform, the chops, the mode pills, the slicer and the library name all switch to layer B. Each layer keeps its own settings, so A can be a sliced drum break in Slice mode while B holds a pad sample in Pitch mode.

Up to four layers can play together or take turns. How they share the keyboard is set by the trigger modes in the bottom right (see Triggers), and how loud each one is by the mixer (see The layer mixer).

Control	What it does
A, B, C, D	Edit sample layer A, B, C or D. The selected pad is outlined.
Root note	The key that plays the sample at its own pitch (C4 by default). Click to go up a semitone, `Shift`-click to go down. Set it to the note the sample was recorded in and it plays in tune across the keyboard.
Arm	While Arm is lit, the keys play the chops and the instrument's oscillators stop, so you hear only the samples. Turn it off and every note plays the oscillators and the chops together, which is how you layer a vocal chop over a pad.

Pitch or Slice, One-Shot or Loop#

Two pairs of pills decide what kind of instrument the layer is.

Pitch: The whole sample plays up and down the keyboard, like an instrument. Drag the IN and OUT marks on the waveform to set which part of the file plays. Pitch mode is right for a sustained note, a chord stab or a texture you want to play melodically.
Slice: The sample is cut into chops, one per key, like an MPC. This is the mode for breaks, vocal phrases and anything you want to rearrange. The Slices button appears in Slice mode and opens the slicer.
One-Shot: The sample (or chop) plays once to the end each time you press a key, however short the note.
Loop: The sample repeats for as long as the key is held. Combine it with the tempo lock to keep loops on the grid.

Tempo lock and loop tempo

The right end of the control bar shows the song's tempo in BPM. The padlock beside it is the Tempo lock: click it and every loop is stretched to the song tempo, so it stays in time when the project tempo changes. While the lock is on, the display shows the tempo Terrain read from the sample, an arrow, and the song tempo.

Control	What it does
BPM	The song's tempo, read from your DAW.
Tempo lock (padlock)	Stretches every layer's loop to the song tempo. Its tooltip says how many of the four layers have a readable tempo and are being stretched.
Loop tempo	Visible while the lock is on: the BPM Terrain found in this layer's sample. A question mark means it could not read one, so that layer is not stretched. Click and type the right tempo, then press `Enter`; leave the field empty for automatic detection. A tempo you typed is shown in a brighter colour.

Try this Drop a 90 BPM drum loop into a 120 BPM project, switch the layer to Slice and Loop, and click the padlock. The break locks to 120 without changing pitch, and every chop you play lands on the grid.

The waveform and its chops#

In Slice mode the waveform is cut by thin vertical cut markers, and each chop is numbered along the top. The chop under your mouse lights up, a retuned chop shows its offset in semitones under it, and a reversed chop is marked with an R. Everything here is done with the mouse, directly on the sound.

Gesture	What it does
Click a chop	Plays it so you can hear it. In the Chromatic play mode a click instead picks the chop the keyboard plays.
Drag a chop up or down	Retunes it in semitones, -12 to +12. Press `Shift` once the drag is moving for slower, finer travel.
Scroll over a chop	Retunes it one semitone per step.
`Shift`-drag a chop sideways	Stretches it in time: right = longer, left = shorter. A chop whose stretch mode is Off switches to Tone as you drag. Once a chop has a stretch mode, a plain sideways drag stretches it too.
Double-click	Adds a cut at that point, splitting the chop in two.
Drag a cut marker	Moves where one chop ends and the next begins. The marker snaps to a quiet point in the audio, so cuts land between hits instead of through them.
Right-click a chop	Opens the chop panel for that chop (see The chop panel).
Drop a file	Replaces the sample in this layer.
IN / OUT marks (Pitch mode)	Drag them to set the part of the sample that plays.

Try this Slice a sung phrase into 8, then drag single chops up by +3, +5 and +7. You get a new melody built from the singer's own syllables, still in their voice.

The slicer#

Click Slices in the control bar to open the slicer drawer. The number on the button is how many chops the layer has now. The drawer sets the grid, how the keys play the chops, random pitch moves and the anti-click fades. Click Slices again to close it.

Count

The top row cuts the whole sample into equal chops, one per key: 4, 8, 16, 24, 32 or 64. The pill that matches the current number of chops is lit. After an even split, add or move cuts by hand on the waveform.

How the keys play the chops

Sub-mode	What it does
Chop	Every key plays its own chop, all at the same pitch, like an MPC. Click the pill again to switch it to Track.
Track	Every key plays its own chop, pitched to the key you press. Click again to return to Chop.
Chromatic	One chop played up and down the keyboard, like a sampler instrument built from a single slice. Click a chop on the waveform to pick which one.
Random	Each note plays a random chop, pitched to the key you press, and never the same chop twice in a row.
Layer	Each note plays every chop at once, stacked into one sound and pitched to the key you press. Eight syllables of a vocal become one chord-like smear.

Random pitch

Three buttons hand every chop a random interval in one click. Press one again for a new roll.

Control	What it does
5th	Each chop gets a random pitch of a fifth down, none, or a fifth up (-7, 0 or +7 semitones).
7th	Each chop jumps randomly by a flat seventh down, none or up (-10, 0 or +10 semitones).
Oct	Each chop jumps randomly an octave down, none, or an octave up (-12, 0 or +12 semitones).
Fade	A tiny fade at each chop's edges, 0 to 50 ms (5 ms by default), so cuts never click. Raise it for softer, smeared edges on pads and vocals; keep it low for punchy drums.

The chop panel#

Right-click a chop to open its panel. The heading shows Chop and the chop's number. Everything in the panel belongs to that chop alone, so one slice can be long and reversed while its neighbour is short and pitched up. In Pitch mode the panel edits the whole sample.

The small number at the left of the heading is the All chops mark: it shows how many chops the layer has. Click it (or press Cmd+A on Mac, Ctrl+A on Windows) to select every chop; the heading then reads All Chops, and one change edits them all. The × closes the panel.

The CHOP page with the panel of chop 3 open — The chop panel for chop 3.

Stretch mode

Four pills decide what happens when a chop is stretched in time.

Mode	What it does
Off	No time stretching: the chop changes speed and pitch together, like a record.
Beats	Keeps drums tight when the chop is stretched to tempo. It follows the hits, so transients stay sharp.
Tone	Keeps the pitch steady when stretched, for chords, melodies and sustained sounds.
Text (Texture)	Stretches into a smeared, grainy wash. Push Stretch far up for ambient beds made from a single syllable.

Ping-pong

Control	What it does
Ping-pong	Click the pill to make the chop play forwards, then backwards, back and forth. It reads Off when it is off.
Rate	The playback speed of the ping-pong, 0.1× to 8×, 1.00× by default. Drag up or down. Below 1.0 it plays slower and lower, like varispeed. For a slow scan that keeps its pitch, use the Tone stretch mode and set Stretch to the inverse of the rate (Rate 0.5 with Stretch 2.0).

Envelope and tuning

Five sliders shape the chop's own volume envelope and fine tuning. Drag along a slider to set it.

Control	What it does
Attack	How slowly this chop fades in, 0 to 2000 ms. Right = a softer start. Double-click to use the page's own attack.
Decay	How fast the chop drops to the Sustain level after it starts, 0 to 2000 ms. Double-click = 0.
Sustain	The level the chop holds while the key is down, 0 to 100 %. Double-click = 100 %.
Release	How long the chop rings after you let go, 1 to 5000 ms. Double-click to use the page's own release.
Fine	Tunes this chop in cents (hundredths of a semitone), -50 to +50. Double-click = dead on.

Volume, Pitch and Stretch

Control	What it does
Volume	This chop's loudness, 0 to 200 % (100 % by default). Drag up or down. Balance a loud hit against quieter ones without touching the layer fader.
Pitch	Tunes this chop in semitones, -12 to +12. Drag up or down. It is the same value you set by dragging the chop on the waveform.
Stretch	How far this chop is stretched in time, 0.1 to 15 (1.00 = its own length). Drag up or down. It is greyed out while the stretch mode is Off. You can also `Shift`-drag the chop sideways on the waveform.

Actions

Control	What it does
Reverse	Plays this chop backwards. A reversed chop shows an R on the waveform.
Reset	Puts this chop back to its starting pitch and settings.
Delete (sample)	Pitch mode only: removes the whole sample from this layer.
Delete (chop)	Removes this cut, so the chop joins the one before it.

Try this Select all chops, set the stretch mode to Text and Stretch to about 4, then turn Attack and Release up. A choppy loop melts into a slow, grainy pad you can play chromatically.

The layer mixer#

The bottom left holds four channel strips, one per layer. The dot beside each letter lights while that layer is playing. Every fader and knob here returns to its default on a double-click, and a right-click offers the same as Reset to default. Pan, Vib and Rate accept modulation: drop a modulator on them to animate them (see Modulation).

The CHOP page: the four-strip layer mixer at the bottom left, trigger modes, layer status and morph slider, stem buttons and the export and folder buttons at the bottom right — The mixer, triggers and stems on the CHOP page (Layer mode).

Control	What it does
Pan	Moves the layer left or right. Double-click = centre.
Volume	The layer's level, 0 to 200 %. Double-click = 100 %. The two bars beside the fader are its meters.
Vib	How much the layer wobbles in pitch. Up = more vibrato; double-click = 0.
Rate	How fast the vibrato wobbles, 0.05 to 12 Hz. Double-click = 5 Hz.
M (Mute)	Silences the layer.
S (Solo)	Hear only this layer, together with any other soloed layers.

Triggers: how the layers share the keys#

The five pills at the top right choose how a note decides which layers sound. The panel under the pills changes with the mode.

Mode	What it does
Layer	Every loaded layer plays at once. The A–D boxes show which layers hold a sample (lit) and which are empty. Each lit box glows as bright as its layer sounds at the current Morph position. The Morph slider under them blends across the loaded layers: left = only the first (A when all four are loaded), middle = all of them, right = only the last. Double-click, or right-click › Reset to default, returns it to the middle. Put Morph on a macro and you sweep from one sample to another while you play.
Robin	Each note plays the next layer, A, B, C, D, skipping empty ones, like round-robin samples in a sampled drum kit. Reset to A makes the next note start the rotation again from layer A. Shuffle makes the layers take turns in a random order instead.
Random	Each note picks a layer at random, weighted by the odds you set. Four Odds sliders, one per layer (25 % each by default), set how likely each layer is to play. Drag sideways; double-click resets.
Keytrack	Each layer plays only in its own range of keys. Drag the edges between the zones on the Key ranges bar, for example low keys for A and high keys for D. Each zone shows its note range. Double-click resets.
Velocity	Each layer plays only in its own range of how hard you hit. Drag the edges on the Velocity ranges bar so soft hits play one layer and hard hits another. Double-click resets.

Try this Load four takes of the same snare into A–D and pick Robin. Every hit plays a different take, and the machine-gun effect of a repeated sample is gone. Switch to Velocity instead and put the softest take on A and the hardest on D for a dynamic kit piece.

Stems#

CHOP keeps listening to each of its layers. The four Stem buttons save the last 10 minutes of a layer as a WAV file, the layer's own sound before the effects, so you can take a performance into your arrangement without bouncing anything.

Control	What it does
Stem A, B, C, D (click)	Saves the last 10 minutes of that layer as a WAV in the stems folder. The capture strip at the bottom of the window confirms the file name, or says the layer has no audio yet.
Stem A, B, C, D (drag)	Drag the button into your DAW to drop the file straight onto a track.
Export all (download arrow)	Saves all four layers as stems at once. Drag it into your DAW to drop every layer that holds a sample.
Show folder (folder)	Opens the folder the stems are saved in.

Stems are saved in your Music folder, under Waves Crate/Terrain/Stems. Each file carries the date and time it was saved, so a new export never overwrites an older one.

Good to know A stem holds only what the layer actually played. If a layer has been silent, there is nothing to export yet. Stems are recorded only while Capture is on: with Settings › Performance › DAW capture switched off, the layers are not recorded at all. To capture the whole of Terrain, effects and oscillators included, use the capture strip instead (see Capture).

CHOP in the Patcher and the effects#

Each CHOP layer is also a sound source in the Patcher. Open the Patcher's add menu and go to the Chop shelf: Sampler A, Sampler B, Sampler C and Sampler D put that layer on the canvas as a module, with a level meter, so you can cable it through its own effect chain instead of the shared one. Sampler A into a Glitch into a Delay is one signal path, separate from what the oscillators do. See The Patcher.

There is no tape section on the CHOP page. To colour a layer with tape, cable its Sampler module into a Tape effect. The Tape effect's machines include the three classic models below, each with three knobs and no back panel (the full Tape effect is described in Effects).

Machine	Its three knobs
Reel — a clean studio reel that saturates in three bands	Sculpt drives the sound into three warm saturators (low, presence, silk); 5 to 15 adds presence, higher gets aggressive. Drive is a fuzz layer on top of Sculpt: 0 = off, 30 to 50 adds bite, 100 = gnarly fuzz. Timbre: centre = balanced, left = warmer, fatter overtones, right = a brighter, glassy edge.
Porta — a hissy four-track cassette that wobbles and breathes	Wow: slow pitch wobble from the tape speed; 10 to 20 adds warmth, higher gets seasick. Saturation: tape drive; 20 to 40 thickens, higher is crushed and compressed. Hiss: tape noise under the sound; 5 to 10 adds analogue air, higher is lo-fi.
Wire — an old wire recorder with deep wobble and honk	Wow: the wire's slow, swimming speed wobble. Saturation drives the wire into clipping; click the word to swap it to Tube, a valve stage with warmer, rounder grit. Hiss is the wire's noise floor; click the word to swap it to Space, noise that follows the sound and smears into a roomy, reverb-like tail.

Try this Add Sampler B to the canvas, cable it into a Tape effect set to Wire with Space up, then on to Audio Out. Layer B now sounds like it is playing from an old radio while layer A stays clean.

Chapter 14

Tape Deck & Capture

Two ways to keep what you play. The Tape Deck is a looper you cable into the Patcher: record a phrase, overdub on top of it, let the tape wear it down and play it back at any speed. Capture is always listening at the bottom of the window, so the take you didn't mean to record is already there, ready to drag into your DAW.

The Tape Deck#

The Deck records whatever is cabled into it into a loop locked to your song's tempo, then plays that loop back on top of the incoming sound. Overdub more layers, set how much of the old loop survives each pass, dull it like worn tape, and play it slower, faster or backwards. Every pass is kept as its own take, and you can save any of them as a WAV.

To add it, open the Patcher, open the add menu (right-click the canvas or drop a cable on empty space) and pick Deck from the Utility shelf. One Deck fits on the canvas; while it is there, the menu shows it as already on the canvas. Then cable a sound into its left side and cable its right side on to an effect or to Audio Out (see The Patcher).

The Terrain window with the Patcher open and the Tape Deck module in front: a recorded loop, the transport row and four knobs — The Tape Deck on the Patcher canvas.

The Deck, control by control#

The module has three rows: the loop picture at the top, the transport row in the middle, and four knobs at the bottom. Its ports sit on the left and right edges.

The Tape Deck module: a loop waveform with a playhead and beat ticks, Download, Folder, Record, Play, Stop and Undo buttons, and the Length, Feedback, Degrade and Speed knobs — The Tape Deck at its starting values: 2 bars, 85 % Feedback, 30 % Degrade, 1x.

The loop picture

The picture is drawn from the audio itself. The loop's waveform is a mirrored envelope on a centre line: the part the playhead has passed is drawn darker, the rest lighter. Small ticks along the top and bottom edges mark the beats, with longer ticks on each bar. While you record, a tint fills in what the pass has written so far, and a red bar on the playhead shows your input level. During the count-in and the last four beats of a recording, a large 4 3 2 1 counts down in the middle with four dots under it. Right-click the picture, or any part of the Deck that has no menu of its own, for the Metronome.

Transport

Control	What it does
Record	A 4-3-2-1 count-in in the song's tempo, then the Deck records what is cabled in. With a beat or bar Length it stops by itself when the loop is full, and the last four beats count down on the picture. Press Record over a recorded loop and it overdubs one more layer on top.
Play	Plays the loop on top of what comes in. Press again to pause it where it is.
Stop	Stops the loop with a short tape slow-down. Double-click to wipe the loop and start fresh; that also clears the undo history.
Undo	Brings back the loop as it was before your last recording. Press again to step further back, up to ten times.

Knobs

Control	What it does
Length	How long the loop is, in beats and bars of the song's tempo: 1 beat, 2 beats, 1 bar, 2 bars (default), 4 bars, 8 bars, or Free, which records until you press Stop. Right-click › Milliseconds switches it to free time, 10 ms to 60 s (1 s by default): short lengths buzz like a grain, long ones drift. In milliseconds, drag up or down, hold `Shift` for fine moves, double-click for 1 s. Right-click › Bars switches back. You can change Length while a loop plays; the loop grows or shrinks with it.
Feedback	How much of the old loop stays under each overdub, 0 to 100 % (85 % by default). 100 % keeps every layer; 0 % replaces the loop on every pass.
Degrade	Dulls the loop a little more on every pass, like tape wearing out, 0 to 100 % (30 % by default). Up = darker, softer layers; 0 % keeps it clean.
Speed	Plays the loop slower, faster or backwards. In Steps (the default) it clicks between -3x, -2x, -1.5x, -1x, -0.5x, 0.5x, 1x, 1.5x, 2x and 3x; below 0 plays backwards, and 0.5x is an octave down. Right-click › Free lets it glide anywhere from -3x to 3x for tape-stop sweeps and odd pitches; right-click › Steps returns. The loop keeps its speed when you switch.

Right-click menus

Where	Menu
Length	Bars · Milliseconds · Edit value · Reset to default (2 bars, or 1 second in milliseconds).
Speed	Steps · Free · Edit value · Reset to default (1x, the loop as you recorded it).
Feedback, Degrade	Edit value · Reset to default (85 % and 30 %). When the knob is a modulation target, its usual control menu appears instead, with Edit value added to it.
Download	Download last take · Download all takes.
Folder	Choose folder · Open folder.
Anywhere else on the Deck	Metronome (on or off; on by default): a soft tick on the count-in and on the last four beats of a recording. The Deck never records it.

Edit value opens a small field over the knob's read-out. Type a number and press Enter to set exactly that; Esc or a click elsewhere leaves the knob as it was. Values outside the knob's range are clamped. Speed takes values such as 2, -0.5 or 2.1 (in Steps it lands on the nearest step). Length takes bars (1, 2, 4, 8, or 0.25 and 0.5 for one and two beats), free, or a time such as 750 ms or 1.5 s, which switches it to Milliseconds. Feedback and Degrade take a percentage, such as 85 or 85.5.

Ports

Port	What it does
Input (left edge)	Cable a sound in here. While Record is lit, the Deck records whatever arrives.
Output (right edge)	What comes in passes straight through, with the loop playing on top. Cable it on to an effect or to Audio Out.

Try this Record two bars of a pad, set Feedback to 100 % and Degrade to about 60 %, and keep pressing Record. Each new layer lands on top while the older ones sink into a warm, darkening haze. Then switch Speed to Free and drag it slowly towards -1x for a tape-stop that turns into a reversed swell.

Saving takes#

Every record or overdub pass is a take: the audio that pass recorded, its own layer of the loop. The Deck keeps the last 16 takes. Save them as WAV files and you can rebuild the loop layer by layer in your DAW, or keep only the pass you liked.

Control	What it does
Download (click)	Saves the last take, the last record or overdub pass, as a WAV.
Download (right-click, long press, or `Ctrl`-click on Mac)	Opens the menu: Download last take, or Download all takes, which saves every kept take (up to 16), one WAV per pass, so each layer is its own stem.
Folder (click)	Opens the folder the Deck saves its takes in, in Finder or Explorer. Terrain makes the folder if it is not there yet.
Folder (right-click, long press, or `Ctrl`-click on Mac)	Choose folder: pick where the Deck saves its takes; Terrain remembers it on this computer. Open folder: shows the folder.

The files

Each file is exactly one loop long at the Deck's current speed, so it drops into your DAW on the grid.
Stereo, 32-bit float WAV at your session's sample rate.
The default folder is Deck Takes inside Terrain's capture folder, which sits in your Music folder under Waves Crate/Terrain, next to the stems and captures.
Files are named Terrain Deck – Session 3 – Take 2 – 120 BPM – 2 bars – 2026-10-17 1432.wav: the session number, the take, the song tempo, the Length (beats and bars, or milliseconds when Length is in milliseconds or Free) and the date and time of the save.
A save never writes over an existing file; a second file with the same name gets a number added.

The capture strip at the bottom of the window confirms each save (for example, Saved Take 2 to Deck Takes). If there is nothing to save yet, it says Record a take first.

Sessions

The Session number groups takes that belong together. A new session starts when you wipe the loop (double-click Stop), add a new Deck, load the Init preset or another preset, or open a saved DAW session. Session numbers count up on your computer, so takes from different days never share one.

Try this Build a four-layer loop, then right-click Download › Download all takes. Drag the four files into four DAW tracks and you have the loop as separate, mixable stems, each exactly one loop long.

Capture#

The strip along the bottom of the Terrain window is Capture. It keeps the last 10 minutes of what Terrain played, all the time, without you pressing anything. When you play something you love, drag the strip into your DAW and it drops in as audio.

What the strip says

The strip reads	What it means
CAPTURE: LISTENING...	Capture is on and waiting for sound.
CAPTURE: 2m 14s — DRAG TO DAW	It holds that much of what you played (up to 10 minutes). Drag the strip into your DAW to drop it in.
SAVING...	It is writing what you played to a file. In a moment it is ready to drag.
DRAG TO DAW ↓	Ready: drag the strip into your DAW to drop the recording in. A click clears it and starts listening again.
CAPTURE - OFF	Nothing is recorded. Click or right-click the strip to turn it on.

Using it

Drag the strip onto a track in your DAW to drop in what it holds as a WAV file.
Right-click the strip for the DAW capture menu: On or Off. Off records nothing and frees the memory it used. The same switch is in Settings › Performance › DAW capture (see Settings).
Captures are saved in your Music folder under Waves Crate/Terrain (Terrain FX uses Waves Crate/Terrain FX), named with the date and time, as stereo 16-bit WAV files.

The strip also talks to you

Capture shares the strip with Terrain's messages. Hover over any control and its tooltip appears here, so the strip doubles as a live manual (turn this off in Settings › Interface). Short notices pass through too: the result of a save or an export, and actions you can take back, which show an Undo button for a few seconds. When a new version of Terrain is out, an update notice appears with What's new (opens the updates section of Settings with the full list of changes), Get the update (opens your Waves Crate account in your browser, where your purchase has the download; nothing installs by itself) and a dismiss ×, which hides the notice until the next version. When a notice finishes, the capture words fade back.

The small grip at the right end of the strip is the window's resize corner: drag it to make the whole Terrain window bigger or smaller.

Try this Leave Capture on while you noodle with presets. When a happy accident happens, stop, drag the strip into your DAW, and trim the moment out of the last ten minutes. No record button, no lost idea.

Good to know Capture records the whole of Terrain's output, effects included. For a single CHOP layer, use the stem buttons on the CHOP page (see Stems); for a looped performance, use the Deck's takes.

Chapter 15

Voicing

The voice column decides how Terrain answers your hands: one note or a whole chord, a hard cut or a slide, a light touch or a firm one. It sits at the right of the SYN page, and every setting in it changes how a patch feels to play long before it changes how it sounds.

The voice column#

The column is a stack of rows you drag up or down, with two rows of buttons framing it. At the top you pick the voice mode (Mono, Legato or Poly) or swap the whole column for the nine macro knobs with Macros. Below sit the numbers: how many notes may sound, how velocity responds, which key is playing, how notes slide into each other and how loud the instrument leaves. Always and Scaled at the bottom set how the slide behaves.

Every number row works the same way: press anywhere on the row and drag up to raise it, down to lower it. The value updates as you drag, and the processor follows instantly, so you can set a glide time while holding a note and hear it change.

The voice column: Mono, Legato, Poly and Macros buttons, then the rows Voices, Velocity, Key, Portamento, Glide and Output, with Always and Scaled at the bottom — The voice column on the SYN page, here in Poly.

Control	What it does
Mono	One note at a time. A new key cuts the last one and starts the note again, with a short, click-free fade on the old note. Release the newest key while older ones are still held and Terrain returns to the most recent of them. Pair it with Portamento for leads and basses. Off by default.
Legato	The smooth form of Mono. With Mono and Legato both lit, overlapping keys glide on to the new pitch without restarting the envelopes, so a phrase plays as one breath. Only the first note of a phrase (or a key pressed after letting go) restarts the sound. Off by default.
Poly	Many notes at once, up to the Voices count: the everyday mode for chords and pads. Poly means "not Mono": a click turns Mono and Legato off, and Poly lights whenever Mono is off. A fresh instance starts in Poly.
Macros	Shows the nine macro knobs in place of the voice settings. Click again to bring the voice rows back. The macros themselves are covered in Modulation.
Voices	How many notes can sound at once in Poly, from 1 to 32 (default 8). When you play more, the oldest note is taken over by the newest. Fewer voices means less computer load, and it never goes past the voice ceiling set in Settings › Performance.
Velocity	The velocity curve, 0 to 100 (default 50). Velocity is how hard you hit a key. At 50 the response is even; higher values lift soft hits so a light touch already plays full, lower values make you dig in to reach the top. Right-click the word for Global velocity and Reset to default (back to 50).
Key	A readout, not a setting: the key position of the note sounding now. It reads 0 at rest and climbs as you play higher. Drag the word Key onto any knob to make higher notes move that knob further.
Portamento	The slide time between notes, shown 0 to 100 (default 0, no slide). The scale is squared so the short end is fine-grained: 18 is about 65 ms, 50 is half a second and 100 is about 2 seconds. Best with Mono or Legato.
Glide	The shape of the slide, 0 to 100 (default 50). At 50 the pitch travels evenly; lower values ease in (the slide starts slowly and lands fast), higher values ease out (it leaves fast and settles slowly). Works together with Portamento.
Output	The final volume of the whole instrument, in dB (default 0.0 dB), up to +12 dB. Drag up or down; double-click for 0 dB. All the way down reads -inf dB: silence. It is the same master volume as the main volume fader and the Patcher's Out module, so moving one moves them all.
Output meter	The left and right level leaving Terrain, on a scale from -60 to +6 dBFS. Keep the bars out of the very top to avoid clipping.
Always	On (the default): Portamento glides into every new note. Off: it only glides when you play notes overlapping, so detached notes land clean and only the tied ones slide, the classic acid-line behaviour.
Scaled	On: bigger jumps take longer to glide, because the time is set per octave. Off (the default): every glide takes the same time, however far it travels.

Try this For a 303-style bass, light Mono and Legato, set Portamento around 30, and turn Always off. Now only the notes you play overlapping slide; everything else stabs. Raise Glide to 70 so each slide leaps off and settles into pitch.

Mono, Legato and Poly in practice#

The three buttons are the first thing to set on any patch you design for playing. Basses and leads usually live in Mono or Legato, because a melody line should never pile up on itself; pads, keys and plucks live in Poly. The dice knows this too: a roll aimed at Bass or Leads comes out Mono (see Dice).

How Mono decides which note plays

Mono uses last-note priority with memory. The newest key always wins. Hold C, press E, release E, and the line falls back to C, because C is still down. In plain Mono the fall-back restarts the note; in Legato it glides back without a restart. Releasing a key that is not sounding (an older key underneath) changes nothing you can hear.

Voices versus unison

Voices counts notes. Each oscillator's own unison Voices (1 to 16, on the oscillator's back) stacks copies inside each note for thickness. A four-note chord on an oscillator with seven unison copies is 28 stacked voices of work, and that total is what the voice ceiling in Settings › Performance watches. The voice ceiling defaults to 96; lower it on a laptop.

Good to know Legato on its own does nothing while Poly is lit: it is a refinement of Mono. Light Mono first, then Legato.

Portamento, Glide, Always and Scaled#

Portamento (a slide in pitch from one note into the next) has four controls that work as a team. Portamento sets how long, Glide sets the curve of the journey, Always sets whether every note slides or only tied ones, and Scaled sets whether the time stretches with the distance.

Portamento value	Slide time (approx.)
0	No slide
10	20 ms: a barely-there scoop
25	125 ms: a quick, vocal slide
50	0.5 s: an obvious swoop
71	1 s
100	2 s: a slow siren

With Scaled on, the time you set applies per octave: a one-octave jump takes the set time, a two-octave jump twice as long, a semitone almost nothing. That makes fast trills stay tight while big leaps still sing. With Scaled off, a semitone and two octaves take the same time, which sounds more mechanical and more electronic.

Per-oscillator Porta and Glide

Each oscillator can also slide on its own. Right-click an oscillator's Coarse pill and pick Porta or Glide: the pill then drags that oscillator's own glide time (Off up to 2 s) or its curve (50 = even). Give one oscillator a long slide and leave the others dry, and every note change smears in one layer only. See Oscillators.

Try this On a two-oscillator pad in Poly, leave the global Portamento at 0 and give only Oscillator B a Porta of about half a second. Chord changes now arrive with one layer sliding into place under a steady one: an instant string-machine smear.

Velocity and Key as modulation sources#

The words Velocity and Key are handles. Press on the word (not the number) and drag it onto any knob in Terrain: the knob gets a modulation route from that source, with a mark on its ring showing how far it moves. Velocity makes harder playing move the knob further; Key makes higher notes move it further (key tracking). The same sources appear in the MOD page's source list under Keys, next to Random and Alt. Routes, amounts and curves are covered in Modulation.

Global velocity

Right-click Velocity to switch Global velocity on or off. Off (the default for a fresh instance and Init), velocity only does what you route it to. On, every oscillator and the noise get louder the harder you play, shaped by the velocity curve above it. Organics oscillators keep their own Velocity knob and are not affected. While Global velocity is on, the word is highlighted.

Velocity right-click	What it does
Global velocity	A tick: every oscillator (except Organics) and the noise follow how hard you play, at their volume.
Reset to default	Puts the velocity curve back to 50, an even response.

Try this Drag Velocity onto the filter's cutoff and Key onto an oscillator's WT Pos. Soft notes now play dark, hard notes open up, and the wavetable shifts character as you climb the keyboard: a patch that responds like an acoustic instrument.

The voice settings elsewhere#

On the Patcher canvas

The Patcher's Utility shelf offers Voices: it puts this same column on the canvas as a module, so you can set Mono, Legato and Glide, or drag Velocity and Key onto a module's knobs, without leaving the Patcher. It is the same column, not a copy, so its settings are always the ones the instrument plays. See Patcher.

Settings that shape playing

Settings › Performance › Voice ceiling — the most notes Terrain sounds at once, stacked copies included (default 96). The Voices row never goes past it.
Settings › Controllers — the velocity curve of your keyboard itself (Soft, Linear, Hard, Fixed), pitch bend range, MPE and more. See Settings.

The Poly button, lit — A lit voice button: here Poly is the active mode.

Chapter 16

Presets & the Library

A preset is a whole sound in one file: every knob, every route, the effects, the Patcher, and the wavetables and samples it needs. Terrain ships 717 of them in 25 packs: the Waves Crate, Macshooter, and Artist Packs. Audition fast from the header, dig deep in the browser, then save your own, file them into packs and send them to anyone.

The preset strip in the header#

The left side of the header is where presets live while you play. It always shows what is loaded, written as Type - Name (for example “Synth Pad - Aurora Veil”), so you know at a glance that you are on a pad, a bass or a key. A fresh, blank sound reads Init. Hover the name to read the pack it came from. A small dot after the name means you have changed the sound since it was loaded or saved; loading or saving clears it.

+ Save, Save as, Import, Init preset and Recently deleted.‹ Loads the preset before this one.Preset name Click for the quick menu of packs and presets.› Loads the next preset; keep clicking to audition.Library Opens the full preset browser; click again to close.

The preset controls sit on the left of the header.

How the arrows step

The arrows walk the list the preset came from, in the same order the quick menu shows it: grouped by type, A to Z. Pick a preset from a pack's Bass category and the arrows stay inside that category, Bass after Bass, instead of jumping to a random pad. Pick one from a folder and they stay in that folder. With the browser open, the arrows step through the rows on screen, so a search or a filter becomes your audition list.

Try this Open the browser, type a word like “glassy” into the search, close the browser and use ‹ › from the header. You are now flicking only through glassy sounds while the instrument page stays in view.

The quick menu#

Click the preset name and a two-column menu drops down. On the left are the packs; on the right, the presets of the pack you picked, sorted under headings by type (Bass, Key, Pad, Pluck and so on). It opens on the pack of the preset that is playing, so the next sound is always one click away. A click on a pack shows its presets; a click on a preset plays it at once and closes the menu.

The preset quick menu open under the preset name — The quick menu: packs on the left, the pack's presets by type on the right, Browse all at the bottom.

Row	What it does
User	Your own presets, with the packs you made listed under it, A to Z.
Factory	The Waves Crate factory library.
Artist Packs	One row that unfolds onto every artist pack, A to Z. It opens folded (unless the preset playing comes from one of them), so a long list never pushes the rest out of sight. Click it to fold or unfold; it picks nothing by itself.
A pack	Click to list its presets on the right. Double-click to unfold its sub-folders, or its categories (the types its presets use) when it has no folders; double-click again to fold it.
Folder / category	Shows only the presets in that folder, or only that pack's presets of that type. The header arrows then step inside it.
Favourites	Every preset you hearted, from every pack. Heart presets in the browser or from a preset's right-click menu.
Import	Brings a preset file or a whole zipped pack into your library, then shows it here. See Sharing.
A preset	Click to play it now. Your own presets show a small ✕ on the right: click it to delete that preset (it goes to Recently deleted).
Browse all	The footer of the menu: opens the full preset browser.

Good to know Favourites are remembered across sessions and across every open copy of Terrain: heart a sound in one instance and it shows in the next one you open.

The preset browser#

The Library button (or Browse all in the quick menu) opens the full browser over the instrument page. It is built for big libraries: a rail of packs and authors on the left, a sortable list in the middle, and an inspector on the right that tells you everything about the selected preset before you load it. Clicking a row only selects it, so you can read a preset before you commit; a double-click plays it and closes the browser.

The top bar

Control	What it does
Search	Type any word to find presets by name, style, effect or author: “reverb”, “warm”, “Keyon”. `Esc` clears the search; a second `Esc` closes the browser. `↓` jumps from the search field into the list.
Preset count	How many presets the list shows right now, after the rail pick, the search and the favourites filter.
Random preset (dice)	Picks a random preset from the rows on screen, so you can stumble on something new inside whatever you narrowed down. This is not the main dice in the header, which rolls a brand-new sound (see Dice).
Favourites only	Shows only hearted presets. Combine it with a pack or an author in the rail.
Close (✕)	Back to the instrument. The preset you loaded stays.

The rail

The rail is split into Packs and Authors. Click a row to list its presets. Rows with a chevron hold more: click the chevron (or double-click the name) to unfold a pack's folders and categories, or an author's categories. Only one row is unfolded at a time, so the rail stays short.

Row	What it does
All packs	Every preset you have, factory and your own.
User	Your own presets. Unfold it to see its folders and the packs you made. It appears as soon as you have saved or imported something.
Factory	The Waves Crate factory library.
Artist Packs	Every artist pack's presets at once. One click unfolds the list of packs; pick one to narrow it down.
Folder / category	Inside an unfolded pack: only the presets in that folder, or only that pack's presets of one type.
New pack	Makes an empty pack of your own, with a name (up to 30 letters) and an author, ready to save and sort presets into.
Import	Brings in a preset file or a whole zipped pack. You can also drop files onto the browser.
Import folder	Windows only, because the Windows file panel picks either a file or a folder. Brings in every preset inside a folder you choose, sub-folders too. On a Mac, Import takes a file or a folder.
Export	Writes the pack you picked into one file to share or back up. If the pick is not a pack of yours, it asks which of your packs to export.
Authors › Waves Crate	Every preset signed Waves Crate.
Authors › Macshooter	Every preset signed Macshooter.
Authors › Artists	The presets of every other author, artists and you included. One click opens the list of names; pick one to see only that author's sounds, and unfold a name to split it by type.

You can drag rows from the list onto one of your packs (or a folder inside it) in the rail to move them there. Factory and artist packs never accept a drop.

Columns and sorting

Each row shows the preset's Name, Author, what it Carries, its Type, its Style words and a heart. Click a column heading to sort by it; click again to reverse. Text cut short with “…” shows in full when you hover it.

Column	What it does
Name	Sorts A to Z; click again for Z to A.
Author	Groups presets by who made them.
Carries	Sorts by what each preset brings inside its own file. The icons, left to right: wavetables, one-shot samples, impulse responses, flow cards and LFO shapes. A bright icon means the preset carries one or more; a dim one means it does not.
Type	Groups bass, keys, pads, leads and the rest.
Style	Groups by describing words, like Dark, Warm or Glassy.
Heart	Click the heart at the end of any row to make it a favourite, or take the heart off.

Working the list from the keyboard

Key	What it does
`↑` / `↓`	Select the row above or below.
`Shift` + `↑` / `↓`	Grow the selection up or down.
`Cmd`/`Ctrl` + `A`	Select every row on screen.
`Enter`	Load the selected preset and close the browser.
`Space`	Heart the selected preset, or take the heart off.
`Esc`	Drop a multi-selection; pressed again, close the browser.

Good to know Letters typed while the list has focus go to your DAW, not into the search, so your computer-keyboard notes keep playing in hosts that use typing keys. To search, click into the search field first.

Try this Pick an artist under Authors › Artists, switch on Favourites only, then press the browser's dice a few times. You are shuffling through only the sounds you already loved from that one producer.

The inspector#

The right-hand column describes the selected row. Everything here is read-only on factory and artist presets; on your own presets you can edit it in place, and it saves into the preset file as you type.

Field	What it does
Name and author	The preset's name, and under it who made it. On your own presets, click the author to type a name; it saves into the preset as you go. Factory presets keep their author.
Type	The kind of sound (one per preset).
Style	Its describing words (as many as fit).
Pack	Where the preset lives. On your own presets, click it to move the preset to another pack of yours (or a New pack), everything it carries included. Factory presets stay in their pack; use Save as to make your own copy.
Load	How long loading takes: Instant for most presets, A moment when it carries a lot of audio, a few seconds for a preset that also builds a Patcher canvas.
Size	The size of the preset file.
Nodes	Shown when the preset has a Patcher canvas: how many nodes are on it.
Carries	What the preset brings inside its file, counted: wavetables, one-shots, impulse responses, flow cards, LFO shapes, plus the total size embedded. A preset that brings nothing extra reads Parameters only.
Notes	What the maker wrote about the sound, often which knob or macro to move. On your own presets, click to write; it saves as you type. Factory notes cannot be changed.
Type chips	Every type word in your library as a chip. On your own preset, click a chip to set it, click again to clear it. The + chip adds a new word (up to 20 letters), like Arp or Drone. Right-click a chip to Rename it (every preset of yours using it is re-filed) or Remove it (only when no preset uses it).
Style chips	The same for style words, and a preset can have several. The + adds your own word, like Gritty or Airy.
Heart	Makes the preset a favourite, or takes the heart off.
Load	Plays the preset now and keeps the browser open, so you can keep auditioning.

What “carries” means

A Terrain preset is self-contained. When you import your own wavetable, drop a sample into an oscillator, load an impulse response into the reverb or draw a custom LFO shape, the preset embeds it in its own file. Send that file to a friend and it sounds exactly the same on their computer, with nothing to hunt down. Factory wavetables are a special case: every copy of Terrain already has them, so a preset only points to them and they cost nothing. The inspector says so, as “1 factory wavetable”.

Try this Read the notes before you load. Many factory presets tell you which macro does the magic: Aurora Veil's note, for example, tells you the mod wheel pours more into the shimmer and lengthens it.

Saving your sounds#

Everything starts at the + left of the preset name. There is deliberately no save shortcut: Cmd/Ctrl + S belongs to your DAW and saves the project, so a stray key press can never write over a preset.

The + menu

Item	What it does
Save	Writes the sound over the preset that is loaded. It is available only on your own presets; on a factory preset it opens Save as instead. If the browser shows a different preset selected than the one loaded, Save asks where the sound should go rather than guessing.
Save as	Opens the Save sheet to store the sound as a new preset, with its name, author, pack, type, style and notes.
Import	Brings in a single preset file or a whole zipped pack from anywhere on your computer.
Import folder	Windows only: brings in every preset inside a folder, sub-folders too.
Export selected	Appears when the browser is open with several presets selected: writes them into one pack file.
Move selected to	Appears with several presets selected in the browser: moves them into another pack or folder of yours.
Init preset	Starts again from a plain, blank sound to build on. Save first if you want to keep what you have.
Recently deleted	Lists the presets and packs you deleted, newest first, with when. Pick one to put it back where it was. If something of that name is there now, it comes back beside it under a new name; nothing is ever written over.

The Save sheet

The Save preset sheet with fields for Name, Author, Pack, Type, Style, Notes and what the preset carries, and Cancel and Save buttons — The Save preset sheet.

Words are picked as chips, so most saves need no typing beyond the name. Saving a copy of a factory preset suggests its name with a “2” on the end and files it into User.

Field	What it does
Name	What the preset is called in the browser and the header. Up to 40 letters.
Author	Who made it. It starts with your name from Settings › Account; type another name for this save only (up to 30 letters). Names you have used before are suggested as you type.
Pack	Which pack it goes into, as chips of your own packs. Tick several to save a copy into each. The + chip types a new pack name and saves into a brand-new pack.
Type	What kind of sound it is: one per preset; click again to clear. + adds a new type word.
Style	Words for how it sounds. Pick as many as fit; search finds them later. + adds your own describing word.
Notes	What someone should know about the sound, like which knob to move. `Enter` starts a new line here.
Carries	Read-only: what this sound will embed (wavetables, one-shots, impulse responses, flow cards, LFO shapes), or Parameters only.
Cancel / Save	Cancel closes the sheet and changes nothing. Save writes the preset with everything above.

The types you start with are Arp, Bass, Bell, FX, Glitch, Key, Lead, Pad, Pluck, Synth Key, Synth Pad, Textural Key, Textural Pad and Texture; the styles are Bright, Clean, Dark, Dirty, Evolving, Glassy, Hollow, Metallic, Organic, Punchy, Warm and Wide. Every word a preset in your library already uses joins the list too, which is why the browser shows extra chips like Atmosphere, Brass or Clavinet. In Terrain FX the types describe effects instead (see Terrain FX).

Overwriting, versions and undo

If the name you typed is already in the pack, Terrain asks first, naming both the preset it would replace and the sound replacing it. Choose Overwrite and the old version is kept as a backup before anything is written. After every save, delete or move, a notice with Undo appears in the strip at the bottom of the window, so a mistake is one click away from being taken back.

Every backed-up version of one of your presets is listed under Restore previous version in its right-click menu (the number shows how many there are), each with the date it was saved. Restoring also keeps the current version as a backup, so a restore can be undone too.

Prefer a visible trail of versions? Turn on Keep old versions in Settings › Presets (it is Off by default): saving over a preset then keeps the previous one as “Name v2”, “v3” and so on, right in the list. The same page sets the author name link, what new instances open with (Init, Your default or Last preset used) and Save as default. See Settings.

Try this Build a sound, then Save as with two pack chips ticked, say your “Live Set” pack and your “Client X” pack. One click files the same sound into both.

Organising: right-click menus and selections#

Everything you can do to a preset or a pack is one right-click away, in the browser and its rail. Factory and artist presets can be loaded, hearted and saved as your own copy, but never renamed, overwritten or deleted, so the shipped library stays intact.

Right-click a preset

Item	What it does
Load	Plays the preset now and closes the browser (a double-click on the row does the same).
Favourite / Remove favourite	Adds the preset to Favourites, or takes it off. The preset itself stays.
Rename	Your own presets: a new name (up to 40 letters). Its heart follows it.
Restore previous version	Your own presets that have backups: lists the earlier saves by date; pick one to bring it back.
Move to	Your own presets: moves it into another pack or folder of yours, or into a New pack or folder. Everything it carries moves with it.
Export	Your own presets: writes the saved preset into one file you can share or keep as a backup. On the preset that is loaded, unsaved changes are not in it; save first.
Delete	Your own presets: asks, then removes it. It goes to Recently deleted in the + menu.
Download from iCloud	Shown instead when a preset in a synced folder has been offloaded to iCloud: fetches it so Terrain can open it.

Right-click the rail

Row	Menu
A pack of yours	Rename (every preset in it is re-filed under the new name, hearts included), Export, Remove pack (it goes to Recently deleted; anything in its folder that is not a preset stays where it is). User can be renamed and exported but never removed.
Any other row	A folder, a category, an author, All packs, a factory or artist pack: Select all selects every preset that row lists, and Export (when it holds presets of yours) writes them into one pack file. Right-click Synth Key under your own name, choose Export, and every Synth Key you made leaves as one file.

Selecting several presets

Shift-click a row to select everything between it and the last one you clicked; Cmd-click (Ctrl-click on Windows) adds or removes single rows. The inspector keeps showing one preset, and its buttons change to Export (with the count), Move and Load. Right-click the selection for Export, Move to, Delete (your own presets only, with the count) and Clear selection. A click on empty space under the rows drops the selection.

Move to lists your packs and their folders, plus New pack or folder: type a pack name (an existing one or a new one) and, if you like, a folder inside it. When a preset of the same name is already there, the moved one is renamed beside it rather than written over.

Try this After a session, select every preset you made today with Cmd-click, choose Move, and type a new pack name plus a folder such as “Basses”. Your session is filed in seconds.

Packs, importing and sharing#

A pack is a folder of presets with a name and an author. Make as many as you like with New pack in the browser rail, the + chip in the Save sheet, or New pack in a Move menu. Inside a pack, folders keep things tidy (Bass, Keys, Session 12); the arrows in the header step through a folder in order.

Exporting

Export a pack from its right-click menu or the rail's Export. A sheet shows exactly what goes into the box before you say yes: the number of presets, everything they carry and the total size. Terrain writes one .terrainpack file. A single preset exports as one .terrain file. Both open in Terrain on any computer, wavetables and samples included.

Good to know Only sounds you built yourself leave. Factory and artist presets cannot be exported, and neither can a sound you started from one of them and saved as your own: it keeps a mark that it came from the Terrain library, whatever you rename it. If a pack of yours holds such presets, the Export sheet tells you before you export that they stay behind. To share a sound, build it from Init preset or from presets you made.

Importing

Choose Import from the + menu, the quick menu or the browser rail, or drop files anywhere on Terrain's window. A highlight tells you where to let go.

You bring in	What happens
A `.terrain` preset	It is copied into User, loads straight away, and the browser opens on it.
A `.terrainpack` or a zipped pack	The Import sheet shows what is inside (presets, what they carry, size). Nothing is written until you press Import. If you already have a pack of that name, the new one installs beside it as “Name 2”.
A folder of presets	Every preset inside, sub-folders too, is copied in. The original folder is not changed.
Several packs at once	Each is offered in turn, one sheet after another. A pack never interrupts a sheet you are filling in; it waits until that sheet closes.

Terrain FX presets that arrive in Terrain (or Terrain presets that arrive in Terrain FX) are skipped and counted, with a note to open them in the other plug-in. A damaged file is named and left out; the count on the sheet is exactly what installs.

Where the files live

Settings › Presets shows the folders that hold your presets and samples, lets you Show them in Finder or Explorer, Change them (an external drive or a synced folder) and Rescan library after copying files in by hand. Two related switches live in Settings › Controllers: Presets carry their MIDI map (loading a preset also loads its hardware-knob links) and Program change (a controller or a DAW clip switches presets in the current pack). See Settings.

Try this Finished a set of sounds for a collaborator? Put them in one pack, right-click it, Export, and send the single file. They drop it on their Terrain window and press Import: every sample and wavetable you used arrives with it.

The library: 717 presets in 25 packs#

Terrain ships with 717 presets in 25 packs: the Waves Crate, Macshooter, and Artist Packs. Factory is the Waves Crate library: playable instruments, pads, keys, basses, textures and glitch, built to show what every engine and card can do. Macshooter Pack collects the sounds of Macshooter. The other 23 are artist packs, made by producers who build their records on Terrain. In the browser, Factory sits on its own under Packs; Macshooter Pack and the artist packs are listed under Artist Packs. Under Authors, Waves Crate and Macshooter have their own rows and every other maker is under Artists.

The preset browser with Artist Packs unfolded in the rail, listing A.List Pack, Abs Pack, Cheta Pack, Cozy Pack and the other artist packs with their preset counts — Artist Packs unfolded in the browser rail.

The artist packs

Pack	Artist
A.List Pack	A.List @tha_a.list
Abs Pack	Abs Toolbox @abstoolbox
Cheta Pack	ChetaMeister @chetameister
Cozy Pack	Cozy Coolin @cozycoolin
Dash Pack	DashOTB @dashotb
Don Hill Pack	Don Hill @33donhill
Eagle Pack	Eagle @eagleofc
Eville Pack	Eville @prodbyeville
Hobb Pack	Hobb The Goat @hobbthegoat
Jack Zorana Pack	Jack Zorana @jackzorana_
Jai Beats Pack	Jai Beats @jai_beats
Jtrn Pack	Jaytron @jtrn.the.producer
Keymajor Pack	Keymajor @keymajorbeatz
Keyon Pack	Keyon @prodkeyon
Lvis Pack	Lvis @prodlvis
Magysti Pack	Magysti @your.magysti
Mischa Pack	Mischa Chillak @mischa_chillak
Nate Pack	Nate @nategotsmoke
Ninja Pack	Ninja Blader @ninja_blader
RTC Pack	RTC @r.tc
Shiv Pack	Shiv @isthisshiv
Tumfy Pack	Tumfy @tumfyy
Tywil.wav Pack	Tywil.wav @tywil.wav

Each artist preset carries its maker's name as its author, and many carry a note from them: open the inspector to read how they meant the sound to be played. Your own presets sit beside all of this under User, signed with your name.

Try this Pick one artist under Authors › Artists, sort by Type, and play through their basses, then their keys. It is the fastest way to hear how one producer pushes the same engine in different directions, and a great starting point to Save as and make the sound yours.

Chapter 17

Dice

One click, one new sound, built to be played. The dice rolls a complete patch in the style you aim it at: oscillators, filters, envelopes, effects and modulation. Use it as a starting point, a happy accident or a way out of a rut, and step back with Undo whenever a roll misses.

The dice button#

The dice sits in the header, between the page buttons and the gear. Click it to roll. Right-click it to open the Randomize sheet, where you choose the style, the parts that change and how far a roll travels. Your choices stick: every later click rolls with them, so you set the sheet once and keep clicking until something grabs you.

Undo Takes a whole roll back in one step.Redo Brings the roll you undid back.Dice Click to roll; right-click for the Randomize sheet.Settings The gear, right beside the dice.

The header: Undo and Redo beside the wordmark, the dice before the gear.

A roll writes a new sound into the current patch: which oscillators are on and which engines they run, their wavetables or one-shots, unison, warp and fold, both filters, the envelopes, a chain of effects and a set of LFOs routed to the knobs that matter. Everything the dice leaves on the Patcher canvas is switched on and in the signal path, and the canvas tidies itself afterwards. The preset name stays, with a small dot after it to show the sound has changed: save it under a new name to keep it.

What the dice never does

It never moves pitch: Octave, Semi, Cent and Coarse stay where they are. The one exception is the Bass aim, which sits its oscillators an octave down.
It keeps a delay's feedback low, so a roll never runs away into a feedback loop.
It never picks the Granular effect from the rack; that one deserves deliberate design.
It does not touch the Flow cards (Arp, Shaper, Glitch, Robin) as part of the header roll; the Randomizer map in the Flow box rolls them on demand (see The Randomizer map).

Try this Roll until something is almost right, then right-click the dice, tick only Effects under Only and keep clicking. The oscillators and filters you liked stay put; only the effect chain changes.

The Randomize sheet#

Right-click the dice to open the sheet. It has four rows of chips and two buttons. Every tick counts the moment you make it: you can close the sheet with Cancel and the dice button still rolls with what you ticked.

Aim

Aim is the kind of sound you want. Each aim brings its own envelopes, its own pool of effects and its own habits: basses come out Mono and an octave down, leads come out Mono, pads swell and hold. Tick one aim for consistency, or several to let each roll surprise you within a family. With no aim ticked, the dice can roll any style.

Aim	What the dice rolls
Keys	Pianos, electric pianos and bells.
Pads	Slow, wide pads that swell and hold.
Bass	Low basses, one note at a time (Mono), that sit under a track. Oscillators an octave down, fewer of them, less unison.
Leads	Single-note melody sounds (Mono) that cut through a mix.
Plucks	Short plucked notes that ring out.
Textures	Evolving beds, noise and movement.
Drums	Drum hits and deep 808 kicks, layered from the sample library on several oscillators with a percussive envelope.

Only

Only decides which parts of the patch are re-rolled. Tick one or more; everything unticked keeps exactly what it has. With nothing ticked, the dice rolls the whole preset. When you tick only some parts, the Aim still applies: Effects alone gives you a new effect chain in the aimed style, over the sound you already have.

Only	What it re-rolls
Oscillators	The oscillators, the parts that make the raw sound: which are on, their engines, sources, unison, warp and fold.
Filters	Both filters, which shape the tone: their types, cutoff, resonance and drive.
Envelopes	The envelopes: how each sound rises and fades.
Effects	The effect rack: its effects, types and order.
Modulation	The LFOs (wobbles that move knobs) and what they are routed to.

Reach

Reach sets how far every roll travels from a plain sound. It scales almost everything at once: how many effects and LFOs a roll uses, how deep the modulation goes, how often a card leaves its default type, how often a back panel gets rolled, how much unison and grit. Medium is the starting point.

Reach	What to expect
Light	Small, safe changes that stay close to a plain sound. One or two effects, a couple of LFOs, little unison.
Medium	A fresh sound that still plays easily. A good start, and the default.
Heavy	Bold changes: thicker stacked voices, more grit, more effects and movement.
Wild	Big, surprising sounds with heavy modulation and effects. Every card leaves its default type and every back panel is rolled.
Crazy	The far end: everything may move a lot, with both filters, nearly all ten LFOs and the deepest routes. Some rolls get loud and strange.

CPU cap

A wild roll can stack enough unison voices to make a laptop sweat. The CPU cap prices every roll before it is written and, if it would cost more than the cap, tones it down: fewer stacked unison voices first, then less filter drive. The engines, filters and effects the dice chose (the character of the roll) are never changed by the cap.

CPU cap	What it does
auto	The default. Each reach gets its own limit, and heavier reaches may use more.
30% · 40% · 50%	A roll that would use more than this share of one processor core is toned down.
off	Rolls are never toned down. Crazy rolls can be heavy on a laptop.

Good to know The sheet's own note sums it up: "Ticks stick: Roll here, or press the dice any time." While the sheet is open, pressing the dice in the header rolls too, with everything ticked.

Try this Tick Pads and Textures together, set Reach to Heavy, then roll ten times in a row and save the two or three that move you. Rolling in batches and keeping only the best is the fastest way to fill a pack of your own.

Undoing a roll#

Every roll is a single step in Terrain's undo history, however many parameters it changed. Press Cmd+Z (Mac) or Ctrl+Z (Windows), or click the Undo arrow in the header, to get the sound from before the roll back exactly. Redo with Shift+Cmd+Z, Shift+Ctrl+Z or Ctrl+Y. Step back through several rolls to return to one you passed. See Shortcuts.

Try this Roll, play, roll, play. When you realise the one three rolls ago was the keeper, press Undo three times. Nothing is lost until you roll again from there.

The Randomizer map#

The Flow box on the SYN page holds the four flow tiles and, beside them, the Randomizer map: a second dice that rolls only what you connect it to. In the Patcher it appears as the Randomizer module. Drag a cable from its output onto any module's top dot (the dice dot) and that module joins the map. A click on the map then re-rolls exactly the modules cabled to it, whichever page is open, and nothing else. With nothing cabled, a click does nothing and a short message tells you why.

Oscillators, the filter, the envelopes, the LFOs, the master tape machine, the flow cards and every effect in the rack can be cabled to the map. That makes the map perfect for performance: cable it to the Glitch card and one effect, and every click gives you a new variation of only that corner of the sound.

Map gesture	What it does
Click	Re-rolls the modules cabled to the map, at the map's reach.
Right-click	Opens the map's menu: the reach (Light, Medium, Heavy, Wild, Crazy) and a list of the modules currently cabled to it (or Not connected).

Map reach	What it does
Light	Nudges its modules a little from where they are. Safe, subtle variations.
Medium	Changes its modules noticeably but keeps the sound recognisable. The default.
Heavy	Moves its modules far from where they are. Big, surprising changes.
Wild	Can set its modules anywhere in their range.
Crazy	The furthest reach: every roll lands somewhere new and extreme. For happy accidents.

The map's cables are saved in the preset, so a patch can ship with its own "variation button" already wired. Cable a dice dot by dragging from the Randomizer's output; right-click a Randomizer cable to cut it. More on the Flow box in Flow and on cabling in Patcher.

Try this Cable the Randomizer to the Arp and to a Delay, set the map's reach to Light, and click it once every eight bars while a loop runs. The groove keeps evolving without ever leaving the song.

The dice in Terrain FX#

Terrain FX has the same dice in its header, tuned for an effect. A click rolls a new effect chain for your audio and then fresh modulation for it. Right-click opens a short menu instead of the sheet:

Menu item	What it does
New effect chain	Rolls a fresh set of effects, their types and order, fed from your audio. The menu stays open, so you can roll again and again.
New modulation	Rolls fresh LFOs that move the effect knobs, keeping your effects. The menu stays open too.
Light · Medium · Heavy · Wild · Crazy	The reach for every roll; the dice remembers it.

Everything in Terrain FX rolls into one undo step, exactly like the instrument.

The random preset dice#

The preset browser has a small dice of its own. It does not invent a sound: it loads a random preset from the list on screen. Narrow the list first (a pack, an author, a type, a search, favourites only) and the dice picks within it. It is the quickest way to rediscover what is already in your library. See Presets.

Try this Filter the browser to one artist pack, then hit the random preset dice a few times while a beat plays. Each press auditions a different preset from that pack.

Chapter 18

Settings

Settings is where Terrain learns how you work: your name on every preset, your keyboard's touch, how hard the processor runs, how knobs feel under the mouse and which colours paint the window. Set it once and every Terrain you open follows. Every change is saved the moment you make it.

Finding your way around#

Click the gear at the right end of the header to open Settings over the instrument. It is laid out in three columns: a rail of pages on the left, the rows of the page you picked in the middle, and an inspector on the right that explains whatever row your pointer rests on. Close it with the × at the top right; there is no Apply or OK button, because every change is already saved.

The Settings window open on the Themes page, with the search field on top, the page rail on the left, the theme grid in the middle and the Night theme's palette on the right — Settings, open on the Themes page.

The pages

Page	What lives there
Account	Your licence, the author name that signs your presets, your credit line and the privacy switch.
Audio & MIDI	Sound card, MIDI inputs, the computer keyboard and tempo — for the standalone app (Terrain running on its own, outside a DAW).
Controllers	How Terrain answers your MIDI keyboard and knobs: channel, touch, pitch bend, tuning, MPE, pressure and knob links.
Performance	Sound quality against processor (CPU) load, the voice ceiling, sleep, DAW capture and screen refresh.
Presets	Saving, old versions, what new windows open with, importing, exporting and where files live.
Interface	Window size, motion, help, values and how knobs turn.
Themes	The colours of the whole window. Pick one, customise it, or import a theme someone sent you.
About	Version, updates, this manual, licence, support and resetting every setting.
Credits	The open sample libraries and software inside Terrain, with their licences (see Credits).

Search and the inspector

Search settings finds any row on any page: type buffer, author, MPE or theme and the matches line up in the middle column, each tagged with the page it lives on. Rows you can change directly are live in the results; the others carry an Open button that jumps to the row on its own page and flashes it so you spot it.

Rest the pointer on any row and the inspector on the right gives you the long version: what the setting does, in plain words, and where it applies. That second line matters. This computer means the setting belongs to the machine (your licence, your folders). Every instance means every Terrain window and track shares it. Saved with the instance or saved with the patch means it travels inside your DAW project or preset. Standalone app only marks rows that do nothing inside a DAW, because there the DAW owns the sound card.

With nothing under the pointer, the inspector shows a summary of the page: your licence and next save's author on Account, the live device and the last MIDI message on Audio & MIDI, the live input on Controllers, the current load on Performance, your library's preset and sample counts on Presets.

Try this Lost a setting you changed weeks ago? Don't browse — type one word of it into Search settings and click Open on the result.

Account#

Account is about you: who Terrain is licensed to on this computer, and who you are as a sound designer. The name you set here is written into every preset you save and shown in the preset browser for everyone who loads your sounds (see Presets).

Licence

The top block shows the licence on this computer. When Terrain is activated it lists Licensed to, Email and Status, with a Deactivate this computer button. Before activation it explains what you need and offers Activate Terrain and Buy Terrain.

Control	What it does
Activate Terrain	Opens the Activate sheet. Type the Email you bought Terrain with, your Licence key and your Order no. — all three are in your Waves Crate order email — then press Activate. The key reads TRRN followed by twelve letters and numbers; paste it with or without the dashes and Terrain tidies it for you. A key never contains 0, O, 1 or I, and Terrain catches a mistyped character before it asks Waves Crate. The order number can be typed with or without its #. During the 10-day trial the time left runs under the TERRAIN wordmark; activate whenever you're ready (see Installing and activating).
Buy Terrain	Opens the Waves Crate store in your browser. One licence covers both Terrain and Terrain FX.
Deactivate this computer	Opens a sheet that removes Terrain (and Terrain FX) from this computer so you can move it to another one. Your presets are not touched, and you can activate again any time with the same licence key.
Status	Reads Active or Trial in normal use. Trial ended, Needs to check in, No longer active, Reinstall Terrain or Not activated tell you something needs your attention; the note under the block says what to do.

The same status sits at the top right of Settings on every page. While Terrain is not activated it reads Not activated · Activate (or Trial · Activate); click Activate there to open the sheet from anywhere.

You as an author

Row	What it does
Author name	Signs every preset you save and fills the Save sheet's Author field. Type your producer name once. When you change it and you already have presets signed with the old name, Terrain offers to rename them: Rename re-signs your own presets (factory packs are never touched), Not now leaves them as they are.
What you do	Your roles: Producer, Sound designer, Composer, Artist, Mix engineer, DJ, Educator. Tick every one that fits; click a chip again to take it off. + adds a word of your own — type it and press `Enter`, `Esc` cancels.
Credit line	A live preview of how your name reads in the preset browser: your author name, then your roles separated by slashes.
Sign every save	On (default): the Save sheet opens with your author name filled in; you can still type another name for a one-off. Off: the Author field opens empty and you type a name on each save.

Privacy

Row

What it does

Anonymous usage data

Off unless you turn it on. On: Terrain sends Waves Crate a few counts a day so the team can see what to improve — how many people use it, which pages, engines, flow cards and effects get used, how often the dice is pressed, how many presets are saved, loaded, imported and exported, which theme is picked, how many errors happen and how long sessions last, with your Terrain version, system and build. Each computer gets a random number that is not linked to you. Never your audio, files, preset names, licence, email or anything personal. Turning it Off stops it at once and deletes anything waiting to be sent.

With nothing under the pointer, the inspector shows your name, roles, email, status and Signs as, plus what the Author field of Your next save will read. Its Save preset button opens the Save sheet directly.

Good to know Terrain and Terrain FX ask the first-run questions (your name, DAW capture, anonymous usage) once per computer. Answer them in one and the other picks up your answers.

Audio & MIDI#

This page sets up the standalone app: your sound card, your MIDI gear, the computer keyboard and the tempo. Inside a DAW these rows do nothing — Ableton, FL Studio, Logic and friends own the audio device, and Terrain reads their sample rate, buffer and tempo. The Controllers page applies in both.

Audio device

Row	What it does
Audio driver	The audio system Terrain talks to. On a Mac it is Core Audio. On Windows: Windows Audio (WASAPI, in its shared, exclusive and low-latency forms) and DirectSound.
Output device	Where Terrain plays: your speakers or audio interface (an external sound card). If you unplug it, Terrain falls back to the computer's own output and tells you.
Output channels	Which pair of outputs carries Terrain's left and right. 1 + 2 suits most speakers and headphones.
Input device	Lets Terrain hear a microphone or instrument — the granular engine and DAW capture can listen to it. None (default) keeps the input closed.
Input channels	Which inputs feed Terrain. A single (mono) input is copied to both sides. Reads Off while the input device is None.
Sample rate	How many thousand times a second the sound is measured, in kHz — the chips show the rates your device offers (typically 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96). 44.1 or 48 suit almost everything.
Buffer size	The chunk of sound worked on at once, from 32 to 2048 samples; the menu shows each size's delay in milliseconds. Smaller answers the keys sooner but works the computer harder. 256 (default) is a safe start; go to 64 or 128 to play live, 1024 when a big patch crackles.
Latency	A readout of what you feel between key and sound: the output delay and the full round trip, in milliseconds.
Rescan devices	Asks every driver for its devices again — use it after plugging an interface in or out. The lists also refresh by themselves every few seconds while this page is open.
Test audio	Play sends a short chime through the device and channels above, so you hear that sound really comes out. Pick Left or Right to check each side on its own. The inspector's Play test audio button does the same.

MIDI inputs

Row	What it does
MIDI inputs	Every MIDI port Terrain can see, each with a tick box and an activity lamp. Tick every keyboard or controller Terrain should listen to; the lamp flashes when a port sends anything. With nothing plugged in it says so — plug a device in and it appears.
Computer keyboard	On (default): the letter keys `A` `W` `S` `E` `D` `F` `T` `G` `Y` `H` `U` `J` `K` play an octave from C, all at velocity 100. Off: the letter keys never play notes, so typing elsewhere is safe.

Transport

Row	What it does
Tempo	The standalone has no DAW to follow, so this is the clock for synced LFOs, the arpeggiator, delays and Chop. 40–240 BPM; drag the number, double-click for 120. Tap: click in time with the beat, two taps or more, and the tempo follows you.

Try this Playing live on a laptop? Set the buffer to 128, press Play under Test audio, then play your densest preset. If it crackles, step up to 256 — the Latency row tells you exactly what you trade.

Controllers#

Controllers decides how Terrain answers your hardware in every host: which MIDI channel it hears, how your touch becomes loudness and brightness, how far the wheel bends, what pitch the whole instrument is tuned to, MPE and pressure, and which hardware knob moves which Terrain knob. While you play, the inspector shows the live input — the note, its velocity before and after your curve, bend and controllers.

Receiving

Row	What it does
MIDI channel	MIDI has 16 channels, like lanes. Omni (default) plays notes from every channel. Pick Channel 1–Channel 16 to share a controller with other instruments: every other channel is ignored (notes, bend, pressure, controllers). While MPE is on this is set aside, because MPE uses every channel. The computer keyboard always plays. Saved with the instance.
Velocity curve	How hard you play becomes how loud and bright Terrain answers. Drag the curve up for a softer touch (quiet playing sounds fuller), down for a harder one; double-click makes it straight again. Presets: Soft (a light touch already plays loud and bright — for stiff keys), Linear (your keyboard's velocity passed through exactly), Hard (play firmly to reach full volume — for light keys), Fixed (every note at the same strength). Beside the curve sit test keys from C4 to C5: click low on a key for a soft hit, high for a hard one, or play your controller — you hear the curve and a dot shows where each hit lands.
Pitch bend range	How far the bend wheel moves the pitch, in semitones: 0–24, default 2. Drag the number; double-click for 2. Saved with the patch.
Tuning reference	The pitch of A4 (the A above middle C) in Hz: 415–466, default 440. Every oscillator, the sub, the resonator and a pitched chop pad follow it, and a dropped sample's note name is read on this grid. 432 sits 31.8 cents below 440. Double-click for 440.

Expression

Row	What it does
MPE	MIDI Polyphonic Expression. On: each note gets its own bend, pressure and slide (CC 74) on its own channel, with channel 1 as the master (wheel, pedal) — for controllers like a Seaboard. Pressure and Slide become modulation sources; bend moves the note's pitch. A controller or host that sends the MPE setup message turns it on by itself. Off (default): a normal keyboard setup, where the wheel and pressure move every note together. In Ableton Live, use the AU version for MPE: Live's VST3 path drops per-note expression.
MPE bend range	How far sliding a finger sideways bends one note, in semitones: 1–96, default 48 (the MPE standard). Match your controller so a slide of one key lands exactly on the next note; a mismatch overshoots or falls short. A controller that sends its range over MIDI sets it for you. Dimmed while MPE is off.
Poly aftertouch	Always on. Key pressure (poly aftertouch) moves only the note you press; channel (mono) pressure moves every note. Route Aftertouch in the mod matrix to hear it (see Modulation).
Pressure curve	How hard you have to press to reach the top, for MPE pressure, poly aftertouch and channel aftertouch alike. Drag the curve down for a firmer push, up for a lighter one; double-click resets. Presets: Soft (a light press reaches the top), Linear (untouched), Hard (a normal press stays low; you reach the top only when you lean in), Harder (only a really firm press reaches the top — for very light controllers). Press your controller and a dot shows where you land; the shaded edges mark the start and the ceiling. It shapes pressure before any modulation route, so every Aftertouch route follows. If your controller has its own aftertouch curve, that acts first.
Pressure start	Ignores the first part of the key's travel so fingers resting on keys change nothing: 0–50 %, default 0 %. Below it pressure reads 0; above it the curve starts from 0. Double-click for 0 %.
Pressure ceiling	Where pressure reaches 100 %, before the end of the travel: 50–100 %, default 100 %. Lower it if your controller's top is hard to reach. Double-click for 100 %.

Controllers

Row	What it does
MIDI learn	The list of hardware-to-knob links, with columns CC, Controls and Range. To add one, right-click any Terrain knob, pick MIDI Learn, then move the hardware control. The × on a row unmaps it. The mod wheel is always on CC 1 and cannot be removed. Save as default map: every new Terrain starts with the links listed here. Clear: removes every learned link (the mod wheel stays). Saved with the instance.
Knob pickup	What happens when a hardware knob and Terrain's knob disagree. Jump: Terrain's knob snaps straight to the hardware — fast, but the sound can jump. Hook (default): nothing moves until you turn past Terrain's value. Scale: Terrain's knob glides over as you turn until they meet.
Presets carry their MIDI map	On: loading a preset also loads the hardware-knob links it was saved with. Off (default): your links stay as they are, whatever preset you load.
Program change loads presets	On: a controller or a DAW clip can step through the current pack by sending program change messages. Off (default): those messages are ignored; presets change only when you pick them.

Try this Map your controller's eight knobs to the eight macros once, press Save as default map, and leave Presets carry their MIDI map off. Now every preset you load answers the same eight knobs — the macros are always the most musical handles on a sound (see Modulation).

Performance#

Performance balances sound quality against processor load. The defaults are tuned to sound clean on a modern computer; this is where you lean a heavy session towards lighter, or a final bounce towards cleaner. The inspector shows what Terrain costs right now: DSP load, the voice ceiling, the memory capture holds, the quality in use, whether the engine is asleep and the screen refresh.

Quality

Row	What it does
Playing quality	Sets the 2× oversampling (running at double speed to keep harsh fold-back out of the high end) of each voice's filter. Eco: never — the lightest load, and a driven Ladder or Diode filter sounds a little harsher. Standard (default): only while a filter is driven hard or near self-oscillation. High: always, on every drive-able filter type — the cleanest, the most CPU. With Presets can change quality off, it also sets the Distortion's quality tier.
Bounce quality	Used only while your DAW exports the song to a file (a bounce, rendered offline). Same: your playing quality. High (default): every drive-able voice filter oversampled and the Distortion at High or better. Best: the same with the Distortion at Ultra — the slowest export, the cleanest result.
Presets can change quality	On (default): each preset's own Distortion quality is used as saved. Off: your playing quality sets the Distortion quality for every preset.

CPU

Row	What it does
Voice ceiling	The most voices Terrain ever sounds at once, counting unison: 8 notes of 4-voice unison are 32. 8–96, default 96; double-click for 96. Past it the oldest note is released first, with a short fade. The Voices control on the voice column still caps a patch below this (see Voicing). Lower it on a laptop.
Sleep when silent	On (default): when no note sounds and the output has stayed below −100 dB for a second (longer if a delay could still echo), Terrain stops computing and sends silence. Any MIDI, the transport starting, a preview or live input wakes it on the same block. It never sleeps during an offline bounce. Off: Terrain keeps computing in silence.
Cut tails when the DAW stops	On: when the DAW's transport stops, everything still ringing — note releases, reverb, delay and every effect tail — fades out over 10 ms and is emptied, so the next play starts clean. Off (default): tails ring out naturally.
CPU meter in the header	On: a small number left of the TERRAIN wordmark shows how hard Terrain works the processor. Off (default) hides it. The bar beside the switch shows the load live while this page is open.

Memory & screen

Row	What it does
DAW capture	On (default): Terrain keeps up to 10 minutes of what it played, ready to drag from the strip at the bottom of the window into your DAW (see Tape Deck & Capture). Off: records nothing and frees the memory it used. You can also right-click the strip to switch it.
Draw without the graphics card	Windows only. On: the processor draws the window instead of the graphics card — use it when the window stays empty or flickers on an older graphics chip; it costs a little more CPU. Terrain turns it on by itself when its window cannot draw. Off (default): the graphics card draws, the fastest way on most computers. Changing it redraws the window.
Screen refresh	60 fps (default): the window redraws 60 times a second, the smoothest look. 30: halves the drawing cost on slower computers. The sound is never affected.

Try this Sketch on Eco with the voice ceiling at 48 to keep a big session light, and leave Bounce quality on Best. You write with a responsive computer and still print the cleanest version of every filter and distortion.

Presets#

The Presets page covers saving, what a new Terrain loads, getting sounds in and out, and where your files live on disk. The inspector sums up your library — author, what new windows open with, when Terrain scans, and how many presets, packs and samples it found — and its Open the browser button takes you straight to the preset browser (see Presets).

Saving

Row	What it does
Author on every save	Shows the author name set on the Account page. Change jumps there.
Keep old versions	On: saving over a preset keeps the previous one as "Name v2", "v3" and so on. Off (default): saving over a preset replaces it.
New instances open with	What each newly opened Terrain loads. Init (default): a plain default sound. Your default: the sound you saved with Save as default. Last preset used: the preset you played last.
Save as default	Save current sound as default makes the sound you hear now the one every new Terrain starts with, and sets the row above to Your default.

Bring sounds in

Row	What it does
Import	Open the browser: the preset browser, where you bring in presets, a zipped pack (.zip) or a folder.
Export	Open the browser: the preset browser, where you write your presets into one pack to share or back up.

Where things live

Row	What it does
Folders	Three lines — Your presets, Your samples, Factory library — each with its location. Show opens the folder in Finder or Explorer. Change picks another folder (an external drive, a synced folder) and Terrain rescans. A folder you picked is tagged Yours and gains Default, which moves it back to the standard folder and rescans. Presets already in an old folder stay there — move them across to keep them in the list. If a chosen folder goes missing, the line says so; for your presets, saving is off until it is back.
Rescan library	Rescan re-reads every preset pack and sample folder from disk — use it after copying presets or samples in by hand. The result appears beside the button.
Scan on start	On (default): a new Terrain window reads your whole library as it opens. Off: it waits until you open the preset browser or press Rescan — faster with a very big library.

Try this Keep your library on a synced folder: Change Your presets to it on every computer you work on, and the sounds you save in one place show up everywhere else after a Rescan.

Interface#

Interface is about feel: how big the window is, whether things animate, how much help you get, and how knobs answer your hand. The page has a practice knob so you feel each change before you go back to work.

Look

Row	What it does
Theme	Shows the theme in use. Change jumps to the Themes page.
Window size	65 %, 80 %, 100 % (default, 820 × 672 pixels), 125 %, 150 %, 175 % or 190 %; the menu shows each size in pixels. Resizes this window now, and every new Terrain window opens at it. Dragging the window's corner still works, and a window or project you have sized yourself keeps its own size.
Motion	On (default): wavetables, meters and visuals animate on their own. Off: nothing animates by itself and the window costs less CPU; knobs still redraw, and LFOs, envelopes, filters and trackers still move.

Help

Row	What it does
Tooltips	On (default): rest the pointer on any control and the strip at the bottom of the window says what it does. Off: the strip shows the capture only.
Hover help	On (default): a card at the bottom right of the 3D terrain picture explains the control under the pointer. Off hides that card.
Values while turning	On (default): shows the number under a knob while you drag it. Off: knobs turn without showing their number.

Knobs

Row	What it does
Knob drag	Vertical (default): drag up to turn a knob up, down to turn it down. Circular: turn around the knob like a real one. Horizontal: drag right to turn up, left to turn down.
Drag sensitivity	How far you move the mouse for a full turn of a knob, from 40 % to 250 % (default 145 %). Double-click the slider to reset. Hold `Shift` while dragging any knob for fine moves.
Try it	A practice Cutoff knob that uses your drag, sensitivity, wheel and double-click settings, with a line underneath spelling them out. Turn it to feel them.
Mouse wheel turns knobs	On (default): scroll over a knob to nudge it. Off: scrolling never moves a knob — useful if you scroll long pages with a trackpad.
Double-click a knob	Reset (default): puts the knob back to its default value. Type a value: opens a box to type an exact number.

Pages

Row	What it does
Open on	Which page a new Terrain window shows first: Last used (default), SYN, CHOP or MOD.

Try this On a big monitor, set Window size to 150 % and Knob drag to Circular, then spend thirty seconds on the Try it knob adjusting Drag sensitivity until a full sweep feels like one confident gesture.

Themes#

Terrain ships with 30 themes — dark and light, flat and gradient — and you can make your own and send it to anyone. Click a theme and the whole window repaints at once; there is nothing to confirm. The page is shown in the picture at the top of this chapter.

The built-in themes are Night (the default), Daylight, Paper, Blossom, Glacier, Carbon, Flamingo, Aurora, Basalt, Moss, Velvet, Nebula, Ember, Porcelain, Citrine, Mint, Lagoon, Cobalt, Sand, Sunset, Phosphor, Volt, Blueprint, Royal, Reef, Espresso, Riso, Matcha, Mist and Butter. Under them, Yours lists the themes you made or imported, followed by a New theme tile that starts a theme from the one in use.

The page

Control	What it does
Patcher modules	Solid (default): every module on the Patcher is a card in its own colour, the page's opposite, so it stands out, with its displays in the theme's accent. Blend: the modules wear the page's own colour, for a calmer look. The SYN page is the same either way (see Patcher).
Theme tiles	Click to paint the whole window in that theme. The theme in use is outlined and marked In use; its colours show on the right.
New theme	Starts your own theme from the one in use, ready to recolour and name.
Import theme	Opens a theme file someone sent you and adds it to Yours.
Open themes folder	Shows where your own themes are kept, in Finder or Explorer.

The inspector

The right column names the picked theme with a one-line description and lists its palette: Page (the ground everything sits on), Grids (filter, envelope, LFO and effect wells), Text (labels, numbers, knob arcs), Lines (waveforms, LFO lines, cables), Accent (curves, playheads, selection), Wash (hover and selection fills, gradients) and Accent light (the pale tints above the accent). Each colour shows its hex code; Text and Accent also show their contrast against the page, so you can see at a glance that a theme stays readable.

Button	What it does
Customize	Opens this theme in the editor. A built-in theme is copied first, so the original stays.
Duplicate	Makes a copy of this theme under Yours, to change without touching the original.
Export	Saves this theme as a file you can send to anyone. They import it on their Themes page.
Delete	Removes a theme of yours. Built-in themes cannot be deleted, so the button is dimmed for them.

The theme editor

Customize turns the middle column into the editor. Every change paints the window live, so you judge it on the real instrument.

Row	What it does
Name	What your theme is called in the grid and in a file you export, up to 40 characters.
Colours	One row per palette colour (Page, Grids, Text, Lines, Accent, Wash, Accent light). Click the swatch to open the colour picker, or type a hex code (# and six letters or numbers, like #1b1b2e). Text and Accent show their live contrast.
Gradient	On: paints the page as a gradient between the colours below. Off: one flat colour.
Gradient colours	The start, middle and end of the page gradient. Click a swatch to pick its colour; the + swatch adds another stop.
Angle	Which way the gradient runs, in degrees. Drag the number; double-click for 160.
More	Opens the finer controls below.
Flip markers on coloured waves	On: playheads and marks turn to stay readable on coloured waves. Off: they keep their own colour.
Markers	The colour of playheads and marks on waves. Leave the hex box empty to follow the text colour.
Envelope dots	The colour of the handles on every envelope. Empty follows the text colour.
Grid depth	How far the grids sit from the page. Drag the slider; double-click resets.
Text strength	How strongly quiet text reads.
Glow	The light around lit controls.
Shadow	Shadows under cards and menus.
Glass tint	How much the Wash colour tints the glass panels.
Hold to peek	Hides Settings while you hold the button, so you see the whole window in your draft colours.
Save	Keeps your edited theme under Yours and paints the window in it.
Cancel	Closes the editor and puts the window back the way it was. Unsaved changes are dropped.

The colour picker

Clicking a swatch opens the picker. Drag in the colour field left and right for how strong the colour is, up and down for how bright. Drag along the hue bar to pick the colour itself, from red through green and blue back to red. Type into the hex box and it applies as you type. The row of chips holds this theme's other colours: click one to reuse it, so two parts of the theme match exactly. The current colour swatch shows what that part is painted with now.

Try this Duplicate Night, set Gradient On and run it from deep blue to violet at 200°, then hold Hold to peek on the SYN page. Export it and send the file to your collaborator — it lands under their Yours with one Import.

About#

About tells you exactly what you are running, keeps Terrain up to date, opens this manual, and gets you help when something goes wrong. The top shows the Terrain wordmark, who it is licensed to, and the version and build.

Row	What it does
Version	Version, Build, Running as (the plug-in format or the standalone app), Formats (AU · VST3 · Standalone on a Mac, VST3 · Standalone on Windows) and Engine. Quote it in any bug report.
Check for updates	Check now asks Waves Crate whether a newer Terrain is out; the line beside it reads Up to date with when it last checked, or that Waves Crate can't be reached. When there is one, it reads Terrain x.y is available with a short list of what's new and a Get the update button. Nothing downloads or installs by itself.
Get the update	Opens your Waves Crate account in your browser, where your purchase has the download.
Manual	Open opens this manual, the Terrain user manual at wavescrate.com/manual, in your browser: every page, engine, card and effect, with pictures.
Check automatically	On (default): once a day Terrain quietly looks for a newer version and tells you in the strip at the bottom of the window — never a pop-up. Off: Terrain only looks when you press Check now. Terrain and Terrain FX share this setting.
Licence	The licence status and who Terrain is licensed to. Account jumps to Settings › Account; before activation the button reads Activate and opens the Activate sheet.
Support	Report a bug opens your mail app with a message to Waves Crate already written — your version, your system and this session filled in; you add what happened. Report a crash does the same and shows you the crash log to attach. No mail app? The report is copied for you to paste into any email. Copy system info copies your Terrain version and system details, ready to paste.
About Waves Crate	Who makes Terrain and why, with a link to Credits & Licences.
Reset all settings	Reset settings opens a sheet; Reset puts every setting back to how Terrain shipped. Your presets, packs and licence are not touched, and your author name, roles and theme are kept.

Credits

The Credits page lists the open sample libraries Terrain's Organics engine plays and the software inside Terrain and Terrain FX, each under its own licence, plus the trademark notices. Show the full texts opens every licence in full; click again to hide them. See Credits for the full list.

Good to know Terrain FX has its own Settings with only what matters to an effect: there is no Controllers page, and the standalone's MIDI inputs and computer keyboard, the voice ceiling, Playing quality, the library folders, Rescan, Scan on start and Open on are not there. Everything else works the same (see Terrain FX).

Try this Before you write to support, press Copy system info and paste it at the top of your message — or let Report a bug do the whole thing for you.

Chapter 19

Terrain FX

Build your own effect rack. Terrain FX is Terrain's effects, flow cards, modulation and Patcher as an audio effect you put on any track: vocals, drums, a bus, a whole mix. It comes with Terrain, and everything you know from the instrument works the same way.

What Terrain FX is#

Terrain FX is a second plug-in installed alongside Terrain. Where Terrain makes sound from notes, Terrain FX takes the sound already on a track, runs it through a chain you patch yourself, and hands it back. Under the hood it is the same Patcher and the same sixteen effects as the instrument, so a reverb you dialled in on a Terrain patch sounds identical here.

It loads in your DAW as an audio effect (VST3 on Mac and Windows, AU on Mac) and also runs as a standalone app, where it processes your audio interface's input. It runs on Terrain's licence: activate Terrain and Terrain FX is activated too. See Installation.

The Terrain FX window: the Patcher canvas with Audio In on the left, a chain of effect modules in the middle and Audio Out on the right — Terrain FX: the Patcher between Audio In and Audio Out.

What is the same, what is different

Area	In Terrain FX
Pages	Two: FX (the Patcher) and MOD. There is no SYN page and no CHOP page: nothing in Terrain FX makes a sound of its own.
Effects	All sixteen: Reverb, Delay, Distortion, Granular, Filter, Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Tape, Equalizer, Widen, Compress, Multiband, Bode, Splitter and Utility, up to six of each, with every type, front and back panel. See Effects.
Flow cards	Shaper and Glitch, up to four of each, the two flow cards that process audio. Arp and Robin play notes, so they are not here.
Tape Deck	The Deck looper is on the Utility shelf, exactly as in the instrument. See Tape Deck & Capture.
Modulation	Envelopes, the ten LFOs, Random, Alt and the rest of the MOD page's sources. With no notes to play, a Trigger setting decides what fires them (see The MOD page).
Dice	Rolls a new effect chain and new modulation for your audio (see The dice).
Presets	Terrain FX keeps its own presets, with effect types such as Reverb, Delay, Distortion, Granular, Glitch, Filter, Modulation, Tape, Lo-fi, Rhythmic and Ambient.
Settings	Only what matters to an effect: no Controllers page, no voice settings, no sound library folders.

The FX page#

Terrain FX opens on the FX page, which is the Patcher canvas with two fixed modules: Audio In on the left and Audio Out on the right. Audio In is the sound arriving from your track; Audio Out is what leaves Terrain FX. Both carry an IN or OUT chip and live left and right meters, so you can see the level entering and leaving at a glance. Everything you hear runs along the cables between them.

Right-click empty canvas to open the module browser and add a module. In Terrain FX it has four shelves:

Shelf	What it offers
All	Every module you can add here.
Flow	Shaper and Glitch cards (the next free one of each; up to four).
Effects	The sixteen rack effects, from Reverb to Utility.
Utility	The Deck, a looper that records what is cabled in and plays it back into the chain.

Cable Audio In into the first effect, each effect into the next, and the last one into Audio Out. Only what reaches Audio Out is heard: an effect left dangling is silent. Right-click a port to unplug it, right-click a cable to cut it, and right-click a module for Bypass (off, cables kept) or Remove. A Splitter cuts the sound into bands (lows, mids, highs, or mid and side) so each band can get its own effects. Modulators live on the canvas too: an envelope or LFO module drags its output onto any knob's dot, and the Randomizer module re-rolls whatever you cable it to (see The Randomizer map). Everything else about the canvas (moving, zooming, the toolbar's Undo, Redo, Fit, Tidy and Eye, the overview map) is described in Patcher.

Control	What it does
Audio In	The sound coming from your track. Cable it into an effect. Its meters show the incoming level.
Audio Out	The end of the chain. Cable the last effect here or nothing is heard. Its meters show the outgoing level.
Output	The final volume of Terrain FX, the fader along the bottom of the window with its dB readout. Drag left or right; double-click for 0 dB.
FX	The header button for this page. In Terrain FX it always shows the Patcher.
MOD	The header button for the modulation page.

The Reverb effect card, front panel — Every effect card is the same in Terrain FX as in Terrain.

Try this On a drum bus, chain Audio In into Distortion, then Compress, then a short Reverb, then Audio Out. Bring each effect's Mix down until the crunch and the room sit under the dry hits: parallel processing in four cables, with no send tracks in your DAW.

The MOD page#

The MOD page works as it does in Terrain: drag an LFO, an envelope or a macro onto any effect knob, set the amount, and the knob moves. In Terrain FX the LFOs start out synced to your DAW's tempo, which is what you want on an effect nine times out of ten. Routes, curves and the Pro view are covered in Modulation.

The Terrain FX MOD page in the Pro matrix view: six routes from LFOs, an envelope and other sources to reverb, delay, distortion and equalizer knobs — The MOD page in Terrain FX, Pro matrix view.

An effect has no notes, so something else has to start its envelopes, restart its retriggered LFOs and draw a new Random value or flip Alt. That is the Trigger: right-click any envelope and pick one under Trigger. It applies to every modulator at once and is saved with the preset.

Trigger	What fires the modulators
Transient	The default. A hit in the incoming audio (or a MIDI note, if your DAW sends one) starts every envelope. The "note" is held while the input keeps sounding and released when it goes quiet. A kick or a snare can now pump, open a filter or fire a stutter on its own.
MIDI	Only MIDI notes your DAW sends to Terrain FX fire the modulators; held while any note is down. Route a MIDI track to the effect to play your effects like an instrument.
Beat	Every beat of your DAW's grid while the transport plays, and on the press of play so a pass always starts from the top. Each trigger is held for the first half of the beat.
Bar	The same on every bar line: one envelope per bar, perfect for long swells and builds.

Good to know Envelope 1 is not a volume envelope in Terrain FX: with no voices to shape, it behaves like Envelopes 2 to 5, an envelope fired by the trigger that you route wherever you like.

Try this Set the Trigger to Transient, route an envelope with a fast attack and medium decay to a Filter effect's cutoff, and put it on a vocal. Every syllable opens the filter: an instant auto-wah that follows the singer.

The dice#

The dice in the Terrain FX header rolls for your audio. A click rolls a new effect chain (effects, their types and order, cabled from Audio In to Audio Out) and then fresh modulation for it. A right-click opens a short menu: New effect chain, New modulation and the reach (Light, Medium, Heavy, Wild, Crazy). The two roll items keep the menu open, so you can roll again and again until it clicks. Every roll is one undo step. See Dice.

Try this Loop eight bars of a drum break, right-click the dice and press New modulation repeatedly with your effects fixed. The chain stays; only the movement changes, from subtle drift to rhythmic chaos.

Presets, settings and output#

Presets

Terrain FX has its own preset library, separate from Terrain's, with the same browser, packs, favourites, Save, Save as, Import and Export (see Presets). The Save sheet offers effect types instead of instrument types. If you import a pack that mixes Terrain and Terrain FX presets, each plug-in installs its own and tells you how many belong to the other, so you can open them there.

Settings

The gear opens the same Settings as Terrain, trimmed for an effect: Account, Audio (in the standalone, the input device matters here: it is what Terrain FX processes), Performance, Presets, Interface, Themes and About. The Controllers page, the MIDI input list and computer keyboard, the voice ceiling, and the sound library folders are not part of Terrain FX. See Settings.

Output

The Output fader sets the final volume of Terrain FX. Drag left or right; double-click for 0 dB. Use it to match the level going out to the level coming in, so you judge the effect and not the loudness.

Good to know Terrain FX shares the undo history design of Terrain: every knob gesture, cable, dice roll or preset load is one step. Cmd+Z / Ctrl+Z undoes it. See Shortcuts.

Chapter 20

Undo, Shortcuts and Tips

Experiment without fear. Terrain remembers every move you make, keeps your keyboard where you expect it, and explains every control the moment you point at it.

Undo and redo#

Terrain has one history for everything you do: turning a knob, drawing a shape, cabling the Patcher, rolling the dice, loading a preset, editing a chop. A whole gesture is one step (a knob drag from press to release, a roll of the dice, a preset load), so one undo takes back exactly what you did.

Action	Mac	Windows
Undo	`Cmd` + `Z`	`Ctrl` + `Z`
Redo	`Shift` + `Cmd` + `Z`	`Ctrl` + `Y` (or `Shift` + `Ctrl` + `Z`)

The ↶ and ↷ arrows right of the TERRAIN wordmark do the same. Point at them and the strip names the step they would undo or redo; after an undo the strip says what was taken back.
The history holds up to 200 steps and lasts as long as this Terrain is open in your project. Closing and reopening the window keeps it.
Undo stays inside Terrain: while Terrain has the keyboard, Cmd/Ctrl + Z never reaches your DAW's own undo. In a text field it undoes your typing.
When a message with its own Undo is on screen (after deleting a preset, for example), the first undo takes that one.
Undo works in popped-out cards and in Terrain FX as well.

Good to know The Tape Deck keeps its own undo for recordings: its ↶ button brings back the loop as it was before your last recording, up to ten times. See Tape Deck.

Keyboard and mouse shortcuts#

Everywhere

Shortcut	What it does
`Cmd`/`Ctrl` + `Z`	Undo.
`Shift` + `Cmd` + `Z` / `Ctrl` + `Y`	Redo.
`Shift` + drag	Fine adjustment on knobs, sliders and values.
Double-click a knob	Reset to default, or type a value (Settings › Interface › Double-click a knob).
Right-click a knob	Modulate, copy and paste modulators, remove modulators, reset, MIDI Learn, the knob's modes.
Mouse wheel over a knob	Nudges it (when Settings › Interface › Mouse wheel turns knobs is on).
`Esc`	Closes the preset browser and its search, and most menus and sheets.

Preset browser

Shortcut	What it does
`↑` `↓`	Move through the presets in the list.
`Enter`	Load the selected preset and close the browser.
`Space`	Heart the selected preset (add to or remove from Favourites).
`Shift` + `↑` `↓`	Grow the selection, for exporting or moving several presets.
`Shift`-click, `Cmd`/`Ctrl`-click	Select several presets.
`Cmd`/`Ctrl` + `A`	Select every preset on screen.
`Esc`	Clears a multiple selection first; pressed again, it closes the browser. In the search field it clears the search.

Letter keys in the preset list go back to your DAW (so you can keep playing your computer keyboard there); click the search field to type a search.

Patcher

Shortcut	What it does
`Delete` / `Backspace`	Removes the selected cable or modules.
Right-click the canvas	The add menu: browse or search every module.
Drop a cable on empty canvas	The same menu, filtered to what fits that cable; pick a module and it arrives already cabled.
Right-click a cable or port	Cut or unplug it.

Standalone app

With Settings › Audio & MIDI › Computer keyboard on, the letter keys A W S E D F T G Y H U J K play an octave from C.

Tips from the people who made it#

Read the strip. Every control in Terrain has its own line of help at the bottom of the window, including menu rows, Patcher ports and settings. It is the fastest manual there is.
Capture is always on your side. Played something great while noodling? It is in the strip for the next 10 minutes. Drag it into your DAW before you touch anything else.
Flip everything over. Oscillators, the filter and every effect have a back panel. Half of Terrain's character lives on the backs.
Drag, don't dig. Modulation is a drag away: an LFO number, an envelope chip, a macro name, Velocity or Key onto any knob.
Pop the cards out. On two screens, put the Shaper or the Arp on the second one and play.
Roll, then undo. The dice are an idea machine. Roll until something sparks, keep it, undo what didn't work.
Save with words. Give your presets a type, a few style words and a note about which knob to grab. Future you will search for them.

Chapter 21

Troubleshooting and Support

Most problems have a one-minute fix. Here are the ones people ask about, and how to reach us when you need a hand.

Installing and loading#

My DAW doesn't show Terrain.: Rescan your plug-ins. Make sure you are looking for the right format: on a Mac, Logic Pro and GarageBand use the AU; most other DAWs use the VST3. Terrain is an instrument, Terrain FX is an audio effect, so they appear in different lists. Check that the plug-in files are where the installer puts them (Installing Terrain).
The window is empty or flickers.: Turn on Settings › Performance › Draw without the graphics card. The processor then draws the window instead of the graphics card.
Terrain says its factory sounds are unavailable.: Some of Terrain's files have changed or gone missing. Reinstall Terrain from your Waves Crate account; your presets are safe.
The window is too big or too small.: Drag the corner at the right end of the strip at the bottom, or pick a size in Settings › Interface › Window size.

Trial and licence#

The trial won't start.: Terrain needs the internet once to start the trial. Connect, then press Start again. The trial runs once per computer.
Activation says something is wrong.: Use the email you bought with, the licence key and the order number, all from your order email. Licence keys never contain 0, O, 1 or I: if Terrain finds a typo, compare those characters first. The order number can be typed with or without the #.
I am moving to a new computer.: On the old one, open Settings › Account and choose Deactivate. Then activate on the new computer with the same details.
Terrain asks me to connect to the internet.: A licence checks in with Waves Crate now and then. If a computer stays offline for 60 days, connect once and Terrain unlocks by itself. Nothing about your sounds changes.
Terrain makes no sound and shows a card about the licence.: The trial has ended, or the licence was deactivated on this computer. Activate with your licence key. Your presets are safe, and the card lets you export the packs you made. If you think it is a mistake, write to us.

Sound and performance#

There is no sound.: Check the Output in the voice column and the main volume on the Patcher. On the Patcher, only what is cabled into Out reaches your speakers; an oscillator needs its notes cabled from MIDI In (or the Arp or Robin). Check that oscillators are powered on and not muted in their quick menu. In the standalone app, check Settings › Audio & MIDI and press Play test audio.
Crackles and dropouts.: Raise the buffer size (in your DAW, or Settings › Audio & MIDI in the standalone app). Lower Settings › Performance › Playing quality to Eco, lower the voice ceiling, reduce oscillator Unison voices, and keep Sleep when silent on. The CPU meter (Settings › Performance) shows what a sound costs.
The exported song sounds slightly different from playback.: Bounce quality in Settings › Performance can render your mixdown at a higher quality than you play at. Set it to Same to match playback exactly.
Synced LFOs, arps or delays drift from the beat.: Check the clock setting of the part in question: BPM follows the song tempo, Hz runs free. Global BPM and Global Hz put every LFO on one clock. On the flow cards, set the clock to Sync rather than Free.
A reverb or delay keeps ringing after I stop the DAW.: That is the tail ringing out. Turn on Cut tails in Settings › Performance and tails stop the moment the transport stops.
My MIDI keyboard does nothing.: In a DAW, arm the track and check the DAW's MIDI setup. In the standalone app, tick your keyboard under Settings › Audio & MIDI › MIDI input; its lamp flashes when notes arrive. Check the MIDI channel in Settings › Controllers (Omni listens to all).

Presets, samples and files#

I deleted a preset by mistake.: Press undo right away, or open the save menu (+) › Recently deleted and put it back.
I saved over a preset.: Right-click it in the browser and choose Restore previous version. With Settings › Presets › Keep old versions on, every save keeps the earlier one as a numbered version.
A preset from a friend sounds different.: Presets carry their own wavetables and samples inside the file, so they sound the same on any computer. Check that Terrain is up to date on both computers.
Where do Capture, stems and Deck takes go?: Into Terrain's folder in your Music folder (the Deck keeps its takes in Deck Takes there unless you choose another folder). The strip tells you where each file went, and the folder buttons open it.
I copied presets into the folder by hand and they don't show.: Press Rescan library in Settings › Presets, or use Import in the browser instead.

Getting help#

Write to contact@wavescrate.com. The fastest way is from inside Terrain:

Settings › About › Report a bug opens your mail app with a message to Waves Crate, your Terrain version and system already filled in. Tell us what happened and what you expected.
Report a crash does the same and shows you the crash log to attach.
Copy system info copies your Terrain version and system details, ready to paste into any message.

Include your DAW and its version, what you did just before the problem, and, if you can, the preset or a short Capture of the sound. For licence questions, include your order number and the email you bought with.

Your account, downloads and receipts live at wavescrate.com/profile.

Chapter 22

Credits

Terrain is made by Waves Crate, with sounds from a crew of producers and sound designers, and built on open libraries we are proud to credit.

Preset artists#

The 717 presets come in 25 packs: the Waves Crate, Macshooter, and Artist Packs. The 23 Artist Packs are made by:

Artist	Instagram
A.List	@tha_a.list
Abs Toolbox	@abstoolbox
ChetaMeister	@chetameister
Cozy Coolin	@cozycoolin
DashOTB	@dashotb
Don Hill	@33donhill
Eagle	@eagleofc
Eville	@prodbyeville
Hobb The Goat	@hobbthegoat
Jack Zorana	@jackzorana_
Jai Beats	@jai_beats
Jaytron	@jtrn.the.producer
Keymajor	@keymajorbeatz
Keyon	@prodkeyon
Lvis	@prodlvis
Magysti	@your.magysti
Mischa Chillak	@mischa_chillak
Nate	@nategotsmoke
Ninja Blader	@ninja_blader
RTC	@r.tc
Shiv	@isthisshiv
Tumfy	@tumfyy
Tywil.wav	@tywil.wav

Thank you to every producer who played Terrain early, broke it, and told us how to make it better.

Sampled instruments#

The Organics engine plays sampled instruments from open libraries, credited as their licences ask:

Salamander Grand Piano v3 by Alexander Holm (SFZ mapping by kinwie), CC BY 3.0, modified by Waves Crate.
Etherealwinds Harp II: CE by Versilian Studios LLC, CC BY 4.0, modified by Waves Crate.
Saxophone samples recorded by the Music Technology Group, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, CC BY 3.0; SFZ edit by kinwie, CC BY 4.0; modified by Waves Crate.
With thanks (CC0, public domain or Unlicense): Versilian Community Sample Library, VSCO 2 Community Edition, Karoryfer Samples, FreePats, itsclipping, Jeff Learman (jSteelDrum), and Freesound.org contributors.

Software and fonts#

Terrain and Terrain FX are built with these libraries, each under its own licence. The full licence texts are in Settings › Credits & Licences › Show the full texts.

Library	Copyright and licence
JUCE	Raw Material Software Limited · JUCE 8 licence
Steinberg VST3 SDK	© 2025 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH · MIT
Apple AudioUnitSDK	© 2000–2021 Apple Inc. · Apache-2.0
Signalsmith Stretch	© 2022 Geraint Luff / Signalsmith Audio Ltd. · MIT
Signalsmith Linear	© 2025 Signalsmith Audio · MIT
FLAC	© 2000–2009 Josh Coalson, © 2011–2023 Xiph.Org Foundation · BSD-3-Clause
Ogg Vorbis	© 2002–2020 Xiph.Org Foundation · BSD-3-Clause
libjpeg	Based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group · IJG
libpng	© 1995–2019 The PNG Reference Library Authors · PNG Reference Library License
zlib	© 1995–2004 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler · zlib
HarfBuzz	© Google, Behdad Esfahbod, Red Hat and the HarfBuzz authors · Old MIT
SheenBidi	© 2014–2025 Muhammad Tayyab Akram · Apache-2.0
Microsoft WebView2	© Microsoft Corporation (Windows only) · BSD-style
Audio Plugin Coder	© 2026 Noizefield · MIT
Freeverb	Jezar at Dreampoint · Public domain
Inter	© 2020 The Inter Project Authors · SIL Open Font License 1.1

Terrain Rounded and Terrain Wordmark, the typefaces of Terrain and of this manual, are Modified Versions of Inter, © 2020 The Inter Project Authors, licensed under the SIL Open Font License 1.1. The licence text ships with this manual in fonts/OFL.txt.

Trademarks#

VST is a registered trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. Audio Unit and macOS are trademarks of Apple Inc. Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. All other product and company names are trademarks of their respective owners and are used only to describe compatibility.

TERRAIN

BY WAVES CRATE

Contents

What Terrain is#

Terrain in numbers#

How to read this manual#

System requirements#

Installing Terrain#

On a Mac

On Windows

Finding Terrain in your DAW

The first launch#

The 10-day free trial#

Activating your licence#

Moving to another computer

Staying activated

Your Waves Crate account#

Updates#

The SYN page at a glance#

The header#

The four pages#

The strip: tips and Capture#

A tip for every control

Capture

Notices

Resizing the window

Knobs, pills and menus#

Cards and popping out#

Your first five minutes#

Eight oscillators, A to H#

Anatomy of an oscillator panel#

Power and the engine picker

Front and back

Knob sets and the arrows

Every knob, every engine

Unison#

The back panel#

Blend slots and filter sends

The pill row

Tuning and mix knobs

Blend modes: oscillators bending oscillators#

Modes

Sources

The wave view and its quick menu#

The quick menu

Dropping audio

The sound browser#

Wavetable#

Header

Front controls

Spectral modes

Importing your own tables

Warp modes#

Sync

Alt Warp

Draw

Geometry

Filter

Saturation

Clip

Diode & Asym

Fold

Rectify

Digital

The warp curve card

Sample#

Header

The waveform

Front controls

Blend: morphing two sounds

The sample menu

Granular#

First set: the grains

Second set: the spread

FM#

Header

First set: the operators

Second set: weathering

Phase distortion and cross-oscillator FM

Resynth#

First set: play

Second set: sculpt