Snazzy FX TRACER CITY - Manual (Page 5)

I: Begin brining in the depth of a modulator(LFO/OSC, RANDOM,CV1, CV2, OR ENVELOPE FOLLWER)
J: Now adjust the controls of your modulator.
K: Adjust cutoff and Resonance
L: Switch WAVE from TRI to SQR, or adjust lag, Or OSC to LFO, or A to B on toggles.
M: make weird sounds
The TRACER CITY is in many ways very similar to what you might find on an old (or new) analog
synthesizer. The main components of a synthesizer it has are filters, An oscillator (which can also be used
as an LFO) and a Psuedo-Random LFO with lag. It also has a basic envelope follower (with up or down
response) with lag, which works very well with drums, loops, and anything else which is very percussive.
Like a synthesizer, the TRACER CITY allows its multi-mode Filter to be controlled by two external CV
sources. You can also plug audio sources into these inputs (this creates Frequency Modulation of the
FILTER or FM) If you are familiar with modular synthesizers or analog synths, then the control names in
many cases should be self explanatory and you will simply need to get a hang of the layout and get used
to the way that the modulators are routed to the filter. However if you have never been around a synth or
are terrified of what all these controls do, then here is a very basic explanation of each section of the
TRACER CITY.
(please refer to block diagram)
INPUT GAIN: This one is easy. Plug in an audio source (Bass, Guitar, Synth, BUSS from a DAW, Sampler,
Drum machine, etc) and set the gain either so that it is clean, or so that it is over-driven. The higher the
input gain, the more the resonance response will change. You might want to try low input gain and high
output volume, or vice versa.
VOLUME: This control is the OUPUT VOLUME, and when you are first setting up controls, it is
recommended that this be left quite low.
LFO/OSC: This is MODULATOR ONE. A modulator effects something else in a synthesizer. In the case of
the TRACER CITY, to keep things simple enough, all Modulators effect the MULTI-MODE ANALOG
FILTER. This modulator only effects the filter when its respective DEPTH control is turned up a bit. This is
true of all the modulators in the TRACER CITY. To make things easy to hear, simply flip the LFO/OSC
switch to OSC, and turn the SPEED knob up high enough that you can see the LFO/OSC LED moving very
rapidly. When it is in this state, turning up the depth high enough should effect the sound quite easily.
TRI/SQR: These are two possible waveforms for an oscillator, TRIANGLE and SQUARE. Triangle is better
for sweeps, soft tremolo, and slow phase sounds. Square is a choppier sound which can be very good
for tremolo and other strange effects.
RAND LAG, RAND SPEED, RAND DEPTH.: The random modulator section (or more accurately a pseudo-
random modulator) allows you to add varying amounts of randomness to your tone. Basically you can
think of this as very similar to an LFO, except that the waveform is not a square or a triangle, but a
strange shape which changes over time. Turning the LAG control clockwise, makes the waveform less