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   MYSTERON VST INSTRUMENT
      FXPANSION AUDIO
   http://www.fxpansion.com
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Welcome!

MYSTERON is an easy-to-use monophonic VST Instrument ("VSTi"). It is compatible with the following hosts:-
- Cubase VST v3.7x, v5.x
- Logic Audio Windows v4.5
- Sonic Syndicate Orion v1.1
- FXpansion "Amulet" VST-DX Adapter v2.1

MYSTERON was named for its theremin-like abilities, in honour of the 1994 track "Mysterons" by the band Portishead, which features a prominent theremin sound and to a large extent kickstarted the revival of interest in the instrument in recent years (although they later admitted that they did not, in fact, use a real theremin - the culprit was, in fact, a Roland SH-101).

A real theremin is an early electronic musical instrument, based on radio oscillator principles, which in essence uses the player's body as an antenna to change the pitch of the oscillators. For more information about the instrument that inspired MYSTERON, please visit http://www.thereminworld.com . MYSTERON aims to reproduce the spirit of the theremin under mouse and MIDI control.

Installing
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Just extract the Mysteron.DLL file and place it in your VSTplugins folder. That's all there is to it!


In use
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MYSTERON can be controlled from MIDI, with the mouse, or both. The blue/black "touchpad" area is an X/Y controller, representing pitch on the Y-axis (lower screen position = higher pitch) and amplitude on the X-axis (quietest at the left, loudest at the right). There is a white cross-hair, and a dot; the cross-hair can be placed by clicking or dragging the mouse, and represents the "target" signal; the dot represents the actual signal which lags behind the target depending on how the controls are set.

The control system which gives MYSTERON its unique character is based on Newtonian mechanics - you can think of the actual signal controller being a mass attached to the "target" via a spring. You have five controls:- "rate" and "overshoot" for both pitch and amplitude, and "decay" for amplitude.

Rate controls how fast the signal moves towards the target, for either pitch or amplitude; Overshoot controls its acceleration behaviour and its tendency to "overshoot" the target, hence the name. A maximum setting for overshoot will cause the signal to oscillate for ever around the target.

Amplitude also has a DECAY control - this, when in use, causes the target point to fall towards zero amplitude if no (MIDI) keys are pressed and the mouse button is released, thereby fading the signal out at a controlled rate.

Miscellaneous
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MYSTERON is Copyright 1999-2000 FXpansion Audio. All rights reserved. You may not distribute it without our permission - whether it be by email, on your web or FTP site, or on a magazine cover CD. Just write to us and ask (info@fxpansion.com) - we'll almost certainly say yes, but we'd like to know who is distributing it and how many.

Please don't write to us asking for support - this program is freeware and we can't afford to support everyone who downloads it. There are plenty of forums where you can get help with VST Instruments - we recommend KvR's site at http://www.kvr-vst.co.uk

VST Technology by Steinberg. VST is a trademark of Steinberg Gmbh. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners; FXpansion Audio is not in any way affiliated with the band Portishead.

And finally, if you like this program, please check out the rest of our products at http://www.fxpansion.com - we can only make cool freebies like this if the others sell well ;-)



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