Crystallizer

Crystallizer combines granular capture with a pitch shifter and feedback delay. Splice determines how much audio is captured for each fragment, Pitch changes its tuning, and Forward/Reverse changes its playback direction. Delay adds spacing beyond the capture process, while Recycle sends processed fragments back through the effect for progressively transformed repeats.

This is not simply a conventional delay with a pitch knob. Short splices can become metallic or obscure the original pitch; longer splices expose recognizable reversed phrases and spacious echoes. The capture interval itself affects when the sound emerges, so reducing Delay does not necessarily remove the timing introduced by Splice.

A level-sensitive Gate/Duck section makes those textures easier to arrange: echoes can recede during the source and bloom in its gaps, or appear primarily when the input becomes louder. The Tweak panel adds stereo offsets, crossfade smoothing, filtering, and feedback routing. Begin with a recognizable fragment length and modest Recycle, then decide whether the result should follow the beat or drift more freely.

Manual, About Crystallizer, p. 4; The Crystallizer Control Panel, pp. 5–9; Tweak Menu, pp. 10–14.

Capture, pitch, and timing

• Pitch transposes the captured signal in cents. The detailed control section specifies −3600 to +3600 cents; this entry follows that section rather than the introduction's broader octave claim.
• Splice sets capture length from 0 to 2050 ms. Very short fragments can sound metallic; longer fragments retain more recognizable phrasing and introduce capture-related delay.
• Delay adds a separate fixed delay, also 0–2050 ms. It is additional to the timing inherent in the splice process.
• Forward / Reverse changes fragment playback direction without disabling pitch shifting. Recycle returns processed audio to the input, creating repeated or rising/falling pitch trails. Raise it cautiously.
• MIDI Sync changes Splice and Delay readouts to note values and synchronizes capture timing to the incoming clock.

Blend and dynamics

Input / Output adjust the processed signal without changing the dry path. Mix blends dry and shifted sound; use a fully wet setting on a conventional auxiliary return.

Threshold decides when input level activates the dynamics section. Gate/Duck is inactive at noon: clockwise suppresses the effect while the input exceeds the threshold, whereas counterclockwise makes the effect more prominent above threshold and reduced below it. This lets a large texture coexist with an intelligible lead source.

Tweak Menu

• Pitch Offset detunes the left and right sides in opposite directions around the main pitch setting. Splice Offset and Delay Offset shorten the right-side values relative to the left, creating asymmetric stereo timing.
• Smoothing adjusts crossfades between fragments. Higher settings soften splice boundaries and make the result more diffuse.
• Low Cut / High Cut remove lows and highs from the effect only; the dry signal remains unfiltered.
• Attack / Release determine how quickly the Gate/Duck action engages and returns. Use slower recovery for a gradual bloom after a phrase.
• Ducking Mode Out / Feedback / Both chooses whether dynamics affect the initial effect, its recirculation, or both.
• Feedback Mode Mixed / Dual / Ping-Pong blends the feedback channels, keeps them independent, or alternates repeats across the stereo field.

Manual, Input and Output through MIDI Sync, pp. 5–9; Pitch/Splice/Delay Offset, p. 11; Smoothing and Filters, p. 12; Attack/Release and Feedback/Ducking Modes, pp. 13–14.