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Effects and parameter reference

This page documents the main channel-level sound controls in Meiji Sampler.

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Channel defaults

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Core tone controls

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Gain

• documented range in product copy: 0.0x to 2.0x
• default: 1.0

Use it to set basic channel level before deeper processing.

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Saturation

• default: 0.0

Adds harmonic density and edge. Useful for warming drums or pushing a sound forward.

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Pan

• range: left to right
• default: center

Use pan to separate elements that compete in the same frequency range.

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Width

• default: neutral

Controls stereo spread. Use carefully on material that already has strong stereo information.

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Pitch

• product copy range: about +/-15%
• default: 0.0

Useful for quick tuning, character changes, and time-feel variation.

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Filters

Both filters use a 6th-order Butterworth design inspired by the Akai S950’s MF6-50 switched-capacitor filter. The implementation cascades three biquad sections (Direct Form II Transposed) with the Butterworth Q factors, producing a maximally flat passband and a steep 36 dB/octave rolloff. At the cutoff frequency the signal is attenuated by exactly -3 dB; below that point the response is virtually flat, and above it the slope falls away sharply. Cutoff changes are smoothed in the log-frequency domain with a 5 ms time constant, so sweeping the filter produces no zipper noise or clicking. This matches the behavior of the S950’s clock-tracking hardware filter.

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HPF

• range: 20 Hz to 2000 Hz
• default: 20 Hz

The high-pass filter removes low-frequency content. Use it to clean mud, carve space for a kick, or build tension by thinning a sound before a drop.

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LPF

• range: 200 Hz to 20000 Hz
• default: 20000 Hz

The low-pass filter removes high-frequency content. Use it to darken sounds, create lo-fi textures, or shape transitions. Sweeping the LPF down mimics the classic muffled-sample sound of vintage hardware samplers.

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Reverb

• default: 0.0

Reverb adds space and depth using Airwindows CreamCoat behind the existing channel control. The saved 0.0 to 1.0 value maps directly to CreamCoat Wetness rather than a linear dry/wet crossfade, so higher values add more ambience without treating 50% as half-dry. Use sparingly on already dense material so it does not blur transients.

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PerformFX Airwindows presets

PerformFX includes selected Airwindows DSP compiled directly into Meiji Sampler. These are built-in performance presets, not loadable external plugins. PerformFX slots include shared Engage, Quantize Start, Quantize End, Sync, Attack, Release, One Shot, PreGain, and Wet settings in FX Params; tail-capable presets also expose Tail, echo/delay presets expose Throw, and One Shot On reveals Length while hiding Quantize End because Length owns the end timing. Engage can be Smart Hold, Hold, Toggle, or Always On; Always On activates the assigned slot automatically, ignores trigger/release presses, ignores One Shot auto-release, and stays active until the slot is cleared or changed. Sync controls Attack, Release, and one-shot Length timing. Time (ms) uses explicit millisecond values, with one-shot Length available up to 20,000 ms. Tempo (beats) lets Length use beat divisions from 1/64 through 4 Bars, including 1/16T, 1/8T, 1/4T, and 1/2T, against the effective project tempo; Attack and Release can use those same fixed values or Grid, which follows the slot’s current Grid division. Most presets default to Time (ms); Filter Sweep Up and Filter Sweep Down default to Tempo (beats) with Attack set to Grid and Release set to 1/4, while Cap Sweep defaults to Tempo (beats) with a 1 Bar Attack/Release sweep. One Shot defaults to Off; when set to On, Length controls the total time the slot stays engaged before auto-release, including Attack and Release, so gestures such as Filter Sweep Up can complete without holding the trigger. Active one-shot slots show the remaining Length as milliseconds for Time (ms) sync or as the remaining beat count for Tempo (beats) sync. Quantize Start controls when an effect engages. Quantize End controls when manual disengagement is released when One Shot is Off, using the same Off, Current Grid, Next Grid, Next Bar, and Next 2 Bars values; pending end-quantized releases keep the slot labelled active and show a countdown such as ACTIVE: 1000ms until the release boundary. Tail controls transport-stop behavior: Cut uses the normal fast kill fade, while Ring Out releases the effect so tail-bearing echoes, delays, and reverbs continue decaying; echo and delay tails retire once they become sensibly inaudible. Echo, delay, throw, and reverb presets default to Ring Out; gates, filters, repeats, brakes, ducking, and utility gestures hide Tail and use the Cut behavior. Echo and delay presets also expose Throw: Off feeds live input normally, while 1/64 through 4 Bars feeds only that tempo window into the delay before switching the effect output to wet-only repeats. Each PerformFX bank also has a visible Quantize Bank row label; Default uses every slot’s saved Quantize Start value, while Current Grid, Next Grid, Next Bar, and Next 2 Bars force that bank to the selected start timing mode. DJFX Looper is marked with ★ as the recommended loop-repeat path and defaults to Current Grid. Build Gate, Half Gate, Gate Filter, and Digital Gate default to Current Grid and lock gate phase to the active slot division instead of restarting at the press point; their Offset parameter shifts that grid-locked phase. PreGain applies before the selected effect processor and defaults to 0 dB for most presets. Loud, aliasy, or smashed presets default to -6 dB: ASR10 Boost, Bit Glitter, Derezzed, and Block Limiter. Color and saturation presets default to -3 dB: Vinyl Sim, Iron Oxide, Dusty Vinyl, Pocket Lofi, Crunchy Wear, and the SP-404MKII VinylSim, Crusher, Overdrive, Distortion, Gt Amp Sim, WrmSaturator, Cassette Sim, and Lo-fi hardware-port presets. Wet sets the slot’s dry/wet ceiling from 0% to 100% in 5% steps, or uses the selected preset’s default when it shows Default. FX Params exposes typed controls for every built-in preset parameter that affects the current engine: filter cutoff/resonance, SP1200 channel and 45RPM, ASR10 Boost level, Beat Repeat feedback LPF, Dusty Vinyl crackle, Vinyl Sim amount/noise/flutter/drive, Halftime speed/resync, echo feedback, reverb size/decay/pre-delay, gate duty/depth/offset, flanger/chorus/ensemble rate/depth/feedback, AutoPan rate/depth, dub siren oscillator/LFO-shape/pitch-sweep controls, duck levels, Digital Blackout target level, and a Brake Curve on every tape-stop-backed preset. Brake Curve is a 0–1 knob that reshapes the pitch dive from a hard, punchy snap at low values, through a constant-torque vinyl brake, up to a long, lazy reel spin-down at high values; Tape Stop defaults to the eased tape curve while Motor Kill, Vinyl Brake, Stopper, and RMX Vinyl Brake default to the faster vinyl curve. Curve edits take effect on the next trigger, so an in-flight brake never jumps. PerformFX reverb presets keep the dry signal at unity and behave like send-style throws; stopping transport with Tail: Ring Out stops new input from entering the reverb while the existing tail continues. Halftime captures the active slot division at trigger time, wraps inside that captured phrase, and crossfades the phrase boundary with click-free raised-cosine fades; playback uses smooth 4-point interpolation with a speed-tracking low-pass so the slowdown sounds analog rather than stair-stepped. Queued quantized PerformFX slots show a millisecond countdown until activation. Transport stop clears PerformFX engagement; slots set to Tail: Cut stop with the normal fast fade, while tail-bearing echo, delay, and reverb slots set to Tail: Ring Out continue decaying after playback stops. Echo tails are retired once a full delay cycle renders below the inaudible threshold, so bounces do not keep unnecessary quiet tail time. Airwindows-backed preset families include:

• space: Room Verb, Hall Throw, Cathedral, Plate Throw, Retro Verb, Bright Room, Infinite Space
• delay: Dub Echo, Ping Pong, Tape Echo, Space Echo, Pitch Echo, Four Tap Echo, Double Delay
• modulation: Tube Tremolo
• color: Vinyl Sim, Tape Warmth, Iron Oxide, Dusty Vinyl, Pocket Lofi, Bit Glitter, Derezzed, Crunchy Wear
• DJ FX: DJ Isolator, Cap Sweep, Beat Surge, Block Limiter
• pitch and siren throws: Glitch Shift, Nasty Pitch, Air Raid Echo, Benidub Air Raid

The exact channel HPF, LPF, SP1200, ASR-10 Boost, ducking, pan, width, S950-style filter behavior, Motor Kill, Digital Blackout, Tape Stop, Gate Filter, Digital Gate, DP4 Lush, Daft Flanger, Stereo Chorus, Ensemble Wash, AutoPan, Room Verb, Hall Throw, Bright Room, and Infinite Space controls keep internal engines and grid-locked, phase-stable, or tail-aware semantics. Daft Flanger is a resonant swept-comb flanger; DP4 Lush, Stereo Chorus, and Ensemble Wash are now true dual-line BBD-style choruses (anti-phase stereo, no comb filtering) rather than low-feedback flangers; AutoPan uses an equal-power pan law so movement does not collapse the dry level. Room Verb is tuned as a subtler short-room gesture, Bright Room uses the controlled internal room engine for a more audible short ambience, and Infinite Space uses a lower-gain large internal wash. Hall Throw keeps a longer throw tail when transport stops with Tail: Ring Out. Digital Blackout is the hard-mute gesture; Motor Kill is a real deck brake that pitch-dives the master to silence over about 200 ms with a constant-torque vinyl curve, then recovers through the normal envelope on release. Tape Stop and Vinyl Brake both slow the audio to a true terminal stop — the playback rate reaches exactly zero rather than crawling at a floor — and continue seamlessly from the moment you trigger them. As they slow, highs roll off naturally (emulating tape-head HF loss) so the dive sounds analog instead of aliased, and the final stop fades to silence with no click. Tape Stop uses an eased reel spin-down curve with a longer default release so playback eases back in after the slowdown; Vinyl Brake defaults to 1/4, uses a constant-torque brake curve that dives faster into the stop, and keeps the quicker release-FX-style restart. Both — along with the SP-404MKII Stopper, RMX-1000 Vinyl Brake, and Motor Kill — now expose a Brake Curve control in FX Params so you can dial the stop from a hard snap to a long eased spin; the change applies to the next stop rather than the one in progress. New Airwindows PerformFX presets sit alongside them for live gestures.

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Turntablism preview reference

The Turntablism PerformFX Reference documents all 20 Turntablism FX Library effects and all 101 preview permutations. Each preview includes effective Pattern, Motion, Rate, Gate, Swing, Humanize, and division values, an exact-humanized TTM diagram, and synchronized ahh.wav / fresh.wav examples.

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PerformFX hardware-port presets

PerformFX includes hardware-port presets for the Roland SP-404MKII and Pioneer RMX-1000 effect catalogs. These keep the original effect names in the FX Library and route to the closest current Meiji Sampler DSP path while exposing hardware-style editable parameters in FX Params. Presets that share an engine are individually voiced rather than identical. Each delay/echo port has its own feedback and repeat-brightness character (clean Sync Delay, echo-y Ko-Da-Ma, smooth TimeCtrlDly, band-colored BPF/HPF/LPF Echo, rising Spiral Up vs. sinking Spiral Down, washy Cloud Delay); the 303 and 404 VinylSim ports carry distinct defaults; and the reverbs (Reverb, SX Reverb, Reverb Up, Reverb Down) use their own sizes and decay times. Crusher and Lo-fi are true digital degradation, not vinyl simulation. Crusher runs a pre-FILTER low-pass, sample-rate reduction (higher RATE holds each sample longer, down to roughly 2 kHz), and a dry/wet BALANCE. Lo-fi adds a nine-step LOFI TYPE ladder pairing lower sample rates with lower bit depths, a TONE tilt, and a post-CUTOFF low-pass. The Equalizer is a real three-band EQ (low shelf, mid bell, high shelf, ±15 dB per band); the Isolator and RMX-1000 Cut/Add share that engine with a deep-cut “kill” range so a band can be removed entirely. Wah and Super Filter are real swept resonant filters, not a static high-pass. Wah is a resonant band-pass whose cutoff wobbles cyclically: PEAK narrows the band (more quack), MANUAL sets the centre frequency, DEPTH sets how far the sweep travels, and RATE sets the cycle — free-running or tempo-locked when SYNC is On. FLT TYPE selects LPF (wide) or BPF (narrow). Super Filter sweeps the same way but with an extremely sharp two-stage slope: CUTOFF sets the centre, RESONANCE the emphasis, DEPTH and RATE the cyclic motion (SYNC On by default), and FLT TYPE selects LPF, BPF, or HPF. Both sweep in log-frequency space, so the excursion above and below centre is symmetric in octaves. Chorus and JUNO Chorus are true dual-line BBD-style choruses, not a flanger. Each channel runs a short modulated delay (no feedback, so there is no stationary comb filter — the old routing “sounded like a flanger”), the two channels’ LFOs run in anti-phase for a wide stereo image (the JUNO-106 inverts one of its two chorus outputs), and the wet path is darkened like a bucket-brigade device. Chorus exposes DEPTH, RATE (0.33–2.30 s cycle), BALANCE, EQ LOW/HIGH (±15 dB shelves), and NOISE (BBD hiss). JUNO Chorus models the Roland JUNO-106 / JX sections: MODE selects JUNO 1, JUNO 2, JUNO12, JX-1 1, or JX-1 2 (each with its own LFO character), with NOISE and BALANCE, at the hardware’s fixed 50/50 mix. Phaser is a real four-stage allpass-cascade phaser (swept notches that are not harmonically spaced), not a flanger comb: DEPTH sets the sweep span, MANUAL the centre, RESONANCE the feedback emphasis, RATE the cycle (tempo-locked when SYNC is On), and BALANCE the mix. The plain Flanger remains a resonant swept-comb flanger. Overdrive, Distortion, WrmSaturator, and Gt Amp Sim are a real drive family, not the vinyl simulator they previously shared. Each uses antiderivative-antialiased shaping and is loudness-matched at its default drive. Overdrive is a soft, warm push (DRIVE / TONE / BALANCE / LEVEL); Distortion is harder with a tight low end (same controls); WrmSaturator spans up to 48 dB of drive with independent ±24 dB Eq LOW / Eq HIGH shelves (DRIVE / Eq LOW / Eq HIGH / LEVEL); Gt Amp Sim runs a two-stage amp voicing with a BASS/MIDDLE/TREBLE stack and a six-way AMP TYPE (JC, TWIN, BG, MATCH, MS, SLDN — amp-voiced approximations, not model-accurate). Cassette Sim is a dedicated worn-cassette engine, not a flanger: its wow/flutter warbles the pitch of the whole signal instead of comb-filtering a delayed copy, with TONE, HISS, AGE (0–60 years of high-end loss), DRIVE, WOW FLUT, and CATCH (occasional tape-stretch pitch sags). Back Spin (and RMX-1000 Release Back Spin) wheels the record backward from the current beat instead of playing a forward tape stop: it snapshots the audio that just played and spins it in reverse, accelerating from a standstill to a fast reverse spin. SPEED sets how hard the spin is; LENGTH rides the division. The spin-up and terminal stop are click-free. Tremolo/Pan is a smooth cyclic LFO tremolo/panner, not a hard duty-cycle gate. TYPE picks TRE (equal-power amplitude) or PAN (equal-power L/R that preserves the stereo image), WAVE offers TRI/SQR/SIN/SAW1/SAW2/TRP with click-free edges, DEPTH sets the amount, and RATE runs free or tempo-locked with SYNC. Ring Mod is a true ring modulator (input × carrier), not a standalone siren: FREQUENCY sets the carrier (30 Hz–4 kHz), SENS lets input level push the carrier, POLARITY flips that push, BALANCE mixes dry/wet, and EQ LOW/HIGH shelve the modulated signal (±15 dB). Slicer runs the gate’s 16-step pattern mode: PATTERN selects one of twelve curated grooves, DEPTH cuts off-steps, SHUFFLE delays even steps, and MODE picks LEGATO or SLASH; other gate ports keep duty-cycle mode. Zan-Zou is a multi-tap echo (MODE 2TAP / 3TAP / 4TAP) that taps the delay line at successive intervals with alternate taps phase-inverted and each successive tap darker. Downer and To-Gu-Ro are cyclic speed effects, not a one-shot tape stop and a flanger. Downer ramps the playback speed down each RATE period then snaps back (DEPTH / RATE / FILTER / PITCH / RESONANCE; PITCH On holds the pitch steady while the filter and level still cycle); To-Gu-Ro undulates the speed sinusoidally (DEPTH / RATE / RESONANCE / FLT MOD / AMP MOD / SYNC). Both track a resonant filter to the speed; read-position lag is crossfaded back to the live head each cycle so it never drifts. SP-404MKII ports include: RMX-1000 ports include: Hardware-port parameter sets use the plugin effect-params family internally so each port can preserve controls that do not map one-to-one to a native Meiji Sampler effect. Common controls include Ctrl 1-6 for SP-404MKII MFX, Cutoff/Resonance/Drive for filter-style ports, Time/Feedback/Level for delay-style ports, Low/Mid/Hi for RMX isolate-style and Equalizer ports, Filter/Rate/Balance for Crusher, Pre Filt/Lofi Type/Tone/Cutoff/Balance for Lo-fi, Peak/Rate/Manual/Depth/Flt Type/Sync for Wah, Cutoff/Resonance/Flt Type/Depth/Rate/Sync for Super Filter, Depth/Rate/Balance/EQ Low/EQ High/Noise for Chorus, Mode/Noise/Balance for JUNO Chorus, Depth/Rate/Manual/Resonance/Balance/Sync for Phaser, Drive/Tone/Balance/Level for Overdrive and Distortion, Drive/Eq Low/Eq High/Level for WrmSaturator, Amp Type/Drive/Level/Bass/Middle/Treble for Gt Amp Sim, Tone/Hiss/Age/Drive/Wow Flut/Catch for Cassette Sim, Speed for Back Spin, Depth/Rate/Type/Wave/Sync for Tremolo/Pan, Frequency/Sens/Balance/Polarity/EQ Low/EQ High for Ring Mod, Pattern/Depth/Shuffle/Mode/Sync for Slicer, Mode/Feedback for Zan-Zou, Depth/Rate/Filter/Pitch/Resonance for Downer, Depth/Rate/Resonance/Flt Mod/Amp Mod/Sync for To-Gu-Ro, Scene FX/Sub Param 1/Sub Param 2 for RMX Scene FX, and Release Lever/Range/Hold Previous FX for release-style gestures.

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Playback offset

Offset delays the start of pad and chop playback for one channel. It behaves like inserting silence before the sample starts, but it does not change the sample file, trim points, chop markers, or recorded loop event timing. Offset is applied before the channel’s normal audio processing. The delayed sound still goes through Gain, Sat, ASR-10 Boost, Duck, Pan, Width, Pitch, SP1200, filters, and Reverb. For looped samples, Offset delays only the initial trigger. Once the loop starts, the repeated audio cycles at the original loop length instead of adding the offset again on every pass. Linked pads keep independent Offset values. If channel 1 links to channel 2, channel 1 plays with channel 1’s Offset and channel 2 plays with channel 2’s Offset. The linked target does not inherit the source channel’s Offset. Examples:

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ASR-10 Boost

• values: Off / Lo / Mid / Hi
• default: Off

ASR-10 Boost is a vintage signal chain modeled after the Ensoniq ASR-10’s hardware Boost function. It applies three stages of processing in series at three intensity levels: All three levels share the same DSP chain:

1. Digital excitation: gain followed by tape-style hysteresis saturation. This adds even-order harmonics and warmth without harsh digital clipping.
2. Soft-knee limiting: an exponential soft-clip stage that compresses peaks while adding density. Prevents output from exceeding bounds.
3. Analog output filter: a single-pole low-pass at 18 kHz that rounds off digital edges, emulating the analog reconstruction filter of the original hardware.

The result is a louder, warmer, denser version of the source material. Useful for drums, bass, vocals, and any channel that needs presence and weight. ASR-10 Boost sits after Saturation and before Ducking in the signal chain: Gain → Sat → ASR-10 Boost → Duck → Pan → Width → Pitch → HPF → LPF → Reverb Cycle through levels with Left/Right in Channel Detail. Reset with R or Delete.

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Ducking

Ducking is channel-specific and depends on selecting another channel as the source. Persisted parameters:

• source channel
• amount
• ratio
• threshold
• attack
• release

Use ducking for:

• kick/bass separation
• rhythmic pump
• creating movement without muting

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Time-stretch

Time-stretch changes a loop’s duration without shifting its pitch. It uses Signalsmith Stretch, a formant-preserving spectral stretcher suited to melodic, vocal, and mixed material. Stretch is configured per-channel by selecting a stretch source — the channel whose timing the current channel should match. The ratio is derived from the relative loop lengths. Channel Detail Sync changes wait one second before warming stretched audio; if you change Sync again during that window, only the latest value is warmed.

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Linked pad trigger

When a linked pad target is set, triggering the source channel also triggers the target channel. This applies to both live pad hits and loop-sequenced playback. Only the source channel’s events are recorded into loops — the linked target fires as a side effect. The link control is hidden when no file is assigned to the source channel. The target must also have an assigned sample for the secondary trigger to fire.

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Choke groups

Channels in the same choke group are mutually exclusive — triggering one stops all others in the group that are currently playing. The choke fires before playback starts, so the newly triggered pad always sounds. Choke groups are always visible in Channel Detail, even without a file assigned.

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SP1200 Filter

SP1200 Filter selects between four output styles from the original E-mu SP-1200 hardware. All active settings run the shared DSP chain with different output filtering: an 11.07 kHz input anti-alias filter, tape saturation, 12-bit quantization, and a 26.04 kHz multiplexed DAC and sample-and-hold stage.

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Unfiltered (7 & 8 Style)

No output filter. Raw SP-1200 character from the shared anti-alias, saturation, quantization, and DAC/S&H stages only.

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Filtered (1 & 2 Style, SSM2044 dynamic VCF)

4-pole (24 dB/oct) ladder filter with resonant “squelchy” character and an 8-bit-stepped cutoff envelope. The envelope opens to roughly 11.5 kHz on attack (~5 ms), then decays toward roughly 800 Hz. A small amount of upper-band bleed remains around the ladder so the imaging band does not disappear completely. Best for snares, hi-hats, and melodic content.

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Filtered (3 & 4 Style, fixed LPF)

Active multi-pole low-pass filter centered around 9 kHz with no envelope. Rolls off highs aggressively to isolate bass and kick content. Best for low-end sounds where you want a darker, thicker tone.

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Filtered (5 & 6 Style, gentle fixed LPF)

Gentle active low-pass filter in the upper treble with no envelope. It is much subtler than 3 & 4 and is meant to trim the sharpest edge while preserving presence and air. Best for pads, chords, melodic loops, and mid-range percussion where some top-end life matters.

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Common DSP stages

All active styles share these processing stages:

1. Tape saturation: Jiles-Atherton hysteresis model adding harmonic warmth
2. 12-bit quantization: reduces sample depth to 4,096 discrete levels
3. 26.04 kHz DAC and sample-and-hold stage: sample-rate reduction plus switching artifacts that create the SP-1200 imaging band

All active styles also apply an 11.07 kHz input anti-alias filter before those three stages. SP1200 processing sits after pitch in the per-channel effect chain, so pitch shifting changes the frequency content before the SP-1200 emulation processes it. This matches the real hardware, where the playback clock rate (pitch) fed into the DAC and output filter. Filters, reverb, and other post-pitch controls come after SP1200. The selector is located in the Character section of Channel Detail.

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Sync and stem state

Additional channel state includes:

• sync multiple, shown under Loop & Stretch when Loop is on. With detected loop BPM and a session clock, it includes the effective post-sync BPM. Explicit filename BPM tags can supply the source tempo for trimmed loop regions when the trim length fits a normal bar count.
• selected stem
• playback offset
• mute
• solo
• linked pad target
• choke group
• optional channel name override
• optional color override

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Related pages

• Mix
• Mixer And Effects
• Set Up Sidechain Ducking
• Time-Stretch A Loop To Tempo
• Audio And Playback Troubleshooting