Caelum Audio Flux Mini CM

> Step by step 1. Easy panning effects with Flux Mini CM

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Caelum Audio’s Flux Mini CM is an expanded version of their free Flux Mini BPM-synced modulation plugin and can control one of four selected processes: amplitude, high/low-pass filter or panning. Load an instance then click the display to add pink break points and use white circle nodes to shape the curve.

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The same graphic display and curve is used for all four effects. This is reasonably self explanatory, with time on the x-axis and effect parameter value on the y-axis. So for the filters the y-axis runs from low up to high frequency. For panning, hard right is at the bottom and hard left at the top.

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In terms of controls, simply select the button for the desired process. Below this are three controls. Resonance is only active for the two filter effects and Mix is a final stage wet/dry blend. As mentioned Flux Mini CM syncs to host bpm. Use the Sync knob to set a value from between 1/32 triplet and four bars.

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Flux Mini CM’s exclusive feature is panning control and its curve-based and synced system offers a refreshing alternative to drawing automation. Let’s try creating a few different panning effects. Starting with the default preset, select Pan. We’re using some beats but use any sound you like.

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To create a regular timed pan from right to left, simply drag the top pink node to the top right hand corner. We’ve then selected Sync to 1 so the pan is over one bar. To make the pan move from left to right, simply move the left hand pink node to the top left and right hand pink node to the bottom right.

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Flux Mini CM includes a basic snap grid and this helps when making rhythmic effects. Now try a more complex pan. Here we’ve activated Grid Snap and switched the Sync to 1/2 a bar. By not using the most extreme settings we’ve created a sudden but more subtle synced pan from right to left.

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Now let’s try a slightly different effect. We’ve loaded a pad sound and created a panning curve that gets less extreme and also gradually slows down. We’ve deactivated the Grid Snap option – so this feels less regimented – and set the Sync value to two bars.

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With the effect repeating over two bars, it does sound a bit too rushed so we’ve adjusted the Sync value to four bars. To make the transitions more defined, we’ve also used the shaping nodes to bend the curve a bit.

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To smooth out the effect and make it blend better, we’ve used the Mix control. Our setting is about 65%, but choose whatever works for you. Finally, so that the panning effect blends out on the tail of the sound, we’ve modified the curve to move to the left hand side.

> Step by step 2. MIDI triggering effects in Flux Mini CM

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Another key feature in Flux Mini CM is MIDI control. Before you get started, check out how your particular DAW routes MIDI into plugin inserts, as this is vital to what we’ll be doing here. Once sorted, load up the default preset. 2

Flux Mini CM has two MIDI modes accessed from the drop-down menu in the top left. One Shot triggers the curve from any MIDI note and it continues until it’s completed its cycle. Its final position or value then continues as a static parameter. You can restart the one-shot at any time with another MIDI note. 3

In Retrigger mode, the curve starts as normal when it encounters an audio signal. However, play a MIDI note and it will restart the curve at the beginning. This is quite handy for creating more complex rhythmic patterns from the underlying curve already in play. 4

To try out One Shot mode, we’re using a drone sound, and we’re going to start with the low-pass filter. Start by selecting LPF mode and setting the Sync to four bars. We’ve also set the filter Resonance to about halfway. 5

Now create a suitable curve for the cutoff. When triggered, our curve opens the filter and combined with the resonance creates a dramatic effect. Then the cutoff moves around the mid frequencies and ends up still above zero, so at the end of the cycle, we can still hear the lower frequencies from the drone. 6

Let’s try a similar trick with the highpass filter. We’ve made some adjustments to the curve and also reduced the Resonance to about 3.5. As you can see, the curve starts and finishes at roughly the same frequency, so the effect can be retriggered very smoothly at the end of the cycle. 7

Now let’s look at Retrigger. Returning to a drum loop as our source sound we want to create a filter envelope that works well when retriggered. We’re going for a short envelope with Sync set to half a bar and quite high Resonance (about half). 8

In LPF mode, this creates a nice squelchy effect and we can quickly program up a MIDI pattern to trigger the effect. In fact switching over to HPF mode sounds pretty good as well, with only a few tweaks to the curve needed. 9

Although the obvious choice for this type of retrigger effect is a filter, it can also be quite handy for amplitude effects and also panning. Try out the other settings and see what you think. Here we’ve simply switched our Filter Mode to Pan and made a quick change to the curve and it works quite well.