Finalizer

White key 15. A master section on the outputs, after the effects and before VOLUME, so turning VOLUME doesn’t change how hard it works (after Endorphin.es’ Golden Master and OTO’s BOUM). Its four modules always run in this order:

Input → EQ → Comp → Width → Drive → Limiter → VOLUME → the safety limiter

EQ, Comp and Width share three bands, split at 300 Hz and 3 kHz. Every module is neutral at its defaults, and then the finalizer leaves the sound untouched and costs next to nothing. Nothing in it turns anything up by itself: the compressors have no makeup, and level comes back through Drive and Loud.

• Selecting it: the key selects the finalizer for knobs 1-4, which then turn it the way they turn an effect: 1% per detent (more turned fast), SHIFT + turn coarse, SHIFT + press resets. Pressing an FX key gives the knobs back to that effect. There’s no page 2: a plain knob press does nothing in Level, and mutes a band in the other modules.
• The modules: hold SHIFT, tap key 15 (it’s selected, as ever), then tap it again: the knobs show the next module, 1 to 4 and round, the key in its colour. Every further tap in the same hold goes on to the next. Letting go of SHIFT, or pressing any other key, starts over: the next SHIFT + key 15 only selects. Holding key 15 and then pressing SHIFT never switches (that’s the bypass). It doesn’t work on the Loops and Cubbi pages.

Level module

Module 1, white: what goes in, its drive, and how loud it comes out.

Knob	Function
1	Input: a clean trim, -12 dB to +12 dB, 3 dB a coarse step (default 0 dB, the centre)
2	Drive: 0 to +30 dB into a saturation, 0 off (default off)
3	Type: Boost, Tube, Fuzz (default Boost)
4	Loud: 0 to +18 dB into the limiter, 3 dB a coarse step, 0 off (default off)

• Input (knob 1) sets the level everything after it works with: more drives the compressors and the saturation harder. Its LED is a level meter, as VOLUME’s input meter. Pink means hotter than the finalizer is set for (Loud’s ceiling, the drive’s level compensation): a source that peaks near AUX’s full scale wants Input turned down a few dB first, until its peaks no longer reach pink.
• Drive (knob 2) and Type (knob 3): Boost is a soft clip, Tube an asymmetric one that adds mostly the second harmonic, Fuzz a hard clip. It runs at twice the sample rate, so its harmonics don’t fold back, with a gentle hi-cut after it. Drive is level-compensated: turning it up changes the character, not the level, for a signal at a normal level.
• Loud (knob 4) turns the signal up into a limiter with a ceiling of -1 dB, so the loud parts stay where they are and the rest comes up. It looks 1 ms ahead, so it’s down before a peak arrives, and its release adapts: short for a short peak, longer the longer it limits. At 0 the limiter is off. While it’s on, the output comes 1 ms later; switching it on or off crossfades, and MIDI out’s clock moves by the same 1 ms, so gear behind FRIZZ stays in time with what it hears. Its LED shows the limiter’s gain reduction.

EQ module

Module 2, yellow: the three bands’ levels, as on a DJ mixer.

Knob	Function
1	Low: the band below 300 Hz, -20 dB to +8 dB (default 0 dB, the centre)
2	Mid: 300 Hz to 3 kHz, -20 dB to +8 dB (default 0 dB, the centre)
3	High: above 3 kHz, -20 dB to +8 dB (default 0 dB, the centre)
4	—

• The bands: Linkwitz-Riley crossovers, 24 dB an octave, that add up flat again: with all three at 0 dB, nothing changes but a little phase around the crossovers.
• Their LEDs show each band’s level after the EQ, a spectrum in three bars (dim, green, yellow, pink as it gets louder).

Comp module

Module 3, cyan: a compressor on each band, set by its character, all three by one Depth.

Knob	Function
1	Low character: Light & fast, Standard & fast, Standard & slow, Parallel, Keep loud, Beat FX (default Standard & slow)
2	Mid character: as the low band’s (default Standard & slow)
3	High character: as the low band’s (default Standard & slow)
4	Depth: the three bands’ thresholds together, from 0 dB down to -30 dB on most characters (below), 0 off (default off)

• Depth (knob 4) is how much the three compress: at 0 they’re off, turned up their thresholds come down together, by 30 dB at the top. Each starts from its character’s own: 0 dB, but -4 dB for Keep loud and -10 dB for Parallel and Beat FX, so those three compress from the first detent.
• The characters each set the attack, release, ratio, knee and where the threshold starts; the low band’s are 1.5x slower, so the bass isn’t pumped by its own waveform:
  • Light & fast: a gentle ratio, quick to react, for a little glue.
  • Standard & fast: a medium ratio, quick: tames peaks.
  • Standard & slow: a medium ratio with a slow attack that lets the transients through: the classic bus compression.
  • Parallel: heavy compression mixed half and half with the band as it was, so it gets denser and the transients stay.
  • Keep loud: slow and even, it holds the band’s level steady.
  • Beat FX: fast and hard, it pumps: an effect, not a correction.
• Each band’s detector hears both channels, so the image doesn’t shift. There’s no makeup gain: compression only turns down. Bring the level back with Drive or Loud.
• Their LEDs show each band’s gain reduction, brighter the deeper it compresses, and knob 4 its Depth.

Width module

Module 4, blue: each band’s stereo width.

Knob	Function
1	Low width: mono at the left, as it is at the centre, wider to the right, up to 1.5x (default the centre)
2	Mid width: mono at the left, as it is at the centre, wider to the right, up to 2x (default the centre)
3	High width: mono at the left, as it is at the centre, wider to the right, up to 2x (default the centre)
4	—

• Width scales the difference between the channels (the side): at the left there’s none, so the band is mono, which keeps the bass solid on a club system; to the right the side is turned up.
• Their LEDs show each band’s correlation, how alike the two channels are: green mono or nearly, yellow a normal width, pink very wide, red out of phase, where the band would cancel itself on a mono system (watch the low band).

Band mutes

In EQ, Comp and Width a plain press of knob 1, 2 or 3 mutes the low, mid or high band, and another press brings it back, as the kill switches on a DJ mixer: to take the bass out for a moment, or to hear one band alone. The mute fades in about 5 ms, without a click. A muted band’s knob LED is nearly dark, dimmer than a band that’s only quiet, and flashes as it toggles. Mutes are for playing: they aren’t kept, and power-on or recalling a preset unmutes all three.

Finalizer presets and bypass

• Bypass: hold key 15, then press SHIFT: the finalizer is switched off, an exact pass-through, with a crossfade of about 10 ms (and Loud’s 1 ms delay faded out with it); the same again switches it on. The key is dim while it’s bypassed. It isn’t kept: at power-on the finalizer is on.
• Presets: four, kept on the card with the finalizer, not in the scenes, so the master stays as the scenes change. Hold key 15: the keys of scenes 1-4 (the lower G# and A#, the upper C# and D#) show the presets, lit where one is stored, the one recalled last white. Holding key 15 changes nothing in the sound.
  • Recall: hold key 15 and press a scene key: the knobs glide to the preset, and every band is unmuted.
  • Save, copy and delete go as for scenes: hold key 15 and press the upper F#, G# or A#, which starts that mode for the presets rather than the scenes; let go of key 15 if you like. The scene keys show the presets in the mode’s colour (green, blue, red). Pick the preset (for a copy the one to copy, then where to), confirm with SHIFT: white for done, red if the card refused. While such a mode waits (or a scene’s), SHIFT is its confirm, never the bypass, even with key 15 still held.
  • An empty preset’s key blinks red when pressed, and the blank scene’s key does nothing while the presets show. Flipping to the settings page or opening the Loops page ends a preset’s save, copy or delete.

Finalizer LEDs and settings

• Its key is in the colour of the module the knobs show: Level white, EQ yellow, Comp cyan, Width blue. It’s never darker than a glow that lets the colour be seen, and it pulses brighter with the deepest gain reduction (a band’s or the limiter’s), at full from 12 dB; it flashes when pressed, white, or dark while it’s already bright. Dim while bypassed.
• Safety limiter: after VOLUME, every output has a fixed limiter that keeps it within full scale. It’s the only thing FRIZZ does to the level by itself, so it shows: key 15 turns red over everything while it limits, from 1 dB of limiting on and fully red from 3 dB, held 0.3 s so a short peak is seen. Red means turn something down: VOLUME, an effect’s Level, the finalizer’s Input or Loud. Loud’s own limiter keeps it from showing at VOLUME full.
• The knob LEDs are meters while the knobs rest (above, module by module); a knob you turn shows its value for a moment, then the meter again: Drive, Type, Loud, the characters and Depth from light blue (0%) to orange (100%); the knobs with a centre, Input and the EQ and Width bands, blue below it, white on it and orange above. Knobs 2 and 3 of Level and knob 4 of Comp always show their values. The output’s own meter stays VOLUME’s.
• Level: 0 dB at the input is an AUX signal about 7 dB below full scale, at the default input gain.
• Kept: the knobs are saved to FRIZZ/frizz_master.txt on the card 2 s after the last turn, a preset as you confirm it, and they come back at power-on. They’re not part of a scene. Without a card, or when the card can’t be written, the key blinks red 3 times instead, and FRIZZ tries again 2 s later, up to 3 times; the settings then last until power-off.
• LEDs: the key is white, yellow, cyan or blue, by its module; the knobs go light blue to orange, and those with a centre (Input, the EQ and Width bands) blue, white on it, orange.