VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
AND MANUAL

ZODIAC is a unique-sounding Virtual Instrument designed to provide composers

and producers with a collection of original sounds and instruments suitable for
film or TV scores, video games, and all types of ambient and experimental music.

NO synthesizers were used to create the instruments in ZODIAC. Instead, all instruments were
created from organic sources such as found sounds, sonic manipulations inspired by classic Musique
Concrete, Experimental and Avant Garde Music compositions, prepared or heavily processed musical
instruments, and audio recordings subjected to extreme sound design techniques.

ZODIAC features over 200 different instrument patches and Multis (over 118GB of wav data),
divided into seven categories:
Pads & Atmospheres Experimental Instruments
Melodic Instruments ZODIAC Kits
Bass Instruments Multis
Percussive Instruments

ZODIAC’S instruments range from beautiful and ethereal soundscapes to wildly inventive
percussion and mysterious, haunting, atonal and experimental sounds that defy easy
categorization. Search through ZODIAC'S patch folders, and you won’t find anything like a
regular bass, guitar, keyboard, or drum set. Instead, you’ll find a collection of sounds that are quite
unlike those made by any standard instrument.

NOT only does ZODIAC feature a constellation of ready -to-use instrument patches and Multis,
it's also a powerful sound-design VI. Use ZODIAC’S simple but versatile controls to dramatically
alter, sculpt, or tweak and customize sounds to fit your individual style. However, you don’t even
need to touch a single control to get a variety of sounds from ZODIAC’S preset patches.

ZODIAC is made for experimentation: hold down a key on many instrument patches and a sound
loops and morphs, revealing surprising musical timbres and harmonic strata. Play an instrument
one way and it has a percussive quality; play it another, and the notes expand into a pad or
atmosphere. Play a patch in one octave and it sounds dreamy and surreal; play it in another octave
and it behaves and sounds quite differently.

NO matter what soft synths, sound modules, or VIs you already own, ZODIAC will expand the
palette of sounds in your sonic tool box and add a unique character to your music.
 THE ZODIAC GUI
Despite its somewhat enigmatic appearance, ZODIAC'S Graphic User Interface (GUI)
is quite simple to use. Here's the key:

THE CONTROL BANKS

ON either side of the ZODIAC logo is a control bank consisting of SIX levers.
Under each lever is a single letter, which stand for the following:

(RIGHTHAND BANK)
(LEFTHAND BANK)
DELAY—the Delay controls:
AMP ENV—Amp Envelope controls: T Delay Time
A Attack D Delay Damping
D Decay P Delay Panning
S Sustain F Delay Feedback
R Release
B Bass
T Tuning (pitch) T Treble
R Reverb amount

THE LEVERS
NOTE that the four white -tipped levers on either side represent a grouping of related
controls, and have a range of 0 to 10.

NOTE also that the red-tipped levers represent controls not related to the white groups, and
that three of these have a range from -10 to +10.

USE command-click (MAC) or control-click (PC) to return any of the levers to the default setting
of zero.

THE REVERB WINDOW

THE window below the ZODIAC logo contains a drop-down menu, with a list of fifteen very
different-sounding Convolution Reverb IRs. Click on this window if you'd like to change the type
of reverb on the instrument being played. Note that the R(everb) lever to the left of the window
controls the amount of reverb.

CONCLUSION
THAT'S pretty much all you need to know—except what you are about to discover for yourself
by exploring the depths of the virtual instrument we call ZODIAC.
CREDITS
STEVE SECHI: Producer, Product Design, Sound Design
DAN BENNETT: Assistant Producer, Kontakt Scripting/Programming, Sound Design
PATTY SECHI: ZODIAC logo, wallpaper and manual design
RICK CHRISTY: 3-D Animation, good Karma
TOM CAMP, MIKE WHITEHEAD: Field Recordings
KOSTAS VAROTSIS, JEFF BOVA: Beta Testers

Original samples used in the Bertolozzi Bridge patch are from

Audio Library 01 of the Mid Hudson Bridge, Poughkeepsie, NY
© 2006 Blue Wings Press. Used with permission.

AFTERWARD
If you'd like to find out more about the history and theory behind some of the
types of sounds created for ZODIAC, here's a short list of recommended books:

EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC, by Michael Nyman

THE NEW MUSIC, by Reginald Smith Brindle
IN SEARCH OF A CONCRETE MUSIC, by Pierre Schaeffer
THE REST IS NOISE, by Alex Ross

For more information on the works of composer, Joseph Bertolozzi:

http://josephbertolozzi.com/bridge-music-2/
https://www.facebook.com/eiffeltowermusic
http://josephbertolozzi.com/eiffel-tower-music/