RUBATO
Manual de funcionament
Rubato is a slice-and-loop performance sampler. It records audio into an internal buffer, slices it on transients, and plays it back through three pitch engines with polyphonic or monophonic voicing, a dual-mode looper, a stutter engine, tape-style character controls, an amp envelope and a multimode filter. Extensive CV / Gate I/O and Combinator automation make every section performable.
This manual documents every control. If you are new to the device, read the Getting Started guide first.
Acabatview & signal flow
Audio entering IN L/R is written to an internal buffer by the recorder. When a take finishes, a transient detector scans the buffer and stores a set of slice boundaries. Note events (from MIDI or the slice-select CV) trigger voices that read the buffer through the selected pitch engine. Each voice then passes through the loop logic, the stutter engine, the character stage (Drag / Wow / Scatter), the amp envelope and finally the filter before reaching OUT L/R.
Signal order, briefly:
| IN ® Recorder ® Buffer | Slicer ® Voices ® Pitch engine | Loop ® Stutter ® Character | Envelope ® Filter ® OUT |
Performance mode — PERF (Fixed vs Real-Time)
PERF sets how held notes respond to knob changes. In Fixed (the display shows FIX) a voice captures its settings when the note starts and keeps them. In Real-Time (RT) the engine re-reads the performance controls — speed, direction, character and loop points — every processing block, so sustained notes follow the knobs as you move them. Use Fixed for stable, predictable playback and Real-Time for hands-on performance and automation sweeps.
La pantalla
La forma d'ona view draws the recorded buffer with the play region and the live playhead. Markers are colour-coded: green = region start, red = playhead, amber = region end. Detected slice boundaries are drawn as vertical divisions. Two status lines below decode the current state.
Top line — state
| Camp | Significat |
| READY / ARMED / REC | Recorder state. ARMED waits for the quantize point; REC is capturing. |
| PITCH / SLICE | The active play mode (set by PLAY / SLICE). |
| TAPE / TIME / PRO | The selected pitch engine. In Slice mode this area instead shows slice information such as the auto-slice count and current slice. |
| LOOP / 1-SHOT / XFADE | Loop mode, at the right edge. |
Bottom line — transport & toggles
| Camp | Significat |
| POLY / MONO | Voice mode group. |
| FIX / RT | Performance mode (PERF). |
| n/n (e.g. 10/4) | Record length in bars/beats. |
| tracció davantera / retrocedir | Playback direction (DIR). |
| Xn.n (e.g. X1.0) | Playback speed (SPEED). |
| Camp | Significat |
| RT | Loop-length real-time mode is engaged. |
| SNAP | Loop-length updates snap immediately rather than at the loop seam. |
| QNT | Record quantize is on. |
Greyed fields are inactive; lit fields are engaged. The display fixes the slice readout so each of the three pitch engines reports correctly — TAPE, TIME and PRO each show their own label.
Gravació
The recorder writes incoming audio into the buffer that every other section reads from. Controls live in the brown panel at the bottom centre.
| Control | Què fa |
| IN / REC | Input/record indicator. Lights while a signal is present and during capture. |
| LONGITUD | How much audio to capture, in musical units (bars/beats). Recording stops automatically when this length is reached. |
| REC | Arms and starts recording. With Record Quantize on, capture begins at the next quantize boundary so the take lands in time. |
| CLR | Clears the buffer and the slice set, returning the device to an empty state. |
| DESFER | Reverts the most recent recording, restoring the previous buffer. |
| REC Q | Record Quantize on/off. When on, recording start is aligned to the grid. |
| Q SIZE | The quantize resolution used by Record Quantize. |
| Workflow note Set LENGTH before arming so the take is the right size, and use REC Q when recording from a running sequence so the downbeat lines up. UNDO and CLR let you iterate quickly without re-patching. |
|
Tallar
After a take, Rubato divides the buffer into slices at detected transients. Slices are what Slice mode plays, what the slice CVs address, and what the looper and stutter operate within.
| Control | Què fa |
| LLESCA | Selects Slice play mode (as opposed to Pitch). When lit, keys and the slice CVs address individual slices. |
| LLESCES | Sets how the buffer is divided — the working number of slices. |
| TRANS | Transient sensitivity. Higher values detect more transients and create more slices; lower values produce fewer, longer slices. |
| ESMOLIR | Slice onset fade. A short fade-in at the start of every slice (squared response, up to ~16 ms) that de-clicks the attack. Most useful when the amp Attack is at zero. |
| OBJECTIU | Retarget crossfade. The crossfade length used when a CV live-retargets which slice is playing under a held note. At zero the slice change snaps instantly; higher values blend the outgoing and incoming slice for click-free scrubbing (active in Tape mode). |
The detector caps the slice count at the engine maximum, so very high sensitivity on a long take simply fills up to that limit. The waveform display shows every slice boundary so you can see the division you are playing.
The playback engine
Play mode — PLAY / SLICE
Pitch treats the buffer as a single instrument: every key plays the whole region, transposed relative to ROOT.
Slice maps the detected slices across the keyboard from the root upward (and onto the slice CVs), so you can re-sequence or finger-drum the material.
Pitch engine — PITCH (Tape / Time / Pro)
The pitch engine determines how transposition and speed changes are rendered:
- Tape — varispeed. Pitch and speed are linked exactly like tape; lowest CPU, and the home of the tape character controls. Reverse, drag and the loop crossfade all behave most naturally here.
- Time — time-stretch / pitch independent. Pitch and speed can move separately using a granular engine.
- Pro — the highest-fidelity stretch engine for clean transposition and stretching of tonal material, at the most CPU.
Region, root, speed & direction
| Control | Què fa |
| START / END | Trim the played region within the buffer (the green and amber markers). |
| ARREL | The note that plays the material at its original pitch and the anchor for slice mapping. |
| FORMULARI | Formant control for the Time / Pro engines — shifts timbre independently of pitch. |
| DENS | Grain density for the Time / Pro engines (Character / Smooth / Ultra). More grains = smoother stretch, fewer = more character. |
| VELOCITAT | Playback rate. In Tape this also moves pitch; in Time / Pro it is independent. |
| DIR | Playback direction, forward or reverse. |
| PAN S | Pan spread across simultaneous voices for a wider stereo image. |
Voices & output
| Control | Què fa |
| VEU | Voice mode. Poly plays multiple notes at once; Mono plays one note at a time; Legato/Porta variants reuse a single voice so overlapping notes glide rather than retrigger. |
| PORTA | Portamento time — the glide between pitches in the mono/legato voice modes. |
| VOL | Output level. |
Mono, Legato & the slice CVs
The slice-select and slice-offset CVs only retarget the voice in Mono or Legato modes, because there is a single active voice to move. In Poly each note holds its own slice. Choose a mono mode when you want to scrub or sequence slices under a sustained note.
Bucle
The looper repeats a zone at the end of the played region. LEN sets where the loop-back point sits (the loop length), snapped internally to a quiet zero-crossing for clean repeats. MODE selects the loop behaviour:
| MODE | Comportament |
| Off (1-SHOT) | No loop — the region plays once and the voice releases. |
| Bucle | Repeats the zone with a hard wrap, smoothed by a short fixed de-click fade. Keeps a tight, rhythmic feel. The loop XFADE knob has no effect here. |
| Loop X-Fade | Crossfades the tail of the loop into its head over a length set by the loop XFADE knob, for a seamless, sustained loop with no audible repeat point. |
| Control | Què fa |
| LEN | Loop length / position of the loop-back point inside the region. |
| XFADE | Loop crossfade length. Only audible in Loop X-Fade mode; capped at half the loop-zone length, so short loops limit it automatically. |
| RT LEN | Puts loop length into a real-time mode so it can be changed live, updating cleanly as the loop plays. |
| RT | Real-time loop tracking. With SNAP off, loop-length changes take effect at the loop seam (smooth); with SNAP on they apply immediately. |
If the loop XFADE knob seems to do nothing
Check that MODE is set to Loop X-Fade, not plain Loop. The crossfade length is ignored in plain Loop by design.
Tartamudeig
The stutter engine re-triggers a small window of the current playback for rolls, glitches and beat-repeat effects. It runs on top of normal playback and can be engaged from the panel button or the stutter gate CV.
| Control | Què fa |
| Tartamudeig | Engages the stutter engine on the active voice(s). |
| WIN (Size) | Window size — the fraction of the region used as the repeating mini-loop. Smaller windows give faster, finer rolls. Captured when stutter engages. |
| TARIFA | Stutter playback speed within the window. Modulated live, so it can be swept while the stutter runs. |
| XFADE | Stutter crossfade — smooths the wrap at the window boundary and the transitions in and out of stutter to avoid clicks. |
Both Window/Size and Rate have dedicated mod-CV inputs on the back panel. Size sets the window for stutters that engage after the CV is present; Rate modulates continuously while a stutter is sounding.
Character & modulation
These controls add analogue/tape-style movement and texture. They are most characterful in the Tape pitch engine.
| Control | Què fa |
| Arrossegueu | Tape-drag. Displaces the read position like a slipping tape, smearing and thickening the sound; at higher amounts the playhead wanders into neighbouring buffer audio for an authentic drift. |
| Vaja! | Wow & flutter — slow pitch modulation that emulates tape transport instability, from gentle warble up to seasick depth. |
| SCAT (Scatter) | Scatter / saturation character that randomises the read position and colours the tone for grittier, less static playback. |
DRAG, WOW and SCAT each have additive mod-CV inputs on the back panel, so an LFO or envelope can animate them. CV is summed with the knob and clamped to the legal range.
Envelope & filter
Amp sobre
| Control | Què fa |
| ATAC | Fade-in time at note-on. At zero, slices rely on the slice FADE control for de-clicking. |
| REL | Release time after note-off. |
Filtre multimode
| Control | Què fa |
| TALLADA | Freqüència de tall del filtre. |
| RESO | Resonance / emphasis at the cutoff. |
| ENV | Amount of filter envelope applied to the cutoff (positive sweep). |
| DECADÈNCIA | Decay time of the filter envelope. |
| TIPUS | Filter type — low-pass, band-pass or high-pass. |
| Sound-design tip A short filter DECAY with a healthy ENV amount gives each slice a percussive ‘pluck’; pair it with RESO for acid-style movement, then add a touch of WOW for tape feel. |
|
CV / Gate & the back panel
Every performance section can be driven by control voltage. The back panel carries the audio jacks, gate inputs, modulation CV inputs and slice CVs.
Audio & gates
| Control | Què fa |
| A L/R | Audio input to the recorder. |
| SORTIDA L/R | Sortida d'àudio principal. |
| GATE / NOTE | Trigger and pitch CV for playing the engine from a CV source. |
| REC / CLR | Gate inputs to start recording and to clear the buffer. |
| STUTR | Gate input that engages the stutter engine. |
Modulation CV inputs
| Control | Què fa |
| TERRA | Selects the pitch engine (Tape / Time / Pro) by voltage — overrides the panel switch when patched. |
| JUGAR | Selects play mode (Pitch / Slice) by voltage. |
| DRAG / WOW / SCAT | Additive modulation of the matching character knobs. |
| SIZE / RATE | Additive modulation of stutter Window/Size and Rate. |
| START / END / SPEED / PORTA / DIR / ATK / REL | Modulation inputs for the corresponding playback and envelope controls. |
| XFADE / LEN | Loop crossfade and loop length modulation. |
Slice CVs
| Control | Què fa |
| SEL (Select) | 0–1 V selects a slice directly across the whole set, overriding the keyboard. A rising ramp steps through slices like a sequencer. |
| OFF (Offset) | Shifts the selected/played slice up or down, centred at the midpoint for no shift — scrub around a base slice with a second CV. |
| COMPTE | Slice-count CV output, reflecting the current number of slices. |
| HEAD / VOL / V1–V3 | Playhead and level CV, plus per-voice outputs for patching Rubato into the rest of your rack. |
Selector CVs (PITCH, PLAY) and the slice CVs are read per processing block, which is ideal for sequenced and LFO-rate modulation. The slice select / offset CVs act on the single active voice in Mono or Legato modes.
Automation & the Combinator
All of Rubato’s parameters are available as automation lanes in the sequencer and as targets in the Combinator and on a remote control surface, organised into logical groups (Recording, Playback, Slicing, Performance, Sound Design). The trigger buttons — Record, Clear, Undo and Stutter — are exposed as 0/1 targets, so a Combinator button or a control-surface key can fire them remotely. Assign them like any other parameter from the host’s automation or Combinator modulation routing.
Performing with automation
Switch PERF to Real-Time so sustained notes follow automated changes to speed, direction, loop points and character in real time rather than freezing at note-on values.
Consells i resolució de problemes
| Símptoma | Prova això |
| No sound when I play | Confirm a take has been recorded (waveform visible) and the buffer isn’t cleared. Check VOL and the filter CUTOFF. |
| The loop XFADE knob does nothing | Set MODE to Loop X-Fade; it is ignored in plain Loop. |
| Slice CV doesn’t move the slice | Use Mono or Legato voice mode — the slice CVs act on a single active voice. |
| Clicks at slice starts | Raise the slice FADE control, or add a little amp ATAC. |
| Slice changes click when scrubbing | Raise TARGET (retarget crossfade); it is most effective in the Tape engine. |
| Recording doesn’t start on the beat | Enable REC Q and set Q SIZE so capture aligns to the grid. |
| Transpose sounds artifact | Try the Time or Pro pitch engine instead of Tape, and adjust DENS. |
Referència de control
A quick map of the front-panel controls by section.
Registre
| Control | Què fa |
| IN/REC | Input / record indicator. |
| LONGITUD | Capture length. |
| REC / CLR / UNDO | Record, clear buffer, undo last take. |
| REC Q / Q SIZE | Record quantize on/off and resolution. |
Slice & play
| Control | Què fa |
| PERF / PITCH / PLAY | Performance mode, pitch engine, play mode. |
| SLICE / SLICES / TRANS | Slice mode, slice count, transient sensitivity. |
| FADE / TARGET | Slice onset fade, CV-retarget crossfade. |
| FORM / DENS | Formant and grain density (Time/Pro). |
| START / END / ROOT | Play region and root note. |
Voices, character & output
| Control | Què fa |
| VOICE / PORTA | Voice mode and portamento. |
| SPEED / DIR | Playback rate and direction. |
| DRAG / WOW / SCAT | Tape character: drag, wow & flutter, scatter. |
| PAN S / VOL | Voice pan spread and output level. |
Loop, stutter & filter
| Control | Què fa |
| LEN / MODE / XFADE | Loop length, loop mode, loop crossfade. |
| RT LEN / RT | Real-time loop length and tracking. |
| STUTTER / WIN / RATE / XFADE | Stutter engage, window size, rate, crossfade. |
| ATTACK / REL | Amp sobre. |
| CUTOFF / RESO / ENV / DECAY / TYPE | Multimode filter. |
SplitFire Rubato — Operation Manual. Manufactured in France by Doodov. All controls and behaviour described reflect the current device version.
Documents/Recursos
 | Rubato Multiphonics CV-3 Modules |
Referències
- Manual d'usuarimanual.tools