The Airwindows Suite for Rack imports the airwindows collection into VCV Rack as a single module using an automated workflow. The single module contains all 300+ Airwindows effects, and is written to allow frequent updates as new effects get added to the collection. The module was written in collaboration between Chris from airwindows and BaconPaul from the surge team, with input from several other surge team members and also from the rack community.
This manual documents the Rack module, but does not document each individual effect. The effects are documented in the Airwindopedia but that documentation is also included in the plugin as a help tab in the module.
The module has three core sections. The FX selector display at the top, the FX parameter and modulation inputs in the center, and the stereo in and out jacks at the bottom. By default the module will choose the super-awesome space-reverb, "Galactic". Simply plug your inputs in, your outputs out, and listen to your sound drift away.
You can edit an effect parameter setting using the knobs, or you can modulate a parameter with the adjacent CV input scaled by the small knob bipolar attenuverter. Almost every parameter supports typein values, but those that dont have the typein supressed on the standard Rack widget menu.
No airwindow FX has more than 10 parameters, and the faceplate dynamically changes to show between 0 and 10 knobs. To avoid 'dangling' cables, the CV inputs stay displayed, but with a dimmed port, to indcate they are inactive.
You can change the effect one of two ways.
First, you can press the arrow buttons beside the effect name to walk through the effects in category and alphabetical order.
Second, you can click on the name of the effect or the category to open a parameter selector menu. This menu allows you to select effects by category:
The menu also has a search-by-name feature which allows you to type in a partial name of an effect and search across the suite.
Airwindows is a collection of 300+ effects, and each one is a unique piece of DSP code. Chris has documented each of them in a post when he releases them, and we programatically import those posts from the Airwindowpedia and make them available as a slide-out help overlay. Just press the "?" on the top of a panel to overlay the help text, and press it again to close it.
There are several other features of the module which may help you use it in your patches, all of which are on the main menu
By default, Airwindows runs a single instance of the effect and sums the input voltages to a monophonic signal. In many cases this is what you want, but in some, especially filters and accent effects, you may want to polyphonically apply and modulate the effect. If you choose "Polyphonic" in the menu, the module will create an instance of the effect per channel, and will use the CV inputs polyphonically if they have polyphonic modulators applied. This setting can increase CPU usage substantially for some effects, so use it with caution.
The Airwindows core DSP code is targeted for DAW plugin environments and as such processes on a block sample basis. The effects work with very small blocks, but also do some pre-block setup, so smaller blocks can more CPU taxing for some of the effects.
To allow you to select a tradeoff between higher latency (since a longer block size requires more pre-cached information before processing) and higher CPU (since a smaller block size will undertake a setup stage more frequently), you can select a power-of-2 block size between 4 and 64 in the main menu. The default is 4 samples.
By default, user actions can change the effect at any time, but rack randomization will only change parameters. Both of these are adjustable on a per-module basis.
I mean this is pretty obvious right? But we support both! This is a sticky collection wide setting.
By default the category menus are in alphabetical order. But Chris maintains the categorization in the Airwindopedia, where he lists the effects in a subjective "Quality" order. If you would rather present your menus in this order, select "Chris" order. This is a sticky collection wide setting.