PHY5 Synth and PHY5 Fx · version 1.0.1
Download the installer from your Moonbase library (the same link as in your purchase email).
PHY5-1.0.1-macOS.pkg. In Customize you can pick what to install:
VST3 and Audio Unit versions of PHY5 Synth and PHY5 Fx, and the standalone application. The installer is signed
and notarised by Apple.PHY5-1.0.1-Windows.exe. Windows may show a SmartScreen warning because
the installer is not yet code-signed: click More info, then Run anyway.| macOS | Windows | |
|---|---|---|
| VST3 | /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3 | C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3 |
| Audio Unit | /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components | — |
| Standalone (Synth) | /Applications | Start menu, Phi |
Then rescan plug-ins in your DAW if it does not show them straight away. The two plug-ins are PHY5 Synth (an instrument) and PHY5 Fx (an audio effect).
The first time you open PHY5, the activation window appears and the plug-in stays silent until it is activated.
PHY5 needs to reach the licence server from time to time to check the licence. If it cannot for a long time, connect the computer once and open the plug-in.
No MIDI keyboard? Use your DAW's on-screen keyboard. For the standalone application on Windows, a virtual MIDI cable such as loopMIDI together with a free on-screen keyboard (for example VMPK) works well; in the standalone window, open its settings and tick the MIDI input you want.
PHY5 Fx resonates an audio signal that you send to it, and it needs MIDI to know which note to resonate. Most DAWs send MIDI to instruments but not to audio effects, so this one needs a routing step that depends on your DAW:
If you only want the instrument, with its own built-in exciter, use PHY5 Synth: it does not need any routing and is the same sound as the web demo.
~/Library/Application Support/PHY5/Presets on macOS,
%APPDATA%\PHY5\Presets on Windows.| Symptom | Check |
|---|---|
| No sound | Is the plug-in activated (no activation window)? Is MIDI arriving (the voice counter moves when you play)? Is a preset loaded and the track unmuted? |
| Voice counter stays at 0 | PHY5 Synth: the track is not an instrument track or MIDI is routed elsewhere. PHY5 Fx: see section 4. |
| Plug-in not listed | Rescan plug-ins in your DAW. Restart the DAW; on macOS the system also checks Audio Units the first time. |
| High CPU use | Lower Max Voices and the number of strings (NUM), turn Oversampling off, or turn off unused filters and the grains. |
| Activation window comes back | The licence could not be read or checked. Make sure the computer is online once, then reopen. Contact us if it persists. |
Still stuck? Write to contact@diophi.com with your DAW, operating system, plug-in format (VST3 or AU) and what you see.
PHY5 is a physical-modelling instrument: a burst of energy excites a vibrating body (a string or a tube), and the result goes through an output stage. Its five tabs follow that path:
| Tab | Role |
|---|---|
| Exciter | The initial energy that feeds the instrument: two sources and two input filters. |
| Grains | Scatters the energy source with a granular stage and a feedback loop. |
| Body | The vibrating body: resonance, strings, filters in the loop, pitch and MIDI behaviour. |
| Output | Diffusion of the sound: filter, saturation, gain, limiter, oversampling, voices. |
| Mod | Not part of the sound itself: LFOs, envelopes and mappings used to modulate parameters over time. |
Hover over any control for its description. Most controls can be modulated: the modulation tiles at the bottom of the window are the sources, and you drag a tile onto a control to create a route (the Mod tab lists and edits them).
PHY5 Fx has the same tabs plus the controls tied to an audio input (input gain, dry/wet and a gate); in PHY5 Synth the input is replaced by the internal exciter.
EXCITER 1 and EXCITER 2, two independent sources:
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| WAVE | Waveform of the source: ∅ (off), White, Pink or Sine (a sine at the pitch of the note). Source 2 is off by default. |
| Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release | Envelope of the source. With Sustain at 0 (default) you get a plucked burst that dies away over Decay; above 0 the source stays active while the key is held. |
| Level | Level of the source, from −72 to +24 dB (silent at the very bottom). Modulatable; route Velocity here for velocity-sensitive plucks. |
Input Filter and Input Filter 2 condition the excitation in series. Each has an on/off switch (off means it is not computed), Mix, a Mode (Bandpass, Allpass, Disperser, Lowpass, Highpass, Comb), Freq and Width. In Lowpass/Highpass, Width sets the resonance; in Comb, Freq is the fundamental of the comb and Width its depth. RESULT draws the last plucked burst.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| AMOUNT | Dry/wet of the granular stage: 0 = no grains, 1 = grains only. |
| WINDOW | Grain length. One grain per window, so grains scroll even at Pitch 0. |
| PITCH | Pitch shift of the grains, in semitones. |
| Reverse | Probability that a grain plays backwards: 0 = always forward, 1 = always reversed. |
| Blur | Blur of the grains: a less metallic texture. |
| Spread | Stereo spread of the grains. |
| Delay, Feedback | The granular feedback loop (shimmer): how long the loop is and how much of the output is fed back. |
The Feedback Filter shapes what is fed back, with the same controls as the other filters.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| DECAY | Ring time of the string, in seconds (up to about 19 s). |
| DAMP, Damp Mode | Damping: higher is duller and shorter. Legacy: a loss per pass of the string, so higher notes decay faster. Physical: the high-frequency decay time relative to Decay, the same for every note. |
| TYPE | Resonator: 0 = String, 0.5 = Chaos (random polarity flips), 1 = Tube (sounds an octave lower). Smooth and Rate soften and slow the random flips. |
| Pickup position, depth, spread | Where along the string the sound is picked up. Depth 0 (default) is a plain string; raising it notches harmonics (at the middle of the string the even harmonics disappear). Spread uses different positions left and right for a cheap stereo image. |
| Out tap | Read the string at the end of the delay (default, one period of latency) or where the loop is written (no latency). |
| Inharmonicity | String stiffness: 0 = perfectly harmonic; small values give a guitar or piano string, large values bells and metal. |
| Loop Filter | A filter inside the string loop, with a switch, Mix, Mode, Freq and Width. Keytrack makes its centre follow the played note and stay in tune. Filter Scale switches Mix between a plain dry/wet and a decay ratio. |
| POLYCHORD: NUM, DETUNE, Spread, Bridge | 1 to 3 strings per note (piano or chorus effect), their detune in cents and stereo spread. Bridge couples the strings so the attack dies quickly and a beating tail remains; useful values are in the first 10–20 %. |
| PITCH: VIBRATO, Speed, PORTAMENTO, BEND, Bend Range | Vibrato depth and speed, glide time between notes, a fixed bend in semitones and the range of the pitch wheel. |
| MIDI: Release, Vel Bright, Sympathetic, Note Mode | Release after note-off. Vel Bright: soft notes get a darker attack, hard notes a brighter one. Sympathetic: a new note also re-excites the held ones. Note Mode: what happens when a sounding note is played again. |
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Output Filter | A final filter with the same controls as the other filters. |
| SAT: Curve, DRIVE | Saturation. Linear is none, Tanh is soft, Hard Clip is abrupt, Foldback folds the signal back for a metallic tone. Drive raises the level into the curve; peak level stays constant, only the timbre changes. |
| GAIN | Final output level. |
| Limiter, Ceiling | An output peak limiter after Gain: nothing goes above the ceiling. |
| Oversampling | Off, 2× or 4×: reduces aliasing at the price of CPU. |
| Max Voices | 1, 4, 8 or 16 simultaneous notes. Fewer voices use less CPU; 1 is monophonic (last note wins). |
Modulation sources: up to 4 LFOs (waveform, speed, depth, retrigger), 2 envelopes, 2 envelope followers (they follow the level of the sound: Rise, Fall, Gain), plus Velocity and Pitch of the played note. Velocity and Pitch have a mapping with In Min / In Max, Out Min / Out Max and a Curve.