AURA-8

01Welcome

AURA-8 starts where wavetable synths usually stop. A wavetable gives you the raw tone. Then an eight-tap harmonic stage picks out overtones, a transistor wave folder adds bite, and two filters shape what's left. A rack of nine effects and a Euclidean arpeggiator finish the job.

Each note gets its own oscillators, filters and envelopes. Play a chord and every voice moves on its own.

Around that core sit three envelopes, three LFOs, four macros, a 24-slot modulation matrix and a MIDI MAP for your hardware controls.

02Installing

AURA-8 runs on macOS 10.15 or later (Apple silicon and Intel) and Windows 10 and 11, as a plugin in your DAW and as a standalone app.

Run the installer, then open your DAW. If AURA-8 doesn't appear in your instrument list, ask your DAW to rescan its plugins. AURA-8 is an instrument: load it on an instrument or MIDI track, not as an audio effect.

In the standalone app, the AUDIO / MIDI button at the bottom picks your audio output and MIDI keyboard. Every MIDI keyboard you plug in is switched on by itself, including one you plug in while AURA-8 is open. Use AUDIO / MIDI to choose your audio output, or to switch a keyboard off.

03Activating your licence / free trial

AURA-8 comes with a 14-day free trial. Everything works, and there is nothing to sign up for. The first time you open AURA-8, a short welcome card explains how the trial works.

To unlock AURA-8 for good, buy it at sequoiasynths.com. Your licence key appears on the thank-you page and comes by email, with a .seqlicence file.

1. Open AURA-8 and click the trial status at the bottom of the window, or open the gear menu and choose Licence / activate...
2. Paste your key (it starts with SEQ-), or drop the .seqlicence file onto the panel.
3. That's it: AURA-8 is unlocked on this computer, in every project, and every open AURA-8 window unlocks at once.

AURA-8 checks your key on your computer. It needs no internet connection and no account, and it never sends anything anywhere. Your licences are kept in ~/Library/Application Support/Sequoia Synthesizers/Licences on a Mac and %APPDATA%\Sequoia Synthesizers\Licences on Windows. Keep your .seqlicence file somewhere safe: it activates AURA-8 on your other computers too.

04Quick start

Five steps from loading AURA-8 to your first sound. For a printable overview, download the AURA-8 Quick Guide (PDF).

1. Load AURA-8 and play a few notes. Click the preset name to pick from 200 sounds by category, or use the ‹ › arrows (or the left and right arrow keys) to step through them.
2. Start clean. Choose Init at the bottom of the preset menu. Every control goes back to its starting point; every arp lane steps with the arp and the echo’s synced time starts at 1/8.
3. Turn WT POS in OSC A to scan through the wavetable, and pick a new TABLE from the menu above the display.
4. Shape it. Turn up harmonic MIX, push CALI DRIVE, then sweep the filter's CUTOFF.
5. Make it move. Drag the LFO 1 chip from the row above the keys onto WT POS. Drag the dot on the coloured arc to set how far it moves.

Want a surprise instead? Press RANDOMIZE. ‹ takes you back to the last one.

05The window

Header

The gear and the welcome window

The gear at the top-left of the window opens the settings menu. It holds Open the manual (this page), Window size..., Fit window to screen, Welcome screen, Help tips (on or off, and bring back the ones you closed), Licence / activate..., Show my presets folder, the sequoiasynths.com website and About AURA-8.

The welcome window opens by itself the first time AURA-8 is opened on your computer. It shows the name, a short welcome, the version and a button for this manual. Click GET STARTED (or press Return) to carry on; the first time, that takes you on to activation. It does not come back by itself, but you can open it any time from the gear, under Welcome screen.

The LED ladder

The meter in the top-right corner is a ladder of square, domed LEDs: one row for the left channel and one for the right. It shows the output level, from −24 dB on the left to +6 dB on the right, with a label under each LED: +6, +3, 0, −3, −6, −9, −12, −15, −18, −21 and −24. Green LEDs are comfortable, yellow (−3 and 0) is getting hot, and red (+3 and +6) is over. The output limiter keeps the peaks just under 0 dB. The word CLIP shows above the ladder for a moment when the output reaches full level.

The other level lights use the same square, domed LEDs, each keeping its own meaning: the COMPRESSOR's GR meter (how many dB it takes off), SOUNDING (how many voices are playing) and the controller bar in the MIDI MAP sheet.

The SYNTH page

The top row holds OSC A, OSC B, HARMONICS, CALI with the MACROS under it, and FILTER. Under the oscillators, one strip each: OSC A UNISON + WARP and OSC B UNISON + WARP. The bottom row holds ENVELOPES, LFO, VOICE and FILTER 2.

Along the bottom

• The chip row: one chip for each modulation source. See Modulation.
• The keyboard: play notes with the mouse. Lit keys are sounding.
• The help bar: explains whatever the mouse is over. On the right it shows MIDI IN (the notes coming in right now) and how many voices are playing.
• PANIC stops every note at once and lets go of anything the arp's LATCH is holding.
• INSTRUMENT LOOK / STUDIO LOOK switches between the two looks. See The two looks.

When you click a modulation chip, the page tabs show how many controls it moves on each page, for example FX • 2.

Working with controls

• Drag a knob up or down to turn it, or use the mouse wheel. Hold Shift with the wheel for fine steps.
• Values on hover. Under each knob and fader you see only its name. Point at it or turn it and the name changes to its value; move away and the name comes back.
• Double-click a knob, fader or number field to reset it.
• Right-click a knob to step it back (up to 10 times). Each knob remembers its own last 10 settings; loading a preset starts them afresh. On a knob with modulation, a right-click removes a modulation instead: the one whose arc or dot you click on, otherwise the newest. Right-click again for the next one; ⌘Z brings it back.
• Shift + right-click a knob for Undo/Redo, its modulation routings (remove or invert each one), Map to MIDI, Remove MIDI mapping and Reset to default.
• Right-click a panel title to lock that panel against RANDOMIZE. A locked panel shows LOCKED by its title.
• The window can be resized from half to twice its normal size. It keeps its shape.

06Oscillators and wavetables

A wavetable is a row of 64 single-cycle waves, called frames. WT POS scans through them, so one knob can turn a soft tone into a bright, buzzy one. It's the heart of the sound and the first thing to modulate.

OSC A

OSC A has the big wavetable display. The lit frame is the one you hear now. Its ON button switches it off, so you can hear OSC B on its own.

OSC B

A second wavetable oscillator with the same controls in a compact panel. Switch it on with its ON button. OSC B also holds NOISE, white noise added before the harmonic stage. It sounds great into the COMB filter.

Layers

Each oscillator can stack up to three more wavetables inside it. The tabs under the display pick a layer: LAYER 1 is the oscillator itself, LAYER 2–4 are the extras (on OSC B they read 1–4).

• Every layer is a separate oscillator with its own TABLE, ERA, WT POS, FINE, LEVEL, OCT and SEMI. Layers tune ±24 semitones.
• The dot on a tab switches that layer on or off. The bar along the foot of the tab is its level: drag it sideways.
• Touch any control of a switched-off layer and it switches on, so you can hear it.

UNISON + WARP

Under each oscillator, one strip: stack the oscillator up for a big, wide sound, and bend its wave with two warps. Everything here is off at first, so every preset sounds as it always did.

DETUNE, BLEND and both AMOUNT knobs take chips like any knob. More unison copies leave fewer notes for chords: 64 copies of each oscillator in all, so UNISON up to 4 keeps all 16 notes, 8 keeps 8 and 16 keeps 4. The SOUNDING display on the VOICE panel shows the limit.

The 100 wavetables

Ten families of ten: Analog, Classic Digital, Resonant, Vocal, FM, Additive, Glass & Bells, West Coast, Grit and Aura.

Your own wavetables

• Drop an audio file on the wavetable display. A wavetable file (single-cycle frames end to end) loads as it is. Any other sound is turned into a 64-frame wavetable from its pitch, so use a steady, sustained note.
• Or open the TABLE menu and choose Load a wavetable or sound…. WAV, AIFF, FLAC, MP3 and OGG files work.
• Loaded files are copied to your wavetables folder and listed under YOUR WAVETABLES in the menu, one click away next time. Open your wavetables folder shows it.

07ERA

ERA decides how a wavetable is played back. Each oscillator and each layer has its own ERA switch, so you can mix eras in one sound.

08Harmonics

The harmonic stage makes eight copies of the oscillator, from the fundamental (1×) up to the 8th harmonic (8×), and a scanner picks which ones you hear. The display shows the eight taps.

CUSTOM

Switch on CUSTOM and the eight bars start from the current CENTRE and WIDTH shape, so the sound doesn't jump. Then:

• Drag each bar up or down, or drag across the bars to draw a shape.
• Double-click a bar to reset it.
• CENTRE and WIDTH are dimmed while CUSTOM is on. CLOCK and the gates keep working and follow the loudest bar.
• Each level, H1 to H8, can be modulated like any knob.

09The folders: CALI and WEST FOLD

AURA-8 has two folders in one panel. Pick one with the CALI | FOLD tabs at the top right of the panel. Both can be on at once: CALI comes first, then WEST FOLD.

CALI

CALI is a transistor wave folder. Push it and the wave folds back on itself, adding bright, rich harmonics in the West Coast tradition.

WEST FOLD

A second folder in the West-coast style. Where CALI shapes like a hot transistor, WEST FOLD folds the wave back on itself again and again: smooth, bell-like and singing at first, then glassy and wild. The small display shows its curve: the faint line is your clean wave, the coloured line is what the folder makes of it.

10Filters

FILTER

Filter 1, with nine characters to choose from. Pick one in the MODEL menu at the top right of the FILTER panel. The small display above the knobs shows the response of the model you picked, measured from the real filter, live.

The nine filter models

FILTER 2

Choose a TYPE: OFF, VOWEL or COMB. While it's OFF, the controls stay visible but faded, like a bypassed effect.

VOWEL

• Drag the dot on the pad. Left to right morphs A, E, I, O, U (VOWEL). Upward goes from a human voice to nasal, then a metallic throat (THROAT).
• RESO sets how sharp the vowel peaks are.
• ORBIT makes the dot circle around where you put it. SPEED sets how fast it goes round (0.02–8 Hz). ORBIT at 0 keeps it still.
• To modulate the pad, drop a chip on its left half for VOWEL or its right half for THROAT.

COMB

A tuned comb that turns tones into strings, marimbas and gongs. The picture shows the harmonics it rings at.

• FEEDBK sets how long it rings and sharpens the peaks. Negative values give hollow, odd-harmonic tones.
• DAMP goes from bright glass to dark wood.
• EXCITE adds a click of noise on every note to strike the comb.

Both types

MIX sets how much of filter 2 you hear. ROUTE puts the two filters one after the other (SERIAL) or side by side (PARALLEL).

11Envelopes, LFOs and Voice

ENVELOPES

Three envelopes, picked with the tabs: ENV 1 shapes the volume, ENV 2 is pre-wired to the filter, ENV 3 is free for anything. They are the same as the ENV chips in the row below.

Each one is AHDSR, with an optional second attack:

Chips on the sliders. Drop a chip on any of the A, H, D, A2, S, R sliders (or any slider in AURA-8) and it is routed, up to three per slider like a knob. Each routing shows as a thin lane beside the slot in the chip's colour, with its two dots: drag the top one for how far it reaches up and the bottom one for how far down, each on its own. A small dot rides the lane to show where the chip has the slider now, and the slider's cap moves with it (a small tick beside the slot keeps your setting). The envelope picture draws the moved curve too, in the chip's colour, over the one you set. Right-click a slider to invert or remove a routing.

Drag the dots on the curve or use the faders below it. The peak sets attack, the end of the flat top sets hold, the first corner sets decay and sustain, and the last dot sets release. Double-click a dot to reset it. A short attack (a few milliseconds, which sounds instant) is drawn straight up; drag the attack dot to the right for a slower rise, or all the way left for none. ENV 1 also has VELO: how much playing harder makes notes louder.

LFO

Three LFOs, picked with the tabs. The display draws two cycles of the real wave as you shape it.

VOICE

12Modulation

CHIPS are Sequoia's exclusive drag-and-drop modulation. Drag any chip onto any parameter and it moves that parameter. No menus, no matrix to set up first.

The chip row above the keyboard holds the modulation sources. Each chip shows a live drawing of its source and a fill that rises and falls with it.

VELO is how hard you play, WHEEL is the mod wheel, PRESS is aftertouch, RANDOM is a new value on every note, and H GATE is the harmonic gate from CLOCK.

Routing

1. Drag a chip onto any knob or slider. A dashed ring invites the drop. Let go and the routing is made. (On a slider the routing is a lane beside the slot with the same two dots: see Envelopes.)
2. Set the depth. A coloured arc appears around the knob. Drag the dots at either end to set where the modulation starts and ends. Each dot moves on its own, in either direction: the knob and the other dot stay where they are. Only if you pull a dot past the knob does the knob follow it. So an LFO can swing a long way up and only a little way down. A small dot rides the arc to show where the source has the knob right now. A new two-way chip (LFO, KEY, RANDOM) starts with its two dots evenly either side of the knob; right-click the knob and choose Mirror the two ends to even them up again.
3. Up to three per knob. Each knob takes up to three modulations; drop a fourth chip and the help bar asks you to remove one first (Shift + right-click the knob). With two or three, they stack in the order you added them, the first one closest to the knob. The dots of stacked arcs never sit on top of each other, so you can always grab the one you want. Where space is tight, a knob with two or three arcs draws its dial a little smaller to make room, and grows back when you remove them. Both dots of every arc can be automated from your DAW (Mod 1 Amount and Mod 1 Amount Down, and so on).
4. Change or remove it. Right-click the knob to remove a modulation straight away (the arc you click on, otherwise the newest; right-click again for the next). Or Shift + right-click the knob: each routing is listed with Remove and Invert.

The knob keeps its own setting; the modulation moves it from there. Routings are saved with your project and in presets.

Click a chip

Click a chip once and every control it moves lights up, on every page, and the help bar lists them. Click it again to stop. Clicking an ENV, LFO or MACRO chip also opens its controls. On the MOD, ARP and FX pages they pop up as a card over the page you're on.

The MOD page

• PERFORMANCE MACROS: four big macro knobs. See Macros.
• SOURCE MONITOR: a live scope for every source, including KEY, MOD WHEEL, PRESSURE, SLIDE (MPE), HARM STEP and ACCENT (from the arp). Drag a scope onto any knob, or click one to route it from a menu.
• MODULATION MATRIX: all 24 routings in one place, with SOURCE, DESTINATION, AMOUNT and a LIVE meter for each. Amounts work in both directions. The counter shows how many slots are in use.

13Macros

The four macros are single knobs that move many controls at once. Perfect for performance, or for automating a whole sound change from your DAW.

• Turn them on the SYNTH page (M1–M4, under CALI) or as the big knobs on the MOD page.
• Drag a MACRO chip onto any knobs to give it targets. Each target gets its own depth and direction.
• On the MOD page, a card under each macro lists what it moves and by how much. Click the card to route that macro somewhere new.

14MIDI MAP

Let your mod wheel, aftertouch, pedals or controller knobs move any knob in AURA-8. One source can drive as many controls as you like.

1. Click MIDI in the header. The MIDI MAP sheet drops down.
2. Pick a SOURCE: Mod Wheel (CC 1, the default), Aftertouch, Breath (CC 2), Foot (CC 4), Expression (CC 11), Sustain (CC 64), Resonance (CC 71), Brightness (CC 74) or General 1–4 (CC 16–19). Or choose LEARN… and move any knob, fader or pedal on your controller. The NOW meter shows what the source is sending.
3. Press + ADD and pick a destination. The favourites come first (filter cutoff and reso, OSC A and B WT POS, harmonics centre, CALI drive, LFO 1 rate, WINDSHEAR treadle, chorus, grain and tape mix), then every other destination by module.
4. Or choose CUSTOM… and simply touch any knob or slider, on any page. The first control you touch joins the list without changing its value. Esc or CANCEL stops.
5. Set the DEPTH for each destination, from −100 to +100 %. New ones start at +50 %. Left of the middle inverts. Double-click for +50 %; × removes it.

• The shortcut: Shift + right-click a knob and choose Map to MIDI. Remove MIDI mapping undoes it.
• Mapped knobs show a small tag by their name (MW, AT, CC74; + for several) and the usual modulation arc. The knob keeps its own setting, so nothing jumps when you let go.
• Switches and menus can't follow a controller. CUSTOM tells you so and keeps waiting.
• MIDI mappings are modulation routings: they appear on the MOD page and share its 24 slots. Up to 8 different CCs can be mapped at a time, besides the wheel and aftertouch.

15The Constellation arp

A Euclidean arpeggiator with five lanes. Each lane can have its own length and its own clock, so they drift against each other and the pattern keeps evolving. Switch it on with ARP ON and hold a chord.

CONSTELLATION ARP

The arp follows your DAW's tempo. When the song plays, steps sit exactly on the beat grid, and DAW loops repeat the arp the same way each time.

The five lanes

• STEPS sets a lane's length (1–32). HITS spreads that many hits evenly across it: the Euclidean pattern.
• Then click or drag across any strip to switch steps on or off by hand. A small dot marks a hand-set step. Right-click a step to give it back to the pattern.
• RATE at the end of each row gives that lane its own clock. ARP steps with the notes; 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 and so on run slower or faster. Your lane RATEs are saved with your song and presets; a brand-new sound (Init) starts with every lane on ARP. RESET ALL, beside ARP ON and LATCH, puts them all back in step, and BACK undoes it.
• RANDOM rolls a new pattern for one lane. RESET appears when a lane has hand edits, and takes it back. On the VELOCITY lane, FULL sets every bar back to full.
• Double-click or right-click a bar to reset it.

Hand edits, ratchets and velocity bars are saved with the song and your presets.

GHOST NOTES + SCALE

• GHOST adds soft extra notes from the scale, slipped into rests and between steps. Gentle at first; turn it up for more. G VELO sets how loud they are.
• SCALE: AUTO, the main scales (Major, Minor, Pentatonics, Blues and more), then groups of Modes, Jazz, Symmetric, Exotic, and Japanese + World scales.
• ROOT: AUTO or C to B.
• LOCK snaps every note the arp plays to the scale: your held notes and the PITCH lane's steps. Picking a scale or a root switches LOCK on for you.

Key AUTO

No DAW tells a plugin what key the song is in, so AURA-8 listens. With SCALE or ROOT on AUTO, it follows the key of everything AURA-8 has been playing. Until it has heard enough, it uses your lowest held note as the root. The readout in the panel's header shows the key it's using, such as IN A MINOR, ending in SONG once it has learned the key or HELD while it reads your keys.

Make your own scale

At the bottom of the SCALE list, choose + MAKE YOUR OWN SCALE…. Click the notes your scale uses on the one-octave keyboard (the root is always in), give it a name and press SAVE SCALE. You get eight slots, and your scales appear in every project.

16The FX page

Nine effects in a fixed order, numbered 1–9: five on top, four below. Each has its own ON and can be switched on in any combination. A bypassed effect is faded and labelled BYPASSED, but you can still set it up.

WINDSHEAR modes

Twenty modes: bends (Up 2 Oct, Up Oct, Up 5th, Up 4th, Dn 2nd, Dn 4th, Dn 5th, Dn Oct, Dn 2 Oct, Dive Bomb), harmony pairs (Oct Dn/Up, 2nd/3rd, m3/M3, 3rd/4th, 4th/5th, 5th/6th, 5th/Oct), Oct Up, and Detune Lite and Detune Deep. In harmony and detune modes, MIX balances the original and shifted voice. Drag an LFO or ENV chip onto the TREADLE to rock it automatically, or play it from an expression pedal (CC 11).

REVERB PRE and CHOKE

PRE holds the reverb back by up to 2 seconds. Your own sound is never delayed: the notes play exactly in time and only the reverb arrives late. The longer the PRE, the harder the sound going into the reverb pushes the reverb down while it plays, like a compressor that pumps; when you stop playing, the reverb swells back in. With PRE at zero there is no pumping, and the reverb sounds as it always did.

TAPE HEADS

The HEADS field shows which of the three playback heads are on, for example 1+2+3. Head 1 is the short echo, head 3 the long one. The SYNC menu at the top of the TAPE box picks the echo time: FREE uses the TIME knob (30–1200 ms), or pick a note value — 1/16, 1/8T, 1/8, 1/8D, 1/4T, 1/4, 1/4D, 1/2, 1/2D or 1/1 (D = dotted, T = triplet) — and the echoes lock to the song tempo.

FOCUS

The wide display across the middle of the page always shows the effect you last touched. Turn a knob, press an ON or change a menu in any effect, and FOCUS switches to it. Its tile gets a thin outline. Automation from your DAW never switches it. The header shows the effect's number, ACTIVE or BYPASSED, and a few live readings. Below are two pictures of what the effect is doing, such as the WINDSHEAR pitch path, the compressor's curve and gain reduction, the grain cloud, or the echo train of the tape.

FX LEVEL

Effects change the level. FX LEVEL, beside the FOCUS display, keeps it in hand.

• AUTO keeps the sound after the effects as loud as it was going in, however many effects are on.
• GAIN raises or lowers the level after the effects by up to 12 dB, on top of AUTO. Double-click for 0 dB.
• The readout underneath shows how many dB FX LEVEL is adding right now.

17The two looks

AURA-8 has two looks. The controls are the same in both. Switch with the button at the bottom of the window. AURA-8 remembers your choice.

The panel stays the same size on screen when you switch; the window grows or shrinks around it.

18A / B, undo, size and randomize

A / B, UNDO / REDO, SIZE and the preset menu

A / B (in the header, right of SAVE). Two complete sounds to compare. The lit letter is the one you hear: click the other letter to switch. The first time you click B it starts as a copy of A. The arrow between them copies the lit sound into the other one; right-click it for "Copy A to B" or "Copy B to A". Both are saved with your project, never in presets, and switching never clicks. Each side keeps its own arp lanes, scan bars and imported wavetables too.

UNDO / REDO (the raised keys with curved arrows, left of the preset name). ⌘Z undoes and ⇧⌘Z redoes (Ctrl+Z, Ctrl+Shift+Z or Ctrl+Y on Windows); Undo and Redo also sit at the top of every right-click menu. A whole knob turn is one step, and so are a preset load, INIT, an A / B switch or copy, a RANDOMIZE roll and a MIDI MAP change. Up to 100 steps; the help bar names each one. Automation from your DAW is never undone.

SIZE (bottom right, beside the version). SMALL, MEDIUM, LARGE or EXTRA LARGE, or FIT TO SCREEN. You can also drag the bottom-right corner. The whole window scales as one picture, so nothing moves around. Your project remembers its size, and new windows open at the size you used last.

FULL SCREEN (the desktop app only): SIZE › FULL SCREEN fills the screen; press Esc to leave it.

The preset menu: the box in the header always shows the name of the sound you are playing. Click it.

• A dropdown opens with one sub-menu per category (Pads, Arps & Sequences and so on). Point at a category and click a preset to load it (one undo step).
• My presets lists the sounds you saved. Init is a fresh starting sound, Load a preset file… loads one from anywhere on your computer, and Show my presets folder opens the folder.
• SAVE in the header opens SAVE PRESET: type a name and click the tags that fit, so you can find it again.
• ‹ and › beside the name (or the left and right arrow keys) step through every preset.

RANDOMIZE

RANDOMIZE rolls a whole new sound. Your rolls collect in their own list, apart from the presets. ‹ steps back through them (the last 50 are kept), › steps forward, and past the newest it rolls a new one. Keep any you like with SAVE.

Right-click RANDOMIZE to choose how far it goes:

• MILD: nudges the current sound by about ±15 %.
• MEDIUM: a new, musical sound. Effects are left alone.
• WILD: everything, including FILTER 2, extra layers, effects and new modulation. This is the default.

The same menu has Lock from RANDOMIZE for each module (and for MOD ROUTINGS), Unlock all modules, and Back and Forward. You can also right-click a panel's title to lock it.

RANDOMIZE never touches MASTER, TUNE, BEND, VOICES, PLAY, MPE, the arpeggiator, the macros or your MIDI MAP. MEDIUM and WILD also route LFO 1 to OSC A's WT POS, so a new sound moves straight away.

Undo and redo

Every change can be undone, up to 100 steps back: knobs, switches, routings, MIDI MAP, arp steps and bars, wavetables, presets, A / B and randomizing. Undo and Redo also sit at the top of every right-click menu, and on the curved arrows in the header.

19Presets and files

Factory presets

AURA-8 ships with 200 presets in eleven categories:

Click the preset name for the preset menu: the factory presets are grouped into their categories, and your own presets show under My presets. Init, Load a preset file… and Show my presets folder sit at the bottom of the menu. If the arp is latched when you change presets, the latched chord carries straight on. Biting holds snarling, aggressive sounds built on hard filter DRIVE, WEST FOLD and CALI. Every factory preset that moves a knob moves it on screen: the movement comes from envelopes and LFOs, so the arcs animate as you play. Every factory preset sits at about the same loudness as the others, and a new preset, INIT, A / B or undo takes over from the sound you were playing in a few milliseconds, without a click.

Your own presets

Press SAVE to store the current sound: type a name and click the tags that fit. Presets are .aura8 files, kept here (your favourites in Favourites.txt beside the Presets folder):

Copy the Presets folder to move your sounds to another computer. Presets save the sound, its modulation and MIDI mappings, and the arp's hand edits.

A user wavetable is remembered with your project and presets by its location. If you move or rename the file, load it again.

20Sound recipes

Starting points that show off what AURA-8 does best. Begin from Init each time.

21Troubleshooting

AURA-8 doesn't appear in my DAW

Check that the plugin is in the folder listed under Installing, then rescan plugins in your DAW. Make sure you're looking in the instrument list, not the effects list.

Notes keep playing

Press PANIC. If notes start again, look at MIDI IN in the help bar: they're coming in from your DAW. If the arp keeps going, LATCH is on; switch it off.

The arp plays in the wrong key

With SCALE or ROOT on AUTO, AURA-8 learns the key from what it hears. Set SCALE and ROOT by hand, or switch LOCK off to play your notes as they are.

It's too loud, or the level jumps when I add effects

Turn MASTER down, or switch on AUTO in FX LEVEL. AURA-8 also turns peaks down on its own just below full scale, so a hot preset stays clean.

My computer is working hard

Lower VOICES, switch off layers and effects you aren't using, or raise your DAW's buffer size.

A wavetable I dropped won't load

AURA-8 needs a wavetable file or a sound with a steady pitch. Try a sustained note rather than a drum loop.

A user wavetable is missing

AURA-8 remembers files by their location. If the file was moved, renamed or is on a drive that isn't connected, load it again.

"All 24 routings are in use"

Modulation and MIDI mappings share the 24 matrix slots. Remove one on the MOD page first. Up to 8 different CCs can be mapped at once.

A control won't map to MIDI

Only knobs and sliders can follow a controller. Switches and menus can't.

22Credits

AURA-8's oscillators, filters and effects are Sequoia Synthesizers Co's own designs. Classic machines were the inspiration; the sound is built from first principles.

Interface type: Space Grotesk and IBM Plex Mono (SIL Open Font License).