CHOP

SUEY
Instructional Manual CHOP
SUEY
Table of Contents
1. Introduction: What is Chop Suey?
2. System And Installation
2.1 System requirements
2.2 Installation and activation
2.2.1 Installation under Microsoft Windows
2.2.2 Installation under Mac OS
2.2.3 Activation
3. Overview
4. Signalflow
5. Workflow-Tips
6. About us

Instructional Manual CHOP

SUEY
1. Introduction: What is CHOP SUEY?
CHOP SUEY is a kick drum-sampler with a unique layering workflow, that enables you to create your own kick drums with up to 3 components in a
linear, temporal sequence: transient, body and tail. With its huge library of samples of these three components, CHOP SUEY enables almost infinite
possible combinations of modern and classic kick drums - easily, quickly and intuitively.

The technique of sample-based kick drum layering comes from professional studio practice and is the basis for many successful productions - with
CHOP SUEY, this workflow is now available for the first time in the form of a specialized plug-in.

CHOP SUEY offers detailed control over the decisive parameters of a powerful kick drum. These parameters can be edited using sample-accurate
envelopes with surgical precision. The sound character can be changed significantly: whether subtle or extreme, is in your hand - there are no limits
to creativity and a kick drum designed with CHOP SUEY will work well in the club.

Its intuitive drag-and-drop functions for sample import / export make CHOP SUEY a smooth-running sample editor for full visual and parametric
control over your kick samples. With its extensive preset library, CHOP SUEY offers the full range of fat kicks for all electronic genres.

3
Instructional Manual CHOP
SUEY
2. system and installation
2.1 SYSTEMRequirements
MAC OS: 10.15 Catalina and higher. Macs with an M1 processor are natively supported.
Windows 7 and higher.

2.2 Installation & Activation

2.2.1 Installation under Microsoft Windows
Double-click the CHOP SUEY.exe file and follow the instructions in the installer. The VST3 plug-in folder preset in the DAW or the one selected by the
user can be set as the installation path under “Select Destination Location”.
After the installation, the plug-in is available in your DAW under “SINEE” as “CHOP SUEY” in the VST3 format.

2.2.2 Installation under mac OS

Double-click the CHOP SUEY.pkg file and follow the instructions in the installer. After the installation, the plug-in is available in your DAW under “SINEE”
as “CHOP SUEY” — depending on the DAW, both as AU and VST3.

4
Instructional Manual CHOP
SUEY
2.2.3 Activation
After installation, the plug-in initially runs in trial mode with some restrictions:
Patches cannot be saved.
The finished kick cannot be exported as .WAV using drag and drop.
Every three minutes, the plugin generates noise for about 20 seconds.

When you have bought the plugin, you can click the “ACTIVATE” button and then enter your serial number. The plug-in is then activated, and the above
restrictions are lifted.

If there is a new version of CHOP SUEY, you can simply download it and start the installer for this version. Your presets and your activation remain
unaffected — you don't have to reactivate the plugin.

With the purchase of 'CHOP SUEY' you support our work — this allows us to develop further plugins, thank you very much!

5
Instructional Manual CHOP
SUEY
3. Overview
In order to export a finished kick drum, you can grab the CHOP SUEY symbol (1) in the top center using drag-and-drop and save it as a finished
rendered sample.
All parameters can be fine-tuned by holding down the CTRL or CMD key.
CHOP SUEY always plays the kick in full length, no matter how long the note is. If the kick overlaps with the next kick, the first kick is faded out
(very) quickly. You can see a red line (8) in the waveform window (6), which marks the start of the next kick at 4/4. It is advisable to design the
kick in such a way that it does not overlap with the following kick at your song tempo - otherwise the transient can be disturbed by the overlap.
The reworked UI design was done by Sven Stumm - Interaction Design. We are very grateful and love it a lot! Feedback & ideas from our
community are incredibly welcome and we give our best, to consider all constructive criticism for the ongoing, further developments of Chop
Suey.

6
Instructional manual CHOP
SUEY

1. “CHOP SUEY”
2. “Undo” and “Redo”
3. Tempo/Sync
4. Volume/ ”Out”
5. “Save” & “Presets”-Section:
6. The Waveform-Interface
7. The Crossfade-Sliders
8. Markers of the next beat (¼)
9. Timeline
10. Skew
11. Zoom
12. “Pitch” Section
13. Analog Lowpass Filter Section with “Punch Protect”,
“Cutoff”, “Beef” and “Resonance”
14. “Glue”
15. “Gain”
16. “Clip”-Button
17. “Transient”, “Body” and “Tail” - Section
18. The respective drop-down menu of the “Transient”, “Body”
and “Tail”-sections
19. Offset
20. Phase
21. Pitch
22. Gain

7
Instructional Manual CHOP
SUEY
1. “CHOP SUEY”
Allows the export of the finished kick drum via drag'n'drop as a .WAV file.

2. “Undo” and “Redo”

Undoes the last work step or repeats the work step that has been undone.

3. Tempo/Sync
“BPM”: Shows the current plugin-internal tempo.
“Play”: Plays the kick as a 4/4 loop at the selected tempo.
“Sync On/Off”: Activates the synchronization of the plug-in tempo with the DAW.

4. Volume/”Out”:
Master Out Controller: Adjusts the output signal of the plug-in. Double click for a default value of -12dbfs.
Output Level: Shows the volume of the output signal of the plugin. The display turns red when the output signal exceeds 0db.
"Vel": Activates the MIDI velocity modulation in CHOP SUEY. When the button is activated, CHOP SUEYs volume reacts dynamically to the MIDI input
velocity. If the button is deactivated, the MIDI velocity is ignored.

8
Instructional Manual CHOP
SUEY
5. Save & preset - Section:
"Save": Saves/updates the selected or created preset. The symbol is orange if the patch contains
changes that have not yet been saved.
Otherwise the symbol is shown in white.

The "Save & preset" - Dropdown - menu:

"Load Patch": Opens the preset memory.
"SAVE PATCH AS": Allows for renaming or saving presets for the first time.
"init patch": Initiates the plugin with the default settings. Loads the INIT preset, including the INIT
samples. To just set the parameters to their default settings and keep your own loaded samples, see
“Init Transient / Body / Tail” below.
"Reveal User Patch Dir": Shows the path in which the user presets are saved.
Under Windows this opens an Explorer window, under Mac OS a Finder with the corresponding
directory is opened.

9
Instructional Manual CHOP
SUEY
"Reveal Rendered Kicks Dir”:
Shows the path of the folder selected by the user for rendered kicks.
Good to know: If you drag rendered kicks directly into the DAW, the behavior is slightly different - depending on the implementation in your DAW.
Some DAWs can move the rendered wav directly into the project folder. In this case, CHOP SUEY will not keep a copy. Other DAWs create a copy of the
wave in the project folder - in this case the kick rendered by CHOP SUEY remains in the corresponding folder.
"Open manual”: Never Mind ;)

Factory Presets ("606", "707", (...), "HEAVY", ETC): The set of presets CHOP SUEY comes equipped with.

"User": The presets created by the user.

Arrow buttons: Allows you to navigate through the presets.

10
Instructional Manual CHOP
SUEY
6. The WAveform - interface:
Divided in Transient, Body and Tail. In the waveform interface of the plug-in, the envelopes of Pitch (12), Cutoff (13), Resonance (13), Beef (13), Glue (14)
and Gain (15) are displayed, if these are selected by clicking on the respective parameters. With a double click, you can add any number of anchor
points with which gradients can be drawn. The displayed waveform corresponds exactly to the real-time rendering of the sample as it would appear
during export.

11
Instructional mAnual CHOP
SUEY
7. the Crossfade - Sliders:
The crossfade slider shifts the division of transient, body and tail sideways.
The steepness of the crossfade curves is adjusted by pulling the sliders heads up and down.
The crossfade curve on the far right (in dark gray) limits the length of the sample and serves as a fade-out.

8. Marker of the next beat:

The red line symbolizes the next beat (quarter note) at the selected tempo.
This serves as a guide when choosing the right length of a kick drum.

9. Timeline:
Shows the passage of time in milliseconds. Is compressed by “Skew”, with a relative enlargement of the transient area. With a held mouseclick on the
timeline, an up- and down-motion enables to zoom in and out on the waveform. A sideways motion enables "skewing" in and out on the transient area.
A double-click auto-zooms in or out on the full length of the current waveform.

12
Instructional mAnual CHOP
SUEY
10. "SKEW":
Compresses the time axis, increases the relative zoom to the transient area of ​the waveform interface. This is shown visually in the time axis: the
small lines always stand for the same time interval, as with a ruler. When the skew is activated, these are visually shown further apart in the area of ​
the transient and narrower in the tail area.
Pro Tip: The transient is of crucial importance for the sound of a kick drum - but only affects the first few milliseconds and is therefore difficult to
edit with classic tools. In CHOP SUEY, the transient can be visually broadened using "Skew" - and can then be finely edited.

11. "Zoom":
Enables you to zoom in on the waveform. Focuses on the transient area.
"Auto": Automatically displays the waveform of the sample in full length.
Good to know: The easiest thing to do, is to set "Skew" to maximum and then press "Auto". That way you have the entire kick in the overview and are
still able to edit the transient precisely.

12
Instructional mAnual CHOP
SUEY
12. "Pitch"-Section:
Pitch - Display: Shows the fundamental frequency and the corresponding note of the sample.
Good to know: The pitch of a kick in the transient can be determined theoretically, but has little to do with the perception of the actual pitch. The
pitch detection in CHOP SUEY is therefore always based on the last 100 ms of the kick drum. With a kick it is limited to the tonal “body” / “tail” area.
"Pitch": The pitch control allows you to adjust the pitch of the loaded sample. Can be modulated as an envelope in the waveform interface.
The pitch control can be fine-tuned holding down the Ctrl / CMD key.
Pro Tip: Many Kicks have a clear pitch curve: You start with a very high pitch, which very quickly drops to the actual pitch. Depending on the length
and course of this curve, there are very different sounding transients. Used correctly, it can also add punch to a kick - it's often worth playing with
this curve.

12
Instructional MAnual CHOP
SUEY
13. Analog Lowpass Filter Section:
CHOP SUEY contains a lowpass that simulates an analog filter with resonance. This filter is specially optimized for the requirements of a kick drum -
for example, the filter reacts very quickly to changes in the cutoff frequency - so very typical, electronic kick drums can be created.
"Punch protect": Protects the low frequencies that are important for the “punch” of a kick drum from the analog lowpass filter. For this purpose, the
signal is divided into two bands: The bass range (below approx. 150 Hz) remains unaffected by the effect of the filter, while the range above 150 Hz
passes through the filter.
Good to know: Splitting the signal like this also changes the phase of the sample. If you want pure and unchanged playback of a loaded sample, make
sure that Punch Protect is deactivated or the filter cutoff remains at 100%. Punch Protect is only active when the filter cutoff is below 100%.
"Cutoff": The filter cutoff of the resonating analog lowpass filter. Can be modulated as an envelope in the waveform interface. If the filter cutoff is set
to 100%, the filter is skipped, i.e. Punch Protect, Beef and Resonance also have no effect.
Good to know: You can activate the filter by setting the cutoff to 99% or clicking an anchor point into the envelope - the filter is then active and the
cutoff is still at a frequency beyond 20khz.
"Resonance": Adjusts the intensity of the resonance of the analog lowpass filter. Can be modulated as an envelope in the waveform interface.
“Resonance” is only active when the filter cutoff is below 100%.
"BEEF": Adds saturation to the signal in the feedback path of the analog lowpass filter. Only works if the filter cutoff value is less than 100%. Can be
modulated as an envelope in the waveform interface.

14
Instructional MAnual CHOP
SUEY
14. "Glue":
Adds warmth and punch to the signal in the form of an analog modeled distortion. Can be modulated as an envelope in the waveform interface.

15. "Gain":
Allows you to adjust and modulate the signal strength of the kick. Can be modulated as an envelope in the waveform interface.
Caution! In the signal chain there is a clipper after gain (which can, however, be deactivated). Therefore, “Gain” does not act as a pure output volume
control, but as a creative tool, with which you can control the entire kick or even individual waves into the clipping - that creates fat punch exactly
where you want it. The pure output signal of the plugin can be regulated via the "Out" control in the upper right area of ​the user interface (see 4. Signal
flow).

16. "Clip":
The hard-clipping of the waveform activated by the "Clip" button is visually recognizable (a) on the basis of angular compression of the waveform at
the upper and lower limit when the level of the sample exceeds 0 db. This effect is audible as a significant distortion of the signal - good for fat kicks
with a strong punch.

15
Instructional Manual CHOP
SUEY
a)
"Clip" activated: Waveform is being
compressed and distortion becomes
audible.

b)
"Clip" deactivated: waveform is NOT
compressed, the signal stays
unimpaired, but exceeds the
threshold of 0db. Attention! This
might lead to signal-spikes in the
chain after the plugin.

16
Instructional Manual CHOP
SUEY
17. "Transient", "Body" and "Tail" - Sections:
"Transient": This section allows the selection, modification, and manipulation of the transient samples and influences the "Transient" area of the
waveform interface. Audio samples can also be loaded here using drag and drop. Pro Tip: The “Transient” are the first few milliseconds of a kick
drum. It has an important influence on the sound character of the kick. It is often rich in overtones and usually contains very high frequency
components - but only for a minimal period.
"Body": Enables the selection, modification and manipulation of the "Body" samples and influences the "Body" area of the waveform interface.
Pro tip: The body of a kick determines the punch and penetration of a kick.
"Tail": Enables the selection, modification, and manipulation of the "Tail" samples and influences the "Tail" area of the waveform interface.
Pro tip: The kick fades away in the tail area - this can happen quickly or slowly, depending on the style. Most tails contain few overtones and are
similar to a (deep) sine wave. The tail is especially important for perceiving the pitch of the kick.
External samples can be loaded into the respective areas (transient, body and tail) of the waveform interface via drag'n'drop.
There are some double arrows in the plugin. These can be used to use the same sample in different slots:
A click on the double arrow next to "Transient" loads the sample loaded or stored in "Transient" into the "Body" section of the plug-in.
A click on the two double arrows to the right and left of "Body" loads the sample loaded or stored in "Body" into the "Transient" or "Tail" section of the
plug-in. A click on the double arrow to the left of "Tail" loads the sample loaded or stored in "Tail" into the "Body" section of the plug-in.
Good to know: If you click on the name of the sample, all samples that are in the same directory are displayed and the next sample can be selected
quickly and easily.

17
Instructional Manual CHOP
SUEY
18. The respective drop-down menu of the “Transient”, “Body” and “Tail” sections:
“Open File”: Gives access to the samples in the selected Transient / Body / Tail folder, or enables samples to
be loaded via the Explorer / Finder. Alternatively, you can select samples using drag and drop or click on the
name of the sample to select another sample from the same directory.
“Init Transient/Body/Tail”: Sets all four controls of the respective area to standard settings. But keeps the
loaded sample.
“Reset Folder History”: Deletes all folders added by the user and resets the folder overview to the default
settings.
“Transient”, "Body", "Tail": Opens the "Transient"/"Body"/"Tail"-Folder.
“Full Kicks Vintage”: Opens the samples folder with retro drum machine samples. Including: TR-606, TR-707,
TR-808, TR-909 and LinnDrum LM-1 and LM-2. These are full kick samples and not dedicated “transient”, “body”
or “tail” samples. Like all other kick samples, the vintage kicks can easily be loaded into the individual
component areas.
“Basic Waves”: Opens the "Basic Waves"-folder with the 4 basic waveforms: Sine, Triangle, Saw and Square -
wave.
Arrow buttons: Allows you to navigate through the samples. A click on the name of the selected sample also
opens the respective sample folder.

18
Instructional Manual

19. "Offset”
Allows you to shift the start point of the waveform so that the sample starts sooner or later.

20. "Phase”
Shifts the phase of the loaded sample - mainly to adapt to the following/preceding sections.

21. "Pitch”
Allows you to change the pitch of the loaded sample.

22. "Gain”
Adjusts the playback volume of the loaded sample.
Instructional Manual CHOP
SUEY
4. Signalflow
A: The filter chain (Punch Protect, Cutoff, Beef and Resonance) is
disabled when “Cutoff” is set to 100% with no anchor point selected.
If Punch Protect is activated, the filter section splits the signal into a
high and a low band (crossover frequency ~ 150Hz). Only the high
band is sent through the filter, the low band and thus the “punch” of
the kick drum remain unaffected.

20
Instructional Manual CHOP
SUEY

B: Clip button: If the clip button is activated, the Hard Clipper

ensures before the output that all peaks above the 0dB-threshold
(represented visually internally by the upper and lower boundary of
the waveform Interface) are cut off. This clipping becomes audible as
severe distortion. Gain controls the input volume of the signal to be
clipped. If the clip button is deactivated, any level peaks above 0db
remain unaffected. With the output control (4) the output volume can
be reduced and thus it can be avoided that peaks exceeding 0db do
not cause distortion in the further signal chain outside the plug-in.
When the “Clip” button is deactivated, the “Gain” control no longer has
a sound-coloring effect and is virtually obsolete as a second output
control.

21
Instructional Manual

5. Workflow-Tipps
Rough guide value for the length of the respective kick components:
"Transient": Start Oms, End 10-20ms.
"Body": start 10-20 ms, end 50-100 ms.
"Tail": Start 50-100ms, End: Defined by the outer crossfade slider.

The correct, phase-pure merging of the 3 components is adjusted using the “Offset”, “Phase” and “Pitch” controls. In the best case, you work
your way forward from the “transient” to the “tail” from left to right, ie first you see
that the “transient” flows smoothly into the “body”. Then that the “body” passes into the “tail” section. Care should be taken to ensure that the volume
in all three sections is approximately the same.

CHOP SUEY allows you to create long and short kick drums. The length of the tail can be set in detail with the adjustable “gain” envelope and the freely
adjustable anchor points (double-click on the envelope). It is also possible to create a bass groove by using the anchor points and fine-tuning the tail.
Bass one shots, subs and rumbles are also suitable as a tail.
Instructional Manual

Even if CHOP SUEY is equipped with an extensive library of samples and presets, its conception should encourage much more to load your own
samples via drag-and-drop. The goal here can be to create fusions of your own drum samples and export them for further use via drag-and-drop.
CHOP SUEY is more of a kick drum editor than a preset instrument. Is z. B. also the fusion of the individual components of the kick drums of popular
vintage drum machines. Why not create the vintage super kick, e.g. B. from the transients of the LinnDrum LM-2, the body of the TR-909 and the tail of
the TR-808 kick drums?
Instructional Manual CHOP
SUEY
6. About us
Peter V / DAWSOME
Two hearts have always been beating in my chest: on the one hand, I love music - I play the bassoon and contrabassoon and make music with DAWs,
samplers and synthesizers. On the other hand, I love mathematics and am passionate about developing software. A good two years ago I brought
these two things together and founded Dawesome - with the aim of developing innovative plugins that are above all inspiring and intuitive. CHOP SUEY
is my second plug-in and was created together with Björn Torwellen - an ideal collaboration in which our different experiences complement each
other perfectly. My first plug-in, Abyss, is a visual synthesizer - different sounds are represented by colors - it's easy, fast and, above all, it's fun!

Björn Torwellen / SINEE

The SINEE Studios from Cologne stand for passionate music production. Since 2018 we have been campaigning for the wishes and goals of the
community, preparing knowledge and many years of experience in video format and making them accessible to a broad mass. Our portfolio ranges
from online courses to high-quality sounds & samples and live streams. In this way, we at SINEE combine knowledge transfer with an entertainment
program for a young and interested target group. With our new CHOP SUEY plug-in, we are fulfilling our wish for an intuitive kick drum sampler that
also implements the workflow of our successful “Ultimate Kick Drum Guide” in a software solution.
Best regards,
Peter & Björn

23