Hall effect sensor playing

Most sufficiently strong magnets will work. A magnetic USB-C "dust stopper", for example, is a convenient way to keep a magnet around that can be easily put between the fingers of your right hand.

Your Woovebox comes equipped with a Hall effect sensor that lets you use magnets to effect/accentuate played notes. This allows for expressive playing during live performances (for example, mimicking the ethereal sound of a Theremin).

How it works

A Hall effect sensor detects the strength and polarity of magnetic fields. As of firmware 4236, your Woovebox can map detected field strengths and polarities to a playing track's patch parameters. Therefore, by moving a small magnet closer or further away from your Woovebox, you can dynamically influence configurable parameters such as filter cutoff, volume, amplitude or pitch LFOs.

By presenting the different poles (e.g. North or South) up to two distinct parameters can be effected with just one magnet. Having two magnets attached to each other side-by-side, or sliding a bar magnetic back and forth also allows for a convenient way to quickly switch between effects by sliding the right pole into "view" of the sensor.

Sensor location

Conveniently the sensor is located on the backside of the unit in the bottom right (when viewed as held in-hand, under the "e" of the woovebox mark), or bottom left corner (when viewed from the back). This allows for two handed playing, while simultaneously manipulating one or magnets around the back of the unit using the free fingers of your right hand. Depending on your preferences, the magnets may be loose, may be fixed to your fingers (for example using a magnetic so-called "magician's ring"), or may be tucked in between two fingers (for example using a USB-C magnetic dust cap).

Please avoid making physical contact with the Woovebox housing to avoid scratches; making contact with the housing is not necessary for triggering the full parameter range.

Recommended magnets

For best results, bigger, stronger magnets (for example Neodynium-based magnets, or multiple "ganged up" smaller magnets) are recommended in any convenient form factor. Stronger magnets give you a slightly bigger distance to control your Woovebox' parameter range over for more subtle control. Combining multiple, smaller magnets will allow you to create different shapes and strengths to try out.

Calibration

If the Hall effect sensor playing option is used, the sensor is automatically calibrated to the detected strength of the magnet(s) presented. To pre-calibrate the sensor before live playing, simply present the two poles close to the housing and calibration will be complete.

Setting up the Hall effect sensor

To configure the effects that the two polarities should have, the following settings are available on the Song's Efct page under 15/A7 and 16/A8 for North and South poles respectively;

• 'Off'; the sensor will not respond to a magnet for this polarity
• 'Fltr'; magnet proximity will cause filter to close for this polarity
• 'FLFO'; magnet proximity will cause filter LFO to modulate filter cut-off frequency for this polarity
• 'PLF.1'; magnet proximity will allow pitch LFO 1 to modulate for this polarity
• 'PLF.2'; magnet proximity will allow pitch LFO 2 to modulate for this polarity
• 'PL.1.2'; magnet proximity will allow pitch LFO 1 and 2 to modulate for this polarity
• 'Vol'; magnet proximity will cause volume to decrease
  
• 'ALF.1'; magnet proximity will allow amplitude LFO 1 to modulate for this polarity
• 'ALF.2'; magnet proximity will allow amplitude LFO 2 to modulate for this polarity
• 'AL.1.2'; magnet proximity will allow amplitude LFO 1 and 2 to modulate for this polarity

Suggested uses

Some suggested expressive uses include;

• Expressing vibrato (control pitch using one of the PLxx settings)
  
• Expressing tremolo (control amplitude using one of the ALxx settings)
  
• Expressively controlling filter cut-off on, for example, a 303-like bassline
  
• Influencing the modulator oscillator in an FM patch to affect the timbre (see below)
  

TIP: If you wish to control amplitude (e.g. ALFO) or pitch (PLFO) for one specific oscillator, you set an LFO's rate to a very long 256 steps, setting the LFO waveform to square, setting depth to the maximum positive number, and setting LFO retrigger ("A.L.tr" under 6/Sn) or ("P.L.tr" under 7/hh) on the Osc 1/2 page to retrigger (so the 256-step rate LFO waveform starts "on" anew on every note trigger).