Space Rider

Three Effects, One Plugin, Infinite Space

Shaping Possibilities.
User Guide
 Introduction
Thank you for choosing Space Rider from Waves. As you get started, we suggest you take a moment to read this user
guide. If you have experience with chorus, delay, and reverb effects processors, you’ll learn about features unique to
Space Rider. If you’re new to time-related effects, this guide will quickly teach you how to get the most from Space Rider.
Space Rider is available through a Creative Access Plugin Subscription plan. Before you sign up for a subscription, you’ll
need a free Waves Account. If you’ve ever purchased a Waves product, you likely already have an account. If not, click
on the icon in the upper-right corner of any Waves web page and go from there. Then, visit the Creative Access web
page or use Waves Central to start and manage a subscription.
We suggest that you become familiar with the Waves Support pages. There, you’ll find technical articles about
installation, troubleshooting, specifications, and more. Plus, you’ll find company contact information.

What is Space Rider?

Space Rider creates space and style around a source sound. With three time-based effects in one convenient tool, it
enables producers and mixing engineers to quickly design deep, lush, high-quality spaces and effects. It can be
used to add subtle width or do a complete sonic makeover. There are three processing sections: Chorus, Delay, and
Reverb. Each section has the controls you’d expect in these types of time-related processors, plus some new ones
that make the process more efficient and creative. Any section can receive a dry input signal or, in the case of Delay
and Reverb, a serial signal from the previous section—or a mix of both. This flexible signal flow opens many
processing possibilities.
To make things more interesting, there’s a sophisticated dynamic macro control—the Rider—that moves all selected
controls together, each with their own control range and direction. The Rider can be modulated by the input signal’s
envelope, which means all controls linked to it are modulated together. In addition, the Rider enables complex
morphing between two setups and makes for very easy automation of many controls simultaneously. The three time-
based Space Rider sections give you the modern, great-sounding tools you need to make spaces and effects, while
saving the most important element: your time.

There are two Space Rider components: mono-to-stereo and stereo.

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 Space Rider Sections
Chorus
A chorus effect adds thickness and shimmer to a sound. It copies a track, introduces controllable changes in length
(speed) and pitch, and mixes these back with the original signal. These variations are modulated by an LFO. At
moderate settings, it makes a sound richer and fuller. At higher settings, amplitude variation may occur. Chorusing is
a familiar, natural effect. Take a choir, for example. Even when a choir section sings the same note, there are
inevitably small differences in pitch and timing. These slightly different voices combine to form a rich, expanded
sound that makes the choir appealing.

Gain controls the Chorus section’s direct input level.

Intensity is a strong overall control governing modulation in the Chorus section. It influences several
controls, including the number of voices and the amount and speed of modulation. The Intensity effect is
strongly influenced by the Chorus Type setting.

Chorus Type
Type 1: A very tight effect. At low Intensity settings, it works like a doubler, with two voices, left and
right, with very little modulation. As Intensity increases, there are more voices with greater delay and
more density. There may be notable phasing at high Intensity settings.
Type 2: A vintage chorus that works with slow transients. A looser effect than Type 1. It has more air,
and it’s best suited for instruments with slow transients.

Width controls the stereo width of the chorus effect.

To Delay controls the level of the Chorus section output that is sent to the Delay section. When used in
conjunction with the Dry Input, it controls the wet/dry mix of the section.

If the Dry input and To Delay are both off, no signal will pass through the Chorus section.

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 Delay
In the acoustic world, delay occurs when a sound bounces off one or more hard surfaces and is reflected back to the
listener, with the sound remaining more or less intact. One real-world example is shouting in a cave. Shout loudly
enough, and you’ll hear repeating doubles of yourself, each somewhat quieter and more diffuse than the ones
before. This is echo. In some cases, pitch also changes with delay. When you hear an ambulance moving through
city streets, you may hear two distinct sirens: the original sound and a delayed sound at a different frequency.

Space Rider Delay combines the tools you need to create these real-world effects, as well as purely creative delays.

Gain controls the Delay section’s direct input level.

To Delay controls the amount of signal sent from the Chorus section to the
Delay section.
Ping Pong activates/de-activates the ping pong delay effect that
bounces the delay feedback back and forth between left and right
channels.
Time controls the delay time, displayed in the adjacent window. Time
units are displayed in BPM or musical notation, depending on the Sync
mode. You can also adjust Time by dragging up or down over the
window.
Sync locks the delay to the host. It syncs to DAW BPM, as well as
transport position. When Sync is selected, the Time box displays musical
time notation. When Sync is off, delay is set to internal BPM, and is
displayed in milliseconds.
Feedback controls the amount of delay feedback.
Filter consists of LP and HP filters, after processing.
Modulation:
Depth controls the amount of delay modulation applied.
Rate sets the modulation LFO cycle rate.
Modulation Offset:
L/R Offset increases the right-side delay.
Mod Offset shifts the phase between left and right modulation.
To Reverb controls the level of the Delay section output that is sent to
the Reverb section.

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 Reverb
Reverb is a natural effect that happens when a sound occurs in a space—almost any sound, almost any space. The
sound event causes waves to propagate throughout the space. These soundwaves bump into walls, columns, and
whatever other surfaces there are to bump into, creating repeating reflections that get more complex as they interact
with the space. Pretty quickly, the reverb elements get quieter and quieter until they can no longer be heard. The
volume and shape of the space, the nature of the walls, ceiling, and floors, and the loudness of the initial sound
combine to define the reverb sound, its duration, and its texture. Plus, there are the “direct sounds” that get to the
listener before the reverb has time to arrive.

A reverb effects processor can be used to create a natural-sounding space to plant music into the mix, or to make a
completely artificial effect.

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Damp controls the absorption of high frequencies in the reverb tail.
Damp controls the absorption of high frequencies in the reverb tail.
Width controls the apparent size of the reverb within the stereo field.
Width controls the apparent size of the reverb within the stereo field.

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 Signal Flow
Each of the three Space Rider sections receives a signal directly from the plugin input, so that the sections can work
in parallel. The Gain knob at the top of a section controls the amount of dry input signal sent to that section.
Additionally, the Delay and Reverb sections can receive the output of the previous section, thus creating a
processing series. The To Delay or To Reverb knobs effectively serve as wet/dry controls between the input signal
and output of the Chorus and Delay sections.

Dry input from DAW for each section and for

wet/dry mix; use the Gain controls to adjust
input level.

Wet output from Chorus section to the Delay

section
Wet output from the Delay section to the
Reverb the section

Wet output for each section to the wet/dry

mix
Wet/dry output mix

Plugin output

ADJUSTING A CONTROL
With the Rider off (i.e., neither the α nor β button is active), drag the center of any control up or down to
adjust its value.

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 Morphing Between States
The Rider at the bottom of the window enables dynamic changes of several controls at once. This lets you morph
from one setup—with all the control settings it entails—to another. Morphing is not the same as fading between two
presets. Instead, each selected control changes as the Rider moves from one end to the other, creating a complex
transition. You can limit the range and direction of any control during morphing. Move the Rider manually or with
DAW automation. More interestingly, the Rider can follow the input envelope to modulate all selected controls.

At either end of the Rider path is a letter: α (alpha) or β (beta). These represent the endpoints of the transition from
one setup to the other. Actual control range is determined by the arc of each control. If, for example, a control’s arc
limits its range to 25%, then switching from α to β, or vice versa, will move the control by only 25% of its complete
range. Click α and all selected controls will move to their α start position. Click β and the controls will move to their β
start position. The color of a control’s arc indicates the knob’s rotation direction.

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 Defining Control Boundaries for Morphing

To set a control’s boundaries (range), one of the buttons at either end of the Rider’s path must be active (i.e., click
either α or β).

The range within which the Rider can adjust a control is set with an arc that surrounds the control knob.
If the arc is set to its maximum width, the Rider will control the entire range of the knob. If, on the other
hand, the arc is limited to a smaller part of the control’s range, only that area is affected by the Rider.

To access the arc controls, click on the dot that marks the knob’s current position. Move the dot up or
down to establish the the arc.

To adjust the limits of the of the control, drag the mouse up or down on either side of the arc.

To maintain the width of a control but change its position, drag the midsection of the arc up or down.

DETAILS ABOUT CONTROLLING THE WIDTH, POSITION, AND DIRECTION OF THE CONTROL

Adjust the lower control limit Click on the left side of the arc, below the selected area. This raises or lowers the
lower limit of modulation, without affecting the upper control limit.
Adjust the upper control limit Click the right side of the arc, beyond the selected area. This raises or lowers the
upper limit of modulation without affecting the lower control limit.
Adjust the portion of the Grab the middle of the arc and drag up or down. This changes the portion of the
control that will be controlled control that will be modulated, without altering its width.
by the Rider

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 Reverse the direction of Ctrl+click on the arc to reverse the direction of that control with respect to the
modulation for an individual Rider. This does not alter the width of the selected area.
control. You can also reverse the control movement manually. Grab the one of the handles
and drag it beyond the other handle. Then, readjust the limit positions as needed.
Reverse direction of Ctrl+click on either pole of the rider (α or β).
modulation for all controls. Note here that modulation direction has reversed globally.

To reset a control’s markers, option+click (MacOS) or alt+click (Windows) directly on the arc.

MODULATING THE RIDER

The Rider can be modulated by the input signal. All controls
assigned to the Rider will modulate together as the Rider
moves back and forth. There are four controls that govern
modulation.

Auto Locks all controls that are controlled by the Rider to the modulator. Range controls can be
adjusted manually when Auto is on, but control values cannot be changed and the Rider slide
control is locked. You can disengage Auto by clicking the Auto button or selecting α or β.
Sensitivity Sets the threshold at which modulation begins.
Attack Sets the speed at which modulation begins.
Release Sets the speed at which modulation recedes.

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