Interface Overview and Quick start guide

1. Top section: the preset name and Preset Browser, Save, and the Magnitude slider.
2. Modules: Noise, Wobble, Distort, Digital, Space and Loss.
3. Big Knobs: an amount control for each module, with enable buttons and locks.
4. Echo amount sliders: how much each module colors the echoes.
5. Echo: RC-20’s feedback delay.
6. Master section: level, width, Varispeed, tone and dynamics for the whole plugin.
7. Bottom bar: Undo/Redo, Help Tips, Snapshots and Bypass.
8. Menu: settings, tutorials and more.

Quick start guide

1. Add RC-20 Retro Color v2 as an insert on a track or bus. It opens with the Color Film preset.
2. Turn the Big Knobs to set the amount of each module. The small button at the top left of each one switches its module on and off.
3. Move the Magnitude slider to scale everything at once. Pull it down for a subtle touch, or automate it for builds and drops.
4. Click the preset name to browse presets, or click the dice for a random one.
5. Try the Echo: switch it on, turn up its Big Knob, then raise the thin Echo amount slider under the Big Knobs. Every repeat now gets a little more of that module.
6. If it gets too loud, turn down Output, or hover over the In/Out Diff meter and click the arrow to match your input level.

The first time you open RC-20 v2, it offers a guided tour: the Full Tour, or What’s New if you know the original. Both are in Menu › Tutorials.

How the Echo works

Echo is a feedback delay: it repeats your sound and feeds each repeat back in to make more. In RC-20, the repeats pass through RC-20’s own modules on their way around.

Modules, twice. Wobble, Distort, Digital, Space and Loss each work in two places: on your sound, set by the Big Knob, and on the echoes, set by the thin Echo amount slider under the Big Knob. Everything else is shared, including the module order.

Each repeat builds on the last. Every time a repeat goes around, it passes through Wobble, Distort, Digital and Loss again, so their effect builds up: tape echoes that warp more with every pass, or digital repeats that slowly fall apart. Space is the exception. It’s applied once, as the echoes come out, so the reverb doesn’t pile up.

Clean sound, dirty echoes. A module must be switched on for its Echo amount to work, but its Big Knob can be at 0. That way your sound stays clean while every echo gets the effect.

Noise stays outside. Noise adds sound rather than processing it, so in the loop it would pile up on every repeat. Pre noise still goes into the Echo with your sound and gets echoed, while Post noise is added after it.