Quick Guide

R862SKYWAVE

Broadcast Transmitter Console

A high-power broadcasting station in a plug-in. Your audio is the program. R862 drives it through the station’s modulator, water-cooled 862 power tubes, the giants of the 1930s high-power stations, puts it on the air and decodes it at a perfect receiver: no static, no fading, no narrow radio band. The character comes from the transmitter, and you are the operator.

All solid broadcasting
Transmitter / Receiver

862water-cooled power tubes, each about five feet tall, the giants of the 1930s stations

12 kVon the plate supply, which sags as loud passages draw current

125 %full scale of MOD. %; positive peaks round off softly toward it

64-bitfloating point processing, at any sample rate

The station

One program, in a fixed order

Your program arrives on the line, the way the studio fed the transmitter. It passes through the station in a fixed order, and every knob sits at one point of it.

IN TRIM

the level into the transmitter

▸

Transmitter

DRIVE · DEPTH · BIAS · TUBE MISMATCH · SAG

On the air

Receiver

decodes what went out, perfectly

▸

MIX

AIR blended with your dry LINE

▸

OUT TRIM

the final level, air and dry alike

LINEYour raw input, measured before IN TRIM and kept in time with the station. It feeds the black PROGRAM needle, the IN peak bar and MATCH, and it is the dry signal for MIX and Bypass.

Dirtier, never louder. Turning DRIVE up adds saturation and density; the output level does not rise. Higher settings shave the peaks more than the body.

The receiver is perfect. R862 does not imitate a radio set: it does not widen, add reverb, fade or narrow the band. At the defaults the station runs at its nominal operating point and stays clean.

MATCH sets the level once. BIAS lowers the level, and DRIVE, SAG and MIX can move it. One click on MATCH adds the difference between your input and the output to OUT TRIM, so you compare at equal loudness.

The plant and the operator

The bottom half of the panel is the plant: the knobs that decide how the transmitter works. The top half is the operator’s desk, where the operator watched the meters and lamps and kept the station on the air: MOD. m, MOD. %, the VU, PLATE kV, MISMATCH and the lamps beneath them.

NoteR862 runs mono to mono and stereo to stereo. Surround and immersive buses are not supported: use R862 on stereo pairs, stems and beds, and in mono on single channels. On Linux the LV2 is stereo only; for the mono transmitter on a mono track, use the VST3.

Five-minute walk

First session with R862

Put it somewhere broad

A mix bus, a drum bus, a stem or a bass.

Hear the station

Click the POWER lamp off and on while the music plays. This is the station at its default setting.

Set the VU

If both needles pin at the right, click a higher CAL lamp under the VU until they swing around mid-scale.

Drive the transmitter

Raise DRIVE until the MOD. % needle reaches the red and the 125 lamp blinks on peaks. The level does not rise; the peaks get rounder and denser.

Cool the plant

Turn BIAS clockwise past the B mark. Quiet passages thin, grain appears on decays, and the level drops.

Match the level

Let the music play for several seconds, then click MATCH. It sets OUT TRIM so the output plays as loud as your input.

Warm the pair, blend the line

Set TUBE MISMATCH to 20 to 30, the top of the green zone on its meter, for warmth. Then turn MIX toward LINE to blend your dry signal back under the air signal.

TipIf the MATCH lamp is lit, the levels differ and you are judging loudness, not the station. Click MATCH, then compare with the POWER lamp.

Interactive panel

Hover or tap any control

37 hotspots. Hover for a summary, click to pin the full description; click again or tap outside to release.

Controls reference

Every control, its range, its job

Control	Range	What it does
DEPTH	0.50 to 0.95default 0.95	How much of the transmitter’s capacity the program uses. At 0.95, where a real station parked, you get the full sound; on bass it acts like a compressor, thick. Lower is gentler, and at 0.50 to 0.60 low-level artifacts come up. Lower DEPTH also leaves more room before negative peaks reach the floor.
DRIVE	−40 to +24 dBdefault 0 dB	How hard the program hits the transmitter. Up adds saturation and density but never level. Higher settings shave the peaks more than the body: the sound gets denser and dirtier, never louder. At −40 dB the station is effectively transparent.
SAG	0 to 100 %default 0 %	How soft the transmitter’s power supply is. Loud passages draw current and the supply dips, then recovers, so the level breathes with the program; quiet material is barely touched. SAG needs DRIVE: the harder the transmitter works, the more room SAG has to move.
BIAS	+8 V to −12 Vdefault +8 V	The condition of the plant, from a freshly calibrated transmitter (AB) through cutoff (B) to a cold, worn one (C). Colder settings add crossover grain to quiet material and lower the level. On a stereo track BIAS works on the center of the mix. Type a value in volts; double-click returns to +8 V.
TUBE MISMATCH	0 to 100default 0	How unequal the two tubes of the pair are; 0 is a perfectly matched pair. Mismatch brings warmth and body, at every level. The sweet spot is 20 to 30. Higher is thicker, and near the top it is rough.
IN TRIM	−12 to +12 dBdefault 0 dB	The level into the transmitter. Up, the program reaches the transmitter’s limits sooner; down gives more room. It does not move the black PROGRAM needle or the IN peak bar.
POWER	lit or darkdefault lit	Lit: the station is on the air. Dark: bypassed. The switch fades over 5 ms, you hear your dry input delayed by the latency, and the station keeps running underneath, so the meters keep reading and switching back is seamless. The bypass icon and your DAW’s bypass drive the same switch. With the LV2 on Linux, the host’s bypass is a separate switch, which the lamp does not show.
MIX	AIR to LINEdefault 0% D, all AIR	Blends the air signal with your dry input. The readout shows the dry share: 0% D is all AIR, 100% D is all LINE. Click the printed AIR or LINE to throw MIX to that end; the sound glides there. At 100% D the whole station keeps running, so the meters still read it.
MATCH	lampone click	Compares your raw input with the final output; one click adds the difference to OUT TRIM. Lit: the levels differ by about a third of a dB or more. Dark: they match.
OUT TRIM	−12 to +12 dBdefault 0 dB	The last stage: the final level, air and dry signal alike. It does not change how hard the station works. MATCH writes its correction here.
CAL	−18, −14, −10, −6 dBFSdefault −18	Which input level reads 0 VU. It moves both VU needles and nothing else. Saved with the session, not in presets.
Thumbwheel	80 to 95 %default 95	How early the WARN lamp lights, as a share of the negative limit. Drag it up or down; double-click returns to 95. Saved with the session, not in presets.

The operator’s desk

Meters, lamps and the round scope

Five meters run across the top of the panel, the lamps sit under them, and the round scope sits in the center. MOD. m and MISMATCH show where a knob is set; MOD. %, the VU and PLATE kV read what the audio does.

MOD. m

Where DEPTH is set, not what the audio does.

.85–.95The full effect.
.60–.85Milder.
.50–.60Soft, with low-level artifacts.

MOD. %

A peak reading of how hard the program works the transmitter. Full scale is 125 %.

0–85The clean range. The tubes work; nothing reaches a limit.
85–100Loud. The tubes start to lean on the peaks.
100–125Positive peaks only, rounded off softly. Negative peaks stop at 100 % and light −100.

PLATE kV

The supply voltage. Its zero is suppressed, so small dips read large; the deeper the needle swings, the more the level breathes.

11.8–12A stiff supply.
11.5–11.8Breathing.
11.2–11.5Heavy droop.

MISMATCH

Where TUBE MISMATCH is set, not what the audio does.

0–30A good pair. The sweet spot, 20 to 30, is at its top.
30–70A worn but serviceable pair. Thicker.
70–100Rough.

The PLATE kV needle also drifts slowly on its own, even at SAG 0 %; a bounce still repeats exactly.

The VU: PROGRAM in, AIR out

The wide center meter has two needles on one VU scale. The black needle is PROGRAM, your raw input before IN TRIM. The red needle is AIR, the output after MIX and OUT TRIM. When red sits on black, the levels match. The needles move like a standard VU meter; bypassed, AIR reads your dry signal.

CAL sets which input level reads 0 VU: click one of the four lamps under the VU, −18, −14, −10 or −6 dBFS. Loud modern mixes pin both needles at −18; pick a higher setting until they swing around mid-scale. The two bars at the edges of the VU window show sample peaks from −20 to 0 dBFS, IN at the left and OUT at the right. Each holds its peak for a moment; click a bar to clear it.

The limit lamps

The four lamps under MOD. % flash when the transmitter reaches a limit. Each flash is brief and restarts with every event, so a steady glow means a steady overload. The thumbwheel left of the lamps sets how early WARN lights.

Lamp	Lights when
WARN	Negative peaks pass the thumbwheel setting, close to the −100 limit.
−100	Negative peaks reach the floor and are clipped. An occasional blink adds grit and glue. Constantly lit, the signal is crushed: bring the level down.
125	Positive peaks reach the tubes’ limit. The tubes round them off softly, never with digital clipping.
L-R	The stereo side signal overloads and may smear or distort. Lower the level or narrow the stereo width. Mono content never lights it.

The round scope

On a stereo track: a goniometer

The scope shows how solid the mid is (a tall line) and how spread the side is (a wide cloud). A vertical line is mono. Two bright lines show the average center level (vertical) and side level (horizontal). The figure scales itself to fill the screen, so its size is not a level.

mono material: a tall line

X-Y DOTS: the precise reading

X-Y LINE: the trace of an analog scope

On a mono track, and in TRANSFER: a transfer display

The scope shows how much the station is coloring your sound. The more the line bends, the more color.

clean: a straight diagonal

saturation: a bend at the top

clipping at the floor: a flat bottom corner

BIAS crossover: an S in the middle

sag: a moving line

Three views On a stereo track, click the scope to step through X-Y DOTS, X-Y LINE and TRANSFER; right-click steps back. X-Y DOTS is the precise reading, and X-Y LINE draws the trace the way an analog scope does. TRANSFER shows the center of the mix, which is where BIAS works; the two bright lines and the correlation meter are hidden there. A new insert opens in the goniometer style you picked last.

Correlation The bar along the bottom of the scope shows the mono compatibility of the output. Right of center, toward +1, is mono-safe. Around the center is wide. Left of center means out-of-phase content that cancels in mono. It is hidden in TRANSFER; on a mono track it is gone and the L-R lamp stays dark.

Help strip The text band at the bottom of the window explains what is under the pointer: a knob, button, lamp, meter or the scope. It is off by default. The TIPS icon in the top band, the Tooltip row in the menu, or a click on the band itself switches it for every R862 on the computer. Preset and A/B messages appear in the band even with it off.

While you mix, watch these

Watch	It tells you	Then
MOD. %, −100, 125	how close you run to the limits	set IN TRIM so −100 blinks only now and then
PLATE kV	how far SAG moves the supply	set DRIVE first
VU, peak bars	the level in and out	CAL for the needles, OUT TRIM for level
Correlation, L-R	how the stereo folds to mono	check it whenever BIAS is past B
MATCH	a loudness difference	click MATCH before you judge

BIAS

From a fresh plant to a cold, worn one

BIAS sets the condition of the plant. Its readout is the grid bias in volts, and the arc round the knob is green to the B mark, amber to −6 V and red beyond. Type a value in volts; double-click returns to +8 V.

Mark	Position	Condition
+8 V · AB	fully left, the default	Freshly calibrated.
0 V · B	a quarter of the way round	Cutoff.
−6 V	five eighths of the way round	The arc turns red.
−12 V · C	fully right	Cold and worn.

Grain on the decays

Colder settings add crossover distortion to quiet material: a grainy buzz on decays, cleaner attacks with fuzzier tails. On bass, near three quarters of the way round, the buzz is worth having. Past the B mark the low end gains movement at low levels.

The level drops

Colder settings also lower the level, quiet passages more than loud ones. Click MATCH after you set BIAS.

The center of a stereo mix

On a stereo track BIAS works on the center: the center fades and the sides stay clean. On the round scope the vertical line shrinks and the horizontal one holds. On a mono track BIAS acts on the whole signal.

NoteIn the red zone of BIAS the stereo field loses its correlation, and part of it cancels when folded to mono. Watch the correlation meter; a little LINE refocuses it.

MATCH and the trims

Compare at equal loudness

MATCH is the lamp between MIX and OUT TRIM, right of the MATCH print. It compares your raw input with the final output, and one click adds the difference to OUT TRIM.

Play the music for several seconds, with the station on.

Click MATCH. The lamp blinks twice.

Click the POWER lamp off and on. The loudness stays the same.

Lamp	Means
Lit	The levels differ by about a third of a dB or more. Click again.
Dark	The levels match.

MATCH measures only while music plays, so a pause keeps the last reading. OUT TRIM stops at ±12 dB. With the help strip on, hover MATCH to read the difference in dB. To automate MATCH, automate Output Trim.

NoteMATCH is not auto-gain. BIAS lowers quiet passages more than loud ones, so a riding gain would undo the sound. MATCH sets the level once, when you click.

IN TRIM, OUT TRIM and the SHIFT link

IN TRIM

Sets the level into the transmitter. Up, the program reaches the limits sooner; down gives more room. The PROGRAM needle and the IN peak bar do not move with it.

OUT TRIM

The last stage. It sets the final level, air and dry signal alike, and does not change how hard the station works.

SHIFT link

Hold SHIFT while you drag either trim: the other moves the same number of dB the other way, so the drive into the transmitter changes and the combined gain holds. You can press SHIFT partway through a drag; the link stops holding the level when the other trim reaches its end. SHIFT + double-click on either trim returns both to 0 dB.

Recipes

Seven starting positions

Each recipe is a starting position, not a setting. Click MATCH after every move that changes loudness, then judge. The tag names the factory preset built on the same idea.

A clean station on the mix bus

Bus › Clean Station

Settingsthe defaults.

You heara clean transmitter at its nominal operating point.

Shaving the peaks

Bus › Shaving the Peaks

Settingson a full mix, raise DRIVE until the 125 lamp blinks on the peaks, then further.

You hearthe peaks shaved more than the body and a denser mix, with no pumping while SAG is at 0.

Thick bass

Bass › Thick Bass

Settingson a bass track, BIAS well past the B mark.

You heara thick, compressed low end; clean attacks, tails that buzz as they decay.

Warmth from the pair

Bus › Warmth from the Pair

SettingsTUBE MISMATCH at the top of its green zone.

You hearwarmth and body at every level.

Let the supply breathe

Bus › Let the Supply Breathe

SettingsDRIVE up until MOD. % reaches the amber, then SAG up. Watch PLATE kV swing.

You hearthe level breathing with the loud passages, quiet material untouched.

The parallel transmitter

Bus › Parallel Transmitter

SettingsDRIVE into the transmitter’s limits, then MIX mostly toward LINE, with a touch of AIR under it.

You hearsomething like parallel compression.

Thin the center, then bring it back

Bus › Thin the Center

Settingson a stereo mix, BIAS past the B mark. Then turn MIX toward LINE.

You hearthe center fading, with grain on the decays and clean sides; in the red zone the stereo field loses its correlation. A little LINE refocuses it and puts the center back underneath.

Drive by the lamps, level by OUT TRIM

Where it sits in a chain

A hotter upstream device works the transmitter harder. Set upstream gain first, then IN TRIM. Set the drive at the level the track really runs at, not on a soloed pass.

Headroom and the lamps

IN TRIM, DRIVE and DEPTH decide how close the program gets to the transmitter’s limits; the lamps show when it arrives. Set IN TRIM so −100 blinks only now and then on the loudest peaks. Use DRIVE for character, not for level.

Feeding the next device

Set the level that leaves R862 with OUT TRIM. MATCH holds the loudness, not the peaks: a denser signal can peak differently at the next device. The OUT peak bar shows what leaves.

TipSet drive by the lamps. Set level by OUT TRIM and the meter after R862.

Mouse and keyboard

Gestures on the panel

Windows	macOS	Action
SHIFT + drag a trim	SHIFT + drag a trim	The other trim moves the same number of dB the other way: the drive into the transmitter changes, the combined gain holds.
SHIFT + double-click a trim	SHIFT + double-click a trim	Both trims return to 0 dB.
Double-click a knob	Double-click a knob	Return it to its default.
Click the readout	Click the readout	Type an exact value; BIAS takes volts.
Click AIR or LINE	Click AIR or LINE	Throw MIX to that end; the sound glides there rather than jumping.
Drag the thumbwheel	Drag the thumbwheel	Set how early WARN lights, from 80 to 95 %. Double-click returns to 95.
Click a peak bar	Click a peak bar	Clear its held peak.
Click the help strip	Click the help strip	Switch the help strip on or off, for every R862 on the computer.
Click the scope	Click the scope	On a stereo track: step through X-Y DOTS, X-Y LINE and TRANSFER.
Right-click the scope	Right-click the scope	Step back through the views.
Right-click a mapped control	Right-click a mapped control	MIDI Forget: remove its MIDI mapping.
Click or double-click a preset	Click or double-click a preset	In the browser: load it, or load it and close the browser.
Right-click a preset or a folder	Right-click a preset or a folder	In the browser: load, save, rename, description and tags, delete, the startup default, and Reveal in Finder (Show in file manager on Linux).

Preset browser

The browser reads the folder

Click the preset name in the top band to open the browser. It keeps no copy of anything: it reads the shared preset folder, to any depth, and shows what is actually there. The left list holds Favorites, Search and your folders; the right list holds the presets.

Preset browser: hover any element

★ Favorites (2)

⌕ Search (type above)

All / root

Bass

Brass

Bus

Drums

Guitar

Keys

Vocals

☆Clean Station

☆Let the Supply Breathe

★Parallel Transmitter

☆Shaving the Peaks

☆Thin the Center

★Warmth from the Pair

right-click on a preset

Clean Station

Load preset

Save here...

Rename...

Edit description and tags...

Working memory, and files on disk

A/B

Click A/B to switch slots; the lit letter is the slot you hear, and the slot you leave keeps its settings. The copy icon, right of A/B, copies the slot you hear over the other, with no undo. A slot holds the eight knobs, never Bypass, so a switch never turns the station off. Loading a preset or reopening a session fills both slots with the same sound. The slots are not saved.

The preset bar

The preset name sits in the top band between two arrows. Click the name to open the browser; the arrows step through the presets of the current folder and wrap at the ends. An amber dot by the name means a control has moved since the last load or save. INIT means nothing is loaded. “(deleted)” means the loaded preset’s file was moved or deleted outside R862.

Where the files live

All R862 copies on the computer share one folder. Each preset is one .R862Preset file named after the preset, and renames and moves in Finder, Explorer or a Linux file manager show up in the browser. Open Preset Folder, in the menu, opens it. There is no import or export on a computer: copy preset files into the folder or out of it. Preset files travel between macOS, Windows and Linux; to back up, copy the folder.

macOS

/Users/Shared/Pulsar Modular/R862 Skywave/Presets

Windows

C:\Users\Public\Documents\Pulsar Modular\R862 Skywave\Presets

Linux

~/.local/share/Pulsar Modular/R862 Skywave/Presets

What a preset stores

Stored	Never stored
The eight knobs	CAL and the WARN thumbwheel
Bypass	The A/B slots
Name, description and tags	The window size, except in the Default
	MIDI mappings and the help strip switch

A loaded preset applies its Bypass. A knob missing from an older preset goes to its default, so a preset sounds the same whatever was loaded before it. A preset holds a description of up to 200 characters and up to 12 tags.

The Default preset

The preset named Default, at the top of the preset folder, loads on every new insert; in Pro Tools, when you first open the window. To change it, right-click a preset and choose “Save these settings as the startup default”, or load Default and click SAVE. Default cannot be renamed, deleted or moved; if it is missing, R862 writes a new one from the factory settings. A fresh insert never opens bypassed, even if Default was saved bypassed. An update with Presets selected replaces the Default and the factory presets, so keep your own versions under other names. On Linux an update never replaces a preset; it adds only the factory presets you do not have.

Factory presets

The installer writes 27 presets next to the Default, in seven folders: Bass, Brass, Bus, Drums, Guitar, Keys and Vocals. Each one is a starting point, with its description shown in the browser.

Preset	What it does
Bass
Bass Buzz	BIAS run cold with DRIVE and some SAG on a bass track: a gritty buzz that blooms as the notes decay, and a low end that breathes with the playing.
Thick Bass	BIAS past the B mark on a bass track: a thick, compressed low end with clean attacks.
Brass
Big Band Stabs	The transmitter driven hard by a stereo brass section, then blended with LINE: the stabs keep their snap from the dry signal while the driven AIR signal adds weight and sustain under them.
Sax Growl	BIAS past the B mark on a mono sax: clean attacks, a growl that comes up as each note decays, DRIVE and TUBE MISMATCH for density and body. OUT TRIM makes up the level BIAS takes.
Smooth Sax	A mono sax with a little DRIVE and warmth from the pair: the honk on the loud notes rounds off, TUBE MISMATCH fills in the body, and SAG lets the long phrases breathe.
Tailgate Trombone	A mono trombone with BIAS past the B mark: the slides and swells stay clean, a rasp grows in the tails of the long notes, and TUBE MISMATCH keeps the body thick.
Trumpet Bite	A mono trumpet into the transmitter’s limits: the blare on the loud notes is rounded, the attack keeps its bite, and TUBE MISMATCH puts body under the top.
Trumpet Section	A stereo trumpet section glued by the transmitter: DRIVE rounds the loudest peaks evenly across the section, SAG makes the stabs breathe, and TUBE MISMATCH warms the blend.
Trumpet Swell	DRIVE with a soft supply on a mono trumpet: each held note dips the supply on its attack and swells back as the supply recovers, like a slow compressor release.
Bus
Clean Station	The transmitter at its nominal operating point, clean. A starting point for the mix bus.
Let the Supply Breathe	DRIVE into the amber, SAG up: the level breathes with the loud passages and quiet material stays untouched. Watch PLATE kV swing.
Parallel Transmitter	The transmitter driven into its limits and blended under mostly dry signal, like parallel compression.
Shaving the Peaks	DRIVE into the transmitter’s limits: the peaks are shaved more than the body and the mix gets denser, with a touch of BIAS and TUBE MISMATCH for color.
Thin the Center	Cold BIAS thins the center of a stereo mix, with grain on the decays; a touch of LINE puts it back.
Warmth from the Pair	TUBE MISMATCH at the top of its green zone: warmth and body at every level.
Drums
Parallel Kit	A stereo drum bus with a driven copy underneath: MIX mostly toward LINE keeps the transients, and the AIR signal under them adds density and weight, like parallel compression.
Room Mic Crush	A stereo room pair crushed by the transmitter: DRIVE deep into the limits, a soft supply that pumps with the kit, a worn pair for thickness, and DEPTH eased back so it stays soft.
Snare Crack	A mono snare into the limits: the crack is rounded, not clipped, the supply dips on each hit, and the ring swells back as the supply recovers.
Guitar
Blooming Lead	DRIVE with a soft supply on a lead guitar: the attack dips the supply, then the held note swells back as it recovers.
Crunch Rhythm	DRIVE well into the limits with a worn pair: a dense, even crunch for rhythm parts, the chords held together at every level.
Edge of Breakup	A clean electric guitar pushed just into the transmitter’s limits: soft playing stays clean, harder picking breaks up, with warmth from the pair.
Sputter Fuzz	A cold, worn plant driven hard on a mono guitar: a fuzz that sputters and breaks up as the notes decay.
Keys
Organ Grind	A mono organ driven into the transmitter with BIAS past the B mark: dense chords that swell as the supply recovers, and a grind in the held notes as they fade.
Tine Warmth	A stereo electric piano warmed by the pair: TUBE MISMATCH fills in the body under the bell-like attacks, and a little DRIVE rounds off the hardest ones.
Vocals
Announcer	A mono voice run hard through a high-power transmitter: dense and up front, every word at the same weight, the supply dipping on the loud ones and recovering between them.
Gravel in the Tails	Cold BIAS on a mono vocal: the attacks of the words stay clean and a gravel comes up in the tails and the breaths. OUT TRIM makes up the level BIAS takes.
Rounded Vocal	A mono vocal into the transmitter’s limits: the loud syllables are rounded rather than clipped, TUBE MISMATCH adds body, and SAG lets the phrases breathe a little.

Sessions, automation and MIDI

What the host keeps

The session saves every control’s value, so renaming or deleting presets does not affect it. It also saves CAL, the WARN thumbwheel, the scope’s view, the window size and the loaded preset’s name. It does not save the A/B slots, the MIDI mappings or the help strip switch. Changing CAL, the thumbwheel or the scope’s view marks the session as changed, so your DAW asks to save.

Automation

On the panel	In the host’s list
DEPTH	Depth
DRIVE	Drive
SAG	Sag
BIAS	Bias
TUBE MISMATCH	Tube Mismatch
IN TRIM	Input Trim
OUT TRIM	Output Trim
MIX	Mix
POWER	Bypass
MATCH, CAL, WARN	not parameters, no lane

Bypass lane steps are safe mid-take: the switch fades over 5 ms.
To automate MATCH, automate Output Trim.
Ignore Dump Info, a service parameter.

MIDI Learn

Click the MIDI Learn icon in the top band, left of TIPS. It stays lit.
Click a knob or the POWER lamp. It turns orange; its value does not change.
Move a control on your MIDI device. The CC is bound at once.
Click the icon again to leave Learn mode.

In Learn mode, mapped controls show their CC number. One control takes one CC; learning again replaces it. To remove a mapping, right-click the mapped control and choose MIDI Forget. R862 listens on every MIDI channel and maps the full CC range, 0 to 127, over the full range of the control. The mappings belong to the computer, not to a session or preset, and are saved as you make them. The MIDI page of the menu loads, saves and manages mapping files (.r862midi) and sets the default set; a new R862 loads the current set, and the default set is used only when there is no current set. In Logic, R862 is a MIDI-controlled effect: choose the MIDI source in the plug-in header.

The menu

About: version, build date and license.
License Status: the license window.
Manuals: the Quick Guides on the web and the user guide, Dark or Print.
MIDI: load, save and manage MIDI mappings.
Tooltip: the help strip, on or off.
Open Preset Folder: the shared preset folder.
Set Default Size: new inserts open at the current window width.

Window size

Drag the corner to resize, from the design size to two and a half times that, at most 90 % of the display. The aspect ratio is locked, and each session keeps its own size. On Linux the window goes down to half the design size, and on a high-resolution display the VST3 and the LV2 follow the DAW’s own interface scale.

Renders

Offline bounces are repeatable, sample for sample: each one starts the station from the same state.

License

Activation

Without an activated license, R862 plays a soft noise instead of your audio and the license window opens by itself. You can also open it from the menu, License Status:

Paste your license key.
Click Activate.

The status line turns green and your audio returns at once, with no restart.

Button	Does
Activate	Activates this computer with the key.
Deactivate	Frees this computer’s seat, even offline; the server hears at the next contact.
Refresh	Checks the license now.
Account	Opens your account page on the web, where you manage your computers.

The license renews online by itself. R862 keeps playing offline for a while; when it needs the server, a line across the top of the panel says so. Click the line for Refresh or Account.

On Linux, deactivate the license before you reinstall the system: R862 may count the new installation as a new computer.

Installation

Formats, folders and removal

Install the format your DAW uses; the station is the same in each. The installer offers the formats, the presets and the user guides as separate items. On Linux, the package or the archive installs all of them.

Format	Platform	Installed at
VST3	macOS	`/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/Pulsar Modular/R862 Skywave.vst3`
VST3	Windows	`C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\Pulsar Modular\R862 Skywave.vst3`
AU	macOS	`/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/R862 Skywave.component`
AAX	macOS	`/Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio/Plug-Ins/Pulsar Modular/R862 Skywave.aaxplugin`
AAX	Windows	`C:\Program Files\Common Files\Avid\Audio\Plug-Ins\Pulsar Modular\R862 Skywave.aaxplugin`
VST3	Linux	`~/.vst3/R862 Skywave.vst3`
LV2	Linux	`/usr/lib/lv2/R862 Skywave.lv2` (package) or `~/.lv2/R862 Skywave.lv2` (archive)

Presets and user guides go to the shared Pulsar Modular folder:

macOS

/Users/Shared/Pulsar Modular/R862 Skywave/Presets/Users/Shared/Pulsar Modular/R862 Skywave/User Guides

Windows

C:\Users\Public\Documents\Pulsar Modular\R862 Skywave\PresetsC:\Users\Public\Documents\Pulsar Modular\R862 Skywave\User Guides

Linux

~/.local/share/Pulsar Modular/R862 Skywave/Presets~/.local/share/Pulsar Modular/R862 Skywave/User Guides

What a fresh insert gives you

A new insert loads the Default preset. As installed it gives the factory settings: DEPTH 0.95, DRIVE 0 dB, SAG 0 %, BIAS +8 V, TUBE MISMATCH 0, both trims at 0 dB, MIX at 0% D (all AIR), POWER lit, CAL at −18 and the WARN thumbwheel at 95.

Uninstalling

NoteYour presets live in the shared R862 Skywave folder as plain files. Copy that folder somewhere safe before you delete it if you want to keep them.

macOS

/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components

Delete R862 Skywave.component.

VST3

/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/Pulsar Modular

Delete R862 Skywave.vst3.

AAX

/Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio/Plug-Ins/Pulsar Modular

Delete R862 Skywave.aaxplugin.

Shared

/Users/Shared/Pulsar Modular

Delete the R862 Skywave folder (presets and user guides). Delete the Pulsar Modular folder too if it is left empty.

Settings

~/Library/Application Support/Pulsar Modular/R862 Skywave

Delete the R862 Skywave folder: the help strip switch and favorites.

MIDI

~/Library/Application Support/Pulsar Modular MIDI/R862 Skywave

Delete the R862 Skywave folder: the MIDI mappings.

Windows

VST3

C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\Pulsar Modular

Delete R862 Skywave.vst3.

AAX

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Avid\Audio\Plug-Ins\Pulsar Modular

Delete R862 Skywave.aaxplugin.

Shared

C:\Users\Public\Documents\Pulsar Modular

Delete the R862 Skywave folder (presets and user guides). Delete the Pulsar Modular folder too if it is left empty.

Settings

%APPDATA%\Pulsar Modular\R862 Skywave

Delete the R862 Skywave folder: the help strip switch and favorites.

MIDI

%APPDATA%\Pulsar Modular MIDI\R862 Skywave

Delete the R862 Skywave folder: the MIDI mappings.

Linux

.deb

sudo apt remove r862-skywave

Package: removes the VST3 and the LV2. Your presets, settings and MIDI mappings stay.

.tar.gz

./uninstall.sh

Archive: run it in the archive’s folder. Your presets, settings and MIDI mappings stay.

Shared

~/.local/share/Pulsar Modular

Delete the R862 Skywave folder (presets and user guides). Delete the Pulsar Modular folder too if it is left empty.

Settings

~/.config/Pulsar Modular/R862 Skywave

Delete the R862 Skywave folder: the help strip switch and favorites.

MIDI

~/.config/Pulsar Modular MIDI/R862 Skywave

Delete the R862 Skywave folder: the MIDI mappings.

If you are leaving the computer for good, deactivate the license first: menu, License Status, Deactivate.

Linux

VST3 and LV2 on Linux

R862 runs on 64-bit Intel and AMD Linux systems (x86-64) with glibc 2.34 or newer: Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 12, Fedora 35, Linux Mint 21 and later releases. To check, run getconf GNU_LIBC_VERSION in a terminal. R862 comes in two forms; install one of them, not both.

Package (.deb)

For Ubuntu, Debian, Linux Mint, Pop!_OS and other Debian-based systems. Install it in a terminal opened in the download folder:

sudo apt install ./r862-skywave_*_amd64.deb

To uninstall:

sudo apt remove r862-skywave

Archive (.tar.gz)

For any distribution. It installs for your user only and needs no root: unpack it and run this in a terminal opened in the unpacked folder:

./install.sh

To uninstall, in the archive’s folder:

./uninstall.sh

NoteBoth install the VST3, the LV2, the factory presets and the user guides. Then rescan plug-ins in your DAW, or restart it; Ardour and Mixbus look for new plug-ins when they start.

Which format in which DAW

DAW	Use
REAPER	the VST3: REAPER cannot automate the LV2’s controls
Bitwig Studio	the VST3
Ardour, Mixbus	either format
A mono track	the VST3: the LV2 is stereo only

Good to know

An update never overwrites a preset, edited or not; it adds the factory presets you do not have. It does replace the user guides with their new versions.
Uninstalling keeps your presets, settings and MIDI mappings.
With the LV2, the host’s bypass is a separate switch. It fades and stays in time like R862’s own, but the bypass icon and the POWER lamp do not show it.
The window goes down to half the design size. In Ardour and Mixbus, resize the VST3 from its corner; the window frame does not resize it. The LV2 resizes from the window frame (in REAPER, from its corner) and keeps the panel’s proportions inside it.
Deactivate the license before you reinstall Linux: R862 may count the new installation as a new computer.

Specifications

Formats, channels and latency

Formats	VST3, AU and AAX on macOS; VST3 and AAX on Windows; VST3 and LV2 on Linux
Processing	64-bit floating point
Sample rates	any
Channels	mono in to mono out, stereo in to stereo out. Surround and immersive layouts are not supported. On Linux the LV2 is stereo only.
Latency	reported to the host and compensated: 123 samples at 44.1 and 48 kHz, 99 at 88.2 and 96 kHz, none from 176.4 kHz up

Troubleshooting and FAQ

Common questions

The sound

I hear a soft noise instead of my audio.

R862 is not licensed on this computer. Open License Status in the menu, paste your key and click Activate.

The level dropped when I turned BIAS.

Colder settings lower the level. Click MATCH.

DRIVE does not make it louder.

By design. Use OUT TRIM for level.

The mix sounds thin in mono.

In the red zone of BIAS the stereo field loses its correlation. Back BIAS off, or blend in a little LINE to refocus it.

The panel

The help strip is blank.

It is off by default. Switch it on with TIPS.

The correlation meter is gone and the L-R lamp stays dark.

The track is mono. If only the correlation meter is gone, the scope is in TRANSFER: click it to step on.

The needles pin at the right.

Pick a higher CAL setting.

A Manuals row is gray.

That guide is not installed. Run the installer with User Guides selected; on Linux, reinstall the package or run install.sh again.

Presets and sessions

My preset switched the station off.

A preset stores Bypass and applies it on load. Re-save it with the station on.

SAVE says there is nothing loaded to overwrite.

Use SAVE AS, or load a preset first. A fresh insert’s Default is not a save target.

“Changed on disk since you loaded it.”

Another R862, or Finder, changed the file. Reload it, or use SAVE AS.

“The startup Default could not be written.”

R862 cannot write to the preset folder. Check that it exists and that you can write to it.

Why are CAL and the thumbwheel not in my preset?

They are saved with the session.

Hosts and renders

Can I use R862 on surround or immersive tracks?

No. Use it on stereo pairs, stems and beds, and in mono on single channels.

A mono track gives a stereo output.

R862 runs mono to mono or stereo to stereo only.

Does R862 add latency?

Yes, compensated by the host: 123 samples at 44.1 and 48 kHz, 99 at 88.2 and 96 kHz, none from 176.4 kHz up.

My MIDI controller does not move R862 in Logic.

Choose the MIDI source in the plug-in header.

Linux

R862 does not appear in my Linux DAW.

Rescan plug-ins or restart the DAW, and check that the system has glibc 2.34 or newer.

Ardour or Mixbus crashes while scanning plug-ins.

R862 may be installed twice, from the package and from the archive. Remove one of them.

I cannot automate R862 in REAPER.

Use the VST3: REAPER cannot automate the LV2’s controls.

Crackles at small buffer sizes on Linux.

The DAW is probably running without real-time priority. Give your user real-time audio rights (your distribution’s audio setup guide shows how), then log in again.