Manual

v1.0.1
Contents
Welcome to Snapback 3
System Requirements 3
Installation & Licensing 3
Need more help? 3
Quick-Start Guide 4
Reference 6
Preset Library 6
Preset Browser 6
Categories 6
Tags 7
Preset list 7
Favorite presets 7
Searching presets 7
Main Menu 8
Help bar 9
Snapback and Transient layers 9
Snapback and Transient parameters 9
Oscilloscope display 11
Triggering Setup panel 12
Audio Trigger Setup 13
MIDI Trigger Setup 14
User sample import 14
Drag and drop 14
Manual import 15
Lookahead 15

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Welcome to Snapback
Snapback is a powerful drum layering effect that effortlessly brings punch, weight, groove
and dynamic movement to your drum, percussion and instrumental tracks. The unique
Snapback layer adds a “whipping” snapback sample before each hit, while the Transient
layer triggers a transformational attack, body or textural sample.

Snapback’s carefully curated sample and preset libraries provide professional results in an
instant, while the finely tuned transient detection engine delivers perfectly accurate
triggering right out of the box. It’s everything you need to make beats that hit different!

System Requirements
Windows
Windows 7, 8, 10 or 11
VST2, VST3 or AAX host sequencer
64-bit

Mac
Mac OS X 10.13 or later
Intel or Apple Silicon (Native/Rosetta) processor
VST2, VST3, AU or AAX host sequencer

Works with Ableton Live, Logic Pro, Pro Tools, Cubase, Bitwig Studio, FL Studio, REAPER,
Studio One, and many other DAWs that support VST2, VST3, AU or AAX.

Internet connection required for downloading Snapback’s samples.

Installation & Licensing

Please refer to the online Cableguys Installation Instructions.

Need more help?

Hover the mouse over any control to see a quick description in the lower Help bar.

Additionally, the Cableguys YouTube channel contains many video how-to’s, tips and
tricks.

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 Quick-Start Guide

1. Add a Snapback layer

Load Snapback into an individual drum track (the kick or snare, for example) in your DAW
and click the top menu in the Snapback section (set to ‘Off’ by default) to open the library of
Snapback samples. Select a sample and you’ll immediately hear it start to trigger, leading
into every drum hit to end at the point that the hit begins.

2. Add a Transient layer

With the Snapback section providing the ‘pre-hit’ sound, the Transient section is used to add
a perfectly-anchored attack or body layer to the hit itself. The two sections are identical in
their operation, so load a Transient sample from the top menu, and instantly you’ll hear it
trigger with every hit.

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3. Shape the Snapback and Transient

From this starting point, you can explore the sample library to find the perfect Snapback
and Transient layers for the drum at hand, and tweak the pitch, volume envelope, timing
offset and stereo imaging of both sections to taste.

4. Tweak the triggering

Snapback’s audio triggering is based on an advanced transient detection algorithm that ‘just
works’, but if you need to tweak the trigger response – perhaps you only want hits above a
certain volume within a particularly dynamic snare drum part to trigger, or only the kick
drum in a full drum loop – click the Trigger tab in the center of the plugin to open the
Trigger Settings panel. Here, you can adjust the minimum input volume and/or frequency
range required for triggering, raise or lower the detection sensitivity, and more.

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 Reference

Preset Library
Snapback ships with a large library of professionally designed presets.

The current preset is shown in the center of the top bar. Step through presets based on
your current Preset Filter setting using the < and > buttons to the right of the preset name.

Click the preset name to open and close the full Preset Browser.

Click the ☰ button to the far left to open the Main Menu, which contains various
preset-related functions, amongst others.

Preset Browser
Find useful everyday setups and inspirational
effects with Snapback's Preset Browser. The
left hand side of the Preset Browser enables
narrowing down of the presets displayed in the
list on the right hand side via a series of
Categories and Tags.

To close the Preset Browser, click the X at the

top right corner.

Categories
Along the top, the All button shows the full
library, including those presets created by
you, while the My Presets button filters the
list down to only your own saved user
presets.

You can rename or delete your own presets by clicking the ••• button that appears to the
right of the preset name when moused over.

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Tags
Below the Categories, the Kick, Snare & Clap,
Other sections each comprise a set of Tags
for narrowing the preset list down to
designated collections of sonic effects and
treatments. Click a Tag to see only presets
that adhere to its particular technical or
stylistic qualification in the right-hand list,
and click any Category to clear all Tags.

Preset list
The right-hand side of the Preset Library is home to
the presets themselves, as filtered via the
Categories and Tags. The title of the currently active
Category or Tag, and the number of presets it
contains, appears at the top of the list. To load a
preset, double-click it.

Favorite presets
Mousing over a preset reveals a gray heart icon
– click this to designate that preset as a Favorite. To filter the preset list down to show only
Favorites, click the heart icon at the left-hand end of the Search bar.

Searching presets
The Preset Library’s Search function lets you narrow down the preset list based on text
entered in the ‘Search preset names’ field.

You can further filter the results down to only qualifying presets also designated as
Favorites by clicking the heart icon to the left.

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Main Menu
● Preset
○ Init: Want to start from scratch? This resets
Snapback to its default state.
○ Save: Store your preset within the local
Cableguys library database.
○ Load FXP: Browse to and load a stored preset
in FXP file format.
○ Save FXP: Save the current preset to an FXP
file, for discrete storage and sharing.

● Preset Library
○ Sync Presets: Selecting this menu option will
download all new Cableguys presets, and
upload/update all of your presets to your
personal (and private) Cableguys cloud for
backup purposes.

● Snapback & Transient Files

○ Show User Sound Folder: Open the
Snapback User Samples folder in Windows
File Explorer/macOS Finder. Place
WAV/AIF/AIFF files in the Snapback and
Transient folders here and they will appear in the Snapback and Transient
menus, in the User column. Refer to the User sample import section of this
manual for further details.

● Scaling
○ 75–200%: Scale the Snapback GUI up or down to suit your monitor
resolution. Only Scaling percentages that won’t exceed your display
resolution are made available – the rest are grayed out.

● Settings
○ Use OpenGL Graphics (Windows only): Enable this for improved UI
performance. We recommend leaving it off, however, as, due to a bug in
some graphics drivers, using OpenGL may at some point result in
graphical problems within the plugin's interface. If this happens and you
cannot access the Main menu any more, please see our FAQ page to find
out how to disable OpenGL for the plugin.
○ High Contrast: Increase the contrast of certain GUI elements for better
visibility in bright environments.
● Help
○ Open Web Manual and Tutorials: Access this manual and tutorials.
○ Check for Updates: Ensure your Snapback version is up to date.

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 ○ System Information: Opens a detailed description of your system setup for
information and support purposes. Click the Copy button to paste the
System Information to your pasteboard.
○ Change License: Switch your current Snapback license for a different one.

Help bar
At the bottom of the GUI, the
Help bar serves as a quick
reference guide directly within
the plugin. Simply place the
mouse pointer over a control to
see a brief description of it,
including available settings
where applicable.

Snapback and Transient layers

Snapback features two audio/MIDI-triggered sample playback sections: one playing a

snapback sample that leads into the triggering sound or MIDI note, the other playing a
transient sample that starts with the triggering sound or MIDI note. The snapback, then,
works like a very short “riser” or “whip”, crescendoing at the triggering hit, while the
transient bolsters the attack or body of the hit itself.

Snapback and Transient parameters

The two sample playback sections are identical in their available parameters – to bypass
them, click their respective power buttons, and to deactivate them completely (eliminating
latency from the Snapback layer), select the ‘[Off]’ entry from the sample menu. The display
in each section shows the waveform of the loaded sample, which reflects any changes made
to the Attack, Decay, Pitch, Width and Filter parameters.

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Settings
● Bypass: Click the power button to mute the
corresponding layer.
● Snapback/Transient sample:
Load a sample into the Snapback or
Transient section from the included library
or your own collection. The Snapback and
Transient sample libraries are categorized by
drum type, sonic character and various other
descriptive characteristics, and the User
section contains samples you’ve imported
yourself, as described in the User Sample
Import section of this manual.
● Solo: Click the ‘headphones’ buttons to
solo/unsolo each section, and hold down the
Shift key on your keyboard to solo/unsolo
both sections together. As well as enabling
the Snapback and/or Transient layers to be
heard in isolation (ie, with either layer and/or
the input signal effectively muted), this is a
convenient function when setting up
dedicated ‘dry’, ‘transient’ and ‘snapback’
tracks for mixing, or making Snapback’s
output “100% wet” when using it on an
auxiliary FX return.
● Polarity: Invert the polarity of the sample. This is particularly useful for preventing
phase issues when your Transient sample is out of phase with the input signal. If
your output signal appears to be ‘thinner’ or more ‘hollow’ when the Transient
sample is present, inverting the phase (of either) is the solution.
● Attack: Apply a “fade in” volume envelope to the start of the sample. The length is
preserved when switching between samples, allowing for easier comparison.
● Decay: Apply a “fade out” volume
envelope to the end of the sample.
Lowering the Decay amount from
its default of 100% increasingly
fades out the end of the sample,
and the envelope timing is
preserved when switching samples
in the factory library.
● Pitch: Pitch the sample up or down
by up to 12 semitones.
● Shift: Offset playback of the
sample relative to the triggering signal by up to 4ms forward or backward in time.
● Volume: Adjust the volume of the layer.
● Width: Narrow or expand the stereo image of the sample by adjusting the level of
the side signal, from mono at 0% to super wide at 200%.
● Pan: Position the sample anywhere within the stereo field – useful for matching the
sample to a panned input signal.

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 ● Dynamics: Control the degree by which the volume level of the sample is modulated
by the volume level of the input signal. With Dynamics at 100%, the sample playback
volume tracks the input volume 1:1; at 0%, the sample playback volume is
completely unaffected by the input signal level.
● Filter: Apply high- and low-pass filters to the sample. Dragging the left handle sets
the cutoff frequency of the high-pass filter, while the right handle sets the cutoff
frequency of the low-pass filter.

💡 TIP: Use the Shift, Polarity and Pitch controls together to get the Transient layer
perfectly phase aligned with the input signal, thereby maximizing their combined impact.

Oscilloscope display

Snapback’s sample-accurate Oscilloscope discretely visualizes every signal going into and
coming out of the plugin, with adjustable time range and a Detail mode for observing each
hit in close-up.

Waveforms in the Oscilloscope are color-coded by signal type:

○ Gray: Input signal

○ Purple: Snapback layer
○ Pink: Transient layer
○ Cyan: External sidechain input
○ Cyan: Mixed output signal (in Output view mode)

Along the bottom of the Oscilloscope are controls for determining exactly what’s visible
within it, as well as a couple of mixing and sound-related parameters.

● Zoom: Set the horizontal range of the Oscilloscope display, from a ¼-note to 8 bars,
or 10-400ms in Detail mode.

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 ● Detail: Show a close-up view of the
waveforms, from 10-400ms in length, as
selected using the Zoom control. In Detail
mode, the display refreshes with each
trigger input and freezes until the next
trigger arrives, enabling highly precise
visual analysis of the waveforms around
the transients. This is hugely helpful when
it comes to aligning the layers to get them
perfectly in phase with the source signal.
● Output: By default, the Oscilloscope shows the input signal, Snapback layer and
Transient layer as separate color-coded waveforms. Activating Output mode
switches to a single waveform representing the mixed output of all three signals.
● Limiter: Enable a transient-aware clipper/limiter on the plugin’s output. This is very
useful for reining in the excessive peaks that can occur when layering transients. The
adjustable Ceiling level, shown in dB, defines the level at which peaks are
clipped/limited. In other words, the signal will not exceed the Ceiling value. When
adjusting the Ceiling, a pair of horizontal lines representing it appear in the
Oscilloscope, with the limited output signal in cyan and the input signal in gray. This
is useful when you want your output to have a similar peak level to the input,
ensuring a similar reaction from any further dynamics processors. When Output
mode is active, the gray waveform instead shows the summed pre-Limiter signal
(input + Snapback + Transient), so that you can see the peaks being clipped off by
the Limiter.

Triggering Setup panel

Snapback can be triggered by an incoming audio or MIDI signal. In the default Audio
triggering mode, the two sample layers are triggered by transients in the incoming signal or
an external audio signal routed into the plugin via the sidechain. In MIDI triggering mode,
MIDI notes routed into the plugin trigger the two layers.

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The Triggering Setup panel houses a variety of controls for altering the triggering response,
as well as an oscilloscope that clearly shows every trigger as they occur. Open and close the
Triggering Setup screen by clicking the ‘Trigger’ tab at the bottom center of the Oscilloscope
display. The chevron in the tab flashes cyan with every trigger.

Switch between the ‘Audio’ and ‘MIDI’ Trigger modes by clicking the Trigger button
and selecting from the drop-down menu. In either mode, the indicator in the
Trigger button also flashes cyan with every trigger received.

Audio Trigger Setup

● Threshold: Set the volume level in dB that incoming transients have to exceed to
trigger Snapback’s two sample layers. Transients below the Threshold will not trigger
Snapback.
● Sidechain Input: Activate the external sidechain input for audio triggering, enabling
any track in your DAW project to be routed into Snapback as a trigger signal via your
DAW’s sidechaining system. There are two primary use cases for this:
○ Separating the input, snapback and transient signals onto their own tracks or
channels for discrete processing and mixing: simply place two Snapbacks on
separate channels, then feed your source signal into both of them via their
sidechain inputs.
○ Gaining heightened control over which hits in your drum track trigger
Snapback. Duplicate the drum track and use the duplicate to trigger
Snapback via the Sidechain Input, then edit it as required to change the
placement of the triggers.
● Monitor Input: Listen to the signal going into the transient detector, including
filtering and external sidechain routing. This is useful when you need to hear exactly
what the transient detector is ‘hearing’ in order to surgically tailor the trigger signal
using the High/Low Filters.
● High/Low Filters: This double-ended slider sets the range of frequencies the
transient detector will respond to, and is particularly useful when using Snapback on
full drum loops. Cut the highs, for example, to have the algorithm ignore the snare
and hi-hats and only respond to the kick drum. Note that filtering can lower detected
transient levels, and low-pass filtering can delay the trigger position.
● Algorithm
○ Drums: Optimized for transient-heavy material like drums or percussion.
○ General: A ‘general purpose’ transient detection algorithm for use with
source material of all kinds.
○ Complex: The most sensitive transient detection algorithm, for use with full
mixes and multi-layered loops.
● Detail: Adjust the sensitivity of the transient detection to suit your source material.
Increase to capture finer details such as fast rolls and ghost notes.
● MIDI Out: Select a MIDI note to be output whenever a transient is detected. This is
useful for triggering other plugins, or recording the notes to a MIDI track then using

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 that track to trigger Snapback via MIDI for precise control and reduced latency. Note
that some DAWs, including Logic Pro, do not allow audio plugins to output MIDI.

MIDI Trigger Setup

For instructions on setting your DAW up to send MIDI to Snapback, visit our FAQ page.

● MIDI Port
○ Direct From DAW: This is the best option if supported by your DAW, as it
gives the tightest possible timing.
○ MIDI Devices: If your DAW doesn’t allow you to route MIDI notes to audio
plugins, assign a MIDI input port from those available to your system. The
timing may not be as tight, though, and you’ll need to return to this screen if
ports are added or removed.
● Channel: Select All Channels, or any individual MIDI channel from 1-16 for input.
● Octave
○ All Notes: By default, any MIDI note triggers Snapback.
○ Octave (-2 to 8): Restrict the triggering to a specific note in a specific octave,
from -2 to 8.
● Note: Select the note within the selected Octave that triggers Snapback

User sample import

Snapback’s factory library provides a wide diversity of carefully curated snapback and
transient samples but you can, of course, also use your own, with or without adding them to
the User section of the library. Note that for snapback samples longer than 2 seconds, only
the last 2 seconds are used, while Transient samples are truncated to only the first 4
seconds if longer than 4 seconds.

There are two ways to import samples:

Drag and drop

The quickest way to use your own samples in Snapback is to drag them into the Snapback or
Transient sections from anywhere in your DAW or operating system’s file browser.

When you load a sample via drag and drop or from the User area of the sound menu, it’s
stored within that instance of Snapback, and included in any projects, presets or FXP files
made with it. You can also copy the sample to the User section of the sample library (or

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anywhere else you like) by clicking the Import button that appears above the sample name.
This opens a save dialog that defaults to the Snapback User Samples folder.

Manual import
You can also import samples into the library by placing them in the Snapback User
Samples folder. Here’s how:

1. From the Main Menu (☰ icon), choose Show User Sounds Folder to open
Documents/Cableguys/Snapback User Samples in Windows File Explorer/macOS
Finder. This contains the Snapbacks and Transients folders, where all user
Snapback and Transient files are stored.
2. If you like, create further folders within the Snapbacks or Transients folder to
categorize your samples. Note that only one tier of subfolders is supported – further
subfolders within those subfolders won’t be seen by Snapback.
3. Place any number (but see below) of samples in WAV, AIF or AIFF format in the
Snapbacks and Transients folders and/or any subfolders you’ve added to them.
4. Your imported samples and subfolders will be available in the User columns of the
Snapback Snapback and Transient sample menus.
5. Deleting a sample from the User library won’t affect existing projects, presets or FXP
files that use that sample, as it’s “baked into” the plugin when saved.

Please note:

⚠ Only one tier of subfolders is supported.

⚠ The maximum total number of supported samples and/or folders is 1000.
⚠ Samples are limited to 100MB each, with sample rates up to 192kHz.

Lookahead
With Snapback effectively ‘looking into the future’ in order to tightly and precisely anchor the
Snapback sample to the triggering audio or MIDI signal, monitoring latency – that is a delay
between starting playback of the project or playing a note on your MIDI keyboard and sound
being heard – is an inevitable issue to be dealt with. Your DAW may offer some sort of
system to help alleviate the resulting lag in responsiveness – Live’s ‘Reduced Latency When
Monitoring’ option or Cubase’s ‘Constrain Delay Compensation’ feature, for example.

The amount of latency is determined by the length of the loaded sample. Specifically, the
snapbacks in the ‘Short’ column of the sample library add 25ms of latency, while the
samples in the other three columns add 125ms. The latency introduced by the Snapback
layer can be eliminated entirely, of course, by unloading the sample, which is done by
selecting ‘[Off]’ in the sample menu.

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