Contents
- 01Lead, keys, pad, bass, pluck, strings · what Sacred is3
- 02Getting started · Windows, macOS, iPad, your host4
- 03The window6
- 04Settings10
- 05MIDI · your keyboard and its knobs11
- 06Monolith · lead13
- 07Altar · keys16
- 08Sanctum · pad19
- 09Crypt · bass22
- 10Rune · pluck and stab25
- 11Requiem · strings and choir28
- 12Sacred in a host · the plugin31
- 13Uninstalling33
- 14When something's wrong33
About this manual
Chapters 1 to 5 are the same for every instrument: how to install Sacred, how the window works, how to set it up and how to play it from a MIDI keyboard. Chapters 6 to 11 give each instrument its own: its character, what its Transmute knob does from left to right, each of its controls, its signature switch and its sounds. Chapter 12 is for playing Sacred inside Logic Pro, Ableton Live or another host.
Names you see in the window are set in bold. Keys on the computer keyboard look like Z. Where the text says right-click, on a Mac Control-click or click with two fingers. Where a Mac or the iPad differs from Windows, the text says so.
- Install Sacred and open it (chapter 2). A short tour shows you round the first time.
- Click the cog at the top right and choose your keyboard under MIDI in and your speakers or interface under Audio out. Click Done.
- Play, and turn the big knob, Transmute. It carries the whole sound from one character to another, even while a note sounds.
- Click the instrument's name at the top left to try another of the six.
Lead, keys, pad, bass, pluck, strings
Sacred is six instruments in one window, each named after something of the temple, and each with one big knob that changes it from one thing into another: Transmute carries its whole sound from one character to another, and you can turn it while you play.
Everything else stands beside the knob, the same way in every instrument: a few controls in named groups, three sounds for Transmute to turn through, two wheels, a keyboard, and one switch of the instrument's own, made to be flipped while you play. Learn one instrument and you know the window of all six.
Sacred is an app for Windows, macOS and iPad, and a plugin for Logic Pro, Ableton Live, GarageBand and other hosts on Windows, macOS and iPad. All six live in one app and one plugin: you pick the instrument inside its window.
The standing stone, alone above everything around it. A lead synth for one hand on the keys and one on the wheels: long bends, vibrato, lines that sing.
Transmute: smooth → singing → screaming · its switch: Fifth
The fire at the temple's heart. A tonewheel organ with a rotating speaker, a piano and an electric piano, behind one set of controls.
Transmute: clean → driven → roaring · its switch: Dive
The temple's innermost room, where it is stillest. A pad for holding chords, from stillness to constant motion.
Transmute: calm → breathing → evolving · its switch: Shimmer
The room under the temple, deep in the dark. A bass, one note at a time, from a plucked wooden string to a fuzzed synth over a clean sub.
Transmute: wood → hybrid → fuzz · its switch: Auto-wah
A sign of power, cut into stone and struck. Struck and plucked sounds, short and bright: mallets, plucks and stabs.
Transmute: mallet → pluck → stab · its switch: Chord
The great sung mass, from a hush to the full choir. Strings and a choir, from a dream to an anthem.
Transmute: dream → chorale → anthem · its switch: Tutti
Three ideas
One knob for the sound
Each instrument's sound is made at three points of Transmute (left, middle and right) and blended smoothly everywhere between. There are no menus of oscillators to learn: you turn, and listen.
Sounds, not settings
Each instrument has three sounds, each its own journey across the knob. Choosing one never moves a control: the knob and every control stay where you left them, and all of them work on every sound.
Controls that start from the sound
Many controls read as voiced or 100 %: the sound exactly as it was made. You move them from there: darker, wider, more echo. Because they start from the sound, they make sense on every sound and at every point of the knob.
Played, not programmed
Every control, the knob and the switch can be linked to a knob or button on your MIDI keyboard, so the instrument is played with both hands.
Getting started
On Windows, one installer puts the app and the plugin on your PC. On a Mac, Sacred comes as a disk image, and on iPad it is an app like any other.
Installing on Windows
- Double-click Sacred Installer.exe.
- Windows may say Windows protected your PC, because the installer isn't signed. Click More info, then Run anyway.
- A window asks Install Sacred on this PC? It goes into your own programs folder; Change… picks another. Click Install.
- Windows asks once whether to let Sacred make changes. Click Yes: that puts the Sacred plugin (VST3) in
C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3, where Ableton Live and other hosts look for plugins. Click No and you have the app without the plugin.
Sacred opens, with a shortcut in the Start menu and on the desktop, and this manual in the Start menu as Sacred Manual.
Installing on macOS
- Open the Sacred disk image and drag Sacred to Applications.
- Open Sacred. The first time, macOS may ask you to confirm opening an app downloaded from the internet: click Open.
- That first time, Sacred puts its VST3 plugin in your own plugin folder,
~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3(no password needed), and macOS registers its Audio Unit, which lives inside the app. Logic Pro, GarageBand, Ableton Live and other hosts then find it.
Updating
On Windows, do the same with the new Sacred Installer.exe. It asks Sacred is already installed on this PC. Update it with this copy?: click Update. It replaces the app, and the plugin when that has changed, so close Ableton Live (and any other host) first. On a Mac, quit your host, drag the new Sacred to Applications to replace the old one, and open it once. Your settings stay as they are.
If you had the separate apps · Windows
Sacred was called Alchemy, and its instruments Mercury, Sulfur, Aether, Saturn, Phosphor and Luna. Installing Sacred removes Alchemy and its plugin; the first time it opens, it also removes the instruments' own apps from before that (Mercury Lead, Sulfur Keys, Aether Pad, Saturn Bass and Phosphor Pluck) if any are installed, and tells you which (one that is open at the time goes the next time). Your settings carry over: each instrument keeps its sound, its controls and its knob links, and a project saved with Alchemy opens in Sacred as it was. Your MIDI keyboard and audio output are now chosen once for all six; to begin with, they're those of the first instrument Sacred opens that had them set.
The first time
Sacred opens on Monolith with a short tour: a card for each part of the window, the rest dimmed around it (you can still play it). Next and Back, or the arrow keys, move through it; Skip tour or Esc ends it. To take it again, click the instrument's name at the top left and choose Take the tour.
After that, Sacred always opens on the instrument you played last.
Setting up
- Plug in your MIDI keyboard before you open Sacred (or click Refresh in the settings after you do).
- Click the cog at the top right. Under MIDI in, choose your keyboard; under Audio out, choose your speakers or audio interface. Sacred plays at the device's own rate, with the lowest latency it allows.
- Click Done, and play. The keyboard and output you chose are the same for all six instruments.
No MIDI keyboard? Click the keys along the bottom of the window, or play the computer keyboard (page 9).
Your first five minutes
A short way round, once you can hear it:
- Monolith opens on its first sound, Quicksilver. Hold a note and turn the big Transmute knob slowly from left to right: smooth, then singing, then screaming. Push up the mod wheel for vibrato, then click Fifth, the key with a lamp beside the wheels, and play a phrase with one finger.
- Click QUICKSILVER at the top and choose Halo. The knob stays where you left it; the sound around it changes. Sweep it again.
- Click MONOLITH at the top left and choose Crypt. It sounds two octaves below the keys, so play a bass line in the middle of the keyboard. Switch on Auto-wah and dig in harder.
- Choose Sanctum and hold a chord while you turn Transmute: calm, breathing, evolving. Switch on Shimmer and let go of the keys: the hall sings on.
- Choose Rune, then its sound Flare. Play a chord, switch on Chord, and play single notes: each one is now the whole chord.
- Finish on Requiem: hold a low chord, turn Transmute from dream to anthem, and switch on Tutti.
Each instrument remembers where you left it, so the next time you open one, it's as you had it.
In your host
On Windows the installer put Sacred's plugin where your host looks for plugins; on a Mac, Sacred did the first time it opened. In Ableton Live, rescan if Sacred isn't listed yet (Settings › Plug-ins › Rescan; Preferences in older versions); it's under Plug-ins › VST3 › Sunstone Audio. In Logic Pro and GarageBand, it's among the Audio Unit instruments, under Sunstone Audio. Put it on a MIDI or instrument track, open its window, and pick an instrument by its name at the top left, just as in the app. Your host saves everything with your project. Chapter 12 has the details.
On iPad
Sacred for iPad is the same six instruments in the same window, made for your fingers. Install it on your iPad and open it from the Home Screen; it plays full screen, in landscape.
- Everything is played by touch: drag the knobs and wheels, tap the switches, play the keys.
- To link a control to a knob on your MIDI keyboard, hold it still for about half a second instead of right-clicking: you feel a tap, and MIDI learn lights up.
- Connect a MIDI keyboard and choose it under MIDI in, in the settings. The iPad chooses the audio output itself; change it in Control Centre.
- It's a plugin too, an Audio Unit: in GarageBand, AUM, Logic Pro for iPad or another host, add Sacred by Sunstone Audio as an instrument (chapter 12).
- Sacred keeps playing when another app comes to the front, so you can play over a backing track or a looper, and it sounds with the silent switch on.
The window
Every instrument plays in the same window, dressed in its own colours. The knob in the middle is the sound; everything else is around it.
1
2
3
4
5
5
6
7
8
9
- 1The instrument. Its sign and name. Click to change instrument, for the tour, or for About.
- 2The sound. Click to choose one of the instrument's three sounds.
- 3Settings. Your MIDI keyboard and audio output, the channel, the bend range, the knob links.
- 4Transmute. The one sound knob. The rings round it move with what you play.
- 5The controls. How it's played on the left, how it sounds on the right.
- 6The wheels. Pitch and mod, or the instrument's own.
- 7The special key. The instrument's signature switch.
- 8The keyboard, C2 to C7. Click or drag across it to play.
- 9Volume, for every instrument.
The window can be made any size; everything in it grows with it. Hover over any part of it on Windows or a Mac for a line about what it does.
Changing instrument
Click the name at the top left (it has a small arrow after it). A list opens with all six, each by its sign in its own colour, its name and what it is; the one playing is marked. Click another: a dial fills for a moment while it opens. Under the list are About Sacred (its version), Take the tour and Done.
You can also change instrument from your MIDI keyboard with a program change: program 1 is Monolith, 2 Altar, 3 Sanctum, 4 Crypt, 5 Rune, 6 Requiem (page 11).
Each instrument opens just as you left it: its sound, Transmute, its controls and its knob links. Your MIDI keyboard, audio output and volume are the window's, the same for all six.
Sounds
At the top, in the middle, is the sound playing. Click it for the list of the instrument's three sounds, each with a line saying what it is. Click one, or move with ↑ ↓ and choose with Enter; Esc or a click elsewhere closes the list.
A sound is what Transmute turns through: its own character at the left end, the middle and the right end of the knob. Choosing one never moves a control, and never the knob: if Transmute is at 0.30, you hear the new sound at 0.30. It fades in over a moment, so nothing clicks, and notes you're holding carry on into it. (On Altar, where a sound can be a different instrument altogether, held notes finish on the old one and new notes play the new one.) All of an instrument's sounds play at the same loudness at the same point of the knob.
Transmute
The big knob is the whole sound. It turns from the left end through the middle to the right end; ticks mark those three points, where each sound has its three characters, and every point between is a smooth blend of its neighbours. It moves the sound even while a note is held, so you can play it like a wheel.
- Drag up or to the right to turn it clockwise, down or to the left to turn it back.
- Scroll on it to nudge it. Double-click it for the middle (0.50).
- Its position, 0.00 to 1.00, is under its name.
- Link it to a knob or fader on your keyboard (page 11) and turn it with one hand while you play with the other.
The faint rings round the knob follow what you play: they swell with the level of the sound, carry its waveform round them, and each new note sends a ripple out.
The controls
Either side of the knob are the instrument's own controls, in named groups. They sit the same way in every instrument: how it's played on the left (how notes start and end, the touch, the octave), how it sounds on the right (its motion, its filter or tone, its space). There are four kinds:
| Kind | How to use it |
|---|---|
| Knob | Drag up or right to turn it up, or scroll on it; double-click puts it back to where it started. Its value is under its name. A knob that turns both ways from its middle (Cutoff, Resonance, Tone and the like) is drawn both ways from a mark where it starts. |
| Switch with a lamp | Click to switch it on and off; the lamp lights when it's on. |
| Two-way switch | Its two settings stacked, the chosen one lit. Click to change. |
| Stepper | Click the arrows to step down or up; double-click the value to put it back. |
A control that does nothing until a switch is on (Monolith's glide Time needs Glide) is drawn dimmed while that switch is off. You can still set it, ready for when you switch it on.
Many controls start at as voiced or 100 %: the sound exactly as it was made, at that point of the knob. They move from there. Cutoff at -1.0 oct is an octave darker than the sound's own; Reverb at 50 % is half its own reverb, 200 % twice; Attack at ×2.0 is twice as slow. Because they start from the sound, they work on every sound and at every point of Transmute, and a sound's own character always comes through.
The special key
Beside the wheels, at the left end of the keyboard, is a tall key with a lamp: the one switch that is most the instrument's own, made to be flipped while you play. Monolith's is Fifth, Altar's Dive, Sanctum's Shimmer, Crypt's Auto-wah, Rune's Chord and Requiem's Tutti. Click it to switch it on (the lamp and its outline light in the instrument's colour) and again to switch it off. It's a good one to link to a pad or button on your keyboard.
The wheels
The two wheels at the left show what your keyboard's wheels are sending, and you can drag them too. A pitch wheel springs back to the middle when you let go (double-click centres it); the other stays where you leave it (double-click puts it back). On every instrument but Altar, the left wheel is the pitch bend and the right one is your mod wheel. Each instrument names its own:
| Instrument | Left wheel | Right wheel |
|---|---|---|
| Monolith | Pitch | Mod: vibrato |
| Altar | Rotor: your mod wheel, slow below halfway, fast above | Swell: your expression pedal, how loud and how hard the amp is pushed |
| Sanctum | Pitch | Bright: opens the filter |
| Crypt | Pitch | Bright: opens the filter and the string |
| Rune | Pitch | Mod: a vibraphone's motor on the struck bars, brightness on the synth sounds |
| Requiem | Pitch | Swell: the ensemble plays out, louder and brighter |
The keyboard on screen
The keys run from C2 to C7. Click a key to play it, or drag across the keys to play a run; the lower down a key you click, the louder the note. Keys light up whenever they're played, from your MIDI keyboard, the computer keyboard or the mouse. Monolith and Crypt play one note at a time: the key that is sounding is lit more strongly. The instrument's Octave control shifts what every key plays.
The computer keyboard
No MIDI keyboard to hand? Play the computer keyboard while Sacred's window is in front. The keys work by their position, whatever your keyboard's layout, and the same on a Mac.
Volume
The fader at the right end of the keyboard sets the level for every instrument. At the top it reads 0 dB: each instrument plays as it was balanced, all six equally loud, and it never goes louder than that. Drag it or click where you want it, scroll on it to nudge it, and double-click it to put it back at the top. At the bottom it reads off. You can link it to a fader on your keyboard like any control.
Each instrument at a glance
| Instrument | Sounds | On the left | On the right | Special key |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monolith | Quicksilver, Crucible, Halo | Glide, Trigger, Octave | Vibrato, Filter, Space | Fifth |
| Altar | Brimstone, Vespers, Cinnabar | Percussion, Rotor, Octave | Vibrato, Drive, Space | Dive |
| Sanctum | Nebula, Quintessence, Athanor | Envelope, Touch, Octave | Motion, Filter, Space | Shimmer |
| Crypt | Heartwood, Red Lead, Black Sun | Envelope, Glide, Octave | Filter, Grit, Space | Auto-wah |
| Rune | Spark, Lantern, Flare | Envelope, Strike, Octave | Motion, Filter, Space | Chord |
| Requiem | Moonrise, Selene, Eclipse | Envelope, Touch, Octave | Ensemble, Tone, Space | Tutti |
Monolith and Crypt play one note at a time; the other four play chords. Each has a chapter of its own, from chapter 6.
Settings
Click the cog at the top right. The settings fill the window; Done or Esc takes you back. Everything is saved by itself, a moment after you change it and when you close Sacred.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| MIDI | |
| MIDI in | Your MIDI keyboard or controller. None leaves the input free for another program: on Windows, a MIDI input can be open in only one program at a time. Refresh looks for MIDI inputs and audio outputs again, after you plug one in. The small light beside it flickers whenever MIDI arrives. |
| Notes on | Every channel (as it comes), or one of Channel 1 to 16. The instrument then listens only on that channel, for notes, wheels and program changes (knob links keep the channel they were learned on). Each instrument has its own. |
| Playing | |
| Bend range | How far the pitch wheel bends, up and down: ±2, ±7, ±12 (as it comes), ±24, or +2 / −12 (a little up, an octave down). Each instrument has its own. Altar doesn't bend, so it has none. |
| Audio Windows and macOS | |
| Audio out | System default, or one of your audio devices. If the one you chose is unplugged, Sacred plays on the default output meanwhile and says so under the instrument's name; click Refresh once it's back. (On iPad the system chooses the output; change it in Control Centre.) |
| Your controller's knobs and buttons | |
| The list | Every control of the instrument playing, the Transmute knob and the volume, each with the MIDI control linked to it, if any (CC 74 · ch 1: control 74 on channel 1). Forget unlinks one; Forget them all unlinks every one in the list, the volume's too. Links are made on the controls themselves (page 11). |
| Start over | |
| Reset to defaults | Puts the instrument's sound, Transmute, its controls, the bend range, the channel and its knob links back as they came. Your MIDI keyboard, audio output and the volume's link stay as they are. Sacred asks first: it can't be undone. |
What's shared, and what each instrument keeps
The same for all six
- Your MIDI keyboard (MIDI in)
- The audio output (Audio out)
- The volume, and the knob it's linked to
- The instrument you played last, which Sacred opens on
Each instrument's own
- Its sound and the Transmute knob
- Every control, the special key too
- Its knob links
- Its channel and its bend range
MIDI
Sacred is made to be played from a MIDI keyboard, with its wheels, pedals and knobs. Here is what it listens to, and how to link your keyboard's knobs to its controls.
What Sacred listens to
| Message | What it does |
|---|---|
| Notes | Play the instrument. How hard you play matters on every sound but Altar's organ, Brimstone; Sanctum and Requiem let you set how much with their Velocity control. |
| Pitch bend | Bends the pitch by the bend range in the settings. Every instrument but Altar. |
| Mod wheel CC 1 | Monolith: vibrato. Altar: the rotor, slow below halfway and fast above. Sanctum and Crypt: brightness. Rune: a vibraphone's motor on the struck bars, brightness on the synth sounds. Requiem: swell. |
| Expression pedal CC 11 | Altar's swell: how loud it plays, and how hard the amp is pushed. |
| Sustain pedal CC 64 | Holds the notes, on every instrument. On Altar's organ, which has no sustain, each press switches the rotor between slow and fast instead. |
| Aftertouch | Pressing into the keys. Monolith: vibrato, as deep as its Depth control. Sanctum, Crypt and Rune: brightness. Requiem: swell. |
| Program change | Picks the instrument (below). |
| All notes off | Lets every note go. |
Program changes pick the instrument
| Program 1 | Program 2 | Program 3 | Program 4 | Program 5 | Program 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monolith | Altar | Sanctum | Crypt | Rune | Requiem |
Press a program button on your keyboard to switch instrument while you play. Program 7 starts again at Monolith, 8 is Altar, and so on round. Some keyboards count programs from 0: on those, Monolith is program 0 and Requiem 5. When the instrument playing listens on one channel only, it takes program changes on that channel only.
In a host, use the plugin's Instrument parameter instead (chapter 12).
Linking your keyboard's knobs
Any control in the window can be turned from a knob, fader or button on your MIDI keyboard: the Transmute knob, every control beside it, the special key and the volume.
- Right-click the control in the window (on a Mac, Control-click it or click with two fingers). It lights up, with MIDI learn on it.
- Move a knob or fader, or press a button, on your keyboard. That's it: from now on it turns that control, and the control in the window follows.
To give up before you move anything, right-click the control again or press Esc. On iPad, hold the control still for about half a second instead of right-clicking (you feel a tap); hold it again, or tap it, to give up.
- Each instrument keeps its own links, so the same knob can be Monolith's Cutoff and Sanctum's Drift. The volume's link is the window's, the same in all six.
- A link remembers the channel your keyboard sent it on.
- Buttons and switches: a switch is on while the control sends 64 or more. A button that latches switches it on and off; a button that only sends while held keeps it on while you hold it.
- Endless knobs (encoders that turn forever) are recognised by themselves, and a controller that sends fine, 14-bit values turns Transmute at its full resolution. The Transmute knob moves smoothly even from a coarse knob.
- To see or undo your links, open the settings: each control is listed with its link, with Forget beside it.
- Out of the box, Altar's Rotor is already linked to the mod wheel, as many organists set up their keyboards.
Give each job the same knob on every instrument, and your hands will know where things are whichever one is playing.
- Your first knob to Transmute. Links are each instrument's own, so make this one six times: pick an instrument, right-click Transmute, turn the knob, and on to the next.
- A pad or button to the special key, on each instrument the same way.
- A fader to the volume. Once is enough: the volume's link is shared by all six.
- The next two knobs to the tone (Cutoff, or Altar's Tone and Requiem's Bright) and the space (Reverb, or Crypt's Room).
- The program buttons to change instrument, and the wheels and pedals as they are.
MONOLITH
Crypt is the standing stone, tall and alone above everything around it. It's a lead synth that sings: one voice at a time, long smooth bends, vibrato on the mod wheel, and a deep, layered sound that carries over a band.
Transmute, left to right
Turned all the way left, Quicksilver is smooth: a thick, layered lead with an octave below it, warm and rounded. In the middle it sings: brighter and more open, clean enough to carry a melody over anything. To the right it screams: driven hard into a resonant bite, with more echo behind it. Every point between is a blend, so you can ride the knob through a solo.
Sounds
| Sound | Left | Middle | Right |
|---|---|---|---|
| QUICKSILVERThe lead: smooth, singing, screaming. | Smooth. Thick and layered, an octave below, warm and rounded. | Singing. Brighter and open; carries a melody over a band. | Screaming. Driven hard into a resonant bite, more echo behind. |
| CRUCIBLEThe analog lead: warm, sync, screaming. | Warm. A sawtooth and a square an octave down through a smooth four-pole filter, no effects. | Sync. A hard-synced sawtooth, hollow and vocal, a little drive. | Scream. Detuned sync saws into tape distortion and a speaker cabinet. |
| Every point is made to take Fifth and glide. | |||
| HALOThe soft lead: whistle, flute, glass. | Whistle. Almost a sine, with breath and a late, slow vibrato of its own. | Flute. A breathy synth flute with a chiff at the start of each note. | Glass. A hollow square with a sine two octaves above, a little flanger. |
| Made for gliding (Glide on, Mode on Always) and for sitting quietly over pads. Its fifth is tuned pure to the note. | |||
Controls
| Control | What it does | Range · at first |
|---|---|---|
| GLIDE | ||
| Glide | Glide on or off: each note slides in pitch from the one before. | on/off · off |
| Mode | Legato: glide only between notes that overlap, so you choose when to slide by how you play. Always: glide from every last note. | Legato |
| Time | How long the slide to the next note takes. | 0–1000 ms · 80 ms |
| TRIGGER | ||
| Trigger | Single: a note played while another is held carries the phrase on, without starting the envelopes again. Retrig: every note starts them afresh. | Single |
| OCTAVE | ||
| Octave | Shifts everything you play by octaves. Z and X step it. | −2 to +2 · 0 |
| VIBRATO | ||
| Rate | How fast the vibrato is. | 2–10 Hz · 6.5 Hz |
| Depth | How deep the vibrato is with the mod wheel all the way up (and with full aftertouch). | 0–100 ct · 40 ct |
| FILTER | ||
| Cutoff | Darkens or opens the whole sound, in octaves from the sound's own. | −6 to +3 oct · as voiced |
| Resonance | Less or more resonance than the sound's own. | −1 to +1 · as voiced |
| SPACE | ||
| Delay | How much of the sound's own delay. | 0–200 % · 100 % |
| Reverb | How much of the sound's own reverb. | 0–200 % · 100 % |
Wheels. Pitch bends by the bend range in the settings (±12 to begin with), smoothly enough for big, fast bends. Mod brings in the vibrato, as deep as Depth sets; pressing into the keys does it too.
Fifth
A perfect fifth above every note, in the lead's own sound, following its bends, its vibrato and its glide. One finger plays a power lead: switch it on for the big moments.
Playing it
- Monolith plays one note at a time: the last key you press. On screen, the sounding key is lit more strongly than the others held.
- For legato lines, overlap your notes. With Trigger on Single the phrase flows on; with Glide on and Mode on Legato, only the overlapped notes slide.
- The sustain pedal holds the note open after you let go.
- Try a bend range of ±12 or ±24 for wide, singing bends, and link Transmute to a knob to sweep from smooth to screaming mid-phrase.
ALTAR
Altar is the fire at the temple's heart. Three keyboards stand behind one set of controls: a tonewheel organ with a rotating speaker and an amp you can push into a roar, a piano, and an electric piano. All three play through the organ's own chain, so every control has a job on each.
Transmute, left to right
On Brimstone, the left end is clean: bright, swinging jazz organ with plenty of key click. Toward the middle the lower drawbars fill in and the amp starts to break up hard: driven. At the right end every drawbar is out, the sound saturated, the speaker cabinet working as hard as the organ: roaring. The drawbars slide smoothly rather than in steps, so a turn sweeps from one to the next.
Sounds
| Sound | Left | Middle | Right |
|---|---|---|---|
| BRIMSTONEThe organ: clean jazz to every drawbar out. | Clean. Bright and swinging, lots of key click. | Driven. The lower drawbars full, into an amp breaking up hard. | Roaring. Every drawbar out, saturated, the cabinet working as hard as the organ. |
| VESPERSThe piano: felt, grand, electric grand. | Felt. An upright with felt between hammers and strings, close and intimate; you hear the keys and the pedal. | Grand. A concert grand, open, full and wide, in a hall. | Electric grand. Short strings and pickups, bright and a touch out of tune with itself; it cuts through a band. |
| CINNABARThe electric piano: FM bell, tines, reeds. | Bell. The glassy digital electric piano, a pure body with a bright ding on top. | Tine. Round and warm played softly, barking when played hard. | Reed. Nasal and reedy, growling through its own small amp. |
| Vespers and Cinnabar answer how hard you play, and the sustain pedal lifts their dampers. | |||
Controls
| Control | What it does | Range · at first |
|---|---|---|
| PERCUSSION | ||
| Percussion | Each fresh chord is struck with a harmonic brought out: the organ's bell-like percussion, a harder strike on the piano and the electric piano. Notes played legato don't strike again. | on/off · on |
| Harmonic | Which harmonic: the octave (2nd) or the twelfth (3rd). | 3rd |
| Decay | How quickly the percussion dies away: Fast or Slow. | Fast |
| ROTOR | ||
| Rotor | The rotating speaker: Slow (chorale) or Fast (tremolo). The horn and the drum each take their own time to get there, as a real cabinet's do. Also on your mod wheel, and on the sustain pedal on the organ. | Slow |
| Brake | The rotors coast to a stop wherever they are. | on/off · off |
| OCTAVE | ||
| Octave | Shifts everything you play by an octave. | −1 to +1 · 0 |
| VIBRATO | ||
| Vibrato | The scanner: Off, vibrato V1 to V3, or chorus C1 to C3 (the vibrato mixed with the dry sound). Shallower on the piano and electric piano, where it's a gentle chorus. | Off, V1–V3, C1–C3 · C3 |
| DRIVE | ||
| Drive | How hard the amp is pushed, from the sound's own. | ±12 dB · as voiced |
| Tone | Darker or brighter, from the sound's own. | −1 to +1 · as voiced |
| SPACE | ||
| Reverb | How much of the sound's own room. | 0–200 % · 100 % |
| Width | How wide the sound is, from its own: the rotating speaker's microphones, the piano's pair. | 0–200 % · 100 % |
Wheels. Altar doesn't bend. Its left wheel, Rotor, is your mod wheel: slow below halfway, fast above. Its right wheel, Swell, is an expression pedal (CC 11): how loud Altar plays and how hard the amp is driven, like an organ's swell pedal. It sits at full until a pedal moves it.
Dive
The motor switched off while you play: the whole instrument sinks and fades like a dying engine. Switch it off again and it's pulled back up to pitch. It works on all three sounds, the piano and the electric piano too.
Playing it
- On the organ, each press of the sustain pedal switches the rotor between slow and fast, so your foot can do it while both hands play. On the piano and the electric piano, the pedal sustains.
- Ride the rotor: slow for a chord's swell, fast as it peaks, Brake for a sudden stop.
- Push Drive and Tone up on the electric grand for a gritty stage piano, or on the tine for its bark.
- Choosing a sound changes the instrument for new notes; held notes finish on the one they started on.
SANCTUM
Sanctum is the temple's innermost room, where everything is stillest. It's a pad synth for holding chords: from a calm pad that barely moves, through one that breathes, to a thick one that keeps changing under your hands.
Transmute, left to right
On Nebula, the left end is calm: soft and nearly still, clean partials over a sub an octave down, a dark filter that barely breathes. In the middle it breathes: warmer and wider, the filter blooming open under a held chord and swaying slowly, a little glass and a few grains above. At the right end it evolves: thick with detuned voices, its tone and filter travelling slowly and never quite repeating, glass shimmering, a cloud of grains (some an octave up, some played backwards), a deep hall and echoes.
Sounds
| Sound | Left | Middle | Right |
|---|---|---|---|
| NEBULAThe pad: calm, breathing, evolving. | Calm. Soft and nearly still, dark, a sub an octave down. | Breathing. Warmer and wider, the filter blooming open under a held chord. | Evolving. Thick and always moving, glass and grains in a deep hall. |
| QUINTESSENCEThe glassy drone: air, glass, aurora. | Air. Breath and a few soft partials, a twelfth above. | Glass. Glass bells that drift, grains an octave up, long echoes. | Aurora. A slowly moving cloud of grains, glass and echoes, wide, never repeating. |
| Made for Hold and Shimmer. | |||
| ATHANORThe analog chord pad: strings, poly, brass. | Strings. A string machine: a sawtooth and its octave through a thick ensemble. | Poly. A chorused pad, a sawtooth over a square sub, the filter blooming quickly. | Brass. Detuned saws, the filter blatting open on each chord and settling back. |
| Quick enough to comp with. | |||
Controls
| Control | What it does | Range · at first |
|---|---|---|
| ENVELOPE | ||
| Attack | How slowly the notes come in, from a quarter of the sound's own time to four times it. | ×0.25–×4 · as voiced |
| Release | How long the notes take to fade once you let go. | ×0.25–×4 · as voiced |
| Hold | A chord keeps sounding after you let go, until you play the next one. | on/off · off |
| TOUCH | ||
| Velocity | How much playing harder makes a note louder and brighter. At 0 % every note is the same, as on an organ. | 0–200 % · 100 % |
| Swell | How much your touch sets how quickly a note comes in: play softly and it swells in slowly, harder and it speaks at once. At 0 % the attack is the sound's own, whatever your touch. | 0–100 % · 0 % |
| OCTAVE | ||
| Octave | Shifts everything you play by an octave or two. | −2 to +2 · 0 |
| MOTION | ||
| Chorus | How much of the sound's own chorus. | 0–200 % · 100 % |
| Drift | How far the oscillators wander in pitch on their own. | 0–200 % · 100 % |
| FILTER | ||
| Cutoff | Darker or brighter, in octaves from the sound's own. | ±3 oct · as voiced |
| Resonance | How much the filter sings at its cutoff, from the sound's own. | −1 to +1 · as voiced |
| SPACE | ||
| Reverb | How much of the sound's own hall. | 0–200 % · 100 % |
| Width | How wide the pad is, from the middle (0 %) to wider than voiced (200 %). | 0–200 % · 100 % |
Wheels. Pitch bends by the bend range in the settings. Bright, your mod wheel, opens the filter; pressing into the keys does it too.
Shimmer
The hall sings an octave up, then another above that, like a choir far off. It rings on after you let go of the keys.
Playing it
- Switch on Hold, play a chord and let go: it sounds until your next chord, leaving both hands free for Transmute and the wheels. The sustain pedal holds notes too.
- With Swell turned up, your touch shapes each entry: a soft chord swells in, a firm one speaks at once.
- Turn Velocity to 0 % for an even, organ-like pad whatever your touch.
- Quintessence with Hold and Shimmer on makes an endless bed under anything.
CRYPT
Crypt is the room under the temple, below everything and holding it all up. It's a bass synth: one note at a time, played two octaves below the keys, from a plucked wooden string to a fuzzed synth bass with a clean sub under it.
Transmute, left to right
On Heartwood, the left end is wood: a string plucked with the fingers through an upright's body, no synth, a little room. In the middle, hybrid: the same string, longer and brighter like an electric bass, with a filtered sawtooth and a sine sub under it, the filter snapping shut after each note, and the first grit on top. At the right end, fuzz: a detuned sawtooth-and-square synth through a two-stage fuzz, the sub kept clean beneath it and the string's pluck still at the front of every note.
Sounds
| Sound | Left | Middle | Right |
|---|---|---|---|
| HEARTWOODThe bass: wood, hybrid, fuzz. | Wood. A plucked string through an upright's body; no synth. | Hybrid. An electric string over a filtered synth and a sub, the first grit. | Fuzz. A detuned synth through fuzz over a clean sub, the pluck still in front. |
| RED LEADFunk bass: fingers, slap, synth. | Fingers. A fingered electric bass, round and compressed. | Slap. The thumb near the bridge, the fret's snap, bright and squashed. | Synth. A sawtooth through a resonant filter that plucks shut on every note. |
| Made to play through Auto-wah. | |||
| BLACK SUNThe heavy sub: boom, beating, growl. | Boom. A sine sub whose pitch drops into the note, with a long boom. | Beating. Wide-detuned saws beating slowly over the sub. | Growl. A fuzz and its octave up, squashed and wide above the sub. |
| The sub stays clean and in the middle all the way across. Voiced deep on its own. | |||
Controls
| Control | What it does | Range · at first |
|---|---|---|
| ENVELOPE | ||
| Decay | How long a held note rings, from a quarter of the sound's own time to four times it. | ×0.25–×4 · as voiced |
| Release | How quickly a note is damped once you let go. | ×0.25–×4 · as voiced |
| GLIDE | ||
| Glide | Overlapping notes slide from one to the next, taking this long. | off–500 ms · off |
| Legato | Overlapping notes are hammered on, not plucked again. Off, every note is plucked. | on/off · on |
| OCTAVE | ||
| Octave | Shifts everything you play by an octave or two. | −2 to +2 · 0 |
| FILTER | ||
| Cutoff | The synth darker or brighter, in octaves from the sound's own. | ±3 oct · as voiced |
| Resonance | How much the synth's filter sings at its cutoff, from the sound's own. | −1 to +1 · as voiced |
| GRIT | ||
| Fuzz | Less or more grit than the sound's own, on what's above the sub; the sub stays clean. | −1 to +1 · as voiced |
| Sub | Less or more of the sine under the note. | −1 to +1 · as voiced |
| SPACE | ||
| Room | How much of the sound's small room; the bass itself stays dry. | 0–200 % · 100 % |
| Width | How wide the bass is above its sub, from the middle (0 %) to wider than voiced (200 %). The sub stays in the middle. | 0–200 % · 100 % |
Wheels. Pitch bends by the bend range in the settings. Bright, your mod wheel, opens the filter and the string; pressing into the keys does it too.
Auto-wah
An envelope filter, as funk bass plays through: every note quacks open, the harder you play the wider, and closes again as it rings. Switch it on and off as you play.
Playing it
- Crypt sounds two octaves below the key you play, so bass lines sit in the middle of the keyboard: play from C3 and you hear C1. Octave moves it further.
- One note at a time, the last key down. Overlap notes and they're hammered on (Legato), or they slide (Glide).
- Play harder for more bite: the pluck, the filter and Auto-wah all follow your touch.
- The sustain pedal holds the note.
RUNE
Rune is a sign of power, cut into stone and struck. It's the struck and plucked sounds, short and bright: from a wooden marimba, through the electronic pluck, to a brass stab.
Transmute, left to right
On Spark, the left end is the mallet: a marimba, a struck wooden bar and the mallet's knock, with a small thump underneath for weight. In the middle, the pluck: a detuned sawtooth stack and its octave through a resonant filter snapped shut in a fifth of a second, a bright zap of pitch at the strike and echoes crossing from side to side. At the right end, the stab: electronic brass, a stack of detuned saws scooping up into the note, the filter snapping open and settling, driven and squeezed. It sustains while you hold it and falls off the pitch when you let go.
Sounds
| Sound | Left | Middle | Right |
|---|---|---|---|
| SPARKThe pluck: mallet, pluck, stab. | Mallet. A marimba: a struck wooden bar and the mallet's knock. | Pluck. Detuned saws through a resonant filter snapped shut, echoes side to side. | Stab. Electronic brass that scoops into the note and falls off when released. |
| LANTERNThe metal bars: vibraphone, celesta, glockenspiel. | Vibraphone. Metal bars, soft mallets, a long ring. | Celesta. Felt hammers on steel plates over resonators. | Glockenspiel. Steel bars and hard mallets, bright and ringing. |
| Made for the motor (Tremolo, and the mod wheel). The bars go through the filter, so Cutoff and Resonance shape the metal. | |||
| FLAREThe house stabs: organ, deep, rave. | Organ. A house organ stab: drawbars, a percussion that dies away, a key click. | Deep. Detuned saws through a resonant filter snapped shut, with echoes. | Rave. A huge stack of saws with a square and the octave below, squeezed hard. |
| Made for Chord: one key, a whole chord. | |||
Controls
| Control | What it does | Range · at first |
|---|---|---|
| ENVELOPE | ||
| Decay | How long the notes ring, from a quarter of the sound's own time to four times it. | ×0.25–×4 · as voiced |
| Release | How quickly a note is damped once you let go (the sustain pedal lets them ring). | ×0.25–×4 · as voiced |
| STRIKE | ||
| Punch | The weight of the strike: the sub's thump and the click. | 0–200 % · 100 % |
| Snap | How far the filter opens at the strike. | 0–200 % · 100 % |
| OCTAVE | ||
| Octave | Shifts everything you play by an octave or two. | −2 to +2 · 0 |
| MOTION | ||
| Tremolo | A vibraphone's motor, less or more than the sound's own. | −1 to +1 · as voiced |
| Chorus | How much of the sound's own chorus. | 0–200 % · 100 % |
| FILTER | ||
| Cutoff | Darker or brighter, in octaves from the sound's own. | ±3 oct · as voiced |
| Resonance | How much the filter sings at its cutoff, from the sound's own. | −1 to +1 · as voiced |
| SPACE | ||
| Echo | How much of the sound's own echoes. | 0–200 % · 100 % |
| Reverb | How much of the sound's own room. | 0–200 % · 100 % |
Wheels. Pitch bends by the bend range in the settings. Mod, your mod wheel, brings in a vibraphone's motor on the struck bars (the mallet end of Spark, and all of Lantern), turning faster the further you push it; on the synth sounds it opens the filter. Pressing into the keys opens the filter on every sound.
Chord
Chord memory. Play a chord, then switch Chord on: every key now plays that chord, from itself up. (Or hold the chord while you switch it on.) Until you've played one, it's a minor seventh. To change the chord, switch Chord off, play the new one, and switch it on again.
Playing it
- How hard you play matters: a harder strike is louder and brighter, and brings out the bar's upper partials.
- The sustain pedal lets the notes ring on, as a mallet player's damper pedal does.
- Toward the stab end, let go and the note falls off the pitch, as brass does; Release makes the fall longer.
- Flare with Chord on turns one finger into a house-music stab line.
REQUIEM
Requiem is the great sung mass, from a hushed prayer to the full choir. It's strings and a choir: from wide, dreamlike strings, through strings with a choir come in under them, to a choir singing out over low strings, imposing and powerful.
Transmute, left to right
On Moonrise, the left end is a dream: a section bowing softly and slowly, violins doubling it an octave up and a soft cello below, silk rather than bite, each note breathing on its own slow swell, dark echoes and a long hall whose tail rises an octave as it fades. In the middle, a chorale: the strings warmer and lower, a choir come in under them singing a round, breathy "oo" towards "oh", sopranos above and basses below. At the right end, an anthem: the choir sings out an open "ah" with the ring that carries over an orchestra, its basses an octave down, the low strings bowing hard, each chord landing with an accent.
Sounds
| Sound | Left | Middle | Right |
|---|---|---|---|
| MOONRISEStrings and choir: dream, chorale, anthem. | Dream. Soft, slow strings, wide and dark, in a long hall. | Chorale. Warmer strings with a choir singing "oo" beneath them. | Anthem. The choir singing out an open "ah" over low strings bowing hard. |
| SELENEClose strings: flautando, chamber, ponticello. | Flautando. The bow drawn lightly over the fingerboard: airy, dark, almost no vibrato. | Chamber. A warm, close section with a singing vibrato and a distant hum. | Ponticello. The bow at the bridge, glassy and eerie, whispering voices behind it. |
| ECLIPSEDark, low choir: hum, lament, chant. | Hum. Low voices humming with closed mouths over soft low strings. | Lament. "Oo" towards "oh", basses below, a long hall. | Chant. A straight-toned chant in unison, the low strings bowing under it. |
Controls
| Control | What it does | Range · at first |
|---|---|---|
| ENVELOPE | ||
| Attack | How slowly the notes come in, from a quarter of the sound's own time to four times it. | ×0.25–×4 · as voiced |
| Release | How long the notes take to fade once you let go. | ×0.25–×4 · as voiced |
| TOUCH | ||
| Velocity | How much playing harder makes a note louder and brighter. At 0 % every note is the same. | 0–200 % · 100 % |
| Marcato | The accent a note lands with when you play it hard, louder and brighter for a moment before it settles. At 0 %, none. | 0–200 % · 100 % |
| OCTAVE | ||
| Octave | Shifts everything you play by an octave or two. | −2 to +2 · 0 |
| ENSEMBLE | ||
| Vibrato | How much the players and singers waver the pitch. At 0 %, none. | 0–200 % · 100 % |
| Spread | How far apart the players and singers are, in tune and across the stage. At 0 %, they play as one. | 0–200 % · 100 % |
| TONE | ||
| Vowel | What the choir sings: closed towards "oo", or open towards "ah", from the sound's own. | oo −1 to +1 ah · as voiced |
| Bright | Darker or brighter: the bows nearer the bridge and the voices fuller, from the sound's own. | −1 to +1 · as voiced |
| SPACE | ||
| Reverb | How much of the sound's own hall. | 0–200 % · 100 % |
| Width | How wide the ensemble is, from the middle (0 %) to wider than voiced (200 %). | 0–200 % · 100 % |
Wheels. Pitch bends by the bend range in the settings. Swell, your mod wheel, makes the ensemble play out, louder and brighter, the choir's vowel opening; pressing into the keys does it too.
Tutti
Everyone in: the octave below (cellos, basses, the choir's basses) and the octave above (violins, sopranos) double what you play. For the big moment.
Playing it
- Play hard and a chord lands with an accent before it settles; Marcato sets how big it is, Velocity how much your touch matters at all.
- Ride the Swell wheel through a phrase, as players lean into a long note.
- Vowel needs a choir to work on: on strings alone (Moonrise's dream end, most of Selene) it has little to change.
- The sustain pedal holds the notes.
Sacred in a host
Sacred is also a plugin instrument: one plugin with all six instruments, in the same window as the app. It's a VST3 on Windows, an Audio Unit and a VST3 on macOS, and an Audio Unit on iPad. Logic Pro, GarageBand, Ableton Live, AUM, or any host that loads them plays it from a track and keeps it with your project.
Adding it in Ableton Live
- If Sacred isn't listed yet, rescan your plugins: Settings › Plug-ins › Rescan (Preferences in older versions).
- In Live's browser, open Plug-ins › VST3 › Sunstone Audio and drag Sacred onto a MIDI track.
- Open its window from the device, and pick an instrument by its name at the top left, as in the app.
Adding it in Logic Pro or GarageBand
- Open Sacred once first, so macOS has registered its Audio Unit. Then make a new software instrument track.
- Click its instrument slot and choose AU Instruments › Sunstone Audio › Sacred.
- Its window opens: pick an instrument by its name at the top left, as in the app.
Other hosts work the same way: Sacred is listed as an instrument by Sunstone Audio, and if it isn't there yet, rescan your plugins in the host. On Windows the plugin is Sacred.vst3 in C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3. On a Mac the VST3 is Sacred.vst3 in ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3, and the Audio Unit lives inside the app itself.
On iPad the Audio Unit comes with the app: once Sacred is installed, GarageBand, AUM, Logic Pro for iPad and other hosts list it among their Audio Unit instruments, under Sunstone Audio. Its window fits itself to the space the host gives it, and you play it by touch as in the app.
The window in a host
It's the app's window: the sound selector, Transmute, the controls, the wheels, the special key, the keyboard and the volume all work as in chapter 3, and right-click links a control to your keyboard's knobs as in chapter 5. What differs:
- The host plays it. Notes come from the track. Under MIDI, the settings say From the host, and there's no audio output to choose. The channel, the bend range and the knob links are there as in the app.
- Your controller's wheels and knobs reach it through the host: the mod wheel, pitch bend, aftertouch and the knobs you've linked work as in the app.
- Program changes don't switch instrument in a host. Use the Instrument parameter instead, which you can automate or map to a control in the host.
- It keeps its own settings. A new Sacred starts from the defaults; the app's settings and the plugin's are separate.
Parameters
Sacred shows these to the host, for automation and for mapping to controls:
| Parameter | What it is |
|---|---|
| Instrument | The instrument playing: Monolith, Altar, Sanctum, Crypt, Rune or Requiem. |
| Transmute | The Transmute knob, 0 to 100 %. |
| Sound | The playing instrument's sound, by name. |
| Volume | The volume fader, in dB. |
| The controls | The playing instrument's controls, each by its name: Glide time, Vibrato rate and so on for Monolith; Percussion on/off, Rotor slow/fast and so on for Altar; its special key too. Switches have two steps and Octave whole octaves; knobs show their values as the window does. |
The control parameters belong to whichever instrument is playing: switch from Monolith to Altar and the same parameters take Altar's names and turn Altar's controls. A parameter the instrument has no control for does nothing.
Automation
- Moving a control in Sacred's window while the host records writes it into the automation, one gesture at a time.
- If you automate an instrument's controls, keep that instrument on its own track. Automation drawn for one instrument's controls would move another's if Instrument changed under it.
- When the instrument changes, the one before lets its notes go and rings out for a few seconds while the new one plays, so nothing is cut off.
Saved with your project
Your host saves all of Sacred with the project (in Live, the set): every instrument's sound, Transmute, controls, knob links, channel and bend range, which instrument is playing, and the volume. Duplicate the track and you duplicate all of it. Each copy of the plugin is its own Sacred, so put Monolith on one track and Crypt on another.
Uninstalling
On Windows
- Close Ableton Live and any other host that uses the plugin.
- Open Settings › Apps › Installed apps, find Sacred, and choose Uninstall.
- Sacred asks Remove Sacred from this PC? Your settings are kept. Click Yes. Windows asks once for permission to take the plugin out of the VST3 folder.
On macOS
- Quit Sacred, and Logic Pro, GarageBand, Ableton Live or any other host that uses the plugin.
- Drag Sacred from Applications to the Trash. That removes its Audio Unit too.
- Delete
Sacred.vst3from~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3.
Your settings stay, in case you install Sacred again. On Windows they're in %APPDATA%, on a Mac in ~/Library/Application Support, in the folders Sacred, Monolith, Altar, Sanctum, Crypt, Rune and Requiem, and from before Sacred was renamed Alchemy, Mercury, Sulfur, Aether, Saturn, Phosphor and Luna (Mercury's may also be called Quicksilver or Lead): delete those too to forget them. Projects saved in a host keep their own copy of Sacred's settings.
On iPad
Touch and hold Sacred's icon on the Home Screen and choose Remove App.
When something's wrong
- There's no sound.
- Try the keys on screen first. If they sound, the trouble is MIDI: the little light beside MIDI in in the settings should flicker when you play; if it doesn't, choose your keyboard there (or click Refresh), and set Notes on to Every channel. If the keys on screen are silent too, check that the Volume fader isn't at off and that Audio out is the device you're listening to.
- There's red text under the instrument's name.
- It says what's wrong. A message that it couldn't open your MIDI input usually means another program has it: on Windows only one program at a time can use an input, so close the other one, or set its input to none. An audio output that isn't connected means Sacred is playing on the default output meanwhile; plug the device back in and click Refresh. If an instrument's settings couldn't be read, Sacred leaves the file alone and doesn't save over it this time; it tries again the next time it opens.
- My MIDI keyboard isn't in the list.
- Connect it, then click Refresh beside MIDI in.
- Sacred isn't in Ableton Live.
- Rescan (Settings › Plug-ins › Rescan, or Preferences in older versions), and check that Live is using the system plugin folders (in the same place, Use VST3 Plug-in System Folders on). On Windows, if
C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\Sacred.vst3isn't there, you answered No when Windows asked during the install: run the installer again and click Yes. On a Mac, open Sacred once (that putsSacred.vst3in~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3), then rescan. - Sacred isn't in Logic Pro or GarageBand.
- Open Sacred once from Applications, so macOS registers its Audio Unit, then quit and reopen your host. In Logic Pro, its Plug-in Manager can rescan Sacred (under Sunstone Audio) if it was turned away before.
- The Windows installer says Sacred is open, or that the plugin wasn't installed.
- Close Sacred and any host using the plugin, then run the installer again.
- Crypt sounds too low, or too high.
- It sounds two octaves below the keys by design, so bass lines sit mid-keyboard. Use its Octave control, or Z and X.
- Monolith or Crypt only plays one note.
- They're made that way, as a lead and a bass: the last key you press sounds.
- A control is greyed out.
- It needs a switch to be on first: Monolith's Time and Mode need Glide; Altar's Harmonic and Decay need Percussion.
- A knob on my keyboard moves the wrong thing.
- Open the settings, Forget the link under Your controller's knobs and buttons, and right-click the right control to link it again.
- I want to start an instrument afresh.
- Settings › Start over › Reset to defaults. It puts that instrument back as it came, and leaves your MIDI keyboard, audio output and the volume's link as they are.
Sacred is made by Sunstone Audio. © 2026 Sunstone Audio.
This manual describes Sacred 0.3.1: the app for Windows, macOS and iPad, and the plugin for Windows, macOS and iPad.