D16 Group Nepheton, User Manual

Page 1: ...User Manual Drum Machine ...

Page 2: ...1 Overview Interface Overview Interface Nepheton s interface is split into two parts Internal Sequencer Responsible for editing patterns in Int Seq mode 1 Internal sequencer section ...

Page 3: ...epheton works in two modes Internal The drum patterns are played using Nepheton s internal sequencer External Nepheton acts as a sound module playing drum sounds Patterns are played by sending Midi notes from host sequencer Note Drum sound mapping is compatible with General Midi Standard However mapping can be changed by user Synthesis section 1 Overview Interface ...

Page 4: ... above the drum sound settings Sounds can be mapped to any available output one of 12 For example the Open and Closed Hi Hats could be assigned to a single output 2 together or the Clap could appear on output 1 etc It is fully configurable When Nepheton is playing it is possible to turn on or turn off individual channels instruments using the Mute Solo LED switches These stop the triggering of the...

Page 5: ...Preset Nepheton can store a total of 128 presets The Preset browser tool is provided to simplify the organisation and use of Presets The Preset section on GUI is used for navigation through the preset bank To read more about preset management go to chapter Preset Management Sound parameters 1 Overview Preset management ...

Page 6: ...ost sequencer to play drum patterns The mapping follows the General Midi standard it is possible to change mapping Note velocity is used to determine how loud notes are played 48 Corresponds to the non accented step 96 Corresponds to accented step 127 Corresponds to step with total accent set In External mode only the controls from Synthesis module and Control module functions work Sequencer setti...

Page 7: ...Sync led to off or to play to its own tempo set by turning the Int Sync led on With internal synchronization turned on each of the internal patterns has its own Tempo value which can be adjusted by tweaking the Tempo knob Only in the Pattern Write mode described later Start stop buttons Note If a pattern is started using the Nepheton s Start button and the host sequencer has not been started then ...

Page 8: ...ttern storage system Native mode Nepheton is in this mode when it is first loaded There are 16 available patterns Each pattern is comprised of 4 parts Each part can be up to 16 steps in length that is any size from 0 to 16 steps The parts have names A1 A2 B1 B2 Each complete pattern corresponds to one of the Step buttons Sequencer settings Step buttons 2 Play modes Internal pattern storage ...

Page 9: ...essing the Tap button the currently playing Regular pattern will play to the end and then chosen Fill in pattern will play When it finishes the Regular pattern plays again continuously Setting the Measures auto fill in knob to any of the other values will cause the Regular pattern and Fill in pattern to play in a cycle For example setting the value to 16 will cause the Regular pattern to repeat 15...

Page 10: ... is if the length of A2 is greater than 0 are played Position B Parts B1 and B2 if exists that is if the length of B2 is greater than 0 are played Position AB Parts A1 A2 B1 and B2 are played Play mode of the Fill in patterns is set by I F Variation switch Fill in patterns consist of A1 A2 B1 B2 parts The I F Variation determine which play Basic variation switch I F variation switch 2 Play modes I...

Page 11: ...rn have all 4 parts filled Basic variation switch AB I F Variation switch A Measures auto fill in knob 4 Following sequence will be played Regular A1 Regular A2 Regular B1 Regular B2 Regular A1 Regular A2 Fill in A1 Fill in A2 Note The cycle is A B A Fill A a total of 4 parts in cycle If the Measures auto fill in knob is set to 12 in the example above then the following pattern would play A B A B ...

Page 12: ...d in Native mode the Tap button allows the selection of Regular patterns or Fill in patterns shown by a blinking LED in corresponding section on the chosen step button If the blinking LED is in the Regular pattern area then the chosen pattern will start to play when Start is pressed If the blinking LED is in the Fill in pattern area then when play is started the chosen Fill in pattern will play fo...

Page 13: ...internal sync turned off Int Sync or at the tempo which Nepheton s Tempo function is set to if using internal sync This happens while a key is pressed and held This is a very creative mode which by recording the notes into the host sequencer can allow very complex percussion structures to be created using patterns in Nepheton s internal pattern memory It should be noted that in Host mode the Start...

Page 14: ... Plug in sends a midi note codes accordingly to the current drum map configuration to its Midi output Velocity values of Midi notes sent by Nepheton are calculated on a basis of Step attributes accented or non accented and value of Global accent When you set the Nepheton into External mode it just passes Midi notes through itself unchanged So basically the same notes you redirect into a plug in yo...

Page 15: ...editing Synthesis module is for sound editing in Nepheton There are various parameter settings for the 17 drum sounds Bass Drum Snare Drum Low Conga Mid Conga High Conga Low Tom Synthesis section 3 Sound editing ...

Page 16: ...evel Volume level of each instrument And various instrument specific parameters Bass Drum Tone Volume of the initial click Decay Amplitude release time Sweep Release time of frequency envelope Snare Drum Tone Crossfade between audible one and two oscillators Decay Noise amplitude release time Snappy Crossfade between noisy and muddy sound 3 Sound editing ...

Page 17: ... release time Snappy Crossfade between dirty and clean sound Claves Tunning Base frequency Decay Amplitude release time Rim Shot Tunning Base frequency Decay Amplitude release time Maracas Tone Noise color Hand Clap Tone Filter s cutoff frequency Reverb Reverb s decay time Cow Bell Tunning Base frequency Decay Amplitude release time 3 Sound editing ...

Page 18: ...Frq Base frequency for a square oscillators which are used to generate the noise sound Trigger out There spossibletomakeaudibleatriggersound whichoccursinanaloguemachines Bydefaultthissignalisoff Toturn itonyouneedtodecidewhichtrack instrument willbetriggeringthissound Checkoutfurtherchaptersforthedetails Master volume To change the Master volume just tweak the Master volume knob Master volume kno...

Page 19: ...er pattern other than the current one playing use the Prev and Next buttons The playing pattern won t change but the edited pattern will be the newly selected one To choose which pattern part to edit A1 A2 B1 B2 use the Edit part buttons Pattern write button Edit part buttons Note Make sure the length of a pattern is greater than 0 or it cannot be edited see later 4 Drumline editing Pattern editin...

Page 20: ...he key lights with darker red color Off LED is off The main difference between a non accented and accented sound is the volume However accent also causes subtle changes to the sound character in other ways The Global accent AC track have only two possible step values On or Off To select an instrument track to edit use the Instr Sel bar below the Step Buttons Instrument selector Step buttons Instru...

Page 21: ...CTRL on the keyboard whilst clicking Tap mode Tap mode allows patterns to be tapped in real time This is done by selecting an instrument and pressing the Tap button whilst in Patt Write mode The notes are automatically quantized to the nearest step Pressing Tap button enter non accented notes Pressing Tap with CTRL key enters accented notes Instrument names Instrument selector Fill in button 4 Dru...

Page 22: ...e buffer Pressed with CTRL copies whole pattern to a buffer Paste Pastes buffer to the selected tracks If do not change destination tracks they ll be copied in the same place in the same or other pattern But you can change it by a selecting some other tracks on the Instr Sel Clear Clears selected tracks Pressed with CTRL key clears whole pattern Clear when combined with the CTRL key on the keyboar...

Page 23: ...ep buttons indicate the number of steps in the pattern Pressing a Step button will make it the last step in the pattern To leave this mode just press the Length button again Pressing Clear button when the Length key is active sets the pattern s part length to zero This is only possible with 2nd parts A2 and B2 Parts A1 and B1 MUST have the Length set to a value greater than 0 Editing functions Ste...

Page 24: ...C knob controls how much extra volume is added to a step Set to zero no AC is added Tempo scale On the Scale bar bar the lit LED marks the current Tempo scale one of four Tempo scale can be described as the number of steps per quarter note Default value is four steps per quarter note Successively counting from the bottom there are 8 steps per quarter note 4 steps per quarter note 6 steps and 3 ste...

Page 25: ...h Follow button turned off to choose a pattern to edit we need to navigate through all the available patterns using the Prev and Next buttons With Follow turned on currently playing pattern becomes the edited one immediately With Follow turned on switching between patterns using keys Prev and Next is disabled Additionally currently played part becomes edited one The Edit part buttons are switched ...

Page 26: ... the newly created pattern Pressing enter ends the editing process 2 To save pattern just click Next button with CTRL key pressed on keyboard The menu should appear Choose the Save pattern option to show file save dialog To save all patterns currently stored in Nepheton choose Save pattern bank option Pattern number and name Saving patterns Note On MacOS use Apple CMD key instead of CTRL key 4 Dru...

Page 27: ... memory choose Load pattern bank option Following file types are saved and loaded by Nepheton Native mode npptrbN Bank consisting all 16 patterns npptrN Single pattern Host mode npptrbH Bank consisting all 96 patterns npptrH Single pattern Note Files saved by Nepheton are in standard XML format and can be easily edited within any text editor Loading patterns 4 Drumline editing Loading and saving p...

Page 28: ...t will be included in the randomization Clicking will turn them on or off The same principles apply as during instrument selection using CTRL key on keyboard To randomize the pattern press the Next button Prev will function when we have randomized a few patterns and wish to go back to a previous randomization Editing functions Instrument selector Pattern number and name 5 Randomizing drumlines Ran...

Page 29: ... used to determine the intensity of the randomization for that instrument That is how much randomization will occur across the selected steps To accept the current randomized pattern just press Tap button The Undo key will remove the randomization Instrument level knobs Fill in button Editing functions 5 Randomizing drumlines Randomize ...

Page 30: ... the new name with the Enter button Prev Next Buttons used to navigate through the preset bank Next button moves the browser to the next preset If the current preset is the last preset in a group pressing Next moves the browser to the first preset in the subsequent group Prev button moves the browser to the previous preset If the current preset is the first preset in a group pressing Prev moves th...

Page 31: ...er settings and in the preset bank will be restored Preset Browser As it was mentioned the preset bank in the plug in has a hierarchical structure i e presets are organized in groups Presets can be selected by Next Prev buttons which navigate through the structure in a linear way or by using the Preset Browser The Preset Browser is a tool which allows to easily manage the preset structure To open ...

Page 32: ...31 The Preset Browser will be displayed on the GUI Preset browser 6 Preset Management Preset Browser ...

Page 33: ...de shows the list of groups in the preset bank The right side shows the list of presets in the selected group List of groups in the preset bank List of presets in the selected group 6 Preset Management Preset Browser ...

Page 34: ...hange its position in the group by dropping it in a different slot in the list of presets in a selected group Move the preset to a different group by dragging and dropping it in the chosen slot in the group list Holding CTRL or SHIFT and using the mouse button allows to select more presets Holding CTRL and clicking on presets selects single items Using SHIFT allows to select a range of presets The...

Page 35: ...its name Pastes the edited preset to the buffer works exactly like the combination of Prev and CTRL Overwrites the selected preset with the buffer content works exactly like the combination of Next and CTRL The postfix _copy is added to the name of the preset pasted from the buffer Works exactly like Prev on GUI allows to move backwards on the hierarchical structure of presets Works exactly like N...

Page 36: ...t to a file Bank Load loads the entire bank of presets from a file file npprb Nepheton bank Bank Save saves the entire bank of presets to a file Loading and Saving presets from the hard drive function Note Before saving the preset to a file save it in Nepheton using CTRL Browse when On demand function is selected in the plug in configuration Note Files saved by Nepheton are compatible with XML for...

Page 37: ... resources loaded instead of default presets Patterns indicates personal pattern banks loaded with every new instance of the plug in in the host application Drum map configures the drum map for External mode Midi control configures MIDI communications with the plug in Clicking on Options while holding CTRL opens a window with information about the version and the license owner Options button Confi...

Page 38: ...ng the default internal audio outputs mapping If you have your favorite audio output configuration You may set it to be the default one recalled after each time when you load the plug in into host application Default output assigns Audio outputs configuration 7 Configuration Outputs tab ...

Page 39: ...ew instances of the plug in When removing any instance of the plug in from the host application the configuration file is saved Default outputs type This is responsible for choosing the type of outputs We re allowed to choose one of the two available types Stereo or Mono The content of the group is saved in the Nepheton configuration file and applies to all new instances of the plug in When removi...

Page 40: ...ecide which track instrument will be triggering this sound by selecting it from Source combo box Chosen track instrument apart from regular role will also be responsible for controlling trigger out sound Trigger out will be mixed into the selected output one of twelve available Use the Output combo box to select the audio output for Trigger out Trigger output 7 Configuration Outputs tab ...

Page 41: ... of controls from the Seq Settings section on GUI The Note Off Mode state checkbox is an exception and it is not available on GUI It is only available in this tab Host mode description available in earlier chapters Current settings Sequencer settings 7 Configuration Sequencer tab ...

Page 42: ...s sync problems with some hosts It mainly concerns Native mode The properly written host should send a Transport Change code to the plug in after pressing the Play button in the host application When the By Transport Change option is selected then don t need to add an extra Midi track to force the plug in to start to play It should start to play automatically In some cases it doesn t work If this ...

Page 43: ...On Demand If any parameter is changed the change is not saved in the current preset until the Store option is used CTRL Browse Selecting a different preset from the bank causes irreversible loss to changes applied to the parameters unless the Store option is used The Preset Storing flag is saved in the Nepheton configuration file and applies to all new instances of the plug in When removing any in...

Page 44: ...ined option the Browse button ontherightsideisactivated Usingthisbuttonopensadialogboxinordertoselectapathtotheuser spresetbank Confirming the path saves it in the Nepheton configuration file The selected preset bank will be loaded as default The text box on the left from the Browse button shows the path to the user s preset bank Patterns tab There re included some default patterns and drum kits w...

Page 45: ...instance of the plug in Clear Patterns With every new instance of the plug in an empty preset bank is loaded User Defined Patterns bank selected by the user When choosing User Defined option the Browse button on the right side is activated Using this button opens a dialog box in order to select a path to the user s patterns bank Confirming the path saves it in the Nepheton configuration file The s...

Page 46: ...ailable after loading Nepheton into the host application User defined This option is used to set the new default Drum Map which will be loaded every time we load Nepheton in the host application When choosing User Defined option the Browse button on the right side is activated Using this button opens a dialog box in order to select a path to the user s drum map Confirming the path saves it in the ...

Page 47: ... control tab Nepheton can assign its controls on GUI to any MIDI CC Midi Control Change allowing the control of the plug in using external hardware or software Midi control tab 7 Configuration Midi control tab ...

Page 48: ...Checkbox which activates a default MIDI CC map When the map is activated it will be loaded with creating a new instance of the plug in Midi learn Assigning a Nepheton control to the MIDI controller requires 1 Checking Midi Learn Mode checkbox in the Midi Control tab or press the Midi Learn button in the Midi section on GUI Midi Learn Mode selection checkbox Midi section on GUI 7 Configuration Midi...

Page 49: ... directed to Nepheton The order of these actions is irrelevant During the above mentioned actions the status bar informs about the currently changing values of controls and provides their names When a MIDI control GUI control link is established a line is added to the MIDI CC link list When a link is established for a controller it is possible to repeat the operation for the next MIDI CC and param...

Page 50: ... Unlinking and midi link management On the right side of the link list there are 4 function buttons located Removes a selected link choosing any link from the list and clicking on it highlights the selected link Using this button removes the selected link Removes all MIDI CC links Loads link lists MIDI maps from file npccmap Nepheton MIDI CC Map Saves link lists MIDI maps to file MIDI CC link list...

Page 51: ...tton on the right 2 Click Browse and select a file with a saved MIDI Map After selecting the MIDI map the text box on the left from the Browse button shows the path to the active map file A default MIDI map is loaded each time when the plug in is loaded Default MIDI Map selection 7 Configuration Midi control tab ...

Page 52: ... mode 12 3 Sound editing 14 Trigger out 17 Master volume 17 4 Drumline editing 18 Pattern editing 18 Editing functions 21 Length of the pattern part 22 Global accent 23 Tempo scale 23 Shuffle 24 Pattern follow 24 Loading and saving patterns 25 Saving patterns 25 Loading patterns 26 5 Randomizing drumlines 27 Randomize 27 6 Preset Management 29 Browsing presets 29 Preset Browser 30 8 Contents ...

Page 53: ...er output 39 Sequencer tab 40 Current Settings 40 Default Settings 41 Host play detection 41 Presets tab 42 Preset Storing 42 Default Presets 43 Patterns tab 43 Drum map tab 45 Current Drum map 45 Default Drum map 45 Midi control tab 46 Midi learn 47 Unlinking and midi link management 49 Default MIDI Map 50 8 Contents 51 8 ...