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Effects Panel

Effects can be placed on any channel in the mixer, as well as on individual pads. To add an effect to a channel, select that channel and then drag an effect from the effects library on to the bottom right panel titled FX, or click on the “+” button on that panel and select one of the effects.

Pad Effects

If you want to add an effect that only modifies one pad on a drum, then you can click on the pad you want to effect, select the pad FX tab above the top right panel and then drag or add an effect to the pad FX panel.

Here is a brief description of our effects:

12AX7 Tube

This effect is an emulation of tube distortion. Use it as a send or on individual tracks or pads if you are going for that analog sound. We’ve found that using a velocity controller on the drive knob and a timbre controller on the color knob is an effective way to control this distortion effect.

Clipper

The soft clipper effect sets a decibel ceiling, and clips anything that goes above that ceiling, softening the waveform around the peak, creating harmonic distortion, rather than a digital clip sound.

Analog Delay

Sensory Percussion's Analog Delays contains five different units: Tape Echo (tube), Tape Echo (solid state), Modulating Delay, Oil Can Delay/Reverb, and Digital Delay.

Inside the effect, the time knob sets the space between the echoes and the feedback knob controls how many times the echoes will repeat.

It is exciting to control the time knob (especially with timbre, velocity or LFO controllers) - this creates a wild spatial environment where sound bounces off itself and changes pitch in outlandish ways.

The balance knob sets the midpoint of the echoes. More to the left, and the echoes will center on the left side of the stereo image, more to the right and the effect will be centered on the right side of the stereo image.

The level knob simply sets the volume of the echoes. Unless you have turned the feedback knob up high, the echoes will taper off, diminishing to nothing. The level knob sets the loudness of the initial echo and therefore affects the entire response of the delay.

The stereo knob sets the width of the effect’s stereo image. If the knob is turned all the way up, the echoes will bounce 100% left and right in the image. If it is turned all the way down, the delays will be mono.

Lastly, FX knobs do different things depending on the delay effect you choose, explore the different settings!

Reverb

The reverb unit in Sensory Percussion offers you a lot of control over the spatial environments you create for your kits.

Pre-delay (in milliseconds) sets the onset time for the reverberation. Set to zero, the reverb will kick in as soon as you strike the drum.

Size, of course sets the size of the room - increasing or decreasing the space in between early reflections, while decay gauges the length of the reverb tail. Sensory Percussion's reverberation can last as long as 60 seconds!

Density determines the number of echoes present within the reverberation, and lo cut and hi cut regulate its frequency range.

Damping adds a specialized lo-pass filter to the reverb in order to make the reverb sound muted (like there is padding on the environment's walls).

Filter

The filter effect is a collection of resonant filters that will be a versitile tool for you in your musical endeavors with Sensory Percussion. The cutoff knob sets the frequency above and/or beneath which will be filtered from the signals, and the res knob sets the amount that frequency will resonate.

Low pass means that any frequency above the cutoff will be filtered out of the sound completely, and a high pass filter removes any frequency below the cutoff frequency. High shelf and Low shelf aren't as extreme, but they reduce frequencies below or above the cutoff. The band pass filter allows a wide band of frequencies around the cutoff to pass through the filter. Notch removes only a small segment around the cuttoff frequency, and peak boosts a small segment around the cutoff while filtering everything else.

Multiband EQ

The Multiband EQ will help you sculpt your sounds. Choose a shape for each band in the top slots of the effect before targetting a frequency and cutting or boosting it in the two slots beneath it. Lastly in the slot labeled "q," you can adjust the width of the frequency band. Of course all of the slots in the Multiband EQ can be assigned to controllers, so enjoy modulating the frequency response of your output with your playing!

Compressor

Sensory Percussion's compressor is quick and easy to use - just add the effect, turn up the ratio and pull down the threshold to get the effect pumping. Tweak the attack, release, and knee to adjust the dynamic profile of the effect, and turn off the automatic makeup gain if you want to adjust the output level of the effect yourself.

The sidechain option is really useful. You can select a channel and pad to activate the compressor on a different channel or pad. This is great if you want your kick and snare sounds to cut through any long samples you might have programmed on your toms or rims. In that example you would place a compressor on the pad with the long sample, select sidechain and then select your snare channel and all for pads. Next turn up the ratio and pull down the threshold. Now when you activate the long sample and hit the snare drum, it will cause the compressor to reduce the volume of the long sample creating a vibey, pumping sound as well.

SunMods Effects

The SunMod effect contains a phaser, flanger, and chorus. These modulations effects are wrapped into a single effect because they each function similarly but have their own unique flavors.

On the phaser and chorus settings, the stages knob allows you to increase or decrease the number of phasing or chorusing filters. On the flanger this parameter is greyed out because flanging is created simply by duplicating the audio signal and delaying it by a miniscule amount, rather than applying all-pass filters like with chorusing and phasing.

The depth knob controls the sweeping range of the effect, whereas the rate controls the speed of the modulation.

The feedback knob governs the level of modulated signal that is sent through the system again.

Increasing the stereo parameter widens the left - right panning range of the effect.

Cutting Copying and Pasting Effects

You can cut or copy an effect and paste it to a pad or on any track. You can paste it with or without the controller assignments. To cut or copy an effect, right click on it and select cut or copy. To paste the effect, right click on a blank space in the pad FX panel or in the track FX panel and paste the sampler with or without controllers.