Virtual Inputs

What are Virtual Inputs?

Virtual Inputs are the bridge between your hardware inputs and the sound worlds of Sensory Percussion V2. Here, you can quickly change the routing between your physical setup and the layers within Sensory Percussion sets.

So why are there two kinds of inputs in V2? Because separating hardware inputs from virtual inputs allows you to have more flexibility and functionality across different setups. Think of them like choosing instruments when you're orchestrating a piece. You might not have 4 kick drums in front of you, but you can still write for that by adding 4 kicks in the Virtual Instruments panel.

For example, if you have a set with a virtual keyboard input, but you don't have your keyboard handy at that moment, that's not a problem. You can keep that virtual input and control it using a drum sensor without changing anything you've already created. Another example might be controlling your 4-drum set with a small keyboard while you're on a plane.

Remember, Virtual Inputs are a per-set decision while Hardware Inputs stay the same across all your sets.

Adding a Virtual Input

Virtual inputs are automatically created based on your hardware inputs and/or the input filters that you have in your set. So, if you have four active hardware inputs and you create a new set, four virtual inputs will automatically be created. If you want to create a virtual input for a drum/MIDI device/analog audio source that you don't currently have connected, you can add an input filter for that input on any module in your set, and a matching virtual input will automatially be created.

Input routing

Next to the kit graphic, the Input routing card lists every input in the set, with three columns:

Column	What it shows
HW	Whether the input has a hardware source. Filled means your hardware is sending it; outlined means it isn't.
Input	The input's name.
Set	Whether anything in the set listens to the input. Filled means yes. Hold the pointer over a filled marker to see which layers and instruments listen to it. When nothing listens but the hardware is sending, the cell becomes a dashed + for adding an instrument.

An input your hardware sends but nothing in the set listens to is dimmed. Hover any cell, input, or column header to see what it means in the hint bar.

Input routing

Set tooltip

Adding instruments to an input

You can fill an input straight from the Virtual Inputs panel, without opening the library.

On a drum. Hover a drum that your hardware feeds but that has no instrument yet, and a + appears on its head (on a cymbal, on the bell). Click it for a menu titled with the input it fills, such as Add to Snare 1:

• the instruments for that kind of drum (for a snare input, Snare instruments), one submenu per library: your own first, then the Core Library and each sound pack
• Other instruments: everything else, one submenu per role
• Controllers and Generators: blank objects from the Build library

Whatever you choose arrives already wired to that drum, as if you'd dragged it from the library onto the drum. The + never appears on a drum that already has an instrument, so it doesn't get in the way while you play. To stack a second instrument on a drum, right-click it for the same menu.

On the whole kit. The area behind the drums is the kit itself. Hover it and a + appears at its top right. When no drum in the set has an instrument yet, the + stays visible. It lists the drum kits in the library, grouped by library the same way. Choosing one maps its instruments across all the drums your hardware is sending, the same as dragging a kit onto the graphic. Right-click the kit area to stack a second kit.

From the Input routing list. The dashed + in an input's Set column opens the same menu for that input. This is how you fill inputs that aren't drums: MIDI and pad inputs offer instruments, controllers, and generators, and an analog input, which carries audio rather than hits, offers the Audio Insert that reads it.

+ on a drum

Add to … menu

+ on the kit

Types of virtual inputs

Here are all of the different types of virtual inputs:

Snare

Kick

(The kick looks slightly different because it has fewer relevant zones.)

Tom

Analog

Keyboard

For now, there are two types of routing options: One is the typical 1:1 relationship between virtual and hardware inputs (virtual kick 1 controlled by hardware kick 1, virtual snare 1 controlled by hardware snare 1, etc.) The second option is to have two or more hardware inputs controlling the same virtual input (2 tom hardware inputs set to tom 1 will both control virtual input tom 1). Eventually, you'll be able to have any hardware input connect to any (or multiple) virtual inputs, but most of the time, you'll want the typical 1:1 relationship between inputs.

Once you have your inputs connected and routed how you want them, you're ready to dive into edit view and create your own sounds!