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Elastic Drums - Manual
Version 1.3
This is a very first version of a manual. Things might be
incomplete or missing and badly written.
Main Navigation
Top Menu
On the very top of your iPhone screen you have the
following interaction buttons (from left to right):
- Play/Stop: Start/Stop the sequencer
- Record: Opens a recording overlay screen, where you
have different recording and export options
- Pattern/Song switch: When filled out and rotating you are in
song mode. The patterns (you organize in screen 2) run
through in loop. When not filled out you play a single
pattern only
- Overview screen: Swipe left/right to quickly change to the
next or previous pattern
- Options: Opens another overlay view with some probable
additional setting for the current screen you are in actually
- Help: Get a short explanation for the functionality of the
current screen you are in actually
Bottom Menu
On the bottom of your iPhone screen you have the following
interaction buttons (from left to right):
- Instrument (instr) screen: Here you you create your
percussion sounds and the sequencer data
- Pattern (patt) screen: Here you arrange your pattern, via
copy, paste, etc. into a „Song“
- Effect (fx) screen: Here you record or set the values of your
effects
- Mixer (mix) screen: A classic mixer screen and some
general settings, like the main tempo
- File (file) screen: Here you can load and save preset files
and set some master effects
1. Sequencer/Instruments (inst. screen)
With the 6 button of the top right you switch between your 6
instrument channels. If a sound gets triggered, a white light
will blink on these buttons.
On the left top you have a classic 4x4 grid, where you set
your steps on/off. If you choose a velocity target, like here
volume - symbolized by a yellow outline on the knob - this
velocity target will be affected by the value (y position) of an
activated step. If you have no velocity target chosen the
steps of the step sequencer will be filled out completely.
The synth button opens the synthesizer sound presets
window, where you can load, randomize and save sound
presets.
The time knob multiplies the tempo for the chosen channel
in relation to the master tempo (set in mix screen).
The len knob sets the length of the selected channel
(between 1 and 16).
Volumen and pan set the volume and pan of the channel.
The first effects knob blends in mono effect 1 to the left and
mono effect 2 to the right. Knob on 12 o’clock means dry
signal, no sound goes to the effect units. The second effect
knob works similar with the stereo effects 3 and 4. Due to
limited cpu performance on iPhone 4s and iPad 2 you only
have one mono and one stereo effect available there.
By clicking the autom button, the button will start blinking,
indicating that you are in automate mode: In automate mode
you can record your fiddling with the synthesizer parameter
knobs.
By clicking the velocity button you can choose one
synthesizer parameter knob, that will then be affected by the
velocity (y height) values of the sequencer.
Solo will solo a sound, to pre listen to it. This does not get
recorded.
Mute will mute a sound. This information get’s recorded for a
pattern, so in song mode, a channel could be muted on one
pattern and un-muted in another pattern.
By clicking the arrow on the right side, you will see all
(hidden) synth parameters of a chosen percussion synth,
like in the picture below.
All synth parameters
There are 4 global synth parameters, that are the same for
all different percussion types. These global parameters can
also be affected in the file screen via an xy input field.
Here are the parameters for all the available percussion
synthesizer:
All Instruments:
pitch: overall pitch of the instrument.
tone: EQ: going from lowpass, neutral, and then highpass.
decay: time for the initial attack / hit / body of the instrument.
release: time for the 'tail' of the sound.
Kick:
The pitch of a single oscillator is dropped quickly to provide
the classic electronic kick sound.
freq - the initial pitch of the drum.
curve - the time taken by the pitch curve from initial to final
pitch.
square - sinewave to squarewave shaping of the drum synth
oscillator.
lowpass - a lowpass filter on the drum oscillator, effective
BEFORE the overdrive section. This can be used to tame
some of the harmonics introduced by increased 'square'
level.
overdrive - distorted gain stage. use a little bit to add a bit of
oomph to a standard kick, or crank it right up for big,
pounding gabber kicks.
noise - the colour of the initial noise hit.
warble speed
warble depth
- quite subtle 'warbling' of the pitch, to simulate the random
fluctuations of true analogue machines.
Hihat:
triangle oscillators are modulated to provide the metallic
body of the hat, and a pitched noise source is added to
simulate the diffused tail sound.
body gain - the volume of the initial hit / body.
body time - diffusion time of the initial hit / body (can be
further shaped with the overall decay parameter, too).
highpass - highpass filter tone control. (can also be further
shaped with the overall tone parameter).
osc_xfade - crossfade between the metallic 'pitched'
oscillators and the noise oscillator.
detune - pitched oscillators detune amount.
FM - pitched oscillators frequency modulation amount.
noise A - pitched oscillators noise modulation.
noise B - noise oscillator tone control.
Snare:
Two detuned oscillators form the 'body' of the drum. A
pitched noise source forms the snare 'rattle' tail section.
noise A - tone of the noise source. noise 'pitch'.
noise B - tone of the noise source. noise 'randomness'.
noise+++ - noise source gain.
overdrive - overall gain / distortion of the snare drum.
body time - length of the snare hit / body.
body+++ - hit / body section gain.
shaper A
shaper B
- non-linear waveshaping distortion.
Clap:
A noise burst oscillator creates short bursts of noise, which
are repeated in succession to create the effect of a clap
echoing in a room. The noise bursts are then passed
through a bandpass filter to simulate the rounded sound of
cupped hands as they clap.
echo - time between successive noise bursts.
amp_env - decay time on each noise burst. Increasing this
time has an effect similar to adding reverb to the sound.
tone 2 - tone of the noise burst oscillator
tone 3 - frequency of the noise burst oscillator
vcf high - filter high frequency
vcf res - filter resonance
vcf env - filter envelope shape
overdrive - how hard you're clapping
Square:
a fairly simple 2 oscillator synthesizer running through a
bandpass filter. Both the pitch of the oscillators and the
frequency of the filter are modulated by their own envelopes.
A variety of percussive and synth effects are possible.
env1 depth - pitch envelope modulation. 0 = rising pitch,
50% = no modulation, 100% = falling pitch
env1 time - pitch envelope decay time
detune - detune amount of second oscillator
noise - noise modulation of oscillator pitch
filter - cutoff frequency
overdrive - oscillator distortion (before filter)
env2 depth - filter envelope modulation amount
env2 time - filter envelope decay time
FM:
a simple 2 oscillator (carrier + modulator) FM synth, with a
waveshaper filter.
There is a 2 stage decay + release envelope for the pitch
and FM amount.
Good for 'fuzzy' sounds.
FM ratio - carrier to modulator pitch ratio
FM amount - depth of the oscillator modulation
FM env - pitch envelope to FM depth
overdrive - gain distortion of the oscillator
pitch env1 - pitch envelope decay (first stage)
pitch env2 - pitch envelope release (second stage)
shaper A
shaper B
- non-linear waveshaping distortion. 4 op FM:
a 4 operator FM synth, configured especially for percussive
sounds. Good for metallic sounds, but can do a wide range
of FM based percussion.
Ratio 1
Ratio 2
Ratio 3
- ratio of oscillator pitches to the master pitch
Mod 1
Mod 2
Mod 3
- modulation depths of each oscillator
env ratio - ratio between the noisy attack envelope section,
and the pitched tail section
op3 <-> 4 - crossfade between FM operators 3 and 4. Its
effect will depend on your settings for ratios and mod
depths.
Wobble:
More of a synth than a percussion effect, this is a simple 2
oscillator affair, with a retriggered LFO to wobble the pitch,
and then some overdrive and waveshaping distortion. Most
suited for bass sounds.
detune - detune amount of oscillator 2
overdrive - gain distortion
shaper A
shaper B
- non-linear waveshaping distortion.
LFO depth - amount of LFO used to modulate the oscillators
pitches.
LFO rate - from slow to fast
LFO phase - initial phase offset (reset on every hit)
LFO shape - 0 = triangle 1 = squareGrain:
A non-sample based granular synth. Small segments of
sound, each with their own envelope and filter are played
back together to form a type of grain cloud. This is more of
an abstract synth, a while not particularly useful for
emulating traditional instruments, it can make some
interesting sounds that fit well in an electronic kit.
detune - second oscillator detune.
grainsize - the frequency at which new grains are produced.
noise - noise to FM amount.
overdrive - gain distortion.
pitch env - grain pitch envelope time
grain vcf - filter cutoff
vcf env - grain filter envelope shape
vcf res - grain filter resonance
Tom:
The pitches of 3 detuned oscillators are dropped quickly by
an envelope. The result is mixed and filtered, and then finally
sent through a VCA. A click is added to simulate the initial
hit.
tom type - floor tom, low tom, mid tom, high tom
click - initial click volume
att pitch - (attack pitch) the initial pitch of the drum before
the pitch envelope is triggered.
decay1 - body section decay time
body depth - ratio of the enveloped attack sound to the
resonating body sound
overdrive - how hard the tom is hit
env time - the overall envelope time for the tom (affects pitch
and volume).
env depth - the overall envelope depth (affects pitch and
volume).
Recording:
-
Record synced with a give length of 1, 2, 4, 8 pattern
Record with a manual start (press play to end recording)
Play your record
Email your recording
Upload your recording to your Soundcloud account
Copy/Share your recording with Audioshare software
Options:
</>: Move all steps from the actual sequence to the left or
right
Randomize: Randomize sequencer data
Randomize Instr+Seq: Randomizes sequencer data and
Instruments data
Randomize everything: Randomizes sequencer data and
Instruments data of all 6 channels
When you use the Randomize everything function in the first
pattern, also the instrument types will get randomized. When
you are not in the first pattern the instrument types will not
get randomized. This is to get more similar results, that fit to
the first pattern.
2. Pattern/Song setup (patt screen):
Here you can arrange patterns to a „Song“:
Each cell in the grid is representing a unique pattern.
Empty patterns with no sequencer data yet set will be plain
black. Pattern with existing sequencer data will look similar
to the above 2 first lines (not plain black).
With activated song mode (song mode button pressed, and
filled square at the top menu) the app will play pattern after
pattern in loop mode.
Copy a pattern:
a)choose a pattern (by clicking on it)
b)press the copy button
c)choose a cell in the grid to copy a pattern you just selected
to that position
Delete a pattern:
a)choose a pattern/cell (by clicking on it)
b)press the delete button, and the chosen cell will be
emptied (no sequencer data)
+ / - changes the length of a song with a step size of 4
3. Effect setup (fx screen):
Each circle in the xy fx drag view represents the 2 settings of
an effect.
Click on a table to select an effect and to activate the
selected effect for recording/automation your tweaking inside
the xy drag view. If you want no automation in your effects
(but just static fx settings) you can switch automation off in
the options screen. In the options screen you can also set
the amount that gets routed from fx1 (mono) into fx (stereo)
directly.
Due to performance reasons there will be only 2 effects
available on older devices with a weaker processor (iPhone
4s, iPad 2).
These are the available 11 mono effects:
- Distortion (disto)
- Mono Flanger (flanger)
- Bit Crusher (bcrush)
- Shaper (shaper)
- Comb filter (comb)
- Frequency shifter (fshift)
- Lopass-/Highpass-Filter (filter)
- Ring Modulator (ringm)
- Pitch Shifter (pshifter)
- Strobe effect (strobe)
- Mono Stutter effect (stutter)
These are the available 9 stereo effects:
- Reverb, based on Miller Pucket’s reverb (mverb)
- Standard Reverb from the pure data library (pureverb)
- Gated Reverb (gateverb)
- Filtered Delay (vcfdel)
- Dow Echo (dowecho)
- Stereo Chorus (chorus)
- Stereo Flanger (flanger)
- Dual Filter (dualvcf)
- Autopan (autopan)
Options:
Send fx1to3: Amount of fx1 effected sound, that goes into
fx3
Send fx2to4: Amount of fx2 effected sound, that goes into
fx4
Autom off: Toggle fx automation on/off (standard:on)
4. Mixer setup (mix screen):
The mixer screen shows the most basic channel settings,
similar to what you would expect in a classic mixing console.
You can set volume, pan, mute states and the effects sends
(only in newer devices with a higher screen size). In contrary
to the inst screen, you can not automate values there, but
mute states get „remembered“.
On the very top of the screen you set your global volume
and bpm. Temp x multiplies you bmp tempo settings with a
certain amount, so one pattern can have a doubled tempo
compared to the pattern before, etc.
Audio & Midi settings:
Background audio is disabled by default, but your settings
will get stored. Deactivate background audio, to switch audio
off, when quitting the app and save battery power.
Change Audio buffer size to change latency (response) of
your app. Smaller values decrease latency, but also increase
the cpu power your app will need.
Enable Midi clock in to start/stop ED tempo synced to any
external midi device, sending midi clock and midi start/stop
signals, be it a computer or hardware. BPM detect will
detect the tempo by incoming Midi clock signals. This works
currently rather imprecise and will be improved in an update.
Midi interfaces lists all available midi ports. Here you switch
on the midi port, you want to receive midi messages (start/
stop/clock/note on/controller).
Midi Controller support is just at it’s very beginning and will
get improved in coming updates. So far ED will play the 6
instruments with the following (GM compatible) notes on
Midi channel 1: 36, 38, 39, 40, 42, 44.
With Midi clock out enabled, ED will send start/stop/clock
signals to all connected midi ports. No further settings are
needed to do. Just be sure Midi clock in is not enabled at the
same time, because this could cause event loops. ED
sending clock signals should be more tight than the other
way round - ED getting clock signals.
iOS and Mac OS X supports MIDI routing over network. But
we recommend either some separate midi for iOS devices
(like iRig Midi or similar) or some midi via lightning cable
software (like Midimux, Midi LE USB, Music IO), because
these are much more stable and have faster Midi response
(therefore send tighter clock signals).
5. File/master fx settings (file screen):
The file screen is divided into 2 sections:
In the top half of the screen you can choose, save, delete
and email presets.
In the bottom half of the screen you have some additional
master effects, affecting all channels:
- swing sets the swing factor for all pattern. With a setting in
the center (x:0.5, y:0.5), there is no swing at all. Moving
left and right increases the swing amount and moving up
and down changes the swing size (2,4,8,16)
- param will change the „global parameters“ of all
instruments at the same time: vertical moves will affect the
pitch/tone of all effects, horizontal moves will affect the
decay/release rate of all sounds
- freeze is a stutter effect (horizontal movement, faster to the
left) combined with a filter effect (vertical movement)
- stop emulates a tape stop effect. the more right you touch
the xy pad the longer the stop effect will be, the more left
you touch the xy pad the faster the stop effect will be
- comp will show a compressor with 5 classic compressor
parameters to change
- delay is the very last master effect. horizontal movements
will change the delay time, vertical movements will set the
delay mix level. y at the very bottom is a completely dry
signal, y at the very top, is full wet effect amount
A double click into the xy drag view will most of the time
reset an effect (effect settings at zero, xy drag at center
position)
In the option screen you get some additional informations
about Elastic Drums and the possibility to rate the app in the
iTunes store (which is very appreciated).
Options:
Here are all kinds of informations about the app, for example
the Manual!
Rate the app in iTunes, if you like it or spread the word. This
will help us to work on further improvements and updates.