Hybrid drum synth

The Hybrid drum synth is a drum kit made by synthesis: sixteen pads, each one a drum built from
three layers that are played, not sampled. It is a notes instrument, usually played by a
Drum sequencer: every pad sits on the key that sequencer's voice plays, so a new sequencer in front plays the kit with no setup.

Pads and types

Each pad has a type: what kind of drum it is.

Type	What it sounds like
Kick	a low thump with a click on top
Snare	a tuned drum with the hiss of its wires
Tom	a ringing drum with a short pitch drop
Rim	a high, short, woody tick: a side stick
Clap	hand claps close together, then a short tail
Hat	a closed or open hi-hat: metallic hiss, short or long with Decay
Cymbal	a lower, shimmering metal with a long ring
Shaker	a tambourine, or maracas with the Body off
Wood	a wooden block's ring
Bell	a bell's ring, with its hum below the note
Empty	nothing: the pad is silent and its key plays nothing

Every pad holds every layer, so you can change a pad's type at any time, even while the beat plays:
it glides to its new sound with no click and no reload.

The kit screen

1The screen at the left of the panel is the kit: sixteen hexagons, each a line drawing of its pad's
instrument. The drawing follows the pad: a hi-hat opens once its Decay is long, toms and cymbals draw
smaller as you tune them up, a Shaker is a tambourine with its jingles on and a pair of maracas with
them off.

Tap a pad to select it (its controls fill the Pad group) and hear it.
A pad lights up while it sounds, as long as it rings: a crash glows for a while, a closed hat
blinks. As it rings, its hexagon's edge ripples with its sound: a kick swells in a few slow
waves, a snare is rough, a bell ripples fine and long. Each part of the sound fades at its own pace,
so you see the noise settle first and the body ring on.
Mute a pad: Shift-click it (on a touch screen, press and hold it still for half a
second, then let go). It goes dashed and faint and stays silent when the beat reaches it; do it
again to bring it back.
Swap two pads: press a pad and slide it onto another, then let go. The two pads exchange
their whole sound (type, every knob, choke); the keys stay where they are, so a beat that is playing
hears it at once (the kick's steps now play the snare). A mute stays on its pad's place. It is one
step to undo.

The corners

The screen's corners are the kit's four that play best live: Tune (the number, top left),
Decay (the meter, bottom left), Tone and High-pass (the strips on the right). Drag one up
or down: it stays where you let go, as a knob does. Double-click one to put it back to its default.

Tone and High-pass can also be played for a moment: hold Shift as you let go and the
strip glides back to where it was, like an effect you hold for a beat. On a touch screen, tap the
strip, then drag it right away: it glides back when you let go.

Kit

Six knobs for the whole kit.

Control	What it does
2Tune	Tunes every pad together, in semitones.
3Decay	Makes every pad ring shorter or longer: 100 % is each pad as set, below is tighter, above roomier.
4Tone	Darker or brighter, every pad at once: added to each pad's own Tone.
5High-pass	Thins the whole kit from the bottom, from 10 Hz (everything through) up to 4 kHz.
6Velocity	How much a strike's velocity changes its level. At 0 % every strike is full.
7Level	The kit's output level.

Pad

The selected pad's controls. Its 8type and its 9choke group are the two menus beside the pad's
name.

The middle of every knob is the type as designed. A new pad, or one whose type you just changed,
sounds as its type was made: Tune at 0, Decay at ×1, Tone and Snap at 0, Body and Noise at 0 dB. Turn
a knob away from the middle to move the sound one way or the other.

Control	What it does
10Tune	The pad's pitch, oscillator and body together, in semitones.
11Decay	How long the pad rings, as a multiple of its type's length (×0.125 … ×8). A longer ring is never louder.
12Tone	Darker or brighter: the strike, the body's high ring, the metal and the noise, all at once. It never changes the pitch.
13Snap	Softer or harder: how far the pitch falls at the strike and how loud the click is. Kick, Snare, Tom and Rim only.
14Body	The struck body (skin, wood, bell or jingles) against its type as designed; all the way down is off.
15Noise	The noise (a click, the wires, the air, the hiss) the same way.
16Level	The pad's level in the kit.
17Pan	Where the pad sits left to right.

A knob that does nothing for the pad's type stays in its place, dimmed, and its tooltip says why
(a Clap has no body, a Tom no noise).

Choke

Pads in the same choke group (1 to 4) cut each other: a strike silences, within a few
milliseconds, every other pad of its group still ringing. The default kit puts the closed and the open
hi-hat in group 1, so the closed hat cuts the open one as on a real kit.

Voices

The 18Voices group (folded) sets how many pads can ring at once, 1 to 16 (6 by default), shared by
all sixteen pads. A pad hit again restarts without a click, so a roll
stays clean. When every voice is busy, the oldest ring makes way.

Playing it

From a Drum sequencer: each of its voices plays the pad on its note. Its Gate does nothing on
this kit: every strike rings to its end.
From the keys, MIDI or the piano roll: the pads sit on the usual drum keys (the kick on C1),
and every surface names them (Kick, Snare, … or the type's name once you change a pad's type). A key
with no pad plays nothing.

Try it

A beat with no setup. Put a Drum sequencer in front of it and draw a kick on 1 and 3, a snare on 2 and 4 and closed hats on the eighths: every voice already plays its pad.
A deeper, longer kick. Select the kick: Tune −4 st, Decay ×2, Snap up a little for the click.
Open and close the hats with one move. Map the closed hat's Decay to an axis: short at rest, ringing as the axis moves away from rest.
A tighter kit for a fast beat. The kit's Decay at 60 %: every pad rings shorter and keeps its own character.
A sweep for one fill. Drag the screen's High-pass strip up during a fill and let go with Shift held: the kit thins out, then comes back on the downbeat.

Mapping

In the Studio's Map mode every knob can follow an axis. Two to try first:

the kit's Decay: from a tight kit to a roomy one
the kit's High-pass: the whole kit thins out as the axis moves
the hats' Decay: to open them

A pad's type and its choke group are choices, never on an axis.

In a room

Everyone in a room hears the same pads on the same steps and the same sound; only the noise (a
snare's or a hat's hiss) can differ a little.

Pads and types​

The kit screen​

The corners​

Kit​

Pad​

Choke​

Voices​

Playing it​

Try it​

Mapping​

In a room​