The FPC interface consists of three main zones - Main Pad Properties (1), Layer Properties (2) and the Pad Matrix (3), as described below. The interface can be
resized by right-clicking the right edge of the plugin and dragging to hide/show the layer controls.
Download Manager & Pattern Manager
The Download Manager allows you to access sound banks on the Image-Line servers for download. For more details on downloading
samples and presets see the Download Manager.
The Pattern Manager opens a tree-menu showing a list of percussion loops (MIDI data) that when selected load into the FPC channel
as a Piano roll. Selecting a new pattern from the menu will replace the currently selected pattern.
1. Main Pad Properties
These parameters affect the currently selected pad. To select a pad left-click on the pad button in the Pad View section (3).
Note that you can play pads without changing the selected pad by using the right-mouse button.
- Pad selector - (Showing Pad 1/32) The arrows allow you to change the selected pad. Left-click the down arrow to
open the following menu -
Pads
- Bank A / Bank B - Quick access to all pads (sounds) from Banks A and B.
Presets
- Change name - Changes the name of the FPC preset.
- Load preset - Loads an FPC preset.
- Save preset - Saves an FPC preset.
Export
- Save entire kit as pad presets - Saves each pad as a separate FPC pad preset, allowing you to share pads between kits.
- Save all wav files - Exports all the wave files used in the preset.
- Save kit as SFZ file - Exports kit in rgcAudio's SFZ format.
Notes
- Layouts - Opens a menu of preset layouts:
- default - Matches the Akai MPC series unless it has been overwritten with your own layout. Note that you want a particular layout to load each time FPC is opened, you will need
to 'Use current layout when changing presets' first (see below).
- padKontrol - PadKontrol preset (custom controller).
- trigger finger - Trigger Finger preset (custom controller).
- (none) - FPC will use the note layout saved in the song/preset opened.
- Use current layout when changing presets - Prevents the current note layout changing when you select a new preset.
- Save note layout - Saves the pad to MIDI note relationships (layout).
- Load note layout - Loads the pad to MIDI note layout presets.
- Map notes for entire bank - Starting from Pad 1 (lower left) each MIDI note that is played on your controller will be automatically linked to the next FPC pad (Pad 1-16 or 17-32 in sequence).
Clicking on the option selects the first pad in the bank. There are three ways to cancel the auto-link process: 1. Change the note value for a pad, 2. Change the pad or 3. Select "Cancel Map notes..."
in the pad menu.
- Pad name box - Shows the pad name, which you can change by right-clicking the box and entering new name in the window that pops
up.
- Volume and Pan - Sets the pad volume (left), and stereo panning (right).
- Mute button - Mutes the current pad (active when green).
- Solo button - Mutes all other pads except the current pad (and any other solo pads) (active when red).
- Scale volume button - This option should usually be enabled, unless you want to handle velocity changes entirely with multiple
velocity-sensitive layers (see Layer Properties below).
- Bank A/B - There are two banks x 16 pads are available per patch.
- Play Key and Octave - Change these values by dragging up or down. The first box sets the key that is assigned to the pad. The right
box sets the octave in which that key will play.
- CUT Group / Cut BY - Use CUT and BY to use one pad to cut (stop) notes playing on another pad. The CUT box sets the
cut group the selected pad is in. The second box BY sets which group will cut the current pad. Use these controls to make more realistic
drum kits, where an open hi-hat is cut by a closed hi-hat, for example. To make a pad cut itself, set the CUT and BY values to the same number.
To change values, left-click in the box, hold and move the mouse up and down.
- OUTPUT - The Output Offset adds a Mixer Track offset value to the selected pad, this allows independent or grouped mixer tracks to be used by the FPC pads.
The offset is relative to the Mixer Track number the plugin is assigned to at the Channel Settings. For example, if FPC is sent to mixer track 1 and the offset for a given pad is 2,
then the sound from that pad will appear on mixer track 3. If the plugin wrapper is set to track 5 then the pad will appear on Mixer Track 7. To disable the offset set the display so that it shows '--'.
2. Layer Properties View
Each pad can contain multi-layer samples so that various layers respond to a specific velocity range. This can be useful for creating realistic acoustic drum kits. Use the Layer Properties view to create and edit the layers of the currently selected pad.
Layer Properties Tips
- Mini preview window - Right click on the sample mini-preview window to open a menu with the following options:
- Load - Opens file browser to load a sample into that layer.
- Edit - Opens sample in Edison.
- Edit in new window - Opens sample in a new instance of Edison.
- Show in browser - Opens the folder in the FL Browser where the file is located and highlights the sample. Then in the browser, F5 and F6 will cycle through samples in that
folder and select them into the selected layer in FPC.
- Select layer - Click on a layer to select it.
Layer Properties Controls
The controls on each layer are (from left to right):
- Select Knob - Click this button to mark the channel as selected. This is required for some operations, like browsing for a new sample,
move up/down, delete, display in the large sample preview (in the bottom) and the reverse playback switch.
- Volume Knob - Sets the volume of the layer.
- Pan Knob - Sets the stereo panning of the layer.
- Layer Tune Knob - Allows you to offset the pitch up/down (faster/slower playback) from the original playback speed of the sample.
The knob ranges from -1 to +1 octave pitch shift.
- Mini Sample Preview - Displays the loaded sample (if any). Click to preview the sample.
- Velocity Range - This control sets the active velocity range for the layer, i.e. for which velocity values the sample will play (for
the rest it is muted). The velocity is mapped from left (minimum) to right (maximum). Drag the handles to define the active region. Overlapping of several
samples in the same range is allowed, unless the Lock Layers button (see below) is enabled.
Basic Operations
- Create layer - Adds a new, empty layer to the pad. To erase it, select it (hit the Select knob of the layer)
and click the Delete button.
- Load a sample - Load a sample to the layer by clicking the Browse button (on the left in the Sample
File controls below) and selecting a sample.
- Reverse - To reverse a sample, select the Reverse option at the bottom of the interface.
- To reorder layers - Select the layer and use the Move Up/Down buttons at the top of the interface.
- Spread Even - Spreads the velocity ranges evenly across the existing layers without overlap (see layer properties above).
- Lock Layers - Locks the layer ranges to prevent velocity range overlap (one sample will play at a time for any given velocity).
- Preview - To hear how your pad will sound at various velocities click the Full Pad Preview bar at the velocity
value you want to preview. Velocity is indicated by the vertical bars - lower velocities to the left and higher velocities to the right.
Envelopes
The Envelope editor provides a "classic" ADSR envelope & the power of unlimited spline segments. Left-click and drag node/curve
points in order to change the Envelope shape. Right-click the envelope area to add nodes.
- Enable/Disable Switch - To use an envelope/mapping, enable the LED at the bottom left of the editor (see the hand-pointer on the screenshot above).
- Envelope Options - Click (
) to select from the following options -
- Open state file / Save state file - Opens and saves envelope states. Several pre-defined state files are available.
- Copy state / Paste state - Use to copy and paste envelopes, usually between operators.
- Flip vertically - Inverts the current envelope.
- Analyze audio file - The envelope can emulate the volume envelope of an input sound file. Clicking this option opens a 'browse file'
dialog.
- Freeze - Enable this switch to lock the envelope curve to its current setup. This feature is helpful in protecting the spline
structure of an envelope from accidental edits (it also hides the handles, providing a clear view of the shape).
- Snap - Enable this option if you want the
control points to snap to the nearest step in the timeline while dragging.
- Slide - Enable this option to preserve the relative distance between a
dragged control point and all control points following it (this option is
enabled
by default).
3. Pads View
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- Left-clicking a pad allows you to hear the samples loaded on that pad AND changes the Layer Properties to match that pad.
- Right-clicking a pad will preview the samples without changing the Layer View to that pad.
- Dragging a sample onto a pad (from the browser) will load it in the selected layer of the pad.
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Pads are numbered from bottom-left to top-right so that the bottom row are pads 1,2, 3 and 4, the second from bottom row are 5, 6, 7 and 8 and so on,
to the top right pad 16 (i.e. pad 1 is bottom left, pad 16 is top right). To select without previewing, click the Pad Properties button.
The Previous and Next buttons allow you to switch between several alternative versions of that pad. Each drum kit may include several different samples for each pad.
The settings for both the MIDI key assigned to each pad and the cut groups for the pad are set in the Main Pad Properties (1).
change access to all pads (sounds) from Banks A and B using the Bank A / Bank B switches.
Plugin Credits: Robert Conde (Original design), Frederic Vanmol (Programming).
FPC video tutorials can be viewed here.)