Protein Der Klang

1.1

Concept

Protein Der Klang let you play and manipulate up to 12 clips on its 3 tracks in a creative way.

Each track is color coded and can be setup to play up to 4 clips at the same time.

When the maximum number of clips playing on a track is reached, triggering an extra clip will stop the oldest.

User-Interface

The user-interface is composed of the navigation bar at the bottom that selects the current module that appears on top.

A module is composed of two rows of buttons on left and right sides and a controller zone at center.

In most cases, the buttons on the right are used to navigate within the different module views, and the buttons on the left to perform actions in combination with the controller zone.

 Tempo

The Tempo module gives you control on the instrument’s trigger clock and global BPM.

Trigger Clock

The clock is used to control selected clips trigger timing: the playback starts or stops when the clock hit the top mark. Its update rhythm corresponds to the application’s BPM.

You can control the clock’s beat count by sliding a finger vertically on the left half part of the controller zone.

BPM

The BPM can be set from 60 to 240 beats per minute. In addition to controlling the clock speed, it affects effects, tracks timings, and BPM-synchronized clips playback speed.

You can control the BPM by sliding a finger horizontally and vertically on the right half part of the controller zone.

The tapbutton let you tap in rhythm to change the BPM accordingly, where the metronome activates the metronome.

The accelerometerbutton let you control the BPM by tilting the device.

 Clips

The clips are organized in 9 resizable banks.

Select the current bank using on top-right.

Play

Play a clip simply by touching it.

To start a clip instantly, force the Instant trigger mode on all clips by touching the  button.

remark:

  1. You can start / stop several clips with a single finger move by sliding your finger on the current bank.

Stop

Stop a clip by holding the button then pressing the clip.

Stop all the clips playing on a track by:

  1. touching the stop button then touching the corresponding track in the navigation bar.
  2. touching the stop button then touching a clip with the same color that’s not playing.
  3. touching an empty clip with the color.

To stop a clip instantly, force the Instant trigger mode on all clips by touching the  button.

Volume

Change a clip’s volume by touching the  button on the left then sliding your finger vertically on the clip.

Record

Record a new audio sample by touching the  button, then touching the targeted clip.

You can select the recording source between the device’s audio input or application’s audio output.

The recorded samples are copied amongst other user samples. The recording uses the targeted clip current trigger mode (clock or instant).

remark:

  1. The recorded samples are named “rec-in-x.wav” and “rec-out-x.wav” depending on the selected recording source.
  1. In case the clip was already loaded with a sample, the sample will be automatically replaced by the newly recorded sample.
  1. The metronome sound isn’t recorded by the application’s output recorder.

Edit Bank

You can edit the current bank and its clips by touching the module’s button in the navigation bar.

You can resize the current bank usingandon the left.

You can reset a clip by choosing the mode before touching the clip.

You can edit a clip by choosing edit before touching the clip, which will open the Clip Edit view.

Edit Clip

Load an audio sample by clicking on thebutton on the left.

You can paste a sample that’s been copied from another application and copy the current sample by clicking on the button on the left (c.f. Samples & Patches section further in this document).

You can test clip’s parameters using the playand stop buttons on the left.

Trigger

Each clip has a colour that corresponds to the track it’s assigned to .

It can be triggered with the clock or instantly using its track’s quantization.

It has four different trigger modes:

  1. replay : the clip plays in loop. Each trigger action restarts the clip.
  2. toggle : a first trigger start the clips playback in loop, and a second stops it.
  3. once : the clip plays once and stops by itself. Each trigger action restarts the clip.
  4. hold : the clip plays in loop as long as it’s hold. If the clip’s clock-triggered, it stops when the clock reaches the top mark.

Sync

Each clip playback can be synchronized to the patch BPM using the edit view.

There are three playback modes:

  1. off : you can select the pitch of the clip
  2. on bpm : you can set the clip’s bpm which
  3. on beats: if the clip’s a loop you can set the clip’s beat count. If this mode is selected, you can directly access beats in the track’s slicer view.

Miscs

You can adjust the clip’s cue point to start it at a time that’s not 0.

You can adjust the clip’s gain boost in case in case it’s too low.

   Tracks

        

There are 3 color coded track modules in the application.

The Track module let you manipulate the triggered clips playback, and apply an audio effect on their mixed-down signals.

The button in the navigation bar shows the maximum number of clips you can play on the track.

Scratch

The Scratch view let you scratch the clips using the controller zone.

At any time you can resync the playback as if you didn’t change it since the clips trigger.

Finally you can pause the playback and fade the sound in or out .

Slicer

The Slicer view let you directly control the clips playback cursor by touching or sliding the controller zone horizontally. As in scratch view you can resync and pause the clips playback using the dedicated buttons.

Finally you can revert the playback using the revertbutton.

remarks:

  1. Only the clips that are referenced as loops give you access to their individual beats.  
  1. Pause and revert functions are turned of when using the resync function and when a new clip’s triggered.
  1. The resync function and the slicer control use the track’s quantization.

Effect

The Effect view lets you activate and control the selected effect using the cursor in the controller zone.

You can hold the effect activation by hitting the lock button.

You can control the effect parameters using the device’s accelerometer using the accelerometerbutton.

Edit Track

You can edit the track’s properties by touching the module’s button.

Clips

You can choose how many clips the track will allow to be launched at the same time.

You can also modify the track’s quantization, that will be used by clips in Instant trigger mode and by the slicer view.

Scratch and Slicer

In this view you can change parameters that will be used in the Scratch and Slicer views.

Effect

You can choose or remove the effect that will be used on the track.

 Mixer

The mixer module produces the mixed-down audio signal by letting you control the tracks volume and apply a master effect on it.

Volume

The volume view gives you control on each track’s individual control. Slide your finger vertically on the selected track’s volume slider to change its volume gradually. You can also set the volume instantly to a specific position by quickly hitting the slider.

Effect

The effect view let you control the mixer’s effect the same way as in the tracks.

Edit Mixer

You can change and remove the mixer’s effect by touching on the module’s button.

  Application

The Menu module let you manage your patches and provide some help.

Patch

The patch view let your manage your patches.

The name of the currently loaded patch appears centered on the controller zone.

You can create a new patch using the button. A patch can be created blank (“Void”), from one of your own patches or from one of the demo patches.

You can load an existing patch using the button.

remarks:

  1. The current patch state is automatically saved whenever it changes.
  2. When loading a patch, its previous version of current patch is saved in the shared document with the extension “.backup”.

Info

The info view let you consult thismanual, send feedback by email within the application and display the credits.

Samples & Patches

Sample format

The samples must be uncompressed 16bit .wav files.

If your samples are marked as “unsupported” in the sample library, open and export them using the free open-source application Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net.

Patch format

A patch uses the .pdk file extension.

Copy & Paste samples

Protein Der Klang uses Sonoma AudioCopy/AudioPaste technology to share uncompressed 16bit .wav audio samples in between applications running on the same device. You can both copy from or paste to an actual clip by editing it and press the audio copy/paste button.

Import / Export samples & patches

  1. Plug your iOS device on your computer.
  2. Start iTunes.
  3. Click on the device’s icon (iPhone / iPod / iPad)
  4. Click on the “Apps” tab.
  5. Scroll down until the “File Sharing” section.
  6. Select “Protein DK”.
  7. Drag&Drop sample files and patches between your file manager and “Protein DK Documents” panel.

Audiobus

Audiobus is a simple yet powerful way to virtually connect audio/musical applications together in a bus.

So far the technology allows several INPUT-compatible applications to send audio into an EFFECT-compatible application that itself sends its output to an OUTPUT-compatible application.

Protein Der Klang acts as an Audiobus INPUT, meaning it becomes a source for another application by sharing its audio output.

Once the Audiobus application’s running, you can select Protein Der Klang as one of the INPUTs.

Depending on the application status, you should either see Protein Der Klang icon is the application’s already running, or a “ZZZ Tap to launch” if it’s not.

You just have to press the icon to switch to Protein Der Klang and activate the Audiobus routing.

Within Protein Der Klang, you’ll then see the Audiobus control panel displayed at the right side of the screen. This panel enables you to switch in between applications and to control some other application-specific features like play, record or activate.

You can hide the panel by sliding the handler on top of the panel to the right side of the screen, and show it again by sliding your finger left starting from the right side of the screen.

 

Audiobus

Protein Der Klang

remarks:

  1. It’s advised to start the Audiobus application before starting Protein Der Klang or any other Audiobus-compatible application - even though most of the time things go well when you do the other way around.
  2. In the future Protein Der Klang should be able to act as a Audiobus OUTPUT by recording the sound from another application into a clip, together with the possibility to trim the recorded clip using in & out points.

Background Audio

In case you’re not using Audiobus, but you want Protein Der Klang to keep playing when it’s in background and mix its audio-output together with already playing applications, you can activate “Background Audio” in Protein DK section of the iOS device’s settings.

Tips & Tricks

  1. Clip Surfing: slide your finger on the current bank to start/stop several clips in a single move.
  2. Slicer Surfing: slide your finger in the track’s slicer view to navigate through the clips beats.
  3. Fast toggle: hold a button at least a tenth of a second to activate it temporarily, allowing faster actions.
  4. Precise parameter adjustment: in the edit views, touch an horizontal slider outside the caret and slide your finger horizontally to perform precise adjustments.

© 2013 Pierre Guilluy