A visual, technical guide to the whole Kadabra Ecosystem: Installation, the Kadabra OS Shapes (each with its own color accent and Main / Thumb sections), the K-Player DAW, the K-Sampler instrument, the K-Plugins, KAI and how to combine them into music.
Seven parts, one instrument. Open any part below, or use the sidebar.
Purchase, download, install and run the bundle in the right order: Surge XT first, then the Kadabra OS Full Installation.
The brain. 15 Shapes turn your playing into MIDI: Performer, Sampler, Scaler, Harmoner, Looper, Arper, Viber, FXer, Sounder, Arranger, Shaper, Setuper, Senser, Master and Temper.
The sound. Kadabra's own DAW: 24 channels of instruments and effects, two DJ decks, an arrangement timeline, a production mix page and a recorder.
The instrument. A VST3 pad sampler with 11 groups of 12 pads, round robins, velocity layers, beat repeat, envelope, amp and sends, plus the Kadabra factory banks.
The effects and supporting plug-ins: the K-Channel channel strip (EQ, Gate, Compressor), Surge XT and how they sit inside K-Player.
Kadabra's AI assistant inside Kadabra OS. Today it answers questions about this manual; it will grow into a creative partner.
How the Shapes, K-Player and K-Sampler work together to make music. Workflow recipes, growing over time.
Purchase, download, install and run the Kadabra software in the correct order.
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/K-Sampler, and its Factory Banks (an optional item in the installer) to /Library/Application Support/Tribal-Tools/K-Sampler/Factory:Use a USB Type-C to Type-C cable, or connect through a hub that has a Type-A USB connector.
Charge Kadabra using any USB Type-C phone charger, and then try powering it on again.
Disconnect the K-Box and change the USB cable.
On Windows, right-click Kadabra OS and choose Run as administrator, then try opening it again.
Program Files/Kadabra OS/data.Contact Tribal-Tools support:
Load and save complete Kadabra States.
Thumb Buttons select the State Banks to use.
In the Performer Main Section, When no Thumb button is held, you can configure the Save and Load options and location (where the State is saved or loads from).
SELECT: Change the Performer mode to Loading, not Saving. Thumb Banks functionality changes accordingly.
SELECT: Change the Performer mode to Saving, not Loading. Thumb Banks functionality changes accordingly.
Releasing Save Mode closes the Save options.
Not available yet. Set Bank changes the Bank of Sets: the 8 User Sets (36 States each) together are one Bank of Sets.
PRESS: Selects the Factory Set: the States made by Tribal-Tools. It is overwritten at every Kadabra OS update, so save your own States in Sets 1–8 (Combis 5–12).
PRESS: Selects User Set 1. The States of this Set are not deleted when updating Kadabra OS software.
PRESS: Selects User Set 2. The States of this Set are not deleted when updating Kadabra OS software.
PRESS: Selects User Set 3. The States of this Set are not deleted when updating Kadabra OS software.
PRESS: Selects User Set 4. The States of this Set are not deleted when updating Kadabra OS software.
PRESS: Selects User Set 5. The States of this Set are not deleted when updating Kadabra OS software.
PRESS: Selects User Set 6. The States of this Set are not deleted when updating Kadabra OS software.
PRESS: Selects User Set 7. The States of this Set are not deleted when updating Kadabra OS software.
PRESS: Selects User Set 8. The States of this Set are not deleted when updating Kadabra OS software.
In Performer, hold Thumb 1, Thumb 2, or Thumb 3 to choose a State Bank. The Combi spots inside each Bank share the same load/save behavior.
The three OS screens below illustrate the three Banks side by side.
Trigger samples using a chromatic scale.
In the Sampler Main Section, you can use the first 10 Combis to move the Chromatic (Sampler) keyboard to a specific octave
The Sampler Thumb 1 Section, is in Beta testing.
No Combi details listed yet for this section.
In the Sampler Shape, hold Thumb 2 to change the Tonality Key of the Kadabra. just like in Scaler and Harmoner shapes
Sampler Thumb 3 Section is empty.
No Combi details listed yet for this section.
Play melodies and solos on a scale.
Scaler helps you play melodies and solos inside a selected Scale. The Keyboard follows the chosen Tonic and Scale, so the available tones stay musically related.
Click the 12 chromatic tones to show how Kadabra keeps only the chosen tones active in a Scale. This example uses C as the Tonic.
A Scale is a chosen set of tones inside the 12 possible tones of an octave. In C Major, the active tones are C, D, E, F, G, A and B.
In the Scaler Main Section, you can control how the Keyboard follows harmony, transpose the current Scale, change the Keyboard arrangement, and modify important Scale degrees.
PRESS: Move every tone in the Scaler Keyboard a half-tone down.
PRESS: Move every tone in the Scaler Keyboard a half-tone up.
PRESS: While holding a Keyboard Key, change the held Keyboard tone up or down. If no Keyboard Key is held, nothing happens.
PRESS: Decrease or increase the Scale 5th according to the current optimized direction.
PRESS: Change the 3rd between Major and minor when available.
PRESS: Change the 7th between small 7 and big 7 when available.
PRESS: Change the 9th between small 9 and big 9 when available.
PRESS: Change the 11th between small 11 and big 11 when available.
PRESS: Change the 13th between small 13 and big 13 when available.
PRESS: Sets the Scaler Bass / 1st Tone to C.
PRESS: Sets the Scaler Bass / 1st Tone to C#.
PRESS: Sets the Scaler Bass / 1st Tone to D.
PRESS: Sets the Scaler Bass / 1st Tone to D#.
PRESS: Sets the Scaler Bass / 1st Tone to E.
PRESS: Sets the Scaler Bass / 1st Tone to F.
PRESS: Sets the Scaler Bass / 1st Tone to F#.
PRESS: Sets the Scaler Bass / 1st Tone to G.
PRESS: Sets the Scaler Bass / 1st Tone to G#.
PRESS: Sets the Scaler Bass / 1st Tone to A.
PRESS: Sets the Scaler Bass / 1st Tone to A#.
PRESS: Sets the Scaler Bass / 1st Tone to B.
PRESS: Sets the Scaler Key / Tonic so the Scale starts at C.
PRESS: Sets the Scaler Key / Tonic so the Scale starts at C#.
PRESS: Sets the Scaler Key / Tonic so the Scale starts at D.
PRESS: Sets the Scaler Key / Tonic so the Scale starts at D#.
PRESS: Sets the Scaler Key / Tonic so the Scale starts at E.
PRESS: Sets the Scaler Key / Tonic so the Scale starts at F.
PRESS: Sets the Scaler Key / Tonic so the Scale starts at F#.
PRESS: Sets the Scaler Key / Tonic so the Scale starts at G.
PRESS: Sets the Scaler Key / Tonic so the Scale starts at G#.
PRESS: Sets the Scaler Key / Tonic so the Scale starts at A.
PRESS: Sets the Scaler Key / Tonic so the Scale starts at A#.
PRESS: Sets the Scaler Key / Tonic so the Scale starts at B.
PRESS: Set Minor as the new Scale.
PRESS: Beta only. Opens more 8-note Scale options when available.
PRESS: Set Persian as the new Scale.
RELEASE: Release the Thumb button to set the User-Scale as the new Scale.
PRESS: Switch between Chromatic Scale on the Keyboard and the active Kadabra Scale.
Play chords and harmonies of the whole song.
Harmoner is the Shape for controlling song harmony. It turns Scale degrees into playable chords and lets Relative Sounds follow your harmonic story.
The 12-tone octave contains all half-tones. The C Major Scale uses 7 of them: C, D, E, F, G, A, B. A basic chord uses 1, 3, and 5. Extensions reuse Scale degrees higher up: 9 = 2, 11 = 4, and 13 = 6.
A 1,3,5 chord is the basic triad. In C Major, that is C, E, and G.
Harmoner uses these relationships inside the active Scale, so the actual notes change when the Scale or Harmonic Mode changes.
In the Harmoner Main Section, the first 7 Combis choose the Harmonic Mode of the current Scale. The later Combis modify the present chord by changing the 3rd or adding/removing 7, 9, 11, and 13.
PRESS: Sets the 1st Harmonic Mode of the current Scale. This is usually the chord of the Scale Key.
PRESS: Sets the 2nd Harmonic Mode of the current Scale.
PRESS: Sets the 3rd Harmonic Mode of the current Scale.
PRESS: Sets the 4th Harmonic Mode of the current Scale.
PRESS: Sets the 5th Harmonic Mode of the current Scale.
PRESS: Sets the 6th Harmonic Mode of the current Scale.
PRESS: Sets the 7th Harmonic Mode of the current Scale.
PRESS: Changes the 3rd note of the present chord between Major and minor.
PRESS: Adds or removes the 7th note of the present chord.
PRESS: Adds or removes the 9th color of the present chord. The 9 is the 2nd Scale degree heard as an upper extension.
PRESS: Adds or removes the 11th color of the present chord. The 11 is the 4th Scale degree heard as an upper extension.
PRESS: Adds or removes the 13th color of the present chord. The 13 is the 6th Scale degree heard as an upper extension.
Hold Thumb 1 to modify how Harmoner follows harmony, arranges notes, and places chord/scale material on Keyboard rows.
PRESS: sets every tone in the Keyboard a half tone down.
PRESS: sets every tone in the Keyboard a half tone up.
PRESS: Adjusts the held tone up/down behavior of the present harmony or held Keyboard tone.
PRESS: Adjusts the decrease / increase behavior of the present harmony or held Keyboard tone.
PRESS: Adjusts the major / minor behavior of the present harmony or held Keyboard tone.
PRESS: Adjusts the small / big 7 behavior of the present harmony or held Keyboard tone.
PRESS: Adjusts the small / big 9 behavior of the present harmony or held Keyboard tone.
PRESS: Adjusts the small / big 11 behavior of the present harmony or held Keyboard tone.
PRESS: Adjusts the small / big 13 behavior of the present harmony or held Keyboard tone.
Just like in the Sampler and Scaler shapes:
Hold Thumb 2 and press one of the 12 Combis to set the Scale Key / Tonic.
Changing the root of the scale changes the tonality feel and can make the Kadabra sync to other musical instruments' tones
PRESS: Set the Harmoner Key / Tonic to C.
PRESS: Set the Harmoner Key / Tonic to C#.
PRESS: Set the Harmoner Key / Tonic to D.
PRESS: Set the Harmoner Key / Tonic to D#.
PRESS: Set the Harmoner Key / Tonic to E.
PRESS: Set the Harmoner Key / Tonic to F.
PRESS: Set the Harmoner Key / Tonic to F#.
PRESS: Set the Harmoner Key / Tonic to G.
PRESS: Set the Harmoner Key / Tonic to G#.
PRESS: Set the Harmoner Key / Tonic to A.
PRESS: Set the Harmoner Key / Tonic to A#.
PRESS: Set the Harmoner Key / Tonic to B.
Just like holding the 3rd Thumb in the Scaler shape:
Hold Thumb 3 to choose the active Scale, or a special scale (from the Pentatonic and Sextatonic scales) for a Keyboard Split (a scale in one keyboard row and a harmony in the other).
Some Combis directly set a Scale, and some open a deeper option menu with Scale families, modes/degrees, Chromatic behavior, or User-Scale tone picking.
PRESS: Set Minor as the new Scale.
Beta only — opens 8-note and more advanced options.
PRESS: Set Persian as the new Scale.
PRESS: Switch between Chromatic Scale and the active Kadabra Scale.
The Looper lets you build music in two parallel ways: a tightly structured Sequencer and a free-form repeating Loop. Together they let you create beats, chord beds, melodic figures and live rhythmic edits.
Each sound (1-16) has 4 different Sequence Patterns, and 4 different Loop Patterns in the Looper
Extra melodic notes/events recorded freely in milliseconds. They are not forced into the Sequence Step order.
Loop Length affects only the Loop layer. Changing it does not move, quantize, shorten, or remove Sequence notes.
Each horizontal line is one Pattern. The full line is divided into 4 Bars, each Bar is divided into 4 Beats, and each Beat is divided into 4 Steps.
The Sequence is rhythm-aware and beat-accurate. If you change the rhythmic structure or Sequence Length, the notes follow the new structure automatically.
The recorded Loop is free-form inside the repeating Loop. It can later be quantized into the Sequencer, but it does not depend on the grid while being recorded.
In the Looper Main Section, you control the Active Sound’s Loop and Sequence behavior, play or stop the full Looper, record free Loops, quantize them, and save or load Sequence Patterns.
PRESS: Start the Looper if it is stopped, or stop it if it is already running. All unmuted Loop and Sequence material follows together in sync.
PRESS: Start or stop recording the repeating free-form Loop layer of the Active Sound.
PRESS: Choose whether Thumb 1 actions affect the Sequence, the recorded Loop, or both together.
PRESS: Reset the Active Sound's current Loop / Sequence material according to the selected focus.
PRESS: Enable hearing the quantized Sequence result while you create or edit it.
PRESS: Enable hearing the recorded Loop layer while editing it.
PRESS: Quantize the targeted notes to the selected rhythmic structure.
HOLD: Use this when you want a free recorded Loop to snap tightly into the Sequencer structure.
PRESS: Load a previously saved Sequence Pattern into the Active Sound.
PRESS: Toggle whether recorded Loop notes stay Static or remain musically Relative to Scale and Harmony.
PRESS: Choose whether new material overwrites or adds to the existing content.
PRESS: Open repair / adjustment behavior for the recorded Loop.
HOLD: While holding, move the Wheel to shift the Loop start or end for rhythmic correction.
PRESS: Save the current Sequence Pattern of the Active Sound.
In the Looper Thumb 1 Section, you can change the loop length of the loop, of the sequence or of both the loop and the sequence pattern. you can also choose a different pattern to work on and play, or choose multiple patterns that will loop after another by holding them in the desired order.
There are two ways to create a sequence in the Looper by holding Thumb 2
Build the Sequence using prepared tone / sound containers. This is quick for grooves, rhythmic riffs and repeated patterns where each press launches prepared content.
Program the Sequence step by step. Just like singing it. This is precise for creating Bass lines, melodic riffs and new rhythms. where a lot of keyboard is needed
In the Looper Thumb 3 Section, hold Thumb 3 to change the Main Looper state (Mute) of other channels, not only the Active Sound. Flicking the 3rd Thumb changes the Active Sound's On/Off Mute state.
The Arper is a smart phrase launcher. It plays ready-made note sequences from touched Keyboard notes while keeping them aligned to BPM, Scale and Harmony.
Each horizontal line is one Pattern. The full line is divided into 4 Bars, each Bar is divided into 4 Beats, and each Beat is divided into 4 Steps.
Loop Length decides how much of the active Pattern repeats. It can be chosen in Beats or Bars, including 1 Beat, 2 Beats, 3 Beats and 4 Beats.
The Arper phrase always keeps the full 4-Bar sequence active, as if Sequence Length is set to 4 Bars.
In the Arper Main Section, you launch, edit, reset, save and load Arper phrases. These phrases are quantized and stay tied to BPM, Scale and Harmony.
PRESS: Trigger the ready-made quantized Arper phrase from the played keyboard note.
PRESS: switch between the two creation tools for the Arper's Sequence.
Use the Sample Container approach for creating a rhythmic Arper pattern from prepared note containers.
Use the Step Sequencer approach for programming the Arper one step at a time, advancing a step (16th) on each keyboard release.
PRESS: Reset the current Arper phrase or clear the selected working layer.
PRESS: Edit the note-gate behavior of the Arper phrase.
PRESS: Change the phrase variation while keeping the same sequence structure.
PRESS: Load a saved Arper pattern for the Active Sound.
PRESS: Toggle whether the Arper phrase behaves Static or Relative to the active Scale and Harmony.
PRESS: Choose whether the played keyboard note is heard directly or only the Arper result is heard.
PRESS: Choose what the current edit action applies to in the Arper.
PRESS: Save the current Arper pattern of the Active Sound.
In the Arper Thumb 1 Section, you can change the Arper sequence pattern. you can also choose a different pattern to work on and play, or choose multiple patterns that will loop after another by holding them in the desired order.
Holding Thumb 2 in the Arper exposes the two core creation approaches, similar to the Looper Sequence workflow.
Build the Sequence using prepared tone / sound containers. This is quick for grooves, rhythmic riffs and repeated patterns where each press launches prepared content.
Program the Arper Sequence step by step. This is handy and fast when you want to melodic riffs built in Steps, by playing the riff on your keyboard and jumping a Step, a Beat or a Bar when needed.
In the Arper Thumb 3 Section, hold Thumb 3 to change Arper state of other channels, not only the Active Sound. Flicking the 3rd Thumb changes the Active Sound's On/Off Arper state.
Advanced dynamic looping for unique sounds.
Viber controls synced rhythmic movement for a Sound. Its Speed and Gate Length can be controlled by Combis and by assigned Motion sensors.
Use Main Section Combis 11 and 12 to make the Viber Gate longer or shorter.
Viber repeats a loop. In this example there are 3 repeating notes. When the overall loop length becomes shorter, those notes become tighter and shorter. When the loop length becomes longer, the same notes spread out and widen — like stretching a picture to one side.
The loop length can be controlled dynamically, so the timing feel changes continuously. The Kadabra movement below illustrates that motion relationship: as the loop stretches, the Kadabra turns.
In the Viber Main Section, you can use the first 8 Combis to align the Viber loop rhythmically to the beat, combine those to reach in beat structures.
In the Viber Thumb 1 Section, hold Thumb 1 to access these Combi functions:
In the Viber Thumb 2 Section, hold Thumb 2 to access Quantizer options for rhythmic structures.
In the Viber Thumb 3 Section, hold Thumb 3 to change Viber state of other channels, not only the Active Sound. Flicking the 3rd Thumb changes the Active Sound's On/Off Viber state..
Control knobs and faders of DAWs, VST instruments, and plugins.
FXer uses Main, Thumb 1, Thumb 2, and Thumb 3 as four banks of 12 Combis, reaching 48 plugin knobs, faders, and switches.
Hold the FX Combi you want to set, then touch a Keyboard amount button to choose one of the available 48 amount steps.
In FXer, there are 4 Combi banks: Main, Thumb 1, Thumb 2, and Thumb 3. Each bank gives the 12 Combis a different set of controls, so the same 12 physical Combis can reach 48 plugin knobs, faders, sends, or MIDI CC targets.
Choose a bank in the illustration below: the 12 Combis stay in one horizontal line, but they change to that bank’s 12 targets. When a Combi is held, touching one of the Keyboard buttons sets that held control’s FX amount.
The Keyboard is shown as 24 vertical buttons in one column plus another 24 buttons staggered between them slightly to the right. Together they give 48 amount steps. These 48 performance steps are spread over the MIDI CC range of 0–127, so each touch moves the CC value by about 2–3 MIDI steps.
In the FXer Main Section, you can use the first 8 Combis to control KPlayer's Plugins (On/Off) and the last 4 combis to fix specific amounts
In FXer, Thumb 1, Thumb 2, and Thumb 3 are Effect Banks. Holding a Thumb changes the same 12 physical Combis to that bank’s 12 FX targets.
Hold Thumb 1 to use Bank 1’s 12 FX Combi targets.
Hold Thumb 2 to use Bank 2’s 12 FX Combi targets.
Hold Thumb 3 to use Bank 3’s 12 FX Combi targets.
Control and assign sounds to a Keyboard row.
Choose the Active Sound before using Sounder actions. The Active Sound is the Sound that editing and Shape actions target
PRS-1 changes the Active Sound Volume in a sticky way. PRS-2 changes the Active Sound Volume in a dynamic way.
PRS controls the Active Sound channel volume. In Sounder, the PRS force sensor sends Volume control to the Active Sound’s channel, aligned with MIDI CC 7 / Channel Volume.
PRS-1 changes the Volume of the Active Sound in a sticky way: the last pressure value becomes the Active Sound volume and stays there after the touch is released.
PRS-2 changes the Volume of the Active Sound in a dynamic way: the volume follows the live pressure movement while you play, instead of becoming the sticky stored level.
In the Sounder Main Section, you can use the 12 Combis to select which sounds will be playable in the Keyboard and in which Keyboard Row
for your chosen Active Sound, this is the section to control it. From selecting the VST/AU instrument type and deciding if its a rhythmic or melodic instrument, to controling if it is playing in the looper, has a Viber or Arper on and many more.
In the Sounder Thumb 2 Section, hold Thumb 2 to access Preset change inside a Sound (a Midi channel that uses a Synth or a Sampler).
You can set a few sounds in the same synth and save each sound in one of the first 8 different combis, then jump between those sounds easily
In the Sounder Thumb 3 Section, hold Thumb 3 to choose an Active Sound. an Active Sound is the sound that is being changed when setting any sound setting like:
Record and arrange MIDI and Kadabra actions.
Set your most-used Shapes into your Shifters.
The Shaper's 12 Combis are the Shapes, in this order (down the columns of its screen):
| Combi | Shape | Combi | Shape | Combi | Shape |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Performer | 5 | Looper | 9 | Sounder |
| 2 | Sampler | 6 | Arper | 10 | Shaper |
| 3 | Scaler | 7 | Viber | 11 | Master |
| 4 | Harmoner | 8 | FXer | 12 | Setuper (“SETUP”) |
The Temper and the Senser are not in the Shaper: they have their own buttons, Util 1 (Temper) and Util 3 (Senser). The Master has its own button too: Util 2.
Shaper assigns Shapes into Shifter buttons and chooses the Main Shape. Shifters let Kadabra temporarily act as another Shape while playing.
Thumbs in Shaper do not open separate option sets. They are used in the Main Section to target Shifter 1, Shifter 2, or Shifter 3.
In the Shaper Main Section, you can choose your MAIN shape (the one that is Active if no other Shifter was chosen), or to assign a Shape to a Shifter in the Kadabra by holding that Shifter before chosing a Shape
In Shaper, the three Thumbs do not open separate option banks. They are used in the Main Section to target Shifter 1, Shifter 2, or Shifter 3.
No separate Thumb Combi details are listed because Shaper Thumbs work together with the Main Section.
Calibrate and set up system behavior.
Setuper is for Kadabra setup features such as Lights level, Thread speed, calibration, usage needs, and supporting equipment.
If you are experiancing any slow keyboard response, it might be because the OS is guarding your computer's performance where it shouldn't, just hold thumb 1 and try calibrating your system to the fastest options for each thread.
In the Setuper Main Section, you can change basic Kadabra settings like visuals, Auto-Save, and safety frames.
In the Setuper Thumb 1 Section, hold Thumb 1 to access System Performance Combi functions. Different threads are controlling different actions, they can be calibrated for your specific usage
In the Setuper Thumb 2 Section, hold Thumb 2 to access Kadabra Calibration Combi functions.
The functions you choose here to perform, are BURNING your Kadabra's brain to be more accurate for your usual environment, your specific needs and the delicate chip placing that every electronic equipment has, but can be important to calibrate in a musical instrument.
a placeholder for future features.
No Combi details listed yet for this section.
Motion control, PRS, and other sensor features.
Senser calibrates and assigns Kadabra sensors. The Motion sensor has 6 Axis directions, each with its own MIDI CC value when active.
Each Motion Axis has a base starting point. Use Senser to decide what each active Axis controls.
In the Senser Main Section, you can use Combis 1, 2 and 3, or 5, 6, and 7 to send a Midi Control Change (cc message) of a Motion Axis for MIDI Learn Plugins connection.
Combi 8, can create a base position snap to calibrate a specific wanted starting Motion position for the Active Sound
Combis 9, 10 and 11 are there to assign the Pitchbend to an axis and Combi 12 removes it from any axis
Holding Thumb 1 in the Senser Shape, lets you assign a specific Motion Axis to control the Viber speed
Holding Thumb 2 in the Senser Shape, lets you assign a specific Motion Axis to control the Viber Gate
Holding Thumb 3 in the Senser Shape, lets you assign a PB to Motion Axis
• Smart: each full-release of ALL the Keyboard keys, resets the PB in the next Key play (default)
• Normal: PB is always active and dynamic when PB is assigned to a Motion axis
• Enabled: Kadabra is scanning the Magnetometer sensor, sends its data to the OS and sends its Midi values
• Disabled: Kadabra's Motion is more quick and data is thinner, good in case of Midi over-data (default)
Make your own Shape from all Shapes.
Master is your own preset palette Shape. Its Combis can launch functions assigned from other Shapes, giving up to 48 optional Master Combis across Main, Thumb 1, Thumb 2, and Thumb 3.
Master has four Combi banks: Main, Thumb 1, Thumb 2, and Thumb 3. Each Thumb Bank works exactly like Master’s Main Section, but gives a different set of 12 assigned Combis.
The Master Shape's Main Section is just like the Thumbs sections, you can use the 12 Combis (without holding any Thumb), to launch a Shape-Specific function from any of Kadabra's shapes and functions.
In Master, Thumb 1, Thumb 2, and Thumb 3 are Preset Banks. Each Thumb Bank works exactly as in Master Shape’s Main Section.
No separate Combi details are listed because each Master Thumb Bank follows the Main Section behavior.
Control Tempo and rhythmic structure.
Temper manages Rhythm, Tempo and Beat structure. Its dedicated Kadabra switch can work as Tap Tempo, Play / Stop for the Looper, Record for the Looper, Open Temper, or Motion Swing control.
Temper Main Section can change rhythmic Beat Structure. When the structure changes, Looper lines change immediately to the new structure and the Arp structure changes too.
The Temper Main Section, has many tempo related switches to spice up or solidify a rhythm structure, a rhythmic swing, fast Looper actions or control the Sequence's note inversion.
Holding Temper's Thumb 1, lets you assign a different fast action to the Temper button:
Holding Temper's Thumb 2, lets you change the BPM (Beat-Per-Minute), meaning the speed of the Tempo:
Temper Thumb 3 Section is empty.
No Combi details listed yet for this section.
The sound of Kadabra: up to 24 channels of VST3 instruments and effects, two DJ decks, a timeline, a production mix and a recorder, all on one master tempo.
~/Music/Tribal-Tools/K-Player.| Band | What is there |
|---|---|
| Top bar | The Tribal Tools and Kadabra logos, K-Player and its version · LINK-KADABRA · SAVE · LOAD · PERFORM | EDIT · MIDI PORT: box · MIDI button · Audio button. |
| Top section, left | TONE / SCALE of what is playing, and under it the four page tabs: PLAYER · DJ-DECK · ARRANGER · PRODUCER, each with its ON / OFF chip. |
| Top section, middle | MASTER BPM with its + / - arrows, then the TRANSPORT: TRACKS · RECORD · PLAY · the sync button (NO SYNC / SYNC IN / SYNC OUT) · TAP. |
| Top section, right | SYSTEM: DSP load, drawing time, MIDI time, the MIDI IN / MIDI OUT lamps. |
| The page | Whichever tab is lit. One page at a time. |
| Right edge, every page | BUS 1 (DELAY), BUS 2 (REVERB) and the MASTER strip. Above the buses: the - + n channels control (PLAYER and ARRANGER) or the SHOW box with DJ-EQ and STEMIX under it (DJ-DECK). |
| Bottom | The hint line, under every page: what the thing under the pointer does. Just above it, a toast that says what just happened (about 6 seconds), and sometimes an amber notice box: click anywhere to dismiss it. |
Everything about this is in The Kadabra OS link below.
| PERFORM | EDIT | |
|---|---|---|
| A track is analysed by itself when loaded | never | yes, with AUTO on (DJ-DECK) |
| DETECT (asking for an analysis) | works | works |
| MIDI and B buttons on PLAYER and BUS insert boxes | hidden | shown |
| Remove, bypass from the menu, or change a plug-in; remove a channel | refused: a toast says to switch to EDIT | right-click menu |
| Drag a channel to a new place, drag a plug-in onto another box | locked | yes |
| CC badges (bus parameters, sends, stems) | hidden | shown |
| Load or new session with unsaved changes | never asks | asks to save first |
| Autosave | never | yes |
| Quitting with unsaved changes | asks in both modes: Save / Don't Save / Cancel | |
Leaving EDIT saves every marker and autosaves the session. A session remembers the mode it was saved in. Markers save themselves about a second after any change, in both modes.
The line along the bottom of the window says what the thing under the pointer does, how to use it, and what a right-click does there. With nothing under the pointer it reads Point at anything to see what it does.
What a K-Player build puts in the app (Mac) and in the installer (Windows):
| Part | What it is |
|---|---|
| K-Player | The program, with its own audio engine. |
| Helper programs | The plug-in tester, which tries each plug-in in a program of its own so a plug-in that crashes cannot take K-Player down, and the STEM TRAINER's tools (they measure instruments, build datasets and grade stems models). |
| The Pool Engine | A trained stems model: MEDIUM size, 182 epochs, about 16 MB. At the first start, if you have no model of your own, it is installed as yours (stemtrain/model/stems.kmodel in the data folder). The NEURAL stems engine then works from the first day, and the STEM TRAINER trains on from it. A model you already have is never replaced. |
| The MIDI map | As a PDF beside the program (K-Player-Manual.pdf, inside the app on a Mac). |
| Licence notices | For K-Player and the parts it is built on. |
Not included: no tracks and no stems, no plug-ins (K-Sampler, K-Synth, K-Kick and Surge XT are installed on their own), and no factory session. The factory session is a file another installer may put at /Library/Application Support/Tribal-Tools/K-Player/starter.kplayer (Windows: %ProgramData%\Tribal-Tools\K-Player\starter.kplayer). Without it, the first start is a new session with DECK A and DECK B only.
The stems engine is K-Player DSP - Electronic at first. To use the Pool Engine, choose K-Player NEURAL - your trained model in Audio Settings ▸ Stems.
The mixer of your sounds: one channel strip per channel, up to 24. Each strip has its MIDI IN, side-chain, an instrument (on MIDI channels), three effect inserts, sends to the two buses, fader, pan, MUTE / SOLO, ARM and CUE. The first two strips are DECK A and DECK B.
Two decks, DECK A and DECK B, with a mixer between them: waveforms, cue, stretch, the key and tempo DETECTION with its markers, LOOP (beat repeat), each deck's K-SAMPLER box, STEMS, the crossfader and the MIX RUNNER.
The performance timeline: one lane per channel, with audio clips and MIDI pieces (edited in the MIDI editor), the bar grid, PATTERNS for the Kadabra LOOPER, BEAT-MIX, stem automation, AUDIO TO MIDI and EXPORT TO PRODUCER. Lane n here is channel n on the PLAYER.
The production timeline: every recorded audio take lands here, on 16 audio lanes with their own faders and inserts, summed through a MASTERING chain. Mark an area on the ruler and EXPORT it to a 24-bit WAV.
The tabs sit at the bottom-left of the top section, left to right: PLAYER · DJ-DECK · ARRANGER · PRODUCER. Click a tab to show its page, or press TAB for the next page and SHIFT+TAB for the one before. The lit tab is the page on screen; a page that is OFF has its name greyed.
.kplayer file.~/Music/Tribal-Tools/K-Player/datadir.txt in a text editor.At the left: the Tribal Tools mark, the Kadabra logo, K-Player and its version, like 1.2.1 (n): the release, then the build number in brackets. The window's title shows the same. A * or an amber number means a test build. Quote this number when you report a problem. In a narrow window the logos go first.
A switch, green when on (it reads LINK in a narrow window; older builds called it AUTO-ALIGN KADABRA). While it is on, every time the deck being heard plays into a new key point, K-Player sends that point's tone, scale and harmony to the Kadabra, so the Scaler and Harmoner follow the record. Turning it on sends the key in force at once, if a deck is playing. Off by default.
How it decides and what it sends: The Kadabra OS link below. See also
session.kplayer (then session 2, session 3 …) in the data folder, and works on that from then on..kplayer session (older .kdj files open too). In EDIT it first asks about unsaved changes; in PERFORM it never asks. If an autosave.kplayer is in the folder, the dialog points at it.Two halves: click the one you want. PERFORM lights green, EDIT lights amber. In a narrow window it is one button showing the mode now; a click changes it. What changes between the two: At a glance ▸ PERFORM vs EDIT.
The box after MIDI PORT: shows the MIDI input K-Player listens to, with a green frame while it is open and a green dot while messages arrive. Click it for the list: RESCAN PORTS (reads the ports again; the list stays open), (none), then every MIDI input on the computer. Ports may come and go while K-Player runs.
MIDI (with the five-pin socket) opens MIDI Settings; Audio (with the gear) opens Audio Settings. Each is lit green while its window is open. Both windows are described under Settings windows.
| Menu | Items |
|---|---|
| K-Player (Mac) | About K-Player (version, build, commit, date, a tribal-tools.com button) · Settings… ⌘, (opens General settings) · Quit ⌘Q, which asks about unsaved changes in any mode. |
| File | New ⌘N · Open… ⌘O · Open Recent ▸ (the last 20 sessions that still exist, and Clear Menu) · Factory Session (back to the read-only starting session) · Save ⌘S · Save As… ⇧⌘S. |
| Settings | General… (language, start page, text size) · Audio Output ▸: only for the simple Java engine K-Player falls back on when its own engine is missing. Normally use the Audio button. |
| Help | Documentation… opens this manual online. On Windows, About K-Player… is here too. |
On Windows the shortcuts use CTRL where the Mac uses ⌘. Closing the main window is the same as Quit.
Read-only, at the top-left. The big letter is the tone in its Kadabra colour, then the scale, then the harmony (H1, H2 …) and its chord. It shows -- when no key is known. It comes from the key point in force on the deck being heard, or from the Kadabra itself: then FROM THE KADABRA appears after it.
To the right runs the tone change line: every tone the loaded track passes through, in order, the one in force in gold.
One tempo drives the whole program, and every VST3 plug-in on every channel follows it: a synced delay, an arpeggiator or K-Sampler's beat repeat all keep to it. The clock never stops; a tempo change is a change of speed, never a jump. The box flashes green on every beat, and the meter (4/4) of the playing track sits on its caption line. A new session starts at 120.
| Word beside the number | Who sets the tempo | What + / - do |
|---|---|---|
| MIDI CLOCK | an incoming clock (SYNC IN) | nothing: they go dim |
| deck A / deck B | the playing deck (its BPM × its stretch) | nudge that deck ±1 BPM |
| arrangement | the clip under the ARRANGER's playhead, while it plays | no lasting effect: the clip's tempo rules (use BEAT-MIX to set it) |
| BEAT-MIX | you; the whole ARRANGER follows | set it, 1 BPM a click |
| by hand | you; nothing is playing | set it, 20 to 400; it stays where you leave it |
When a deck stops, the tempo stays where it was. When the clock stops or SYNC IN is switched off, the tempo you had before comes back.
When the window is narrow these buttons get smaller, down to 70 %, so none disappears.
When there is little room the two stack in one column.
Read-only, at the top-right:
Every channel's DLY and RVB sends feed these two buses. The sound goes: sends → the bus's plug-in insert → its built-in effect → its fader. A bus is a full channel: it can be recorded and cued. A bus cannot send to a bus.
| Row | What it does |
|---|---|
| BUS 1 / BUS 2 | The name. |
| MIDI IN box | The MIDI channel the bus listens to: - (none), 1 … 16 or omni. Click for the list; right-click = none. A yellow dot flashes on notes. Notes reach the bus's plug-in, and on BUS 1 they tune the delay (see TUNE). Its CC badges answer on this channel only. |
| + insert 1 | One plug-in box, before the effect: a saturator or filter shaping what goes in. |
| DELAY / REVERB | The built-in effect: click to switch it on (green) or off. Off at first. |
| Parameter rows | Shown while the effect is on. Drag a row to set it; the value shows while the pointer is on it. |
| TUNE | BUS 1 only, under its rows. |
| Fader + two meters | The return level. Right-click = 0 dB. |
| Pan bar | Drag; right-click = centre. |
| M · S | Mute and solo of the bus. |
| ARM · CUE | ARM records the bus (reads REC during a take). CUE puts the bus in the headphones, before its fader. |
The DELAY is a frequency-shifting delay: each echo can come back shifted by SHIFT Hz, bending further from the original each time. At SHIFT 0 it is a plain delay.
| DELAY row | Range · start value | REVERB row | Range · start value |
|---|---|---|---|
| SHIFT | −1000 … +1000 Hz · 0 | SIZE | 0 … 1 · 0.72 |
| TIME | 1 … 1000 ms · 80 | DAMP | 0 … 1 · 0.35 |
| FDBK | 0 … 0.98 · 0.50 | WIDTH | 0 … 1 · 1.00 |
| MOD RT | 0.01 … 10 Hz | PRE | 0 … 100 ms · 12 |
| MOD DP | 0 … 1 · 0.20 | LOW CUT | 20 … 1000 Hz · 120 |
| SPREAD | 0 … 1 · 0 |
With TUNE on, the delay's shift becomes a musical interval above a root note, so the echoes stay in the key. It reads TUNE +7 (a fifth, the start value) and, at its right, the root.
In EDIT a small CC badge sits at the right end of each bus parameter row. Click it for a grid of all 128 CC numbers (BUS 1 FDBK on MIDI CC): click a number, or LEARN to take the next CC that arrives; NONE clears, CLOSE closes. Right-click the badge to clear it. CC 21 – 29 are tinted: they are the Kadabra's motion axes.
A binding answers only on that bus's own MIDI channel. A bus with no MIDI channel hears none, and the grid says so in orange.
Everything leaves through here, on every page. Top to bottom, in the order the sound goes:
From MIDI: CC 31 on the mixer's MIDI channel moves the fader, CC 104 on channel 16 arms it, and SysEx can set its volume, pan, bypass, ARM and CUE (see MIDI control).
| Channel | Files | Where it lands |
|---|---|---|
| AUDIO channel, deck, bus | .wav | the PRODUCER |
| MIDI channel | .wav (what its instrument made) and .mid (what was played) | the sound on the PRODUCER; the notes as a MIDI piece on its ARRANGER lane |
| MASTER | .wav and .mid | the PRODUCER, first and muted when its parts are there too |
Each new take goes after the last one, never over it: on the PRODUCER with a small gap, on the ARRANGER one empty bar later. A channel that stayed silent is left out. A toast says what went where. A channel's sound is taken before its fader, so a take is full level even with the fader down; the MASTER is taken after everything.
Each take makes its own folder in the recording folder: session 1, session 2 … one past the highest number already there, so a new take never writes over an old one.
All files of a take start and end together. A channel armed at 3:20 still gets a file that begins at 0:00, with 3:20 of exact silence in front. So the whole folder can be dropped on the ARRANGER at bar one and everything lines up. The files are kept playable while the take runs, so a crash does not lose it.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| ADD FOLDER… | Adds every track in a folder and its sub-folders (the same folder twice adds nothing twice). Dragging files or folders into the window does the same. |
| REFRESH · SCAN data/ | Takes in what K-Player learned meanwhile · adds every audio file in K-Player's data folder. |
| REMOVE MISSING (n) | Shown when files are gone: takes them off the list. |
| TRASH ORPHAN STEMS (n) | Shown when there are stems whose track is not in the list: moves them to the Trash. |
| SEARCH | Just start typing (name, tone or scale). BACKSPACE deletes, ESC clears, ENTER loads the first track shown into DECK A. |
| BPM · TONE · clear | BPM: any → the master BPM ±3 → ±6 → ±12 → any. TONE: C … B, then any. clear resets search and both filters. |
| Columns | STAR · TRACK · LENGTH · BPM · TONE · SCALE: click a header to sort, again to reverse. Starred rows stay on top. Click at the left of a name to star it. A grey name is not analysed yet; missing in red means the file is gone. |
| The tree | Folders are rows: click to fold or open. A track with stems on the disk opens its KICK / BASS / DRUMS / TONAL rows under it when clicked. |
| A track row | Point at it for A / B (load that deck). Click it to select it (then a click on an empty ARRANGER lane places it). Drag it onto a deck or a lane. |
| Right-click a track | Open Folder Location · Remove from list (the file stays) · Detect (analyses it, in PERFORM too) · More info (a line listing its markers) · Make stems / Remake stems. |
| Right-click a folder | Open Folder Location · Remove its missing files. |
The list is kept in library.tsv and backed up before each use; an empty list is never written over a full one. Files dropped on the main window outside a deck or lane also join the list.
The line at the bottom is the window's hint line. With nothing under the pointer it reads Type to search - A / B loads a deck, or drag a row onto one - right-click a row for its menu.
Every place a plug-in goes is a box: a channel's instrument box and three insert boxes, a deck's inserts and its K-SAMPLER box, a bus's insert, the MASTER's three inserts, the PRODUCER's lanes and its MASTERING chain. They all work the same:
The Plugins window opens from an empty box (or Change…) and says where the choice goes: insert into … · slot 2, … · INSTRUMENT, or replace X in ….
It scans /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3 and ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3 on a Mac, the Common Files VST3 folders on Windows.
Every plug-in has its own window, titled for its place: K-Player - Channel 3 - Instrument, K-Player - Deck A - Insert 2, … - Sampler A - …, … - Bus 1 - …, … - Master - …, … - Producer lane 2 - …. Opening one that is already open brings that window to the front; closing one leaves the others open. A plug-in's window moves along when a CC or program change moves it, so you see what the Kadabra changes.
Click MIDI on a loaded box. The panel lists channel slot n : plug-in with PLUGIN GUI (its window) and close, a BYPASS button with its own CC chip, then one row per parameter: the name, a bar you can drag, the value and a CC chip [-] CC nn [+].
Bindings are saved in the session. A learned CC wins over K-Player's built-in meaning of that number. This is how a Kadabra combi or motion axis reaches any knob of any plug-in.
Closing TRACKS, Plugins, the settings windows or the STEM TRAINER only hides it: it comes back at once, as you left it, and costs nothing while hidden. ESC never closes a window. Closing the main window quits K-Player (it asks about unsaved changes).
Open with Settings ▸ General… (on a Mac also ⌘,). Every choice is kept for the next start. Like every settings window, it has a hint line at its bottom.
| Row | What it sets |
|---|---|
| LANGUAGE ▸ Language | The screen's language: English, עברית, العربية, Français, Español, Português, हिन्दी, 中文, 한국어. Each is listed in its own script. Hebrew and Arabic read right-to-left inside their boxes; the layout stays. A word with no translation shows in English. The menus and window titles change too. |
| K-Sampler, K-Synth | THE SAME LANGUAGE: ON / OFF (OFF at first). ON writes the language into K-Sampler's and K-Synth's own settings each time you choose one. K-Sampler takes it the next time it starts (in K-Player: the next time K-Player starts). |
| K-PLAYER OPENS WITH ▸ Page | The page shown when K-Player starts (PLAYER at first). |
| K-PLAYER OPENS WITH ▸ DJ-DECK | DECKS ONLY or MIX RUNNER, at start and in a new session. A session you open later shows what it was saved with. |
| TEXT ▸ Text size | Normal, Larger (110%), Large (125%), Very large (140%), Huge (160%): the text of every window. The pages keep their layout, so the biggest sizes may not fit everywhere. |
| Row | What it sets |
|---|---|
| MIDI IN ▸ Port · RESCAN | The input port (the same as the top bar's MIDI PORT) and a rescan; n ports connected right now. |
| Auto-Select | KADABRA PORT: ON (the default): a port named Kadabra is taken the moment it appears, so Kadabra OS can start whenever you like. Choosing a port that is not a Kadabra port here turns it OFF; then K-Player stays on your port and takes it back if it comes and goes. |
| KADABRA ▸ Send to · CH n | Where K-Player talks to the Kadabra: the key, scale and harmony, the LOOPER doorbell and SYNC OUT's clock. (auto: a port named Kadabra) by default, channel 1 (click CH for the list). |
| CLOCK ▸ Sync | NO SYNC / SYNC IN / SYNC OUT: the same as the top section's button. |
| DRAWING ▸ Panels | EACH FRAME or ONCE, COPIED (the default): the strips look the same either way; ONCE, COPIED draws less. |
| WHAT IS COMING IN | The last six MIDI messages, newest on top: notes, CCs, program and bank changes, SysEx, where each went and how long ago. The best place to see whether a message reached anything. |
The last line says MIDI: live when ports may come and go. If it says Java Sound, a port added later needs a restart.
| Row | What it sets |
|---|---|
| INPUT ▸ INPUT · Level | The audio input device (microphones and instruments for AUDIO IN, the INPUT strip, MIC-REC), with a live level gauge. |
| OUTPUTS ▸ MIX · CUE | The main output and the headphone output. A device with more than two outputs is listed once per pair (… : out 3-4). Each has a TEST TONE (it reads TONE ON while sounding). |
| Sample rate | 44100 … 192000 Hz. |
| Audio buffer size | 16 … 4096 samples, each shown in ms (256 samples at 48 kHz = 5.3 ms). Smaller = less delay, more work. |
| Pitch engine | Signalsmith Stretch (the default: tempo and key move separately, about 60 ms of delay while in use) or Tribal Stretch (vari-speed: changing tempo changes pitch, no added delay). |
| Pad voices | 8 … 64 (16 at first): the old sample pads that may sound at once over both decks. |
| Kadabra · CH · TEST | The same out port as MIDI Settings; CH steps with a click (right-click back); TEST sends the selected key now. |
| Degree | ON / OFF and what to listen to: MASTER, DECK A, DECK B or INPUT. With LINK-KADABRA on, a confident chord change is sent as HARMONY. |
| Auto-Stop | Auto-Stop Recording in Silence of: 15 seconds … 10 minutes, or never. |
| Stems · TRAINING | The stem engine: OFF (no stem row on the decks), K-Player DSP (Electronic, Band / Live, Acoustic (no kick), Fast draft) or K-Player NEURAL - your trained model. TRAINING opens the STEM TRAINER. |
| Focus | For the NEURAL engine: 1 (as the model gives them) to 3 (tightest). Stems already made stay as they are. |
| Detection | The DETECTION LEVEL, 1 (BPM and key only) to 10 (everything heard); 6 at first. How many of a track's markers are in force. |
| Markers | AS DETECTED (the default) or APPROVED ONLY. |
| APPLY | Restarts the audio at the rate and buffer above; dim when nothing changed. The last line reports the engine's real latency. |
The window scrolls (wheel, or the bar at its right edge) when the screen is shorter than it. Detection and markers:
K-Player can split a track into four stems: KICK, BASS, DRUMS and TONAL (everything else). The STEM TRAINER teaches its NEURAL stem engine on songs you have as separate channels. It is a studio tool, not for a show.
The small beta code... box at the top right is for invited testers.
Left: the list of SONGS (name, channels, minutes; a problem shows in amber) under + ADD A SONG. Right: four big boxes, one per part.
| Box | What may be in it |
|---|---|
| 1 KICK | Only the kick drum: no bass, snare, hats, or shared reverb. |
| 2 BASS | Only the bass line and its sub (low toms that play the bass line belong here). |
| 3 DRUMS | Every drum and percussion except the kick. |
| 4 TONAL | Everything else: synths, pads, leads, keys, guitars, vocals, effects. |
It refuses, and says why: a file in two boxes, files of different lengths or sample rates, a single box, or a song already in the set. Every file must be exported from the very start of the song (WAV, AIFF, FLAC or MP3). Your files stay where they are.
Click a song to see its CHANNELS, each with a class chip: click to cycle KICK → BASS → DRUMS → TONAL → -- out --, right-click back. At the bottom: RE-CHECK reads every file again; REMOVE takes the selected song out of the set (the files are not touched).
Cuts the songs into four pools of short pieces, one per class. Left (BUILD): click a value to step it, right-click to go back: piece length, a piece every, channels (MONO / STEREO), sample rate, held back (songs kept out, to score with), silence floor, stop at (a disk limit). It shows the size it may take, then BUILD (or BUILD MORE, which adds only new songs; STOP while it runs).
Right (THE POOL): what is built, with LISTEN TO 8 and OPEN FOLDER. Everything here is made from your files and can be built again.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| model size | SMALL (an evening's first look), MEDIUM (a night, the start value), LARGE (a week-end). Click to step, right-click back. |
| epochs · stop after | 5 … 200 passes over the pool (20 at first) · 1 … 24 hours or no limit (8 h at first); whichever comes first. |
| START / STOP | Trains in the background with a progress bar. STOP keeps what it has; START carries on from it. It needs a pool (DATASET ▸ BUILD first). |
| THE RUN | Epoch, step, time left, and how much better than no model it is. |
| THE MODEL K-PLAYER USES | Its size, epochs and date. It is used when Audio Settings ▸ Stems is K-Player NEURAL. |
| MERGE MODELS FROM A FOLDER... · SHOW THE MODEL FILE | Average in models trained further on other computers · show the file to send to someone. |
| MEASURE | Scores the model on songs it never learned from, stem by stem, and keeps each result to compare. |
| REVERT TO PREVIOUS | Brings back the model from before the last START, MERGE or download; press again to undo. Not while training runs. |
On the TRAIN tab, under YOUR TRACKS STAY YOURS: SERVER... and YOUR NAME..., then SEND MY MODEL (numbers only, no sound). CHECK shows its grade; an accepted model gets a key, and GET THE POOL ENGINE installs the community's model (yours is kept aside). With no server set, SAVE IT AS A FILE... saves the model to send by hand.
Each K-Player release also comes with a Pool Engine of its own: a computer with no model starts from it at the first start, and trains on from there (see What comes with K-Player).
F0 7D 4B 50 …) sets the MASTER, starts and stops recording, saves and loads sessions, names channels, sets the key, the PATTERN length and the sync, and can quit K-Player. The table is under MIDI control.The Kadabra can always set K-Player's tone, scale and harmony by SysEx (40 TONE, 41 SCALE, 42 HARMONY), whether LINK-KADABRA is on or off. 43 switches LINK-KADABRA itself (0 off, 1 on, 2 toggle).
43 0 and your own TONE and SCALE to take over; later 43 1 gives the key back to the decks.A pattern of a MIDI piece (N bars of the song, 4 by default) goes to the Kadabra's LOOPER in one click: TO LOOPER n in the MIDI editor, LOOPER n on a piece on the ARRANGER, or the piece's menu Send pattern n to the Kadabra LOOPER.
K-Player writes the pattern as ~/Music/Tribal-Tools/Kadabra-Link/looper.mid, then rings the Kadabra with one FILE READY frame on the Kadabra port. The Kadabra sets the pattern length with SysEx 60 (1 … 64 bars).
SysEx 30 SAVE SESSION and 31 LOAD SESSION take a BANK SET (1 … 12), a SET (1 … 8) and a STATE name, the way the Kadabra counts them. BANK SET 3, SET 6, Rocking is the file sessions/03/User 6/Rocking.kplayer in K-Player's data folder. Saving the same name replaces it. LOAD in EDIT with unsaved changes asks on the screen first.
Apart from K-Player's own map, a channel's plug-ins hear the MIDI sent to that channel's MIDI channel:
A CC moves whatever parameter the plug-in itself gives that CC. For a plug-in that gives none, use the parameter panel's learn. A message on MIDI channel 1 never reaches channel 2's plug-ins.
| Scope | MIDI channel | Drives |
|---|---|---|
| deck | the deck's own (CH 1 / CH 2 at first) | its transport, EQ, fader, sends, pads |
| mixer | the INPUT strip's CH (3 at first) | the INPUT strip, the MASTER fader, the FX controls |
| channel | a channel's own MIDI IN | that channel's ARM |
| CH 16 | always 16 | RECORD, and ARM for the MASTER |
| any | any channel | the crossfader and the headphone level |
So one CC number means different things on different channels. A button acts at 64 and up; a fader uses 0 – 127; a switch is on at 64 and up and off below, so the screen and the controller always agree.
| CC | Type | Scope | Control |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | fader | any | Crossfader, 0 = deck A, 127 = deck B |
| 7 | fader | deck | Fader of the deck listening on that MIDI channel |
| 9 | fader | any | Headphone (PFL) level |
| 14 / 15 | fader | deck | Bend slower / faster, by pressure |
| 20 | fader | mixer | INPUT channel fader |
| 30 | button | mixer | Mute the INPUT channel |
| 31 | button · fader | deck · mixer | deck: this deck's pads through the INPUT inserts · mixer: MASTER fader |
| 40 – 51 | button | deck | Beat repeat: 4, 2, 1, 1/2 bars; 1/4, 3/16, 1/8, 1/12, 1/16, 1/24, 1/32, 1/64 of a bar |
| 70 | button | deck | Play / pause |
| 71 | button | deck | CUE: hold to preview from the cue point |
| 72 | button | deck | Headphone cue on / off |
| 73 | button | deck | Mute |
| 74 | fader | deck | Fader |
| 75 | fader | deck | Pan, 64 = centre |
| 76 / 77 / 78 | fader | deck | EQ high / mid / low, 64 = 0 dB |
| 79 | fader | deck | Vari-speed, 64 = 1.00× |
| 80 | button | deck | Match this deck to the master BPM |
| 81 / 82 | button | deck | Nudge this deck +1 / −1 BPM |
| 83 / 85 | button | deck | Transpose this deck +1 / −1 semitone |
| 84 | switch | channel | ARM the channel listening on that MIDI channel |
| 86 / 87 | button | deck | Auto-Fill on / off · MIC-REC arm on / off (the old pads) |
| 88 | button | mixer | Show / hide the EQ knobs |
| 89 | button | deck | Cancel beat repeat |
| 90 | fader | deck · mixer | Send to the DELAY (this deck · the INPUT) |
| 102 | switch · fader | CH 16 · mixer | CH 16: RECORD (64 and up starts, below stops) · mixer: FX control |
| 103 | button | mixer | Ducker: compressor or gate |
| 104 | switch · button | CH 16 · mixer | CH 16: ARM the MASTER · mixer: what the ducker turns down |
| 105 | fader | mixer | The INPUT's send to the ducker's key |
| 110 | fader | deck | This deck's pad group, 1 … 11 |
| 111 | fader | deck · mixer | Send to the REVERB (this deck · the INPUT) |
| 112 / 113 | fader · button | deck · mixer | deck: its pads to the DELAY / REVERB · mixer: FX select / on-off |
| 114 / 115 | fader | deck · mixer | deck: its ARRANGER lane to the DELAY / REVERB · mixer: FX controls |
| 116 – 119 | fader | deck · mixer | 116 deck: this deck to the ducker's key · mixer: FX controls |
Anything you assign wins over the built-in table for that number until you clear it. Assignments are saved in the session.
Every message is F0 7D 4B 50 <command> <data…> F7 on the MIDI IN port. A switch is 0 off, 1 on, 2 toggle. A channel number is its place on the PLAYER page (1 = DECK A, 2 = DECK B, 3 = the first channel). Every SysEx shows in WHAT IS COMING IN, with what K-Player did.
| Command | Name | Data · meaning |
|---|---|---|
01 | MASTER ARM | switch |
02 | MASTER VOLUME | two bytes, 0 … 16383; 13107 is 0 dB |
03 | MASTER PAN | two bytes; 8192 is centre |
04 | MASTER VST BYPASS | slot 1 … 3, then 0 plays, 1 bypassed, 2 toggle |
05 | MASTER CUE | switch: the whole mix in the headphones |
10 | MIDI SYNC | 0 NO SYNC, 1 SYNC IN, 2 SYNC OUT |
20 / 21 | RECORD START / STOP | (none) |
30 / 31 | SAVE / LOAD SESSION | bank set, set, state name (see Sessions by BANK SET) |
40 / 41 / 42 | TONE / SCALE / HARMONY | tonic 0 … 11 · the Kadabra's scale number · degree from 0 |
43 | LINK-KADABRA | switch |
50 / 51 | CHANNEL NAME / ALL CHANNEL NAMES | a channel and its name · every name, each ended by 00 (any language) |
60 | PATTERN LENGTH | bars, 1 … 64 |
70 | QUIT | 0 (or nothing): as ⌘Q, asking first · 1 saves first · 2 quits without saving |
| Key / gesture | Does |
|---|---|
| TAB / SHIFT+TAB | Next / previous page, in tab order: PLAYER → DJ-DECK → ARRANGER → PRODUCER. |
| SHIFT+SPACE | The transport's PLAY / STOP, from any page (plain SPACE does nothing). |
| ↑ ↓ (and ← → on the PLAYER) | Step the selected channel, on the PLAYER and the ARRANGER (one selection for both). |
| M · S · C · R | Mute · solo · CUE · ARM the selected channel (PLAYER and ARRANGER). |
| ESC | Closes an open list, menu, CC grid or the NOTE FILTER's keys. Never closes a window or the program. |
| ⌘N · ⌘O · ⌘S · ⇧⌘S · ⌘, · ⌘Q | New · Open · Save · Save As · General settings · Quit (CTRL on Windows). |
| TRACKS window: type · ENTER · ESC | Search · load the first track into DECK A · clear the search. |
| Right-click | Resets a fader or pan, clears a drop-list box, steps a cycling button backwards, or opens a menu. |
| Wheel | Scrolls lists, panels and the DJ-DECK's rows; zooms waveforms and timelines (see each page). |
| Drag | Faders, bars and pans; plug-in boxes onto other boxes (EDIT); TRACKS rows onto decks and lanes; files from the Finder or Explorer onto a deck, a lane, or the window (they join TRACKS). |
A session is one text file, .kplayer. It keeps the decks and their tracks, the mixer (DJ-EQ or STEMIX too), every channel (name, kind, order, MIDI IN and its NOTE FILTER, inputs, side-chain source, ARM you set, CUE), the buses and the MASTER, every plug-in with its full state, the CC assignments, the ARRANGER (clips, MIDI pieces, PATTERN, stem automation), the PRODUCER's takes, the mode, the audio devices, the Kadabra out port and channel, and the recording folder.
It does not keep which MIDI input was open: that belongs to the computer it is played on.
autosave.kplayer in the data folder when it has none). It writes a temporary file first, so a crash never leaves half a file.Everything lives in ~/Music/Tribal-Tools/K-Player (Windows: %USERPROFILE%\Music\Tribal-Tools\K-Player). Data from older versions (~/Music/K-Player, ~/Music/K-DJer) is moved in by itself. One line in datadir.txt there moves it all to another disk.
| Inside | What |
|---|---|
markers/ | Each analysed track's markers, approved and edited ones too. |
peaks/ · stems/ | Waveform overviews · the stems made of each track. |
stemtrain/ | The STEM TRAINER's set, pools and model (stemtrain/model/stems.kmodel). |
library.tsv (+ .bak) | The TRACKS list. |
plugins.tsv | The plug-in list, favourites and blacklist. Delete it (K-Player closed) to force a full rescan. |
kplayer-prefs.txt | Settings that are not in a session: language, text size, last and recent sessions, MIDI choices, detection level. Delete it to go back to the defaults. |
autosave.kplayer · session.kplayer … | The autosave of a session with no file · your copies of the factory session. |
sessions/ | Sessions saved by SysEx (03/User 6/Rocking.kplayer). |
padsA/ · padsB/ | The old sample pads of each deck. |
/Library/Application Support/Tribal-Tools/K-Player/starter.kplayer (Windows: %ProgramData%\Tribal-Tools\K-Player\starter.kplayer), put there by the installer.session n folder per take. The PRODUCER's EXPORT writes into its exports folder.~/Music/Tribal-Tools/Kadabra-Link/looper.mid./tmp/kdj-faults.log (Windows: %TEMP%\kdj-faults.log): useful in a bug report.One channel strip per channel, up to 24: what each channel listens to, what plays it, its effects, its sends and its fader.
| Area | What is there |
|---|---|
| The strips | One strip per channel, starting with 01 at the left. All the strips that fit are shown. When there are more, a scroll bar appears under them (channels 1-8 of 15): drag it, click it, or turn the mouse wheel anywhere on the page. |
| The empty page | The room to the right of the last strip. Right-click it to add a channel: Add a MIDI channel, Add an Audio channel, Add a Special channel. |
| - + n channels | Above the two bus strips. It shows or hides channels, from 2 to 24. It is the same count as the ARRANGER's lanes. |
| BUS 1 · BUS 2 · MASTER | Always at the right, on every page. See |
| Lists and panels | The MIDI IN, SIDE-CHAIN and AUDIO INPUT lists, and the NOTE FILTER's keys, open over the strips. The SIDE-CHAIN panel opens at the right of its strip. ESC or a click outside closes a list. |
| The hint line | Along the bottom of the window. Point at any part of a strip and it says what it does and what a right-click does there. |
| Row | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Number and name | 01 is the strip's position: it changes when strips move. The name belongs to the channel (Electro-Drums). A channel with no name shows ch and a number. The number is also the strip's select button. |
| Kind chip | MIDI (violet), AUDIO (blue) or SPECIAL (amber): what kind of channel it is. |
| MIDI IN · SC | Left box: the MIDI channel the strip listens to (5, omni, or - for none). A yellow dot flashes when a note or a control arrives. A red triangle means its NOTE FILTER holds some notes back. Right box: the SIDE-CHAIN, the channel that turns this one down (SC means none). |
| Source row | What makes the sound: + Instrument on a MIDI channel, AUDIO IN on an AUDIO channel and on the deck strips, nothing on a SPECIAL channel. |
| insert 1 · 2 · 3 | Three effect boxes, used in that order. An empty one reads + insert 1. |
| DLY · RVB | The sends to BUS 1 (the delay) and BUS 2 (the reverb). |
| Fader and meter | The level in dB on the fader's cap, and a meter with its scale (+6 to −60). Above the meter: mono, or L R when the sound is stereo. |
| PAN | C in the centre, L35, R100 … |
| MUTE · SOLO | Shown as M and S on a narrow strip. |
| ARM · CUE | ARM for recording, CUE for the headphones. |
| Kind | Where its sound comes from |
|---|---|
| MIDI | Its instrument. The instrument plays the notes on the strip's MIDI IN channel and the MIDI pieces on its ARRANGER lane. A new channel is MIDI. |
| AUDIO | Its AUDIO IN (a deck, or an input of your audio interface), plus the clips on its ARRANGER lane while the ARRANGER plays. A channel that gets an audio file on its lane becomes AUDIO. |
| SPECIAL | Kept for the Kadabra's own data (states, scale and key changes, motion). For now it has no instrument and no input. |
Click the chip to step AUDIO → MIDI → SPECIAL. Right-click steps back. If a MIDI channel becomes AUDIO or SPECIAL, its instrument is kept but bypassed. Make it MIDI again and the instrument comes back on (an instrument you had bypassed yourself stays bypassed).
| PERFORM | EDIT | |
|---|---|---|
| Loaded plug-in boxes | A click opens the plug-in's window. No MIDI or B buttons. | B (bypass) on every loaded box, MIDI on the box under the pointer |
| Right-click a loaded box | A toast: plug-ins are changed or removed in EDIT mode | Remove / Bypass / Change menu |
| Drag a plug-in onto another box | Locked | Moves it |
| Drag a strip's head | A toast: channels are rearranged in EDIT mode | Moves the channel |
| Right-click the strip itself | A toast: channels are removed in EDIT mode | Remove channel n |
| Click the name | Nothing | Renames it (a right-click renames in both modes) |
| CC badges on DLY / RVB | Hidden | Shown |
Everything else works in both modes: MIDI IN, SC, the inputs, loading a plug-in into an empty box, the sends, the fader, PAN, MUTE, SOLO, ARM, CUE and adding channels. Switch modes with PERFORM | EDIT in the top bar.
DECK A and DECK B are the DJ-DECK's decks as channels. They are the same controls seen from two pages: their fader, PAN, MUTE, three inserts, MIDI channel and CUE (the deck's headphone button) belong to the deck. A new session puts them at 01 and 02. You can drag them like any strip (the factory session has them at 13 and 14).
Above BUS 1 and BUS 2, on the PLAYER and on the ARRANGER (one count for both pages).
Right-click the empty page to the right of the last strip: Add a MIDI channel, Add an Audio channel, Add a Special channel, each with a dot in its kind's colour. The new strip appears at the end and the page scrolls to it. A toast says what was added (added MIDI channel 9, listening on CH 7).
In EDIT, right-click the strip itself, on a spot that is not a control (the meter is a good spot). The menu says Remove channel 5 "Bass 1". Everything on that channel goes: its plug-ins, its clips and MIDI pieces on the ARRANGER, its name, inputs, side-chain and ARM. The row gets one strip shorter. The next + brings the channel back empty.
In PERFORM a toast says channels are removed in EDIT mode. The deck strips cannot be removed.
Press the strip's head (the row with the name) and slide sideways. The word drag appears in the head's corner when the pointer is over it in EDIT. The strips change places as you pass them, and the ARRANGER's lanes move with them.
Nothing is reloaded: the plug-ins, clips and settings stay with the channel, so you can move it while it plays. Moving changes the strip's number (its position), not the channel. In PERFORM the order is locked, and a toast says so.
Right-click the name (in either mode), or click it in EDIT. The old name is selected, so typing replaces it. BACKSPACE clears it. ← or → keeps it so you can add to its end. ENTER (or TAB) keeps the new name, ESC cancels, and a click anywhere else keeps it. Up to 24 characters.
The name also appears on the ARRANGER lane, in the SIDE-CHAIN lists and in the names of recorded takes. An empty name on a deck strip goes back to DECK A / DECK B. The Kadabra can name channels by SysEx (see MIDI learn and the Kadabra).
Click a strip's number to select it: the number lights up and the strip gets a green frame. Click the number again to unselect it. It is the same selection as the ARRANGER's lane column.
Drag the right edge of any strip (a blue line shows when the pointer is on it). All strips change width together, from 74 to 260 pixels. Below 96 pixels, MUTE and SOLO read M and S.
When there are more strips than fit, a scroll bar appears under them with channels 1-8 of 15. Drag it, click it, or turn the mouse wheel anywhere on the page (one strip per notch).
The left box under the name. It shows the channel in large type (5), omni, or - (none), with a green frame when a channel is set. Click it for the MIDI IN list: omni, CH 1 … CH 16, none. If other strips already use a channel, the row says so (also 3,5: their strip numbers). Right-click the box to set none (a deck strip always keeps a channel).
Two strips can listen on the same MIDI channel and share out its notes: the kick (note 36) to a strip with K-Kick and its own EQ and compressor, every other note to the strip with the drum set. Each strip has a NOTE FILTER of its own.
| Where | What it does |
|---|---|
| The > in the MIDI IN list | At the right of every row. A click chooses that MIDI channel for the strip and opens its keys. |
| The keys | Titled CHANNEL 3 - NOTES FROM CH 1: all 128 notes, 0 … 127, one octave a row (C-2 … C8; note 36 is C1). A lit green key plays on this strip, a red one does not. A note arriving on that MIDI channel frames its key in yellow, so you can find the kick's note by playing it. |
| Click a key | Turns it off, or on again. Drag across keys to set them all the same way. |
| ALL ON · ALL OFF | Every note plays again · no note plays (then click the few that should). |
| The line at the foot | What the filter does, in words: Plays ONLY note 36 (C1) - the other 127 are off. |
| Closing it | A click outside the keys, or ESC. |
| On the strip | A red triangle on the MIDI IN box while any key is off. Point at it and the hint line says which notes play, and how to change it. |
The right box under the name. Click it: the SIDE-CHAIN input list opens at the right of the strip.
Right-click the box to set No Side-Chain. With a source chosen, the box reads from 4 (< 4 on a narrow strip) or from DECKS (< DK) and turns orange. An orange line along its bottom shows how far the channel is being turned down right now. Only this channel changes: the channel it listens to sounds exactly as before. A channel cannot key itself.
Open it with Parameters in the SC list. It opens at the right of its strip and stays open while you work. x closes it, and so does the Parameters row again. Its top line names the channel and its key (CH 5 < CH 1, or - no source). Under it: COMP | GATE | SPECTRAL, then the bars.
| Mode | What it does |
|---|---|
| COMP | When the key goes above THRESH, this channel is turned down: classic ducking. |
| GATE | While the key is below THRESH, this channel is turned down, so it is heard only while the key plays. HOLD keeps it open a little longer. |
| SPECTRAL | Turns down only the frequency bands the key is playing in. For example, a kick takes the bass's low end and leaves its top. The panel's foot says how many ms this delays the channel. |
| Bar | Range · default | Used by | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| THRESH | −60 … 0 dB · −24 | COMP, GATE | the key level where it starts |
| RATIO | 1 … 20:1 · 4 | COMP, GATE | how hard it pushes |
| ATTACK | 0.5 … 100 ms · 8 | all | how fast it turns down |
| RELEASE | 5 … 1000 ms · 220 | all | how fast it comes back |
| RANGE | 0 … 100 % · 70 | COMP, GATE | the most it may turn down (100 % = 60 dB) |
| HOLD | 0 … 500 ms · 60 | GATE | how long it stays open after the key drops |
| SPEC DEPTH | 0 … 100 % · 80 | SPECTRAL | how deep it cuts |
| SPEC THRESH | −80 … −10 dB · −40 | SPECTRAL | the band level where it starts |
Drag a bar to set it. The value shows at its right. Right-click a bar to put back its default. Bars the chosen mode does not use are dimmed. The bar at the foot shows what is happening right now: open, or how many dB the channel is turned down.
| Strip | The row shows | Click · right-click |
|---|---|---|
| MIDI channel | + Instrument (violet), or the instrument's name | Empty: the Plugins window, on INST ONLY. Loaded: the instrument's window. Right-click in EDIT: its menu. See Instruments and effects. |
| MIDI channel whose instrument takes audio (K-Sampler, Surge XT …) | The Instrument box plus an IN chip at its right: the REC IN | IN: the REC IN list · right-click: none |
| AUDIO channel | AUDIO IN (blue), or the input it listens to (IN 1+2, DECK A) | The AUDIO INPUT list · right-click: no input |
| Deck strip | The deck's AUDIO IN | The list, with interface inputs only · right-click: no input |
| SPECIAL channel | An empty dark box | Nothing to choose |
The list starts with no input, DECK A and DECK B (the decks are not offered on a deck strip). Then come the inputs of the device chosen under INPUT in Audio settings: each stereo pair with its two single inputs under it (IN 1+2, IN 1, IN 2, IN 3+4 …). On a large interface the list scrolls (mouse wheel, or the bar at its right) and opens at the current choice. With no device open it says no input device open -- Audio.
Some instruments take audio as well as notes: K-Sampler does, for its MIC-REC. When one is in the Instrument box, an IN chip appears at the box's right. Click it for the REC IN (into the instrument) list (the same choices as AUDIO INPUT). Right-click it for none. The chip then shows the input (IN 1).
The REC IN goes into the instrument only. It is never heard through the strip, so K-Sampler can record it without it sounding twice. It is kept in the session. On the DJ-DECK, the deck's K-SAMPLER takes the deck strip's AUDIO IN instead.
| Box | Looks like | A click |
|---|---|---|
| Empty Instrument | + Instrument, violet frame | Opens the Plugins window on INST ONLY |
| Empty insert | + insert 1, grey | Opens the Plugins window |
| Loaded | The plug-in's name. Instrument violet, insert green. | Opens the plug-in's own window |
| Bypassed | Red-brown, name dimmed, B lit red (EDIT) | Opens the plug-in's own window |
A click on an empty box opens the Plugins window, which already knows the box it is for. Its header says insert into ch 5 · INSTRUMENT, or replace Surge XT in … when you chose Change.
Any VST3 plug-in on the computer can go in a box. Tribal Tools' K-Sampler, K-Synth and K-Kick are instruments, Surge XT is a free synthesizer, and K-Channel is a channel-strip effect.
Click a loaded box: the plug-in's own window opens, named after where it sits: K-Player - Channel 5 - Instrument, K-Player - Channel 5 - Insert 2, K-Player - Deck A - Insert 1. The channel number is the strip's number.
Every plug-in has a window of its own. Clicking a box whose window is already open brings that window to the front, and closing one leaves the others open. The window follows the MIDI the plug-in gets, so you can watch what the Kadabra is moving.
On the Instrument box the rows say Instrument instead of Plugin. In PERFORM a right-click on a loaded box changes nothing, and a toast says plug-ins are changed or removed in EDIT mode. A right-click on an empty box does nothing.
Press a loaded box and move the mouse: the plug-in's name follows the pointer, and the box it would land on is outlined. Let go on any other box on the screen: another strip's insert or Instrument box, a bus insert, a MASTER insert. The plug-in moves with all its settings and its open window. Whatever was in that box goes the other way: the two swap.
Let go on nothing and the plug-in stays where it was. In PERFORM nothing can be carried.
A strip's plug-ins hear the MIDI on the strip's MIDI IN channel (every channel with omni), and nothing else:
| Message | Goes to |
|---|---|
| Notes | Every box that takes notes: the instrument, and any effect that plays from notes. Only the notes the strip's NOTE FILTER lets through. |
| Control change (CC) | Every box, instrument and effects alike. It moves the parameter the plug-in itself names for that CC. |
| Program change | Every box with a patch list, after the bank select that comes before it. |
| Pitch bend, pressure | Every box, the way VST3 maps them. |
Some plug-ins name no CC at all. Reach their knobs with MIDI learn (next section). Every plug-in also follows the MASTER BPM in the top section, so synced delays and arpeggiators keep time.
In EDIT, point at a loaded box and press its MIDI button. A panel opens in the middle of the window and the rest goes dark. Its title names the channel, the box and the plug-in.
| Part | What it does |
|---|---|
| PLUGIN GUI · close | Open the plug-in's own window · close the panel |
| BYPASS | Bypass the plug-in. Beside it is its own CC chip, so a Kadabra control can bypass it (64 and up = bypassed). |
| A parameter row | The parameter's name, a bar you can drag, its value (0.00 to 1.00), and a CC chip |
| CC chip [-] CC nn [+] | Click the middle to learn: it reads learn, the panel says move a MIDI control now to bind it..., and the next CC that arrives is taken. - / + dial a number directly. Right-click clears it (CC --). |
A click outside the panel closes it.
This is how a Kadabra FX combi (FXer) or a motion axis can turn any knob of any plug-in.
In EDIT a small badge sits at the right end of each DLY and RVB bar. It reads CC, the number it has, or ... while learning. Click it for the grid of all 128 numbers, titled Bass 1 DLY send on MIDI CC.
| From the Kadabra | What happens |
|---|---|
| Notes on the strip's channel | Its instrument plays them. |
| CC, program change | Its plug-ins get them (see What MIDI reaches a strip's plug-ins). |
| CC 84 on the strip's channel | ARM: 64 and up arms, below disarms. It acts on every strip on that channel (not the deck strips). One Kadabra can arm channels one by one this way. |
| SysEx CHANNEL NAME (50) | Names the strip with that number. |
| SysEx ALL CHANNEL NAMES (51) | Names the strips in order. |
The full MIDI map is on the K-Player page.
Two short bars above the fader: DLY sends to BUS 1 (the delay), RVB to BUS 2 (the reverb). Drag a bar sideways from nothing to full. Right-click it for zero.
The send is taken after the fader, so pulling the fader down lowers the send too. A send is only heard while the bus's DELAY or REVERB button is on (on the bus strip). In EDIT each bar has a CC badge at its end.
Under the fader. Drag the handle left or right. It reads C, L35, R100 and snaps to the centre when close. Right-click it for the centre. A deck strip's PAN is the deck's pan.
CUE sits beside ARM and lights blue. It puts the channel in the headphones (the CUE output chosen in Audio settings), taken before the fader. The main mix does not change. With the fader down or MUTE on, you still hear the channel in the headphones. It works in PERFORM too.
A deck strip's CUE is the deck's headphone button on the DJ-DECK page: one setting. Key: C.
ARM (red frame when armed) means "this channel takes part in the next recording". During a take it reads REC with a lit dot. Switch it by clicking, with the R key, or by CC 84 from the Kadabra.
| Key | Does |
|---|---|
| ← → ↑ ↓ | Select the previous / next channel (the ARRANGER's selection too). |
| M · S · C · R | MUTE · SOLO · CUE · ARM of the selected channel, on and off. |
| ESC | Closes an open list, menu or the NOTE FILTER's keys. While you type a name: cancels it. It never quits K-Player. |
| ENTER / TAB · BACKSPACE | While you type a name: keep it · delete. |
| Everywhere | TAB / SHIFT+TAB change page, SHIFT+SPACE is the transport's PLAY, ⌘+S saves: see the K-Player page. |
| Where | Click | Right-click | Drag |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strip number | Select / unselect the channel | — | — |
| Name | Rename (EDIT) | Rename (both modes) | Move the channel (EDIT) |
| Rest of the head | — | — | Move the channel (EDIT); a toast in PERFORM |
| Kind chip | Next kind | Previous kind | — |
| MIDI IN | The MIDI IN list (its > opens the NOTE FILTER) | None | — |
| A key of the NOTE FILTER | Off / on | — | Sets every key you pass the same way |
| SC | The SIDE-CHAIN list | No Side-Chain | — |
| Instrument / insert box | Empty: Plugins window · loaded: its window (on release) | EDIT: Remove / Bypass / Change | Carry the plug-in to another box (EDIT) |
| B · MIDI on a box (EDIT) | Bypass · parameter panel | — | — |
| AUDIO IN · IN chip | The input list | No input | — |
| DLY · RVB | Set the send | Zero | Set the send |
| CC badge (EDIT) | The CC grid | Clear | — |
| Fader | — | 0 dB | Level |
| PAN | — | Centre | Pan |
| MUTE · SOLO · ARM · CUE | On / off | — | — |
| The strip itself (the meter) | — | EDIT: Remove channel n | — |
| A strip's right edge | — | — | Width of all strips |
| The empty page | — | The add menu | — |
| Scroll bar · mouse wheel | Jump | — | Scroll the strips (the wheel: one strip per notch; over an open AUDIO INPUT list it scrolls the list) |
| SIDE-CHAIN panel bar | — | Default | Value |
An audio file dropped on the PLAYER page is added to the TRACKS library. To put one on a channel, drop it on that channel's lane on the ARRANGER.
The deck strips are the decks. A fader, PAN, MUTE, insert, MIDI channel or CUE changed on either page changes on both. The deck's AUDIO IN is set only here on the PLAYER, and the deck's K-SAMPLER hears it too.
Every strip is a lane of the ARRANGER, in the same order. Moving a strip moves its lane. The kind, MUTE, SOLO, the name and the selected channel are the same on both pages.
What you record from armed strips lands on the PRODUCER, on the lane of the channel it came from, one take after another.
The ON chip on the PLAYER tab switches the page's sound processing. The channels other than the decks belong to both the PLAYER and the ARRANGER, so they keep running while either page's chip is on. Switching between pages never turns a page on or off: only the chip does.
The top bar (SAVE, LOAD, PERFORM | EDIT, MIDI PORT, MIDI, Audio), the top section (MASTER BPM, TRACKS, RECORD …), the page tabs, the BUS 1 and BUS 2 strips and the MASTER strip are described on the K-Player page.
Two decks and a DJ mixer: play two records, match their tempo, loop them, and let the Kadabra follow their key.
| Area | What lives there |
|---|---|
| A deck (DECK A left, DECK B right) | Top to bottom: DECK A, the track's name and Load... · the waveform, with the marker lane along its bottom and the STRETCH fader on its inner edge · the thin zoom bar · the STEMS row · the transport: two jog pads, PLAY, CUE, SYNC · the row DETECTION · LOOP · K-SAMPLER · the sampler's three inserts, SC, DLY and RVB · then the DETECTION and LOOP sections when they are open. Everything under the DETECTION · LOOP · K-SAMPLER row scrolls when it does not fit. |
| The mixer (middle) | Mirrored, A on the left and B on the right. From the outside in: the HI / MID / LO knobs (or four stem faders, with STEMIX), the dB scale, the meter and the fader, with CH 1 / CH 2 just above it. Under each fader: the headphone button and MUTE, the CUE level while the headphones are on, then a column with the PAN bar, three inserts, DLY and RVB. Then the CROSSFADER, and the INPUT strip with its SIDECHAIN. Everything under the faders scrolls when it does not fit. |
| SHOW box | Above the two BUS strips, on this page only: DECKS ONLY or MIX RUNNER. Under it, side by side, DJ-EQ and STEMIX. |
| MIX RUNNER band | When chosen: both decks' waveforms running past one red line, above the decks. |
| Around the page | The top section (TONE / SCALE, MASTER BPM, TRACKS, RECORD, SYNC, the page tabs), the BUS strips and the MASTER strip are on every page. |
| The hint line | Along the bottom of the window. Point at any control and it says what that control does and what a right-click does there. |
The PERFORM | EDIT switch is in the top bar. On the DJ-DECK page it changes this:
| PERFORM | EDIT | |
|---|---|---|
| Analysis | Never by itself. DETECT still works when you press it. | With AUTO lit, a track with no saved markers is analysed when it loads. DETECT any time. |
| Markers | Click to select. The marker editor row (edit, APPROVE, DEL, +) works. | The same, plus right-click on the marker lane: delete a marker, or add a new one. |
| Insert boxes and the K-SAMPLER box | A click opens the plug-in; MIDI and B work. A right-click only says to switch to EDIT. | Right-click for Remove / Bypass / Change. Drag a box onto another box to move it. |
| Stem faders | Play. | A small CC badge at the right end of each, to put it on a MIDI CC. |
| Headphone button | A click switches it. A right-click only says PFL gets its MIDI CC in EDIT. | A click switches it. A right-click opens the CC grid, to give it a MIDI CC of your own. |
| Saving | Markers save themselves 1.2 s after a change. | Markers too, and the session saves itself. Leaving EDIT writes everything. |
Click DJ-DECK at the bottom-left of the top section to show this page. Looking at another page does not stop the decks: they play on.
The small ON chip on the tab switches the page's sound in the engine. With it OFF, the decks and their K-SAMPLER boxes are switched off and cost nothing.
SETTINGS > General > K-PLAYER OPENS WITH can make K-Player start on this page, and choose its view (DECKS ONLY or MIX RUNNER).
Two parts of this page scroll when the window is too short for them:
| Way | How |
|---|---|
| Load... | The button at the deck's top right opens a file dialog (Load DECK A), starting in K-Player's data folder. |
| Drop a file | Drag a file from the Finder anywhere on the deck's panel: the panel lights up and says drop on DECK A. With several files, the first loads and the rest go into the TRACKS list. |
| The TRACKS window | Press TRACKS in the top section. Point at a track's row: A and B appear at its right end; click one to load that deck. Or drag the row out of the window onto a deck. ENTER loads the first track of the list into DECK A; typing searches. |
| The MIX RUNNER | Drop a file on a deck's lane in the MIX RUNNER band. |
A deck plays WAV, AIFF, FLAC and MP3.
In K-Player's data folder (normally ~/Music/Tribal-Tools/K-Player): the markers in markers/, the stems in stems/. They belong to the track, not to a session, so the same track brings its markers and stems into every session you use it in.
| You see | It means |
|---|---|
| Light blue / grey-blue | The part already played / the part still to come. |
| Red line | The playhead. |
| Gold line | The cue point. |
| Orange line with an E | The END point: the deck stops there. |
| Orange letters A B A … | The parts of the track. The same letter again means that part comes back. They are only a reading aid. |
| The line of small text | Time played and length (2:04 / 7:54), how far you are zoomed in (4.0x), and [native] when K-Player's own engine plays it. |
| The bottom strip | The marker lane (see below). |
| The number over the STRETCH fader | The deck's speed, 1.00 at its own speed. |
| Do this | What happens |
|---|---|
| Click | The playhead jumps there when you let go. |
| Drag sideways | Scroll through the track. |
| Drag down / up | Zoom in / out around the point you grabbed. A yellow line shows where the playhead will land: when you let go, it moves there, after a drag too. |
| Mouse wheel | Zoom in and out around the pointer, smoothly, down to single samples (100 000 ×). |
| SHIFT + wheel, or a sideways swipe | Scroll. |
| SHIFT + click / SHIFT + right-click | Set / remove the END point. |
| The zoom bar under the waveform | Drag left or right to zoom around the middle of the view. |
| The bottom strip (marker lane) | A click selects a marker and never moves the playhead. |
SHIFT + click on the waveform puts an END point there: an orange line marked E. The deck stops when it reaches it and will not play past it until you remove it with SHIFT + right-click. A new track has none, and a session does not keep it.
Markers are what K-Player knows about how a track changes over time. They sit along the bottom of the waveform, on the waveform's own time line, so they zoom with it. Two kinds:
| Kind | Looks like | Carries |
|---|---|---|
| TEMPO | Gold | The BPM, the word BPM, and a structure word (Intro, Build, Drop, Break, Groove, Bridge, Outro) or a meter (4/4). |
| TONALITY | In the colour of its tone | The tone (D#), the scale (Harmonic) and the harmony (H1, the scale's first harmonic mode; H4 its fourth …). |
| Control | What it does | MIDI (deck's channel) |
|---|---|---|
| Left jog pad (the ribs) | Hold it to bend the deck slower. Press nearer its outer (left) edge to bend harder: at full pressure the deck runs 12 % slower. It shows how hard it pulls (-40%). Let go and the deck is back at its tempo. | CC 14, by pressure |
| PLAY / STOP | Plays, or stops where it is (red while playing). Reads - with no track. | CC 70 |
| Right jog pad | The same, faster, harder toward its right edge (+40%). | CC 15, by pressure |
| CUE | DJ-style cue (see the next card). Lit gold while it previews. | CC 71 (held) |
| SYNC | Matches this deck to the MASTER BPM. Green when it can; grey with no track, or when this deck is itself the MASTER BPM's source. When the track has no tempo yet it reads DETECT (blue): press it to analyse the track (... while it works). | CC 80 |
With the default pitch engine (Signalsmith Stretch) the jog pads bend the tempo only; with Tribal Stretch the pitch bends with it.
DETECTION and LOOP are tabs: click one to open or close its section. A lit tab is an open section. Open sections stack under the sampler's rows in the order you opened them, the first one on top, so the one you use most stays where your hand is. DETECTION is open when K-Player starts. The third, widest cell is the K-SAMPLER box. Each deck has its own. When the open sections do not fit, everything under this row scrolls (see Rows that scroll).
| Row | What it shows and does |
|---|---|
| AUTO · DETECT | At the section's top right (next card). |
| BPM | The ▲ ▼ arrows on the left nudge the deck ±1 BPM (up to 60 each way; right-click = 0). Then the BPM with its offset, the meter (4/4), in orange +2 (was 148.0) when nudged, and under it the track's tempo markers in order, the one in force in gold. |
| KEY and SCALE | The ▲ ▼ arrows transpose the deck ±1 semitone (up to 12 each way; right-click = 0). Then the key, +2 (was Am) when transposed, the tonality markers in order (gold = in force), and the scale's name. |
| Status line | At the right, above the chroma: what the analysis is doing (key / scale..., tempo..., structure..., tempo over time..., harmony... with its %), why it is not running (press DETECT), or how many markers are in force (7 of 12 markers at level 6). |
| Chroma | Twelve bars, one per tone in its colour: how much of each note the track has. It shows right after an analysis; a track that loaded saved markers shows an empty strip. |
| Marker editor | The last row: see The marker editor row. |
It edits the selected marker (click one on the marker lane). Its title says which: TONALITY 2 / 12 at 31.5 s or TEMPO …; a tonality marker also shows its chord (= F#m). Then three < value > groups:
| Group | TONALITY marker | TEMPO marker |
|---|---|---|
| First | The tone, C … B, in its colour. | The BPM, ±1 (40 … 300). |
| Second | The scale: steps through the scales the Kadabra can use as its main scale. | 0.1: the BPM ±0.1. |
| Third | The harmony, H1 … Hn. | The structure word: Intro, Build, Drop, Break, Groove, Bridge, Outro, a meter (4/4, 3/4, 6/8, 2/4) or none. |
Two settings in Audio Settings decide it, for every track at once, with no new DETECT needed:
Its top line reads beat repeat at 148.0 BPM (the MASTER BPM), or beat repeat needs a tempo. Twelve big buttons, longest first:
| Row | Lengths |
|---|---|
| 1 | 4 · 2 · 1 · 1/2 bar |
| 2 | 1/4 · 3/16 · 1/8 · 1/12 of a bar (1/4 = one beat) |
| 3 | 1/16 · 1/24 · 1/32 · 1/64 of a bar |
A row under the zoom bar. It is hidden when Audio Settings > Stems is OFF.
| It reads | What it does |
|---|---|
| STEMS | No track on the deck. |
| MAKE STEMS | Takes the track apart into KICK, BASS, DRUMS and TONAL, once per track. The button fills up as it works, and the stems load into the deck when they are ready. One track at a time in all of K-Player (STEMS - busy with …). |
| LOAD STEMS | The track has stems already: loads them. |
| Four faders | KICK · BASS · DRUMS · TONAL in their colours. Drag across: 0 … 100 % (point at a fader to read its %). All four up is the track exactly as it was; a fader at 0 is not heard. |
Each deck has a strip, A on the left and B on the right, mirrored. From the outside in: the EQ knobs (DJ-EQ) or four stem faders (STEMIX), the dB scale, the meter and the fader, with the deck's CH button just above the fader. Under the fader: the headphone button beside it and MUTE, then a column as wide as the TRACKS button with PAN, three inserts, DLY and RVB. The CROSSFADER comes after both, then the INPUT strip.
| Control | What it does | MIDI |
|---|---|---|
| CH 1 / CH 2 | The deck's MIDI channel, just above its fader. Click = next, right-click = previous; it skips the other deck's and the mixer's channel. The same setting as the deck's MIDI box on the PLAYER page. | |
| DJ-EQ | Under the SHOW box, above the BUS strips. Shows or hides both decks' EQ knobs; switching it on switches STEMIX off. Hidden, the EQ keeps working as set. | CC 88, mixer's channel |
| STEMIX | Beside DJ-EQ. Puts each deck's four stems as faders where the EQ knobs are (see STEMIX); switching it on switches DJ-EQ off. | |
| Headphone button | Beside the fader, on its outer side, level with MUTE. Sends the deck to the headphones (Audio Settings > CUE), before its fader: with the fader down only you hear it. Lit blue when on. It is the deck's CUE on the PLAYER page too. In EDIT a right-click gives it a MIDI CC of your own. | CC 72, or your own CC |
| CUE level | A short sideways bar under the headphone button and MUTE (CUE 80), there while that deck's headphone button is on: the headphone level, 0 … 100, one for both decks. Drag sideways. | CC 9, any channel |
| HI · MID · LO | EQ, beside the fader while DJ-EQ is on: HI shelf at 4.5 kHz, MID bell at 1 kHz, LO shelf at 110 Hz, each −12 … +12 dB. Drag up or down. Right- or double-click: 0. | CC 76 / 77 / 78 (64 = 0 dB) |
| PAN bar | At the top of the column under the fader. Drag. It snaps to the middle. Reads PAN C, PAN L40, PAN R40. Right- or double-click: centre. | CC 75 (64 = centre) |
| + insert 1 · 2 · 3 | The deck's three effects, in the column under the PAN bar (see Insert boxes on this page). | |
| DLY · RVB | How much goes to BUS 1 (DELAY) and BUS 2 (REVERB), after the fader. Drag; right-click = 0. | CC 90 / 111 |
| Fader | −60 … +6 dB, 0 dB at the line near the top. The level is written on the cap (-inf at the bottom). Right- or double-click: 0 dB. It is a little shorter in a short window or with the MIX RUNNER showing. | CC 74, or CC 7 |
| Meter | Green, yellow from −6 dB, red from 0 dB. A white line holds the peak for 3 s; a red bar at the top means it clipped. | |
| MUTE | Under the meter and the fader. Silences the deck (lit red). | CC 73 |
| CROSSFADER | A … B. In the middle both decks play at full level. From A to the middle, B comes in; from the middle to B, A goes out. It snaps to the middle; right- or double-click: centre. | CC 3, any channel (0 = A, 127 = B) |
"MIDI" is the deck's own MIDI channel unless the row says otherwise.
The deck's, the sampler's and the INPUT's insert boxes all work the same way:
The mixer is as wide as its parts need, and the two decks share the rest of the width. It is thinnest with neither DJ-EQ nor STEMIX on. The column under each fader is as wide as the TRACKS button in the top section (narrower in a narrow window).
The faders get a little shorter when there is less room under them: a shorter window, or the MIX RUNNER. There is nothing to drag: the thin lines either side of the mixer only mark its edges.
The live input of your audio interface (a microphone, an instrument), chosen in Audio Settings. It sits under the CROSSFADER and scrolls with the mixer's rows: its fader at the left, the rest one under the other at its right.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Fader and meter | The input's level, the dB under it. It sticks at 0 dB; right- or double-click: 0 dB. CC 20 on the mixer's channel. |
| INPUT | With the device's name under it, or no device. |
| CH 3 | The mixer's own MIDI channel (3 at first): the channel the INPUT's and the mixer's CCs answer on. Click = next, right-click = previous; it skips the decks' channels. |
| MIC MUTE | Lit red = muted. The input always starts muted, so a microphone can never feed back by surprise. CC 30 on the mixer's channel. |
| AUTO-FILL A · MIC-REC A | For K-Player's older built-in pads, which play only while a K-SAMPLER box is empty (A = the deck whose pads were used last). With K-Sampler, use K-Sampler's own AUTO-FILL and MIC-REC. |
| + insert 1 · 2 · 3 | The input's effects. |
| SIDECHAIN · Parameters | The ducker (next card), under the inserts; Parameters sits under the SIDECHAIN box. |
The ducker turns something down while its KEY has sound: the classic use is a voice on the INPUT that makes the decks get out of the way.
| Bar | Range | At first |
|---|---|---|
| THRESH | −60 … 0 dB | −24 dB |
| RATIO | 1 … 20 : 1 | 4 : 1 |
| ATTACK | 0.1 … 200 ms | 8 ms |
| RELEASE | 1 … 2000 ms | 220 ms |
| RANGE | 0 … 1 | 0.7 |
| HOLD | 0 … 500 ms | 60 ms |
The KEY is what is sent to the ducker, and it has no fader on this page: the INPUT sends to it with CC 105 on the mixer's MIDI channel, a deck with CC 116 on its own channel. On the mixer's channel CC 103 switches COMP / GATE and CC 104 steps what it ducks.
This is one ducker for the whole mix. Each channel also has a side-chain of its own: the sampler's is the SC box on the deck, a deck's own is on its PLAYER strip.
The deck that is heard most: playing, not muted, and louder by its side of the CROSSFADER times its fader. A tie goes to DECK A. So when you crossfade from A to B, the Kadabra moves to B's key once B is the louder one.
Every deck control has a CC on the deck's own MIDI channel (CH 1 / CH 2 in the mixer), so one set of controllers drives DECK A or DECK B depending only on the channel. A message on one deck's channel never moves the other deck. Buttons act from value 64 up.
| CC | Control |
|---|---|
| 14 / 15 | Jog slower / faster, the value is the pressure (0 lets go) |
| 70 · 71 | PLAY / STOP · CUE (held) |
| 72 · 73 | Headphones · MUTE |
| 74 (and 7) | Fader |
| 75 | PAN (64 = centre) |
| 76 / 77 / 78 | HI / MID / LO (64 = 0 dB) |
| 79 | STRETCH (64 = 1.00) |
| 80 | SYNC |
| 81 / 82 | BPM +1 / −1 |
| 83 / 85 | KEY +1 / −1 semitone |
| 40 … 51 · 89 | LOOP lengths 4 … 1/64, held · LOOP off |
| 90 / 111 | The deck's DLY / RVB |
| 112 / 113 | The sampler's DLY / RVB |
| 3 (any channel) | CROSSFADER, 0 = A, 127 = B |
| 9 (any channel) | Headphone level |
The stem faders have no fixed CC: give each one with its badge in EDIT. The headphone button can have a CC of your own too (right-click it in EDIT), beside CC 72. Notes, program changes and the other CCs on the deck's channel go to its K-SAMPLER box. CC 21 … 29 are the Kadabra's motion axes and K-Player leaves them alone.
On the PLAYER page the first two strips (their numbers in blue) are DECK A and DECK B. There is only one of each, so these are the very same settings on both pages:
| On both pages | Only on the PLAYER strip |
|---|---|
| The fader, PAN and MUTE · the headphone button (the strip's CUE) · the MIDI channel · the three inserts · DLY and RVB | The AUDIO IN box: an input of your interface played through the deck's strip (never the other deck), which the deck's K-Sampler hears too · the deck's own SIDE-CHAIN · ARM for recording |
The transport, the waveform and markers, STRETCH, DETECTION, LOOP, STEMS, the EQ and the CROSSFADER are on the DJ-DECK page. A deck cannot be removed from the PLAYER: the decks are always there.
The ARRANGER's DECK A and DECK B lanes play their clips through these same deck channels: the EQ, the inserts, the fader and the CROSSFADER apply. A stem level drawn there moves the stem faders on this page.
| Key or gesture | Where | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| TAB / SHIFT+TAB | Anywhere | Next / previous page: PLAYER → DJ-DECK → ARRANGER → PRODUCER. |
| SHIFT+SPACE | Anywhere | The top section's PLAY: it plays the ARRANGER, not a deck. No key plays a deck. |
| ESC | Anywhere | Closes the SHOW list, the SIDECHAIN list, a right-click menu or the CC grid. It never quits. |
| Wheel or two-finger swipe | A deck's rows under its DETECTION · LOOP · K-SAMPLER line · the mixer under its faders | Scroll them. |
| Click / let go | Waveform | The playhead jumps to the point. |
| Drag sideways / up-down | Waveform | Scroll / zoom. |
| Wheel · SHIFT+wheel | Waveform | Zoom · scroll. |
| SHIFT+click · SHIFT+right-click | Waveform | Set · remove the END point. |
| Click · right-click (EDIT) | Marker lane | Select a marker · delete it, or NEW MARKER on an empty spot. |
| Hold | Jog pads, CUE | Bend while held · preview from the cue while held. |
| Right-click or double-click | Deck fader, EQ knob, STEMIX fader, PAN, CROSSFADER, STRETCH, INPUT fader | Back to the default. |
| Right-click (EDIT) | A deck's headphone button | The CC grid: give it a MIDI CC of your own. |
| Right-click | BPM / KEY arrows · DLY / RVB · CH · SC / SIDECHAIN · SHOW · a stem fader · a ducker bar | Offset 0 · send 0 · previous channel · off · switch view · whole track · lowest value. |
| Click · right-click (EDIT) | An insert or the K-SAMPLER box | Open it · Remove / Bypass / Change. In EDIT, drag it onto another box to move it. |
| Wheel · drag the bottom edge | MIX RUNNER band | Seconds shown · height. |
| Drop a file | A deck's panel, a MIX RUNNER lane | Load that deck. |
The arrow keys and M, S, C, R (the selected channel's mute, solo, CUE and ARM) work on the PLAYER and the ARRANGER, not on this page.
K-Player's song timeline: one lane for every channel, with audio clips, MIDI pieces, stems and the bar grid.
.kplayer). Version documented: K-Player 1.2.1 (build 48).| Area | What is there |
|---|---|
| Top row | WAVE · BEAT-MIX · GRID · the time signature (4/4) and the BPM · PATTERN 4 BARS · EXPORT TO PRODUCER · 2:00 across · PLAY · |< START · - · +. PATTERN and EXPORT TO PRODUCER are drawn only when the window is wide enough for them. |
| PATTERN row | Cyan bands, one per pattern, numbered P1, P2 … (shown while GRID is on). |
| BAR row | Bar numbers from 1, with short ticks for the bars and beats in between (while GRID is on). |
| Time ruler | The clock, m:ss. Its marks follow the zoom. |
| Channel column | At the left of every lane: its number, its KIND, M, S and its name. With a STEMS view on, the stems' names too. |
| Lanes | One per channel. Audio clips, MIDI pieces, and (deck lanes) the stem bands. The bar and pattern lines run down through them. |
| Marker strip | A thin strip under each lane, labelled markers — preset, scale, BPM, key, structure. It holds nothing yet; its lower edge is the grip for that lane's height. |
| Room under the last lane | A narrow empty strip. Right-click it to add a channel (it says right-click: add a channel while the pointer is there). |
| Size line | The short bar at the bottom. Drag it to make all lanes taller or shorter. |
| Right edge | BUS 1, BUS 2, the - + n channels control above them, and the MASTER strip, as on every page. |
| Under the page | The hint line: point at anything on the page and it says what it does, and what a right-click or a double-click does there. |
There is no separate track list. Lane 01 is DECK A and lane 02 is DECK B (as long as you have not moved them on the PLAYER), and every lane is the PLAYER channel with the same number. Add a channel and a lane appears; drag a strip to a new place on the PLAYER (EDIT) and its lane moves with it.
The number is the channel's position; the name (DECK A, Keys …) is its identity and travels with it. Channels are renamed, moved and removed on the PLAYER page.
Everything on this page works in both modes. EDIT adds two things: WAVE + (the waveform read from the file at the zoom you are at) and the right-click on a stem's M that gives it a CC.
This page has no undo. A right-click on an audio clip removes it at once, with no menu. The MIDI editor has its own UNDO / REDO for the notes.
Saving the session keeps the whole page: how many lanes, the view (where it starts, how much it shows), every lane's height, WAVE, BEAT-MIX and its speed, GRID, the time signature, the PATTERN length, every audio clip (place, trim, fades, curves, file), every MIDI piece (notes, controller moves, the take it came from), which deck lanes show their STEMS and every stem curve.
A clip whose file is gone is left out when the session loads, and the note at the end of loading says so.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| WAVE / WAVE + / no wave | Click to show or hide the waveforms on the clips. In PERFORM it reads WAVE (a quick overview). In EDIT it reads WAVE +: the file itself is read for the part on screen, so zoomed right in you see the real wave. Off, it reads no wave. |
| BEAT-MIX | Locks the whole arrangement to the MASTER BPM from the moment you switch it on. Change the tempo and everything follows together; the speed shows beside it (1.000x, 1.050x …). It needs a MASTER BPM to start. Click again to go back to normal speed. |
| GRID | Shows or hides the PATTERN row, the BAR row and the grid lines through the lanes. While it is on, MIDI pieces snap to the beat when you drag them. |
| 4/4 | The time signature. Click: 4/4 → 3/4 → 6/8 → 2/4 → 5/4 → 7/8 → 12/8 → 6/4. Right-click: backwards. Beside it, the BPM the grid is counted at (the MASTER BPM, or 120 when there is none). |
| PATTERN 4 BARS | How many bars one pattern is: 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16. Click for the next, right-click for the one before. Drawn only when the row has room. |
| EXPORT TO PRODUCER | Renders every MIDI channel's pieces to audio on the PRODUCER (see EXPORT TO PRODUCER below). While it runs it reads EXPORTING nn% and the channel's name, with a bar under it; a click stops it. Drawn only when the row has room. |
| 2:00 across | How much time the width of the lanes shows now. |
| PLAY / STOP | Starts and stops the arrangement from where the playhead is. |
| |< START | Puts the playhead back at 0:00. |
| - / + | Zoom out / in by 1.6 times, about the middle of the view (from 5 seconds to 2 hours across). |
| Ruler | What it shows | Click | Right-drag |
|---|---|---|---|
| PATTERN row (top) | A cyan band per pattern, light and dark in turn, numbered P1, P2 … where the number fits. A pattern's start is a cyan mark down through both rows. | Playhead to the start of that pattern. | Slides the view. |
| BAR row | Bar numbers from 1; short ticks for the bars between, and for the beats when there is room. | Playhead to the nearest bar line. | Slides the view. |
| Time ruler | The clock (0:00, 0:10 …). The step follows the zoom, from 1 second to 1 hour. | Playhead to exactly that time. | Slides the view. |
The PATTERN and BAR rows show only while GRID is on. Zoomed out, the numbers thin out (every 2nd, 4th … bar; a band for 2, 4 … patterns) instead of running together.
The numbered bars run down through the lanes as faint lines, and the beats as fainter ones when every bar is numbered. Pattern starts are cyan lines, drawn only where they are at least 60 pixels apart, so a zoomed-out lane is never hidden behind a fence.
A red line, 2 pixels wide, with a small triangle at the top, from the top of the rulers down to the last lane. It shows where the arrangement plays, or will start from. The view does not follow it by itself: slide the view to find it.
A beat is a note of the signature's lower number: 4/4 counts quarter notes, 6/8 counts eighths. The BPM always counts quarter notes. So at 120 BPM a bar of 4/4 lasts 2 seconds and a bar of 6/8 lasts 1.5 seconds.
Every lane starts with its channel's head, 92 pixels wide; the timeline starts after it.
| Part | What it is | Mouse |
|---|---|---|
| Number (01, 02 …) | The channel's position, the same number its PLAYER strip shows. | — |
| KIND chip | AUDIO, MIDI or SPECIAL. | Click: the next kind. Right-click: the one before. |
| M | Mutes the channel (red when on). The same MUTE as on the PLAYER. | Click. |
| S | Solos the channel (gold when on). | Click. |
| Name (second row) | DECK A, DECK B or the channel's name. Shown when the lane is tall enough. | — |
| Anywhere else in the head | Selects the channel; the head lights. Click it again to select nothing. | Click. |
With a STEMS view on, the column also lists KICK, BASS, DRUMS, TONAL beside their bands (see STEMS below).
There is one selected channel for the ARRANGER and the PLAYER. Select it on either page and the other shows it too.
A lane's colour says its channel's kind: AUDIO blue, MIDI violet, SPECIAL amber. Lanes of the same kind walk through three shades so they still read apart. The DECK A and DECK B lanes keep the decks' colours from the mixer: DECK A light blue, DECK B warm amber. A clip's waveform is drawn in its lane's colour, so a clip moved to another lane changes colour.
| Gesture | Does |
|---|---|
| Wheel, or two fingers up / down | Scrolls the lanes up and down (when there are more than fit). A wheel notch glides 30 pixels; a trackpad moves the lanes exactly as far as your fingers. |
| CTRL+wheel or CMD+wheel | Zooms the time about the pointer: the moment under it stays put. From 2 seconds to 2 hours across. |
| SHIFT+wheel, or a two-finger sideways swipe | Slides along the song. It moves by pixels, smoothly; to reach far, zoom out first. |
| Right-drag on a ruler | Slides the view; the moment you grabbed stays under the pointer. |
| - / + | Zoom out / in by 1.6 times about the middle. |
The wheel works while the pointer is over the rulers or the lanes. At first the lanes show 2:00 across.
| Where you press | Drag does |
|---|---|
| The middle of the clip | Moves it in time, and onto another lane if you go up or down. Clips move freely, they do not snap to the grid. |
| The lower part of the left / right edge | Trims the start / end. Trimming the start keeps the sound under it in place. A light grip shows on both edges while the pointer is on the clip. |
| A yellow dot at a top corner | Fade in (left) / fade out (right). The ramp is drawn over the clip, and the waveform shrinks with it. |
| The dot in the middle of a fade | Bends the fade: up for a fast start, down for a slow one. |
| SHIFT + press on the clip | Duplicates it (trim, fades, curves and all) and you drag the copy. |
| Right-click the clip | Removes it, at once. |
A piece is a part of MIDI notes on a PLAYER lane (any lane but DECK A's and DECK B's: the deck lanes take no MIDI). It plays into that channel's instrument. Its start, length and notes are in musical time (quarter notes), so it follows the BPM. A lane can hold any number of pieces.
A new piece is called MIDI 1, MIDI 2 …; a recorded one takes the session's name (session 3).
| Mouse | Does |
|---|---|
| Drag the piece | Moves it. While GRID is on it snaps to the beat. Drag up or down to move it to another PLAYER lane (never onto a deck lane). |
| Drag its right end (the last few pixels; a light grip shows there) | Makes it longer or shorter, on the beat while GRID is on. Notes past the end are not played. |
| Double-click | Opens it in the MIDI editor. |
| Click a LOOPER n chip (shown while the pointer is on the piece) | Sends that pattern to the Kadabra LOOPER. The click does not move the piece. |
| Right-click | The piece menu (below). |
| Item | Does |
|---|---|
| Edit notes… | Opens the MIDI editor on it. |
| Duplicate | A copy right after it (a whole number of bars later), named … copy. The copy has no recorded take behind it. |
| Delete | Removes it (and closes the MIDI editor if it was open on it). |
| Send pattern N to the Kadabra LOOPER | N is the pattern under the pointer when you right-clicked. |
| EXPORT TO PRODUCER (every MIDI channel) | The same as the top row's button: all MIDI channels, not just this piece. |
Press ESC or click anywhere else to close a menu without choosing.
A session saved by an older K-Player may show a recorded take as a violet strip with a tick per note at the bottom of a lane. It still plays.
Press RECORD in the top section, play, and press STOP. Then:
With nothing armed, RECORD takes every channel in use; a PLAYER channel with clips or pieces on its lane counts as in use.
A recorded piece remembers the audio file its channel recorded at the same time, and the bar it arrived on. That is how EXPORT TO PRODUCER can put the fixed version exactly under the recording. A drawn piece, or a copy, has no take behind it.
A clip carries a small chip at its bottom right (when the clip is wide and tall enough):
A deck lane with no clip on screen keeps a STEMS chip at the right end of its marker strip; it opens the view and loads (or makes) the deck's own stems.
Once a deck lane's clip has its stems, the arrangement plays it through them, at the deck's stem levels and mutes.
The STEMS view (on the DECK A and DECK B lanes) splits the lane into four bands, KICK, BASS, DRUMS, TONAL, and makes the lane taller. Each band has a line: that stem's level over time, from silent at the bottom to full at the top.
To move a clip while its lane shows the bands, grab it by its top strip, above the bands.
The DJ-DECK's stem faders show the level the line gives.
In the channel column, each stem's name has an M beside it. Click it to mute that stem: its sound goes, its fader stays where it is. It is kept in the session.
In EDIT, right-click the M to give it a CC of its own (the CC grid, or LEARN). A small dot on the M shows it has one; it answers on the deck's MIDI channel.
With the STEMS view on, each stem's name in the column has a -> MIDI chip:
| Stem | -> MIDI makes |
|---|---|
| BASS | The bass line as notes (one note per stroke, the track's own tuning taken out). The kick and drums that bled into the bass stem are left out. |
| KICK, DRUMS | Their hits as notes. |
| TONAL | Not yet: its chip reads later (it plays many notes at once). |
It takes that stem of every clip on the lane and puts the notes on a new MIDI channel named after the track (Groove Track BASS), with one piece exactly under each clip, holding only what the clip plays. Nothing is quantized. The chip shows … while it works (about a second a track). Then choose the new channel's instrument on the PLAYER page.
If a clip's stems are not made yet, it says so: make them with the clip's chip, then press -> MIDI again.
The workflow it finishes: you record; the audio goes to the PRODUCER and each MIDI channel's notes come here as a piece; you fix the notes; then EXPORT TO PRODUCER plays each MIDI channel's pieces through its own instrument and inserts, faster than real time, and puts the sound on the PRODUCER, ready to mix and master.
exports/ARRANGER/<session>/.A pattern is a number of bars of the song, counted from bar 1. With PATTERN 4 BARS, pattern 1 is bars 1-4, pattern 2 is bars 5-8, and so on. Patterns show as cyan bands on the PATTERN row, cyan lines in the lanes and pieces, and bands on the MIDI editor's ruler.
The length is set by the top row's PATTERN button (1, 2, 4, 8, 16 bars), by the MIDI editor's PATTERN list, or by the Kadabra itself when its structure changes (SysEx PATTERN LENGTH, 1 to 64 bars). It starts at 4 bars and is kept in the session.
Three places, one click each: a LOOPER n chip on a piece in the ARRANGER (it appears when the pointer is on the piece and that pattern's part is wide enough), TO LOOPER n on the MIDI editor's ruler, or Send pattern N to the Kadabra LOOPER in the piece menu.
K-Player writes the notes of that piece that start inside the pattern, with the tempo and time signature, to ~/Music/Tribal-Tools/Kadabra-Link/looper.mid, then tells the Kadabra on its port that the file is ready. The message says how many notes went, for example PATTERN 2 (4 bars, 31 notes) -> the Kadabra LOOPER. With no Kadabra port it still writes the file and says so.
The window is titled K-Player — MIDI — piece name · channel 3 Keys, and can be resized. It plays through the lane's own channel, so its instrument is what you hear. It warns in the grid when it cannot be heard: this channel has no instrument: put one in its INSTRUMENT box on the PLAYER page, or the ARRANGER page is OFF: switch it ON to hear this.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| PLAY / STOP | Plays the piece from its start (the ARRANGER's playhead moves too). |
| LOOP | On (at first): the piece plays round and round. |
| FOLLOW | On: the view follows the playhead. |
| Name line | The piece, its channel, its length in bars and how many notes. |
| PATTERN 4 BARS (list) | The same PATTERN length as the ARRANGER's button. |
| UNDO / REDO | Undo and redo note edits (up to 200 steps). |
| - / + / FIT | Zoom out / in; FIT shows the whole piece and all its notes. |
| SNAP | On: notes snap to the grid when written, moved or stretched. |
| GRID list | 1/1 · 1/2 · 1/4 · 1/8 · 1/16 (at first) · 1/32 · 1/4 T · 1/8 T · 1/16 T (T = triplet). |
| LEN list | How long a written note is: = GRID (at first) · 1/32 · 1/16 · 1/8 · 1/4 · 1/2 · 1 BAR. |
| QUANTIZE | Moves the notes' starts toward the grid. Works on the selected notes, or all notes when none is selected. |
| Strength list | 100% (onto the line) · 75% · 50% · 25%. |
| Swing list | no swing · swing 15% · swing 30% · swing 50%: every second grid line comes that much later. |
| + ENDS | Quantize the note ends too. |
| KEY list | KEY OFF · KEY AUTO (the key the decks are in, or the Kadabra's if it spoke last) · a seven-note scale on a tonic. The list opens with the twelve tones in their colours: click one for the tonic, then pick the scale. The key's notes are lit in the grid. |
| < / > | Move the key's tonic down / up a semitone. |
| IN KEY | On: a note you write lands on the nearest note of the key. |
| Chord list | NOTE · TRIAD · 7TH: one click writes a note, or the key's chord on that note. |
| DRAW | SELECT | What a drag on empty grid does: write a note, or draw a selection box. |
| Where | Gesture | Does |
|---|---|---|
| Grid, empty | Click (drag right) | Writes a note (or chord) at the snapped beat; drag right for its length. |
| Grid, a note | Drag | Moves the note (and the other selected notes) in time and pitch; you hear the new pitch. |
| Grid, a note's right end | Drag | Lengthens or shortens it (and the other selected notes). |
| Grid, a note | SHIFT+click | Adds it to the selection, or takes it out. |
| Grid, a note | OPTION+drag | Drags a copy; the originals stay. |
| Grid, empty | CMD+drag (or drag with SELECT) | Draws a box that selects; with SHIFT it adds to the selection. |
| Grid | Right-click / right-drag | Erases the notes it touches. |
| Ruler | Click | Plays from there. |
| Ruler, the orange triangle | Drag | Moves the piece's end (the orange line). The piece also grows by itself to hold its notes, to the next bar line, and never shrinks by itself. |
| Ruler, TO LOOPER n | Click | Sends that pattern to the Kadabra LOOPER. |
| Keyboard (left) | Click / drag | Plays the key you press, so you can find a note. |
| Anywhere | Wheel · SHIFT+wheel · CMD+wheel · OPTION+wheel | Up and down the keys · sideways · zoom time about the pointer · row height. |
Notes wear the Kadabra's tone colours; the bright line across a note's top is its velocity. The line at the bottom is the editor's hint line: at its left, what the thing under the pointer does (with nothing there, how to write notes); at its right, the note under the pointer and its place (bar.beat.sixteenth), and how many notes are selected.
The VELOCITY lane under the grid shows each note's velocity as a stem. Drag across it to paint; SHIFT+drag draws a straight line (a crescendo). With notes selected, only they change.
| Button | Does |
|---|---|
| VEL 100 bar | Click along it: the velocity of new notes, and of the selected ones. |
| LOUDER / SOFTER | +8 / -8. |
| ACCENT | The first beat of each bar stands out, the other beats hold, notes between beats step back. |
| HUMANIZE | Each velocity a little different. |
| CRESC / DECRESC | From soft to loud / loud to soft across the notes. |
| FIXED | Every note at the VEL value. |
The buttons work on the selection, or on every note when nothing is selected.
At the bottom: the controller moves of the piece, one kind at a time. Pick the kind from its list: the ones the take recorded, then CC 1 mod, CC 11 expr, CC 74 cutoff, BEND and PRESSURE to draw fresh (marked (new)).
| Key | Does |
|---|---|
| SPACE | Play / stop the piece. |
| Q | Quantize. |
| DELETE / BACKSPACE | Delete the selected notes. |
| CMD+A · C · V | Select all · copy · paste (at the playhead while playing, otherwise at the pointer). |
| CMD+D | Duplicate the selection right after itself. |
| CMD+Z / SHIFT+CMD+Z | Undo / redo. |
| UP / DOWN | Up / down a semitone; with SHIFT, an octave. |
| LEFT / RIGHT | Earlier / later by a grid step; with SHIFT, a bar. |
| ESC | Closes an open list and clears the selection. It never closes the window. |
The arrows work on the selection, or on every note when nothing is selected.
| Where | Click | Right-click | Drag / double-click |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top row buttons | As in the top-row table | 4/4 and PATTERN step back | — |
| PATTERN row | Playhead to that pattern's start | Right-drag slides the view | — |
| BAR row | Playhead to the nearest bar | Right-drag slides the view | — |
| Time ruler | Playhead to that time | Right-drag slides the view | — |
| Channel column | KIND steps, M, S, or selects the channel | KIND steps back; a stem's M (EDIT) assigns a CC | — |
| Audio clip | — | Removes it | Move · trim · fade · bend a fade; SHIFT+drag duplicates |
| MIDI piece | LOOPER n chip sends a pattern | Piece menu | Drag moves; drag the end lengthens; double-click opens the MIDI editor |
| Empty PLAYER lane | Places the track picked in TRACKS | Add a MIDI piece here (1 bar) / (4 bars) | Double-click: a 4-bar piece and the editor |
| Empty deck lane | Places the track picked in TRACKS | — | — |
| Stem band (STEMS view) | — | Right-drag erases | Drag draws the level |
| STEMS / + STEMS chip | Opens the view, or makes the stems | — | — |
| Lower edge of a marker strip | — | That lane back to normal height | Drag: that lane's height |
| Strip under the last lane | — | The add-a-channel menu | — |
| Size line (bottom) | — | — | Drag: all lanes' height |
| Key | Does |
|---|---|
| SHIFT+SPACE | PLAY / STOP (the TRANSPORT's). |
| TAB / SHIFT+TAB | Next / previous page. |
| UP / DOWN (LEFT / RIGHT) | Step the selected channel. |
| M · S · C · R | Mute · solo · CUE · ARM of the selected channel. |
| SHIFT held | A clip drag duplicates; the wheel slides sideways. |
| CTRL / CMD held | The wheel zooms. |
| ESC | Closes an open menu. It never quits K-Player. |
A right-click on an audio clip opens no menu: it removes the clip.
The production page: your recorded takes on 16 audio lanes, mixed, mastered and exported to one WAV file.
| Band | What is there |
|---|---|
| Above the page | The top section and the page tabs, the same on every page. While the PRODUCER is showing, the TRANSPORT's PLAY plays this page; RECORD is what fills it. |
| Controls row | PRODUCER · MASTERING and its three boxes · the area text (EXPORT: all or EXPORT AREA, with its start and end times) · the EXPORT button at the right. |
| Ruler | Ten marks in minutes and seconds, from 0:00. Click it to move the music, drag across it to mark the EXPORT area, right-click it to clear the area. |
| Lanes | Numbered 01, 02 … Each lane's head is at the left (number, name, M, S, three inserts, the fader with its level in dB); its takes run along the timeline to the right. |
| Right edge | BUS 1, BUS 2 and the MASTER strip, as on every page. The PRODUCER does not go through the buses or the MASTER's inserts: only the MASTER fader sets how loud you hear it. |
| Under the page | The hint line: point at a lane, a take, a box, the ruler or EXPORT and it says what it does. |
The rest of K-Player (top bar, top section, BUS and MASTER strips, windows, files):
The sound goes through the page in this order, top to bottom:
| Step | What happens |
|---|---|
| 1. The take | A file, read from the disk while it plays. |
| 2. The lane's inserts | insert 1 → 2 → 3, on that lane only. |
| 3. The lane's fader | Its level. M and S decide whether the lane is heard at all. |
| 4. The sum | Every lane that is heard, added together. |
| 5. MASTERING | The three boxes in the controls row, 1 → 2 → 3. |
| 6. Out | EXPORT writes exactly this to the file. To your speakers it goes through the MASTER fader, your listening level. |
Not in the path: the BUS 1 / BUS 2 sends, and the MASTER strip's three inserts and its PAN. The MASTER fader changes how loud you hear the PRODUCER, never the exported file. The PRODUCER is heard on the MIX output, not in the CUE headphones.
The PERFORM | EDIT switch is in the top bar.
| PERFORM | EDIT | |
|---|---|---|
| Waveforms | Each take's overview | The overview, with the take read from its file in fine detail on top |
| Right-click a filled insert box | A message: plug-ins are changed in EDIT | The menu: Remove Plugin · Bypass Plugin · Change Plugin… |
| Drag an insert box onto another | Nothing | The two plug-ins swap boxes |
Everything else works in both: PLAY, M, S, the faders, the ruler, EXPORT, opening a plug-in's window, and putting a plug-in into an empty box.
| ARRANGER | PRODUCER | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A performance timeline: what you are going to play | A production timeline: what you already played |
| Lanes | The PLAYER's channels | 16 lanes of its own |
| Holds | Audio clips and MIDI pieces | Audio takes only |
| Plug-ins | Each channel's instrument and inserts | Three inserts per lane and the MASTERING chain, shared with no other page |
| Ends in | EXPORT TO PRODUCER: its MIDI as audio, sent here | EXPORT: a WAV file |
When you press STOP (or Auto-Stop in Audio Settings ends the take), K-Player puts what it recorded on two pages:
| What was recorded | On the PRODUCER | Elsewhere |
|---|---|---|
| An AUDIO channel | Its sound, as a WAV, on its lane | - |
| A MIDI channel | Its instrument's sound, as a WAV, on its lane | Its notes, as a MIDI piece on its ARRANGER lane |
| The MASTER | The whole mix, on a lane called MASTER, placed first. It starts muted when its parts are here too, because it is the same music | - |
| A channel that stayed silent | Left out (quieter than -66 dB from start to end) | - |
The screen then says what went where, for example: session 4: 3 takes on the PRODUCER, 1 MIDI part on the ARRANGER -- PLAY it there. The page does not open by itself; the play position is set to the start of the new take, so PLAY on the PRODUCER plays it. If nothing was playing: nothing was recorded -- nothing was playing.
At the start of a lane's timeline, on a dark strip, a label says what the lane is:
| Label | Meaning |
|---|---|
| MASTER -- the whole mix | The MASTER take. , muted: its parts are here is added while it is muted and not soloed. |
| a MIDI channel's sound -- its notes are on the ARRANGER | A MIDI channel's audio. Its notes went to the ARRANGER. |
| the ARRANGER's version: its notes played by its instrument -- 24-bit, normalized | Made by EXPORT TO PRODUCER. Its name is light blue and ends in (ARRANGER). |
| (no label) | An AUDIO channel's take, or a file you dropped. |
RECORD can be started and stopped by MIDI: CC 102 on MIDI channel 16 (64 and up starts the take, below 64 stops it), or K-Player's SysEx RECORD START / RECORD STOP. However the take is started, its audio lands here when it ends. The full MIDI map is on the K-Player page:
| Control | Where | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Number | Top left | 01 to 16: the row the lane is shown on. |
| Name | After the number | The channel the takes came from (03 Keys, MASTER), or the dropped file's name. Light blue for the ARRANGER's version. - on an empty lane. |
| M | Top, after the name | MUTE: the lane is not heard and not exported. Red while on. |
| S | Beside M | SOLO: while any lane is soloed, only the soloed lanes are heard and exported. Gold while on. |
| + insert 1 · 2 · 3 | Second row | The lane's own three plug-in boxes, in order. |
| Fader | Second row, after the inserts | The lane's level, with its value in dB above it. |
An empty lane shows only its number, - and empty -- RECORD, and the audio arrives here. Its M, S, inserts and fader appear with its first take. A click on a lane selects it (a blue outline); nothing else depends on the selection.
| Do this | Result |
|---|---|
| Press on it and drag | The handle jumps to the pointer and follows it |
| Wheel over it (or over its dB value) | Half a dB a notch |
| Right-click or double-click it | Back to 0 dB |
The same law as every fader in K-Player: 0 dB at 0.8 of the way (the small tick), +6 dB at the right end, silence at the left end. The value reads like -3.5 dB, 0.0 dB, +2.0 dB or -inf. PLAY and EXPORT both follow it, and the session keeps it.
The lanes have a fixed height, and the page shows as many as fit in the window. The lanes do not scroll: make the K-Player window taller to see all 16. The wheel on this page zooms the time instead (see PLAY, the ruler and zoom).
A green line over the ruler and the lanes shows where the music is: bright while it plays, dim when stopped. It is drawn only while that point is inside the view.
| It looks | It means |
|---|---|
| Dark, + insert 1 | Empty |
| Green, with a name | That plug-in is working |
| Dark red, grey name | That plug-in is bypassed: the sound goes past it |
A lane's three boxes are that lane's own. The three MASTERING boxes work on the sum. None of them is shared with another page.
| Do this | Mode | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Click an empty box | Both | The Plugins window opens for it, saying for example insert into PRODUCER 3 · slot 1 or insert into MASTERING · slot 2. Choose a plug-in there. |
| Click a filled box | Both | The plug-in's own window opens, titled for where it sits, for example K-Player - Producer lane 3 - Insert 2 or K-Player - Producer Mastering - Insert 1. A box opens when the button comes back up on it. |
| Right-click a filled box | EDIT | A menu: Remove Plugin · Bypass Plugin (Un-bypass Plugin when bypassed) · Change Plugin… (the Plugins window opens, saying what it replaces). ESC closes the menu. |
| Right-click a filled box | PERFORM | A message: plug-ins are changed or removed in EDIT mode -- switch PERFORM | EDIT in the top bar. |
| Drag a filled box onto another box | EDIT | The two plug-ins swap boxes, each with its settings and its window. While you drag, the box it would land on is outlined and the name follows the pointer. Let go on nothing: it stays where it was. |
| EXPORT | |
|---|---|
| The file | A 24-bit stereo WAV, at the engine's sample rate (Audio Settings). |
| What is in it | Every lane that is heard, through its three inserts and its fader, added together, through the MASTERING chain. |
| Left out | Muted lanes; and, while any S is lit, every lane that is not soloed. |
| Not in it | The MASTER fader, the MASTER strip's inserts and PAN, BUS 1 and BUS 2. |
| Levels | Taken when you press EXPORT: moving a fader during the export does not change the file. Nothing is normalized; peaks above 0 dBFS are clipped. |
| Speed | Faster than real time: as fast as the plug-ins allow. |
| While it runs | The button reads EXPORTING and the percentage, with a bar along its bottom. The PRODUCER stops playing and stays silent. Clicking EXPORT again does nothing. You may change pages meanwhile. |
| When it is done | A message: exported, the file's name and its folder. If it goes wrong: EXPORT FAILED: and the name. |
exports inside the folder K-Player records into (the one you chose at your first RECORD). Before you have chosen one: exports inside K-Player's data folder.PRODUCER 0-00 to 4-12.wav.(2), (3) … is added.exports folder.PRODUCER 0-00 to 4-12.wav.On the ARRANGER, EXPORT TO PRODUCER (its top row, or EXPORT TO PRODUCER (every MIDI channel) in a MIDI piece's right-click menu) plays every MIDI channel's notes through that channel's own instrument and inserts, offline, and sends the sound here.
exports/ARRANGER/, in a folder named after the session.The ARRANGER page:
| Message | Why, and what to do |
|---|---|
| nothing on the PRODUCER yet -- RECORD a take and it arrives here | PLAY with no takes. RECORD something, or drop files on a lane. |
| nothing on the PRODUCER to export yet -- RECORD a take | EXPORT with no takes. |
| the EXPORT area is empty | The area has no length. Mark it again, or right-click the ruler to export everything. |
| EXPORT could not start | The audio engine did not take the export. Press EXPORT again. |
| exported … (folder) | Done: the file's name and where it is. |
| EXPORT FAILED: … | The file could not be written. Check that the record folder (and its drive) is there and can be written to. |
| the PRODUCER cannot play … (WAV, FLAC or MP3) | The file is not one of those, or is damaged. |
| no audio engine: nothing can play | K-Player is running without its audio engine: nothing on this page can play or export. |
| plug-ins are changed or removed in EDIT mode -- switch PERFORM | EDIT in the top bar | A right-click on a plug-in box in PERFORM. Switch to EDIT. |
| Where | Action | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Ruler | Click | The music moves there |
| Ruler | Drag | Marks the EXPORT area |
| Ruler | Right-click | Clears the EXPORT area |
| A take | Click | The music moves there |
| A lane's head | Click | Selects the lane (blue outline) |
| M / S | Click | MUTE / SOLO on or off |
| Lane fader | Press and drag | Sets the level |
| Lane fader | Wheel | Half a dB a notch |
| Lane fader | Right-click or double-click | 0 dB |
| Anywhere else on the page | Wheel | Zooms the time (5 seconds to 2 hours) |
| Insert or MASTERING box | Click | Empty: the Plugins window. Filled: the plug-in's window |
| Insert or MASTERING box | Right-click (EDIT) | Remove / Bypass / Change menu |
| Insert or MASTERING box | Drag onto another box (EDIT) | The two plug-ins swap |
| EXPORT | Click | Writes the area (or everything) to a WAV |
| PLAY (top section) | Click / right-click | Play or stop the PRODUCER / back to 0:00 |
| A lane | Drop files or a folder | One file per lane, downward |
| Keyboard | SHIFT+SPACE | Play or stop the PRODUCER |
| Keyboard | TAB / SHIFT+TAB | Next / previous page |
| Keyboard | ESC | Closes an open menu or list (it never quits K-Player) |
The keys M, S, C, R and the arrow keys work on the PLAYER and the ARRANGER, not on this page.
Kadabra's pad sampler: 11 groups of 12 pads, round robins and velocity layers, beat repeat, an envelope, delay and reverb, a guitar amp, an EQ and the factory banks.
| Area | What is there |
|---|---|
| Top line | The TRIBAL TOOLS logo (version and Language) · K-SAMPLER · the BANK box with the bank's name · SAVE · the mode button (PERFORM MODE / EDIT MODE) · VOICES 16 · SELECT: PAD / SELECT: NOTE · the OUT meter · the host's tempo (122.0 BPM). |
| KADABRA column (far left) | The Kadabra drawn as a laser outline, the master LEVEL fader and the thin VEL fader (velocity → level). |
| PADS | Group buttons 1–11 and the 12 pads of the group on screen. |
| PERFORM panel | BEAT REPEAT with SYNC / FREE · POSITION with REVERSE · the ENVELOPE (GLOBAL / GROUP / PAD; ATTACK, DECAY, SUSTAIN, RELEASE). |
| Sends panel | DELAY with TIME and FEEDBACK · REVERB with SIZE and DAMP. |
| AMP panel | Left: AMP, the model, the pickup, DRIVE, TONE. Right: EQ and its curve with three points. |
| Sample Editor (right) | The cell you are editing: ROUND ROBIN 1–5, File... EXPORT PLAY RESET LOOP DETECT TONE, VELOCITY 1–8, the waveform and GAIN, the zoom bar, OUTPUT, FADE IN / FADE OUT, PITCH, the file line, and the pad's own row (LEVEL, DLY SEND, RVB SEND, DE-CLICK). |
| INPUT (under the editor) | AUTO-FILL · AUTO-TONE · AUTO-CUT with GATE · MIC-REC. |
| Status line (bottom) | Left: the latest message, or the MIDI LEARN prompt. Middle: the MIDI monitor (the last note or CC). Right: the bank's file, or unsaved bank. |
The button in the top line shows the mode you are in: blue PERFORM MODE, amber EDIT MODE. Click it to switch. A new K-Sampler starts in PERFORM MODE; the mode is saved with the host project.
| PERFORM MODE | EDIT MODE | |
|---|---|---|
| An empty pad reads | + 10 | assign 10, or arm 10 while MIC-REC is armed |
| New Bank, a bank from the menu, Load Bank or Import with unsaved changes | goes ahead at once: the music carries on | asks first: Save first / Discard the changes and ... / Cancel |
| The EQ | the curve and its points | also the values of the points and the analyser behind the curve |
| Everything else | the same in both: a click on a loaded pad plays it and shows it in the Sample Editor, every knob and drag works, MIC-REC and AUTO-FILL work, and a MIDI program change never asks. | |
See the section With K-Player and Kadabra OS below, and
Click the logo at the top left. The menu shows the version (K-Sampler 0.3.11 · Tribal Tools · Kadabra) and Language ▸ thirteen languages: English, עברית, العربية, Français, Español, Português, हिन्दी, 中文, 한국어, Українська, Slovenčina, Italiano, Ελληνικά.
Every label, button, menu and hint changes. The feature names (BEAT REPEAT, AUTO-FILL, MIC-REC ...), units, the parameter names your host shows and the status messages stay in English. Hebrew and Arabic read right to left inside each label; the layout stays where it is. The choice is for every K-Sampler on this computer.
The box shows the bank's name (it reads BANK only while the bank has no name). An orange dot means unsaved changes. When a MIDI program change brought the bank, a small line under the box says so: MIDI bank 0 · program 3. Click the box for the menu:
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| Factory ▸ | The factory banks. The first line reads bank select 0 · program change:, then every bank with its program number, A to Z, counting from 0 (0 Acoustic Drums, 1 Electric Piano ...). The bank that is loaded is ticked. |
| User 1 ▸ (and each of your bank folders) | Your banks, numbered the same way, under bank select 1 · program change: (User 2 is bank select 2, and so on). (empty) when the folder has none yet. |
| New User Bank Folder | Makes the next folder (User 2 ...): a new MIDI bank. The status line says its bank select number. |
| New Bank | An empty, unsaved bank called Untitled, every setting at its default. |
| Load Bank... | Opens a .ksbank file, or a K-DJer .kdj session (its deck A pads). |
| Save · Save As... (copies the samples in) · Save As... (leaves the samples where they are) | The same as SAVE and its right-click menu (next card). |
| Import K-DJer Session (deck A)... / (deck B)... | Takes one deck's pads from a session of K-DJer (K-Player's earlier name) as a new, unsaved bank named <session> (deck A). |
| Show Bank in Finder (Show Bank in Explorer on Windows) | Shows the bank's file. Greyed while the bank is unsaved. |
| Open My Banks Folder · Open Factory Banks Folder · Open Recordings Folder | Open those folders. The factory item appears only when factory banks are installed. |
A bank change never stops the music: the new bank is read while the old one plays on, it is switched in all at once, notes that are sounding ring out with their own sound, and banks you used recently stay in memory, so going back to one takes only milliseconds.
SAVE turns amber when the bank has unsaved changes. What a click does depends on the bank:
| The bank is ... | Click SAVE |
|---|---|
| a factory bank | Makes your own copy without asking, in User 1 (or the next bank folder with room: a folder holds 128 banks), under the bank's own name (a number is added if that name is taken). The status line says where it went and its bank select and program numbers. The samples stay in the factory folder. The factory bank itself is never changed. |
| one of your banks | Writes it where it is. |
| new, or imported | Opens Save as your own bank, as Save As... (copies the samples in). |
Right-click SAVE: Save / Save As... (copies the samples in) / Save As... (leaves the samples where they are). Save As makes a folder <name>/<name>.ksbank with a samples folder. copies the samples in puts a copy of every sample there (instant on a Mac's APFS disk), so the folder works on its own; leaves keeps pointing at the original files. The dialog opens in your bank folder and suggests the bank's name (<name> - mine for a bank that is not yours).
How many sounds can play at once. Click VOICES 16 for the list: 4, 8, 12, 16, 24, 32, 48, 64 (default 16). When every voice is busy, a new note takes over a voice that is fading out, or else the oldest one, which fades away in 5 ms. A pad plays one sound at a time: hitting it again restarts it. Saved in the bank. Right-click: control menu.
SELECT: PAD (default): the Sample Editor shows the pad you click. SELECT: NOTE (lit): it shows the pad you play from MIDI, and its group comes up. Click to switch; right-click for MIDI Learn.
In both settings, when the pad on screen sounds, the editor shows the take and the velocity layer that played.
OUT shows K-Sampler's output from −48 to +6 dB: green, yellow above −6 dB, red from 0 dB. At the far right is the host's tempo (122.0 BPM), which the beat repeat follows in SYNC. It reads no tempo when the host sends none. working... shows under it while a job runs in the background (loading, filling, detecting a tone, exporting).
The wide upright fader with a grip: the level of the whole instrument, from -inf dB to +6 dB (default -0.9 dB), shown under it. Moving it never clicks. Saved in the bank. Double-click resets; right-click for MIDI Learn.
Above it is the Kadabra, drawn as a laser outline from a photograph.
The thin fader beside LEVEL: how much the note's velocity changes its level. off (0 %, the default for a new bank) = every note at full level; 100 % = soft notes are much quieter than hard ones. Velocity always chooses the velocity layer, whatever VEL is set to. Saved in the bank; double-click resets; right-click for MIDI Learn.
Two columns: 1–6 and 7–11. Click one to show its 12 pads; the header then reads group 2 · notes 12-23. A small dot on a button means that group has at least one loaded pad.
Pads are numbered down each column: 1–4, 5–8, 9–12. MIDI note n plays pad n: group 1 = notes 0–11, group 2 = 12–23 ... group 11 = 120–127. A group is one octave from C (pad 1) to B (pad 12). The last four pads of group 11 have no MIDI note and read no note; you can still click them.
| State | Look |
|---|---|
| Empty | Dark grey: + 05 (PERFORM MODE), assign 05 (EDIT MODE), arm 05 (EDIT MODE with MIC-REC armed). |
| Loaded | Blue-grey. A thin bar along the top: green for cells played at the pitch they were recorded at (within half a semitone), orange for transposed ones (the legend original / pitched is in the header). Then ▶, five dots (a lit dot = a loaded take), 4 vel when more than one velocity layer is used, the tone name at the right (D), and the file name at the bottom. |
| Playing | Green, pulsing with the output, with a ■ square at the top right. |
| Recording | Red, reading RECORDING (MIC-REC). |
| Selected | A green outline: this pad is in the Sample Editor. |
| During a drag | Orange outline = the drop will swap; blue outline = it will copy (→ 05 on an empty pad). The pad you drag is dimmed. |
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| Load Sample... | A WAV, AIF, AIFF, FLAC or MP3 into take 1, layer 1. |
| Add Round-Robin Take... | Into the next free take (greyed when all 5 are used). |
| Add Velocity Layer... | Into the next layer number no take uses yet (greyed when all 8 are used). |
| Detect Tone | Finds the note of the pad's first take. |
| Export Edited WAV... | Writes that cell as it sounds to a WAV file. |
| Auto-Fill the Group with This Pad | Fills the whole group from this pad now, whether AUTO-FILL is lit or not. |
| Clear Pad | Empties every take and layer of the pad. |
Every item except Load Sample... needs a loaded pad.
A beat repeat replays a pad you hold, again and again, in time. Every pass starts again from POSITION and gets the envelope again. One knob, one button under it:
| SYNC divisions (of a 4/4 bar) | In order, knob turned up |
|---|---|
| Bars | 4 · 3 · 2 · 1.5 · 1 |
| Parts of a bar | 3/4 · 1/2 · 3/8 · 1/4 · 1/5 · 3/16 · 1/6 · 1/8 · 1/10 · 1/12 · 1/14 · 1/16 · 3/64 · 1/24 · 1/28 · 1/32 · 1/48 · 1/64 · 1/96 · 1/128 |
From MIDI: CC 40–51 are hold buttons: while one is held (value 64 or more) the repeat runs at its division: 40 = 4, 41 = 2, 42 = 1, 43 = 1/2, 44 = 1/4, 45 = 3/16, 46 = 1/8, 47 = 1/12, 48 = 1/16, 49 = 1/24, 50 = 1/32, 51 = 1/64. A hold wins over the knob. CC 89 turns the repeat off. The knob's right-click menu also learns the other mode's setting (TIME, when FREE or The division, when SYNC), Hold buttons: a CC per division (all 25) and the Beat repeat OFF button.
Where every note, and every beat-repeat pass, starts: 0–100 % of the way from START to END (default 0 %). It shows as a POS line on the waveform. With REVERSE on it counts back from END. For all pads. Drag, scroll, double-click to reset, right-click for MIDI Learn.
All pads play backwards, from END towards START. The button reads ◀ REV when it is on. It works live: notes that are sounding turn round where they are, smoothly, and a beat repeat keeps its rhythm. The Sample Editor's PLAY always plays forwards. Click to switch; right-click for MIDI Learn.
| Knob | Range · default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| ATTACK | 0 – 4 s · 0 | How long the sound takes to fade in. |
| DECAY | 0 – 10 s · 0 | How long it takes to fall to the SUSTAIN level. |
| SUSTAIN | 0 – 100 % · 100 % | The level while the key is held. |
| RELEASE | 0 – 10 s · 0 | After the key is let go: at 0 the sound stops; in between it fades over that time; turned all the way up it reads 1-SHOT: the sound ignores the note-off and plays to its end. |
Two columns under the PERFORM panel. The thick slider at the top of each column is the send; the thin ones under it are its settings. Each label shows its value (DELAY 15%). Drag sideways; double-click resets; right-click for MIDI Learn.
| Control | Range · default | MIDI |
|---|---|---|
| DELAY | 0 – 100 % · 0 % | CC 112 |
| TIME | 1 – 1000 ms · 80 ms (a new time fades over, without a sweep) | learn |
| FEEDBACK | 0 – 98 % · 50 % | learn |
| REVERB | 0 – 100 % · 0 % | CC 113 |
| SIZE | 0 – 100 % · 72 % | learn |
| DAMP | 0 – 100 % · 35 % | learn |
The effects add only their echo and reverb to the dry sound. Every pad has its own share of each send, DLY SEND and RVB SEND, in the Sample Editor (0–200 %, 100 % = the panel's value). All six are saved in the bank.
The left half of the bottom panel. Turn the unnamed knob, or click the model's name (Off) for the list. Click the pickup (Direct ▾) for the pickups. DRIVE is how hard the model is pushed, TONE runs from dark to bright (both 0–100 %, default 50 %). Every model is matched to the level of the dry sound, so turning the knob changes the character, not the loudness. Changing model or pickup fades over in 30 ms, so you can do it while playing. Saved in the bank; every part can be MIDI-learned (right-click; the title blinks AMP LEARN while it waits).
| Model | Sound |
|---|---|
| Off | No amp. |
| Jazz Clean · Clean Twin | A warm jazz clean · a glassy, scooped clean. |
| Chime · Blues | A chiming British combo just breaking up · a warm tweed-style blues amp, mids forward. |
| Overdrive · Crunch | An overdrive pedal's mid boost into a clean amp · a classic rock crunch. |
| British Lead · Hi-Gain · Metal | A hot British lead · thick, high-gain · tight with scooped mids. |
| Fuzz · Octave Fuzz | A woolly fuzz · a fuzz with an octave up. |
| Lo-Fi | Bit-crushed and narrow, like a small radio. |
Pickups: Direct · Single-coil · Humbucker · P-90 · Neck (warm) · Piezo. A pickup other than Direct colours the sound even with the model on Off. With Off and Direct the AMP does nothing and costs nothing.
The right half of the bottom panel. EQ at its top switches it on and off (off by default). The curve shows what the EQ does from 30 Hz to 16 kHz; its three points are the settings:
| Point | Range · default | How to move it |
|---|---|---|
| HP (left) | 20 Hz – 2 kHz · 20 Hz | Drag sideways: everything below is cut (12 dB per octave). |
| LP (right) | 200 Hz – 20 kHz · 20 kHz | Drag sideways: everything above is cut. |
| NOTCH (middle) | 40 Hz – 16 kHz · 1 kHz; Q 0.5 – 30 · 4; off | Click it to switch it on (solid) or off (hollow). Drag sideways for its frequency, up for a narrower cut, down for a wider one. |
In EDIT MODE the EQ box shows the spectrum of K-Sampler's output: blue bars, the lows on the left (30 Hz) and the highs on the right (16 kHz); a taller bar is louder. It works with EQ on or off, so you can look at a sound before you decide what to cut.
Note 4 · group 1 pad 05 · RR 2 VEL 3, then the file name (or (empty)). Everything below acts on that one cell (pad, take, velocity layer), except the pad's own row at the bottom, which is for the whole pad. With several cells picked (SHIFT-click), the title also says 3 selected.
Five boxes at the top right: the pad's takes. Each hit plays the next loaded take. Click a box to edit that take; an empty box (+) opens the file panel when you let go. A bar along the bottom of a box is green (original pitch) or orange (pitched); a small green dot marks the take that is sounding.
Right-click: Load into this take... / Clear this take. SHIFT-click: pick the whole take as well (see below). Drag: move or copy the take (see Drag & drop).
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| File... | Loads a WAV, AIF, AIFF, FLAC or MP3 into this cell. The cell's edit goes back to the raw sound. |
| EXPORT | Writes the cell as it sounds (trim, pitch, fades, gain) to a 16-bit WAV at the file's own rate; the suggested name is <name>_edit.wav. |
| PLAY / STOP | Plays exactly this cell, from START, forwards, never beat-repeated. It reads STOP (lit) while the pad sounds; click it to stop. |
| RESET | START and END to the whole file, fades 0, PITCH 1×, GAIN 0 dB, LOOP off. The file and its tone stay. |
| LOOP | Lit: the cell starts again at START when it reaches END. |
| DETECT TONE | Finds the note of the trimmed sound (tone: ... while it works, then tone: D), counting PITCH in. The status line adds how sure it is and the tuning in cents. (silent) when there is no clear note. |
| ORIGINAL / PITCHED (right edge) | ORIGINAL in green: played at its recorded pitch; ORIGINAL (tuned +12 c) for a small correction; PITCHED +2.00 st in orange when transposed by half a semitone or more. |
The velocity layers of the take on screen. The note's velocity picks the layer: velocities 1–127 are split evenly over the layers the pad uses, and the text beside the boxes says which ones this layer answers (answers velocity 64-95). A take that lacks that layer plays its nearest one.
| Layers used | Velocities each layer answers |
|---|---|
| 2 | 1–63 · 64–127 |
| 3 | 1–41 · 42–84 · 85–127 |
| 4 | 1–31 · 32–63 · 64–95 · 96–127 |
| 8 | 16 velocities each: 1–15, 16–31 ... 112–127 |
A box with +: no take has this layer; with ·: another take has it. Click selects (an empty box opens the file panel when you let go); right-click: Load into this layer... / Clear this layer; SHIFT-click picks it too; drag moves it.
The thin zoom bar under the waveform: click along it to set the zoom (left = the whole sound). Under it, OUTPUT draws the sound exactly as it will play (trim, pitch, fades and gain) with its length and speed: OUTPUT 1.920s @ 1.00x. Then START 0.048s END 1.968s LENGTH 1.920s: LENGTH is the time you hear, after PITCH.
Two sliders, 0–2 s each (the handles on the waveform reach 5 s). A fade is measured in the time you hear, after PITCH. Drag; double-click or right-click sets 0.
The cell's pitch from ¼× to 4× (two octaves down to two up), marked 1/4 1/2 1x 2x 4x; the readout says 1.000x +0.00 st. Drag it; double-click: back to 1×. A new pitch names each cell's tone again.
48000 Hz · stereo · 2.40s · /path/to/the/file.wav. Samples keep their own rate and channels; a stereo file plays in stereo. The grey line at the bottom repeats the gestures: drag START / END / fades · scroll = zoom · drag takes and velocity layers onto each other, or onto a pad · right-click for more.
The row under PITCH belongs to the whole pad, all its takes and layers. It travels with the pad when you swap or copy it, and is saved in the bank.
| Control | Range · default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| LEVEL | −30 to +6 dB · 0 dB | The pad's own level, with a snap at 0 dB. |
| DLY SEND | 0 – 200 % · 100 % | The pad's share of the DELAY send (100 % = the panel's value). Snaps at 100 %. |
| RVB SEND | 0 – 200 % · 100 % | The same for REVERB. |
| DE-CLICK | on / off · on | On: this pad's sound is never cut hard. Stops, steals, restarts, END, loop turns and beat-repeat passes fade out in 5 ms, and starts in the middle of a sound fade in over 2 ms. Turn it off on a kick to get its hard edges back. |
Double-click or right-click a slider: back to its default. These have no MIDI.
Turns one pad into a whole group, with all its takes and layers. Press it (it lights) and the group on screen is filled from its source pad: the last pad you touched there, or else the first loaded one. While it is lit, loading a new sample into any pad of the group on screen fills the group again, in either mode. It reads FILLING... while it works, and is dimmed when the group has nothing loaded. The filled pads share the source's audio, so a fill costs no memory. A source nobody has trimmed starts 2 ms before its sound, so the notes are tight. Default MIDI: CC 86.
The status line says what happened (Auto-Fill: group 2 is now C..B chromatic ...) or why not (Auto-Fill: load a sample into a pad of group 2 first).
On (the default): AUTO-FILL tunes every pad to its note, pad 1 = C up to pad 12 = B, so the group plays a real chromatic octave. Off: every pad plays the sound at its own pitch: twelve copies of the same hit, good for drums. Right-click for MIDI Learn.
For one recording that holds several separate sounds (hits with quiet between them). With AUTO-CUT on, AUTO-FILL (and a MIC-REC take with AUTO-FILL lit) cuts the recording where it rises above the GATE: pad 1 gets the first sound, pad 2 the second, and so on. Fewer than 12 sounds repeat around the group; more become further round-robin takes, up to 60.
Records K-Sampler's side-chain input, called Rec In (route a microphone or any track to it in the host), straight into a pad, in either mode. Press MIC-REC so it lights: the status line explains it.
g01_p05_<number>.wav), with the quiet at its end trimmed, and goes into take 1, layer 1 of that pad, starting where the sound begins.MIC-REC: nothing usable recorded (is the side-chain input connected?) means no sound reached Rec In: check the host's routing.
Where you drop decides. Onto something loaded: the two swap (orange). Onto something empty: the sound is copied there and also stays where it was (blue); a copy uses no extra memory. A cell whose file is missing counts as loaded, so it is swapped, never written over. A label follows the mouse: → copy ... into ... or ⇄ swap ... with .... Nothing is ever lost.
| Drag ... | ... onto | Result |
|---|---|---|
| a pad | another pad, in any group | the whole pads swap, or copy into an empty one: takes, layers, edits, envelope and the pad's row |
| a group button | another group button | all 12 pads and the group's envelope swap, or copy into an empty group |
| a ROUND ROBIN box | another take box, of this pad or another | the whole take (every layer) swaps, or copies into a free take |
| a ROUND ROBIN box | a pad in the grid | copied into that pad's next free take; a full pad says so |
| a VELOCITY box | another layer box, of any pad | the layer moves with every take it has: swap when in use, copy when free |
| a VELOCITY box | a pad in the grid | lands in that pad's layer of the same number |
| a take onto a layer box, or a layer onto a take box | the other row | one cell moves across: RR 3 dropped on VEL 5 puts its sample in layer 5 of the same take |
Note n plays pad n (0–127) and brings its group up. A note-off stops the pad (RELEASE 0), fades it (a RELEASE time), or does nothing (1-SHOT); under a beat repeat the last pass always plays out.
A note-on for a key that is still down, within 0.3 s of the last one, is ignored: some controllers keep sending note-ons while a pad is pressed, and the sound would restart every few milliseconds. The status line's monitor shows it: note 36 ON (x3 repeats dropped).
The pitch wheel bends everything that sounds, notes already ringing too, over the bend range: 2 semitones by default, set from the PITCH fader's right-click menu (Pitch bend range: 2 st ▸ 1 to 24 semitones). The PITCH fader shows where the wheel stands. At rest it changes nothing.
A MIDI bank is a folder, a program is a bank in it. Bank select (CC 0 or CC 32, whichever is not zero) chooses the folder: 0 = Factory (also when no bank select was ever sent), 1 = User 1, 2 = your next bank folder, and so on, A to Z. The program number is the bank's place in that folder, A to Z, counting from 0: the BANK menu writes the number beside every bank, so you can read a set list off it before a show.
| Bank select 0, program | Factory bank (with the seven factory banks installed) |
|---|---|
| 0 | Acoustic Drums |
| 1 | Electric Piano |
| 2 | Electronic Drumkit |
| 3 | Grand Piano |
| 4 | Guitar |
| 5 | Handpan |
| 6 | Percussion |
K-Sampler tells the host its banks as one preset list called Banks: the factory banks A to Z, then each of your bank folders in order. A bank whose name already appears earlier is marked with its folder, for example Guitar (User 1). Picking a preset from the host's own menu loads that bank. The list is read again whenever the bank changes or a Save As adds one.
midi-learn.txt for new K-Samplers, and inside each host project for that project.| CC | Control | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 40 – 51 | Beat repeat hold: 4, 2, 1, 1/2, 1/4, 3/16, 1/8, 1/12, 1/16, 1/24, 1/32, 1/64 | active while the value is 64 or more |
| 86 | AUTO-FILL | 64 or more = on |
| 87 | MIC-REC | 64 or more = armed |
| 89 | Beat repeat OFF | |
| 110 | Group | the value runs from group 1 to group 11 |
| 112 | DELAY send | 0 – 100 % |
| 113 | REVERB send | 0 – 100 % |
| 0 / 32 | Bank select | always reaches the banks, whatever else is learned |
These are the same numbers K-Player uses for its pads. Change any of them with MIDI Learn. Every control is also a host parameter (Level, Voices, Beat Repeat, Delay Send, Reverb Send, Attack, Amp, EQ High-pass ...), so you can automate it in a DAW.
On the PLAYER page, load K-Sampler into a MIDI channel's instrument box. Because K-Sampler takes audio, an IN chip appears beside the box: click it and choose an input in REC IN (into the instrument). That input goes into K-Sampler only (for MIC-REC) and is never heard through the channel. Right-click the chip to take it away.
K-Player's THE SAME LANGUAGE: ON setting keeps K-Sampler in K-Player's language.
In the Sampler shape (Shape 2), Combis 1–10 of the Main section move the Kadabra's keyboard to a range of notes. Since note n plays pad n, each range is two K-Sampler groups (its top C is pad 1 of the next group):
| Combi | Notes | K-Sampler groups |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (−2) | 0 – 24 | 1 and 2 |
| 2 (−1) | 12 – 36 | 2 and 3 |
| 3 (0) | 24 – 48 | 3 and 4 |
| 4 (1) | 36 – 60 | 4 and 5 |
| 5 (2) | 48 – 72 | 5 and 6 |
| 6 (3) | 60 – 84 | 6 and 7 |
| 7 (4) | 72 – 96 | 7 and 8 |
| 8 (5) | 84 – 108 | 8 and 9 |
| 9 (6) | 96 – 120 | 9 and 10 |
| 10 (7) | 108 – 127 | 10 and 11 |
Thumb 2 (Set Key) of the Sampler shape moves the tone the keyboard starts on. Fill a group with AUTO-FILL and AUTO-TONE and it plays in tune with these octaves.
Under BANK ▸ Factory, numbered 0–6 for program change. They are read-only: SAVE makes your own copy (see SAVE). Everything in them stays editable in the Sample Editor.
| # | Bank | What is in it |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Acoustic Drums | A drum kit (kicks, snares, rims, hi-hats, crashes, rides ...) on 128 pads, up to 8 velocity layers and 2 takes. 1-SHOT; VEL off (the layers carry the loudness); 32 voices. |
| 1 | Electric Piano | 96 keys (groups 2–9), up to 4 velocity layers. A short release; VEL 98 %; 48 voices. |
| 2 | Electronic Drumkit | Electronic kicks, snares, hi-hats and digital drums on 132 pads. 1-SHOT; 32 voices. |
| 3 | Grand Piano | 108 keys (groups 2–10), up to 4 velocity layers. A 333 ms release; VEL 98 %; 48 voices. |
| 4 | Guitar | Single notes in three styles: groups 1–3 short plucks, groups 4–8 long fingerstyle, groups 9–11 octaves. 3 takes per pad (its own recording and the semitone below and above, retuned). A 1.65 s release; VEL 60 %; 32 voices. Try it through the AMP. |
| 5 | Handpan | Every group a sound family, every pad its own note (pad 1 = C ... pad 12 = B), up to 5 takes × 4 velocity layers, tuned and levelled cell by cell. 1-SHOT; VEL 50 %; 32 voices. |
| 6 | Percussion | Clicks, rims, hits, shakers, congas and more on 128 pads. 1-SHOT; 32 voices. |
The Grand Piano, Electric Piano, Acoustic Drums, Electronic Drumkit and Percussion banks were recorded key by key from the earlier Kadabra sampler instruments.
Counted from the seven factory banks as they ship (takes = round-robin takes, layers = velocity layers per take):
| # | Bank | Pads (MIDI notes) | Takes · layers | Sample files |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Acoustic Drums | 128 (notes 0–127) | 1 take (2 on six pads of group 6) · 1 to 8 layers | 284 FLAC · 85 MB |
| 1 | Electric Piano | 96 (notes 12–107, groups 2–9) | 1 take · 4 layers (one key has 3) | 359 FLAC · 177 MB |
| 2 | Electronic Drumkit | all 132 (notes 0–127, and the four pads with no note) | 1 take · 1 layer | 94 (78 FLAC, 16 WAV) · 3 MB |
| 3 | Grand Piano | 108 (notes 12–119, groups 2–10) | 1 take · 4 layers (one key has 3) | 347 FLAC · 286 MB |
| 4 | Guitar | all 132 | 3 takes (2 on three pads) · 1 layer | 123 WAV · 295 MB |
| 5 | Handpan | all 132 | 5 takes · 1 to 4 layers | 292 WAV · 278 MB |
| 6 | Percussion | 128 (notes 0–127) | 1 take · 1 layer | 97 FLAC · 11 MB |
All seven: 1,596 sample files, about 1.1 GB. The last four pads of group 11 have no MIDI note: in the banks that fill them, play them with the mouse.
| Bank | RELEASE | VEL | VOICES | Sends |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acoustic Drums | 1-SHOT | off | 32 | DELAY 1 % (TIME 239 ms, FEEDBACK 29 %) |
| Electric Piano | 67 ms | 98 % | 48 | none |
| Electronic Drumkit | 1-SHOT | 100 % | 32 | none |
| Grand Piano | 333 ms | 98 % | 48 | none |
| Guitar | 1.65 s | 60 % | 32 | none |
| Handpan | 1-SHOT | 50 % | 32 | none |
| Percussion | 1-SHOT | 100 % | 32 | DELAY 6 % (TIME 77 ms, FEEDBACK 5 %) |
In every factory bank LEVEL reads -0.9 dB, REVERB is 0 %, the AMP is Off, the EQ is off, ATTACK and DECAY are 0 and SUSTAIN 100 %, and no group or pad has its own envelope. Change any of it and press SAVE to keep it in your own copy.
Each bank is a folder of its own, its .ksbank file beside a samples folder:
| Folder | |
|---|---|
| Mac | /Library/Application Support/Tribal-Tools/K-Sampler/Factory/<bank>/ |
| Windows | C:\ProgramData\Tribal-Tools\K-Sampler\Factory\<bank>\ |
| What | Mac | Windows |
|---|---|---|
| The plug-in | /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/K-Sampler/K-Sampler.vst3 | C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\K-Sampler.vst3 |
| Factory banks | /Library/Application Support/Tribal-Tools/K-Sampler/Factory | C:\ProgramData\Tribal-Tools\K-Sampler\Factory |
| Everything of yours | ~/Music/Tribal-Tools/K-Sampler | <your Music folder>\Tribal-Tools\K-Sampler |
Inside your folder:
| Path | What |
|---|---|
Banks/User 1/<name>/<name>.ksbank + samples/ | Your banks. Every folder in Banks is one MIDI bank (User 1 = bank select 1); User 1 is made for you. |
Recordings/ | MIC-REC takes. |
midi-learn.txt | The MIDI Learn map for new K-Samplers. |
settings.txt | The language and PITCH FREE / SNAP. |
K-Player's own folder, ~/Music/Tribal-Tools/K-Player, sits beside it.
| Where | What |
|---|---|
The bank (.ksbank) | Its name; every cell (file, START / END, fades, PITCH, GAIN, LOOP, tone); group and pad envelopes; every pad's row (LEVEL, DLY SEND, RVB SEND, DE-CLICK); LEVEL, VEL, VOICES, 1-SHOT; the global envelope; DELAY and REVERB with their settings; the AMP; the EQ. |
| The host project (K-Player session, DAW song) | All of the bank above and its file name, plus the beat repeat setting, SYNC / FREE and its time, REVERSE, AUTO-TONE, AUTO-CUT, GATE, SELECT, the bend range, the group on screen, the cell in the editor, PERFORM / EDIT MODE and the MIDI Learn map. A project opens exactly as it was, even with an unsaved bank. |
settings.txt, midi-learn.txt | For every K-Sampler on the computer: language, PITCH FREE / SNAP, and the MIDI map a new K-Sampler starts with. |
A bank is a plain text file. Samples inside its folder are named relative to it, so a bank folder can be moved, zipped or copied between a Mac and Windows.
| You see | What to do |
|---|---|
| No sound | Check the pad is loaded (blue-grey), LEVEL is up, MIC-REC is not lit (armed, notes record instead of playing) and the OUT meter moves. In K-Player, check the channel's MIDI channel and that its bypass is off. |
| No bank loaded: BANK > Factory Banks has the banks that came with K-Sampler | Load one from BANK ▸ Factory. |
| BEAT REPEAT reads no tempo | The host sends no tempo. In K-Player the MASTER BPM is always there; elsewhere start the host's transport, or press SYNC for FREE. |
| bank "...": 120 layers loaded, 9 missing (first: ...) | Sample files were moved or deleted. K-Sampler already looks for them in its bank folders. Next time save with Save As... (copies the samples in) so the bank keeps its own copies. |
| (read-only: SAVE makes your own copy), or a path in the Factory folder, on the right of the status line | It is a factory bank. Press SAVE to make your copy. |
| MIC-REC: nothing usable recorded (is the side-chain input connected?) | Nothing reached Rec In: route the microphone to K-Sampler's side-chain input (in K-Player: the deck's audio input, or the IN chip). |
| Auto-Fill: load a sample into a pad of group 2 first | The group on screen is empty: load a sample first. |
| Auto-Cut: nothing in pad 1 rises above the -30 dB gate | Drag GATE lower (towards −60 dB) and fill again. |
| program 9: the presets of Factory stop at 6 | That number does not exist in the bank folder chosen by bank select. Read the numbers in the BANK menu. |
| cannot make ... -- SAVE will ask where to save | K-Sampler could not create its User 1 folder; SAVE then asks you where to save. |
| A greyed Factory Banks: none installed in the BANK menu, or a factory bank is missing | Those banks were not installed. Run the K-Sampler installer again and tick them (Mac: Customize; Windows: Choose the banks). |
Kadabra's synthesizer: wavetables and the audio input as sound, a step sequencer inside the sound, and the Kadabra's nine motion sensors on every knob.
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3.Everything sits on one screen, in four rows. Top to bottom, left to right:
| Area | What lives there |
|---|---|
| Top bar | TRIBAL TOOLS logo (language menu) · K-SYNTH and its version · the set and group field (FACTORY K-Bass) · PRESET with the ◀ ▶ arrows · SAVE AS / SAVE · VOICES · POLY / MONO / LEGATO · the page tabs SYNTH, FX, TABLE · IN and OUT meters · the host tempo and how many voices sound. |
| Left column | The KADABRA drawing, the master LEVEL fader and the thin VEL fader (the arrow between their titles: VEL feeds LEVEL). |
| Row 1 | OSC with its tabs A B C · SUB · NOISE · AUDIO IN. |
| Row 2 | FILTER · ENV 1 · ENV 2. |
| Row 3 | LFO 1 · LFO 2 · SHIMMER, a third of the row each. |
| Row 4 | MOD (its chips and the list of routes, four at a time) · MICROS (nine cells) · SAFETY. |
| Right edge | The piano roll (A0 – C8): the notes playing light up, a click plays one. |
| Status line | Left: what the control under the mouse does, a message, or the MIDI LEARN prompt. Right: the preset's file (or factory preset). |
The tabs in the top bar switch the middle of the window; the top bar, the left column and the piano roll stay.
| Tab | What it holds |
|---|---|
| SYNTH | The oscillators (OSC A, B and C), sub and noise, the audio input, filter, envelopes, LFOs, SHIMMER, MOD (the routes, four at a time), the nine Micros and SAFETY. |
| FX | STEP-SEQ (the step sequencer) and the EQ, the effects after the voices (STEREO, WARMTH, GLUE, PHASER, VOCODER), MOD with every source as a chip (eight routes at a time), DELAY, REVERB, CHORUS and the VOICE extras. |
| TABLE | The wavetable editor: draw, shape the harmonics, write a formula, process and morph the cycles, then USE ON OSC. |
It listens on every MIDI channel; the host (K-Player's MIDI IN) decides which channel reaches it. See
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| Each voice | OSC A and OSC B (wavetables with unison), OSC C (octaves of the note), SUB, NOISE and the audio input → FILTER (drive in front) → the voice's LOW CUT → ENV 1 (loudness) × velocity. |
| After the voices | VOCODER → WARMTH → PHASER → CHORUS → the delay and reverb sends → EQ → GLUE → STEREO. |
| Last, always | SAFETY: broken-number guard, DC blocker, load guard, true-peak limiter (−0.3 dBTP), clip guard, a 50 ms fade-in at start. |
Every addition is off by default and costs nothing while off. Every knob glides, so a jump never clicks; changing preset under a held note morphs into the new sound in about 15 ms.
Shows the set in small letters (FACTORY in blue, USER 1, USER 2 … in orange) and the group of the sound playing (K-Bass). Under it, MIDI: CC 0 = 0, CC 32 = 0: the two MIDI numbers that reach this group. Click it to open the PRESETS panel and browse every set and group.
The name of the sound playing: blue for a Factory preset, orange for your own. An orange dot means it has changed since it was loaded or saved. Under it: program 3 of 152 · factory (or yours). Click for the menu:
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| 1 … n and the names | The presets of this group in this set; the one playing is ticked. Click one to play it. |
| Save: replace … | Only for your own preset: writes the sound over its file. |
| Save As… (choose the set, the group and the name) | Opens the PRESETS panel to save. |
| Browse every set and group… | Opens the PRESETS panel to load. |
| Init preset | A plain starting sound: every control at its default, OSC A on the Basic Shapes table, the filter open, the rest off. |
| Open the Banks folder | Shows ~/Music/Tribal-Tools/K-Synth/Banks in the Finder. |
◀ plays the preset before this one and ▶ the next one, in the same set and group, going round at the ends. From a sound that is not in the list (Init, a file from elsewhere), ▶ plays the group's first preset and ◀ its last.
The button turns orange when the sound has changed. It reads SAVE AS when the sound came from the Factory, from Init, or was never saved: a click opens the PRESETS panel to save it as your own. The Factory is never written over. On your own preset it reads SAVE, and a click offers Save: replace User 1 / K-Bass / My Bass or Save As….
How many notes sound at once. Click for the list: 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, 24, 32, 48 (default 16). One note more takes over the oldest, faded out in 3 ms, never cut. A preset can bring its own number.
Click for the list; it turns green when it is not POLY. Right-click = the control menu (MIDI learnable).
Glide (0 – 2000 ms, default 0) and Bend Range (0 – 24 semitones, default 2) have no knob in the window: they are host parameters, saved in the preset. In MONO and LEGATO a glide slides only between connected notes; in POLY it slides from the last note.
IN: the audio input's level. OUT: the output, green below −6 dB, yellow up to 0 dB, red above. A red FEEDBACK under IN means the input is feeding back and has been turned down. At the right: the host's tempo (122.0 BPM, or no tempo) and how many voices sound now (3 voices).
The three tabs SYNTH, FX and TABLE choose the page; the one shown is lit. On the keyboard, TAB goes to the next page (SYNTH → FX → TABLE → SYNTH) and SHIFT+TAB to the one before. The window takes the keyboard when you click in it; keys other than TAB and ESC go on to the host. With a mod source chosen, a page change shows that source's lines on the new page.
Click the TRIBAL TOOLS logo: the version line, Language ▸ and Open the K-Synth folder. Thirteen languages: English, עברית, العربية, Français, Español, Português, हिन्दी, 中文, 한국어, Українська, Slovenčina, Italiano, Ελληνικά. The choice is kept for every K-Synth on this computer. K-Synth's own names (STEP-SEQ, SHIMMER, WARP, OSC, LFO, ENV, MOD, the effects), the units and the preset names stay in English. Hebrew and Arabic read right to left inside each line; the layout stays as it is.
A preset lives in a SET, in a GROUP inside it, under its NAME. The panel opens over the dimmed window: titled PRESETS to load (from the set and group field, or Browse every set and group…), or SAVE AS to save.
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| SET | FACTORY (blue; read-only while saving), USER 1, USER 2 … (orange), each with how many presets it holds, and + NEW SET. |
| GROUP | The sixteen K groups, then your own groups in that set, each with its count and its CC 0 = n, and + NEW GROUP in a User set. The wheel scrolls it. |
| PRESETS (loading) | The group's presets, numbered: click plays one and the panel stays open, double-click plays it and closes. The wheel scrolls. |
| NAME (saving) | The name, typed in place (Return saves, Escape closes), above the presets already in that group: click one to take its name (the button then says REPLACE, in orange). |
| The footer | Loading: Factory / K-Bass: 152 presets · MIDI: CC 32 = 0, CC 0 = 0. Saving: saves as ~/Music/… or REPLACES …. Buttons: FOLDER (the group's folder in the Finder), CANCEL and SAVE / REPLACE when saving, CLOSE when loading. |
A click outside the panel, or on its ✕, closes it. A preset's name may hold any letters except / \ : (they become dashes), up to 64 characters.
A group you make is a folder in that set. Your groups from every User set together, sorted A … Z, are numbered after the sixteen K groups: the first is CC 0 = 16, then 17 and on. So K-Player and the Kadabra reach them by bank select like any other group. A folder added in the Finder shows up the next time the panel opens.
2072 factory presets, 128 in each group (K-Bass 152). They are installed as files in /Library/Application Support/Tribal-Tools/K-Synth/Factory/<group>/, and a copy is inside the plug-in. Every one names its six Micros (1 – 6) and where they rest. In every group: CC 21 – 23 swing the sound around how it was designed, CC 24 brings STEP-SEQ in, CC 25 morphs it, CC 26 makes it bloom. Micros 7 – 9 (CC 27 – 29) are left free in every factory preset. Nothing in the Factory moves the pitch, so every sound stays in tune whatever the Micros do.
| CC 0 | Group | Presets | Good to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | K-Bass | 152 | Programs 129 – 152 are 24 dry EDM basses (no reverb or echo, tight, a resonant low end at 60 – 80 Hz), made for C1 – C2. |
| 1 | K-Pads | 128 | |
| 2 | K-Leads | 128 | |
| 3 | K-Plucks | 128 | |
| 4 | K-Keys | 128 | |
| 5 | K-Bells | 128 | |
| 6 | K-Ambients | 128 | |
| 7 | K-Percussion | 128 | |
| 8 | K-FX | 128 | |
| 9 | K-Vocoder | 128 | The VOCODER is on: they need a voice on the audio input, and are silent without one. |
| 10 | K-Winds | 128 | |
| 11 | K-Intelligent | 128 | |
| 12 | K-Heavy-Duty | 128 | |
| 13 | K-Splits | 128 | Two sounds across the keyboard, by the SPLIT key. |
| 14 | K-Audio FX | 128 | AUDIO IN is on FX: they are effects for the audio input, no note needed. |
| 15 | K-Polysynths | 128 |
The Factory is read-only. CC 32 picks the set: 0 = Factory, 1 = User 1, 2 = User 2 … A program change 0 – 127 then plays preset 1 – 128 of the group; K-Bass's 129 – 152 are chosen in the window or the host's list.
A console fader for the voices' level into the effects: +6 dB at the top, 0 dB (the brighter mark: the preset as it was made), −6, −24, −60 dB just above the bottom, and off (−∞) at the bottom. Every factory preset opens at 0 dB; its own loudness is kept apart (hover LEVEL and the help line says it). Drag it; double-click = −1.9 dB (Init's level); right-click = the control menu. The value is under the fader.
How much the key velocity sets the loudness: off = every note as loud, 100 % = soft keys quiet. Default 50 %. The arrow between the titles (LEVEL ← VEL) says that VEL feeds LEVEL. The same control sits as a small VEL knob inside ENV 1.
A keyboard standing at the right edge, A0 at the bottom to C8 at the top (C keys labelled). Every note K-Synth plays lights up, whoever plays it. Click a key to play it while the mouse is down: its left edge is soft, its right edge loud. Drag up or down for a glissando. Right-click a key for the split menu.
The SPLIT key divides the keyboard for the SPLIT mod source (−1 below it, +1 from it up): that is how one preset plays two sounds. It is always on the piano roll as an orange line with a tag (SPLIT C4): bright when a route uses SPLIT, when KEEP SPLIT is on, or while you set it; faint otherwise, so it can always be found.
The tabs A (blue), B (violet) and C (coral) choose which oscillator the controls at the right show. The display at the left draws all three cycles over each other as they really play: the table at its POSITION, then both WARPs. The chosen one is bright, the others grey, one that is not heard fainter still. Its corner reads A cycle 4 / 32: the cycle POSITION is on, of how many.
The box with the table's name (Rubber Bass). Click it for the list:
~/Music/Tribal-Tools/K-Synth/Wavetables).A wavetable is a row of single cycles (up to 256); POSITION moves through them. A preset that uses a file remembers its path; if the file has gone, the status line says wavetable missing and OSC A plays Basic Shapes. OSC C's menu has the factory tables only.
| Control | Range · default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| SUPER | on / off · off | The unison copies tuned unevenly, as in a supersaw (more motion); off: evenly. |
| WARP menu, WARP 2 menu | ten modes · Bend | How each WARP reshapes the cycle (table below). WARP 2 works after WARP. |
| POSITION | 0 – 100 % · 0 | Where in the table it reads: 0 = the first cycle, 100 % = the last, blended between. |
| WARP, WARP 2 | −1.00 … +1.00 · 0 | How much each WARP reshapes the cycle; 0 = the cycle as it is. |
| UNISON | 1 – 8 · 1 | Copies of the oscillator for every note. |
| DETUNE | 0 – 100 ct · 12 | How far apart the copies are tuned: a few cents for chorus, many for a wide supersaw. |
| WIDTH | 0 – 100 % · 50 % | How far the copies spread left and right. |
| BLEND | 0 – 100 % · 100 % | The outer copies' level against the centre one. |
| OCT · SEMI · FINE | −3 … +3 · −12 … +12 st · −100 … +100 ct · all 0 | Tuning in octaves, semitones and cents. |
| CRS | −48 … +48 st · 0 | Coarse tuning, smooth (no steps): for sweeps, and as a mod target. |
| LEVEL | 0 – 100 % · A 100 %, B 0 | The oscillator's level in the mix. |
UNISON, SUPER, the WARP modes, OSC B's mode, the sub's shape and octave, the noise colour, the drive type and the AUDIO IN mode are taken when a note starts: a change is heard from the next note. Everything else moves under a held note.
| Mode | What it does to the cycle |
|---|---|
| Bend | Bends the read through the cycle: it hurries through one part and lingers in the other (the sign of WARP picks which). |
| PWM | Takes a shifted copy of the cycle away from itself: from a saw, a pulse whose width WARP sets. |
| Mirror | Reads the cycle forward, then back: its second half becomes a mirror image. |
| Fold | Wave-folding: the wave folds over when it grows, adding bright harmonics. |
| Input FM | The audio input bends the oscillator's phase (it listens even with AUDIO IN off). |
| Even | Blends in the octave-up read: even harmonics. |
| Phase Dist | A smooth phase curve, as the old CZ synths had. |
| Sync | Hard sync up to 8 times, its restart smoothed so it never steps. |
| Window | The same read under a window: a moving formant. |
| Diode | An uneven (asymmetric) saturating shape. |
Modes that read faster use a darker copy of the table, so a warped high note does not alias.
OSC B has everything A has, plus a mode list under its knobs and an FM knob (0 – 100 %, lit only in FM):
In FM and RING, B shapes A even with B's LEVEL at 0.
A third wavetable oscillator that plays only whole octaves of the note, in STEP-SEQ's rhythm. All its controls are on the OSC section's C tab (its wavetable menu, and):
| Control | Range · default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| PITCH | Step-Seq / Fixed · Step-Seq | Step-Seq: plays the octave cells of the STEP-SEQ steps. Fixed: stays on its own octave. |
| PLAY | Pulses / Legato · Pulses | Pulses: sounds in STEP-SEQ's steps. Legato: holds through them. |
| POSITION | 0 – 100 % · 0 | Where in its table it reads. |
| LEVEL | 0 – 100 % · 0 | Its level; with STEP-SEQ on it follows STEP-SEQ's AMOUNT (CC 24 usually brings it in). |
| OCT | −2 … +3 · +1 | Its octave. |
| CRS | −48 … +48 st · 0 | Coarse tuning. |
| PLACE | 0 – 100 % · 50 % | Where it sits between left and right. |
| Tables | Names |
|---|---|
| 1 – 16 | Basic Shapes, Harmonic Stack, Pulse Width, Vowels, Drawbars, Bells, Octave Shimmer, Digital Steps, Phase Bend, Formant Sweep, Sync Sweep, Resonant Sweep, Hollow Reed, Crystal, Analog Saw, Grain |
| 17 – 32 | Round Sine, Soft FM, FM Bells, Vowel Choir, Breath Pipe, Bowed, Glass Harmonics, Warm Body, Spectral Scan, Even Halo, Air Harmonics, Brass Formant, Clarinet, Plucked String, Sine Pairs, Additive Morph |
| 33 – 48 | Saw Chain, Droop Pulse, Harmonic Comb, Ring Harmonics, Fold Sweep, Chebyshev, Spectral Glide, Vocal Window, Rubber Bass, Bit Shapes, Pluck Decay, Vowel Morph, FM Growl, Curved Saw, Hyper Pulse, Tape Organ |
The last sixteen have features inside the cycle (a tooth, an edge, a formant, a fold) that move as POSITION scans through them.
| Control | Range · default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Shape list | Sine, Triangle, Square · Sine | The sub oscillator's wave: Sine is pure weight, Square hollow and buzzy. |
| OCT -1 / OCT -2 | click switches · −1 | The sub one or two octaves under the note. |
| SUB | 0 – 100 % · 0 | The sub's level. |
| NOISE | 0 – 100 % · 0 | The noise's level: breath, air, the chiff of an attack. |
| WHITE / PINK | click switches · WHITE | White is bright hiss, pink softer and darker. |
| DRIFT | 0 – 100 % · 0 | A slow random wander of each note's pitch, like an old analog synth. |
K-Synth's audio input (a microphone, a deck, another instrument) can be played by every voice. Five buttons choose how:
| Button | What you hear |
|---|---|
| OFF (default) | The oscillators alone (the WARP mode Input FM still listens). |
| THRU | The input, opened and filtered by each note: it sounds only while a key is held, through the note's filter and envelope. |
| PITCHED | The input shifted to the note you play; ROOT is the input's own note (playing ROOT gives it unshifted). |
| RING | The oscillators multiplied by the input. |
| FX | The input through the filter and STEP-SEQ as an effect, with no note needed (its octave layer: IN OCT and OCT MIX in VOICE on the FX page). |
LEVEL 0 – 200 % (default 100 %): the input into the voices. ROOT C-1 … G9 (default C4). Under them: the IN meter and the feedback guard (feedback guard armed, tripped 0 times): when the input starts howling (a microphone hearing the speakers), it is turned down by 40 dB and the line turns red, FEEDBACK: the input is ducked, until it calms.
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| LOW (default) | Low-pass, 12 dB: the highs above the cutoff fall away. |
| BAND | Only a band around the cutoff. |
| HIGH | High-pass: the lows below the cutoff fall away. |
| NOTCH | A gap at the cutoff; the rest goes through. |
| LADDER | A ladder filter, 24 dB, saturating; RESO up to self-oscillation. |
| VOWEL | Two vowel formants: the cutoff knob (now called VOWEL) runs a-e-i-o-u, RESO is how narrow. |
| LOW 6 | One pole, 6 dB: round, never dull. |
| COMB | Peaks on the cutoff's harmonics (with KEY at 100 %: on the note's own), a pitch, metallic. |
| HARM | A band on the note's harmonic nearest the cutoff. |
Switching kinds crossfades, never clicks. The line at the panel's bottom describes the kind chosen.
| Control | Range · default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| CUTOFF | 20 Hz – 20 kHz · 20 kHz | The filter's frequency (CC 74 by default). |
| RESO | 0 – 100 % · 0 | A peak at the cutoff (CC 71 by default). |
| DRIVE | 0 – 100 % · 0 | Saturation in front of the filter: warmth, then grit. The small list above it picks how: Soft (default), Smooth, Tube (uneven, even harmonics). |
| ENV 2 | −96 … +96 st · 0 | How far ENV 2 moves the cutoff: up for a pluck or a swell, minus to close. |
| KEY | 0 – 100 % · 0 | How much the cutoff follows the key; 100 % = the same brightness on every note. |
ENV 1 is every note's loudness; ENV 2 is free: the filter's ENV 2 knob and any MOD slot use it.
| Attack | Decay | Sustain | Release | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Range | 0 – 10 s | 0 – 10 s | 0 – 100 % | 0 – 10 s |
| ENV 1 default | 5 ms | 200 ms | 100 % | 250 ms |
| ENV 2 default | 5 ms | 300 ms | 0 | 300 ms |
Two repeating waves to move anything in MOD. Each panel has:
| Control | Range · default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Shape list | Sine, Triangle, Saw, Square, S&H, Smooth, Chaos, Rise · LFO 1 Sine, LFO 2 Triangle | S&H: random steps. Smooth: random glides. Chaos: a Lorenz attractor, never the same twice. Rise: up once, then holds. |
| FREE / SYNC | · FREE | SYNC: the rate in note values of the host's tempo. FREE: in Hz. |
| RETRIG / RUNNING | · RETRIG | RETRIG: every note starts the LFO from its beginning. RUNNING: it runs on and notes join it where it is. |
| RATE | 0.02 – 40 Hz · LFO 1 2 Hz, LFO 2 0.5 Hz; or 4, 2, 1, 1/2, 3/8, 1/4, 1/6, 1/8, 1/12, 1/16, 1/24, 1/32 · 1/6 | How fast it cycles (1/4 = a quarter note). |
| DEPTH | 0 – 100 % · 100 % | How strongly it moves everything it is routed to. |
| FADE | 0 – 5 s · 0 | The time it takes to fade in after a note starts (vibrato that arrives late). |
The thin bar at the panel's right shows the LFO moving. Its SKEW (lean the wave forward or back) is in VOICE on the FX page.
LFO 1, LFO 2 and SHIMMER each have a VISUAL / KNOBS switch in the title row, as the envelopes do (remembered for next time).
The outer unison copies of OSC A jump by whole octaves in time, so a pad sparkles through its octaves while the key you play never changes (with one copy, all of OSC A jumps). The number at the right shows the step now (+12 st, or 0).
| Control | Range · default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Pattern list | Up, Up 2, Down, Up-Down, Random, Wide · Up | The octaves the copies step through. |
| SYNC / FREE | · SYNC | Steps in note values of the tempo, or in Hz. |
| RATE | 4 … 1/32 · 1/16; or 0.5 – 40 Hz · 6 Hz | How long each step lasts. |
| MIX | 0 – 100 % · 0 | How many copies jump; 0 = SHIMMER off. |
| GLIDE | 0 – 200 ms · 4 ms | How smoothly a copy slides to its new octave. |
The Kadabra's nine motion axes, three by sensor, each in a cell of its own (row 4 of the SYNTH page, beside MOD). On their own they move nothing: what each one moves is set in MOD. Every factory preset routes Micros 1 – 6; 7 – 9 are left for you to route.
| Micro | CC | Sensor | Range | How it moves |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 · 2 · 3 | 21 · 22 · 23 | accelerometer (blue) | −100 … +100 % (marked bipolar) | Rests in the middle and swings both ways. |
| 4 · 5 · 6 | 24 · 25 · 26 | gyroscope (orange) | 0 – 100 % | Sweeps up from zero. |
| 7 · 8 · 9 | 27 · 28 · 29 | magnetometer (lime) | −100 … +100 % (marked bipolar) | Rests in the middle and swings both ways. |
See
On the SYNTH page MOD (row 4, at the left) shows chips only for the sources that have no panel there: VELOCITY, KEY, WHEEL, PRESSURE, RANDOM, STEP-SEQ, ACCENT, ALTERNATE, SPLIT. The Micros, LFO 1 / 2, ENV 1 / 2 and SHIMMER are chosen on their own cells and panels. On the FX page every source is a chip (see MOD on the FX page). A badge on a chip's corner counts how many targets it moves. Hover a chip and the help line says what it is and what it moves now.
| Source | What it is |
|---|---|
| 1 … 9 (the Micros, by their names) | The Kadabra's sensors: 1 – 3 (blue) and 7 – 9 (lime) swing −1 … +1 around the middle, 4 – 6 sweep 0 … 1 (orange). |
| LFO 1 · LFO 2 | The repeating waves, swinging both ways (violet). |
| ENV 1 · ENV 2 | Each note's loudness envelope; the free envelope (green). |
| VELOCITY · KEY | How hard the key was struck (0 … 1, for the whole note); which key: 0 at middle C (C4), −1 two and a half octaves below, +1 as far above. |
| WHEEL · PRESSURE | The mod wheel; aftertouch, how hard a held key is pressed (0 … 1). |
| RANDOM · SHIMMER | A new random value for every note (−1 … +1); 1 while SHIMMER has a copy on another octave. |
| STEP-SEQ · ACCENT | The step sequencer's value times its AMOUNT; a pulse on every step, as tall as the step's bar, falling by DECAY. |
| ALTERNATE · SPLIT | +1 and −1 on every other note; −1 below the split key, +1 from it up. |
While a source is chosen, dragging a knob sets the modulation, not the knob. A free slot is taken for you and freed again at zero. With no source chosen, a knob that something moves carries a small dot in that source's colour.
The source you chose shows as a pill in its colour in MOD's title row (3 LEAN-LUSH ×), on the SYNTH and the FX page.
While a source is chosen, small tags appear in the title rows: PITCH, PAN and PITCH B in OSC, AMP in ENV 1 (tremolo with an LFO, swells with an envelope), ENV SPEED in ENV 2 (every envelope time at once), and ATTACK in VOICE on the FX page (ENV 1's attack alone). Drag a tag sideways for how much; it shows the amount (AMP +13%).
For a moment after you choose a source, every control it moves is boxed, with a line to it from where you clicked, and its MOD slots are boxed too. A target out of view gets a line to the OSC tab (A, B or C) or to the other page's tab that shows it. The status line then lists it: LFO 1 → Cutoff +5 %, Position B +22 %.
32 slots in one list, the same on both pages: four at a time on the SYNTH page, eight on the FX page. The title row counts them (1-4 / 32); the ▲ ▼ arrows turn a page and the wheel over the list moves one slot. Each is source list → target list and a depth slider, −100 … +100 % (double-click = 0). A coloured mark sits left of every slot that carries the chosen source. When all 32 are used, the status line says so.
| List | Choices, in the menu's order |
|---|---|
| Sources | Off, Micro 1 – 9, LFO 1, Env 2, Velocity, Key, Wheel, Aftertouch, Random, Shimmer, LFO 2, Env 1, Step-Seq, Accent, Alternate, Split |
| Targets | Off, Pitch, Position A, Warp A, Detune, Width, Osc A Level, In Level, Cutoff, Resonance, Drive, Amp, Pan, LFO 1 Rate, LFO 1 Depth, Shimmer Rate, Shimmer Mix, Delay Send, Reverb Send, Env Speed, Position B, Warp B, Osc B Level, FM, Sub Level, Noise Level, LFO 2 Rate, LFO 2 Depth, Pitch B, Drift, Osc C Level, Position C, Step-Seq Amount, Low Cut, Attack, Stereo Width, Air, Warmth, Chorus Mix, Phaser Depth, Warp 2 A, Warp 2 B |
At full depth Cutoff moves five octaves either way, the LFO rates four. Delay Send, Reverb Send, Stereo Width, Air, Warmth, Chorus Mix and Phaser Depth act on the whole sound, so they follow only the sources that are the same for every note: the Micros, Wheel, Aftertouch, Step-Seq and Accent. An LFO, an envelope, Velocity, Key, Random, Shimmer, Alternate or Split routed to them does nothing.
The fixed last stage: no bypass, no parameter. The panel shows:
| Item | What it shows or does |
|---|---|
| Scope | The output's waveform. |
| ECO · FULL · ULTRA | The load switch (default FULL). FULL plays every sound as designed and gives a heavy sound fewer voices to stay inside this K-Synth's share of the processor. ECO thins every new note (at most 2 unison copies an oscillator, no WARP 2) so more voices and more K-Synths fit. ULTRA plays every voice. A switch counts from the next note. |
| LIMIT | How far the limiter is pulling the peaks down (0.0 dB), and its ceiling -0.3 dBTP. |
| LOAD | How much of this K-Synth's share the sound takes (the bar is full at the share), or OVERLOAD. |
| Share box | How much of one processor core this K-Synth may take. Click: Auto (default: one core shared by the K-Synths running; it reads AUTO 1 core, AUTO 1/16 …) or a fixed 100, 50, 25, 12.5 or 6.25 % of one core. |
| Bottom line | 10 of 10 voices fit (orange when fewer fit than VOICES), budget when live, ULTRA: every voice; then the latency (0.50 ms), and how many times the broken-number guard (NaN) and the clip guard have acted. |
The voice budget acts only while playing live, never in a bounce. A processor that cannot keep up lets the oldest voices go, then fades to silence rather than crackling, and comes back.
Press the FX tab (or TAB from the SYNTH page). The top bar, the left column and the piano roll stay as they are.
| Area | What lives there |
|---|---|
| Row 1 | STEP-SEQ (the step sequencer) · EQ (its curve over what you hear). |
| Row 2 | STEREO · WARMTH · GLUE · PHASER · VOCODER, each with its own ON / OFF. |
| Rows 3 – 4, at the left | MOD: every source as a chip, and the routes, eight at a time. |
| Row 3 | DELAY · REVERB · CHORUS. |
| Row 4 | VOICE: LOW CUT, KEY, RESO, LFO 1 SKEW, LFO 2 SKEW, SPLIT, IN OCT, OCT MIX. |
OSC C is not on this page: all of it is on the SYNTH page, under the OSC tab C.
A step sequencer locked to the host's beat (it was called MOTION before 0.3.8; older presets load unchanged). It moves the sound, not the notes: as the mod sources STEP-SEQ and ACCENT, and as OSC C's rhythm. It keeps running with no note held, and follows the host's bar position while the host plays.
| Control | Range · default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| ON / OFF | · OFF | STEP-SEQ on or off. |
| FEEL | Straight, Triplet, Dotted · Straight | The steps' feel. |
| STEP | 4 … 1/32 · 1/16 | How long each step lasts. |
| 16 bars | 0 – 100 % · 50 % | Each step's value. Drag a bar up and down, or across several bars to paint them; double-click = back to 50 %. The step playing lights up. |
| Octave cells (under the bars) | −1 … +3 · 0 (a dot) | OSC C's octave on that step: click for one up, right-click for one down. |
| STEPS | 2 – 16 · 8 | How many steps before the pattern repeats (the bars beyond are grey). |
| AMOUNT | 0 – 100 % · 100 % | How strongly STEP-SEQ moves what it is routed to (CC 24 usually brings it in). |
| SMOOTH | 0 – 100 % · 20 % | 0 = steps; higher = curves gliding from step to step. |
| DECAY | 0 – 100 % · 50 % | How long each ACCENT pulse rings: short = ticks, long = swells. |
A click on an empty spot of the panel chooses STEP-SEQ as the mod source. OSC C, which plays in its rhythm, is on the SYNTH page's OSC tab C.
A high-pass, a low-pass and a notch on the whole sound, and two tone shapes, MUD and AIR (row 1, at the right). Its title row holds VISUAL / KNOBS, NOTCH (the notch on or off) and ON / OFF for the high-pass, the low-pass and the notch (default OFF; it fades in and out, never a click). MUD and AIR work whether the EQ is ON or not.
VISUAL (the default) draws the EQ's own curve over a live analyser of what you hear: 20 Hz – 20 kHz across, ±18 dB up and down. The values read along the top (HP 20 Hz · LP 20.0 kHz · MUD -0.9 dB · AIR +0.1 dB), or the value of the point under the mouse. Drag the five points:
| Point | Drag | Range · default |
|---|---|---|
| HP | Across: the high-pass, takes away the lows. | 20 Hz – 2 kHz · 20 Hz |
| LP | Across: the low-pass, takes away the highs. | 200 Hz – 20 kHz · 20 kHz |
| NOTCH | Across: its frequency. Up and down (or the wheel over it): narrower or wider, for a ringing frequency. | 40 Hz – 16 kHz · 1.0 kHz; Q 0.5 – 30 · 4 |
| MUD | Up and down: a wide cut or lift around 220 Hz. | −12 … +6 dB · 0 |
| AIR | Up and down: a shelf at 9 kHz. | −12 … +9 dB · 0 |
Dragging HP, LP or NOTCH switches the EQ ON (NOTCH switches the notch on too). Double-click a point = its default; right-click = the control menu. KNOBS shows six knobs instead: HP, LP, NOTCH, Q, MUD 220, AIR 9k. The VISUAL / KNOBS choice is remembered.
Each has an ON / OFF button in its title row (default OFF; its knobs are dim while off).
| Panel | Controls · default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| STEREO | WIDTH 0 – 200 % · 100 %; AIR 0 – 100 % · 0; MONO BELOW Off … 400 Hz · Off | The last word before SAFETY: width (0 = mono), air (widens only the highs), and everything below MONO BELOW made mono, for a solid low end in a club. |
| WARMTH | Tape / Tube · Tape; DRIVE 0 – 100 % · 30 %; MIX 0 – 100 % · 100 % | Saturation after the voices: tape (soft, rounded highs) or tube (warmer, even harmonics). |
| GLUE | DEPTH · 40 %; TIME · 40 %; UPWARD · 30 % (all 0 – 100 %) | A three-band compressor, down and up, that holds the sound together. The green bar shows how much it works. |
| Panel | Controls · default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| PHASER | Stages 4, 6, 8, 12 · 6; SYNC / FREE · SYNC; RATE 4 … 1/32 · 1/2, or 0.02 – 10 Hz · 0.3 Hz; DEPTH · 60 %; CENTRE 60 Hz – 8 kHz · 700 Hz; FEEDBACK 0 – 92 % · 50 %; MIX · 50 % | Sweeping notches, in time with the host or free. More stages, more notches; feedback rings more. |
| VOCODER | MIX · 100 %; SPEED · 50 %; SHARP · 50 %; SIBILANCE · 20 % (all 0 – 100 %) | The audio input speaks through the synth, in 16 bands. SPEED: how fast the bands follow the voice. SHARP: narrower bands, clearer words, thinner sound. SIBILANCE lets the voice's own S and T through. |
Both have their own ON / OFF button (default OFF). The VOCODER needs a voice on the audio input.
The two send effects, in row 3 beside MOD. Each SEND knob sets how much of the sound goes to it.
| DELAY | Range · default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| FREE / SYNC and the division list | · FREE; 4 … 1/32 · 3/8 | SYNC: the time in note values of the tempo, from the list beside it. FREE: the TIME knob (dim while SYNC). |
| SEND | 0 – 100 % · 0 | How much goes to the delay. |
| TIME | 1 – 1000 ms · 375 ms | The time between echoes (when the delay is FREE). |
| FEEDBACK | 0 – 98 % · 50 % | How many echoes. |
| PING-PONG | 0 – 100 % · 0 | How far the echoes bounce left and right. |
| TONE | 0 – 100 % · 100 % | Lower makes each repeat darker. |
| REVERB | Range · default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Type list | Classic, Hall, Plate, Shimmer · Classic | Classic is K-Player's reverb; Hall a dense hall; Plate dense and bright; Shimmer adds octaves up in the tail. |
| SEND | 0 – 100 % · 0 | How much goes to the reverb. |
| SIZE | 0 – 100 % · 72 % | The room's size: a longer tail. |
| DAMP | 0 – 100 % · 35 % | How fast the highs die away. |
| PRE-DELAY | 0 – 150 ms · 12 ms | The gap before the reverb, to keep the attack clear. |
The list: Off (default, costs nothing), Chorus (two voices swinging, a Juno's pair), Ensemble (a string machine), Dimension (wide, clean), Hyper (thick, moving). MIX 0 – 100 % (default 50 %). It runs in line, before the sends, and never delays the dry sound.
| Knob | Range · default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| LOW CUT | Off (20 Hz) … 2 kHz · Off | A high-pass on every voice: takes away what is below it. |
| KEY | 0 – 100 % · 0 | How much the low cut follows the key. |
| RESO | 0 – 100 % · 0 | A resonant peak just above the low cut: weight right where the low end should sit. |
| LFO 1 SKEW, LFO 2 SKEW | −1.00 … +1.00 · 0 | Leans the LFO's wave forward or back: a sine leans, a triangle becomes a ramp. |
| SPLIT | C-1 … G9 · C4 | The key where the SPLIT source turns from −1 to +1 (the line on the piano roll). |
| IN OCT | −1 … +1 · 0 | AUDIO IN FX: an octave layer of the input, one down or one up (lit only in FX). |
| OCT MIX | 0 – 100 % · 0 | How loud that octave layer is. |
On the FX page MOD runs down the left over rows 3 and 4, with every source as a chip, nine to a row:
So what a Micro, an LFO or an envelope does to this page can be seen and set here. The list under the chips shows eight routes at a time (1-8 / 32). A source can move these controls here: the SEND of DELAY and of REVERB, CHORUS MIX, STEREO WIDTH and AIR, WARMTH DRIVE, PHASER DEPTH, STEP-SEQ AMOUNT, LOW CUT, and the ATTACK tag in VOICE. The sends and the effects follow only the Micros, WHEEL, PRESSURE, STEP-SEQ and ACCENT (see The MOD slots).
A table is a row of cycles (1 to 256). The A / B tabs in the title choose the oscillator you edit for; switching loads that oscillator's table in place of the one being edited (as FROM OSC does). The name and cycle count read at the right ("Basic Shapes" · 21 cycles).
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| FROM OSC | Takes the oscillator's table again, as editable cycles. |
| NEW | Sine, Saw, Square, Triangle, Sine to Saw (32 cycles), Silence. |
| FORMULA | A formula for every cycle at once (below). |
| PROCESS | Normalise each cycle, Remove DC, Reverse, Invert, Smooth, Mirror the second half, Morph first to last (crossfade), Morph first to last (spectral), Normalise the table as one; then 1, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 cycles to change how many it has. |
| IMPORT | Opens a wavetable or audio file (.wav, .aif, .aiff, .flac, .wt) to edit. |
| SAVE | Writes the table as a .wav wavetable where you choose (Serum and Surge open it too). |
| NAME | The table's name. |
| UNDO | One step back. |
| USE ON OSC | Saves the table as Wavetables/Edited/<name>.wav and plays it on the chosen oscillator (it lights up while there are edits not yet used). A preset that uses it finds it again. |
The first 64 harmonics of the cycle shown, as bars in dB (0 at the top, −60 at the bottom; the first one green). Drag a bar up or down, or along several bars, to set their levels; the wave redraws at once.
The big view shows the current cycle bright and its neighbours faint (cycle 1 / 21).
Every cycle as a small picture: click one to edit it; the wheel scrolls the strip. The buttons: - removes the current cycle, + adds a copy of it after it (up to 256), COPY / PASTE a cycle, < / > the cycle before or after.
One line computes every cycle. Across a cycle: x runs −1 … 1 and p 0 … 1; along the table: y runs 0 … 1, f is the cycle's number and n how many there are. Functions: sin, cos, tan, asin, acos, atan, abs, sqrt, exp, log, log2, floor, ceil, round, sign, fract, sinc, saw, tri, sqr, noise, pow, min, max, mod, atan2, step, clamp, lerp; constants pi and e. The first one offered morphs a sine into a saw:
sin(pi * x) * (1 - y) + saw(p * (1 + 7 * y)) * y
A mistake is named in the status line (formula: …) and nothing changes.
| CC | Control | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 21 – 29 | Micro 1 – 9 | The Kadabra's motion axes (27 – 29: the magnetometer). MIDI Learn never takes these numbers (they send all the time); Choose MIDI CC still can. A saved MIDI map from before gets CC 27 – 29 for Micros 7 – 9 when those numbers are free. |
| 74 | Cutoff | |
| 71 | Resonance | |
| 1 | Mod wheel | the WHEEL source |
| 64 | Sustain pedal | |
| 0 | Group (bank select) | 0 – 15 the K groups, 16 … your own; always, whatever is learned. |
| 32 | Set | 0 Factory, 1 User 1, 2 User 2 …; always. |
Every other control waits for MIDI Learn. K-Synth asks the host for every CC 0 – 127, so learning works in any VST3 host.
A CC 0 chooses the group and a CC 32 the set; they are kept for the program changes that follow. A program change then plays that preset of the group: program change 0 is the group's first preset (shown as program 1). Until a CC 0 arrives, program changes count in K-Bass of the Factory. A number the group does not have leaves the sound alone, with a word in the status line (… program 140: no such preset). A program change reaches 0 – 127, so K-Bass's EDM basses (129 – 152) are chosen from the window or the host's list. The music carries on through the change.
The host's own preset list holds every preset of every set in one list (K-Pads: …, User 1 / K-Pads: …).
Or Choose MIDI CC ▸ a group of sixteen ▸ the number (each shows what it drives now; none removes it). A CC drives one control at a time. When a CC moves a control, the status line shows it for a moment (CC 74 → Cutoff). The map is remembered in ~/Music/Tribal-Tools/K-Synth/midi-learn.txt and inside each project.
Because K-Synth takes audio, K-Player puts an IN chip at the right of its Instrument box. Click it for the list REC IN (into the instrument): no input, DECK A, DECK B, and the audio interface's inputs as pairs (IN 1+2) and singly (IN 1). Right-click the chip = no input. The chip then shows the input's name. That input reaches K-Synth's AUDIO IN, VOCODER and the WARP mode Input FM only, never the channel strip itself.
K-Player passes a channel's program changes and bank selects to its Instrument box. So a program change from the Kadabra (the Sounder shape's Thumb 2: Change Sound combis send program numbers) plays that preset of the group K-Synth has latched; send CC 0 first to choose the group (and CC 32 for one of your sets). The PRESETS panel prints each group's CC 0 = n and each preset's number, so a set list can be read off it.
See
See
| What | Where |
|---|---|
| The plug-in | /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/K-Synth.vst3 (put there by Install K-Synth <version>.pkg) |
| Factory presets (read-only) | /Library/Application Support/Tribal-Tools/K-Synth/Factory/<K-Group>/*.ksynth; a copy is also inside the plug-in |
| Your presets | ~/Music/Tribal-Tools/K-Synth/Banks/User 1/<Group>/<Name>.ksynth (User 2 …) |
| Older presets (0.3.3 and before) | ~/Music/Tribal-Tools/K-Synth/Presets/<Group>/, shown in User 1 |
| Wavetables | ~/Music/Tribal-Tools/K-Synth/Wavetables/; the TABLE page's in Wavetables/Edited/ |
| MIDI map | ~/Music/Tribal-Tools/K-Synth/midi-learn.txt |
| Window settings | ~/Music/Tribal-Tools/K-Synth/settings.txt: the language, the OSC tab, VISUAL / KNOBS |
A preset is a small text file, so it can be copied or shared. Each project keeps the sound, its preset's path, the CC map, the nine Micros, and the setup (ECO / FULL / ULTRA, the share, KEEP SPLIT). K-Synth's folder sits beside K-Sampler's and K-Player's in ~/Music/Tribal-Tools.
Kadabra's kick drum instrument: the whole kick made by synthesis, a modelled bass drum on top, and 2454 factory kicks.
Everything is on one page. Top to bottom, left to right:
| Area | What lives there |
|---|---|
| Top bar | TRIBAL TOOLS logo, K-KICK and the version · the SET box (FACTORY or USER 1, and the group) · the PRESET box · ◀ ▶ · SAVE AS / SAVE · VOICES 1 · the OUT meter · the host tempo (126.0 BPM) and how many hits sound (1 hit). |
| KADABRA column (far left) | The Kadabra drawn in laser outline, the master LEVEL fader and the thin VEL fader beside it. |
| Row 1 | KICK (the hit drawn, EXPORT WAV) · PITCH (the pitch envelope, KEY, ROOT) · OSC (the body's wave, SUB OCT). |
| Row 2 | TOP · PUNCH (tabs CLICK, BD, SAMPLE) · ENV (VISUAL / KNOBS, 1-SHOT / GATE) · FILTER. |
| Row 3 | AMP (drive type, DRIVE, TONE, MIX, TRANSIENT, CLIP) · EQ (the spectrum and the HP, LP, N1, N2 and BELL points). |
| Row 4 | MOD: eleven source chips and twelve modulation slots. |
| Row 5 | MICROS (the Kadabra's six sensors) · MIX (the five layers) · AUDITION (the step grid, the KEY it plays, VEL, the HIT pad). |
| Row 6 | OUTPUT (WIDTH, BEND, what velocity moves, humanize) · SAFETY (scope, LIMIT, LOAD). |
| Far right | The piano roll, A0 to C8, marked play: every hit lights its key. |
| Status line | Left: what the control under the mouse does, or the latest message. Right: the preset's file, or factory preset. |
Every note is one hit, made in this order:
A hit takes most of its settings at the moment it starts. Changing them while it rings is heard from the next hit: the pitch envelope and END, the wave shapes, the decays and tunes, the envelope times, the filter type and its envelope, the drive type and the velocity amounts.
These change under a sounding hit too, with a short glide so nothing clicks: the layer levels (BODY, SUB, CLICK, BD, SAMPLE), DRIVE, TONE, MIX, CLIP, the TRANSIENT amounts, CUTOFF, RESO, LEVEL, WIDTH and the pitch wheel.
K-Kick comes as an installer package, Install K-Kick 0.3.1.pkg, for macOS 11 or newer on Apple Silicon and Intel. It has two parts:
| Part | Where it goes |
|---|---|
| K-Kick plug-in (VST3) | K-Kick.vst3 into /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3. Always installed. |
| Factory presets | The 2454 factory kicks, a folder per group, into /Library/Application Support/Tribal-Tools/K-Kick/Factory. On by default; Customize in the installer can leave it out, and K-Kick then plays the same kicks from the copy built into the plug-in. |
A newer installer first clears the Factory's group folders an older one put there, so a kick the new version no longer has does not stay behind. Your own presets in ~/Music/Tribal-Tools/K-Kick are never touched.
Shows where the sound comes from: the set in small letters (FACTORY in blue, USER 1, USER 2 … in orange) and the group's name (K-Kicks, K-Techno …). Under it, MIDI: CC 0 = 1, CC 32 = 0 gives the two numbers that choose this group and set by MIDI.
Click it to open the PRESETS panel and change set, group or preset.
Shows the preset's name: blue for a factory kick, orange for yours. An orange dot means unsaved changes. Under it: program 1 of 22 · factory (or yours), its place in its group. Click the box for the menu:
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| 1 Techno Punch, 2 909 Classic … | The presets of the current group in the current set (✓ on the one playing). Click one to load it. |
| Save: replace User 1 / group / name | Only on your own preset: writes the sound over its file. |
| Save As… (choose the set, the group and the name) | Opens the SAVE AS panel. |
| Browse every set and group… | Opens the PRESETS panel. |
| Init preset | Every control to its default, no sample, the Micros unnamed: a plain starting kick called Init. |
| Export the hit as a WAV… | The same as EXPORT WAV. |
| Open the Banks folder | Shows ~/Music/Tribal-Tools/K-Kick/Banks in the Finder. |
◀ and ▶ load the preset before or after the one playing, inside its set and group. At the end of the group they go round to the other end.
The button reads SAVE AS when the sound came from the Factory, from Init, or was never saved: a click opens the SAVE AS panel. On your own preset it reads SAVE: a click offers Save: replace … or Save As…. It turns amber when there are unsaved changes.
The Factory is never written over.
How many hits may sound at once, 1 to 4 (default 1). Click for the list: 1 voice: every hit chokes the one before, 2 voices: hits may overlap, and so on. A choked hit fades out in 3 ms, never cut. VOICES is saved with the preset. Right-click = the control menu.
Every preset lives in a SET, in a GROUP inside it, under its NAME.
The same K groups exist in every User set, so a kick you change from K-Techno can be saved into User 1 / K-Techno.
Opens from the SET box, or PRESET ▸ Browse every set and group…. The rest of the window is dimmed; a click outside the panel, CLOSE or the ✕ closes it.
| Column | What it does |
|---|---|
| SET | FACTORY, USER 1 … with how many presets each holds, and + NEW SET (makes the next User set at once). |
| GROUP | The groups of that set, each with its count and its number (22 · CC 0 = 0). Nineteen fit at once: with more, the column reads scroll for more, and the scroll wheel over it brings up the rest (K-Percussion, your own groups). In a User set, + NEW GROUP sits at the end of the list: it asks for a name and makes its folder. |
| PRESETS | The group's presets, numbered. Click one to load it; double-click loads it and closes the panel. The scroll wheel scrolls the list (1-22 of 128 · scroll for more). |
| Footer | The set, the group, how many presets, and the MIDI numbers (MIDI: CC 32 = 0, CC 0 = 1). FOLDER shows that group's folder in the Finder. |
The panel reads the disk each time it opens, so a .kkick file you copied in with the Finder shows up.
The same three columns, with a NAME field in place of the list. Choose a User set (the Factory row reads read-only), then a group, then type the name. The presets already in that group are listed under the field: click one to take its name.
The footer says saves as ~/Music/…, or REPLACES … in orange when that name exists; the button then reads REPLACE. SAVE or RETURN saves; CANCEL or ESC closes.
Twenty groups, 2454 kicks. The nineteen banks hold sixteen styles of eight kicks each; each bank kick was rendered and measured before it was kept, peaks near −1.5 dBTP and is over within 3.5 s. Every factory kick routes at least two Micros (most of them all six), each named for what it does.
| Group | CC 0 | Kicks | Styles |
|---|---|---|---|
| K-Kicks | 0 | 22 | Hand-made: Techno Punch, 909 Classic, 808 Deep Sub, Rumble Techno, Hard Techno Slam, Trance Lift, Psy Tight, Hardstyle Wall, House Round, Deep House Soft, DnB Punch, Dubstep Heavy, Minimal Tick, Acoustic BD, Tight Acoustic, Analog Boom, Big Room, Lo-Fi Crunch, Industrial Hammer, Sub Boom, Electro Tom, Click Layer. |
| K-Techno | 1 | 128 | Rumble, Peak Time, Hard, Minimal, Industrial, Deep, Hypnotic, Driving, Raw, Dub Techno, Tribal, Acid Kick, Hardgroove, Melodic, Schranz, Warehouse. |
| K-Trance | 2 | 128 | Uplifting, Psytrance, Progressive, Goa, Hard Trance, Tech Trance, Full-On, Dark Psy, Classic 90s, Euphoric, Hi-Tech, Vocal Trance, Acid Trance, Dream, Big Room, Nitzhonot. |
| K-Heavy | 3 | 128 | Hardstyle, Rawstyle, Hardcore, Gabber, Uptempo, Frenchcore, Industrial Hardcore, Jumpstyle, Hard Dance, Terror, Crossbreed, Drum & Bass, Neuro, Dubstep, Trap 808, Breakcore. |
| K-Pop | 4 | 128 | Pop Tight, Hip Hop, Trap, House, Deep House, Future Bass, Big Room EDM, Lo-Fi, R&B, Funk, Disco, Reggaeton, Afrobeats, Drill, Indie Rock, Boom Bap. |
| K-DnB | 5 | 128 | Liquid, Jump Up, Neurofunk, Jungle, Techstep, Darkstep, Rollers, Halftime, Drumfunk, Dancefloor, Deep DnB, Minimal DnB, Ragga Jungle, Crossover, Breakbeat Hardcore, Autonomic. |
| K-Dubstep | 6 | 128 | Deep Dub, Riddim, Brostep, Melodic Dubstep, Tearout, Future Garage, Halftime 140, Wobble, Grime 140, Chillstep, Drumstep, Hybrid Trap, Colour Bass, Deathstep, Dungeon, UK Garage. |
| K-Hip-Hop | 7 | 128 | Boom Bap, Trap 808, Drill, G-Funk, Crunk, Lo-Fi Hip Hop, Memphis, Jersey Club, Phonk, Cloud Rap, Jazz Rap, Grime, Afro Trap, Plugg, Hyphy, Old School Electro. |
| K-Oldies | 8 | 128 | Rock n Roll, Motown, Soul, Surf, Merseybeat, Psychedelic, Krautrock, Seventies Funk, Seventies Disco, Reggae, Ska, Swing, Blues, Country, Eighties Linn, Eighties Synth. Mostly built on the BD head. |
| K-Acoustic | 9 | 128 | Rock 22, Jazz 18, Metal, Funk Tight, Studio Pop, Vintage 60s, Marching, Orchestral, Taiko, Floor Tom, Cajon, Djembe, Surdo, Open Boomy, Damped, Folk. Built on the BD head. |
| K-House | 10 | 128 | Deep House, Tech House, Jackin, Chicago, French Filter, Progressive House, Afro House, Melodic House, Microhouse, Garage House, Tribal House, Bass House, Big Room House, Lo-Fi House, Soulful, Acid House. |
| K-Electro | 11 | 128 | Electro, Breaks, Big Beat, Electroclash, Nu-Disco, Synthwave, Italo, Miami Bass, Freestyle, Ghettotech, Electro House, Fidget, Complextro, Chiptune, Electro Funk, Footwork. |
| K-World | 12 | 128 | Cumbia, Baile Funk, Kuduro, Afrobeat, Amapiano, Gqom, Dancehall, Soca, Bhangra, Moombahton, Guarachero, Balkan, Oriental, Kizomba, Dembow, Samba Funk. |
| K-Cinematic | 13 | 128 | Trailer Boom, Sub Drop, Impact, Braam, Heartbeat, Earthquake, Cannon, Door Slam, Thunder, Deep Impact, War Drum, Pulse, Horror Thud, Sci-Fi Hit, Epic Hybrid, Riser Hit. |
| K-IDM | 14 | 128 | Glitch, Microsound, Braindance, Clicks and Cuts, Granular, Broken Beat, Wonky, Deconstructed, Noise Kick, Bitcrush, Ring Mod, FM Kick, Tape Stop, Reverse Feel, Drill n Bass, Ambient Techno. |
| K-Industrial | 15 | 128 | EBM, Industrial, Aggrotech, Dark Electro, Power Noise, Rhythmic Noise, Industrial Techno, Witch House, Darkwave, Minimal Wave, Coldwave, Goth Club, Futurepop, Cyberpunk, Harsh, Military. |
| K-Sub | 16 | 128 | Pure Sine, Long 808, Short 808, Distorted 808, Saturated Sub, Reese Sub, Square Sub, Triangle Sub, Clicky Sub, Boomy 808, Tuned Kick, Deep 30, Octave Sub, Punchy Sub, Driven 808, Soft Sub. Subs and 808s to play as a bass line: KEY is on in every one (ROOT C2). |
| K-Machines | 17 | 128 | Nine Oh Nine, Eight Oh Eight, Seven Oh Seven, Six Oh Six, Nine Oh Eight, Linn, DMX, SP Twelve, MPC, CR Seventy Eight, Simmons, RX, Volca, Modular, Analog Deep, Digital Crunch: the classic drum machines. |
| K-Downtempo | 18 | 128 | Trip Hop, Chillout, Lounge, Psybient, Dub, Nu Jazz, Downbeat, Lo-Fi Beats, Ambient Dub, Glitch Hop, Future Chill, Chillwave, Vaporwave, Slowcore, Balearic, Organic. |
| K-Percussion | 19 | 128 | Low Tom, Mid Tom, High Tom, Timbale, Conga, Bongo, Bayan, Udu, Frame Drum, Bodhran, Log Drum, Kick Tom, Rototom, Octoban, Timpani, Doum. Toms and hand drums, built on the BD head; KEY is on in Log Drum and Timpani. |
The preset names come from the style: Concrete Rumbler is a Rumble kick of K-Techno.
Inside a bank the styles come in the order of the table, eight kicks each: the first style is programs 1–8 (program change 0–7), the second 9–16 (8–15), and so on. The 5th style, for example, is programs 33–40 (program change 32–39).
A preset is a small text file, <name>.kkick. It keeps every sound control (VOICES, LEVEL, ROOT and KEY too), the twelve MOD slots, each Micro's name and rest, the group, and the path of the SAMPLE file if there is one.
It does not keep the AUDITION settings, where the Micros stand now, or your MIDI map: those belong to the host project.
The hit as it will sound, drawn again a moment after any change (rendering the hit… while it is being made):
Lines every 100 ms. It plays the audition's key at full velocity: the key last played by hand, ROOT until then.
LENGTH 420 ms · PEAK -2.5 dBTP · END 45.0 Hz F#1 -47 ct · on C2, and at the right 0.88 beats at 126:
| Item | Meaning |
|---|---|
| LENGTH | Until the hit falls under −60 dB. |
| PEAK | Its true peak. |
| END | The pitch it really ends on, with the nearest note and how many cents off. |
| on C2 | The key it was played on. |
| beats at 126 | The length in beats at the host tempo (120 when there is none). |
Writes the hit as a 24-bit WAV at the host's sample rate, cut where it ends. It is mono unless WIDTH makes the two sides differ, then stereo. The save dialog starts in ~/Music/Tribal-Tools/K-Kick/Exports with the preset's name. It plays the same key as the display.
Exports), and save.Semitones above END (up) against time (across, stretched so the first milliseconds are wide). The faint line is the sweep alone, the bright one the sweep plus the punch. Three points:
The scroll wheel over the graph sets CURVE. Double-click a point = its default; right-click = its menu. The numbers are written over the graph, and the bottom line reads END 48.0 Hz G1 -36 ct (plus at ROOT with KEY on).
The body's pitch falls in two stages: a fast PUNCH in the first milliseconds, and the SWEEP from START down to END, which lands exactly at the end of its DECAY.
| Knob | Range | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| START | 0 – +72 st | +36 st | How far above END the sweep starts: the drop that makes the punch. |
| DECAY | 5 ms – 2.00 s | 250 ms | How long the sweep takes to land on END. |
| CURVE | 0 – 100 % | 60 % | The sweep's shape: 0 a straight line, 100 % a sharp drop that lands early. |
| PUNCH | 0 – +60 st | +24 st | A second, much faster drop on top of the sweep. |
| P. TIME | 0.5 – 80 ms | 8.0 ms | How long the punch's drop takes. |
| END | 20 – 200 Hz | 45.0 Hz | The note the kick ends on (F1 to F2 is the dance floor). Under the mouse the status line adds its note and cents. |
Velocity can scale START and PUNCH: see VEL→PUNCH in OUTPUT.
KEY (default off): END follows the key you play. On the ROOT key the kick plays END itself; every key above or below moves it by that many semitones. Off, every key plays the same pitch.
ROOT C2 (default C2) opens a list from C1 to C4. Right-click any key on the piano roll to make it ROOT. ROOT is also the key the HIT pad and AUDITION play until you play one by hand, and the centre of the KEY source in MOD. Note names: C4 = MIDI note 60.
The display shows one cycle of the body's wave as it plays, the sub faint under it, and the start phase as an orange line. Its corner names the wave: sine, sine → triangle, triangle → saw, saw → square.
| Control | Range | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| SHAPE | 0 – 100 % | 0 % | The wave: sine, then triangle, saw, square. More harmonics as it turns. |
| HARM | 0 – 100 % | 0 % | Harmonics driven into the wave: a sine grows an edge. |
| PHASE | 0 – 359° | 0° | Where in its cycle the body starts. 0 is the cleanest start. |
| SUB | 0 – 100 % | 30 % | A sine under the body, following the same sweep (the same as SUB in MIX). |
| SUB OCT -1 / -2 | −1 or −2 | −1 | The sub one or two octaves under the body. Click to switch. |
The body's own level is BODY in MIX.
Click CLICK, BD or SAMPLE to show that layer's controls. A tab outlined in orange, with brighter letters, is a layer that is heard (its LEVEL is above zero). All three can sound together; their levels are also in MIX. The tab you left open is remembered.
White noise through a filter, gone in its own DECAY: the tick at the front of a kick.
| Control | Range | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| HIGH · BAND · LOW | HIGH | What the filter keeps: above TONE, around it, or below it. | |
| LEVEL | 0 – 100 % | 50 % | The click's level. |
| DECAY | 1 – 300 ms | 12 ms | How long it lasts. |
| TONE | 200 Hz – 12.0 kHz | 3.0 kHz | Where it sits. |
| Q | 0 – 100 % | 30 % | How narrow the filter is: a wide hiss to a pitched tick. |
A model of a real bass drum: a round head with eight ringing modes, hit by a beater, with the shell's resonance. Nothing is sampled. Under the knobs a strip shows where the modes sit (orange) and the shell (violet), with head 80 Hz, 8 modes, 250 ms · shell 192 Hz.
| Control | Range | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| LEVEL | 0 – 100 % | 0 % | The drum's level. At 100 % it peaks about like the body. |
| TUNE | 40 – 200 Hz | 80.0 Hz | The head's pitch: 60–80 Hz is a kick drum, 100 and up a tom. |
| DECAY | 20 – 1500 ms | 250 ms | How long the head rings. |
| BEATER | 0 – 100 % | 50 % | Soft felt (left) to hard wood (right): a harder beater rings the higher modes and snaps. |
| BEND | 0 – +24 st | +6 st | The head's pitch drop right after the hit: the acoustic thump. |
| TONE | 0 – 100 % | 50 % | How much of the higher modes is heard, and how long they ring. |
| SHELL | 0 – 100 % | 30 % | The shell's resonance, a little above the head. |
A sound file played with every hit, pitched, started where you choose, cut by its own decay and high-passed out of the sub. Click the file box for its menu: Load a sample… (any .wav / .aiff / .flac / .mp3), Clear the sample, Show the file in Finder, Open the Samples folder. CLEAR takes it out. The waveform shows the file with its rate, mono or stereo, and length; click in it to move START (the green line). The knobs are dimmed until a file is loaded.
| Control | Range | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| LEVEL | 0 – 100 % | 0 % | The sample's level. |
| PITCH | −24 – +24 st | +0 st | Transposed in semitones. |
| START | 0 – 100 % | 0 % | Where in the file it starts. |
| DECAY | whole – 2.00 s | whole | Cut by its own fade; whole plays it to its end. |
| HI-PASS | Off – 2.0 kHz | Off | Keeps the sample out of the sub. |
The preset keeps the file's path, not the sound itself: leave the file where it is (the Samples folder is a good home).
The button beside ENV switches the view (it is remembered):
| Control | Range | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| ATTACK (A) | 0.1 – 50 ms | 0.5 ms | From the hit to full level. Short = a snap. |
| HOLD (H) | 0 – 500 ms | 20 ms | How long full level stays. |
| DECAY (D) | 20 ms – 4.00 s | 500 ms | From full level to silence: the kick's length. |
| CURVE | 0 – 100 % | 60 % | The decay's shape: 0 a straight line, 100 % a sharp fall. |
| RELEASE (REL) | 1 ms – 2.00 s | 30 ms | GATE only: the fade after you let go of the key. |
| 1-SHOT / GATE | 1-SHOT | 1-SHOT (plays out whole): the hit plays out whatever the key does. GATE (note-off releases): letting go fades it over RELEASE. |
After the layers, before the AMP. OFF (default) costs nothing (off: nothing runs). LOW, BAND and HIGH are 12 dB filters.
| Knob | Range | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| CUTOFF | 20 Hz – 20.0 kHz | 20.0 kHz | The filter's frequency. MIDI CC 74 by default. |
| RESO | 0 – 100 % | 0 % | A peak at the cutoff. MIDI CC 71 by default. |
| ENV | −96 – +96 st | +0 st | How far the filter's own envelope moves the cutoff at the hit, up or down. |
| DECAY | 5 ms – 2.00 s | 150 ms | How long that envelope takes to come back. |
| KEY | 0 – 100 % | 0 % | How much the cutoff follows the key away from ROOT: 100 % = the same brightness on every key. |
Choose the kind in the list beside AMP (default Soft). The line at the bottom describes it, or says drive at zero: nothing runs.
| Kind | Sound |
|---|---|
| Soft | A tanh, every harmonic. |
| Tube | Asymmetric, even harmonics, warm. |
| Tape | A soft knee and a dull top. |
| Hard | A straight clip, bright and flat. |
| Fold | The wave folded back, metallic. |
| Knob | Range | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| DRIVE | 0 – 100 % | 0 % | How hard the hit goes into the shaper (up to 26 dB): warmth, then grit. |
| TONE | −100 – +100 % | +0 % | A tilt after the drive: darker left, brighter right. |
| MIX | 0 – 100 % | 100 % | How much of the driven sound replaces the clean one. |
ATTACK (−100 to +100 %, default +0 %): up for more snap at the front, down for less. SUSTAIN (same range): up for a longer, fuller tail, down for a tighter one. Each works up to 12 dB.
CLIP (default off) is a ceiling the hit is pushed into, for loudness. INTO (0–100 %, default 30 %) is how hard, up to 20 dB; it is dimmed while CLIP is off.
The bars are the output's spectrum (20 Hz to 20 kHz); the line is the EQ's curve. Four switches above it: EQ (the whole EQ, default off: nothing runs), N1, N2 and BELL (each off by default). Drag the points:
The scroll wheel over N1, N2 or BELL sets its Q. Double-click a point = its default. A moved point sweeps smoothly, without steps.
The sliders at the right show the values; the notch and bell frequencies are under them (N1 400 Hz N2 2.5 kHz BELL 60.0 Hz) and move with their points.
| Setting | Range | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| HP | 20 Hz – 2.0 kHz | 20.0 Hz | Below this is cut, 12 dB an octave. |
| LP | 200 Hz – 20.0 kHz | 20.0 kHz | Above this is cut, 12 dB an octave. |
| N1 / N2 (point) | 40 Hz – 16.0 kHz | 400 Hz / 2.5 kHz | A notch: one frequency taken out. |
| N1 Q / N2 Q | 0.5 – 30 | Q 4.0 | The notch's width: 0.5 wide, 30 hair-thin. |
| BELL (point) | 20 Hz – 4.0 kHz | 60.0 Hz | A boost or a cut around one frequency. |
| BELL dB | −12 – +12 dB | +0.0 dB | The bell's gain. |
| BELL Q | 0.3 – 8 | Q 1.0 | The bell's width. |
Along the top of MOD: KEY (with the audition key and how far it is from ROOT, KEY C2 +0), VELOCITY, the six Micros by the names this preset gives them (1 TUNE … 6 WEIGHT), RANDOM, WHEEL and ALTERNATE.
With a chip chosen, every control it can move shows a faint ring, and a bright arc shows where the source takes it at its full swing. For a moment, the controls it moves are boxed in its colour, with a line from the chip to each; a Micro's chip also outlines the MICROS panel.
A new route takes the first free slot. With all twelve in use: all 12 modulation slots are in use -- free one in MOD.
Three columns of four, numbered 1–12. Each slot is a SOURCE list → a TARGET list → a DEPTH slider (−100 to +100 %, default +0 %): right adds, left takes away. A coloured stripe on the source shows a slot that is working. Several slots on one target add up. The slots are saved with the preset.
| Source | Its value |
|---|---|
| Key | How far the key played sits from ROOT: two octaves up = +100 %, two down = −100 %. On End Pitch at +100 % the kick follows the keyboard. |
| Velocity | How hard the key was hit, 0 to 100 %, fixed for that hit. |
| Micro 1 – 3 | Rest in the middle and swing both ways (−100 to +100 %). |
| Micro 4 – 6 | Rest at zero and go up to 100 %. |
| Random | A new draw between −100 and +100 % at every hit. |
| Wheel | The mod wheel (CC 1), 0 to 100 %. |
| Alternate | +100 % on one hit, −100 % on the next, and so on. |
A hit reads its sources when it starts. The Micros and the wheel also keep moving the live targets (levels, DRIVE, TONE, MIX, CLIP, TRANSIENT, CUTOFF, RESO, WIDTH, LEVEL) while the hit sounds; on every other target they count from the next hit.
| Targets | At ±100 % |
|---|---|
| End Pitch | ±2 octaves. |
| Start, Punch | ±24 semitones. |
| Pitch Decay, Punch Time, Click Decay, BD Decay, Decay, Filter Decay | 4 times longer or shorter (±2 octaves of time). |
| Attack | 8 times longer or shorter. |
| Hold | ±200 ms. |
| Click Tone | ±3 octaves. |
| BD Tune | ±1 octave. |
| Cutoff | ±4 octaves. |
| Sample Pitch | ±12 semitones. |
| Filter Env | ±48 semitones. |
| Level | ±12 dB. |
| Pitch Curve, Shape, Harmonics, Body, Sub, Click, BD, BD Beater, Sample, Decay Curve, Resonance, Drive, Mix, Clip, Width, Tone, Transient Atk, Transient Sus | ±100 % added to the knob. |
The result always stays inside the control's own range.
Six knobs, numbered 1–6, for the Kadabra's motion sensors on CC 21–26. Each is named for what it does in this preset (TUNE, LENGTH, PUNCH, DRIVE, TOP, WEIGHT …); a preset that names none shows TUNE, LENGTH, PUNCH, DRIVE, TOP, FILTER.
Names and rests are saved in the preset. Where the Micros stand now is saved in the host project.
The five layers' levels in one place, each 0–100 %: BODY (default 100 %), SUB (30 %), CLICK (50 %), BD (0 %), SAMPLE (0 %). SUB, CLICK, BD and SAMPLE are the same settings as the levels in OSC and TOP · PUNCH; BODY lives only here. A name is dimmed while its layer is at zero.
The kick played for you on a bar of sixteenths.
The AUDITION settings are saved in the host project, not in a preset.
Press HIT for a hit on the audition's key, held while the mouse is down. Where you press sets the velocity: soft at the left edge, loud at the right.
| Knob | Range | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| WIDTH | 0 – 100 % | 0 % | Stereo width on the top, above 200 Hz. The low end stays mono and the mono sum never changes. |
| BEND | 0 – 24 st | 2 | How far the pitch wheel bends the kick. |
| VEL→PUNCH | 0 – 100 % | 30 % | How much velocity scales START and PUNCH: a soft hit drops less. |
| VEL→TOP | 0 – 100 % | 50 % | How much velocity scales the TOP layers: a soft hit clicks less. |
| VEL→DRIVE | 0 – 100 % | 0 % | How much velocity scales DRIVE: a hard hit drives more. |
| RND PITCH | 0 – 100 ct | 0 ct | Humanize: every hit a little sharp or flat, up to this much. |
| RND LEVEL | 0 – 6 dB | 0.0 dB | Humanize: every hit a little louder or softer. |
LEVEL is the wide fader with a grip: the whole instrument's level, marked +6, 0, −6, −24, −60 and −∞ dB (default −1.9 dB). MIDI CC 7 by default; it is saved with the preset. Its changes glide, so moving it never clicks.
VEL is the thin line beside it: how much the key's velocity sets the loudness, from off (every hit as loud) to 100 % (soft keys quiet). Default 60 %.
The fixed last stage: no preset and no control can switch it off. It protects your speakers and ears.
| Readout | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Scope | The output, the last 85 ms. |
| LIMIT | How much the limiter holds the output down right now (orange, red past −6 dB). The ceiling is −0.3 dBTP. |
| LOAD | How much of the audio time K-Kick takes (green, orange past 60 %, red past 85 %); OVERLOAD when the computer cannot keep up. |
| 0.50 ms · NaN 0 · chokes 0 | Its delay, how many times a broken number was caught, how many hits were choked. |
The guards: a NaN guard (a broken number fades to silence instead of a burst), a DC blocker, a load governor (an overloaded computer lets hits go, then fades to silence rather than crackling, and comes back), the true-peak limiter (0.5 ms look-ahead), a clip guard and a 50 ms fade-in at start.
| Message | What it does |
|---|---|
| Notes | Every note is a hit, exactly on time. Velocity sets the loudness (VEL) and what OUTPUT's VEL→ knobs move. Any key plays; with KEY on, the key sets the pitch. |
| Pitch bend | Bends the kick over BEND semitones. |
| CC 1 | The mod wheel: the WHEEL source in MOD. |
| CC 7 | LEVEL. |
| CC 21 – 26 | Micro 1 – 6. |
| CC 71 · CC 74 | RESO · CUTOFF. |
| CC 0 · CC 32 | The group and the set the next program change counts in. Always, whatever is learned. |
| Program change | Loads that preset of the group (0 = the first). |
| CC 123 | All notes off: the hits fade over RELEASE. |
| CC 120 | All sound off: everything silent at once, the EQ and the limiter cleared. |
The CCs above are where a new K-Kick starts; MIDI learn can change them.
The two numbers stay set until new ones arrive. The SET box and the PRESETS panel show the numbers of every set and group. A number with no preset writes … program N: no such preset in the status line.
Every knob, slider, switch and list can be moved by a CC. Right-click it:
One CC moves one control. A CC that drives a Micro is never taken by MIDI Learn (the motion sensors send all the time); to give CC 21–26 to something else, use Choose MIDI CC. When a CC moves a control, the status line shows CC 74 → Cutoff for a moment. The map is kept in midi-learn.txt and in each project.
Load K-Kick into the + Instrument box of a MIDI channel. It hears that channel's MIDI only: the Kadabra's notes, its CCs, and program changes with their bank select in front. The box's MIDI button and B (bypass) work as for every plug-in. K-Kick's state, sound and MIDI map included, is saved in the K-Player session.
When K-Kick is installed, the song generator in K-Player's Stem Trainer takes most of its kicks from K-Kick's presets, as they were made, a different one each song (the least used first). The GENERATE strip says KICKS: K-Kick, N presets - a different one each song. Presets that hold a SAMPLE are left out. This is for training only, not for playing.
| What | Where |
|---|---|
| Your presets | ~/Music/Tribal-Tools/K-Kick/Banks/User 1/<group>/<name>.kkick (User 2 …) |
| The Factory as files | /Library/Application Support/Tribal-Tools/K-Kick/Factory/<group>/, read first when it is there. The same kicks are also built into the plug-in. |
| Samples | ~/Music/Tribal-Tools/K-Kick/Samples (where Load a sample… starts) |
| Exports | ~/Music/Tribal-Tools/K-Kick/Exports |
| MIDI map | ~/Music/Tribal-Tools/K-Kick/midi-learn.txt |
| Window settings | ~/Music/Tribal-Tools/K-Kick/settings.txt (VISUAL / KNOBS and the open TOP tab) |
| The plug-in | K-Kick.vst3 in ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3 or /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3 |
The folder sits beside K-Synth's and K-Sampler's. To move a preset to another Mac, copy its .kkick file into a group folder there (and its sample, if it has one, then load the sample again).
The host project (or K-Player session) keeps the sound, the preset's file, the MIDI map, the AUDITION settings and where the Micros stand.
When the project opens and the preset's file is still there, K-Kick loads the file. So keep a changed sound with SAVE or SAVE AS before you close the project.
K-Kick.vst3 and the Factory's group folders. Your own presets in ~/Music/Tribal-Tools/K-Kick/Banks stay as they are.The plug-ins that come with Kadabra and how they sit inside K-Player: K-Channel, K-Sampler and Surge XT.
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3, where K-Player and every other DAW find them. K-Channel is the channel strip (EQ, Gate, Compressor). K-Sampler is the pad instrument and has its own chapter. Surge XT is the free synthesizer that Kadabra's synth sounds are built on; it is installed separately, before the Kadabra bundle.A dedicated channel strip with low latency, high sound quality and a small CPU footprint, made for Kadabra by IMI and Tribal-Tools. It bundles a 5-band EQ with a frequency display, a Gate for noise removal and rhythmic effects, and a Compressor for gain and punch, then an Output fader with a meter. It exposes 25 automatable parameters, so every knob can be learned to a Kadabra combi or motion axis from K-Player's parameter panel.
Typical places: insert 1 of a drum or vocal channel, the INPUT strip's inserts (a microphone), or the MASTER strip's inserts as the final chain. Presets and About are in the plug-in's header.
EQ On/Off sits above the curve display (±18 dB). Five bands, each with an on/off light and a type icon, a frequency knob, and (for the shelves and the peak) a gain knob; the peak band also has a Q knob. The numbered nodes 0 – 4 on the curve are the bands: drag a node to set frequency and gain directly.
| Band | Type | Defaults |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Low cut (high-pass) | 20 Hz |
| 1 | Low shelf | 100 Hz, 0.0 dB |
| 2 | Peak (bell) | 680 Hz, 0.0 dB, Q 1.50 |
| 3 | High shelf | 4.10 kHz, 0.0 dB |
| 4 | High cut (low-pass) | 20.00 kHz |
Switch it on with its light. Thresh (default −100 dB, fully open): the level under which the signal is silenced. Attack (default 0 ms) and Release (default 50 ms): how fast it opens and closes. Raise the threshold to remove hum and bleed between notes, or set a fast release for chopped, rhythmic pads.
Switch it on with its light. Thresh (default 0.0 dB), Ratio (default 1.0:1), Attack (default 50 ms), Release (default 150 ms). The orange bar beside the knobs is the gain-reduction meter (−6, −12, −18 dB marks). Lower the threshold and raise the ratio until the meter moves on the loud hits, then bring the Output up to match.
The output fader (default 0.0 dB) with a stereo meter and clip lights. Use it to make up the gain the compressor took away, so bypassing the plug-in (the B button in K-Player) compares at equal loudness.
Surge XT is the open-source synthesizer that Kadabra's synth sounds run on. It is downloaded from your account's Software & License page and must be installed before the Kadabra OS Full Installation. In the Starter session it plays the Bass and Pad channels. A Kadabra program change (with bank select) really changes its patch, so the Sounder shape can step through Kadabra's own Surge patch banks. Its window opens from its box in K-Player.
Kadabra's pad sampler instrument. It has its own chapter:
Earlier bundles installed five separate instruments (Kadabra Electronic Drumkit, Acoustic Drums, Percussion, Grand Piano, Electric Piano, in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/K-Samplers). On the Mac they are replaced by K-Sampler: their sounds were recorded key by key, velocity by velocity, into K-Sampler's factory banks of the same names, with the velocity layers and round robins kept. Old sessions that still name them keep working while the plug-ins are installed; new sessions use K-Sampler.
K-Player hosts any VST3 in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3 or ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3. It scans each one in a separate helper process, so a crashing plug-in is simply blacklisted with its reason (RESCAN BAD in the browser tries again) and K-Player keeps running. Every plug-in's exact state is saved in the session.
Kadabra's Artificial Intelligence: ask how to do anything on your Kadabra, by typing or by speaking, right inside Kadabra OS.
In Kadabra OS, the top menu row has a KAI button with two choices: Ask AI opens KAI's window, Report opens it on its report form. Closing the window only hides it: open it again and your conversation is still there.
Name the Shape and what you want to do: "In the Looper, how do I quantize a loop?", "Which Combi sets the Viber's gate length?", "How do I make a Sound follow live harmony?". The names on the Kadabra OS screen (a Shape, a Thumb, a Combi's name) find the answer fastest. KAI also knows where your Kadabra is now, so "what does this Combi do?" works too.
Each ONLINE answer takes one action. Every new KAI starts with 100 welcome actions. More: press ACTIONS at the top, then ADD next to a pack (50 actions for $5): the payment page opens in your browser, and KAI adds the actions by itself once it is paid. A boost code from Tribal-Tools goes in the same panel (Have a boost code?, then ADD). When an answer fails, its action comes back. INTERNAL and MANUAL are always free.
KAI hears you with its engine, a program that runs on this computer, with no internet: your voice never leaves the computer. It comes with the KAI Engine installer (GET ENGINE at the top of KAI's window), or with the full Kadabra installer. It runs only while it is switched on (ENGINE ON), at a low priority so the music always comes first, and switches itself off after 10 minutes unused. For now the engine is for Macs with Apple silicon (M1 or newer, macOS 12 or newer).
When an answer has steps on the Kadabra (go to a Shape, hold a Thumb, press a Combi), KAI follows your hands. A bar above the question box shows the step to do now, and how to get there from where you are, for example "Press Shifter 1: the Looper is in it." Do it on the Kadabra and the next step lights up; the dots show how far you are. NEXT skips a step KAI cannot see (a choice on the screen, a menu); STOP ends the guide. Only the newest answer is followed.
KAI asks once whether you would like to share your questions with Tribal-Tools: what you ask, KAI's answers and the pictures you add, with where your Kadabra was. Never your name or e-mail. It shows us what to add to the manual. Change it any time with the line Share my questions at the bottom of KAI's start page.
INTERNAL and MANUAL read this manual, with all its pictures, from your computer. It comes with KAI's engine, with the full Kadabra installer, or on its own (GET THE MANUAL). When a newer one is out, NEW MANUAL appears at the bottom of KAI's window. The whole manual is also there as one page to read in a browser with no internet: in MANUAL mode, press READ IT IN YOUR BROWSER.
INTERNAL and MANUAL need the manual on this computer. Press GET THE MANUAL (it needs the internet once, about 95 MB), or install KAI's engine, which brings it. After that, both work with no internet.
The copy on this computer is damaged or was not finished. Press GET THE MANUAL to download it again. If it happens again, send a Report.
Reading it takes a second or two. A manual installed while KAI was open is noticed within a few seconds. If the message stays, close KAI's window and open it again.
ONLINE needs the internet. Check the connection and press RETRY; KAI also tries again by itself. Meanwhile INTERNAL and MANUAL work with no internet.
The very first start after installing takes about half a minute: the computer prepares the engine once. After that it starts in a few seconds.
ONLINE stops when the actions run out. Press ACTIONS to add a pack, or type a boost code there. INTERNAL and MANUAL stay free meanwhile.
Putting the Shapes, K-Player and K-Sampler together to make music.
A program change sent from a Sound reaches the K-Sampler in that channel's Instrument box and loads a bank without stopping the music: bank select 0 = factory banks, 1 = your banks; the program number is printed in K-Sampler's BANK menu. Put the bank changes you need on Master shape combis and a whole set list sits under your thumbs.
K-Sampler's own controls learn the same way from their right-click menu.
The Kadabra's motion axes send CC 21 – 29. In K-Player (EDIT), give BUS 1 a MIDI channel, then click the CC badge beside TIME, FDBK or SPREAD and pick the axis in the grid (those numbers are tinted for you). Tilt the Kadabra and the delay moves with you.
Kadabra's Viber gates notes in time; K-Sampler's beat repeat retriggers the sample in time. Both follow the same master tempo, so a Viber-gated note into a K-Sampler pad with a 1/16 hold (CC 40 – 51 from a combi) stacks the two rhythms. Use POSITION and the envelope's DECAY to shape each pass.
One tempo for everything: either set K-Player's MASTER BPM and Kadabra's Temper by hand to the same number, or use SYNC IN in K-Player when Kadabra OS sends MIDI clock, so the decks, the arrangement (with BEAT-MIX) and every synced plug-in follow the Kadabra's tempo, including its tap-tempo and halving / doubling.
A Kadabra State saves the Shapes' side (sounds, loops, scale, key); a K-Player Session saves the sound side (channels, plug-ins and their exact state, decks, mix). Save both under the same name after you finish a setup, and load both before a show. The Master shape can hold the State; K-Player's File ▸ Open Recent holds the Session.