2Box DrumIt Five User manual

DrumIt Five User Manual
OS Version 0.36

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Copyright 2box AB 2009. 2box and DrumIt Five are trademarks of 2box AB Sweden
Specications are subject to change without prior notice.

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Contents
1. Introduction 4
2. Getting Started 5
3. Rear Panel 6
4. Top Panel 8
5. Editing 10
6. Pages and Parameters 11
7. Boot and OS 27
8. Signal Routing 28
9. Specications 30
10. Glossary 31
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1. Introduction
DrumIt Five is an open sound drum unit featuring upto 15 independent trigger inputs, 8 audio
outputs and 4 GB Flash memory for sound storage. Together with the DrumIt Five pads and
rack stand, it becomes a complete electronic drum system giving the user an experience which
is very close to playing an acoustic drum set. However, in contrast to a traditional acoustic set,
DrumIt Five offers 100 user congurable drum kits with sounds from an ever expanding sound
library. As new sounds become available, they can easily be downloaded via USB.
The fast and exible trigger interface offers low latency and wide dynamic range. As the sounds
consist of many velocity layers, the gradual change between soft and hard hits is faithfully
reproduced. Additionally, depending on the type of pad, different sounds can be triggered from
different zones on the pad. For example, all snare and tom pads have head and rim triggers and
all cymbal pads have cup, bow and edge triggers.
To play along with an audio track, one can download CD quality wave les or connect a media
player to the line in socket. This last one can be used as well to connect other instruments, a
microphone or a monitor mix of the other players in the band.
All DrumIt sounds are recorded with multiple microphones and then mixed down to stereo,
some with room ambience, others rather dry. Any drum channel can be loaded with any sound,
however, some sounds have multiple sound types which can only be played when the channel
is congured with an appropriate pad. Each drum sound is stored in a separate le and they are
all organized in folders to make it convenient to select them.
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2. Getting Started
Depending on the pads being connected, the trigger settings might have to be changed, this
is done on the Unit-Trig page. The factory trigger settings are congured for usage with DrumIt
pads. How to set up and connect these is explained in a separate manual.
Most importantly, the hihat has to be calibrated. Press the HIHAT button and then the UNIT
button. Browse to the Trigger page with the PAGEDOWN button. Loosen the hihat and let it rest
on the hihat puck. Now press the DATA button above the Pedal parameter. Finally x the hihat at
a comfortable playing height.
For monitoring, one can either use a pair of headphones connected to the phones output or an
amplier and speakers connected to outputs 1 and 2. The volume level for both is set with the
LEVEL knob on the top panel. The volume level for the drum channels in the mix can be set on
the Unit-Mix page, selected by pressing the UNIT button. Select the faders to be controlled by
the DATA dials by pressing one of the DATA buttons.
The kit program can be changed on the Kit-Program page, selected by pressing the KIT button.
Turning the left DATA dial will select another kit. Normally it is loaded after 1/2 second timeout
(to avoid loading all intermediate kits while selecting). One can select manual loading mode
which requires to press the left DATA button to conrm kit load (see Unit-Pref).
Use the PAGE-UP and PAGE-DOWN buttons to select other unit or kit pages. In unit mode,
all settings are saved when the UNIT or KIT button is pressed. In kit mode, one has to save
explicitly by pressing the left DATA button on the Kit-Program page. This allows to change the
name and location for the kit which is then saved by pressing the left DATA button once more.
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3. Rear Panel
Power
- POWER on / off button.
- AC IN for connecting the 18 V AC power adapter.
Warning! Connecting a power adapter with a voltage higher than 18 V AC or any DC
voltage might damage the DrumIt Five.
Data Ports
- USB for connecting to a USB host.
- MIDI IN and MIDI OUT for connecting to other MIDI equipment.
The USB version is 1.1 full-speed (12 Mbits / sec), compatible with USB 1.1 and 2.0 hosts. The
DrumIt Five is implemented as a standard USB Mass Storage Device, so no device drivers are
needed for the major operating systems. When connected to a host computer, the DrumIt Five
will appear as an external storage device. If the DrumIt Five is successfully connected but in
USB standby state, the host computer indicates an external storage device without storage
media.
Trigger Inputs
- KICK has a trigger function on the tip contact and a current source on the ring contact to
power a light. (optional extra at a later date)
- SNARE has trigger functions on both the tip and ring contact.
- HIHAT has a trigger function on the tip contact and special pedal control circuitry on the ring
contact.
- TOM1 to TOM4 have trigger functions on both the tip and ring contact.
- CYMB1 to CYMB3 have trigger functions on the tip contact and a switch function on the ring
contact for choke and edge detect.
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3. Rear Panel
The SNARE and TOM inputs can be used to connect 5 additional triggers for a total of 15
independent trigger inputs. Use a split cable (Y cable) with a stereo TRS jack on one end, to the
trigger input, and 2 mono TS jacks on the other end, to 2 separate pads. Some pads may loose
some of their functionality when connected this way. For example, the rim on a snare pad
will become inactive and the edge trigger plus choke on a cymbal pad will be disabled.
Although the secondary function on the trigger inputs can differ, any pad can be connected to
whatever trigger input jack. The secondary function of the pad might not work as expected of
course, but no damage will be done.
Audio Inputs and Outputs
- LINE IN is a stereo line level input for connecting media players, instruments or microphones.
- OUT1 to OUT6 are mono line level outputs with the ring contact to ground.
- PHONES is a stereo headphones output capable of driving headphones from 32 to 600 Ohm.
The LINE IN can be set to accept mono, stereo or balanced signals. In mono mode only the
tip signal is used, in stereo mode both the tip and the ring signal are used for left and right
respectively and in balanced mode the difference between the tip and ring signal is used,
which is then amplied by 12 or 24 dB. This last mode is intended for dynamic microphones
connected by a balanced XLR to TRS cable. Please note that a good outboard microphone
preamplier will probably give better results and in case of microphones needing phantom
power, that will be the only option. The PHONES output is independent of the other outputs. It
can be used as 2 additional line level outputs for a total of 8 audio outputs. Use a split cable (as
described above) to obtain a left and right signal.
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4. Top Panel
Drum Channels
On the left side of the panel there are 10 drum channel buttons: KICK, SNARE, HIHAT, TOM1
to TOM4 and CYMB1 to CYMB3 (collectively called the CHANNEL buttons). They each
correspond to the trigger input with the same name on the rear of the unit. The names refer to
the suggested function, however the drum channel can hold any kind of sound. The 5 additional
(percussion) channels are selected by holding down the MORE button and pressing the TOM or
SNARE buttons. Pressing a drum channel button normally triggers the associated sound, this
button trigger level is programmable (see Unit-Pref-BtTrg).
Main Display
The main LCD, with the UNIT and KIT mode buttons to the left, shows 6 parameters by default,
3 below the DATA buttons and 3 above the DATA dials. Each parameter has a name with the
associated value below. For some parameters the value might appear elsewhere, this is easily
seen by context, for example the kit name appears separately on the 2nd line of the LCD. Some
parameters under the DATA buttons do not have an associated value, they are most often used
to activate a function, for example Stop and Start.
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4. Top Panel
Page Display
The page LCD, with the PAGE-UP and PAGE-DOWN buttons to the right, shows the current
page name in a vertically way. Since its size is restricted to 4 characters, some page names are
abbreviated.
Miscellaneous
On the top-left there is a MIDI-USB indicator. On the top-right there is a LEVEL knob controlling
the volume to the headphones output and optionally the line outputs 1 and 2.
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5. Editing
Editing any settings in the DrumIt Five is very straightforward. Select a mode and page, then
press a DATA button or turn a DATA dial to set the parameter value. All DrumIt Five parameters
are organized this way and can therefore easily be referenced by their mode, page and
parameter. For example Unit-Pref-Load or Kit-Drum-Tune.
Modes
The mode is selected with the UNIT or KIT button. Unit mode holds parameters relating to the
whole DrumIt Five unit and kit mode holds parameters specic to each of the 100 kits.
Pages
Each mode has several pages selected with the PAGE-UP and PAGEDOWN buttons. Some
pages hold parameters with independent values for each channel, in this case the current
channel will be lit. Press any CHANNEL button (optionally while holding down MORE) to show
the corresponding parameter values. For the rst page only page-up is lit and for the last
page only page-down is lit. Switching between unit and kit mode returns to the most recently
selected page of each mode. Pressing the corresponding mode button once more, always
selects the rst page.
Parameters
Each page can hold 6 parameters, 3 parameters below the DATA buttons and 3 parameters
above the DATA dials. If there is an arrow after the parameter name, one can click the DATA dial
to select the parameter value to be edited. For example, some parameters have an arrow to
indicate split data values (like a coarse and ne value), clicking the DATA dial selects between
those values. Please note that clicking the DATA dial will never change any parameter values, it
just switches the focus to another parameter or part thereof.
DrumIt Five User Manual