Alternate Mode malletKAT PRO User manual

Quick Start Guide
Alternate Mode Inc.
53 First Ave., Chicopee, MA 01020
Tel. [phone] Fax. [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
Website: www.alternatemode.com
Version 7 Rev. 0512
malletKAT PRO
for malletKAT Pro & malletKAT Pro KS

1
malletKAT Quick Start Guide
WELCOME to the malletKAT Quick–Start Guide!
Congratulations! You have purchased the world’s most powerful MIDI mallet percussion
Controller. This guide is designed to get you started as quickly as possible. We are leaving
most of the technical programming material out of this guide. There’s the full manual for
that. We don’t want to scare you, but want you to start having FUN right away. So please,
sit back and take a few moments to read this info so that your experience will become
more meaningful. First impressions are the most powerful and we want you to start on the
right foot.
We have also included a VIDEO HELP DESK in this guide. These are a series of short video
clips that cover the basics on the malletKAT. For those of you just getting started, watch the
“Connections” Video and the “malletKAT for Drummies” videos as well.
WHAT IS THE malletKAT? WHAT IS A MIDI CONTROLLER?
When you look at the malletKAT, it becomes obvious that the pads closely resemble a
standard mallet percussion layout. Yes, the pads are made out of neoprene, and it feels a
little different than a marimba or vibraphone and yes, the bars are all symmetric, BUT after
just a few minutes of playing on it, you will discover that playing is easy and natural. As a
mallet percussionist, you often jump from bells, to xylophone etc. When you think about it,
each one of them has different size bars, different ranges and feels. Think of the malletKAT
as another mallet instrument with its own distinct characteristics.
We didn’t just make the malletKAT so that you could emulate a vibraphone or marimba. No,
the malletKAT was designed to offer you a whole new vocabulary of expression that is just
not possible on an acoustic mallet instrument. Let me give you some examples.
SOUNDS
Now you can sound like any instrument, thanks to MIDI. The malletKAT KS has a built in
sound card powered by Kurzweil, with over 1000 instruments like pianos, basses, guitars,
strings, drums and percussion and more. You can use headphones to practice or you can
plug the malletKAT right into an amplifier so that the world can hear you.
Because it is a mallet controller, there are over 15 vibraphone and 15 marimba sounds. The
Kurweil DM sound card has 256 drum and percussion setups. If you own a malletKAT with
out sounds, the built in factory kits are designed for any General MIDI (GM) sound module.

2malletKAT Quick Start Guide
ARTICULATIONS
When you first started studying how to play the mallets, you had to learn the layout of the
“land”. The malletKAT is much the same, only it has an enormous “land”. For example,
you can learn how to bend notes like a guitar or flute player, or add vibrato to your sound.
You can dampen notes like a vibe player. You can control how long a tone lasts or change
the octave on the fly. You can have several instrument sounds layered on top of each
other and you can control these sounds by how hard or soft you are playing. Each of these
articulations require a gesture movement on your part, and incorporating these new moves
into your playing style with allow you to express how you feel in ways that will “move” you!
This is the heart and soul of malletKAT playing.
KITs
The malletKAT has built in KITs called Factory and User KITS. A KIT is a collection of
parameters that are stored for each kit. These parameters control the octave range,
the length of a notes sound, the name of the kit, program changes, etc. Factory Kits
are permanently built in, so you can not erase them. User kits are your own parameter
configurations. There are 128 Factory Kits and 128 User Kits.
If you have the malletKAT KS, then you will be using USER Kits. If you are using a General
MIDI External synthesizer, then the Factory Kits are where you want to begin. Everything is
ready to go. You can of course, create your own kits as you go.
MIDI CONTROL
MIDI is the digital language that allows us to communicate our playing into sounds. A
“controller” like the malletKAT allows us to manipulate the instrument in specific ways.
We can train the pads to respond to dynamics the way we like. We can tell the malletKAT
to remember what sound we want on what pad and how loud it is going to play. We can
send our real time playing information to a computer using a sequencer software program
so that our performance can be played back or even scored automatically. The possibilities
are endless. I promised to leave out most of the technical stuff, but I must tell you that
the malletKAT is a powerful MIDI controller. You will be able to do things you haven’t even
imagined yet!

3
malletKAT Quick Start Guide
SETTING UP YOUR EXPANDERS
If you purchased extra octaves or expanders for your malletKAT, you will need to connect
them to the main unit. We have included a video clip that will show you how to connect the
expander to the malletKAT, but below is an explanation on how to set it up.
Your Expander comes with:
(1) piece of felt with adhesive, (2) aluminum strapping bars, (1) 7 pin Expander Cable
You will need a Phillips screwdriver.
To attach your Expander to the malletKAT PRO or malletKAT EXPRESS, turn the unit off and
unplug all cords. Turn the malletKAT upside down on a flat surface. Position the Expander
upside down next to the LOWEST octave of the malletKAT.
Take the piece of felt and line it up to the side of the Expander that will be attached to
your Pro/Express. Remove the release paper on the felt and adhere it to the side of the
Expander. Set the Expander back down lining it up with the malletKAT so that the felt is
touching it.
Remove the last four screws on the malletKAT furthest from the display, two screws from
the top row and two from the bottom row.
Remove the adjacent four screws on the Expander Unit as well, two from the top row and
two from the bottom row. (These are 6-32 X 1/2” pan head phillips screws).
Position the aluminum strapping bars with the oblong hole lining up on the malletKAT
and the last two holes lining up on the Expander. Replace the screws you just removed,
attaching the strapping bars to the malletKAT and the Expander.
Turn the malletKAT back over. Plug the special Expander Cable from the malletKAT to the
Expander. Use Output number ONE on the malletKAT for a single expander, and Output
number TWO for the second expander furthest from the display.
ALWAYS plug in the Expander cable BEFORE turning on the malletKAT.

4malletKAT Quick Start Guide
CONNECTIONS ON THE malletKAT
Let’s take a look at all of the connections and buttons on the malletKAT. Take a look at the
diagram. The malletKAT should now be placed on a keyboard style stand. Walk around the
stand and look at the back connections going from left to right. Here’s what you should see.
ON/OFF Switch
Turns the malletKAT on and off.
DC INPUT
Make sure that you are using a KAT transformer or an adapter that matches our power
specifications (15 Volt 1.6 Amps, Positive Tip). Our power supplies have a special screw in
connector so that it stays attached during performances.
SUSTAIN FTSW 1
Use this foot switch when you want to sustain the sound that you are playing. It is very
similar to the sustain pedal on a piano. The malletKAT comes with a sustain pedal (a square
black foot switch - KF1). You can use this foot switch on any of the FTSW inputs. They can
also be used on Foot Control inputs under certain circumstances. You might want to get
some extra foot switches if you plan on doing editing and if you want to use all of the FTSW
functions at the same time.
EDIT FOOTSWITCH
Insert a foot switch here when you want to edit the malletKAT. With the exception of
changing kits (sounds), all of the editing functions require that you first step down on this
pedal to begin an editing function.
SUSTAIN FTSW 2
This is the coolest foot switch input. Depending on the kit, when you step on this foot
switch, a pre-defined function will happen. This includes things like pitch bending, octave
shifting on the pads or even a different sound playing. You will have plenty of time to check
these functions later.
FOOT CONTROL 1 and FOOT CONTROL 2
Unlike the foot switch inputs that “see” an on/off connection, these programmable input
jacks require a special controller pedal. These pedals move from up to down in increments.
Depending on the function, they can control the volume of a sound, or affect the pitch of a
KEYBOARD MODE
Poly, Mono, MOverlap, MHSmoothing
PolyCount, RTC, PTW, CTLA
CANCEL
COPY
SETUP
DEFAULT
DEC INC
1
FORWARD
(edit FS) Groove ON/OFF
BKWARD
/Tap Tempo
V WHEEL 2
V WHEEL 1
PRESSURE
Normal Sustain, Dampen, DeadStroke
NOTE ARRANGE
Pitch Conf, Octave, Transpose
2
3
4
5
VELOCITY
Min/Max Velocity, Curve
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
30
29
PROGRAM CNTL
Bank Change, Program Change
GATE CONTROL
Gate Time, Velocity Gate, Roll Mode,
Latch Mode, Auto Gate, Gate Overlap,
Foot Control Gate 1&2
VOLUME
ALL NOTE OFF
All Note Off, Indiv All Note Off
KIT BANK
Factory, User, Chains
KIT NAME
LAYER MODE
Hang, Double, Melody Chord123
Alternate Mode, Velocity Shift,
Velocity S. Point
FOOT CONTROL
FC1&2 Assign, Ch, Min/Max,
Curve, Trigger Note, Gate,
HiHat Assign, Open/Closed
FOOT SUSTAIN
Sustain FTSW1 & 2
WARP MODE
Warp Mode, Mode P,
Rep, Pattern
EFFECTS
Type, Amt, PitchBend Chan,
Pitch Bend Sensitivity
REASSIGNMENTS
Mode, Number, Poly, Oct. Offset
Transp, Gate, Chan, Bank
Prog. Change Vol,
Poly, Interface
CNTRL PRESET
Preset CC#, Channel, Value
Kit Auxiliary
Preset CC#, Channel, Value
GLOBAL AUXILLARY
CHANNEL
Groove Control
Start/Stop, Groove Enable, Pattern
Tempo, Vol, Interface, Note, CH
CHAINS
Chain#, Enable,Setup, Step
PAD TRAINING
All, Rings, IndivA-P, Results
DATA DUMP
All,Kits, Chains,
Global, 1-128
Label Positions
Back Panel:
Headphones/Volume: Audio Ins/Outs:
15

5
malletKAT Quick Start Guide
note. There’s a long list of cool things that these pedals can do. Of course, the full manual
will get into the details of these functions.
MIDI IN
You can attach a MIDI cable to this input, when you want to have some other MIDI device
“share” your malletKAT sounds so that they can be played by an external sequencer or
your keyboard player.
MIDI OUT
Plug a MIDI cable into this output when you want to connect the malletKAT to another
sound module like the Kurzweil PC2r, to a sequencer, or to a data storage device. Make
sure that you plug the other end of the cable into the MIDI IN jack on the receiving device.
EXPANDER INPUTS
These input jacks are for connecting your expander octaves. You can connect up to two
expanders on a malletKAT. Expander ONE is the closet expander to the malletKAT itself.
AUDIO INPUT / AUDIO OUT JACKS (For the malletKAT KS only)
The malletKAT KS has 2 audio input and 2 audio output jacks. It also has a headphone jack
plus two buttons for volume up and down. Looking from the rear view, on the right side of
the malletKAT are four audio jacks. The two holes on the LEFT are INPUT jacks. You can
plug your CD player into these jacks and play along with
it. The audio coming from these inputs automatically gets
routed to the headphones and the audio out jacks.
Next the input jacks on the RIGHT are the AUDIO OUT jacks. Take two ¼’ audio cables and
plug them into your amplifier. If you only have one input on your amp, just use the jack that
says MONO. The malletKAT automatically takes both the left and right audio signals and
puts them on the one mono jack.
BUTTONS
There are two small buttons on the FRONT side of the malletKAT. These are the volume
controls. UP raises the volume, DOWN lowers the volume.
HEADPHONE JACK
You guessed it. This is where you plug in your
headphones.
KEYBOARD MODE
Poly, Mono, MOverlap, MHSmoothing
PolyCount, RTC, PTW, CTLA
CANCEL
COPY
SETUP
DEFAULT
DEC INC
1
FORWARD
(edit FS) Groove ON/OFF
BKWARD
/Tap Tempo
V WHEEL 2
V WHEEL 1
PRESSURE
Normal Sustain, Dampen, DeadStroke
NOTE ARRANGE
Pitch Conf, Octave, Transpose
2
3
4
5
VELOCITY
Min/Max Velocity, Curve
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
30
29
PROGRAM CNTL
Bank Change, Program Change
GATE CONTROL
Gate Time, Velocity Gate, Roll Mode,
Latch Mode, Auto Gate, Gate Overlap,
Foot Control Gate 1&2
VOLUME
ALL NOTE OFF
All Note Off, Indiv All Note Off
KIT BANK
Factory, User, Chains
KIT NAME
LAYER MODE
Hang, Double, Melody Chord123
Alternate Mode, Velocity Shift,
Velocity S. Point
FOOT CONTROL
FC1&2 Assign, Ch, Min/Max,
Curve, Trigger Note, Gate,
HiHat Assign, Open/Closed
FOOT SUSTAIN
Sustain FTSW1 & 2
WARP MODE
Warp Mode, Mode P,
Rep, Pattern
EFFECTS
Type, Amt, PitchBend Chan,
Pitch Bend Sensitivity
REASSIGNMENTS
Mode, Number, Poly, Oct. Offset
Transp, Gate, Chan, Bank
Prog. Change Vol,
Poly, Interface
CNTRL PRESET
Preset CC#, Channel, Value
Kit Auxiliary
Preset CC#, Channel, Value
GLOBAL AUXILLARY
CHANNEL
Groove Control
Start/Stop, Groove Enable, Pattern
Tempo, Vol, Interface, Note, CH
CHAINS
Chain#, Enable,Setup, Step
PAD TRAINING
All, Rings, IndivA-P, Results
DATA DUMP
All,Kits, Chains,
Global, 1-128
Label Positions
Back Panel:
Headphones/Volume: Audio Ins/Outs:
KEYBOARD MODE
Poly, Mono, MOverlap, MHSmoothing
PolyCount, RTC, PTW, CTLA
CANCEL
COPY
SETUP
DEFAULT
DEC INC
1
FORWARD
(edit FS) Groove ON/OFF
BKWARD
/Tap Tempo
V WHEEL 2
V WHEEL 1
PRESSURE
Normal Sustain, Dampen, DeadStroke
NOTE ARRANGE
Pitch Conf, Octave, Transpose
2
3
4
5
VELOCITY
Min/Max Velocity, Curve
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
30
29
PROGRAM CNTL
Bank Change, Program Change
GATE CONTROL
Gate Time, Velocity Gate, Roll Mode,
Latch Mode, Auto Gate, Gate Overlap,
Foot Control Gate 1&2
VOLUME
ALL NOTE OFF
All Note Off, Indiv All Note Off
KIT BANK
Factory, User, Chains
KIT NAME
LAYER MODE
Hang, Double, Melody Chord123
Alternate Mode, Velocity Shift,
Velocity S. Point
FOOT CONTROL
FC1&2 Assign, Ch, Min/Max,
Curve, Trigger Note, Gate,
HiHat Assign, Open/Closed
FOOT SUSTAIN
Sustain FTSW1 & 2
WARP MODE
Warp Mode, Mode P,
Rep, Pattern
EFFECTS
Type, Amt, PitchBend Chan,
Pitch Bend Sensitivity
REASSIGNMENTS
Mode, Number, Poly, Oct. Offset
Transp, Gate, Chan, Bank
Prog. Change Vol,
Poly, Interface
CNTRL PRESET
Preset CC#, Channel, Value
Kit Auxiliary
Preset CC#, Channel, Value
GLOBAL AUXILLARY
CHANNEL
Groove Control
Start/Stop, Groove Enable, Pattern
Tempo, Vol, Interface, Note, CH
CHAINS
Chain#, Enable,Setup, Step
PAD TRAINING
All, Rings, IndivA-P, Results
DATA DUMP
All,Kits, Chains,
Global, 1-128
Label Positions
Back Panel:
Headphones/Volume: Audio Ins/Outs:

6malletKAT Quick Start Guide
PLAYING SOUNDS
Are you ready to check out the malletKAT? If you have a malletkAT KS, turn it on now and
start playing. A listing of USER Kits is found on page 32. If you have an external sound
module, make sure that you plug a MIDI cable from the MIDI OUT port on the malletKAT to
the MIDI IN port on your module. There is another MIDI OUT port on the malletKAT on the
right side of the instrument. You can use that as well.
When you want to change a sound, tap on either of the rectangles called the FORWARD
or BACKWARD pads. It will take two strikes on these pads in succession for the kits
for change. Once they start changing, each single strike on the pad will increment or
decrement the kit (sound) by one. There are 128 Factory Kits built in. There are short cuts
to get to any kit, but this stuff is all in the full manual.
If you have a malletKAT without sounds and are using a General MIDI External Sound
Module, then take a look at the listing on page 13 to see the different sounds available.
On the top line of the display on the malletKAT you will see a number like F22, “Accordian”.
This means that you are hearing and playing on Factory KIT number 22.
On the third line on the display you will see the Instrument Name of F22 Accordian. These
instrument names correspond to this chart.
BASIC EDITING to the malletKAT
There are a few basic editing concepts that must be understood if you ever want to make
any changes to the malletKAT. The first thing to look at is the word names under the pads.
Notice under the “white keys” that there are words like, OCTAVE, CHANNEL, SETUP, BANK,
etc, etc. These are the functions of the malletKAT. When you step on the EDIT Footswitch
and hit one of these pads, you are now editing that function. Now take a look at the “black”
keys. On the highest C# and D# are your Increment and Decrement keys.
If you wanted to change the octave (raise the pitch of the instrument) you would step on
the edit footswitch and while held down, tap on the E pad (on the highest octave). Then
you would tap on the D# (increment pad) to raise the octave. Do all of this while the edit
footswitch is held down. That is the whole concept. Lets look at it some more.
HOW TO EDIT
All of the Editing Functions on the malletKAT are performed by stepping down on the Edit
Foot switch, and then while that foot switch is held down, you hit one of the white key
pads. Each one of the pads are assigned a function or a group of related functions. As soon
as you hit one of the pads with the foot switch held down, the function is displayed on the
screen.

7
malletKAT Quick Start Guide
What is a FUNCTION anyway?
A FUNCTION on the malletKAT controls how the malletKAT operates when you play on it.
If you look at the words underneath the keys on the malletKAT, you will see lots of words
in CAPS. These are the FUNCTIONS that reside under those pads. Sometimes there are a
group of FUNCTIONS that are closely related to a TYPE of FUNCTION.
Look at the note “E” on the second octave from the top. It says LAYER. If you activate the
LAYER Mode by tapping this pad with the EDIT foot switch down, then the malletKAT will
play two sounds, LAYERING them. To get back to the normal mode, step on the EDIT foot
switch and tap the HANG pad, C natural.
CHANGING VALUES
Just for fun, step on the Edit foot switch and while it is held down, hit B natural pad,
second one down from the top. You are calling up the CHANNEL FUNCTION. The display
will say the word CHANNEL. You will also notice that 01 is blinking on the next line. This is
the parameter that can be changed on this screen. In this case, Channels can be a number
from 1 to 16.
The way that you change VALUES on the malletKAT is to use the INCREMENT and
DECREMENT pads. These are the C# and D# keys on the highest octave. Try changing the
CHANNEL VALUE from one to six.
The steps are:
Step on the Edit Foot switch and hold it down. The display changes and says...
EDIT CONTROLLER 1 or EDIT CONTROLLER 2 on the second line
Now tap on the B natural key (octave). The screen now says...
EDIT CONTROLLER 1 (2) on the second line
The third line says... CHANNEL. This is the function that we are editing
The fourth line says... 01 and it is blinking.
Now tap on the D# key (the increment pad) FIVE TIMES.
Each time that you tap on it, the value increments by one. It will go from one to six. When
you release the foot switch, that value is now loaded into the kit setup. Try it again, but this
time, get the value back to Channel One. Are you getting it?
So now you know that VALUES are changed by using the C# and D# keys on the highest
octave. You know that they are VALUES because they are BLINKING.

8malletKAT Quick Start Guide
WHAT is the DISPLAY SAYING?
There are four lines of text on the display. The display changes it’s look as different
features are called up. Let’s begin with the first Line
KIT NUMBERS
The very first character on Line one will either be:
F followed by a number. Example F 01 meaning Factory Kit 1 or
U followed by a number. Example U 89 meaning User Kit 89 or
C followed by a group of numbers. Example. C02-12 Meaning Chain Two, Setup 12.
The F stands for FACTORY KITS. There are 128 Factory Kits that are in the malletKAT. These
KITs are stored in memory and can’t be over-written. This means that any changes that
you make to the FACTORY Kits are gone as soon as you leave the KIT. If you want to make
permanent changes to a FACTORY Kit, then you will need to save them in a USER KIT.
If you see a U followed by a number on the first line, then you are in the USER KITS. There
are also 128 USER KITS in the malletKAT. Here you can name your own kits, change any
parameter and have them stored into permanent memory. If you see a number looking like
C01-01, then you are in CHAIN MODE. CHAIN MODE allows you to arrange your KITS in a
non-contiguous fashion. You can store 16 Chains, each having the ability to arrange 16
KITS in each Chain.
CHANGING KITS
You can change KITS at any time by using the Backward /Forward Pads, the little pads on
the right side of malletKAT by striking the pad twice.
CHANGING KIT BANKS (FACTORY, USER and CHAIN)
You can jump between these three modes by holding down the EDIT FOOTSTWITCH and
hitting F Natural (lowest octave). It says KIT BANK under the pad. Use the DECrement,
INCrement pads (C# and D# on the Master Octave) to change modes.
There are several other ways to change kits. For more information regarding KITs and
CHAINs, refer to the Index in the manual for specific pages on these subjects.
LAYER MODE
Immediately following the KIT NUMBER, you will see on the first line of the display one of
the following LAYER MODES on the screen.