Nebiru ZDS Shifter User manual

ZDS Shifter
Owners Manual
Model I

Contents
Overview
Elements
Top
Back
Hooking Things Up
Power
MIDI In
MIDI Out
USB
Operation
Setting up Mappings
Programming the Shifter
Controlling the power/activity LED
Footswitch Setup
Shift Rules
Adding rules
Deleting rules
Rule Groups
Backup and restore
Factory Reset
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Overview
The Shifter combines the features of four products into one compact
device!
1. Power brick. When powered from the DC jack, the Shifter can be
used in place of your Zendrum’s power/merge brick.
2. MIDI to USB adaptor. You can connect the Shifter directly to your
computer to have it receive your MIDI performance data.
3. MIDI Change Controller. The two footswitches are programmable
CC controls.
4. MIDI filter. The Shifter supports up to 112 “shift” rules, which you
use to alter or augment your MIDI performance.
You can use the Shifter’s filter capabilities to convert one MIDI message
type to another or to change the values of individual messages. For
example, you might have a rule that converts all snare hits to cross sticking
when enabled or to have a cymbal edge play as a choke.
You can also create rules that allow you to stack notes. You could, for
example, have it so that a certain crash cymbal automatically plays a kick
note when struck. The shift rules are limited only by your imagination!
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Physical Elements
Top
A
Footswitch #1
B
Footswitch #2
C
Power/activity light
D
Footswitch #1 indicator light
E
Footswitch #2 indicator light
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Back
A
MIDI Out/through
B
MIDI In (instrument)
C
USB (to computer)
D
DC Power connection. 6 to 12V, center positive
Hooking Things Up
Power
The Shifter can be powered by either the DC power jack or via USB.
Please be aware that the USB jack alone cannot reliably power your
Zendrum. If you need to send power to your Zendrum through the MIDI In
jack, then you’ll need to use the DC adaptor to provide the minimum 6 Volts
of power it requires.
You should use the power adapter provided with your Shifter, however, any
adaptor in the 6 to 12V range will work. Please be sure the adaptor you
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use is marked “center positive”, which generally is indicated by the symbol
Many 9V (and Roland/BOSS) adaptors are center negative  , and should not
be used.
MIDI In
Connect your Zendrum or instrument to the MIDI In jack, which can be
identified by the symbol .
Take care when connecting non-Zendrum instruments as phantom power
is always delivered through the MIDI In jack. This typically won’t be a
problem for most devices as the two pins used to deliver power are usually
ignored.
MIDI Out
If your sound source requires a MIDI Din connection, then hook it up to the
Shifter’s MIDI Out connection, identified by the symbol . This jack also
doubles as a (soft) MIDI Thru port.
USB
The USB connector is used to connect the device to your computer if you
are using it as a sound source. The USB connection is also used to
program your device via the ZDS Shifter Web Application.
The USB port can also power the Shifter, however, it cannot also power
your Zendrum. If you are using wireless or are powering your Zendrum
from a battery or elsewhere, then powering the Shifter from the USB port
alone is perfectly fine.
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Operation
Once programmed, you interact with the two footswitches to generate CC
messages or to enable/disable your shift rules. The two LEDs marked FS1
and FS2 turn on to indicate those foot switches are active. The power
LED also functions as the MIDI activity light and will flicker whenever MIDI
messages are detected.
Setting up Mappings
The Shifter supports ZenEdit style module mappings. These mappings are
used to display actual instrument names instead of MIDI note numbers and
make it more intuitive to program your Shifter.
The Shifter interface contains mappings for many popular sound modules
and VSTs. You may also import your own mappings (which you can export
from either ZenEdit or the Restomp application).
To set up your channel mappings, click on the link at the top of the group
grid. Initially, this link will display ‘General MIDI’ as this is the default
mapping used by the Shifter for MIDI channel 10 (drums). Clicking the link
will display the channel mapping interface where you can select which
module to use for each channel you care about.
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To import your own mappings, click the button in the lower left labeled
‘Manage User Mappings’. This will display the list of mappings you’ve
imported (if any) and controls to import your own files.
The mapping you select for each MIDI channel is used in the shift rule grid
and ‘new rule’ dialogs to display the instrument name for Note ON and
Note Stack MIDI messages.
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Programming the Shifter
Programming the Shifter requires that either Google Chrome or the Opera
web browser be installed.
Connect your Shifter to your computer using a USB cable and navigate to
the ZDS Shifter Web Application.
The application is split into two sections. The top section contains a visual
representation of your ZDS Shifter and is where you can set up how the
foot switches behave. The lower section is where you program your shift
rules. For convenience, these rules may be grouped into up to four
different groups, each of which can be controlled by a different CC
message.
Shift Rules
A shift rule works on a single message type and value. They have an input
and an output  definition. The Shifter compares each MIDI message it
receives against the list of active shift rules. Any messages that match the
rule input  are altered so that they match the output  .
For a rule to be applied to a message, the input  must match the message
type, channel and value.
The output of the rule can change some or all of these parameters.
Consider this example (utilizing BFD3):
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This rule states that any Note On message for snare hits (note #26) should
be replaced with cross stick hits (note #25), whenever the group CC is
active. (NOTE: you do not have to add an additional rule for Note Off --
these are handled automatically)
Rules can be used to alter Note On messages like this, or they can be used
to completely alter the message type.
Consider the following:
This rule will turn any CC #64 messages it sees into cymbal hits (the value
of the CC message becomes the velocity value for the hit).
Practically any MIDI message can be turned into another using shift rules.
Lastly, there is a new message type defined to handle note stacking.
Whenever the Input message type is Note On, then it is possible to select
‘Note Stack’ as the output type, and select an instrument name as in this
example:
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