BeatMaker v1.

0 User’s Manual
Intua

Intua BeatMaker 1.0

User’s Manual

BeatMaker v1.0.1
Revision 1.0.1

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T A B L E O F C O N T E N T

I. Global overview
A. Presentation
B. Features

II. Navigation and Transport

A. The Navigation Bar
B. The Transport Bar

III. The four main views of BeatMaker

A. Home view: Main controls for BeatMaker

1. Main buttons: Load, Save Project/Kit and Export
2. Home screen tabs
a) Welcome
b) RSS
c) Kit description
d) BeatPack
e) Intua/Info

B. Pad view: Trigger sounds and sample configuration

1. Organization
2. Triggers, Numbers and Colors
3. Info screen
4. Edit screen
a) Selection mode
b) Sample settings
c) Volume and Output settings
d) Pitch and Tune settings
5. Record screen

C. Sequencer View: Create patterns & organize them as a song

1. Step Sequencer
a) Main view
b) Velocity Editor
c) Groove Editor
2. Song Sequencer
a) The Timeline and the Transport Bar
b) Placing your patterns

D. FX View: Adding new perspectives to your sound

1. The two sets of racks
2. Synchronized Delay
3. 3-Band EQ
4. Bit-Crusher

IV. Support and Questions

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I. Global Overview

A. Presentation

BeatMaker introduces a new generation of pocket-sized music creation studio. Inspired by professional drum machines,
samplers and sequencers, it combines them into an easy to use, all-in-one inspirational instrument.

Using BeatMaker creative tools, you can compose, record, arrange, and tweak live your ideas into a complete song, ready
to be shared with others.

B. Features

! 16 Sample Trigger pads with individual controls for:

! Volume, Mute and Reverse playback
! Automatic and manual sample duration settings and tonality control
! Channel routing (Main, FX channels)
! Edit samples start/end positions with the wave editor
! Individual sample loading on each pad, auto-slicing of samples
! Edit multiple controls at once with the handful selection tool
! Instant sample muting and reversing

! Step sequencer with velocity and groove editors

! Live sequencing of sample trigger
! Unlimited patterns creation
! Velocity and groove editors

! Song sequencer
! Sequencing of patterns on the song timeline, live
! Timeline, loop, tempo and playback control via foldable transport bar
! Suited for live performances!

! Live pattern recording

! Tap the trigger and record to a new pattern
! Create an unlimited number of recoding patterns
! Quantization

! Two effects channels, each one containing 3 FX racks:

! Synchronized Delay
! 3-Band Equalizer
! Bit-Crusher

! Share your audio materials from and to your computer ing audio materials from and to your computer with BeatPack

! Home
! Load & Save controls (Kits & Projects)
! Song export to audio file
! Inline documentation
! Intua RSS viewer
! Kit description panel
! BeatPack servers configuration

! Shipped with an initial sound-bank

! Official sound bank with various styles: Hip-Hop, Electronica, Drum'n'Bass, Techno, Funk, ...
! Exclusive artists kits: JacquePolynice, Richard Devine, Man Parrish, etc.

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II. Navigation and Transport

To easily navigate through the various views of BeatMaker, a system of folding bars let you manage your workspace and
easily access the key features of BeatMaker. There are 2 folding bars in BeatMaker: the Navigation bar and the Transport
bar.

A. The navigation bar

On the top-left corner of each main screen of BeatMaker, you will see a blue icon like this:

Fig. 1: The Navigation bar button to fold and unfold

Clicking on it will unfold the navigation bar:

Fig. 2: The unfolded Navigation bar

The screen you are currently on will be highlighted. On figure 2, for example, the current view is “Home”.
When you click on the view icon, BeatMaker will switch to this view. This is how you navigate through BeaMaker views.
If you want to fold the navigation bar, just click on the blue corner again.

B. The transport bar

On the bottom-left corner of each screen, you will see the following gray icon:

Fig. 3: The Transport bar button to fold and unfold

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Clicking on it will unfold the transport bar:

Fig. 4: The unfolded Transport bar

Within this bar, you can manage the main playback control of BeatMaker:

! Play: Lets you start the playback of the current song

! Record: Lets you enter record mode (automatically switches to the Pad view to record a pattern)
! Loop: Enables looping between Start/End markers on the Song sequencer
! Metronome: Enables the metronome while playing or recording
! BPM: You can see and set the BPM. Swipe your finger horizontally on the BPM label to change it quickly
! Bar/Beat labels: Show the current Bar/Beat positions within the song

Chapter C. 2. (The Song Sequencer) exposes the various interactions you can have with the transport bar, in depth.
Chapter B. 5 (Record Screen) explains how to use the record functionality.

III. The four main views of BeatMaker

BeatMaker, as you have seen with the Navigation bar, has four screens with distinct functionalities. This chapter details every
of the four views.

A. The Home View: Main controls for BeatMaker

The Home View is where you can control the loading & saving of projects and kits, view documentation,
get RSS news, configure BeatPack servers and so on. It is necessary to first define what is a kit and what is a
project.

! A Kit is a collection of 1-16 samples assigned to 1-16 trigger pads. The kit file saves the location of the samples and how
they are organized on each trigger, the settings of each sample (pitch, volume, reverse, etc.), and the BPM. This way, you
can easily prepare your own kits and switch between them.
Kits have the file extension “.bmk”.

BeatPack generates kits as a sole “.bmkz” file, which are readable by BeatMaker. It contain some extra files (preset,
samples, optional artwork and XML description).

!A Project is a kit and a set of patterns ordered as a song. The Project file saves the current kit, plus your patterns and
their settings. You can easily work a song by saving a project: everything is left in place as you left it when you will load it.

Projects have the file extension “.bm”, and the song patterns are held in a “.bms” file.

IMPORTANT NOTE: You’ll need both the .bm and .bms files to backup a project with BeatPack!

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1. Main function buttons

a. Load

With this button, you can both load a Kit or a Project the same way. When you press it, BeatMaker
will display the file browser as shown on figure 5:

Fig. 5: The “Load” browser

BeatMaker is initially organized like this:

- Artists Kits: Contains the special content created by featured artists. This directory contains only kits.
- BeatMaker Soundbank: Contains kits with various styles (Hip-Hop, Electronica, etc.) and a “Demo” directory holding the
demo song shipped with BeatMaker.
- My Content: Initially, we organized your personal content directory as follow. We suggest you place your files accordingly
to the initial directory structure, but this is not mandatory. Feel free to create your own folders.

- BeatPack Content: Every kit/sample/project files you downloaded with BeatPack are kept here.
- My Exports: Used to keep your exported songs (WAV). (This is not mandatory to save them here)
- My Kits: Used to keep your kit files (.bmk). (This is not mandatory to save them here)
- My Projects: Used to keep your project files (.bm and .bms). (This is not mandatory to save them here)

Just navigate by clicking on the directory/file name. The “Back” icon lets you go back in the previous directory.
“Cancel” will close the browser and take no action. When you are ready, select a Kit or Project file (.bm, or .bmk) and click
“OK”. BeatMaker will instantly load the file. If song playback is active, the sound will be interrupted a few seconds until the
samples are loaded, but playback will still be synchronized afterwards.

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b. Save Project

With this button, you can save the current settings as a project. The projects save the current pads settings,
and everything within the song and step sequencer. When you click on it, BeatMaker will display the file browser
as shown on figure 6:

Fig. 6: The “Save Project” browser

As with any browser, you will always see “Back”, “Cancel” and “OK” buttons. On the “save” browsers (ie: Save Kit/Project),
there are 2 extra icons:

! ! !
“New File” / “New Folder”

The first one, “File”, creates a new Project file (.bm), as we are currently saving a project. If you want to create a new folder,
to organize your “My Content” directory, click on the “Directory” icon.

In both case the keyboard will pop-up so you can enter the file or directory name.

Then, select the newly created file and click “OK”: BeatMaker will save the project into it.

c. Save Kit

As the “Save Project” button, “Save Kit” lets you save your current work as a kit. The “Save Kit” browser will
pop-up, with the same controls as “Save Project”. Again, create a new file (if needed), and select it. Click the
”OK” button to save.

d. Export

When you want to save your song as a WAVE file (that you can easily send to your friend or encode as a MP3),
you can use the “Export” feature. See Chapter C.2. (The Song Sequencer) for extra information on this mode.

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To proceed into the export of your song, place the Start/End markers on the Song timeline on the desired zone you wish to
render. Then, on the Home view, click the “Export” button. You will see a “save” browser, navigate to the desired directory
and create a new file. The file will have the “.wav” extension. When you are ready to export your song, click the “OK” button.
The loading banner will appear while BeatMaker is saving your WAVE file. Depending on the duration of your song, exporting
can take some time to complete.

2. Home screen tabs

The Home screen displays helpful information about BeatMaker and enables you to configure BeatPack servers (See
BeatPack documentation on http://www.intua.net for more information). This section will expose the various features of this
screen.

Fig. 7: Organization of the LCD screen within the Home view

The “A” zone contains the LCD menu tabs, which will be exposed later on this section.
The “B” zone contains the content of the current selected tab menu.
The “C” zone shows the current kit/project name and a “Clear” button that will clear every samples loaded on each pad.

a) Welcome

This is the default tab. It shows a short documentation about BeatMaker. Scroll the text by sliding your finger over it.

! b) RSS

The RSS tab will fetch news post from the Internet (on our website) and displays them as a list. If you do not want to spend
3G/Edge data credit, do not activate this tab. You can get there some new information about BeatMaker and other Intua
related news.

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c) Kit Info

This tab displays information about the currently loaded kit, such as the kit name, image, description, a small biography/
content from the author and a link to his/her webpage.

Fig. 8: The Kit Info menu

d) BeatPack

BeatPack is a tool that lets you synchronize samples, kits and projects from your desktop/laptop computer directly into
BeatMaker and back to BeatPack. With it, you can:

! Download content from BeatPack (using your Wi-Fi connection) directly into BeatMaker
! Upload exports, kits and projects back to BeatPack, so you can share or backup your files.

Ensure your desktop computer is currently running BeatPack and that your Wi-Fi is set up, both on your computer and on
your iPod Touch or iPhone. BeatPack displays the IP address you will need to configure BeatMaker.

To configure a BeatPack server, you will need to add one first, thanks to the “Add Server” button.
Press it to make the keyboard pop-up. Enter the IP address (4 numbers separated with a dot) of your computer (displayed
within BeatPack) of your server and press “OK” on the keyboard. It is possible to add multiple servers into BeatMaker.

Once ready, select the server you want to browse on or upload a file to.

• Download: Gets content from BeatPack shared directory. Select the server and press the “Download” button.
You can download: Kit (.bmk), Projects (.bm), Song files (.bms), WAVE (.wave, .wav), AIFF (.aiff, .aif) and BeatMaker “Z” Kits
(.bmkz). BeatMaker “Z” Kits let you install a kit by downloading only one file. They are created with BeatPack “Create Kit”
feature. If you want to cancel the action, press the “Cancel” button while BeatMaker is downloading.

Once downloaded, all your content will be placed in My Content " BeatSync Content directory.

• Upload: Sends files from BeatMaker to BeatPack. Select the server you want to send your archives on and press the
“Upload” Button. The browser will pop-up. Select the file you want to upload and press “Upload”.

NOTE: You cannot upload official BeatMaker Soundbank / Artists kits to BeatPack.

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e) Info/Intua

In this menu you can see the current BeatMaker version and extra information about BeatMaker and Intua.

B. Pad View: Trigger sounds and sample configuration

The Pad view is ideally suited for live performance or for fast, intuitive composition. The 16 multi-touch pads let
you load, slice, tune, and trigger sounds. On the left part of the Pad view, you will find the “Pads Settings” LCD,
for configuring one or multiple pads at once.

1. Organization

The pad view, shown on figure 5 below, contains two main zones.

A B

Fig. 9: The Pad view

The “A” zone contains the “Pads Settings” LCD menu, to edit one or multiple pads at once.
The “B” zone contains the 16 multi-touch pads to trigger the audio samples

2. Triggers, Numbers and Colors

The first trigger is located on the bottom left corner and the last, sixteenth pad on the top right corner. Each trigger has a
unique number and will help you keep track of the current edited pad within the “Pads Settings” LCD screen. Also, each pad
is associated to a color: later on, we will see how they are used in the Step sequencer.

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On the top part of each trigger, you will see the currently loaded sample. If no sample is loaded, “No Sample” is displayed.

To trigger a sound, just press the pad. Also, you can swipe your finger over the pads to trigger them quickly. A small glow
effect will be displayed when the pad is triggered. BeatMaker is multi-touch capable, meaning you can trigger up to 5
sounds at the same time.

3. Info screen

By default, the LCD screen (zone “A”) displays general information about your current configuration.
You can control global functionalities through this screen.

• The BPM control lets you adjust the current tempo, and set it by taping the number:

Fig. 10: BPM control

By pressing the “-” and “+” button, you can manually adjust the BPM, with a 0.1 increment. If you want to go faster through
the current number, just keep pressing “-” or “+”. To tap the BPM, push the center box holding the current BPM value. A
minimum of four taps is needed for BeatMaker to guess the tempo.

• The “Kit” and “Memory” section give you information on the currently loaded kit/project.
“Kit” displays the kit name, and “Memory” the current memory used by the loaded samples.
BeatMaker can load up to 35MB of samples at once. If you reach the limit, a warning message will be displayed.

Fig. 11: Kit and Memory information

• The “Load” button lets you quickly load a new kit or project as in the Home view. “Clear” will empty and reset your current
kit configuration so you can start working on a new one from scratch (this actions requires confirmation after being pressed).
NOTE: Clear will not empty the patterns/song.

Fig. 12: Load Kit and Clear

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• The “Global Volume” controls the general output volume of BeatMaker. Press the button and a small slider will be
displayed. Adjust it to the desired value, and click “Done” to get back to the application.
NOTE: Be careful to do not use a too high volume, BeatMaker can create distorted/high-pitched sounds!

Fig. 13: Global Volume

• Finally, on the top of the screen you’ll see 2 menu buttons: “Record” and “Edit”. By pressing these buttons, you will enter a
sub-menu. “Record” menu is explained on Chapter 5, and “Edit” on Chapter 4.

Fig. 14: Record and Edit

4. Edit screen

The Edit screen is where you can edit various parameters for each trigger pad. For example, you can change the volume,
output channel, visually edit start/stop position and so on. Before continuing, we will learn what is the Selection mode and
how to use it. It is a very helpful tool to control parameters of multiple pads at once.

This is what you’ll see when you click the Edit menu button from the top-level Info Screen:

Fig. 15: The Edit menu

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If you want to exit the Edit menu, just press the “Back” button to go back to the Info screen.

a) Selection mode

The selection mode lets you control multiple pads control at once. This is very useful to perform live, quickly set a parameter
and try new things with your samples. On the upper part of the Edit screen within the Pad LCD, you will find the “SELECT”
button. When you press it, pads will not trigger sounds anymore but will enter the selection mode.

For example:

Fig. 16: The Selection mode

On figure 16, the Select button was pressed, and then, Pads 1-4 and 13-14 were touched to select them. You can use
multi-touch for selection too, or just swipe your finger over the pads to quickly select them.

Later on, when we will detail the functionalities of each sub-menu of the Edit screen (Wave, Volume & Routing, Pitch).

Take a look too at the bottom text “Cur. Pad”: when you are in select mode, it will display an asterisk, meaning you have
selected more than one pad. Outside selection mode, Cur. Pad shows the latest pressed pad. This way, you can easily know
what pad you are currently editing.

If you edit only one pad at once, you don’t really need to enter the Selection Mode to achieve that. By default, the various
parameters you can control will reflect the latest pressed pad. The “Cur. Pad” helper reminds you which one was pressed.

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b) Sample settings

The first menu displayed when you enter the Edit menu is the “Sample” setting menu.

In this submenu you can:

! Set the Start and End position of the sample!

! Edit Start and End position graphically
! Load a sample on one or multiple pads (thanks to the Selection Mode)
! Chop a sample on one or multiple pads

• Sample Start: This is where the sample starts playing. To change it, slide your finger horizontally over the box.
• Sample End: This is where the sample stops playing. To change it, slide your finger horizontally over the box.

• The “Click for Graphical Edit” lets you set these position graphically. Clicking on the button will pop-up the Wave subview:

Fig. 17: The Wave view to edit start/end sample position

This way, you can visually edit the sample starts and ends markers. By default, if the start end position are set to 0% and
100%, the white selection zone is not displayed. Just touch and slide the wave view to place the start/end markers. You can
resize the zone by dragging near the edges of the selection.

The “Lock Zone” button lets you lock the zone, so you can slide it over the entire wave, keeping the length of your selection.
The small pad with the number helps you hear the current settings. To exit the Wave subview and save your settings, just
press the “OK” button.

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• Loading a sample on one or multiple pads.

To assign a sample on a trigger, tap it or enter select mode and choose the pads you want to load the
sample on. If you selected multiple pads, the same sample will be assigned. When you are ready to load it,
just press the “Load Sample” icon on the bottom part of the screen. The sample browser will pop-up.

NOTE: You can preview WAV and AIFF files by clicking on the “Sample” image when an audio file is selected.

• Chopping a sample on one or multiple pads

“Chopping” means to equally split a sample over a selection of pads. For example, if you chop a one bar
drum loop over 8 pads, each pad will contain 1/8th of the length. This way, you can rework a loop by
triggering its various slice in random, play it backward, etc. This is a very useful tool for sample-based
composition. To chop, enter selection mode and choose the pads you want to slice the sample on. The order
does not matter as the chop tool will start from the lowest pad number to the highest. Press the “Chop” button and the
sample browser will appear.

c) Volume and Output settings

This is the second menu displayed when you enter the Edit menu.

Here, you can:

! Set the volume of the current pad or multiple pads !

! Set the output channel (Main, FX1 or FX2)
! Mute the current pad or multiple pads
! Enter Mute Mode

• Setting the volume:

Select a pad by tapping it to or enter Selection mode to affect the volume of multiple pads. Move the circle located within the
slider, horizontally, to change the volume. The volume is displayed in dB (decibels). If multiple pads are selected, “multiple
values” will be displayed just below the slider.

• Changing the Output channel

BeatMaker has 3 output channels. You can route the output of each pad to one of these channels:
!
- The “Main” channel has no effect connected on it. The sound is outputted “dry”
- The “FX 1” channel has 3 effects (bypassed by default) connected in this order: Bit-Crusher, 3-Band EQ and
Synchronized Delay. See Chapter D (FX view) for more information
- The “FX 2”, is another effect channel with the Bit-Crusher, 3-Band EQ and Synchronized Delay.

By default, all the pads output on “FX 1”.

You can change the output channel of each pad individually, or multiple pads at once (via the Selection mode).
Just press the matching channel to change immediately the output. This way, you can easily switch between dry sound and
realtime effects.

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• Muting one or multiple pads

In order to mute one or multiple pads, you can use the “Mute” button. The sample will still play but no sound
will be outputted on the channel. This way you can perform live by muting and de-muting samples.
When a pad is muted, just press the “Mute” button again to re-enable it.

• Mute Mode

The mute mode lets you mute/de-mute all the pads easily. By pressing the “Mute Mode” the pad zone will
change as exposed on figure 18:

Fig. 18: The Mute Mode

No sound will be triggered if you press a pad, but instead, the tapped pad will be muted or de-muted.
To exit this mode, press the “Mute Mode” button again. NOTE: if you were in Selection mode before, BeatMaker will
automatically exit from this mode.

! d) Pitch and Tune settings

This is the third menu displayed when you enter the Edit menu.

Here, you can:

! Set the Pitch of one or multiple pads at once

! Auto-scale sample (1/16th to 4 Bars) on one or multiple pads at once
! Adjust the tune by semi-tones on one or multiple pads at once
! Set reverse playback on one or multiple pads at once
! Enter Reverse-Mode

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• Setting the Pitch

The “Pitch” is the speed at which the sample is reproduced at. A Pitch of “x1” means a sample is playing at its normal
playback speed. A Pitch of “x2” means the sample is playing twice as fast as its original speed.
Pitch values can go from “x0.01” to “x2”. First, tap the trigger to edit, or enter Selection mode. Change the Pitch. You will
immediately hear the new settings Greats effects can be achieved by modifying the pitch.

• Scaling samples

You can easily scale one or multiple samples at once from 1/16th of a bar to 4 bars. This way, you can loop samples
perfectly or make original transitions. To automatically scale one or multiple samples, tap the pad, or enter Selection mode.
Then, choose the desired value using the “-” and “+” buttons (see figure 19). When you are ready to scale, press the “Set”
button. Changes happen immediately.

Fig. 20: Auto-scale settings

• Changing the Tune

If you want to correct the tune of one or multiple samples, you can use the “Semi-Tones” control. You can set it from -16 to
+16. The tune does not affect the pitch. For example, you can ensure you’re still in the correct tonality when you auto-scaled
a loop, or just change the key of a piano note. Just press the “-” or “+” to change the current value (displayed in the center).
Changes take place immediately.

Fig. 21: Semi-tones tune adjustment

• Reverse playback of one or multiple pads

In BeatMaker, samples can be played forward or backward. To set the current play direction, you can use
the “Reverse” button. Tap the pad you want to reverse or enter Selection mode, and select the desired
pads. Press “Reverse” accordingly.

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• Reverse-Mode

The reverse mode lets you set the playback direction of all the pads easily. By pressing “Rev. Mode”, the
pad zone will change as exposed on figure 22.
When the button is green, reverse playback is activated. When the button is pink, playback is set forward.

Fig. 22: Reverse-Mode

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5. The Record screen

! The quickest way to create a song with BeatMaker, once you begin to feel comfortable with live triggering of pads,
is to record your patterns one by one and arrange them on the song through the Pad view and its Record Screen.

Fig. 23: Pad view with Record Screen

• Recording/Current Pattern

! The recording pattern is referenced by a number (fig. 24), which is also used by the Song sequencer exposed
further (cf. Chapter C.1).

Fig. 24: Recording/Current Pattern

The left and right arrows let you choose the current pattern, acting as a previous/next available pattern blocks.
By default there is only one pattern available and there will always be at least one.

NOTE: If recording is enabled, the events gathered for the currently recorded pattern are saved before the new recording
destination is set.

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“New Pattern” will create a new pattern block, and set it as the current recording destination right away.
NOTE: If you were recording on, the previous changes are saved before the destination switches.

“Clear” will empty events from the current pattern block.

NOTE:!If recording, empties all events from the current pattern

! If not recording: Only empties recorded events from the current record session

• Editing the song and choosing your work zone

The current bar position (Fig. 25) in the Song sequencer is your work zone for the “Append” and ”Remove” operations.
It reflects the current start position currently set in the song sequencer timeline (cf. Song sequencer and Timeline).

NOTE: When recording, the loop is set to one bar length, starting at this position.

Fig. 25 Song bar position

Navigating through the song using the left and right arrows is equivalent to setting the timeline loop on this particular bar
position in the Song sequencer.

NOTE: Changing the current bar position will also set the playback position to loop on this particular bar, invalidating the
work zone previously set by the song sequencer timeline, if any.

“Append to Song” will append the current pattern to the song at the current bar position

“Remove from Song“ will disable the current pattern from the song at the current bar position

• Quantizing your events

When recording, your events are appended to the current pattern given your very own timing, the sequencer implicitly finds
out which is the nearest 1/16th position.

NOTE: If the same pad is pressed for the same step as a previously recorded event, the latter is replaced by the new event.

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When your event is not exactly on a 16th of bar, the time difference between the event the nearest 1/16th position will be
used as groove data for this particular step and pad (cf. Groove Editor on chapter C.1).

“Quantize”: Enabled by default, the quantizing will round this difference to the nearest 1/16th of a bar,
enabling you to record in perfect timing effortlessly.

C. The Sequencer view: Create step patterns & organize them as a song

The Sequencer view is where you can edit and place the triggering patterns along the song timeline.
To build your song and mix various patterns at once, you will use the Sequencer.

The Sequencer view within BeatMaker offers 2 editing sub-views:

! The Step sequencer, to create new triggering sample patterns (from the associated pads on the Pad view)
! The Song sequencer, which lets you arrange your patterns as a song, according to the timeline

This section will teach you how to use the Step and Song sequencers.

1. The Step sequencer

When you enter the Song sequencer, the Step sequencer is not directly displayed. This is because you need to edit the
patterns first. Each “track” holds a one-bar step pattern. It is symbolized like this:

Fig. 26: The Pattern “handle”.

The number represents the track/pattern number. You can create an unlimited amount of patterns within BeatMaker. This is
will be exposed later on on chapter C. 2.

Pressing the pattern “handle” will launch the pattern editor (aka step sequencer) associated to the track as shown below
(Fig. 27):

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• Pattern edition, step by step

Fig. 27: The Step sequencer

Sixteen tracks are visible on the Step sequencer : each track is associated to on pad (sample) on the Pad view.
If you look at the small color indicator on the pads, you’ll see they match with the Step sequencer tracks. This is useful to
associate an instrument to a color. Also, on the left part of each track, the pad/track number and sample name are
displayed.

A pattern holds a bar of triggering events. Each pattern is divided in 16 “steps” (1/16th of a bar).
As you can see on figure 28, the steps are ordered horizontally. You can see on step was placed every two 1/16th slices.

Fig. 28: The 16 steps (one bar) of one pad track

By default, new patterns are empty. To place a trigger step, just press the selected position (horizontally: the 1/16th division,
vertically: the pad track). A darker box will appear, meaning the current sample will be triggered. To remove steps, just press
them again.

To navigate through the 16 pad tracks, grab and slide the view with your finger. You can only scroll vertically as only one-bar
is displayed for each pattern.

NOTE: The pattern won’t play until you activate it on the Song sequencer! This is explained on Chapter C.2.

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When the song is playing, you will notice an off-white vertical bar passing over the steps. This is a play position indicator so
you can keep track of the current beat being played. It will be displayed even if the current edited pattern is not activated on
the Song sequencer.

The Step sequencer is a powerful tool that also lets you make simple operations (“Duplicate”, “Clear”), and customize the
way steps are triggered via the “Velocity” and “Groove” editors. On the top, you can see the toolbar figure 29.

Fig. 29: The Step sequencer toolbar

The current pattern number is displayed on the left. To get back to the Song sequencer, just press the “Song Sequencer”
button. To clear the current pattern, just press “Clear”. A confirmation dialog will pop-up. Note that this will not clear the
loaded samples, but just the trigger steps of the current edited pattern track.

The “Duplicate” button will copy the content of the current pattern and save it as a new one. The Step sequencer will
automatically switch to the newly duplicated pattern. If you check on the Song sequencer, you’ll see a new pattern track.

As mentioned earlier, the Step sequencer has 2 editors: Velocity and Groove.

• The Velocity editor lets you set the triggered volume of each pad track on the pattern. When you click the “Velocity” button,
the editor will pop-up as shown on figure 30:

Fig. 30: The Velocity Editor

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! The “A” zone is the Velocity Editor toolbar

! The “B” zone is where you set the velocity values of each step for current pad track
! The “C” zone shows the current pad track name on “Prev”, “Next” buttons to quickly switch between pad tracks

The velocity is represented by a number between 0 and 127. Set to 0, no sound is outputted, and 127 is the maximum
velocity. The “Back” button lets you return to the Step sequencer. “Groove” lets you switch quickly to the Groove editor.
“Clear” will reset the current velocities to the default value (100). You can see the current edited value just next the “Clear”
button.

If you look closer, just below the toolbar, you will see red lines. They are displayed when a step is activated on the current
slice. The Velocity editor, is, as the Step sequencer, displaying one bar divided in 16 slices. Just drag your finger on zone B
to set the steps velocities.

On the bottom part (zone C), the pad track number is displayed. To switch between them, navigate with the “Prev” and
“Next” buttons. This way you can quickly edit the different pad tracks.

• The Groove editor enables you to give more life and originality to your patterns. When you click the “Groove” button (from
the Step sequencer or the Velocity editor), the editor will pop-up as shown on figure 31:

Fig. 31: The Groove Editor

! The “A” zone is the Groove Editor toolbar

! The “B” zone is where you set the groove values of each step for current pad track
! The “C” zone shows the current pad track name on “Prev”, “Next” buttons to quickly switch between tracks

The groove value is a number between -32 and 32. A positive value means the step will be triggered after the regular trigger
time. On the contrary, a negative value will trigger the step earlier. This way, you can create more realistic sounding drum
patterns (snare rolls, ...) by slightly delaying the steps.

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As the Velocity editor, edit the value by dragging your finger over zone B, on the desired slices. Remember to check the red
lines just below the toolbar to know where steps are located. Use zone C to quickly switch between pad tracks.

2. The Song Sequencer

As you have learned how to create your patterns, now it is time to trigger them along the timeline.
The Song sequencer, as shown on figure 32, contains various areas. We’ll introduce each of them and explain their
functionalities.

Fig. 32: The Song Sequencer

a) The Timeline and the Transport Bar

The timeline and the transport bar are 2 essential tools you will need to create a song or perform live.

In this section, we will learn:

! The Timeline concept

! The Play position
! The Start/End loop zone
! The interaction between the timeline and the Transport Bar
! The detailed actions of each element of the Transport Bar

• The timeline is an horizontal bar representing the current time position (in bars) of your song. The timeline has no virtual
limit in time: you can create small or very long arrangements likewise. You drop the patterns along it, as show on figure. 32,
and the sequencer plays it at the current tempo. Each part represent 1 bar, as one Step pattern.

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Fig. 33: The timeline, with Start/End zone and Play position marker

You navigate through the entire song by grabbing and moving the central zone, horizontally and vertically.
This way you can easily arrange the song and focus on a part, or prepare the upcoming tracks and patterns.

• The Play position is symbolized by the small triangle inside the timeline. On each bar-change, when the song is playing, the
play position will highlight the current played bar.

• The Song sequencer has the ability to loop on a certain zone (“Start/End loop zone”) thanks to “Start” and “End” markers.
To set the markers, just grab and slide them to either shrink or expand the loop zone. This way, when playback is set into
“Loop” (using the button of the same name inside the Transport bar), the sequencer will play inside this zone for ever. This
can be useful to work parts of your song, or perform live.

• As you can see, there’s a link between the timeline and the transport bar (bottom-left corner): the “Play”, “Stop” and
“Loop” buttons are related to the timeline.

When the song is not playing, the Transport bar looks like this:

Fig. 34: The transport bar when song is not playing

You can see the various playback/loop control, the metronome, BPM and current timeline position.

The following table details which action will be triggered regarding to the current state of the song.

Button Song stopped Song playing

Play

Song will start playing, respecting the Stop the playback immediately
Start/End loop zone if Loop is enabled

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Button Song stopped
Record
BeatMaker switches to the Pad view
to begin a new recording session.
Play, Record, Loop and Metronome
are toggled
Loop Loop mode is triggered for current
Start/End loop zone, but song will not
play.
If Loop mode was active, toggling
again will just deactivate this mode.
Metronome
Active/Deactivate metronome for
playback
BPM Change BPM
NOTE: Swipe your finger horizontally
to change BPM Value
Bar/Beat Position Set to first bar, first beat (001:1)
Fig. 35: Actions of the Transport Bar elements
c) Placing your patterns
Your song is constructed by placing patterns along the timeline. You can arrange them as sequences, triggering patterns live
and other essential functionalities.
In this section, we will see how to:
! Manage the pattern tracks (Add, delete, etc..)
! Enable or disable patterns along each track and the timeline
What you place along the timeline is filled (or empty!) steps patterns (See Chapter C.1 on how to use the Step Sequencer).
An empty pattern placed on the pattern looks like this:
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Song playing
BeatMaker switches to the Pad view,
the song loop will be set to one bar
length and the playback is restarted
Play position is set to the beginning of
the Start/End loop zone, and will loop
inside.
If Loop mode was active, song will
continue on and ignore the Start/End
loop zone.
Metronome plays on each eighth note,
accentuating on each bar.
Change BPM (Live)
NOTE: Swipe your finger horizontally
to change BPM Value
Actual Bar/Beat
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And a filled pattern look like this:

You can see the steps inside each pattern to quickly know what you are playing.

• On the Song sequencer, you’ll see by default one empty pattern track. One track holds one pattern of one
bar, but you can place as many was you want along the timeline.

To create a new pattern track, click the “Add Pattern” button located just below the last created pattern
track. It will appear directly and you can tap the track handle to edit its steps.
(See Chapter C.1)

To delete an existing track, click the “Delete Pattern” button located below the last track. A red highlight area will be
displayed over each track handle. Press the track you want to delete.
If you want to cancel, press the “Delete Pattern” button again or click outside the highlighted zone.

Placing your pattern along the timeline is a very simple task. By default, when you edit a new pattern, it will not be played on
the Song sequencer. Once you have edited your pattern with the Step sequencer, get back to the Song sequencer and:

! Ensure the Play position can reach the patterns you want to play
! Enable the patterns by tapping where the desired bar and track cross
! Add as many pattern as you need to create a complete song

To guide you over the process, here’s a simple walkthrough. Before proceeding, ensure the first pattern is filled with
triggering steps (see Chapter C. 1). Also, before 4. we assume you’ve edited the new, non-empty pattern.

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1. Set the Start/End markers by grabbing and sliding “End”.

Put “Start” on Bar 1 (default), and “End” on Bar 4

2. Press the empty space that crosses “Pattern 1” handle and Bar 1 (Start)
The pattern should appear like the image. What you see inside

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3. Repeat the operation along the timeline, to start building your arrangement

4. Create a new track pattern, edit it and get back to the Song Sequencer.
Put the new track as shown on this image

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5. Unfold the Transport Bar by clicking the gray button in the left corner.
Set “Loop” mode and press “Play”. You should see something like this.

D. The FX View: Adding new perspectives to your sound

You can give a new impulse to your sound material using audio effects. BeatMaker provides two independent
effect channels, each one including a Synchronized Delay, a 3-band EQ, and a "Bit-Crusher". You can design
new rhythmic patterns to your drum loops, change textures and frequencies or recreate the lovely vintage sound
thanks to these 3 effects.

1. The two sets of racks

As mentioned before, BeatMaker has 2 effects channels: FX 1 and FX 2. Each channel is associated to a column or “effect
rack”. The left rack has 3 effects (Synchronized Delay, 3-Band EQ, Bit-Crusher), and represents the FX 1 channel.
Right rack is FX 2 channel, and also has 3 independent effects.

You can easily navigate through the racks with the Up/Down arrows on the left and right side of the screen.

By default, every effect is bypassed (meaning the sound does not goes through the effect rack). To disable
bypass, just press the button.

Be sure to assign your pads to the correct FX channel (See Chapter B.4.c).

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2. Synchronized Delay

The Synchronized Delay is a simple yet powerful effect. It gives life, widen the audio spectrum
of you samples and create new rhythmic and melodic patterns. The signal enters the delay
and is buffered for a synchronized amount of time. This way, the sound “repeats” itself and
slowly fade away (with the feedback control).

On the top, you can set the delay time: from 1/32th to 1 bar. The delay is synchronized to
song tempo/BPM. Select one of the 8 possible values.

The “Feedback” lets you control the amount of sound that is re-injected each time on the
input. If you set a low feedback, the delayed sound will vanish quickly. On the contrary, setting
it to the maximum will repeat the sound indefinitely.

The “Wet Mix” controls the mix between the delayed sound and the normal, dry sound going
through the effect. Set to the minimum, you’ll just hear the original signal. Set to the
maximum, only the processed signal will be heard.

The “Bypass” button enables or disables the effect.

Fig. 36: Synchronized Delay

3. 3-Band Equalizer (EQ)

The 3-band Equalized is useful to filter/boost:

! Low frequencies (bass)

! Mid frequencies (vocals, instruments...)
! High frequencies (high-pitched sounds, noises...)

You can give more personality to the sound using the equalizer. You can easily create
breaks by muting mid and high frequencies, just letting the bass passing through. This is
your perfect companion for live performances.

Each of the 3 sliders control a spectrum of frequencies (“Low”, “Mid”, “High”).

On the center position, no boost or reduction is given to the sound.

Set the slider on the top to boost, on the bottom to reduce selected frequencies.

The “Bypass” button enables or disables the effect.

Fig. 37: The 3-Band Equalizer

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4. Bit-Crusher

The bit-crusher is an interesting, destructive effect that “emulates” the sound of old
drum machines and sequencer. This way, you can transform the sound to give a
vintage touch to your mix.

The bit-crusher has 2 sliders:

! “Bits”: choose the desired sound resolution, in bits. The slider goes from
1-bit to 16-bits
! “Frequency”: choose the desired sampling frequency. This slider goes
from 2000Hz to 44,100Hz.

The “Bypass” button enables or disables the effect.

Fig. 38: The Bit-Crusher

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IV.Support and Questions

For any additional question, visit first our website at: http://www.intua.net

Our forums are available at: http://www.intua.net/forums

For bug reporting and technical questions: support@intua.net

For artist relations, company information and other inquiries: contact@intua.net

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