Main Menu Button

The main menu button displays the main menu. Here you will find functions that operate on the entire program (including loading and saving) as well as some general utility and installation functions.

Channel Control Section

The channel control section contains eight channel selection buttons and eight mute buttons. Apart from selecting channels for editing, you can also use these buttons to preview, mute and solo channels. In addition, the buttons also indicate which channels are currently sounding.

Select Channel With MIDI

When the select channel with MIDI option is turned on, µTonic will select drum channels as you trigger them from your MIDI keyboard.

Pitched Mode

µTonic version 2.0 features a new mode called pitched MIDI mode which allows you to actually play melodies with the drum patches on your keyboard. In pitched mode, the eight drum channels are addressed with MIDI channels 1 to 8 and you have the entire keyboard for each channel. C3 (note number 60) will play the "original pitch".

Oscilloscope

This little window displays a running graph of the sound µTonic is producing.

Drum Patch Name Selector

If the current drum patch has been loaded from or saved to disk the drum patch selector will display its name. Use the buttons on the left and right-hand side of the name display to cycle between patches on disk and click in the name display to bring up a list with all the patches in the current directory.

Drum Patch Menu Button

The drum patch menu button opens the drum patch menu. The drum patch menu contains functions that operate on the drum patch of the currently selected channel.

Open Drum Patch Button

Press this button to bring up an open dialog that lets you load a µTonic drum patch file.

Save Drum Patch Button

Press this button to up a save dialog that lets you save the current drum patch parameters into a µTonic drum patch file.

Mixing Section

The mixing section is the final stage in the audio processing chain. It mixes the oscillator and the noise generator together and optionally distorts and equalizes the channel. You can also choose the output (A or B) for each drum patch and pan the patch from left to right.

Oscillator Section

The oscillator produces a steady or pitch-modulated tone. It features three different waveforms plus a multi-mode pitch modulator. The oscillator typically provides the tonal quality and the pitch of a drum sound.

Noise Section

The noise generator is used to add noisy elements to the drum patch. It features a multi-mode filter with low-pass, band-pass and high-pass modes as well as an amplitude envelope with different shapes allowing you to sculpt the noise just the way that fits your sound.

Velocity Sensitivity Section

The velocity sensitivity section controls how MIDI velocities and pattern accents affect the sound.

Pattern Menu Button

The pattern edit menu button shows the pattern edit menu. The pattern edit menu contains functions that operate on the current pattern or optionally only on the currently selected channel of the pattern.

Copy Pattern / Pattern Channel Button

This button copies the current pattern (or the currently selected channel only) onto the clipboard.

Paste Pattern / Pattern Channel Button

This button pastes a pattern (or a single pattern channel only) from the clipboard.

Pattern Selection Group

You use this group of 12 buttons to select pattern a to l for playing and editing.

Chain From Previous Pattern / To Next Pattern

These buttons are used to create chains of patterns. When a pattern in a pattern chain has finished playing, the next pattern in the chain will automatically follow.

Pattern Length

The length of the current pattern is shown and edited here. In addition, a green light indicates the current play position within the pattern.

Channel Triggers

Each button in this lane represents one step in the pattern and this is where you decide if a drum should be triggered by that step or not.

Channel Accents

The accents affect the velocities of drum hits triggered by the pattern engine.

Channel Fills

Each step has a fill switch that is used to create rapid drum rolls. The fill rate is set globally for all patterns in µTonic and may be set to two times per step up to eight times per step.

Master Section

In the master section we have the start and stop buttons for the pattern engine as well as parameters that concern the entire program, including the master volume of µTonic.