Novation Impulse

Created: 2017-06-24 22:49:48 -0700 Modified: 2019-02-07 22:53:18 -0800

Basics

To access any of the functions denoted by white text printed directly onto the plastic of the keyboard (as opposed to the text on the rubbery buttons), hold the “Shift” button in the center of the keyboard and press the button.
I do not believe this can do “MIDI Thru”, which is when you have an external instrument (say a piano) connected to the MIDI IN, then the Impulse sends the piano’s data through its USB to the computer. Because of this, I’m not even sure what the MIDI IN is for on the Impulse.

Changing notes

Suppose you want to assign one of the pads on the right to a particular MIDI note:

Press “Controls” in the center of the keyboard
Tap the pad you want to configure
Tap the ”+” button once to switch to note configuration
Tap a piano key to pick which note you want (you could also use the data knob at the top, but that’s tedious)
(that’s it - no need to save)

Old notes

Found this file from 12/11/2012

Still don’t know how to use my sustain pedal

Still don’t know how to make faders control Kontakt

Learn how to make the faders control something in FLStudio across different projects

It would be nice to have at least for master volume…

Move plug-ins from C:Program Files (x86)Common FilesDigidesignDAEPlug-Ins

read manuals

MC = MIDI machine control

CC = continuous control

General:

At any given time, you can see if +/- is an option if it’s lit up on the screen.

This also lets you know when you can save things.

Zones:

Map ranges of the keyboard to different MIDI channels

How to change the note that a control sends:

Press “Controls” in the middle

Press/move some control on the keyboard (a fader, encoder, pad, etc.) - you should see on the screen that “Control” changes to “En5” or “Fd4” or “dP5” (encoder, fader, drum pad)

Use +/- to change what is selected:

Type - note, cc, rpn (Registered Parameter Number), nrp (Non-Registered Parameter Number)

Impulse Guide.pdf can tell you what these mean.

You can press a note on the keyboard instead of having to use the master encoder

When changing notes on the drum pads, you can do this pretty quickly by doing the above, then pressing a different pad and trying out the keys.

How to change the tempo:

Press shift+roll, then either tap out a tempo or roll the knob

This is the same value as if you press Setup —> + —> +

The arpeggiator settings can be mdoified with shift+Arp (then use +/-)

Sync - what note to synchronize to (quarter, eighth, etc.)

Syncing to 1/96 with a high tempo will give you very NES-y sounds

Gate - duration of the notes

Swing

Arp mode (up, down, chord, up/down, random, key order)

Arp octave

Arp length - this changes how many of the eight pads are used

The arpeggiator is VERY powerful

I don’t think the arpeggiator settings are saved in your project though.