NIGHTFALL Modwheel Behavior X7 Expression User Manual

User Manual

Modwheel Behavior X7 Expression

Thank you for purchasing Nightfall! We’ve tried to make Nightfall as intuitive and easy to use as possible, but there’s a lot going on, so let’s go over the features – starting with the basics…

THE 2-LAYER SYSTEM
Just like Sunset Strings, the defining feature of Nightfall isn’t just the high quality of sounds, but the 2-Layer system – the ability to blend and transform between two layers using the Modwheel (CC1).
MODWHEEL BEHAVIOR
The Modwheel has 3 Behavior Options:
X – A standard crossfade — Layer 1 (the bottom layer) will fade into Layer 2 (the top layer) as you increase the Modwheel (CC1). In other words, with Modwheel at 0, you will only hear Layer 1. With Modwheel at 127 (the very top) you will only hear Layer 2. By holding the Mod Wheel at 50%, you will hear both layers equally.
7 – Only Layer 2 will fade up or down (following the Modwheel), while the Layer 1 stays at a full volume. In effect, this is like fading Layer 2 in over the top of Layer 2.
– Both Layers stay at equal volumes. This disables any sort of blending between layers.
Note that if you only have one Layer active, then the active Layer (either Layer 1 or Layer 2) stays at full volume, no matter which Mod Wheel Behavior option is selected. Of course, if the Expression button is active (which we’re about to explain), then the Mod Wheel will indeed control volume.
“EXPRESSION” Button — Expression (like volume) is always available with CC11, but you also have the option of having the Mod Wheel control Expression by engaging the “EXPRESSION” button.

LAYER CONTROLS

ON/OFF BUTTONS — Above the Menu Bars are the On/Off buttons, which are labeled “Layer 1” or “Layer 2”. At least one of these buttons must be on for the instrument to make a sound.
MENU BAR – Clicking the Menu Bar (underneath where it says “Layer 1” or “Layer 2” will bring up a list of Categories (left column), Sub-Categories (second column), and Articulations (right side). A Subcategory must be selected before you can view and select an Articulation. There are Next/Prev arrows next to the Menu Bars, which will cycle through the articulations, although they stay within the selected Subcategory.
EFFECT “QUICK CONTROL” KNOBS — There are six effects for each layer:
Tone / Distortion / Filter / Motion / Delay / Reverb
Each effect is represented by a graphical symbol. Click on an effect’s symbol to open a dedicated panel of finer controls for that effect, such as different distortion or filter types, pulse and delay speed settings, and so on. The Quick Control knobs will adjust the “amount” of the effect applied, whether the panel is open or not.
MODWHEEL LINKS — We often call these the “Blue Dots,” since they are blue lights when you turn them on. When engaged, the Modwheel will control the Quick Control knob (and thus, the amount) of the effect shown above the blue dot. This is especially handy for Filter, EQ and Pulse. Note that you can also make custom curves for the Modwheel’s behavior for each effect, including maximum and minimum values, which we explain in the next chapter…

EFFECTS PANELS

Here we see an example of the “Motion” panel being opened, by clicking that squiggly line (now highlighted in yellow) under the fourth “Quick Control” knob from the left. Note that the Blue Dot is also engaged, so the Modwheel will control how much “pulsing” this effect will do. Under the “Intensity” knob in the middle of the panel, you’ll notice the Icon has a yellow/grey line underneath. This line is a switch, that lets you toggle between two parameters. In the case of the Motion effect, you can toggle between Amplitude (to create a pulse effect) or Autopan.
The Tone effect offers two options for the primary control knob — Gain, or Frequency, selected via a toggle switch. This will determine which parameter is controlled by the Quick Control knob and Modwheel.
The Filter effect also contains a switch for toggling between a High-pass filter or a Low-pass filter. For reference, the icon shown in the above image is of the LP filter (It will roll off the high frequencies as you turn up the knob). Note that when the HP filter is engaged, turning the knob all the way up will result in no sound. You must lower the knob to open the HP Filter.
When the Modwheel link is engaged (either by clicking the Blue Dot, or by clicking the “MW Link” button), the dark window appears where you can control what the intensity will be at various mod wheel positions. For example, you could move the left slider (the small blue triangle) all the way up and the right slider all the way down, which would reverse the values of the Intensity knob. In other words, the Motion intensity would be at maximum when the Modwheel is at 0, and the effect would be at 0 when the Modwheel is all the way up. You’ll see the Intensity knob move along with the Modwheel, so you’ll know what it’s doing. There is a round blue handle for extra control over the modwheel’s effect, allowing you to “ramp” in an exaggerated increase or decrease of the effect, or to hit a min/max value before reaching the end of the modwheel’s throw.
The Motion and Delay effects have a speed setting that can either be synchronized to tempo, or allow manually dialing in the speed of an LFO in Hz. In addition to the speed setting, Motion offers a selection of waveshapes for affecting either pulse or autopan.

IMPORTANT
The TONE and FILTER effects will reset to their defaults when you select a different articulation. If you want your custom values to be stored with that articulation, we recommend either using the User Presets system, or you can save your own snapshot file by using Kontakt’s in-built snapshots feature.

SOURCE CONTROLS
Volume, Pan, Attack and Release… But wait, there’s more!

At the bottom of the interface, you’ll find the source controls. These are positioned as Layer 1 on the left, and Layer 2 on the right, as you’d expect! The controls might seem obvious at a glance, but if you look at the “VOL” or “PAN” control, you’ll notice the yellow/grey toggle switches we talked about in the previous category. Well, if you click the “VOL” (volume) label, a “VEL” (velocity) control will appear for dialing in the velocity response for that specific articulation. If you click the “PAN” label, a “Width” control will appear, giving more control over the stereo image of your selected sounds.
Using the toggle switches is primarily a way to hide some of the less common settings in order to keep the interface clean and un-cluttered.
IMPORTANT
Selecting a new articulation will reset these knobs to their default values for that sound category.
All categories share the same Volume, Pan, and Width defaults, but the velocity response and Atk/Rel values might change.
For instance, selecting an articulation from the Shorts category will turn UP the velocity response control. This is necessary for articulations to respond to how hard you play your MIDI keyboard, or respond to programmed note velocity.
Similarly, the Release value will turn DOWN if you select a Pulse or Loop, to prevent an unwanted “fade-out” effect when triggering rhythmic sounds.
If you customize these controls for a particular articulation, be aware that changing articulation will lose those custom settings. We suggest you use the User Presets system in order to save your custom configuration. Alternatively, you can use Kontakt’s in-built Snapshots feature.

ACTIVITY WINDOW

The Activity Window gives a graphical representation of the articulations you have selected, as well as visual feedback of when each element is triggered. The Blue Ring along the outside edge represents your Modwheel (CC1) activity. The Layers will glow (or flash, if a Repetition is selected) when you play notes. Fancy, right?

USER PRESETS

This is on the upper right of the interface. Think of it as a bank of up to 6 configurations of your choice.
Click the “+” symbol on any of the six available buttons to save your current configuration as a recallable preset. Once added, a number will appear that you can click to recall that preset. You can also recall user presets using keyswitches, represented by the Red Keys in the Mapping window, or on Kontakt’s keyboard display. Note that you can select the range and positioning of the Red Keys from the Keyboard Mapping page.
To clear a preset, click the little “x” button to the side of the preset slot.

MASTER PRESETS
This is on the upper left of the interface. Click the left/right arrows or the preset name to audition the various combinations we’ve created to get you started (and make sure to use that modwheel!)
Keep in mind, this instrument is designed for YOU to choose your articulations. Our combos sure are fun, but do yourself a favor and go through all the individual articulations at least once, just to make sure you’re not missing out on any sounds that really vibe with you. Often times, 1 layer is all you need!

KEYBOARD MAPPING

Sometimes, especially with the “Loops” articulations, we want one of the layers to only be active for the low notes. Other times, you might want only high notes for one Layer’s articulation, while you want the full range for the other Layer…
No problem! Click the “Keyboard Mapping” button at the bottom of the GUI and this window will appear. You can adjust the keyboard range for Layer 1 by moving the white slider handles underneath the keyboard picture, or adjust the range for Layer 2 by moving the white handles above the keyboard. (Layer 1 = Bottom Layer, Layer 2 -= Top Layer, remember?)
Note that Layer 1 keys are blue and Layer 2 keys are green. When their ranges overlap (which is most of the time), the overlapping range is denoted by cyan (blue/green) keys.
You can also move the location of the User Preset keyswitches (red keys).
To the right of each layer’s range slider is an octave (“8ve”) control, allowing you to shift a layer’s sounds up or down an octave or two.

AUTOMATIC MODWHEEL

This feature should be mostly self-explanatory – Set your Modwheel to Autopilot!
There are times when you’ll move the Mod Wheel slowly up and down, adding subtle movement to the sound, but wouldn’t it be nice if Nightfall could do that automatically?? Well that’s what this function is for!
Super useful for adding more motion, layer blending, and effects automation, while being able to keep both hands on the keyboard.
The “On” button on the left side of the controls will engage an LFO that takes control of the modwheel data (CC1). The blue sliders in the middle are for setting the minimum and maximum values you’d like the modwheel to hit while oscillating. You can also use the “Range” knob as a quick way of ‘compressing’ the min/max values it can reach.
Just like our Motion effects (mentioned earlier in this manual), the Automatic Modwheel can be synchronized to your DAW’s tempo using the “Sync” button, along the “Speed” knob to set your subdivision. With “Sync” off, the speed knob will set the oscillation frequency in Hz.

DEVELOPER’S HINTS
A Good Blend The sustains category is organized in a way that compliments the 2-layer blending system. We find that some of the more effective combinations come from selecting articulations from two different subcategories, such as the “Simple” subcategory for Layer 1, and the “Movement” subcategory for Layer 2.
More Pulses
If you’ve already exhausted the pulse and loop options in Nightfall, create your own by turning up the Motion effect on a drones articulation!
A favorite combo of ours is to Sync the motion effect speed to 1/4, use a sawtooth waveshape, and then add in some delay sync’d to 1/8. Adding delay at a faster rate than the pulse is a great way to add more interest!
That Hollywood Sound
If you really want to sound like a blockbuster, use the Tone knob to “scoop” out a few decibels of 1k from your sustains. Crank that reverb up and you’ll be soundin’ like money!
Recipe for Success
– Load two of your favorite sustain articulations in Layers 1 and 2 Change the modwheel behavior to the “7” symbol so that Layer 2 overlaps Layer 1 as you raise the modwheel.
– Take out some of the low frequencies of Layer 2 by using the Filter or Tone knob.
– Set Layer 2’s Motion effect to Pan mode and dial in some intensity, up to about halfway or more.
– Reduce the speed to something unobtrusive. Slow, but still interesting.

You should now have a top layer that when faded in, adds a good amount of interest to the sound without getting in the way of Layer 1.
– Turn on the “Expression” button for an even more dynamic combination!
Oh and don’t forget!… Now that you own Nightfall, your email address is eligible for a discount on Sunset Strings! Just enter the coupon code “LovingNightfall” during checkout and you’ll receive $30 off!
If you still have questions or need some troubleshooting advice, feel free to email us at support@treartone.com
We’re really proud of Nightfall, so we hope you find it as fun and useful as we do! —Nightfall Team

Nightfall User Manual v1.0 – realitone.com

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