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Table of Contents

Welcome to Symphonic Elements DRUMS What is Symphonic Elements DRUMS?    You and us Looking for quick help? Quick Reference Why so few controls? Trial and Authorization Trying, Buying, Authorizing Where to put the Content Installing to a different drive on Mac Installing to a different drive on PC Controller Hardware Start Playing! Walkthrough Reference Guide Interactive Keyboard The Finisher Section

   

Welcome to Symphonic Elements DRUMS

We hope you will enjoy Symphonic Elements DRUMS, a powerful addition to your musical palette, and we thank you for being a part of the UJAM community of music creators!

 

What is Symphonic Elements DRUMS?

by Peter Gorges

Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS started our series of UJAM instruments that take orchestral ensembles out of the traditional – maybe conventional – symphonic and film music context.

It was a great success – people praised the fact that they can finally use the silky, complex, organic textures of string ensembles in their tracks in new, creative and happily blasphemic ways. They also appreciated that we went to great lengths to make these phrases and rhythms easy and intuitive to use – because there’s already enough great libraries for skilled (film) composers out there – if that’s your workflow and musical genre.

Symphonic Elements DRUMS follows the same concept. It delivers the punch, majesty and brute force of epic drum ensembles in an equally inspirational, intuitive and fun instrument, and it combines that by powerful and creative sound design tools that let you shape the raw drum grooves into all kinds of elements to support whatever piece of music you’re working on. Feel the “god mode” as you move between the keys to go from subtle low pulses to all hell unleashed. Layer Symphonic Elements DRUMS with your drumkit or electronic beat to add an organic punch that’s almost impossible to create otherwise. Or use the countless Finisher sound designs to adjust, adapt and create rhythmic soundscapes that infuse life into beats, basslines, pads, rhythm tracks of any kind!

Like Symphonic Elements STRIIIINGS, the original drum material stems from the probably most famous library worldwide – the personal arsenal of oscar-awarded film composer and UJAM Co-Founder Hans Zimmer, and has been arranged into multi-layered performances by series godfather Boris Salchow.

Take epic drums to epic heights and make sure to share your results with us – we can’t wait! For now, enjoy, create and get inspired!

 

You and us

Symphonic Elements DRUMS was built by musicians for musicians. We at UJAM are a pretty diverse bunch – from DJ to weekend producer to Oscar-awarded Hollywood composer. We build every product for ourselves, and, like you, we’re all users of Symphonic Elements DRUMS too.

That means that before we even start developing, a lot of thought and discussion goes into finding out what you, the user, will expect from the product, what problem it solves, which controls we can remove to make the product more inviting and simpler, which hurdles we can move out of the way between you and a perfect track.

Every Symphonic Elements product is optimized for one clear, powerful purpose: To produce great-sounding drum tracks without distracting you from the complex endeavor that producing a song is.

We hope that Symphonic Elements DRUMS transpires that philosophy in everything you do with it.

Naturally, we’re always open to new ideas and critique, and you are always encouraged and welcome to talk to us:

• Ask our support team:         ujam.com/contact-us
• Visit our Facebook page:         facebook.com/ujaminstruments
• Catch us on Twitter:                 twitter.com/ujaminstruments
• Follow us on Instagram:        instagram.com/ujaminstruments

Looking for quick help?

If you’re just looking to figure out something quick, there are three ways to get there:

• The Quick Reference has super-short explanations for every control.
• The Walkthrough is a guided tour where you’ll try every control on the Symphonic Elements DRUMS screen once – the quickest hands-on experience possible.
• If you’re looking for in-depth explanations of all functions and controls, head straight for the Reference Guide further down.
  
  

Quick Reference

 

Area	Parameter	Explanation
Menu Bar	Preset	Click on the Preset name at the center above the DRUMS logo to open a menu for browsing and loading presets.
	Save	When editing a user preset, click to save your preset, replacing the previous version.
	Save as…	Click to save your preset under a different name and – optionally – assign a category.
	Notification Bell	Will illuminate for notifications such as product updates.
	Info Icon	Opens the About Page displaying your licensing status and links to acknowledgements, website, this manual and product support.
	Resize Icon	The user interface is resizable to fit on small screens. To resize, either click the “window” icon next to the notification bell in the top right corner or simply drag the three stripes in the bottom right corner of the user interface.
	Volume – Slider and Meter	Adjust and monitor the output volume.
Low / High Drums Section		Perform your drum tracks with the crossfader. DRUMS is made up of two independent low and high sections. Seamlessly blend between them, or add subtle variations by automating the Crossfader. The lower section consists of bass drums and timpanis. The high section contains snare drums and toms. If you only want to hear the low drums, just turn the high layer off using the on/off toggle and vice versa.
	Character FX	Opens a rack of effect types that adds character to your Low/High Drums, and lets you adjust the effect.
	Motion FX	Opens a rack of effect types that adds movement to your Low/High Drums, and lets you adjust the effect.
	Focus EQ	The Focus knob controls a morphing EQ, allowing you to tweak DRUMS sound character before you send it into the Finisher.
	Shape	Controls the envelope decay of drum phrases. With the LINK knob underneath you can sync it to the Low/High Drum section.
Finisher	Finisher	Dials in the Finisher effect depending on the preset.
	Mode	Select a Finisher preset – a macro setting for a rack of effects.
	Ambience	Select an Ambience preset from a rack of different reverb effects.
	Highlighter	Turn left for a lowpass filter, turn right for a highpass filter.
	Crossfade	Move the slider to fade between the Low and High Drums.

 

 

Play Range	C2 – D4	As the name says, the Play Range is where you play notes to perform with DRUMS.
	Common Phrases C2- B2	These will only change slightly, depending on the Style you’ve loaded.
	Style Phrases C3-D4	Rhythm highly depends on the chosen Style.
	Stop E4	In LATCH Mode, this key stops the performance.
	ModWheel (Min-Max)	The Modwheel gradually dials in a Decrescendo effect. Turn it up for quieter passages.
	PitchWheel (High-Low)	Doubles the Crossfader so that you can fade between the Low and High DRUMS. The Crossfader limits the range of the PitchWheel.
	Sync	Quantize the player to the grid of your DAW. In the default position (“Note”), it will play exactly when you play or send MIDI notes. In “Beat” position, it will wait for the next beat (quarter note).
	Style	Choose from a collection of rhythmical phrases, accessible via the Style menu on the left side of the keyboard.
	Timing	This menu opens a selection of parameters adjusting the timing of the DRUMS: Speed: Lets you switch the player’s relative tempo to half, normal or double time. Swing: Continuously adjusts syncopation – often called Shuffle. Move to the right to syncopate off-beats.

 

Why so few controls?

We are all musicians and we know that there’s never enough time for inventing and laying down that amazing idea in your head.

We are also UI (user interface) and UX (user experience) experts, and we know there is a trade-off between complexity – giving you maximum flexibility at the cost of time – and ease of use – letting you focus on your music at the cost of detailed editing options.

The way we design our user interfaces is aimed at giving you the best of all worlds:

• Easy, not simple: By weeding out more controls than we actually leave in, and by carefully grouping, macro-flying and labeling them, we aim to let you use all your attention on making our instruments sound like you, without having to spend too much of your limited time and focus on a large screen estate of detailed controls.
• Hardly any learning curve: Usually you can use any of our instruments out of the box, with very little reading up.
• Fail-proof interface: No matter how you set up the controls of Symphonic Elements DRUMS, the result will never be musically or technically wrong, and it gives you immense freedom and flexibility to create your sound.

Most importantly especially for those of us who don’t play drums: You can trust in the fact that tracks produced with Symphonic Elements DRUMS are legit, professionally produced and sound like a real Orchestra.

 

Trial and Authorization

We have designed the entire process of downloading, activating and authorizing Symphonic Elements DRUMS with a strong focus on simplicity. It’s important to us to make it as easy as possible for you to get your hands on Symphonic Elements DRUMS – and make it your own if you like it.

 

Trying, Buying, Authorizing

We only want you to spend money if you’re absolutely happy with Symphonic Elements DRUMS. Therefore, we grant you a 7-day trial period, during which the plugin will run without any limitation.

When opening Symphonic Elements DRUMS during the trial period (or when clicking the Authorize button in the menu bar), you will see this overlay which

• displays information about your trial status,
• provides a link to the DRUMS website where you can purchase a permanent Symphonic Elements DRUMS license after or during the trial period,
• allows you to enter the credentials of your UJAM account and authorize DRUMS once you’ve purchased it.

Trial Screen

 

Where to put the Content

The actual drum goodness of Symphonic Elements DRUMS – the audio content – is packed into a so-called blob file named SE-DRUMS.blob which is about 2.5 GB large.

You can keep the blob file anywhere you like (e.g. on a separate content drive).

 

 

During standard installation, it will be put into the following locations on your system drive:

 

 

OS X	/Library/Application Support/UJAM/SE-DRUMS
Windows	C:\ProgramData\UJAM\SE-DRUMS   (assuming your system drive is C)

 

Installing to a different drive on Mac

If you wish to install the plug-in content (blob file) to a custom folder, you can set a different installation folder during the installation process.

• Open the installer and follow the procedure to step “Installation Type”.
• Click “SE-DRUMS Location” to select it – as shown in the image below – and follow the instructions in the installer.

Mac Installer – Change Content Location

If you wish to use an external HDD, use the default location at first and move the blob file manually after the installation is finished. We recommend using a SSD to prevent dropouts. You can always move the blob file after you have installed SE-DRUMS:

• Move your file to the desired location (different folder or different drive)
• Launch your DAW and open DRUMS. It will present you with a dialog asking for the file location.

• Simply point to the new location of the blob file – done.

 

Installing to a different drive on PC

If you wish to install the blob file to a custom folder or a separate drive, you can set a different content installation folder in the installer. Just click the “Browse...” button on the “Select Content Location” page of the SE-DRUMS installer and point to your desired location. You can always change the location afterwards, as mentioned above.

Windows Installer – Change Content Location

 

Controller Hardware

Symphonic Elements DRUMS requires MIDI note input for playing and recording musical performances, and optionally Pitchbend, Modulation and Sustain Pedal data for added real-time variation.

If you have a MIDI controller (keyboard), this will be the easiest and most straightforward MIDI input method and it’s most fun as this way you control your DRUMS player in real-time.

Of course, you can also control Symphonic Elements DRUMS by using MIDI step sequencers or by entering MIDI notes manually into MIDI tracks.

For getting to know Symphonic Elements DRUMS and for testing purposes, you can also use the interactive keyboard in the bottom half of the Symphonic Elements DRUMS window. This works best with the Latch function enabled.

Please note that whatever you play on this keyboard, MIDI data won’t be sent by the DRUMS plugin and therefore won’t be recorded in your DAW.

 

Start Playing!

Before we look at things in more depth, let’s first explore how to play DRUMS, as that may be all you need for now.

Look at the bottom half of the plug-in window. It is dedicated to the performance – in other words: What and how the drums play.

Look at the interactive keyboard first:

Interactive Keyboard

 

The basic principle is simple:

• When you press the lower keys from C2 (some DAWs refer to it as C3) upwards, DRUMS will start playing a phrase synced to the tempo of your DAW. When you release the keys, playback will stop.
• Hits and Metals play individual sounds.
• The upper keys also let you play Intros, Fills or Endings.
• By turning up the Modulation wheel, you can smoothly control the intensity of the performance. This lets you create crescendos/decrescendos as well as allows you to set song parts apart from each other.

 

If you know these basic things and can switch presets, you know all you need to start producing.

 

Walkthrough

If you’re pressed for time or if you already know the basic concepts behind DRUMS, then this Walkthrough may be all you need for now, and you can come back later to look up deeper explanations as you need them.

We will take a quick tour across all controls of Symphonic Elements DRUMS. After this you will have a good basic understanding of the instrument and how to use it.

We assume you have Symphonic Elements DRUMS opened in your DAW. Ideally you have a MIDI controller connected, otherwise use the interactive keyboard.

 

Make a Sound and Learn About Keys

• Start your DAW and open SE-DRUMS, it will load a default Style, that’s all you need for now. Activate the Latch button right above the Style menu. Now Symphonic Elements DRUMS will keep playing even if you don’t hold a note.
• Now hit key C2 on your MIDI keyboard (or on the interactive keyboard) and DRUMS will start playing a phrase. Let it keep playing.
• The interactive keyboard plays phrases when you click the lower keys.
• It also doubles as a display for the MIDI notes DRUMS is receiving. The keyboard is divided and properly labeled with the functions of the corresponding note ranges.

• Move up the keys to go from Common Phrases to Style Phrases and other parts.

 

Try The Presets

• At the very top of the Symphonic Elements DRUMS window you can load presets. A preset is always a complete setting of DRUMS, i.e. it will change the performance as well as the drums and effects.
• At this point, just go through different presets to get an impression of the musical and sonic palette of Symphonic Elements DRUMS.

 

Tell Your Player What You Want

• Now try the upper keys of the interactive keyboard and notice how they behave differently. Intros play only once and then fall back to the previously active part – and so do Fills – while Endings finish off the song.
• To gradually tweak the performance, turn the Mod Wheel up and notice how the sound gradually goes softer.
• Move the Pitch wheel up to solo the High Drums, or down to solo the Low Drums. This is great for intermezzos and lead-ins.
• Now play a note in the correspondingly labeled Style Phrases range of the keyboard, C3 – D4. Go upwards and notice how the phrasing gets more intense. Try keys C#2 and D#2 to throw in Hits. You can replace all these phrases by loading different Styles. Let’s do just that now.
• Load different styles by clicking a Style name or the arrows left to the interactive keyboard. You will notice that your player masters a vast range of playing techniques and musical genres.
• Now try keys in the C2 – B2 range, labeled Common Phrases. These will only change slightly, depending on the chosen Style you’ve loaded.
• Now stop your player by pressing or clicking the stop key (E4).

 

More Performance Tweaking Fun

• Have Symphonic Elements DRUMS keep playing. Open the Timing menu by clicking the icon on the right side of the interactive keyboard.
• The speed switch lets you set Symphonic Elements DRUMS to half time or double time – this comes in extremely handy when you like a particular style that plays half- or double-time relative to your existing arrangement.
• Click on Timing right next to the interactive keyboard and slowly turn up the Swing control. As you will notice, this will delay the off-beats until the phrasing resembles a ternary feel that is useful in various situations.

 

Find Your Drum Sound

Let’s look at the Low and High Drum settings of the Symphonic Elements DRUMS. Here you set up the Low and High drums and you can shape the sound in almost any way you like.

• Make sure to activate Latch and keep playing while you tweak controls.
• First, mute the High Drums section or turn the Crossfader towards the Low section.
• Now, select a preset from the Character menu in the Low Drums section and play with the activated Character knob. Notice how it changes the character of the DRUMS sound. Try more presets.
• Now experiment with the Motion knob. Motion offers animated effect types such as Tremolos, Gates, Filter and more to add movement to your signal.
• Turn the Focus EQ knob to find out how you can go from boosting bass to low-mids to neutral to making the high mids silkier to boosting treble.
• Do you need a short & percussive or a wide & atmospheric drum sound? Use the Shape control to easily influence the sound waves.

 

Finish him!

The Finisher is a creative wonderbag that lets you mangle and twist the sound of DRUMS in a lot of ways – from subtle adjustments to total craziness. Let’s try it:

• While having DRUMS playing, click through the Finisher Presets by using the arrow buttons underneath the Mode bar (or turning the knob, or selecting presets from the menu that opens when you click the Preset name)
• In every Preset you try, turn the Finisher knob up and down and listen for the alterations in the sound! A complete guide to Finisher Presets is included in the Reference section.

By now, you have a pretty good first impression of what DRUMS can do! Keep playing and experimenting. There’s nothing to break. When you’re done, just start laying down tracks or continue to the Reference Guide for more detailed information.

 

Reference Guide

In the following part of this user guide, every feature of Symphonic Elements DRUMS will be explained in depth.

 

Menu Bar        

The top bar of the Symphonic Elements DRUMS interface lets you load and save presets. It also contains important management functions from checking your trial status to contacting support.  

 

Loading Presets

Preset Browser

 

A preset in Symphonic Elements DRUMS is a complete setting of the entire plug-in including Style selection and all control values. Here’s how you can switch presets:

• Advance to the next preset by clicking one of the arrows left and right of the PRESET name.
• Click on the name of the current preset in the PRESET menu to open the Preset Browser (see image above).

As you can see, the Preset Browser is a clean, organized list of presets, categorized by simple musical terms.

Symphonic Elements DRUMS ships with 200 Factory Presets. Take your time exploring them, as this is the quickest way of getting an overview of what DRUMS can do!

If you have freshly installed Symphonic Elements DRUMS, there will only be Factory Presets. User Presets will appear once you have saved your first own preset.

 

Save and Save as …

You can of course save your own Symphonic Elements DRUMS presets. You can name them and assign a category too.

“Save as …” Dialog

 

The difference between the Save and Save as … buttons:

• Save replaces the preset with the changes you just made.
• Save as … lets you assign a name and a category, so does not replace the current preset.

Factory Presets can only be saved using Save as …, they cannot be replaced.

 

Moving, renaming and deleting presets

You can move, rename or delete Presets directly in your operating system. You will find Symphonic Elements DRUMS Presets in these folders (replace “USERNAME” by your actual username):

 

OS X	Factory Presets	/Library/Application Support/UJAM/SE-DRUMS/Presets
	User Presets	/Users/USERNAME/Library/Application Support/UJAM/SE-DRUMS/Presets
Windows	Factory Presets	C:\ProgramData\UJAM\SE-DRUMS\Presets
	User Presets	C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\UJAM\SE-DRUMS\Presets
	(assuming your system drive is C)

 

 

Notification Icon        

Notification Icon

When you launch Symphonic Elements DRUMS, it will automatically check for updates. If an update is available, the notification icon will be visible.

Clicking it will open a dialog that lets you choose whether you want to download the update now or later.

 

Info Icon – About Page

About Page

 

The About Page is the place for information about your version and licensing status of Symphonic Elements DRUMS. It is also a portal to other services:

• Visit Product Site – takes you to our website with regularly updated news, videos, tutorials and other helpful stuff.
• Contact Support – lets you report problems and ask questions.
• Read User Manual – opens this document.
• Acknowledgments – the people behind Symphonic Elements DRUMS.
• License Agreement – legalese for gourmets.

 

Volume Section

Volume Slide

Although a Virtual Instrument such as DRUMS lives inside a DAW with multiple level faders, a correct output level setting is important. If nothing else, it makes sure that subsequent audio processors, particularly dynamics or distortion, work in their optimal range.

Therefore, the Volume slider and meter at the top left let you set and automate DRUMS’ output level between -inf and +12dB, and monitor the resulting level.

All components in DRUMS are adjusted so you won’t exceed the level meters top range, but it’s still ideal to watch it, particularly if you work a lot with automation.

 

Interactive Keyboard

The keyboard is divided into two sections: Common Phrases and Style Phrases. All drums play pre-defined parts so every Style Preset is like a small composed music piece that interlocks low and high drum layers.

Interactive Keyboard

 

Style Phrases

Style Phrases

Keys in the C3-B3 range play phrases of the currently selected Style. There are 7 phrases plus 5 additions in each Style.

 

Stop Key

The highest key of the Style Phrase Range – E4 – is the Stop key. In Latch mode, pressing this key will stop playback.

References: 

 

 

White keys: C, D, E, F, G, A, B	Phrase 1-7
Black keys: C#, D#, F#, G#, A#	Addition 1-5
Black key: C#, D#	Ending
White key: E	Stop

 

Note: Symphonic Elements DRUMS lets you switch phrases in real-time without interrupting the performance. That’s a great way to create dynamic and interesting phrasings of your own by quickly switching phrase keys.


PitchWheel and ModWheel

The two standard wheels on many MIDI controllers give you a lot of dynamic control over the performance of Symphonic Elements DRUMS.

PitchWheel and ModWheel

PitchWheel

The Pitchbend Controller or Pitch Wheel lets you crossfade between Low and High Drums in real time. Its range is limited by the Crossfader setting.

ModWheel

The Modulation Controller or Modwheel creates a decrescendo effect. Use it to tone DRUMS down in breakdowns or softer passages.

Style Selector

Here you choose a Style – the selection of phrases accessible via the Style Phrases range on the keyboard. Arguably the most important part of the user interface.

 

                                                            

Style Selector

 

A Style in Symphonic Elements DRUMS is a collection of phrases that you “tell” your drum player to play. Styles are the “rhythmic vocabulary” of Symphonic Elements DRUMS.

You can select styles by either clicking the arrows of the Style Selector to skip to the previous/next style, or by clicking the name of the current Style to bring up the full list.

 

Style List

Sync

Symphonic Elements will always play in sync with your DAW, but you can select between two ways of it reacting to your playing:

• In “Note” mode, whenever you play a note on the MIDI keyboard, it will immediately trigger a phrase. This is more intuitive when trying out phrases, but will hardly make it possible for you to play in time with a song while the DAW is running.
• In “Beat” mode, after you hit a note, Symphonic Elements DRUMS will wait until the next beat (quarter-note). This way the performance is always perfectly in sync with your song, but it will take you a while getting used to playing notes slightly ahead of time.

 

Micro Timing Parameters

Timing Menu

• On the right of the interactive keyboard above to the “Key” and the “Sync” selector, you will find the micro timing menu. 
• Click it to open a selection of Timing parameters that you can use to adjust your Symphonic Elements DRUMS’ performance to your song.

Speed        

The Speed switch lets you halve (0.5x) or double (2x) Symphonic Elements DRUMS’ tempo relative to the song tempo.

Swing

This function, often also called “Shuffle”, delays the off-beats. Symphonic Elements DRUMS will automatically switch the Swing resolution to 8^th or 16^th note depending on the selected Style.

At maximum position, the off-beat will have the same timing as the last note of a triplet.

Use this control to match the timing of Symphonic Elements DRUMS to a shuffled or triplet-based song.

 

Latch

Latch

When Latch is activated, once you press a key in the Play Range, Symphonic Elements DRUMS will keep playing until you press the Stop key.

When Latch is off, Symphonic Elements DRUMS only plays as long as you hold at least one key in the Play Range. Latch is convenient when testing or setting up sounds, and is more practical if you build a track by manually entering notes into your MIDI track.

You can use an optional Sustain Pedal as a temporary Latch. Lifting the sustain pedal unlatches any notes that are no longer held, even if the Latch switch is still on.

 

Low and High Drums

Low and High Drum Section

Symphonic Elements DRUMS offers the entire drum section as two distinct sub-sections – Low and High Drums.

The Low Drum section contains mostly bass drums and timpanis while the High Drum usually consist of toms and snares.

Skilled arrangers will notice that we don’t take the term “section” as literal as in a real orchestra.

You can mute either section or crossfade between them using the Crossfader.

 

Character FX

Character knob and selector

The character knob, available in each section, offers more than 30 different effect types that let you change or subtly adjust the sound character of that section, using algorithms like EQ, compression, LoFi or Saturation/Distortion.

 

Motion FX

Motion knob and selector

 

The Motion FX selector and knob let you add subtle or drastic rhythmic movement or modulation – separately for Low and High Drum sections. The effect algorithms used vary from Gaters, Auto-Filters to Chorus to Delay.

 

Focus EQ

Focus EQ slider

The Focus EQ slider controls a morphing EQ – an EQ with 4 distinct settings optimized for drum sounds that you can morph between. Whether you need more beef in the low end or a silkier high end, the Focus EQ is where you can do this. It is also a great tool to sonically separate the Low and High Drum sections from one another. Here’s a reference of EQ settings for the various slider positions:

 

 

Left	Bass Boost, subtle Treble attenuation
½ Left	Low-Mid Boost
Center	Neutral
½ Right	High-Mid attenuation (silkier sound)
Right	Treble Boost.

 

The Focus EQ is a three-band parametric EQ with EQ frequencies and Q-factors optimally set for DRUMS’ sounds.

 

Shape

Decay slider

The Shape slider lets you shorten or widen the length of individual hits within the phrases – in common terms – make the performances sound staccato and dry or rather distant and wet.

The default position is the center. Turn it left or right to create the described effect.

Click the LINK button underneath a Shape slider to link both section’s parameters to this one.

        

The Finisher Section

The Finisher

 

The Finisher is a UJAM proprietary multi-effect concept that is available either in separate effects plug-ins – such as Finisher VOODOO, FLUXX or RETRO – or  integrated into our Virtual Instruments, starting with Virtual Guitarist CARBON.

In Symphonic Elements DRUMS, the Finisher is a creative lucky bag designed to allow you all kinds of effects from simple modulations to crazy grain clouds or effects that render the original sound unrecognizable.

The Finisher comes with 66 Modes specifically created for Symphonic Elements DRUMS. Every Mode sets up the 20 individual processors under the hood in a new way and macro-controls them via the Finisher knob.

Best of all: The Finisher is meant to be “played live”. Either using the Finisher Knob or the Mod Wheel of your keyboard (or generally MIDI CC1) you can create amazing morphing sounds.

 

Finisher Mode Menu

Finisher Knob and Menu

Select a Finisher mode

• Click either on the preset name to open the full list.
• Use the arrows to step through the list.

Finisher MODE preset selection can be automated, i.e. you can switch Finisher MODE presets during the track. Note that some algorithms won’t switch glitch-free, in that case plan for a brief pause.

 

Category	Name	Description
BEYOND	Dotted Backbeat	Metallic impulse responses crossfaded into the signal chain in a dotted pattern
	Filter Bros	Slightly overdriven 16th note chops, running through two filters panned left and right
	Friendly Metal	Soft metal, gong-like impulse responses slowly fading in and out
	Raindrops	Tiny snippets of the original signal fed into auto panning bandpass filters
	Snare Rims	Alternating impulses from various snare sustains that change the fundamental character of the signal
	The Shining	Metal resonances reminiscent of some rather spooky key moments of film history
	The Syncopator	Turn even the simplest patterns into complex syncopations with this non-repeating sequence of buffer offsets
	Time Is Fleeting	A resonating stutter drone (TM)
	Warm Drive	Frequency dependent saturation and tape wear that lives up to its name
DIRT	Big Groover	Sequenced bit and sample rate reduction is applied to turn even the biggest taiko into a chiptune backbeat
	Crunch	Adds crunch, especially on the attack of the drums
	Dirty Drumfill	Punchy transients alongside multiband distortion, plus an auto panning filter for sufficient drama, regardless of input
	Drive The Sequence	Messy drive with different frequency bands turned up on each beat
	Filter Alterations	Sequenced lowpass with subtle drive in the treble band
	Low March	Signals get pitched down and tightened
	Pitch Screamer	If you want to make your drums sound like from another planet, try this network of controlled feedback loops
	Retro Gamer	Sequenced volume modulation plus 8-bit bleeps and noises generated from the input signal
	Roechel Man	If a regular filter sweep would be too banal, try this patch that morphs from feedbacks to low sample rates
	Schizophrenic	Aggressive resonance plus auto panned short chops
	Toe In The Mud	Tightens the attacks with transient shaping and multiband compression
GLITCH	Ever Rising	Reminiscent of the famous Shepard Tone, this modulation effect will never cease to rise
	Evil Drone	If you ever need to slowly morph a heroic starfleet shuttle into an approaching borg cube, try this mode
	Glitch Grooves	Random glitches applied in 16th note windows. Rather brutal - use with care!
	Grain Flurries	Sequenced pitch shifter that pitches down the input signal based on one bar patterns
	Pitchman	Oldschool pitch shifter with a tempo-synced grain window
	Power Drums	Imprints a big 8beat via automated impulse responses
	R2 Flange2	If you ever feel like disagreeing wholeheartedly with C3PO
	Ring The Phone	A rather nerdy, sophisticated 4 bar sequence of ring modulators with different settings applied to different beats
	Swamp Creature	Shameless army of mud throwing modulators
	Vorlon Scale	In the Vorlon homeworld, this is considered the basic melodic minor
MASTER	A Bit More	Subtle thickening and bus glue
	Bit Less More	If you ever wondered what a "smiley face" EQ is - this is a smiley face EQ
	Dynamic Squeeze	Adds a ton of super bright multiband compression
	Fat and Dirty	Bold, slightly saturated low end
	Gym Compressor	When i was 17, irresponsible and proud of it, this was my favourite compressor setting
	Impact	Transient shaping, finetuned to the type of drums of this plugin. Highly recommended!
	In Your Face	Reminiscent of a legendary London Mastering Studio's marketing slogan "Fire at will on all frequencies!"
	Just More	Classic hot mastering, just a little less blunt than at the London Mastering Studio
	NY Streets	Turn to 50% for classic NY parallel compression. Turn all the way up for "street"
	Pressure	A Tubescreamer-ish, unapologetic overdrive
	Razor	Multiband treatment, particularly shaping the treble spectrum
	Satisfaction	Full range expansion for increased dynamics
MOVE	Atmo Hits	Dark impulses on 1 and 3
	Big One	Does exactly what the name suggests
	Blip Attack	Short 16th note filter blips
	Double Timer	Sequencer that inserts short double time snippets
	Duckish	Classic offbeat ducking plus sequenced EQs and filters for increased ducking drama
	Fast Notes Cleaner	Cleans the end of each 16th note with volume, as well as low and high shelf EQ automation
	Fluxx Cutter	Similar to Finisher Fluxx, every single knob position will result in a different sequence of reversals, chops or pitches
	Ghostnote Army	Various subtle delays and synced modulations in 5,7,9 and 13 beat loops to create new variations every bar
	Groovy Wave	Several Filters creating a tempo-synced downward wave
	High Tones	A sequence of high pitched impulses to fundamentally change the sound of your drums
	Percussive Bandpass	A strictly one bar pattern of funky bandpass frequency windows
	Random Pan Sequencer	Several panorama sequencers and crossfading autopanners create a constantly changing pan modulation
	Toy Locomotive	Tremolo and a modulator that refuses to leave the midrange
SHAPE	Chop Chop	A straightforward 16th note chopper
	Clappedy Go	Morphs the signal into alien handclaps (assuming that aliens have actual hands)
	Congaesque	Imprints conga character on the drums. Initially the sustains and at high knob positions even the attacks
	Cymbalesque	Same as Congaesque, but for cymbals. Also super useful to just add a bit of treble attacks at low settings
	HPF Motions	Tempo synced high pass filter sweep
	Lower Please	Makes your drums appear lower even though no pitch shifting is involved
	Reversinator	Sequence of buffer windows, in which your signal will get reversed in order to reverse without losing the groove
	Second Shadow	Phased 16/32 note buffer - particularly good with subtle settings
	Strobe Light	Another straightforward 16th note chopper
	Synth Percussion	If you'd like your drums to sound more artificial, try this mode
	Way Too Old	Similar to Finisher Retro, this applies various found footage style processing to the point of explicit lofi-ness

 

Highlighter

Highlighter

 

The Highlighter is a multimode 24dB synthesizer filter specifically optimized for creating those juicy risers and intros by slowly turning the filter across a bar or two.

Turn the knob left for a low pass filter (gradually removing high-end frequencies), turn right for a resonant high pass (gradually removing low end frequencies). Apart from automating the filter, you can of course use it stationary as an extra sound-shaping parameter.

 

Ambience

Ambience

The Ambience control in the Finisher Section of the UI lets you adjust the level of Ambience added after the Finisher.

You can select more than 20 different ambience types, most of which are based on reverbs and delays.

The Ambience presets are ordered from short to long and provide a large range of natural and not-quite-so-natural characters.

 

Crossfade

 

This slider provides an equal-power crossfade between Low and High Drum sections. The Crossfader Position also sets the center of the Pitchwheel.

 

MIDI Learn

Using MIDI Learn, you can assign any Symphonic Elements DRUMS control to hardware controls of MIDI keyboards or other controllers.

To assign a control, you usually right-click or ctrl-click a control in Symphonic Elements DRUMS to open the MIDI Learn context menu of your DAW.

MIDI Learn

Automation

Almost all controls in Symphonic Elements DRUMS can be automated. In combination with the phrase select keys this is actually a very powerful way of creating more dynamic performances. For example, automate FINISHER or CHARACTER with faders to create dynamic transitions, or switch-automate AMBIENCE or MOTION to drastically change the sound between song parts.

For instructions on how to activate Symphonic Elements DRUMS parameters for automation, please refer to your DAW’s user guide.

 

I have more questions! Where can I send them?

Please submit a request to our support staff! Don’t hesitate, we’re eager to help you out and learn about your opinion and suggestions. Many improvements and even products have been influenced by our user community.