background image

1

PARTICLE

Owner’s Manual

Detroit, MI • www.redpandalab.com

Summary of Contents for PARTICLE 2

Page 1: ...1 PARTICLE Owner s Manual Detroit MI www redpandalab com ...

Page 2: ...2 PARTICLE Owner s Manual Version 2 0 firmware 2 0 1 April 2019 Red Panda LLC 4444 2nd Ave Detroit MI 48201 USA 2019 Red Panda LLC www redpandalab com ...

Page 3: ...3 Please register your product at redpandalab com register Product manuals and firmware updates are available at redpandalab com support For technical support email support redpandalab com ...

Page 4: ...ck Lowpass Filter Tone 10 Modes 11 Combining Modes 14 Control input expression pedal 15 Presets 17 Tap Tempo 17 Web Editor beta 20 Advanced Configuration 22 Reset to Factory Defaults 22 Using MIDI 23 Support Repairs and Warranty 31 Firmware Updates 32 Specifications 33 Credits 33 ...

Page 5: ...uch more powerful processor and is a full fledged granular processor capable of generating dozens of simultaneous grains It keeps the immediacy and control of the original Particle with improved fidelity usability and tweaks some of the knob responses A primary goal was to make it more pedalboard friendly and easier to use on tour Some of the improvements include Smaller enclosure with all jacks o...

Page 6: ...and at 5 00 it randomly jumps within the set delay time To explore each mode set the BLEND knob to 5 00 CHOP around 9 00 and FDBK to 7 00 Step through each of the eight modes adjusting the DELAY PITCH and PARAM knobs to see how they affect the sound Using a looper pedal to repeat a phrase or playing a recording through the Particle will make it easier to discern the effect The FREEZE footswitch ho...

Page 7: ... 9 1 2 3 1 4 5 6 7 8 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Tap tempo freeze Input Output 9V DC 250 mA Preset indicator Expression pedal Bypass indicator Wet dry blend Mode Preset switch Feedback USB MIDI Chop freeze threshold Delay time pitch shif t Parameter Bypass tap division ...

Page 8: ...The dry signal stays at unity gain until 12 00 so there will be a slight volume boost when the wet and dry signal are combined FDBK Adjusts audio feedback repeats DIV Feedback tone see Feedback Lowpass Filter Tone on page 10 CHOP Adjusts grain size from 7 00 to 12 00 Above 12 00 sets the freeze threshold see Freeze on page 9 DIV sets grain size to a note division MODE Selects one of the delay or p...

Page 9: ...freeze is active The Particle has two different freeze modes grain freeze default the delay buffer is frozen delay freeze v1 the delay output is recycled You can change the freeze mode via MIDI or our web editor It is stored in presets and will be remem bered when power is off Grain freeze The delay buffer is frozen allowing you to scrub through the frozen audio without degrading the sound The res...

Page 10: ...all modes Tap once wait and then press and hold the footswitch The length of the frozen segment will depend on the tap division Feedback Lowpass Filter Tone You can adjust the cutoff frequency of the feedback lowpass filter to control the brightness of the re peats The setting is stored in presets and remembered when power is removed To adjust the feedback lowpass filter 1 Start with the Particle ...

Page 11: ...b sets the length of the audio buffer maximum delay time Audio plays at normal speed with the param knob at 12 00 is stretched at lower settings and compressed at higher settings The chop knob adjusts the length of each playback slice Results can be similar to subtle phasing with short delay times Longer delays create time stretching skip repeat and glitchy robot sounds For time stretching adjust ...

Page 12: ... detuning and number of simultaneous grains will increase Higher settings will create pitch clouds For organ like sounds use little or no detuning PARAM 1 octave pitch shift and high FDBK The CHOP knob can be used to fine tune the pitch shifting and at higher settings it will introduce a slight delay between repeats That is useful for creating power up video game sound effects from percussive soun...

Page 13: ...octave pitch shift The PARAM knob controls the density of grains breaking the incoming audio down into blips at lower settings The CHOP and PARAM knobs interact in this mode and at higher settings there will be multiple overlapping grains ...

Page 14: ...igns the DELAY PITCH and PARAM controls without clearing the audio buffer When switching modes the PARAM assignment from the previous mode is reset by default Using MIDI controller 119 or our web editor you can change the behavior of the Mode switch so that the previous changes are retained The setting is saved in presets and also remembered when power is turned off When CC 119 is turned on the MO...

Page 15: ... can release the right footswitch and begin configuration immediately 3 Move the expression pedal to the heel down position 4 Move the expression pedal to the toe down position 5 Hold the right footswitch for 3 seconds to save the configuration The right LED will blink green to indicate that the configuration has been saved Configuring Expression Pedal Knob Assignments 1 Start with the pedal power...

Page 16: ...re supported The modes and functions accessible will depend on the number of buttons A single button switch can load or save your favorite sound To save a preset hold the corresponding button for two seconds The right LED will blink green to indi cate that the preset has been stored Presets are also accessible via the PRESET button and MIDI pro gram change messages Configuring a Remote Switch 1 St...

Page 17: ...program change message while holding down the PRE SET button do this without preset 1 4 selected to avoid accidentally overwriting You can also save a preset using a MIDI System Exclusive message See System Exclusive SysEx on page 28 Tap Tempo Tap the left footswitch at quarter note intervals to set the delay time using tap tempo The LED will blink yellow to indicate the current tempo To cancel ta...

Page 18: ...ivision Assignment CHOP Chop grain size DELAY PITCH Delay time MODE Delay time PARAM DENS density LFO LFO rate Delay note divisions MODE knob Mode Position Note Division DENS Whole note LFO Half note DTUNE Dotted quarter note RND Quarter note PITCH Quarter note triplet REV Dotted eighth note LFO Eighth note DENS Eighth note triplet ...

Page 19: ...r note 16th note triplet Quarter note 32nd note Quarter note triplet 32nd note triplet Dotted eighth note 64th note Eighth note 64th note triplet LFO note divisions PARAM knob Off tap tempo disabled 8 measures Eighth note 4 measures Eighth note triplet 2 measures 16th note Whole note 16th note triplet Half note 32nd note Quarter note 32nd note triplet ...

Page 20: ...Edit The Edit tab shows all of the Particle s realtime parameters The on screen controls are updated to match the current state of the pedal but there is a slight lag that may make it unsuitable for live per formance The web editor s controls allow higher resolution changes than MIDI continuous controller messages up to 24 bits Modeless allows you to access parameters from all modes using the peda...

Page 21: ...n and the input power supply PSU voltage A low PSU voltage or a standard deviation std dev of 0 03 V or more may indicate that the power supply is not able to provide enough current to properly power the pedal JavaScript Console The JavaScript console prints MIDI System Exclusive data that is sent to the pedal which can be helpful when programming MIDI controllers For realtime parameter manipulati...

Page 22: ...instrument such as single coil guitar pickups or a consumer cassette deck you can set the Tensor to a 0 5 dBu maximum input level which may give a slight improvement in signal to noise ratio Setting MIDI channel The Particle transmits and receives on MIDI channel 1 by default The MIDI channel can be changed using MIDI System Exclusive SysEx messages or via the TouchOSC template we provide It is re...

Page 23: ...allow you to connect the Tensor to hardware with 5 pin DIN MIDI connec tors without the use of a computer Examples include iConnectivity iConnectMIDI4 iConnectivity mio4 Disaster Area Designs Gen3 MIDI controllers with their gHOST option Kenton MIDI USB Host MkII MidiPlus USB MIDI Host Sevilla Soft USB Host MIDI 2 See our Knowledge Base for up to date information The Particle sends and receives on...

Page 24: ...127 Off Threshold On 15 Feedback 16 Delay 17 Delay random 18 Pitch 19 Pitch detune 20 Pitch random 21 Density 22 Direction 0 1 126 127 Reverse Probability Forward 25 LFO rate 27 Feedback Lowpass Filter 80 Freeze 0 63 64 127 Off On 81 Effect on 0 63 64 127 Bypass Effect 88 Effect on receive only 0 63 64 127 Bypass Effect 89 Tap receive only 64 127 Tap ...

Page 25: ...hold 104 Delay pitch Depends on current mode 105 Param Depends on current mode 106 Delay note division See Note Divisions table 107 Density note division See Note Divisions table 108 Chop note division See Note Divisions table 109 LFO rate note division See Note Divisions table 118 Freeze mode 0 1 Grain freeze Delay freeze V1 119 Mode switch reassigns knobs 0 63 64 127 Off default On combine modes...

Page 26: ...DI CC Value Transposition MIDI CC Value Transposition 0 4 1 octave 64 Unison 9 M7 69 m2 14 m7 74 M2 19 M6 79 m3 24 m6 84 M3 29 P5 89 P4 34 d5 94 d5 39 P4 99 P5 44 M3 104 m6 49 m3 109 M6 54 M2 114 m7 59 m2 119 M7 64 Unison 124 127 octave ...

Page 27: ...easures 3 6 measures 4 5 measures 5 4 measures 6 3 measures 7 2 measures 8 2 measure triplet 9 Dotted whole note 10 Whole note 11 Whole note triplet 12 Dotted half note 13 Half note 14 Half note triplet 15 Dotted quarter note 16 Quarter note 17 Quarter note triplet 18 Dotted eighth note 19 Eighth note 20 Eighth note triplet 21 Dotted 16th note 22 16th note 23 16th note triplet 24 Dotted 32nd note ...

Page 28: ...nts the System Exclusive messages that it sends to the JavaScript console so you can perform an action using the web editor and then copy the SysEx to your controller The basic format is the same for all messages Byte hex Description F0 System Exclusive SysEx 00 Red Panda ID byte 1 02 Red Panda ID byte 2 23 Red Panda ID byte 3 01 Particle family ID 01 Particle product ID 00 Message version 1 byte ...

Page 29: ... in troubleshooting problems Input voltage Get Set ID 1 ID 2 Data Bytes Data X 7F 0B 2 100 PSU voltage in Volts Returns the approximate input voltage Can be useful for diagnosing power issues Maximum input level headroom Get Set ID 1 ID 2 Data Bytes Data X X 7F 10 1 01 7 2 dBu max 5 0 Vpp 02 5 2 dBu max 4 0 Vpp default 03 0 5 dBu max 2 3 Vpp Adjusts the input output gain to accommodate different s...

Page 30: ...olution Get Set ID 1 ID 2 Data Bytes Data X X yy yy 1 U1 23 fixed point value encoded as 4 7 bit digits Uses internal parameter IDs to get and set parameters with high resolution The property IDs yyyy are not currently documented but can be found using our web editor We reserve the right to change the IDs and data format so please email us if you plan to use them or have any questions Values are u...

Page 31: ...with your serial number and a description of the problem to support redpandalab com We may be able to get you up and running again without sending in the pedal but if it does need repair we will arrange for it to come back to us or an authorized service center close to you Warranty repairs are done for free and non warranty repairs will be done at the lowest possible cost to you Warranty This prod...

Page 32: ...tches and connect power 2 The right LED will blink blue 3 Continue holding both footswitches for 2 seconds 4 The LED will turn solid blue The pedal is now in USB Mass Storage mode 5 Connect the pedal to the computer using a mini USB cable 6 Open the PARTICLE drive on your computer 7 Drag and drop the firmware binary bin file to the PARTICLE drive 8 The red preset LEDs will light in sequence to sho...

Page 33: ...og buffered Power supply 9V DC center negative Power connector 2 1mm I D x 5 5mm O D barrel connector Power consumption 200 mA Dimensions 78 W x 124 D x 59 H mm 3 1 W x 4 9 x 2 3 H inches Weight 0 4 kg 14 oz Credits Design and engineering Curt Malouin Documentation Curt Malouin Graphics Sylvie Demers Eric Iverson Morgan Marentic Testing Sylvie Demers Randy Molina Andy Pitcher ...

Page 34: ...34 ...

Page 35: ...35 ...

Reviews: