8

Table Of Contents
344 Chapter 24 Ultrabeat
The Structure of Ultrabeat
Most software synthesizers offer one synthesizer per plug-in instance. Ultrabeat,
however, places 25 independent synthesizers at your disposal. These synthesizers—
called drum voices in Ultrabeat—are optimized for the generation of drum and
percussion sounds.
The distribution of drum voices across the MIDI keyboard is simple and easily
explained: the first (starting from the bottom) 24 MIDI keys are each assigned a single
drum voice. The 25th drum voice is an exception, and can be played chromatically.
You can compare Ultrabeat to a drum machine that features 24 drum pads plus a built-
in keyboard.
Ultrabeat’s 24 drum pads are assigned to the first 24 keys of a standard MIDI keyboard
(corresponding to MIDI notes C1-B2). This MIDI note mapping is compatible with the
Roland GM Drum MIDI note mapping. The chromatic keyboard for the 25th synthesizer
begins (lowest note in the range) at C3.
Note: If your MIDI keyboard is not large enough or does not support octave shifting to
play Ultrabeat’s lower or upper octaves, you can use the Transpose parameter in the
Logic Express Inspector to shift incoming MIDI notes.
For the sake of simplicity (and to stay with the drum machine analogy), this manual
refers to the independent synthesizers (drum voices) as sounds which, combined, form
an Ultrabeat drum kit.
Drum voice 1 to 24
25th drum voice can be
played chromatically