Configuration

Tempo

Vector works with a main tempo which is used to synchronize the movement of the suborbit, sequencing of the Arpeggiator or timing of effects. The synchronization of the individual parts can be enabled or disabled by the switches in the Sync section.

When Vector is playing play, the tempo is indicated by an LED next to the Tap button in the Sync section. The tempo can be either tapped into the button or adjusted by pressing and dragging the BPM indicator on the Effects screen screen_effects. When Vector is stopped stop, no tempo is being generated and Orbiter and Arpeggiator are also stopped.

The main tempo operates in multiple modes:

  • tempo_standalone Stand-alone Mode (default), in which the tempo is generated by Vector and used only internally.

  • tempo_send Send Mode, in which the tempo is generated by Vector and transmitted over MIDI to other devices.

  • tempo_receive Receive Mode, in which the tempo is received from an external device (such as a drum machine or a sequencer).

Hints

  • The tempo mode and BPM can be stored persistently on the Settings screen screen_settings. See MIDI configuration.

  • The MIDI tempo can be additionally slowed down by a fixed divider. See the Global slowdown parameter in MIDI configuration.

Presets

The Presets screen screen_presets allows access to presets organized in categories and pages (with 50 presets per page). A preset contains all parameters defined on the Orbiter and Effects screens.

The System presets category contains read-only presets which can change with firmware upgrades while the User presets have space for presets which can be stored and renamed and are preserved during firmware upgrades. There are three pages (150 slots) available for the user presets.

To store a preset, select a slot and press Save. If the slot is not free, it will be overwritten with the new values. The Routing lock routing_lock button next to the Save button controls handling of the Routing table.

Warning

Do not power off Vector when saving a preset, wait for the confirmation message first.

Hints

  • The default preset (loaded after Vector is powered up) can be configured on the Settings screen screen_settings (see the Miscellaneous configuration section).

  • It is possible to change the current preset by MIDI Bank Select and Program Change messages. The Bank Select chooses the preset category and page while the Program Change loads an individual preset from that page.

Preset import and export

User presets can be stored to or loaded from a USB drive either individually or as a full backup. Only drives formatted to the FAT32 filesystem are supported at the moment.

The external drive connected to the USB Host port can be accessed on the Presets screen screen_presets. When a USB drive is plugged in, a third category External appears alongside User and System.

Warning

Always use the Eject eject button before physically unplugging the external drive to prevent data loss.

Accessing individual presets

When a USB drive is present, the External category allows access to presets stored on the drive. This method is useful for transferring presets between Vector and a computer.

The category has 5 pages and supports Save, Load and Rename operations in the same way as the User presets category.

Presets on the external drive are stored in a directory named vector-presets as one file per preset slot. Preset file names are derived from their slot numbers (shown in the bottom left corner of each slot).

Hint

To copy a preset from User to External, first load the target preset and then save it to a free slot in the External category.

Archiving all presets at once

It is also possible to backup or restore an archive containing all User presets at once. This method is useful for making backups of the full preset bank.

The Backup backup button archives all User presets to file named vector-user-archive.zip. If the file is already present on the external drive, it is overwritten by the backup operation.

The Restore restore button overwrites all User presets slots with presets present in vector-user-archive.zip. Preset slots which are used in Vector but are not present in the archive are preserved.

Hint

Please note that the preset archive created by the Backup button is stored in a different location than presets in the External category. As a result it is not possible to load only a specific preset from the archive; it is only possible to perform a backup or restoration of all presets at once.

Routing

The Routing screen screen_routing enables custom mapping from MIDI Controllers to polyphonic Parameters. The routing is stored per-preset so that each preset can respond to an expressive controller in a different way.

When a Parameter is connected to a MIDI Controller, its control element on the Orbiter screen screen_orbiter or Effects screen screen_effects is marked by a small wave ~. In the following example, Suborbit Speed is routed to a controller while Suborbit Size is not connected:

_images/routing_knob.png

Routing table

Each Parameter is represented by a single row of the multi-page routing table:

_images/routing.png

The Controller button selects one of the supported MIDI message as an input for a Parameter (or sets it to Not connected, i.e. not controlled by MIDI). In this particular example, the maximum amplitude of each voice (volume) is controlled by the velocity of Note On messages.

The slope and offset of the transfer function from a controller to a parameter can be controlled using the Controller Range and Parameter Range columns, each with Min and Max sliders. The shape of the transfer function is displayed in Preview. In the example above the mapping is 1:1 and no scaling takes place (note that the range of MIDI messages is 0 to 127).

Moreover, there are three different Operators available for each Controller-Parameter pair:

  • The Set operator overrides the current position of the knob on the Front panel.

  • The Add operator adds the controller value to the current knob position. Values less than or equal 63 are subtracted while values greater than 63 are added to the knob position.

  • The Mul operator multiplies the controller value with the current knob position. This allows to control the maximum possible amount of modulation while playing.

Some of the parameters support only the Set operator (Volume and Pitch) while some only support the Add and Mul operators (the corner parameters Overtone Blend, Filter Resonance and Filter Cutoff).

Hints

  • A single controller can transmit to multiple parameters scaled in different ways with different operators.

  • To invert a parameter, set Controller range to 0–127 and the Parameter range to 127–0.

  • To scale a parameter 2×, set the Controller range to 0–64 and the Parameter range to 0–127.

  • The dot in Preview is live and shows the current value of the controller, handy for routing verification.

  • The velocity sent by the Arpeggiator step sliders can be routed too.

Storing and copying

The Routing table is stored per-preset. To store modifications in a routing table, navigate to the Presets screen screen_presets, choose a preset in the User section and press Save.

The Routing lock routing_lock button next to the Save button allows to load or save a preset without modifying the current routing. When active, loading a preset will not affect the current routing table and saving or overwriting a preset will preserve its original routing table.

The Copy and Paste buttons allow to transfer the routing table between presets. It is also possible to Clear the routing table or initialize it to the Default state.

Hint

To copy a routing table from preset A to preset B:

  1. Load preset A on the Presets screen screen_presets (make sure Routing lock routing_lock is not active).

  2. Press Copy on the Routing screen screen_routing.

  3. Load preset B on the Presets screen screen_presets.

  4. Press Paste on the Routing screen screen_routing.

  5. Save preset B on the Presets screen screen_presets.

Routable controllers and parameters

The following tables list all controllers and parameters currently available for routing. Some of the controllers are inherently polyphonic (which means the MIDI controller can modulate the parameters independently for each played note/voice) while others are polyphonic only when MPE is enabled.

Controllers available for routing

Controller

Polyphonic

Standard MPE function

Velocity

Always

Key Pressure

Always

Pitch Bend

With MPE

Per-note pitch (X)

Channel Pressure

With MPE

Per-note pressure (Z)

Modwheel (CC1)

With MPE

Timbre (CC71)

With MPE

Brightness (CC74)

With MPE

Per-note control (Y)

CC9, CC16, CC17, CC89, CC114, CC115

With MPE
Parameters available for routing

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Volume

Orbiter Offset Y

Tremolo Depth

Pitch

Suborbit Size

Filter Cutoff

Suborbit Speed

Filter Resonance

Vibrato Speed

Overtone Blend

Vibrato Depth

Orbiter Offset X

Tremolo Speed

MIDI Polyphonic Expression (MPE) support

When MPE is enabled in the MIDI configuration section of Global settings screen_settings, any of the available controllers can be used to control polyphonic parameters using the channel rotation scheme (with channel 1 being a manager channel used for global control applied to all voices).

The MPE standard defines that Pitch Bend is used for per-note pitch variations, Channel Pressure for per-note pressure and CC74 for additional per-note control. However, as some MPE keyboards and controllers have non-standard configuration, the Routing table allows to choose from other source options.

When MPE is disabled, the routed parameters apply to all voices with the exception of Velocity and Key Pressure (polyphonic aftertouch).

Fixed controllers and parameters

Apart from Routable controllers and parameters there is a number of parameters which are assigned to fixed controllers, listed in the following table:

Hint

The Sustain controller holds notes until the pedal is released. The Sostenuto controller works in a similar way but only holds notes which were active when the pedal was pressed.

Global settings

The Settings screen screen_settings contains global configuration which is common for all presets. The configuration can be stored using the Save button, reloaded from memory using the Load button or reset to defaults using the Default button.

MIDI configuration

The following MIDI parameters can be set in the Global settings:

  • Input MIDI channel for receiving MIDI messages,

  • Separate Arp in MIDI channel for Note On/Off events fed into the Arpeggiator (equals to the MIDI input channel by default),

  • Output MIDI channel for sending MIDI messages (Start/Stop, Timing Clock, and also notes received from connected MIDI controllers if Forward MIDI notes is enabled),

  • Separate Arp out MIDI channel for sending notes played by the Arpeggiator if Output Arp MIDI notes is enabled,

  • The option to ignore note velocity and use a Fixed MIDI velocity to play all notes with the same (maximum) amplitude,

  • The option to divide the received MIDI Timing Clock (depending on the Tempo configuration) by a factor defined by the Global slowdown,

  • The option to set the Tempo sync mode (OFF for the Stand-alone Mode, OUT for Send Mode and IN for the Receive Mode),

  • The option to configure the Default BPM used by the main Tempo,

  • The option to configure MIDI Out as Through so that all MIDI messages received on the MIDI IN jack are forwarded to the MIDI OUT jack, enabling the MIDI Through (Thru) functionality,

  • The option to configure Pitch bend semitones from 1 to 24 semitones up/down,

  • The option to Hide MIDI popup notification, normally displayed when a MIDI Control Change (CC) message is received, and

  • The option to Enable MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression) for the Routing table.

Hint

Both Input MIDI channel and Arp in MIDI channel can be set to receive messages on all sixteen channels simultaneously.

Miscellaneous configuration

Apart from MIDI configuration, the Global settings screen also contains the following configuration options:

  • If Sticky Corner Matrix is enabled, the Corner Matrix button alternates between visible and hidden Corner Matrix. If disabled, the Corner Matrix stays visible only as long as the button is pressed.

  • The Knob speed selector allows to increase the rate of change of the 25 rotary encoders on the front panel.

  • The Screen brightness configures the LCD screen brightness in 10 steps.

It is also possible to mark the current preset as default (loaded automatically when Vector is powered up) using the Preset as default button.

Hints

  • The Settings screen screen_settings also allows for Firmware updates. User presets are preserved during an update.

  • Updating the default preset must be followed by pressing the Save button, otherwise it has not effect.