Voltage Drums user guide

01

Essentials

Quick start

1. Choose an instrument

Select Voltage 80, Voltage 78 or Substance in your host. Each instrument is a separate CLAP, VST3 or Audio Unit plug-in.

2. Check the identity

The MODEL display names the plug-in you loaded. It is a fixed label, so instrument selection stays in the host.

3. Choose a starting point

Use the arrows beside the PRESET display. Voltage 80 has eight complete kits; Voltage 78 and Substance provide their own starting points. An asterisk after a Voltage 80 kit name means a parameter has changed.

4. Play or program

Send MIDI to the loaded plug-in. On Voltage 80, click voice labels to audition sounds or program the sixteen-step grid and press the panel play button.

Instrument	Current status	Output	Factory content
Voltage 80	Working instrument	Main + 14 individual stereo buses	8 kits · 24 patterns
Substance	Working instrument	Stereo main	10 presets
Voltage 78	Working instrument	Main + 14 individual stereo buses	8 voicings · pattern bank

02

Sixteen synthesized voices

Voltage 80

Machine controls

Master sets the complete main-output level. Individual buses are tapped before Master.
Accent controls how far accented hits rise above normal hits. The change occurs in circuit before final gain.
BD Tune continuously retunes the bass-drum resonator from −12 to +12 semitones. The measured default remains at 0.
MAP / CH16 selects the bass-drum MIDI performance policy described below.

Voltage 80 kits

The preset arrows cycle complete parameter states, so a kit never inherits values from the previously selected kit.

Reference Circuit · Deep Foundation · Tight Current · Airlock Hats · Copper Claps · Tom Voltage · Sparse Start · Full Current

Voice	Panel controls	MIDI notes
BD · Bass drum	Level · Tone · Decay · BD Tune	35, 36
SD · Snare drum	Level · Tone · Snappy · early-unit revision	38, 40
LT · Low tom	Level · Low tuning	41, 45
MT · Mid tom	Level · Mid tuning	43, 47
HT · High tom	Level · High tuning	48, 50
LC / MC / HC · Congas	Level · shared Low / Mid / High tuning	64 / 63 / 62
RS · Rimshot	Level	37
CP · Handclap	Level	39
CB · Cowbell	Level	56
CY · Cymbal	Level · Tone · Decay	49, 51, 57
OH · Open hat	Level · Decay	46
CH · Closed hat	Level · closes the open-hat envelope	42, 44
MA · Maracas	Level	69, 70
CL · Claves	Level	75

VELOCITY

Velocity drives accent.

Higher note velocity increases the modelled trigger voltage according to each voice’s response. The change happens before output gain.

CHOKE

Closed hat ends open hat.

A closed-hat trigger terminates the open-hat envelope. MIDI note-off does not choke drum tails.

RETRIGGER

Tails remain live.

Repeated bass-drum hits re-excite the existing resonator state. Chromatic note-off also leaves the kick tail running.

Trigger In: playing Voltage 80 from audio

Send the track you want to follow to the plug-in's Trigger In sidechain input in your host, then set Trigger In to on and pick a voice with Trigger Voice. Trigger Sensitivity sets how far a transient must rise above the surrounding level to count as a hit. Detected hits carry a velocity taken from each hit's own peak and drive the accent circuit like any other trigger.

With Bass Drum selected, press Match to capture the incoming audio and measure its settled pitch; the synthesized kick retunes to it. The measurement lands in the slot selected by Match Slot at the moment you press Match. Store one tuning in A and another in B, then automate the slot across a verse and a chorus. A slot change takes effect on the next hit and never cuts a ringing tail. If the capture holds no usable pitch, the previous stored tuning is kept.

Trigger In is off by default, applies to Voltage 80, and does not pass the sidechain audio through to the output. That track is already in your mix. Its controls are host parameters; there is no panel control for them.

03

One editable pattern

Sequencer and Beat Library

01

Enter hits

Click a cell in an instrument row to toggle that hit on or off. The top ACCENT row marks a column as accented. Clicking a voice label auditions it and leaves the grid unchanged.

02

Set tempo and swing

The panel Tempo and Swing controls belong to the internal sequencer. Swing alternates the two sixteenth-note lengths while preserving the length of each eighth-note pair.

03

Choose the clock

Set Sequencer Clock to Internal / Host / Off. Internal follows the panel play button. Host reads transport position and tempo. A seek or loop repositions the pattern. Off generates 0 pattern hits while incoming MIDI remains active.

04

Use pattern actions

Copy stores the current grid in the editor clipboard, Paste replaces the grid from it, and Clear turns every step off.

Open the Beat Library

Double-click the Voltage Drums logo on the Voltage 80 panel.
Select one of the twenty-four curated patterns.
Choose Play to audition. Load places it in the editable grid and keeps playback stopped.
Choose Stop to end playback. Double-click the logo again to close the library.

Import and export MIDI

Import reads .mid files from ~/Music/VoltageDrums/imports and ~/Music/VoltageDrums/exports.
Note-ons are quantized to the nearest sixteenth and folded into the sixteen-step pattern. Unsupported MIDI data is ignored.
Export writes a format-0 MIDI file at 480 PPQ into ~/Music/VoltageDrums/exports.
Export preserves mapped notes and step positions. The normal/accent velocity classes also survive.

04

Main plus fourteen

Multi-output routing

Signal contract

Main always carries the complete stereo mix.
Individual 01–14 are stereo buses carrying the mono circuit tap identically on left and right.
Individual buses are tapped after voice level. They precede Master and carry no processing.
Voltage 80 and Voltage 78 keep a fixed auxiliary bus order.
Substance exposes only its stereo Main output.

In your host

Enable the auxiliary outputs exposed by the instrument, route each required bus to a track or channel, then process or print those returns independently. Keep Main when you want the complete mix; mute it if you are rebuilding the drum mix exclusively from individual returns.

Hosts display the stable names Individual 01 through Individual 14; use the assignment table to identify each circuit section.

Bus	Voltage 80 circuit output	Bus	Voltage 80 circuit output
01	Bass drum	08	High conga
02	Snare drum	09	Rimshot / claves
03	Low tom	10	Handclap
04	Mid tom	11	Cowbell
05	High tom	12	Cymbal
06	Low conga	13	Open / closed hats
07	Mid conga	14	Maracas

05

Bass companion

Substance

Oscillators

Oscillator 1 and 2 each offer triangle / saw / pulse. Octave and tune are independent. Pulse width has its own modulation input; Oscillator 2 adds hard sync and cross-modulation. A square sub and seeded noise complete the mixer.

Filter and drive

The driven transistor-ladder provides low-pass / band-pass / high-pass output. Slope is 12 or 24 dB per octave. Cutoff and resonance sit beside key tracking; envelope and accent amounts are separate.

Envelope and LFO

ADSR shapes the VCA and filter path. The LFO runs at 0.1–20 Hz with triangle / saw / square waveforms. Cutoff is one destination. PWM and pitch are the other choices; retrigger is optional.

Performance

Substance uses last-note priority and falls back to held notes. Portamento has a constant rate. Pitch bend spans ±2 semitones. Velocity reaches the performance level; Accent and pressure have dedicated buses.

First patch workflow

Load Substance as an instrument in your host.
Confirm that SUBSTANCE appears in the fixed MODEL display, then choose a preset with the header arrows.
Balance Oscillator 1 / Oscillator 2 / Sub / Noise.
Set Cutoff and Resonance. Then choose Drive, filter mode and slope.
Use Glide with Portamento for connected mono lines; use the transpose controls for octave moves.

Substance presets

Burgs · Roadtrain · Bitumen · Goanna · The Horses · Snag · Northerly · Drive-Thru · Hume · Currawong

Substance produces audio on its stereo Main output. Drum auxiliary buses belong to the Voltage 80 and Voltage 78 plug-ins.

06

Project state

Session recall and automation

PLUG-IN

The loaded instrument returns.

Each plug-in stores its own parameters and musical state. The MODEL display returns as the same fixed identity.

PATTERN

The complete sequencer returns.

The session stores clock mode and play state. Tempo comes back with swing. Beat Library selection and all 16 grid columns return too.

FORMATS

One state contract.

CLAP / VST3 / Audio Unit wrappers use the same underlying parameter and state implementation.

07

Version scope

Current boundaries

The output buses are dry

Voltage Drums provides dry synthesis at Main and each individual circuit bus.

Sequencer scope is one pattern

The grid has 16 editable steps. Pattern chains and song arrangement sit outside this version. Probability is fixed. Ratchets and polymeters are also outside the current sequencer.

Channel 16 retunes bass drum

Its note range is 8–55. Other drum voices remain on the regular map. Bass-drum glide is outside this mode.

08

Fast checks

Troubleshooting and support

No sound from Voltage 80

Check the host MIDI input and Voltage 80 Master level. Then verify the triggered voice level against the note map. In Host clock mode, start transport and confirm that the host supplies musical position.

No sound on an individual output

Confirm that the host has enabled and routed the matching auxiliary bus on Voltage 80 or Voltage 78. Substance exposes only its stereo Main output.

Channel 16 does not tune the kick

Click the kick mode control until it reads CH16. Send MIDI on channel 16; the accepted notes are 8–55. In MAP mode, channel 16 uses the regular drum map.

The Beat Library is not visible

Load Voltage 80 and double-click the Voltage Drums logo. Substance has no drum-pattern library.

MIDI import shows no files

Place .mid files in ~/Music/VoltageDrums/imports, close the import window and reopen it. The browser also lists files previously written to ~/Music/VoltageDrums/exports.

When reporting a problem, include your operating system and host. Add the plug-in format plus sample rate. Finish with the shortest sequence that reproduces it.

Current status and contactOpen support