Instruments

NeonDAW ships with eleven built-in instruments, from an analog-style polysynth to a sampled choir. This chapter shows you how to load an instrument, browse its presets, and host third-party Audio Units.

Put an instrument on a track

Every MIDI track has an AU button in its header. It shows the track's sound source: the instrument's name, or NO INSTRUMENT when the slot is empty.

• Click AU on an empty track to open the instrument browser.
• Click AU on a loaded track to open that instrument's panel.
• Pick an instrument in the browser and the track starts using it right away.

The browser lists the eleven built-in instruments first, then every Audio Unit instrument installed on your Mac. Type in the search field to filter the installed list by name or maker. New tracks start with NeonSynth, so you can play the moment a track exists. See Tracks for the rest of the track header.

The quick-switch menu

Right-click the AU button for a shortcut menu. It offers Choose AU (the full browser) plus a Use NeonPiano-style entry for every built-in, so you can swap sounds without opening the browser at all.

Presets

Every built-in panel has the same preset bar in its top-right corner.

• Click the preset name to open the bank: your USER presets first, then the FACTORY bank.
• The arrow buttons step to the previous or next preset, so you can audition sounds while you play.
• The save button stores the current settings under a name you choose. Saving with an existing name replaces that preset.
• Click the trash icon next to a user preset to delete it. Factory presets can't be deleted.

User presets are shared across every project and every track, so a sound you save today is there tomorrow.

Third-party Audio Units

NeonDAW hosts Audio Unit (AU) plugins, the native Mac plugin format. There is no VST or VST3 hosting, but most plugin makers also release an AU build of their instruments.

• Install the plugin on your Mac as usual. NeonDAW detects it automatically.
• If it doesn't show up in the browser, hit RESCAN.
• Pick it like any other instrument. Clicking AU then opens the plugin's own window.

Switching instruments

You can change a track's instrument at any time: the track's clips and notes stay put, only the sound changes.

Automation comes along where it can. A channel transfers to the new instrument whenever it serves the same parameter: switch NeonFlute to NeonWinds and a VIBRATO · DEPTH lane keeps riding. Channels the new instrument doesn't have go quiet but are not deleted: switch again to an instrument that has the parameter and they pick right back up. Mixer lanes like volume and pan always stay. See Automation for rebinding channels by hand.

Playing a track with no instrument

If you play or record onto a track with an empty instrument slot, NeonDAW tells you once, then flashes the track's AU button so you know where to fix it. Nothing is lost: pick an instrument and play on.

NeonSynth

An analog-style polysynth with 16 voices, and the sound of a fresh MIDI track. Two oscillators (sine, triangle, saw, square) feed a resonant filter, with up to 7 unison voices spread across the stereo field.

Presets: 43 factory patches sorted by category: BASS, DRONES, ELECTRONICA, HIP HOP, KEYS, LEAD, PADS, PLUCK, TECHNO and TRAP. First Light is the default patch.

NeonPiano

A sampled Steinway B grand. Every key plays real recordings across three dynamic layers, crossfaded by how hard you play.

• STRING: DECAY and DETUNE. Push DETUNE for honky-tonk character.
• DYNAMICS: VEL sets how much velocity changes loudness, CURVE shapes how the layers blend.
• DAMPER: a SUSTAIN pedal switch and a DAMP knob for how hard notes are cut.
• TONE: BRIGHT and DEPTH.
• SPACE: WIDTH and AIR.
• MASTER: TUNE and VOLUME.

Presets: 10, from CONCERT GRAND (the recording, straight) to character pieces like HONKY TONK, TACK PIANO and MUTED JAZZ.

The sampled family: shared controls

The eight sampled ensemble instruments (strings, flute, winds, brass, mallets, drums, harp, choir) share one faceplate, so learning one teaches you all of them.

Notes sustain for as long as you hold the key. Each section below lists what makes that instrument different.

NeonStrings

A sampled string section: VIOLIN, VIOLA, CELLO and DBL BASS, picked from the instrument strip.

Next to the instrument chips sit four articulations: ARCO (bowed), TREM (tremolo), SPIC (spiccato) and PIZZ (pizzicato). The articulation is automatable, so a line can switch from bowed to plucked mid-phrase. See Automation.

Presets: 11, including one per instrument plus PIZZICATO, SPICCATO, TREMOLO, CHAMBER HALL and STRING PAD.

NeonFlute

A sampled flute family: CONCERT, ALTO, BASS and PICCOLO. The STAC chip switches to short, detached staccato notes.

Presets: 10, from SOLO FLUTE and STRAIGHT TONE to BREATHY, POP LEAD and SOFT PAD.

NeonWinds

Seven sampled reeds under one roof: Bb CLAR, Eb CLAR, BASS CLAR, BASSOON, OBOE, SOP SAX and ALTO SAX. The STAC chip plays short detached notes.

Presets: 10, including CLARINET, OBOE, BASSOON, JAZZ ALTO, SOPRANO SAX and REED PAD.

NeonBrass

A sampled brass section: TRUMPET, HORN, TROMBONE, BASS TBN and TUBA, with a STAC chip for short stabs.

Presets: 9, including JAZZ TRUMPET, POP LEAD BRASS, CONCERT HALL and BRASS PAD.

NeonMallets

Sampled mallet percussion: MARIMBA, VIBES, XYLO, BELLS and CROTALES. Every strike rings out and decays like the real bar.

Here the vibrato section is called MOTOR: it recreates the vibraphone's rotating motor. DEPTH sets how strong the wobble is, RATE how fast it turns.

Presets: 9, including VIBES STILL (motor off), DREAM VIBES, MALLET HALL and TOY BOX.

NeonDrums

A 39-key orchestral and world percussion kit. Each mapped key is its own instrument: bass drum, snares, congas, log drums, cymbals, gong, cowbell, claves, guiro, temple blocks, triangles, bell tree, sleigh bells, brake drum, anvil and more.

• The kit spans keys 33 to 84. Unmapped keys are silent, and nothing is stretched onto the wrong key.
• The first section is STRIKE: ATTACK trims the hit, RELEASE sets how long it rings.
• TREMOLO adds a measured pulse to held sounds.
• Hits are balanced to equal loudness, so the kit sits together out of the box.

Presets: 3: PERCUSSION KIT, TIGHT and HALL.

NeonHarp

A sampled concert harp: real plucks, left to ring and decay on their own. The first section is PLUCK, with ATTACK and RELEASE shaping each note's start and ring-out.

Presets: 4: CONCERT HARP, CLOSE MIC, HALL and MUTED.

NeonChoir

A sampled vocal ensemble. Every note is a group of singers recorded together, and the natural scatter between them is the shimmer you hear. Pick WOMEN, MEN or FULL CHOIR from the instrument strip.

The VOWEL section has a MORPH knob that crossfades every note between AH and OO. It is automatable, so the choir can close from bright to dark across a phrase.

Presets: 9, including FULL CHOIR, CATHEDRAL, MONKS, ANGELS and DARK CHANT.

NeonVapor

The vaporwave dream machine. Six voice models, poured through tape and dust until they sound like a half-remembered broadcast: E.PIANO, DREAM PAD, MALL VOX, GLASS BELL, DEEP BASS and VHS LEAD.

Presets: 19, from VHS SUNSET and NIGHT DRIVE to GHOST MALL, POOL CLOSED and MUZAK ON HOLD.