Capture
Sending a MIDI Note to KICKGRID
KICKGRID is an effect, but it still listens for MIDI notes. A note does three things: it triggers Note-mode envelopes, it retriggers or one-shots the LFOs, and - the main reason you'd reach for it - it records the exact hit you just made so you can drag that audio straight into your DAW or into another KICKGRID instance. The note's length sets the recording's length, so what you get is completely predictable.
Why Send a Note
You've patched a kick on the canvas and it sounds right. Now you want it as an audio file - to drop on a track, to layer, to keep in a folder, or to load into a fresh KICKGRID as the starting point for a variation.
Instead of bouncing a region and trimming it, you send KICKGRID a single MIDI note. While the note is held, KICKGRID records its own master output from the very first sample. When the note ends, the recording is frozen at exactly that length. Then you drag it out.
Nothing is recorded until a note is held. There's no rolling buffer running in the background - it's lighter on CPU, and it means the clip always starts precisely at your note-on, never mid-tail.
Getting MIDI Into KICKGRID
KICKGRID has to be somewhere MIDI notes can reach it. This is host-specific, but the shape is always the same: the plugin instance needs a MIDI input.
If KICKGRID is processing a synth or sampler on an instrument track, notes on that track already pass through to KICKGRID - just play or draw a note.
Put KICKGRID on an audio track, then on a MIDI track set MIDI To to that audio track and pick the KICKGRID insert. Arm the MIDI track and play a note.
On the channel with KICKGRID, notes from a MIDI region on that same track are delivered to plug-ins that accept MIDI. A short region with one note works.
Anything that lets you route a MIDI track / clip to a plug-in insert (Studio One "Note FX" chains, Reaper track MIDI routing, etc.) will do.
You'll know it's working: send a note and the small MIDI lamp in the modulation panel's MOD MATRIX header flashes.
Capturing a Hit
-
Build the kick and set the length you want
Get the patch sounding right. Decide how long the exported clip should be - that's the length of the MIDI note you'll send.
-
Send one MIDI note
A note-on starts the recording from sample 0. KICKGRID keeps recording its master output for as long as the note is held (up to a hard limit of 12 seconds, so a stuck note can't run away).
-
Release the note
The note-off freezes the clip at exactly the held length. The Scope area at the bottom of the window now reads Drag to DAW/KICKGRID - 1.83 s (or whatever your length was) and shows the captured waveform.
Sending a new note replaces the previous capture - there's only ever one clip held. Re-trigger as many times as you like until the take is right.
Dragging It Out
Once the Scope strip shows a captured clip, click it and drag:
Drop it onto an arrangement / track and the host imports it as a WAV at the project sample rate.
Drop it onto a Sample module (or onto the canvas to make one) in a second instance, and carry on shaping from there.
Drop it on the desktop or a file browser to keep the take.
If the Scope strip still says Send a MIDI note to capture, then drag, no note has been received yet - check the routing above.
Envelope & LFO Triggers
The same MIDI notes drive the modulation sources, so a captured hit moves exactly as it will when played from MIDI later:
Set an envelope's trigger to Note Trigger and it fires on note-on and releases on note-off (the other mode, Audio Peak, ignores MIDI and fires on input level instead).
Retrig resets the LFO phase on every new note; 1-Shot runs a single cycle from the note and stops; Free ignores notes.
See the Modulation System for the full picture.