Shreddage 3.5 Hydra Manual

Shreddage 3.5 Hydra

An Impact Soundworks Instrument

for Kontakt Player 6.7

Instrument Version 2.0.0

Product Manual

Introduction

Shreddage 3.5 Hydra is the culmination of everything we at Impact Soundworks have learned in 10

years of creating virtual guitars. This is our vision of what a no-compromises, maximum-quality 8-string

guitar should be. Our internal bar of quality was so high that we recorded the entire sample set

three

times

in our pursuit of the perfect performances and tone.

Now it's finally done, and you can enjoy the ultimate rock & metal virtual guitar in your music.

We selected an ‘Iron Label’ RGIF8, drop-tuned to low E, and equipped it wit h Fishman Fluence Tosin

Abasi Signature pickups. These pickups put Shreddage 3.5 Hydra in its own class, even compared to

our other instruments. Not only do they have distinct and useful tones in both the neck & bridge

positions, but their clarity and low noise floor is unmatched: some open-string sustain notes ring out for

over 40 seconds!

Thanks to exhaustive sampling of all useful articulations, dynamics, RR variations, and layers, Hydra

gives you all the tools you need to create absolutely incredible guitar tracks. With the right writing, you

can make rhythm parts, chords, and leads that will drop jaws with their sound and realism.

Naturally this is a killer guitar for rock and metal music, particularly heavier subgenres and progressive

variations. But as you can hear in our walkthrough video and demos, the clean tone possibilities are just

as impressive! The clarity and sustain of the pickups make Hydra a great choice for any kind of 'gaze'

style of music, too.

Whatever style or genre of music you like to make, we know that Shreddage 3.5 Hydra will become an

essential part of your production workflow. It certainly has for us!

Installation

1. Download and install t he Native Instruments Kontakt Player, which will also install an auxiliary

Kontakt library management software called Native Access:

If your Native Access looks like the above (

i.e.

, it is in ‘dark mode’), you have Native Access 2.

Please continue on with our online installation guide.

If it does not (

i.e.

, it is in ‘light mode’), you have Native Access 1; continue with the installation

steps below.

2. Next, install the Pulse Downloader.*

3. Once Pulse is installed, open it and enter your Shreddage 3.5 Hydra product code, which is also

its serial number (

e.g.,

A1B2C-3D4E5-F6G7H-8I0J1-K2L3M). Follow the instructions to download

and install the library.

If you wish to move the library to an external drive [for example], then do

this before moving on to step 4, below.)

4. Open Native Access, click 'Add a Serial', and input that same product code to activate the library.

5. Once Native Access has activated your library, click 'View Products Not Installed'.

6. Find Shreddage 3 Hydra** in this list and click the 'Add Library' button to the right.

7. Select the folder where Pulse downloaded the library (or, if you moved it in step 3, the folder

where it currently resides).

This completes the installation process!

* Pulse is a cross-platform desktop app that lets you download and install your libraries with blazing

speed! You’ll need to create a Pulse account, but once you do, you can access your purchases from any

developers using Pulse, anytime, from any computer.

** Thanks to the way Native Access works behind-the-scenes, this library will appear in Native Access as

‘Shreddage 3 Hydra’, not ‘Shreddage 3.5 Hydra’.

The Shreddage 3.5 Performance Engine

As with all Shreddage 3.5 instruments, Shreddage 3.5 Hydra features recordings of every string, from

the ‘open’ position all the way up the neck. This means many pitches are sampled multiple times on

different strings, which yields a different tone depending on which string is played.

The Shreddage 3.5 engine features an advanced algorithm that emulates how a real guitarist would

perform notes across different strings and fret positions. When a MIDI note is received, Shreddage 3.5

will evaluate a number of factors to determine the best string & fret to place that note. These factors,

which are weighted differently depending on your performance settings, include things like:

➔ What other strings are being held at the same time

➔ Whether the new note is played legato or not (and if so, the legato settings)

➔ The

virtual hand

position [see the next paragraph, below]

➔ Any ‘force string’ settings

➔ Fretting Mode selection

Shreddage 3.5 uses a virtual ‘hand’ to guide fret & string selection. This generally means if you are

playing on the lower frets, new notes will

also

be placed on lower frets. If you are playing high up on the

neck, new notes will

also

end up in that range.

However, for most users, you don’t have to worry too much about any of this, outside of selecting the

Performance Style you want and possibly moving the Hand Position as desired.

Using Shreddage 3.5 Hydra

Snapshots & Script Tabs

Shreddage 3.5 uses Kontakt’s native ‘Snapshots’ feature to handle various types of presets. We’ve

extended this feature allowing you to save and load specific types of Snapshots without over writing

your entire patch.

Data is loaded and saved in three areas:

A. Shreddage Engine (first bottom-left tab), which contains the main engine performance settings;

B. Console (second bottom-left tab), which contains all FX and mixer settings;

C. Articulations (top tab in Shreddage Engine UI, which contains all articulation mapping info.

It is important to note that

each of these tabs can save or load its data independently

For example, you can load a guitar tone from Console without affecting your mapping, or load a specific

performance preset without affecting your tone.

At the bottom of each tab’s UI, you’ll see two icons: a Lock (lower-left) and a Camera (lower-right):

When the Lock icon is

enabled

(white), the contents of that tab will not be overwritten when you load a

new Snapshot.

When the Camera icon is

enabled

(white), the contents of that tab will be saved when you save a

Snapshot.

Snapshots included with Hydra are saved for the Console tab by default, meaning t hey will

not

affect

your mapping or performance settings. However, you can save your

own

Snapshots using whatever

combination of tabs you’d like. Make sure to check your Lock & Camera settings when saving and

loading!

View 1 Shreddage Engine

Tab 1 Main

IMPORTANT Virtually every knob on the interface can be MIDI learned! Simply right click and then

move the desired MIDI CC to create a link. Also, you can hover over any control to see help text at the

very bottom of the Kontakt UI.

See section Setup & Tweaking for more details)

Tone & Signal Controls

These controls (with the exception of ‘Lite Mode’) behave very similarly to the control setup found on a

physical guitar:

Volume

Controls the overall pre-FX gain of the instrument.

Tone

Controls a gentle pre-FX lowpass filter on the entire instrument. Maximum value is ‘wide-open’, while a

lower value results in a darker tone.

Signal Switch

Switches the signal between 1st position (bridge), 2nd position (middle,

i.e.,

bridge + neck), and 3rd

position (neck).

Lite Mode Leaf Icon]

When

enabled

, time stretching is disabled for slides and tremolos, freeing up a good amount of RAM

and reducing CPU usage.

Performance Controls

Performance Style

This drop-down menu selects from various preset styles that determine how the virtual guitarist

decides which strings and fret positions to play:

Standard

Plays lower on the neck and prefers open strings.

Mono Lead

Mid/High)

Plays mid or high on the neck in ‘mono’ mode, perfect for lead parts.

Poly Lead

Mid/High)

Also plays mid or high on the neck, but has Poly Input enabled and mono OFF,

making it easier to play realistic chords and strums in between riffs.

Rhythm

Plays with automatic fretting position determined by algorithm.

No Legato

Natural/Poly)

Plays without legato, with automatic fretting position determined by algorithm.

Workstation

Activates Keyboard Mode (below) and disengages the Legato keyswitch.

Custom

Allows you to set your own preferences.

Keyboard Mode

When enabled, the regular string/fret selection algorithm is disabled. You can

play unlimited notes ‘per string’, and every MIDI note is pre-assigned to a

specific string/fret. In other words, the instrument will behave like a traditional

workstation keyboard patch, which may be more useful in some situations.

Mono

When enabled, only one note can be played at a time. Overlapping notes will always trigger legato.

Bite

Applies an EQ to all signals pre-FX, adding more brightness and removing some low-mid ‘body’ from the

sound. The resulting tone becomes more and more aggressive as the knob value is increased.

Extra Attack

Adds an emphasized pre-transient pluck noise to notes. This scales with velocity, so playing softly will

result in quieter attacks. This is useful for emphasizing some notes and not others.

Pitch Bend Range

Changes the maximum range for the MIDI pitch bend message, defaulting to +/- 2 semitones. This

means that when your pitch controller (hardware, or in automation) is at maximum or minimum values,

the instrument will be shifted down or up 2 semitones.

Unison Bend

When moving this knob above minimum value, the LOWEST held note will be pitch bent, as long as the

lowest note is no more than a perfect four th away from the higher note.

Vibrato Amount

Introduces pitch modulation (vibrato) into the sample. The specific vibrato settings can be adjusted by

clicking the gear icon:

Controller

Selects from either modwheel (CC1) or aftertouch to trigger vibrato.

Mode

Selects between

Emulated

(most flexible & lightest on CPU; uses an LFO to

modulate pitch),

Fingered

(most realistic; live-recorded samples of vibrato

playing), and

Whammy

(alternative, live-recorded vibrato performed with the

whammy bar).

Speed

The rate of the oscillation.

Time-stretches in

Fingered

Whammy

modes.

Depth

The maximum intensity of the vibrato in Emulated mode.

Multi-Tracking

Sets which virtual guitar track(s) should be used. Each virtual guitar uses a different sequence of

samples during playback. For example, if guitars 1 & 2 are enabled, two unique sets of samples will be

played back with extra stereo panning.

If you would prefer to use multiple NKIs for double/quad-tracking (in order to use more channels in your

host), you can always enable a single guitar at a time for each NKI. You can do this by enabling the

guitar of choice (e.g. Guitar 2 and then disabling any other guitars in that NKI.

NB: It is important, if using multiple NKIs for multi-tracking, to set the anti-repetition parameters to be

identical in each instance. Otherwise, phasing will occur as different NKIs may trigger the same sample

in differing track numbers.

Responsiveness

Controls the sample playback offset for all groups. Note that all samples were edited to preserve a

certain amount of finger pluck and ‘pre-pluck’ sound, so while increasing this value makes the

instrument more responsive (as the sound becomes more ‘immediate’), doing so will also decrease the

amount of realistic performance noise in each sample.

This offset value is mixed with ot her offsets for

specific articulations and strokes.

Poly Input Latency

When this knob is above 0ms, a small amount of latency (controlled by the knob) is introduced before

sample playback. The S3.5 Engine will capture any notes played within that latency window and create

more realistic voicing for playback. Think of this as a ‘Lookahead’ that results in better performances

when playing chords or other polyphonic parts.

➔ Poly Input Latency

does

apply to t he following: playable range guitar notes when strum mode is

OFF; thrash notes; slide notes; full strums; partial strums; and individual string plucks; in other

words, any key-triggers that actually play sounds.

➔ Poly Input Latency does

not

apply to the following: playable range guitar notes when strum mode

is ON (

e.g.,

to set the voicing); MIDI CC changes; MIDI pitch bends; TACT keyswitches;

Shreddage 3.5 custom keyswitches; and strum mode keyswitches; in other words, any

key-triggers that do

not

directly result in sounds.

Note 1

For

very fast

guitar parts, we recommend setting the latency either very low or at 0ms!

The polyphonic fretting placement will interfere with the natural fretting of the

algorithms and fast passages will quickly devolve into fretting placements t hat jump

around the fretboard, which is anatomically impossible and creates an unnatural tone.

For reference, 16th notes performed at 120 BPM are

125ms apart

. Playing passages at

(or faster than) 120 BPM 16th notes at a latency of

125ms will

result in a malfunctioning

fret selection.

Note 2

Even when latency is set to 0ms, Shreddage 3.5 is programmed to always process with

a tiny default latency of 50μs (

i.e.,

0.05ms) so t hat chords ‘blocked in’ plainly in your

MIDI editor will still work perfectly! Try with

Strum On Poly

for very quick and easy

realistic chord parts with effectively no latency.

Additionally, this default latency enables processing of features listed above (such as

keyswitches) before latency features (like note playback and strums). This means you

can always place a keyswitch at the same grid position as a note, or in strum mode,

you can place a chord voicing at the same grid position as a strum trigger. This is

intended as a quality of life improvement for MIDI editing so that the user isn’t required

to nudge keyswitches or chord voicings behind the grid.

Finally, it is recommended to program the DAW track’s offset to negate the Poly Input

Latency. In other words, if the latency is set to 50ms, programming the DAW track

offset to -50ms will allow the user to compose on the DAW grid with great confidence

in timing accuracy.

Fretting Controls

The Fretboard

Shows what notes are being played on which strings and frets. Note that you can drag horizontally

across the fretboard to set a virtual capo position, which changes how t he fretting and playback engine

will select notes realistically.

Capo Position

Guitar-style transposing by placing a ‘virtual clamp’ in the shape of a wooden or metal bar on a

particular fret. This can be MIDI-learned and automated by right-clicking. If Capo Position parameter

has a larger value t han Hand Position, Hand Position is disregarded. The Capo is used to allow a

transposed set of open strings.

Fretting Mode

Selects which performance algorithm should be used. The factors described above will be evaluated

differently depending on which of these modes you select:

Natural

This mode is the most common usage for leads and leads mixed with chords

created by polyphonic input. The fretting follows the hand size, where a

guitarist will ascend up and down strings to play notes at a static hand position.

Sweep

This mode is very similar to Natural fretting, with the sole exception t hat it will

slightly prioritize playing notes on adjacent strings a little more to simulate the

sweep picking technique used in fast guitar playing.

Moving Lead

This mode is similar to Natural fretting but ascends the hand slightly when

moving to strings upward in pitch. This allows a three-octave range for scales

at a static hand position from bottom string to top string instead of about two.

The same range played in Natural mode would play the last octave all on the

last string, which is not ideal.

Polyphonic

Prioritizes using as many strings as possible simultaneously. This is ideal for any

kind of chordal playing, ensuring that each note of your chord is played (as

opposed to triggering legato, fret changes, etc.)

Picking Mode

Selects how pick direction is determined for each note press. 'Up' and 'Down' will use ONLY up or down

strokes, respectively; 'Alternate' will switch back and forth between down/up per press; 'Economy' uses

a consistent stroke direction when crossing strings.

Force String

Selects a single string that will be used for ALL played notes, if possible. The ‘forced’ string will be

highlighted on the fretboard.

Hand Position

Sets the fret at which the hand starts its reach to other frets (taking Hand Size into account). Notes that

don’t fit into this hand position and size will play outside of the range, but will not move the virtual hand

from this position.

Current Parameter Display

Parameter Display

Displays the most recently-active knob or control and its value (

e.g.

, Volume: 100%).

Articulation Display Option

When this option is enabled (white; disabled is grayed out), displays the most recently-active

articulation in the Parameter Display area.

Tab 2 Strumming

This feature allows you to easily play realistic-sounding strummed chords without finicky MIDI input or

pixel-perfect sequencing. There is now a dedicated ‘Strumming Mode’, but all strumming features (with

the exception of

Strum Audition

) can be used even in regular performance mode!

Before we go over the strumming controls, let's take a look at the dedicated strumming keyswitches

(multi), picking keyswitches (light blue), and other performance keyswitches (berry/magenta) located

above the instrument’s normal playable range:

Strumming Keyswitches

F♯5

Toggles Strumming Mode to the

opposite

of what is currently set in the GUI when

pressed down, and returns to the previously-selected setting when released. This is

used in either mode to quickly and temporarily switch modes.

Only available if

Strumming Mode is set to ‘Keyswitchable’)

Toggles Strumming Mode on or off.

Only available if Strumming Mode is set to

‘Keyswitchable’)

G♯5

Plays a down-strum (

i.e.

, all downstrokes). The strummed notes will be whatever is

currently being held in the normal playable range. The speed and dynamic of the

stroke is based on the control settings on the Strumming page (see below).

Plays an up-strum (all upstrokes), again based on what is being held in the normal

range.

A♯5

Plays a partial down-strum. This plays an down-strum starting from the bottom string,

with the engine selecting the number of strings traveled based on the Strum Distance

setting (see below).

Plays a partial up-strum. This plays an up-strum starting from the top string, with the

engine selecting the number of strings traveled based on the Strum Distance setting

(see below).

Temporarily toggles strums to muted strums.

C#6

Temporarily toggles strums to choked strums.

Picking Keyswitches

Starting with E6 and moving up chromatically to B6, each note here corresponds to one of the eight

guitar strings, starting with the lowest string (lowest E. Playing one of these notes will ‘pick’ the note

that is being voiced on t hat string. If no note is ‘voiced’ on the selected string, the algorithm chooses

another valid string to play, so that all pick keys will ensure that a note is performed. This allows you to

retain the same picking patterns in MIDI data while changing the chords that are voiced on the strings,

which is a common way of playing guitar in many pop and rock songs.

In general, this is a very useful

and musical way of triggering notes from a chord: give it a try!

Other Performance Keyswitches

Sets Picking Mode to ‘Up’.

C♯7

Sets Picking Mode to ‘Down’.

Sets Picking Mode to ‘Alternate’.

D♯7

Sets Picking Mode to ‘Economy’.

F♯7

Sets Fretting Mode to ‘Natural’.

Sets Fretting Mode to ‘Sweep’.

G♯7

Sets Fretting Mode to ‘Moving Lead’.

Sets Fretting Mode to ‘Polyphonic’.

Strumming Controls

Strumming Mode

When Strumming Mode is

enabled

, playable range notes no longer result in sound playback. Instead,

the fretboard algorithm will visually display the most recent notes held together (up to the number of

available strings), re-calculating the shown voicing on every new note to select the best and most

‘natural’ way to play t he chord. This voicing is stored in perpetuity, so all string picks and strum triggers

will act on this voicing.

Strum on Poly Input

When Strumming Mode is

disabled

, notes played within the Poly Input Latency window will activate a

full down-strum following the strum mappings for timings and velocities.

Using this option, you can

seamlessly mix strummed chords and lead/melody parts without doing any keyswitching at all!

Strum Speed Map

Selects how the speed of strums is modified (velocity or MIDI CC.

Strum Speed CC

This CC is used for calculating strum speed when ‘CC’ is selected in the Strum Speed Map menu.

Strum Speed Invert

Inverts the input values when calculating strum speed.

Strum Volume Map

Selects how the volume of strums is modified (velocity or MIDI CC.

Strum Volume CC

This CC is used for calculating strum volume when ‘CC’ is selected in the Strum Speed Map menu.

Strum Volume Invert

Inverts the input values when calculating strum volume.

Strum Distance Map

Selects how the distance of partial strums is modified (velocity or MIDI CC.

Strum Distance CC

This CC is used for calculating partial strum distance when ‘CC’ is selected in the Strum Speed Map

menu.

Strum Distance Invert

Inverts the input values when calculating partial strum distance.

Strum Audition Mode

Setting this to ‘New Note’ will play new individual notes in the playable range. Setting this to ‘All Notes’

will play all current stored notes in the set voicing on every new note.

Hint:

When this is set to ‘New Note’, you can essentially play notes in the playable range with full

confidence that they will be voiced polyphonically and as close to the actual played voicing as possible.

This can be just as effective—if not more so—than the Polyphonic fretting mode!

Keyswitchable

This control will activate the keyswitches that can toggle Strumming Mode on or off.

Deactivated by

default to prevent accidentally swapping modes.

Tab 3 Articulations

Our ‘Total Control Articulation Control’ TACT technology has been upgraded to Version 3 in this

product, offering more convenience and power than ever in a single UI!

TACT Overview

Enabling / Disabling Articulations

Any articulation can be disabled or enabled by

alt

clicking

or by pressing the power button in the

Sound tab (located at the bottom of the UI. Disabled articulations will not trigger, and will be purged

from memory (thereby freeing up RAM.

Selecting an Articulation

To select an articulation for editing, simply

click

on it. The selected articulation will be

highlighted

with

a red border. If you are using

latching keyswitches

(see next page for more details) for articulation

selection (which is the default setting),

click

ing on an articulation will also

activate

your corresponding

keyswitch, blotching it fully red.

This functionality makes quickly auditioning articulations a snap!

Multi Selection

To select more than one articulation at once: hold

Control

Shift

, and

click

the articulations you want

to select. When multiple articulations are selected, adjustments made to the Sound tab will be applied to

all of the selected articulations.

Mappings (made in the Map tab; more information below) cannot be applied to multiple articulations

simultaneously.

Mapping Info

The text in each articulation box (such as Vel 1 - 27 or KS (L) C-2) shows the current mapping for

that articulation.

The current mapping section shows how the articulation is currently triggered. Here are the relevant

abbreviations:

Keyswitch. Press the listed key (in this example, C-2) to trigger the articulation.

(L)

Latching. A latching keyswitch does not need to be continually held down to work.

C-2

The MIDI note that will trigger the articulation. (C-2 is the lowest MIDI note.)

Here are some other examples of mapping abbreviations you might see:

Vel 1 - 19

Articulation must be played at MIDI velocities 1 and 19 to trigger.

CC1 12-127

MIDI Controller 1 (CC1) must be between values 12 and 127 for the articulation to

trigger.

PW 1024-8192

The Pitch Wheel controller must be between values 1024 and 8192 to trigger.

(NB: The minimum Pitch Wheel value is

-8192

Key C4 - C5

The articulation will only trigger on MIDI notes between C4 and C5.

(NB This is NOT a KS; this refers to actual playable notes that make sound.)

Ped Down / Up

The Sustain Pedal (CC64) must be down (or up) for the articulation to trigger.

Legato Toggle Button

This button can be

clicked

to enable, for certain articulations. When disabled, a ... symbol will

instead appear, and that articulation will not trigger legato or portamento transitions.

The Sound Tab

Each articulation has slightly different controls in the Sound Tab. These include:

SUSTAIN

Volume

Controls the overall volume of the articulation.

Offset

Controls the sample start offset. At 0, the sample will be played back from its natural beginning. For

values above 0, the early part of the recording will be ‘cut off’.

Vel → Vol

Controls the degree to which velocity affects the volume of this articulation. At 0, velocity will have no

impact on volume (but will still be used to switch which dynamic [’velocity’] layer is selected.)

Velocity Layer

For short articulations with multiple dynamics (such as

Sustain

, shown above) this table can be used to

assign the dynamic levels to be triggered within certain MIDI velocities:

➔ The X-axis of the table is the MIDI velocity, so the leftmost side is velocity 1, and the rightmost

side is velocity 127.

➔ The Y-axis is the dynamic level, with the lowest at the bottom and the highest at the top. This

will automatically ‘snap’ into place.

This can be useful if, for example, you’re writing a very quiet piece and don’t want to use the recordings

of the top sustain dynamic. You could use your mouse to draw the Velocity Layer table such that t he

2nd ‘step’ extends all the way to the right, like so:

Or, if you want the highest dynamic to require a very hard key press (that is to say, a very high velocity),

you could draw t his table like this:

ADSR Volume) Envelope

Controls the volume envelope triggered each time the articulation is played.

MUTE

Tightness

Adjusts how quickly palm mutes decay. This is basically a combination of adjusting the Decay and

Sustain controls on the ADSR envelope.

Vel → Tightness

When enabled, lower velocities will decay even faster than normal.

LEGATO HAMMER/PULL

Range

Sets the max distance in semitones that hammer/pulls can trigger.

Defaults to 2 semitones

Force Same-String

Enabled by default. When

dis

abled, the engine will allow triggering hammer/pulls from one string to

another, which isn’t technically realistic but may ‘feel’ better in certain situations.

Realistic Volume

When enabled, the volume of hammer/pulls will scale down over time until you strike a new non-legato

note.

LEGATO SLIDE

Speed

Time stretches or compresses the slide transition samples to make slide transitions faster or slower

overall.

Not available when ‘Lite’ is enabled.

Vel → Speed

When enabled, higher velocities will trigger faster slides.

Realistic Volume

When enabled, the volume of slides will scale down over time until you strike a new ‘non-legato’ note.

XFade

Note that in the

Legato Slide)

image above, there is a third tab in the top-right corner of this area of

the UI X-Fade. This tab only appears for

Legato Slide)

articulations, and is covered in the section

directly below.

The Special, Additional

Legato Slide)

Tab: X-FADE

This tab is only available for the Slide articulation and should generally only be used by advanced users!

NB For the purposes of describing these controls, we will use an example interval of

(the ‘source’)

transitioning to

(the ‘destination’). The controls are described from left to right, starting with the

Source

knob.

Source Fade-Out Time]

When a legato transition is detected, the source note (C3) will be faded out over this much time.

Transition Fade-In Time]

The transition recording (C3 to G3) will be faded in over this much time.

Transition Length]

The amount of time the transition recording will be played for before fading out.

Transition Fade-Out Time]

After the transition length, the amount of time before the transition fades out completely.

Destination Fade-In Time]

The destination note (G3) will be faded in over t his much time.

The Map Tab

Each articulation can have up to three ‘rules’, or conditions under which that articulation may trigger.

In the example image above,

Sustain

will trigger if the keyswitch C-1 is pressed. The Latch button is

enabled

, meaning the keyswitch will stay down even if you were to release the keyswitch.

Multiple articulations can share the same keyswitch or velocity range. However, if you do this, the UI

may show a conflict,

e.g.

Here,

Sustain

and

Rake

are both set to trigger on the keyswitch C-1. Note the warning triangle ⚠ and

the red fill in both the

Sustain

and

Rake

articulations.

If you encounter such a conflict, you must then add an additional, unique rule to each of these

articulations to tell the engine when and how to play them, and thereby remove the conflict.

In this instance, for example, you could assign an additional rule to

Rake

to be triggered via velocity

values 120 through 127, and a complementary rule to

Sustain

to be triggered only via velocity values 1

through 119. This way, though they share the same C-1 keyswitch, they are uniquely situated in their

velocity ranges, and thus no longer have a conflict.

Tab 4 Advanced

In this tab, you can easily control a number of engine playback parameters.

Transpose

Shifts all MIDI input up to +/- 12 semitones.

MIDI Guitar Mode

When enabled, the patch is enabled for use with MIDI guitars or pickups that send MIDI messages on

different channels for each string of the guitar. The highest string corresponds to MIDI ch. 1; the

next-highest string corresponds to MIDI ch. 2; and so on.

You MUST first set the patch to OMNI MIDI

input in Kontakt for this to work!

NB: If your MIDI guitar has 6 strings, you will not be able to access the lowest 2 strings in this fashion.

Invert MIDI Channels

When MIDI Guitar Mode is enabled, this simply flips the expected channel input: the

lowest

string

corresponds to MIDI ch. 1; the next-lowest string corresponds to MIDI ch. 2; and so on.

You may need to

do this depending on the configuration of your MIDI-equipped guitar.

NB: If your MIDI guitar has 6 strings, you will not be able to access the highest 2 strings in this fashion.

Curve Dropdown Menu]

There are two options, which select which engine curve the graphical curve (and its controls, outlined

below) currently controls:

Velocity Curve

This curve maps input velocity for the Velocity → Volume processing.

Lower values result in quieter samples at the chosen velocity, while higher

values are louder. The degree of the effect is controlled personally by each

articulation in the TACT tab on the second parameter page.

See the TACT

manual for more information.)

Strum Speed Curve

This curve maps input velocity to select different dynamic layers. Due to

different articulations having a different number of layers, it is a general

curve from 1 to 127.

Curve Minimum Value (left vertical slider)

Adjusts the value at which the velocity curve starts. Holding Alt Option] will also move the maximum

value at the same time, making it a fixed value across the whole velocity range.

Curve Maximum Value (right vertical slider)

Adjusts the value at which the velocity curve ends. Holding Alt Option] will also move the minimum

value at the same time, making it a fixed value across the whole velocity range.

Curve Curvature (bottom horizontal slider)

Adjusts the curvature of the velocity curve, from concave → linear → convex.

Keyswitch Functions

These dropdown menus let you specify keyswitches for specific engine functions. You must ensure

these don’ t conflict, as they exist outside of TACT and have no built-in conflict detection. The keyswitch

notes created by these menus are all latching.

Force String

Sets up a keyswitch note for each string, plus a note to disable ‘Force String’. When

enabled, all notes will be played on the desired string if at all possible.

Set Hand

Sets up a keyswitch note that, when pressed, sets the current

hand position

. The

hand position selected equals the velocity of the keyswitch note (velocity 1 = fret

position 1, velocity 2 = position 2, etc.)

Picking Mode

Sets up a keyswitch note for each possible picking mode.

Fretting Mode

Sets up a keyswitch note for each possible fretting mode.

Shred Window

The maximum amount of milliseconds between subsequent notes to trigger Shred processing.

Shred processing uses a combination of sample offset and low-pass filtering to reduce pick energy

during fast passages and create much smoother lines.

This functionality is one of the latest

developments towards the namesake of this series!

Shred Offset

The amount of sample offset to use during Shred processing.

↓ Stroke Offset

Increases the sample offset for all articulations’ downstroke RRs.

↑ Stroke Offset

Increases the sample offset for all articulations’ upstroke RRs.

Anti-Repetition On/Off

When

enabled

, the instrument will randomly use neighboring samples during playback to create more

variation.

Anti-Repetition] Chance

Sets the probability that neighboring samples will be used during playback, when Anti-Repetition is

enabled.

Ringing

When enabled, the virtual guitarist will occasionally ‘flub’ a note, touching an adjacent open string or

two.

Useful for adding extra ‘dirtiness’ and overtones to your parts, but it does cost extra CPU, so be

careful!

Chance

Controls % chance of

Ringing

occurring per note.

Volume

Controls the volume of the

Ringing

resonance.

DI Line Noise

Increases the volume of constant line noise. The noise will start when you start playing, and will fade

out when you finish.

Hand Reset Time

Once all notes are released, the engine will reset the virtual hand position after this much time has

passed. If you are using a forced hand position, this does nothing.

Hand Reset] On Daw Star t

When enabled, the hand position will reset on DAW transport start.

Release On Hand Move

When enabled, if the virtual hand moves to a new position, all held notes will be released.

Release On Chord Change

When enabled and strum mode is activated, all held notes will be released when new notes are entered

into the playable (

i.e.

, blue range), changing the chord voicing.

Poly Release Retrigger

When enabled, released notes will retrigger legato-style just as in Mono Lead Mode. Unlike Mono Lead

Mode, however, this behavior is constrained to each individual string.

Articulations

Sustain

C1

Standard picked single notes that ring out fully. Simple!

Defaults to velocities

1119.

Rake

C1

Similar to a Choke, this is a very fast strum across muted strings.

Defaults to

velocities 120127.

NB: This articulation plays before whatever articulation it is layered with, such

as Sustain. It’s ideal to emphasize lead notes while playing a melody.

Mute

C♯1

Palm-muted single notes recorded with multiple degrees of palm-muting, from

‘very muted’ to ‘half-muted’.

The amount of palm-muting is controlled by

velocity.

Staccato

D1

Short, unmuted notes.

Power Chord

Sustain

D♯1

Sustained power chords (root, fifth, octave).

Power Chord

Mute

E1

Palm-muted power chords (root, fifth, octave).

Power Chord

Staccato

F1

Short, unmuted power chords (root, fifth, octave).

Tremolo

F♯1

Rapid picking of a single note on a single string, looping endlessly.

Choke

G1

Quick, short strums on one string, significantly muted to the point where there

is very little pitch-content.

Tapping

G♯1

All notes are played as hammer-on, ringing out fully. No picked notes here!

Harmonics

A1

Natural harmonics, triggered via pick, that ring out fully.

Pinch

Harmonics

A♯1

Pinch squeals (heavy harmonics with vibrato), triggered via pick, that ring out

fully.

B1

Various decorative performances to sprinkle in for added realism.

About Legato Articulations

Legato articulations are generally triggered when one note is held and another note within 12 semitones

is played simultaneously (that is, their MIDI in the piano roll is overlapping). To ensure that you trigger

legato only when intended, and not in the place of chord strums, remember to use

Poly Input

Hammer-On &

Pull-Off

Brief transitions that end on a sustained note.

Hammer-On

s are triggered when

playing within the Hammer-On Range on the same string while ascending in

pitch; one finger is used to ‘hammer’ the fret a semitone higher.

Pull-Off

s are

triggered the same way, but

descending

in pitch by one semitone, and have a

softer attack. With the Force Hammer-On button

disabled

, this articulation will

not play on strings that have not yet been picked.

Slide

Also known as

portamento

, this is a slide from one fret to another. The virtual

hand will move to the new note as if the exact same finger had been on both

the source and destination notes.

In Shreddage 3.5, the Slide transition is

limited to 12 semitones (t hat is, one octave).

Power Chord Slide

Just like Slide, but for power chords!

This is limited to 12 semitones.

About Release Articulations

As the name suggests, Release articulations trigger when a MIDI note is released (note-off message).

These are incredibly useful for making your virtual guitar parts sound more realistic by automatically

adding scrapes, squeaks, and other little noises t hroughout the performance.

Pitched Release

The sound of a string being released on a given pitch.

Power Chord

Pitched Release

The sound of a power chord being released quickly.

Unpitched Release

All sorts of non-tonal scrapes, squeaks, and pick movement inherent to natural

and realistic playing.

Keyswitches

FX & FX Keyswitches

Dedicated ‘slide’ keyswitch. Performs a slide transition between the current note

and the next note.

C♯0

Dedicated ‘fret noise’ keyswitch.

'Slide note' keyswitch: If activated

before

a note, performs a slide from the end of

the fretboard up to that note. If activated

during

a note, performs a slide from that

note down to the end of the fretboard.

D♯0

'Thrash note' keyswitch: Re-triggers the last-played note, allowing you to easily

riff between t his and another note for fast patterns!

Behavioral Keyswitches

C2

thru

F2

‘Force string’ keyswitch: C2 forces lowest E string (string 6; each subsequent

key forces each subsequent string, respectively.

F♯2

Disables ‘force string’ behavior.

A♯2

‘Force hand position’ keyswitch.

Hand position corresponds to MIDI velocity on

this keyswitch such that higher velocities trigger higher hand positions.

B2

Disables ‘force hand position’ behavior.

Hand position is now AUTO.

F♯8

Legato ON.

This is the default.

Legato OFF.

This forces Legato OFF despite whether Legato articulations are

active in the

Articulations

tab.

(NB: The performance styles which disable legato do it via this keyswitch!

NB: for

Strumming

Picking

, and other

Performance

Keyswitches, see the

Tab 2 Strumming

section

(starting page 15.

View 2 Console

For more about t he

Console

view, please see our standalone Console Manual.

Setup & Tweaking

Tips for Getting the Most out of the User Interface

➔ Almost all controls can be MIDI-learned by 1 right-clicking the UI and 2 selecting ‘MIDI Learn’.

You will then need to move the control of your choice (

i.e.

, fader, knob,

et al.

) on your MIDI

control surface or in your DAW to establish the link.

Pro tip: Once you MIDI-learn something, you should save your modified version of that NKI so

you won’t have to do it again!

➔ You can view Help Text by hovering over controls in the Shreddage 3.5 Hydra UI. The Help Text

will appear at the bottom-left of the Kontakt UI plug-in window. You can go to the Panels

drop-down menu by clicking the . Panels) icon at the top-right of the plug-in window and

ensure ‘Info’ is checked:

➔ The colorful Kontakt virtual keyboard, seen in our videos, is a Kontakt feature and not specific to

Shreddage 3.5 Hydra. To enable the virtual keyboard, simply press F3 on your computer (

not

MIDI! keyboard. Alternatively, you can go to the Panels drop-down menu by clicking the

Panels) icon at the top-right of the plug-in window and ensure ‘Keyboard’ is checked:

➔ Shreddage 3.5 Hydra is fully NKS Compatible and features quite a few existing

host-automatable controls. If you have a Komplete Kontrol keyboard or use the Komplete Kontrol

application, you will be able to benefit from this functionality!

Tips for More Realistic Mockups

As with many aspects of music creation, t hink of these as guidelines, not hard-and-fast rules that can

never be broken!

Recording Live vs. Sequencing

If you have decent keyboard skills, it’s a good idea to try performing your guitar parts one at a time,

recording the MIDI data. The natural variations in timing and expression will often lead to a better result.

Stay Off t he Grid

For guitar, keeping every single hit 100% quantized to the grid will not sound very natural. Guitarists

usually push and pull with the beat to add emotion and musical ‘direction’.

If you’re quantizing your live playing, try using a 50% to 75% quantization value instead of 100%.

If you’re clicking in notes with a mouse, try manually making very slight adjustments to certain notes!

Use Dynamics

It’s tempting to gravitate toward very high dynamics, particularly when you are writing heavy rock &

metal tracks. But even in these ‘high-octane’ genres, real guitarists do not play at 100% maximum

energy at all times, and this sound can quickly fatigue the ear. Even for very heavy parts, try using a

spread of velocities within the same (albeit ‘high’) range.

Another possibility to make sure you retain volume/power in a loud mix is to decrease the values of

Velocity → Volume on the Advanced page, then using a wider range of MIDI input velocities. This

method acts somewhat like a compressor, pushing the maximum and minimum dynamic layer volumes

closer together while maintaining timbral variety.

Finally, ensuring that you’re monitoring your music at an appropriate level to begin with (not too quietly,

not too loudly) will help you make correct, informed decisions about dynamic performance and dynamic

range—not just for your guitar parts, but for each element in your mix!

More Musical Tips for Mockups

➔ You can make the guitar sound deeper, darker, and larger than it actually is by

lowering

the

Tune knob of the Kontakt instrument slot itself by about 5 semitones, then

increasing

the

Transpose knob within the S3.5 UI by the same 5 semitones. The result is the same pitch but

with a more robust tone.

This is also a handy tool for creating even more convincing

double-tracks. You can try less OR more extreme values as well!

➔ To mimic the bright, articulate single coil sound found in modern progressive music for clean and

crunch tones, load an Analog EQ into Console and click the ‘Presets’ dropdown menu at t he top

right of the FX parameter pane. Select ‘Load FX Preset’, and navigate to the Shreddage 3.5

Hydra ‘Data’ folder where you installed the librar y and load the Analog EQ Single Coil Mod.nka

file.

Best used on the neck pickup!

➔ Switching the Fretting Mode of the instrument can dramatically change the tone and character

of your performances. If you aren’t 100% pleased with the voicing of your parts, tr y simply

changing modes; you may discover that you do not need to do any automation or MIDI tweaking

whatsoever to get your ideal result!

➔ As with the physical guitar, the Pickup Selector Switch of Shreddage 3.5 Hydra gives you an

enormous range of tone options. Merely changing pickups from Neck → Neck + Bridge → Bridge

will give you very different sounds, both clean and when driven through an amp/cabinet. When

you factor in per-pickup EQ and FX within Console, the options are truly limitless! (

Hint: try

panning the two pickups differently!

You can also set each pickup to a separate DAW output within Kontakt to process each of the

channels within your

own

FX processing workflow.

➔ When mixing and mastering rock and metal (or any other genre where strict rhythmic precision is

paramount) using Shreddage 3.5 instruments, offset the guitar tracks backwards (in other

words, apply a negative track offset) of 20ms to 30ms. If you are using poly input latency, add that

number of milliseconds to that offset amount. If you are using global sample offset, subtract that

number of milliseconds from that offset amount.

Applying this negative delay offset will dramatically reduce the audible delay of the guitar

transients against (the grid-quantized) drum sounds. The guitars will ‘pop’ better: drum

transients hitting a master compressor will compress guitar notes that arrive with or after them,

whereas guitar transients that arrive

before

the compression has fully kicked in will have a

chance to be lively and sound with better detail.

Tips for CPU & Memory Optimization

If you experience high CPU and memory usage with Shreddage 3.5 Hydra, there are a number of things

you can do to mitigate the issue.

Save memory and CPU by disabling unused pickup channels

If you are not using certain pickups, for example the Bridge position, consider disabling these

altogether on the Console tab. Doing this will reduce both memory usage and voice count.

Balance memory and CPU with DFD preload settings

Kontakt does not load all samples fully into memory; it only loads (or buffers) a small chunk of each one.

By clicking on the wrench icon next to a loaded patch, clicking Instrument Options, and going to the

DFD tab, you can adjust this preload buffer amount.

A higher buffer means less CPU usage but more RAM usage. A lower buffer means higher CPU usage

but less RAM usage.

It’s up to you to determine which setting is best for you.

Save CPU and memory by quitting unnecessary applications

For experienced users, this may seem obvious, but it’s easy to lose track of how much computing power

is being used by seemingly-innocuous applications. For example, it’s not uncommon to have a Chrome

browser, Discord, Slack, Skype, Zoom, and Dropbox all running at the same time. All of these not only

take up RAM, but can also interfere with real-time audio playback by causing pops & crackles.

So, anytime you work on a very intensive DAW project, it’s a good idea to close all applications and

services you don’t need - even if they just run in the background.

Avoid pops and crackles with a higher buffer size

This applies to your DAW settings in general. Typically, every DAW’s audio settings allow you to change

the ‘buffer size’ of the playback drivers. Sometimes, this may only be changeable in a separate

application, such as with some RME products.

The buffer size (measured in milliseconds or samples, like 8ms / 512 samples) determines the amount of

latency in DAW output and input, inversely correlated to CPU usage. In other words, lower buffer sizes

are much more demanding on your CPU than higher ones.

Though it feels great to perform and record MIDI at very low buffer sizes, this is also most taxing on

your CPU. Consider increasing your buffer size once you’re out of the MIDI recording phase, and on to

editing, mixing, and mastering.

Credits & Acknowledgements

Executive Producer: Andrew Aversa

Programming: Nabeel Ansari, Mario Krušelj, Sarah Mancuso

UI Design: Dickie Chapin, Paulo Nunes

Recording & Performance: Anthony Mena, Michael Henson, Joey Callahan

Pre-Production: Patrick Windsor, Connor Louiselle

Editing: Andrew Aversa, Anthony Mena

Marketing: Lauren Liebowitz

User Manual: Kent Kercher

Quality Assurance: Fredrik Häthén

Troubleshooting

Having trouble with Shreddage 3.5 Hydra? Use it in a project you want to tell us about? Drop us a line

via our Contact page (but be sure to read the FAQ first!

License Agreement

The following license is granted non-exclusively to all purchasers of our products. This version (updated

20 December 2022 supersedes any prior printed or digital versions of our license.

Overview

All sound recordings, performances, scripting and/or code contained in this product is the intellectual

property of Impact Soundworks LLC (‘ISW’) unless otherwise noted, and remains the property of ISW

after the product is purchased. When purchasing an ISW product, you are purchasing a non-exclusive

license to use, edit, perform, or otherwise utilize the contained recordings, performances, scripting

and/or code for commercial and non-commercial purposes as defined below.

Authorized Users

Depending on the type of customer and usage scenario, authorized users of this license will vary.

ALL purchases fall into category A or B:

A. Individual Purchase

This license is extended to customers who are purchasing as the primary user of the product, OR are

purchasing on the behalf of another primary user (i.e. as a gift). The licensee (primary user) MAY install

the product on as many computer systems as they have access to. However, ONLY the licensee may

use the product. No other users are authorized.

B. Corporate/Academic/Institutional Purchase

This license is extended to customers who are purchasing for a multi-user setting, such as a shared

studio, networked workstation, computer lab, etc. In this case, the licensee is the institution and not any

one user. In contrast with individual purchases, an institutional license applies to ONE computer /

workstation. All users of that workstation who belong to the purchasing institution (licensee) shall be

considered ‘aut horized users’. However, at no point may multiple authorized users access one license

simultaneously. Multiple licenses must be purchased if the product is to be used by multiple users

simultaneously.

Scope of License Virtual Instruments, Sample Libraries)

The licensee is entitled to t he use and unlimited editing of the Product within the scope of music

production, performance, recording, and composition. This includes both non-commercial and

commercial usage of all types, including, but not limited to, film scores, television scores, music

libraries, video game soundtracks, digital and physical music releases, albums, compilations, etc.

The licensee is entitled to distribute, sub-license, sell, stream, edit, monetize, or otherwise utilize any

music created with the Product.

Exceptions to this scope are listed below.

The licensee MAY NOT use the Product in the production of any other sample library or virtual

instrument products.

The licensee MAY NOT sell

individual sounds

from the Product in any audio marketplace (e.g. stock

audio websites, sound effect libraries, etc.)

For clarity: The licensee MAY use sounds from the Product to create individual sound effects SFX for

use in film, TV, advertising, and video games. The limitation is strictly on selling

individual sounds

in a

marketplace, SFX library, or similar.

Ownership, Resale and Transfer

Redistributing, reselling, electronically transmitting, uploading, sharing, or renting the Product in any

way, shape, or form is prohibited by law. The licensee may create a physical backup copy of any

digitally purchased and downloaded Product. This backup copy is subject to the same limitations as the

original copy of the Product, and may not be transferred to any other individual for any reason.