How to use the SPC

The SPC is an online drum machine and one of Soundation’s Virtual instruments. It plays drum samples and comes loaded with kits for EDM drums, trap drums, lo-fi drums, and more. You’re also able to alter the drum samples by changing the envelope, pitch, pan, and applying global effects.

Trap
EDM
Lo-fi
Synthwave

What is a drum machine?

A physical drum machine is essentially a box that plays drum sounds. They can either use synthesized sounds or audio samples. The rhythms can be pre-programmed or programmable. Drum machines were meant to fill the rhythm section for playing live or making studio recordings when you didn’t have a real drummer.

In modern times, all you need is a computer and a software instrument like the SPC to get a good drum sound.

Adding SPC presets [Beginner]

1
Open Soundation Education and create a project
2
Click on Instrument presets in the Sound library
3
Search for “SPC”
4
Drag in a preset to the Arrangement area
5
Start playing or drawing in notes

Drum pads

If you click on a Drum pad, you can preview the sound. The waveform of the sound will also show up on the display and you are able to adjust its settings.

Bank selector

Select a different bank to access more drum pads if the drum kit holds more than 8 drum sounds.

Gain

Gain lets you control the loudness of the individual drum sounds. This is important to get a good balance and make sure no sound is poking out or is buried in the mix.

Pan

Pan is where the sound will be placed in the stereo spectrum. You can pan it to the left, right, or keep it centered in the middle.

Pitch

Pitch adjusts the pitch of each drum sound. At 0, it will play the original pitch. You can pitch it up or down by 12 semitones or 1 octave, giving you a tuning range of 2 octaves. Adjusting the Pitch will change the tone/timbre and the length of the drum hits.

Cut

Cut means that when the active sound is triggered it will cut another off, stopping it from playing. Choose any sound in the kit to be cut by clicking and dragging it up/down.

Cut by

Cut by means that the active sound will be cut off by another sound in the kit. Choose any sound in the kit to cut the active sound by clicking and dragging it up/down.

Envelope

The Envelope is a very powerful tool for sculpting the sounds. Edit the start and end-points by dragging the 2 lower dots left and right to make the sound shorter or to remove a certain part. You can also adjust the attack and decay with the 2 upper dots to shape the movement of the loudness.