DARK INTERVALS – ARCTICA

USER MANUAL

ARCTICA IS DESIGNED AS AN INSTANT INSPIRATION IN SOUND QUALITY, AND

SIMPLICITY OF WORKFLOW.

GENERAL INFORMATION

ARCTICA is instrument based on several types of synth and pad sounds.

From sharp and epic polysynths, pads, to cold, ambient and dreamy atmospheres and
drones.
IT SHARES SAME WORKFLOW AS OUR PREVIOUS RELEASE, “DEEP BLUE”, WITH FEW
MORE FEATURES!!

If you are familiar with our previous release, DEEP BLUE, this instrument has very similar
architecture, which is building the harmonic structure of you musical piece in which you can
separately control bass (layer A), and synth (layer B).
Basically it is mapped as a split keyboard with 2 different layers :
A-Bass and B-Synth (pad, drone, or else)

Tweaking options are limited but highly functional. For example you can separately, in real
time control lo/hi pass filter for each layer, which can be very useful, and clearly visible on
the interface.
You can also adjust GLIDE per each layer

More about features in later in the manual.

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 PRODUCT INFO SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

- 7.6 GB Unzipped size - Any PC or Mac that can run Kontakt 6.6.1
- 48000 khz, 24-bit quality - Full Kontakt 6.6.1 or higher
- 55 pad/synth presets - Free Kontakt Player is not supported!!!
- 35 texture presets - 8gb of RAM or more
- 35 prerecorded inspiring loops - 8 gb of disk space
- 20 mirage presets

LOADING INSTRUMENT

ARCTICA cannot be added as a library, so you

must manually locate and load NKI file inside
your product folder. (see right picture)

After you sucessfully load your instrument, you

will see the interface (see page 3)

INSTRUMENT CATEGORIES

There are 4 instrument categories . There are no „multis“ category here.

First category is standard pad and synth sound collection.

Second category is made of various drones, clusters and textures.
Third category are inspiring and exciting synth loops.
Fourth category are mostly textures and pads.
Here is the number of sounds you get in these categories.

01. Pads And Synths (55)

02. Textures And Drones (35)
03. Motions (35)
04. Mirage Mapped (20)

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Besides layer A and layer B, there is also “MIRAGE“ layer. We suggest you assign it to your
modwheel (cc1).
This layer contains 20 very inspiring sounds which can be blended with original patch.
Which ever NKI file you load , you get same 20 mirage files (not different). You can change
your mirage file using the left/right arrows bellow big central knob.
Keyrange of Mirage layer is the same as LAYER B.

IMPORTANT NOTES
(notes will be more clear after going through entire manual)

- Most sounds dont have velocity layers since they are pads and textures. But
few do!

- “Motions“ category are pre-recorded loops.

- Some “Motions“ have major, minor or both versions.

- Layer A is ALWAYS bass sound.

- Since there are 20 basses, you will often hear same bass sound (layer A)
on different NKI file. It is up to you to choose which bass you want to choose.
Same applies for Mirage sound.

- MIRAGE sounds can also be loaded as own NKI instruments and can be used
as standard LAYER B. And, off course, combined with other Mirage layers.

-There are 145 sound presets BUT with 20 interchangable Mirage sounds, 20
interchangable basses, there are many sonic combinations you can achieve.
Not to mention using glide and filter options.

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INTERFACE

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FOLLOWING FEATURES MARKED WITH YELLOW NUMBERS ARE :

1. Attack, release, glide and HPF/LPF (switchable) cut and resonance controls for BASS layer (layer A)
2. Bass selection menu (use orange arrows to browse)
3. Mirage layer volume knob. Logo inside knob is on/off button. With it, you can turn off Mirage without
touching volume level.
4. Attack, release, glide and HPF/LPF (switchable) cut and resonance controls for SYNTH layer (layer B)
5. LINK button which links Mirage parameters with Layer A. Following parameters are affected: attack,
release and ALL FILTER settings. GLIDE is not affected, since glide is linked by DEFAULT. When not
linked, Mirage HPF/LPF cut and resonance are completely off and attack/release are set to slow fade in
and fade out. When linked, knobs will turn orange. (See next picture)

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6. Volume and PAN for layer A
7. Switch between various Mirage patches (20 sounds)
8. Volume and PAN for layer B
9. Reverb activation button
10. Reverb send knobs: A for layer A , B for layer B, and MIRAGE for mirage layer
11. Delay send knobs: A for layer A , B for layer B, and MIRAGE mirage layer
NOTICE SEND KNOBS MIRRORED FOR THE SAKE OF DESIGN. : REVERB -A-B-MIRAGE . DELAY - MIRAGE-B-A as opposed to
„DEEP BLUE“where you had following : REVERB : A-B-M, DELAY : A-B-M

12. Delay activation button

13. MAIN/FX view switch buttons.

Instrument is set to show MAIN menu. You can switch to EFFECTS menu by pressing right of
the two small circles in the bottom of the page. You will now enter “effects edit” menu, as in
the picture below

Here you can edit reverb and delay parameters with knobs, and change different reverb
and delay types, by pressing dropdown menu, above the knobs..
There is also a tempo sync feature for delay, which can be activated by pressing quarter
note symbol (♩).

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KEYBOARD LAYOUT AND RANGE

COLOR LAYOUT 1
APPLIES TO CATEGORIES:
1.Pads and Synths, 4. Mirage Mapped
Keyboard is divided into two sections.
LEFT COLOR : LAYER A (BASS)
RIGHT COLOR: LAYER B (SYNTH)

COLOR LAYOUT 2
APPLIES TO CATEGORY: 02. Textures And Drones

LEFT COLOR : LAYER A (BASS)

MID COLOR: LAYER B (SYNTH)
RIGHT COLOR : SINCE THIS CATEGORY HAS SHORTER RANGE, MIRAGE RANGE CONTINUES
FURTHER. RED COLOR MARKS HOW HIGH THE RANGE OF MIRAGE LAYER GOES.

COLOR LAYOUT 3A
APPLIES TO CATEGORY : 03. Motions
LEFT COLOR : LAYER A (BASS)
MID COLOR: LAYER B (SYNTH)
RIGHT COLOR : SINCE THIS CATEGORY HAS SHORTER RANGE, MIRAGE RANGE CONTINUES
FURTHER. RED COLOR MARKS HOW HIGH THE RANGE OF MIRAGE LAYER GOES.

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COLOR LAYOUT 3B
APPLIES TO CATEGORY : 03. Motions

Some sounds from MOTIONS category have major AND minor version, keyboard will look
like this:

LEFT COLOR : LAYER A (BASS)

MID LEFT COLOR: LAYER B – MAJOR LOOPS
MID RIGHT COLOR : LAYER B – MINOR LOOPS
RIGHT COLOR : SINCE THIS CATEGORY HAS SHORTER RANGE, MIRAGE RANGE CONTINUES
FURTHER. RED COLOR MARKS HOW HIGH THE RANGE OF MIRAGE LAYER GOES.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT : WWW.DARKINTERVALS.ORG