LEARN THE ENGINE

The Cadence Engine™ Walkthrough Series

The video manual for the Cadence Engine. Eight parts, covering the sequencer, variation, modulation, and the effects chains, one section at a time. Watch straight through, or jump to the part you need.

Part 1 · The Cadence Engine, Concept and Overview

Eight parts · A new episode every Monday

Every layer, every step mode, Flux, modulation, One-Shot View, and the effects, one part at a time. Starts the Monday after launch.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

THE SERIES

Eight parts, in order.

A feature walkthrough, not a preset showcase. Audio examples appear where a feature needs ears as well as eyes.

01

What the engine is, the three ideas behind it, how the combinations math works, and the layout of the interface.

6 min

02

The four workflows and how they map to the keyboard, the Meter and Poly preset categories, and the clock behavior to know before you load your first preset.

03

Blocks and steps, rate and meter, direction and octave, the five per-step modes, and how Length works alongside the Step Envelope.

12 MIN

04

The Flux Randomizer on and off, Dynamics, the Humanizer, the side-rail Randomizer and its lock, and linking values between layers.

8 MIN

05

The per-source editor: start point, tuning, filters, and balancing source levels when you are building a kit.

4 MIN

06

Modulation

The Master LFO, rate modes, per-destination attenuators and how they combine with depth, bypass and polarity, the crossfade matrix and mod wheel link, and MIDI Learn.

8 MIN

SEPTEMBER 21

07

Per-Layer FX

The seven-module strip on each layer: saturation, distortion, lo-fi, tape, delay, chorus, and convolution reverb, plus modulating them with the LFO.

10 MIN

SEPTEMBER 28

08

Master FX

Saturation and compression, Solid EQ, reverb, limiting, and the summary row that puts the headline parameter of each module in reach.

8 MIN

OCTOBER 5

read it instead

The Envoy manual.

Every parameter on the instrument, documented in full, with callouts for each control on every page of the interface. Useful alongside the series, or on its own.

Open the manual

Quick reference

How sequencer rate works.

Rate sets how long each of the four blocks lasts. The steps inside a block divide that time evenly, so a block with one step holds for the whole block and a block with eight steps fires eight times inside it. Each layer has its own rate, synced to the same tempo source and free to move at a different division.

The range

Slow movement to extremely fast subdivision

A closer look at one part of the range · block rate compared with 1/2

Reference

1/2

1×

One reference block length.

1/4D

1.33×

Dotted quarter.

1/4

2×

Blocks twice as fast.

1/8D

2.67×

Dotted eighth.

1/4T

3×

Quarter triplet.

1/8

4×

Blocks four times as fast.

D = dotted·T = triplet. Smaller straight values make shorter blocks. Dotted values are slower than the straight value, triplet values are faster.

Straight values

Each halving of the value doubles the block rate: 1/2 → 1/4 → 1/8 → 1/16.

Dotted and triplet values

These sit between the straight divisions, giving you rates that do not simply double from one setting to the next.

This reference covers the two layer rates. The Master LFO runs a third clock on its own division, so the engine keeps three independent timings in play at once.

Two layers. Two rates.

60 BPM · each cell is one block

Each layer runs four blocks at its own rate, then starts again. Matching the rates gives both layers the same block length and a shared pulse. Mismatching them makes the two four-block patterns cycle against one another, and the pair of rates decides how long it takes for the patterns to start together again.

Shared pulse

1:1 · ruler shows 2 beats

Layer 11/8
Layer 21/8
Restarts

Blocks change together · patterns restart together every 2 beats

Same rate, so every block lasts the same time and both four-block patterns turn over together. Step counts can still differ between the layers, which keeps the percussion moving inside a shared pulse.

Triplet against straight

4:3 · ruler shows 2 bars

Layer 11/8
Layer 21/4T
Restarts

Blocks meet every 2 beats · patterns restart together every 2 bars

Four blocks of Layer 1 pass for every three of Layer 2. The block edges line up every two beats, and the two four-block patterns only start together every two bars.

Dotted against straight

3:2 · ruler shows 6 beats

Layer 11/8
Layer 21/8D
Restarts

Blocks meet every 1.5 beats · patterns restart together every 6 beats

Three blocks of Layer 1 for every two of Layer 2. The meeting point falls between beats, which gives dotted rates their forward lean, and the patterns start together every one and a half bars.

Crossing the bar

3:4 · ruler shows 6 bars

Layer 11/2
Layer 21/4D
Restarts

Blocks meet every 6 beats · patterns restart together every 6 bars

Slower rates drift further. The block edges only meet every six beats, a bar and a half, so every other meeting lands mid-bar, and the two patterns take six bars to start together again.

Each lane is one layer: four blocks at that layer's rate. The ruler shows where each pattern starts again.

Try a pair

· 4/4 · rate sets the block length

Click track only, not Envoy's sound. Layer 1 high, Layer 2 low, level follows the velocity bars and DYN.

Layer 11/8

4444

Velocity · drag a bar, fully down mutes the step

30%

Velocity only here · non-destructive, off returns your pattern

Layer 21/8

4444

Velocity · drag a bar, fully down mutes the step

30%

Velocity only here · non-destructive, off returns your pattern

Where each four-block pattern starts again

Layer 1 restartsLayer 2 restartsBoth together

Rate ratio

4:3blocks per meeting

Block edges meet every

2 beatshalf a bar

Patterns restart together every

8 beatstwo bars

The important idea: rate is the length of a block, not the length of a step. A layer's pattern is always four blocks, so it lasts four times the rate. Step count decides how many hits land inside each block, never how long the block lasts.

MORE VIDEOS

Outside the series.

Three videos that sit apart from the numbered parts: getting set up, hearing the instrument, and where the sounds came from.

Installation and Setup

Native Access, Kontakt 8.1, and finding your way around: Default and Classic views, the instrument header, the preset menu, the Master Editor, the Banks browser, and saving your own presets.

Preset Showcase

Sound first. Presets playing across the four workflows, with no teaching and no interface tour. The fastest way to hear what the instrument does.

Sampling and Gear

The hardware behind the sources, how the material was captured, and what the no acoustic, no digital constraint meant in practice.

the first instrument

Envoy

ANALOG PERCUSSION

POWERED BY THE CADENCE ENGINE™

The Cadence Engine is the platform behind a new series of instruments from Emergence Audio. Envoy is the first: 600 analog percussion sources across two independent layers, for the free Kontakt Player.

Get Envoy