Kick Legio#

Kick voice with external ducking

Overview#

Part of the Legio drum kit, Kick covers the low end and big impacts. With two types of distortion, a variable impact envelope, and wide ranging decay times, Kick has an extensive range from delicate hits to hard-hitting impacts or tuned basslines. Plus, the Duck inputs get the rest of the mix out of the way when the kick is triggered.

  • Type: Kick voice
  • Size: 6 HP
  • Depth: 1.5 inches
  • Power: 2x5 Eurorack
  • +12 V: 140mA
  • -12 V: 22mA

Etymology#

Kick -- from English: "Impact with one's foot” Legio -- from Latin: “legion, army”

"Army of foot hits”

Color code#

On boot, the Legio's LEDs will shine with this color pattern to indicate that it is running the current Kick firmware:

A illustration of two lights: yellow and white.

Power#

Power connector

To power your Noise Engineering module, turn off your case. Plug one end of your ribbon cable into your power board so that the red stripe on the ribbon cable is aligned to the side that says -12 V and each pin on the power header is plugged into the connector on the ribbon. Make sure no pins are overhanging the connector! If they are, unplug it and realign.

Line up the red stripe on the ribbon cable so that it matches the white stripe and/or -12 V indication on the board and plug in the connector.

Screw your module into your case before powering on the module. You risk bumping the module's PCB against something metallic and damaging it if it's not properly secured when powered on.

You should be good to go if you followed these instructions. Now go make some noise!

Noise Engineering modules are reverse protected. If you accidentally installed it with the red stripe up, simply remove the power and place it correctly.

A final note. Some modules have other headers -- they may have a different number of pins or may say "not power". In general, unless a manual tells you otherwise, do not connect those to power.

Input & output voltages#

Legio’s CV-modulation inputs expect signals from 0v to +5v.

The Pitch input’s range is -2v to +5v.

The Hit input responds to a rising edge around +1.6v.

The audio inputs are AC coupled and respond to any Eurorack audio signals.

The audio output can reach up to 16v peak-to-peak.

Interface#

explanation

Pitch (encoder+CV input)
Sets the pitch of the voice.
Tap to mute/unmute the voice.
Decay (potentiometer+CV input)
Sets the decay length of the voice.
Impact (potentiometer+CV input)
Shapes the impact of the kick; soft to the left, hard to the right.
Tone (switch)
Changes the amount of wavefolding: none, some, lots.
Sat (switch)
Changes the amount of saturation: none, some, lots.
Hit
Triggers the kick.
Duck L/R
Audio inputs. Audio here is ducked based on the kick's envelope whenever the drum is triggered. The L jack is normaled to the R jack if R is left unpatched.
Out L/Out R
Audio outputs.

Patch tutorial#

Patch a trigger pattern to the Hit input. Tune the voice to the rest of your patch. Adjust the pots and switches to taste. Shake the roof off the club.

Note

If using multiple Legio drum voices, they can be chained together without an external mixer. Just patch the output of one to the input of the next.

However, order matters: Kick will duck all the percussion voices that come before it. For ultimate impact, put Kick at the end of the chain; or, if some drums are more important, put them after Kick so they aren't ducked out of the way.

Signal flow#

A block diagram of the firmware's signal flow.

Warranty#

We will repair or replace (at our discretion) any product that we manufactured for one year after initial purchase as long as we are able to get the parts to do so. This warranty does not apply to normal wear and tear, including art/panel wear, or any products that have been modified, abused, or misused. Our warranty is limited to manufacturing defects.

Warranty repairs/replacements are free. Repairs due to normal wear, user modification, or other damage are charged at an affordable rate. Customers are responsible for the cost of shipping to Noise Engineering technicians for repair.

All returns must be coordinated through Noise Engineering; returns without a Return Authorization will be refused and returned to sender.

For immediate issues with new modules, please contact your dealer for a replacement. Otherwise, please contact us if you think one of your modules needs a repair.

Design Notes#

Not a lot to say. While you may always think you need more cowbell, you DEFINITELY need more kick.

You may have heard of Basimilus Iteritas Alia, our flagship percussion module. It's got a pretty good kick, if we do say so ourselves. When we decided to do a dedicated Kick on Legio, though, Stephen did a from-scratch implementation for Legio. If you're curious about how similar they may be, just know there is no shared code!

Special thanks#

  • Enthusiastic Electrons
  • Everett Dolgner
  • Frequency Divide
  • itsMasterIll
  • Ozon
  • starthief