Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

The Interface

On the left is the main interface for Cuica. This particular interface is for the Soprano Cuica instrument. You can easily activate the bass Cuica by clicking on its title. Once activated it will light up and show you the ‘active’ label. On the left side you find a 3-Band EQ to control the sound character of both instruments globally. In the middle there’s a global microphone position setting and on the right side a dual-knob controlled impulse response reverb.

Controls & General Playing

The bottom end of the keyboard features multi sampled samples for playing your own phrases, the top end of the keyboard has 4/4th and 6/8th pre-recorded performances mapped.

ITM: Velocity-sensitive keyswitch for turning on Intelligent tempo mapping.

Activate ITM with the keyswitch shown here. Normally we would recommend you leave the ITM function switched on. However, you may wish to deactivate it if your track has many tempo changes throughout which may conflict with the ITM programming.

Round Robin Control

The recording of each instrument articulation includes many round robin samples. In normal playback these will cycle through, each time they are played. If you want to, you may exclude certain round robin variations from the cycle using the upper MIDI keys from E4 to B5. Each key represents an individual round robin sample. Play a key with low velocity to turn that variation off, high velocity to turn it on. The MIDI key at A1 will reset the round robin cycle to the beginning.

EQ Controls

The EQ section, shown here, allows you to quickly and simply tweak the levels of the low, mid and high frequency levels. Simply click and drag. Cmd / ctrl click to reset.

This function works globally and will affect both the Soprano and Bass Cuica instrument

Impulse Response

Cuica comes preloaded with a convolution reverb sampled from an actual space to simulate a realistic ensemble percussion environment. This control makes it easy to quickly dial in some realistic reverb without too much fuss. Adjust the wetness and size of the reverb by click-dragging on the dials shown here. Ctrl / cmd click to reset the levels to default.

From the Kontakt configuration window (shown below) you can adjust many other aspects of the reverb including wet/dry levels, pre-delay, dampening and width. You can also swap out the preloaded impulse response for one of your own.

Microphone Positions

The instruments of Cuica were sampled with three different mic positions: Close, Overhead and Far. This section of the interface gives you control over the mixing and panning of those positions. Use the left / right arrows to select the Close or Far mic controls. Ctrl / cmd click to reset the knobs to default.

This function works globally and will affect both the Soprano and Bass Cuica instrument