Sample Neon 32

s3g Sample Neon 32 is a performance sampler with 32 pad cells, up to 32 sample layers per cell, and nine playback methods. Chop recordings into pads or layer stacks, move through those layers, reshape the sound, and resample the result. It works with the on-screen controls, sequenced MIDI notes, or one or two Reloop NEON controllers without replacement firmware.

Start with a single stereo sample, then build a layered instrument or a multichannel performance set. The same plug-in handles stereo, quad, octo and ACN/SN3D Ambisonic material. If you use NEON hardware with Tracker, begin with the Utility Neon MIDI setup guide.

Workflow

1. Insert s3g Sample Neon 32 on a track, choose STEREO in the header, and monitor channels 1–2.
2. Check the track's output and listening level before playing. For multichannel sound, route the selected buses to your speakers or a suitable decoder.
3. Select cell A1 in PLAY. Drop a supported audio file on its pad, or choose EDIT VIEW → SOURCE / STACK → LOAD. Use AUDITION PAD to check the sound.
4. Choose EDIT LAYER in the waveform-view menu, then adjust Start and End to the part you want to play. Scroll over the waveform to zoom.
5. Choose one PLAYBACK method in the persistent PAD toolbox, then open EDIT VIEW → PLAYBACK for its controls. Changing the edit view does not change the sound engine.
6. Use ONE SHOT for a hit or HOLD to play while a pad or note is held. For Motion or Grains textures, start with FREE / PAD so playback does not depend on the host transport.
7. Save your REAPER project. The default PROJECT storage collects samples with it; see Storage and Sets before moving a project to another computer.

Next, chop the source into playable slices, add layers and move through the stack, or record your performance into a new sample. These are different ways to develop the same pad—not separate instruments.

Pads, Layers and Workspaces

The sound path is pad stack → one playback method → Character FX → output bus → master. Layer navigation moves between recordings inside one cell; source navigation moves through time within those recordings. Neither silently mixes adjacent cells.

PLAY includes performance and editing. Its Edit View menu contains SOURCE / STACK, PLAYBACK, STACK PATH, CHARACTER FX and ROUTING. CHOP constructs and auditions slices of the selected source. RESAMPLE records and edits a take. STACK switches the miniature controller to layer performance inside PLAY; it is not another instrument or playback engine.

The persistent PAD toolbox retains Playback, Layer Src/Navigation, Edit Layer, Trigger, Gain, Tune, Audition Pad and Stop Pad across these workspaces. It always addresses the selected pad, not the resample review. Audition Pad follows the pad's playback and source choices; AUDITION EDIT LAYER isolates the edit target where supported.

Loading, Editing and Copying Sources

Load mono, stereo, quad or octo discrete audio, or 4/9/16-channel ACN/SN3D audio. Each cell holds up to 32 layers with the same channel count. LOAD replaces the selected layer; ADD LAYER appends one. Dropping multiple files in the stack editor appends layers. REMOVE removes the layer from the instrument, not its file on disk.

Trim, slice markers and source-editing settings belong to each layer. Playback, gesture envelopes, Gain, Tune, Character FX, source format and output route belong to the whole pad. Source edits do not switch its playback method.

Normalize

SOURCE / STACK → NORMALIZE offers EDIT LAYER, STACK / EACH LAYER and STACK / KEEP BALANCE. Apply targets −1 dBFS: Each Layer normalizes every loaded layer independently; Keep Balance applies one gain to the entire stack, preserving relative levels. The latter is useful for velocity layers.

Normalize acts on the complete sample, not just its trimmed selection. All channels receive the same gain, preserving their balance. It matches peaks rather than perceived loudness. The pad stops when you apply it; the original files and copies in other cells stay unchanged. Use Undo to return to the previous level.

Copy and Paste

Focus a PLAY cell pad, then use Ctrl-C / Ctrl-V or Cmd-C / Cmd-V on macOS. Right-click offers COPY CELL, PASTE CELL and CLEAR CELL; Control-click also works on Mac. Change banks before pasting to copy across A–D. Replacing a populated destination requires confirmation. Clear Cell removes all audio layers from that pad, keeping its playback, FX, routing and MIDI settings. It is immediately undoable and does not delete files from disk.

A copy includes the entire stack, trims, slices, playback, envelopes, FX and routing. Later edits are independent, and pasting does not automatically audition. The clipboard belongs to this plug-in instance and is not saved with the project; it survives Reset All. Focused text fields retain normal text copy/paste.

Right-click any position in the Source / Stack 32-layer grid, or a miniature STACK layer pad, for COPY LAYER, PASTE LAYER and CLEAR LAYER. Empty positions can receive a paste; occupied positions require confirmation. The layer clipboard is separate from the cell clipboard, works across pads/banks, and retains the sample, trim, slices, cursor and BPM. Destination pad playback, FX and output routing stay in place. Other layers must match the copied channel count and Discrete/ACN-SN3D format; a sole/new source adopts the copied format with the usual Ambisonic safety restrictions.

Clear Layer leaves that numbered position empty without shifting other layers. Clearing the trailing selected layer moves the editor to the last remaining position. Unlike REMOVE, it does not compact the stack. Copy/paste shortcuts act on the focused layer grid position; click a cell pad to return to cell shortcuts. Paste and Clear are Undo/Redo steps, never automatically audition, and retain source files and clipboards. Clearing a recorded layer keeps its review waveform but detaches the direct Delete Take link; Undo restores both the layer and link.

Undo and Redo

The header's UNDO / REDO buttons are available on every page. The lower status area names the next action in each direction. With the plug-in canvas focused, use Cmd-Z on Mac or Ctrl-Z to undo; add Shift to redo, or use Ctrl-Y. Focused text fields keep their own text-editing shortcuts.

History covers successful file loads/replacements, Add/Remove Layer, Paste/Clear Cell, Paste/Clear Layer, normalization, committed slices to pads or a stack, recorded takes, capture cropping/discard/assignment, and Reset All. A multi-pad slice assignment or whole-stack normalization is one step. Undo restores the affected pad's complete pre-edit audio and settings, including trims, slices, layers, playback and FX; subsequent setting changes on that pad are also rolled back to that checkpoint. Unaffected pads and global MIDI/controller connections are retained. Ordinary slider/menu changes and marker editing are not separate history steps.

Undo/redo stops sounding pads, fill and audition before restoring; it never retriggers notes or restarts recording. Finish recording or pending file loads first. A new destructive edit clears Redo. History is session-local: it survives closing/reopening the editor, but is not saved in projects or sets. Successfully loading a project/set starts fresh history; cancelled or failed loads do not. Save a set for durable recovery.

History holds up to 32 edits, within a 512 MiB audio budget. Older steps may be dropped as you work with large samples. Save a separate set before a major edit if you want a recovery point that will remain available after closing the project.

Waveform and Zero Crossings

The waveform remains the same size when switching playback methods or toolboxes. Its view menu separates playback observation from source editing:

WAVE → ALL CHANNELS is the default: one aligned row per source channel. CHANNEL 1 / ACN 0 isolates the first channel visually. COMBINED PEAKS displays the min/max envelope across all channels, not a sum; opposite-polarity channels do not cancel. These views never solo, downmix or otherwise change the audio. The small overview always uses combined peaks.

Scroll vertically to zoom 1×–32× around the pointer. Shift-scroll or horizontal trackpad movement pans. Motion overlays its source field and cursors; Grains shows actual grain windows and read progress. Follow Stack and Edit Layer use vertical playback lines. CHOP and RESAMPLE keep their own fixed source/review views. View preferences and zoom are local to the instance, not saved sound settings.

To remove audio outside a selection, choose EDIT LAYER, set Start/End, then press CROP TO SELECTION. The selected layer becomes a new, shorter sample with full-range trim and zoom. Other layers, pads and original files stay untouched; Undo restores the uncropped source. Finish recording or loading before cropping.

ZERO CROSS helps reduce clicks by snapping trim and slice boundaries to a nearby quiet crossing. With multichannel audio, Neon chooses the best shared cut and keeps all channels aligned. Turn it off for exact manual placement. Some material has no clean crossing, so use a short envelope or crossfade as well when needed.

Playback Methods and Gesture Length

HOLD responds to pad/note release; TOGGLE continues until the next press. Generated methods with SHOT LEN use it for One Shot duration, not the file or grain length. Shot Length and gesture fades are captured at the strike: retrigger after changing them. Attack/Release shape the whole gesture and are separate from grain windows and per-slice ADSR. Stop Pad and KILL are explicit stops; FX can otherwise have tails.

FREE / PAD runs independently of transport. HOST TRANSPORT uses the host clock and exposes beat choices where applicable; use Free when a held texture should continue with transport stopped. Motion packet, motor and event rates remain Hz. Stretch uses Duration rather than a competing Shot Length; primary Wavesets Rearrange follows its source, while scanning Wavesets and Oscillator expose gesture timing.

Cutups

CUTUPS turns the pad's stack into a clocked pattern of fragments. It works with one sample or up to 32 layers. Choose LAYER ORDER to move Down, Up, in a Palindrome, randomly, in Pairs, Outside In, Center Out, Stagger, or by a Manual pattern. Random Cycle visits every loaded layer before reshuffling. For a Down/Up pattern that visits the whole stack, use at least as many steps as layers.

Open EDIT VIEW → PLAYBACK to set Rate or tempo division, Equal/Transient regions, Steps/Regions, Source Order and Step Repeat. Gate shortens fragments; Join smooths their handoffs. Add Swing, timing variation, reverse chance or pitch/level variation for less regular patterns. Seed gives repeatable variations. One Shot completes a whole pattern including repeats; Hold follows note-off, and Toggle stops on the next press.

Set LAYER BPM for the selected Edit Layer when using Tempo Sync. Reading speed follows the ratio between host and source tempo, so pitch changes too. Cutups' HOST TEMPO follows BPM even with transport stopped. Its Equal/Transient regions are separate from the markers you create in CHOP.

The fixed strip below the waveform becomes a Cut Pattern graph. Click/drag chooses layer addresses and switches Layer Order to Manual. Option/Alt-click or drag writes a source position and switches Source Order to Manual. Edit Step, Step Layer and Step Source provide precise entry for dense stacks. Empty manual addresses resolve to the nearest loaded layer. The playing cursors and Follow Stack/Stack Lanes views follow the actual rendered layer; Stack Path and held STACK-position overrides do not compete with Cutups' ordering.

Use Preserve Field to keep multichannel recordings together, or Distribute to place discrete cuts around the selected output bus. Distribution can change per Note, Cut or Pattern. In EDIT encoder mode, LOOP controls rate/division and TRAX controls repeats; LOOP push auditions. Set note voices in ROUTING → NOTES / VOICES; Poly Path remains in the Cutups playback controls.

Motion and Grains

Motion's Source Path offers Forward, Reverse, Bounce and Wander; additional trajectories are Hover, Mirror, Zigzag and Moving Loop. SOUND chooses Continuous, Packets or Motor. Packet Rate/Duty set the inner pulse; Motor adds an outer Rate, Shape and Symmetry. Join Window sets source-window length. EVENT MODEL chooses Smooth, Freeze, Iterate, Doublets or Bounce, with rate, repeats, source step and variation controls.

Grains' GRAIN SRC selects Freeze, Scan, Cloud or Slice. Scan moves within the source; Cloud chooses positions; Slice uses equal regions, not the authored CHOP markers. Density/Interval sets emission timing and Size sets an individual grain window—not cloud duration. Window choices include Legacy, Parzen, Sine, Hann, Triangle and Gaussian, with skew, size/level variation and timing scatter. Processes include Ordinary, Sorter, Stutter, Shrink and Doublets; Amount and Regions shape their behavior.

SOURCE PATH and SOURCE CYCLE describe within-sample traversal in Motion/Grains; they do not select stack layers. Grains' PITCH SPRAY varies pitch around GRAIN TUNE. REV CHANCE is a probability in Grains and Cutups, not a fixed reverse direction.

For a first texture, choose Hold and Free / Pad, then increase Attack and Release for a soft entrance and exit. Grain Size sets the size of each grain, not how long the pad plays. Use Poly voices when you want several independently played pitches at once. These methods bring the main ideas of Motion, Grains and Lanes into Neon's pad-and-stack workflow.

Wavesets: Rearrange and Oscillator

ENGINE → REARRANGE uses Group, Repeats, Shape and Process to repeat, omit, replace, interpolate or reverse cycle groups. OSCILLATOR instead sustains a cycle GROUP selected by CYCLE POS; FREQUENCY sets its tuning and SCAN moves through source groups over SOURCE CYCLE. Pad Tune additionally transposes it. A multi-cycle group can have prominent harmonics above the nominal fundamental. Ordinary MIDI notes still address pad cells; a chromatic channel route or Keyboard role additionally transposes Oscillator by the incoming pitch.

Both engines offer Primary Layer or Stack Path and are unavailable for ACN/SN3D sources. If a loaded Wavesets pad is silent, try a source with clearer repeating cycles: silence or strong DC offset may leave no usable wavesets.

Spectral Playback

Spectral freezes or moves through the frequency content of a sample for sustained tones and evolving textures. Begin with Hold and Free clock, choose a moment with Position, and audition the pad. Set Advance and Pressure Advance to zero for a stationary freeze; raise either to travel through the source. Expect a short build-up at the start of a note.

Colour changes are smoothed separately from Smear so live edits remain responsive. Primary Layer, Edit Layer, Velocity, Random / Trigger and Stack Path are available. All channels share analysis positions, bin gains and phase handling; there is no independent-channel randomization or Ambisonic decoding. EDIT encoders remain LOOP = Position and TRAX = Blur, with Shift for fine adjustment.

Layer Selection, Lanes and Stack Paths

Stack Path means breakpoint movement between layers everywhere in Neon. Source Path / Source Cycle control movement within a sample; Stack Cycle controls movement through the stack. Custom is a hand-edited path shape, whereas Lanes' Manual navigation means direct layer control. Choosing a Custom shape does not turn off Stack Path. Stack Lanes is a waveform view, separate from the Lanes playback method.

Unavailable choices are disabled. Sample does not continuously scan layers; Wavesets exposes Primary Layer/Stack Path. Lanes replaces Layer Src with NAVIGATION → MANUAL / STACK PATH. Slice Sequence uses the primary layer's markers in Sequence mode; Mosaic's Candidates menu can instead use the stack's slices.

Lanes is the direct layer-navigation method: one continuous read head keeps moving while LAYER POS or Previous/Next Layer changes the source. Crossfade blends neighboring layers; Jump selects the nearest. Layer Slew smooths transitions. Layers share normalized progress, using the primary/first loaded trim as the timing reference, so different-length layers can play at different effective rates. Speed/Tune are rate changes, not transparent time stretching. Loop Join smooths wrapping loops.

STACK PATH controls movement between layers, independently of movement within each source. Shape choices are Custom, Ramp Up, Ramp Down, Triangle, Sine, Square and Wander. Every shape uses the visible breakpoints; choosing a named shape regenerates them. Layer 1 is at the top, matching Stack Lanes. The moving dot and guide show path phase; a hollow dot indicates a held STACK override.

Click a point or empty graph space to switch to Custom without clearing the curve. Click empty space to add a point, drag to change time/layer position, and right-click or Control-click to remove an interior point. Endpoint times stay fixed, but their heights are editable. Use 2–32 points; named shapes enforce their minimum counts. Phase offsets the cycle and Curve bends interpolation. Grains can advance by Time or Grain Events. A breakpoint's Point Layer edits that node, not the current playing layer.

Hardware STACK pads temporarily steer an active compatible gesture to the held layer. STACK performance is unavailable for Slice Sequence and primary-only Wavesets; Wavesets needs Stack Path. A manual LOOP movement latches an override; LOOP push or RESUME returns to saved navigation. Selecting Layer Src/Navigation also clears the latched override. A physically held layer retains momentary priority until released. Moving Lanes' Layer Pos takes Manual control. These overrides do not rewrite the saved breakpoint path.

Chop and Slice Sequence

1. Select the pad and Edit Layer you want to cut, then choose CHOP.
2. Choose Transients, Equal, Beat Grid or Live Markers and a slice count. Zoom in to check the boundaries; adjust Pre-roll for transient cuts.
3. Audition slices with the pads or AUDITION SLICE. Keep Zero Cross on unless you need exact unsnapped positions.
4. Choose Pad Cells and a Start Pad, or One Pad / Layer Stack and a Target Pad. Read the destination preview before pressing Assign.
5. Assign one slice or all slices. Undo reverses the assignment if you want to try a different cut or destination.

CHOP works on the selected pad's edit layer. Live Markers, Transients, Equal and Beat Grid construct up to 32 slices; banks A–D address slices 1–8, 9–16, 17–24 and 25–32. Pads audition slices directly. Transient Pre-roll moves detections earlier by 0–50 ms before zero-crossing snapping. Returning it to zero restores the detections; turn Zero Cross off when an exact offset matters.

Assign commits new cropped audio, not merely trim references to the full source. Each new slice has its own fitted waveform, 0–100% trim and one region until re-chopped. All channels share the same cut. Choose the destination explicitly:

The Assign buttons and ALL > readout show the planned destinations. Other occupied cells cannot be overwritten; insufficient room disables Assign All. Source replacement changes the plug-in's audio, not the original disk file. New pad slices start as forward one-shots, retaining source shaping and routing rather than automatically becoming a sequence.

SLICE SEQUENCE plays regions inside the pad, not neighboring pad cells. NAVIGATION → SEQUENCE uses the primary layer's markers with Forward, Reverse or Random order. Mosaic alternatives are Similar, Contrast, Energy and Brightness. CANDIDATES chooses Primary Slices or Stack Slices; unsliced layers contribute their whole trimmed region. Similar/Contrast compare with the preceding fragment; Energy/Brightness use Target. Repeats and Chance still apply.

CHOP → SLICE AMP / PROPORTIONAL sets slice Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release. ADR scale to slice length; Slice Sequence additionally fits them to the step duration. Totals above 100% scale together. Envelopes latch at each hit, and sequence handoffs use short complementary crossfades even with zero Attack/Release. This reduces splice artifacts without filling intentional gaps or lengthening short slices.

Character FX

Each pad runs one Character processor after playback. Switching effects recalls that pad's saved bank for the selected effect; it is not an eight-effect chain. MIX blends dry/wet, Pressure and global Mangle add to it, and OUT trims the result. Reverse belongs to playback and Hold/Toggle to Trigger, not Character.

Echo's Free/Beats times share a two-second limit; MAX indicates a capped beat time. Shift is a post-playback delay pitch effect, not source Tune or Stretch. For ACN/SN3D, the available effects use linked detection/timing; nonlinear Drive, Crush and Tape feedback are disabled. Selecting Ambisonic format clears unsafe choices.

On the FX page, choose ENCODER PAIR or push TRAX to move between pairs. LOOP/TRAX edit the named controls; LOOP push auditions. RESET THIS EFFECT resets its settings and Out, keeping Mix, Pressure, playback and other effect banks.

Output Layout and Multichannel Sources

The header chooses the global layout. EDIT VIEW → ROUTING chooses each pad's source Format and output Bus. Four-channel files default to discrete quad; explicitly choose ACN/SN3D for 1OA. Newly loaded 9/16-channel files default to ACN/SN3D, but channel count cannot verify encoding. Convert FuMa, N3D or other conventions before loading; Neon does not reorder, encode or decode them.

PRESERVE FIELD retains channel order. A discrete source may occupy a wider discrete bus with unused channels silent; Ambisonic sources require an exact order match. Incompatible format/width/bus combinations are silent and flagged. There is no automatic downmix or bus wrap. Spatial sources disable ordinary stereo pan. Route discrete outputs to the intended speakers or a monitoring fold-down; follow Ambisonic output with a matching decoder.

DISTRIBUTE explicitly folds discrete events to a Mono or Stereo object and allocates them within the selected bus. Traversal choices are Sequential, Reverse, Palindrome, Random and Random Cycle. Window/grain/slice events allocate individually; continuous Lanes, Wavesets and Spectral allocate per gesture. Quad/Octo provide room for multiple destinations. Changing routing stops existing voices.

Grains' Stereo Link can unlock position/pitch spray and reverse decisions for discrete stereo. Wider sources remain linked. ACN/SN3D forces Preserve Field and linked reads; distribution never implicitly encodes an Ambisonic field. Shared trim, slice boundaries, envelopes and source movement keep components aligned.

Recording and Resampling

The RESAMPLE page has two sources: NEON OUTPUT records an internal output bus after pad processing, master gain and Fill Hold; TRACK INPUT records audio arriving at Neon's input pins from the REAPER track, before Neon's sampler/master. Track Input does not include Neon's playback or effects placed after it.

Live Input and Layer Takes

1. Feed audio to the track containing Neon: an audio item, an audio send, or a live interface input with the appropriate REAPER monitoring/record-arm configuration. Audio from earlier track FX is included. Check Neon's input-pin mapping and track channel count. For live audio plus NEON MIDI control, use a separate MIDI route or Utility's direct USB input rather than replacing the audio input with a MIDI-only track input.
2. Choose SOURCE → TRACK INPUT. This selects RECORD TO → PAD STACK. Choose Input Format and Channels: Mono, Stereo, Quad, Octo, or 1OA/2OA/3OA ACN/SN3D. Format describes the incoming channels; it does not encode, decode or convert normalization. An existing target stack must match width and spatial format.
3. Choose Target pad and Layer. NEXT EMPTY finds the first empty layer; an explicit L01–L32 starts there. Occupied/offline/loading layers are protected. Recording into an otherwise empty higher layer selects that layer for playback.
4. Press RECORD once. It remains on after release; press the same button again to stop. STOP is also available. The live waveform and destination readout follow the active take.
5. While recording, press TAKE / NEXT LAYER. The finished take is added to the current layer and recording continues in the next empty higher-numbered layer, without wrapping or replacing occupied layers. Stop commits the last take. Each completed layer is undoable after recording finishes.

MONITOR → OFF is the default and does not prevent recording. INPUT THRU adds the selected input channels to the same-numbered output channels at unity gain, outside Neon's master and Fill Hold. It does not fold down or decode multichannel audio. Avoid duplicate monitoring or routing a monitored output back into the input. A connected silent input records silence; missing required input pins prevent/stop recording with a status message.

Each take can be up to 30 seconds, or 15 seconds at 96 kHz; available sample memory may shorten this. At the last empty layer, Take saves the recording and stops. If Neon is still finishing the previous take, keep recording and try Take again when the status clears. Stop recording before saving, replacing sources or using Undo. Reopening a project never starts recording automatically.

Your recording source, format, destination and monitor preference are saved with the set. Completed layers follow the selected Project/Link/Embed storage policy; an unfinished recording is not saved.

Stopping a Pad Stack recording leaves its latest completed take visible in RESAMPLE, labeled with its saved pad/layer. AUDITION plays that take directly; STOP ends audition without clearing it. DELETE TAKE removes that recorded layer and the review together, without shifting other layers or deleting files. Undo restores both. KEEP LAYER / CLEAR REVIEW clears only the review. These actions follow the recorded destination, not whichever pad or record target you select afterward.

A new completed take replaces the review on screen; Undo can recover the previous one. Cropping the review leaves the already-saved layer intact. When the button reads DISCARD rather than Delete Take, it clears only the review—use the layer grid to remove a saved layer. Match your output layout to the take when auditioning multichannel recordings.

Review-and-Assign Workflow

1. Choose either source and RECORD TO → REVIEW TAKE. For internal resampling, choose NEON OUTPUT and its Bus.
2. Choose Record, then use the miniature NEON's PLAY PADS layer to perform loaded cells while recording. A bus-mismatch warning does not reroute those cells automatically.
3. Stop and audition the completed take. Waveforms and a write cursor are drawn during recording; channel views also apply to captures.
4. Set Start/End and use CROP TO SELECTION / DISCARD OUTSIDE to keep only the desired audio. This destructively crops the current review, resets its trim/zoom and auditions the result.
5. Choose an empty Target and Assign Capture to Cell. Playing loaded pads does not change this target. Discard the review before starting another take; already assigned cells remain intact.

All Record controls latch: the on-screen buttons, primary hardware Record pad, and Shift + pad 1 (REC) on either RESAMPLE pad layer. Releases and aftertouch do not stop or retrigger recording. Shift + pad 2 takes the next stack layer; primary pad 8 also becomes Take/Next while recording to a stack. A completed review is protected until explicitly discarded in Review Take mode; direct stack recording replaces the review with the latest completed take, retaining the previous one in Undo. Primary pad 4 follows Delete Take/Discard; Shift + primary pad 7 crops to selection. Review audition uses bus 1 of a matching layout and is excluded from recording.

Captures preserve channel count/order, including 16-channel 3OA. Changing the global output layout stops an internal-output take; Track Input is independent of that output layout. Crop/Discard and committed stack takes participate in Undo/Redo. Previously assigned cells retain their original audio. Choose Pad Stack with Neon Output to use the same successive-layer Take workflow for internal resampling.

NEON Pages, Encoders and LEDs

On macOS, one Sample Neon instance should have NEON OWNER enabled for direct LED feedback. Do not add a MIDI hardware send back to NEON: feedback addresses overlap controller messages and duplicate routes can create false presses or loops. The plugin still needs an input route, either host MIDI or the Utility's direct-USB mode. Hardware colours distinguish editing pages; the software interface remains grayscale.

Choose PLAY, CHOP, STACK or RESAMPLE once; that page stays selected as you move through banks A–D on the same controller. Bank buttons do not select a different page. In CHOP, banks address slices; in STACK, they address layers. Two USB controllers can keep different banks and pages. A Utility unit in Keyboard mode uses A–D for key ranges instead of changing the sample bank.

For one controller without Tracker, route its native MIDI directly to Sample Neon on all controller channels and enable track monitoring; Utility is optional. Use the Utility chain below when you need bank-aware notes for Tracker or independent identities for two USB controllers.

Shift accesses shortcuts and fine adjustments; it is not the secondary-page switch. Use SECOND / PRIMARY in the miniature NEON to select secondary tools; RESAMPLE labels this PLAY PADS / REC TOOLS. Sample, slice and layer banks are remembered separately. Shift + STACK pad selects Edit Layer without playing. Releasing a held pad still ends its original gesture after a page or bank change.

ENCODERS → PERFORM maps LOOP to cell gain and TRAX to global Mangle. EDIT follows the current Edit View without changing the primary performance pads or MIDI notes. Bank changes preserve this choice. The miniature sliders mirror these assignments rather than introducing duplicate parameters.

Shift gives fine continuous adjustments. Double-click any software slider to restore its declared default. Numeric readouts support precise entry where editable. The hardware's five small status icons retain the physical order One Shot / Toggle / Hold / Loop / Sync; Loop is fourth. Mode + pad cycles trigger behavior. For Sample, Repeat/Slip + pad toggles repeat and Sync + pad toggles tempo sync. Generated methods use their own clock/sustain controls. Unshifted Censor reverses new direct-sample gestures while held.

Primary cell LEDs show loaded audio in red, last played in yellow and currently sounding in white; empty pads are dark. STACK and secondary tools use distinct palettes. GUI pads separately show AUDIO, EMPTY, LOADING or OFFLINE, selection, and playback activity. A selection outline alone does not indicate loaded audio.

GUI buttons and mini-pads briefly flash light gray on a recognized press, then return to their normal state. This acknowledgment is separate from ongoing playback and selection indicators.

Buffer Fill Hold

Hold Shift + the top-right Mode/Censor button, or the GUI's FILL HOLD. It captures recent heard output and temporarily replaces all buses with a deconstructed repeat. Pads and sequencing continue underneath; release crossfades back to their current position. With no recorded history, output stays dry.

FILL SET provides Grab (lookback), Repeat and Breakup. Grab is used on the next press; Repeat/Breakup work live. While held, LOOP controls Repeat and TRAX controls Breakup. Increasing Breakup adds reordered/reversed fragments, ratchets and gaps. All channels share the same read/gate decisions. Resample captures the fill result. RELEASE FILL and KILL provide escape controls. Buffer contents and held state are transient, not saved audio.

Playing and Recording with Tracker

Use Utility Neon MIDI to turn the NEON's pads into bank-aware musical notes. Put the plug-ins in this order on the track: Utility Neon MIDI → Tracker → Sample Neon 32. Utility translates the hardware; Tracker records and sequences notes; Sample Neon produces sound and controls the LEDs.

1. In Utility, choose TRACKER + SAMPLE NEON, Base Note 36 and Output Channel 1. Select the appropriate controller input; see the one- or two-controller setup.
2. Set Tracker's recording lane to CH01. Use its recording mode for step entry or live recording; live Q/MT recording needs running transport.
3. In Neon, keep MAP SOURCE → FOLLOW UTILITY, receive CH1 (or Omni for several channels), and enable NEON OWNER on this instance only.
4. Keep the physical NEON on the primary SAMPLER page to record pad notes. CHOP/STACK auditions and editing buttons control Neon without adding notes to the pattern.

Do not add a hardware MIDI send back to NEON or a second raw-controller route to the instrument. Choose performance banks on the hardware or Utility; changing Neon's on-screen bank does not change Utility's bank. Tracker is optional if you only want to play live.

Sequencer notes address these cells even when another editing page is visible. Base Note shifts the default map. To play pitches on one sample instead, use a chromatic channel destination.

Custom Pad Notes

Open ROUTING → PAD NOTE MAP in Neon, or PAD NOTE MAP in Utility. Enter a unique MIDI note from 0 to 127 for each of the 32 cells. FROM A1 fills consecutive notes; PASTE LIST accepts 32 numbers in A1–A8, B1–B8, C1–C8, D1–D8 order. Apply commits the draft; Cancel leaves the current map alone.

In a Utility chain, edit the map once in Utility and leave Neon on FOLLOW UTILITY. Choose LOCAL only if Neon should use a separate map. Both controllers share the cell map. Copying audio between pads does not move their MIDI addresses, and changing a map does not rewrite notes already recorded in Tracker. See Pad Note Map for the illustrated editor.

Shift + Sampler on the hardware toggles velocity sensitivity. With it off, notes still play at velocity 127. Utility shows NOTE, VEL, AT (aftertouch) and VOL; VOL is velocity on a 0–1 scale. Enable Neon's ROUTING → VELOCITY → PAD VELOCITY if strike strength should change loudness.

Two USB Controllers

Connect each NEON by USB, remove the Smart Link cable, and choose USB TWO NEONS in Utility. Both can address different banks of sample pads, or one can be a sample controller while the other is a pitch keyboard. Each keeps its own bank and page; both play the same instrument.

Use Utility's View menu to inspect a unit, Swap USB to exchange assignments, or Relearn USB to identify them again. The direct USB connection is available on macOS. See Two Controllers for setup and the independent keyboard-range behavior.

Chromatic Pads, Voices and Keyboard Roles

Choose EDIT VIEW → ROUTING → NOTES / VOICES. Each MIDI channel can use PAD NOTE MAP, a pinned CHROMATIC A1–D8 cell, or OFF. PIN THIS PAD TO CHANNEL is the quick assignment. Use MIDI IN → OMNI for several channels together. Ordinary pad-map notes select cells at their existing tuning; chromatic notes address the pinned cell and transpose it relative to that cell's ROOT NOTE. Pad Tune is added, with total transposition bounded to ±60 semitones.

Choose POLY to play chords or overlap repeated hits, MONO to restart a single voice, or LEGATO to change pitch without restarting the gesture. Releasing the newest Legato note returns to the previous held note. PAD DEFAULT uses each method's usual pad behavior and Poly for chromatic input. VOICE LIMIT allows 1–16 note voices per pad, with up to 32 across the instrument. Use Hold when note releases should end the sound; One Shot and Toggle keep their own trigger behavior.

All nine playback methods support independent note voices. Grains changes grain pitch without changing scan speed. Sample, Lanes and Wavesets link pitch to reading speed; Motion also changes its source traversal. Stretch, Spectral and Slice Sequence keep their traversal or step timing. Each pad's notes share its Character FX, including the same echo or reverb tail.

For direct hardware input, choose DIRECT NEON → UNIT 1 / UNIT 2 and set PAD ROLE to a pinned Keyboard cell, or use PIN THIS PAD TO NEON. FIRST NOTE is A1; bank buttons select four ranges of eight consecutive keys without changing performance mode. Changing the edit selection does not retarget the keyboard. CHOP, STACK, RESAMPLE, secondary layers and modifier shortcuts keep their editing roles. Keyboard pad LEDs show loaded keys, the root and active pitches.

For Utility/Tracker, a useful two-controller setup is Unit 1 PAD CELLS / CH1 and Unit 2 KEYBOARD / CH2. In Neon, leave CH1 on Pad Note Map and pin CH2 to Chromatic A1. Set Tracker's recording lane to CH2 for the keyboard part. Unit 1 can then select samples while Unit 2 plays pitches on A1, regardless of which pad you are editing. See Play One Sample Like a Keyboard for the complete setup.

Changing the selected pad or keyboard range does not redirect notes already held. Channel destinations and voice settings are saved with your project or set; Utility saves its own unit roles and keyboard layouts.

Utility Keyboard Scales and Manual Notes

Open KEYBOARD in Utility and choose a Layout for each unit. CHROMATIC advances by semitones, SCALE advances by scale degrees, and MANUAL lets you assign every pad yourself. Root Note is the pitch on A1 in Scale mode. For example, Major from MIDI 48 gives 48, 50, 52, 53, 55, 57, 59, 60 on bank A, then 62 on B1.

MANUAL → EDIT MANUAL NOTES gives every banked pad its own MIDI note (0–127), with -1 meaning OFF. Duplicate pitches are permitted; the last held finger releases their shared MIDI gate. Copy/Paste List transfers 32 bank-major numbers; From Scale fills the draft from the current root and scale, while From A1 fills a chromatic run. Apply selects Manual; Cancel changes nothing. Manual maps persist when switching layouts and ignore First Note/Scale. These pitch maps are separate from the unique Pad Note Map used to address sample cells.

On a Keyboard unit's primary SAMPLE page, A–D changes only its eight-key range and bank lights. Sample Neon's selected sample, bank and editing page stay where they are. The other controller can handle sample navigation. Explicitly pressing CHOP, STACK, RESAMPLE or a secondary page still enters editing; SAMPLE returns to the keyboard. The Utility guide shows each keyboard and mapping panel.

Storage, Sets and Reset

The header's storage choice applies to every layer and the retained resample review. Save the REAPER project before relying on Project collection; until then imported sources remain linked. Completed recordings and the review are collected in the background as lossless floating-point WAV files. Until collection succeeds, they stay embedded for safety. Later saves and undo snapshots reuse file references, including earlier audio versions needed by Undo. Embed keeps the audio inside the state, with a 256 MiB limit. If a source is missing, use Load to locate or replace it.

LOAD SET / SAVE SET recall complete sounds, stacks and settings. Load Set warns before replacing current work and starts a new undo history on success; it is not itself undoable. Saving keeps the current history. A set saved in Link/Project mode is not automatically a self-contained sample archive; use Embed when its size is suitable, or carry the referenced media. See the shared storage guide.

RESET ALL requires confirmation; stop recording first. It stops playback, clears all cells and the review take, and resets sound/editing settings, while retaining output layout, Base Note, MIDI receive channel and Neon ownership. Imported files are never deleted. Undo can restore it within this session's history limits; save a set for recovery after closing the project.

Keep a separate project or set copy before upgrading the plug-in. A set that uses newer features may not reopen correctly in an older version.

Troubleshooting