Utility Neon MIDI

s3g Utility Neon MIDI connects one or two Reloop NEON controllers to Sample Neon 32, Tracker, or another MIDI instrument. Use the pads to address samples across four banks, or turn a controller into a keyboard with chromatic notes, scales or your own pitch layout. Utility produces MIDI, not sound; no replacement hardware firmware is needed.

In REAPER, place the plug-ins in the normal track FX chain in this order:

Utility Neon MIDI → Tracker → Sample Neon 32

Leave out Tracker if you only want to play live. Keep the track processing and monitored so notes can reach the instrument.

Workflow

Insert Utility before Tracker and Sample Neon on the track. Connect the NEON by USB. Choose HOST MIDI in Utility for a track MIDI input, or a direct USB option on macOS. For Host MIDI, select the physical NEON as the track input on all native channels.
Check the instrument track's audio output and monitoring so you can hear Sample Neon. Utility itself sends MIDI and has no audio output.
Choose TRACKER + SAMPLE NEON as the control route. Start with Base Note 36 and Output Channel CH 01.
Open KEYBOARD and leave Pad Role on PAD CELLS / CUSTOM MAP for ordinary sample-pad playing.
In Sample Neon, receive CH1 or Omni, leave MAP SOURCE on FOLLOW UTILITY, and enable NEON OWNER on that instrument instance.
Select the hardware's primary SAMPLER page. Press a loaded pad: Utility should show its note and velocity, and Sample Neon should play it.

Use one controller-input route and one LED owner. Do not add a MIDI hardware send back to NEON or a parallel raw-controller send to Sample Neon. Duplicate routes can cause repeated notes, unexpected page changes or feedback loops.

Input	When to use it
Host MIDI	One NEON arriving through the track's MIDI input. Preserve its original channels before Utility.
USB One Neon	One NEON connected directly to Utility on macOS. Useful when the track's audio input is needed for recording samples.
USB Two Neons	Two independent USB controllers on macOS. Do not connect them with the Smart Link cable as well.
Host Dual Ports	Advanced setups where the host supplies each NEON on a separate plug-in MIDI input port. Merging both into one port loses their identity.

Direct USB modes ignore duplicate raw MIDI arriving from the host. VIEW changes which unit you inspect; it does not disable the other unit.

Read the Monitor

The eight boxes show the notes assigned to the current bank. A held pad lights its box. BASE NOTE sets the start of the default sample-cell map; it does not transpose a custom map or a Keyboard layout. OUT CH sets the selected unit's MIDI output channel. Unit 2 can use its own channel or Follow Unit 1.

Readout	Meaning
NOTE	The most recently sent MIDI note number.
VEL	The strike velocity, from 1 to 127.
AT	Incoming aftertouch on that held pad, from 0 to 127. It returns to zero on release.
VOL	The same velocity on Tracker's 0–1 volume scale: velocity 127 is 1.000.

On the physical NEON, Shift + Sampler toggles velocity sensitivity. With velocity off, notes still play, at a fixed velocity of 127. The reminder in Utility does not indicate which hardware setting is currently active.

RELEASE HELD sends releases for notes held through Utility. For a sound that continues because it uses One Shot or Toggle, use Sample Neon's STOP PAD or KILL.

Choose What the Pads Do

Pad role	What a note selects	What A–D selects on SAMPLE
Pad Cells / Custom Map	A sample cell in the instrument.	Eight cells from the 32-cell map.
Keyboard	A pitch played on the sample assigned to its output channel.	Eight pitches, without changing Sample Neon's bank, selected pad or editing page.

Only unmodified pads on the primary SAMPLE page send musical notes. CHOP, STACK, RESAMPLE, secondary pages and modifier shortcuts keep their editing functions. Choosing EDIT encoder controls in Sample Neon does not stop the primary SAMPLE pads from sending notes.

Keyboard, Scales and Pitches

Open KEYBOARD in the title row, select Unit 1 or Unit 2, and choose PAD ROLE → KEYBOARD. The settings and 32-note overview belong to that unit.

Utility Keyboard panel with Unit 2 in Scale layout, root MIDI note 48, Pentatonic Minor, output channel 2, and pitches for all four banks — Keyboard settings for Unit 2. Pentatonic Minor begins at MIDI 48 and continues through all four banks; the overview shows every resulting pitch.

Chromatic: every pad advances one semitone from First Note.
Scale: choose from the shared 101-scale s3g-dsp list. Root Note is the pitch on A1; each following pad advances one scale degree, continuing through B, C and D.
Manual: choose a note for each pad in Edit Manual Notes. First Note and Scale do not change this map.

For the scale shown above, A1–A8 play 48, 51, 53, 55, 58, 60, 63, 65; B1 continues at 67. Calculated notes above MIDI 127 are OFF rather than wrapping to a lower note.

Play One Sample Like a Keyboard

In Utility, choose Keyboard and set its Output Channel—for example, CH 02.
In Sample Neon, select the sample pad to play, then open EDIT VIEW → ROUTING → NOTES / VOICES.
Assign that channel to the desired CHROMATIC pad, or use PIN THIS PAD TO CHANNEL. Use MIDI In Omni if another channel also plays sample pads.
Set the pad's Root Note to its original pitch, and choose Poly for chords or Mono/Legato for a single line. Hold makes note releases end the sound.
If recording through Tracker, arm a lane on the same output channel. Tracker monitors recording input on the armed lane's channel.

Utility's First/Root Note chooses the keyboard's range; Sample Neon's Root Note says which incoming note plays the sample at its original pitch. They do not have to be the same.

Independent Keyboard Ranges

With a Keyboard unit on primary SAMPLE, press A–D to change its eight-key range. Its own bank lights follow the range, but Sample Neon's selected pad, sample bank and editing page stay unchanged. Held notes keep their original release pitch. A second unit in Pad Cells can navigate and edit the instrument independently.

In Manual layout, A–D selects the corresponding eight assignments rather than transposing them. Explicitly selecting CHOP, STACK, RESAMPLE or a secondary page still enters editing; select SAMPLE to return to the keyboard. This works with a single NEON too.

Give Every Pad Its Own Pitch

Choose EDIT MANUAL NOTES from Keyboard. Columns are banks A–D; rows are pads 1–8. Enter MIDI 0–127, or -1 for OFF. Repeated pitches are allowed; when two pads hold the same pitch, releasing the last one ends its shared note.

Utility's Manual Notes editor for Unit 2, with 32 pitch fields across banks A to D and Copy List, Paste List, From Scale, From A1, Cancel and Apply buttons — The Manual Notes editor opens a draft. The current scale keeps playing until you press Apply; Cancel leaves it unchanged.

FROM SCALE fills the draft from the chosen root and scale; FROM A1 fills consecutive semitones starting at A1.
COPY LIST / PASTE LIST transfers 32 values in A1–A8, B1–B8, C1–C8, D1–D8 order. Spaces, commas, tabs and line breaks are accepted.
APPLY saves the map and selects Manual layout. CANCEL leaves the current layout and notes unchanged.

Each controller has its own Manual map, which stays available when you switch to another layout.

Change the Notes That Address Samples

PAD NOTE MAP is different from Manual Keyboard notes: it chooses which MIDI note addresses each sample cell, not which pitch plays on a single sample. Both controllers share this 32-cell map when using Pad Cells.

Utility Pad Note Map editor showing default MIDI notes 36 through 67 across sample banks A to D, with draft and Apply controls — Pad Note Map uses unique notes to address the 32 sample cells. The default map runs from 36 on A1 to 67 on D8.

Open PAD NOTE MAP and enter 32 unique notes from 0 to 127, or Paste List in bank order.
Use FROM A1 for consecutive notes, or DEFAULT to return to the Base Note map. Custom notes are absolute and ignore Base Note.
Press APPLY between phrases: applying a changed cell map releases held notes. Cancel abandons the draft.
Keep Sample Neon on FOLLOW UTILITY so you only need to edit the map here. With another instrument or Notes Only, match its notes yourself, using Copy/Paste List where supported.

Changing the map does not rewrite a pattern already recorded in Tracker. Keep a copy of the old map if you need to return to those note assignments.

Use Two Controllers

Connect both NEONs directly by USB and remove the Smart Link cable. Select USB TWO NEONS. You can then use:

Sixteen sample pads: both units in Pad Cells, one on A and one on B. Either can change banks or editing pages independently.
Samples plus a keyboard: Unit 1 in Pad Cells on CH1; Unit 2 in Keyboard on CH2. In Neon, CH1 uses Pad Note Map and CH2 is pinned to a chromatic sample pad.

VIEW selects the unit shown in Utility. SWAP USB exchanges the physical assignments; RELEARN USB discovers them again. Save the project after arranging the controllers. Both units share Sample Neon's samples, effects, recorder and Fill Hold.

Record Notes, Keep Editing Controls

Use TRACKER + SAMPLE NEON to play and record notes while keeping Neon's page buttons, encoders and editing shortcuts available. These editing gestures are not recorded as notes or pattern automation. On the hardware, select primary SAMPLE before recording a pad performance.

Tracker's REC OFF passes playing through without writing. Choose Step for step entry or Q/MT for live recording with transport running. Match the recording lane's channel to the intended pad map or chromatic sample destination. Velocity records as a 0–1 volume value; aftertouch is not written into Tracker's pattern.

Choose NOTES ONLY for another MIDI instrument. This keeps notes and velocity but omits Sample Neon editing, note-map synchronization and LED feedback updates. Keyboard polyphonic aftertouch is ordinary MIDI and still passes; Pad Cells aftertouch is only sent through the Sample Neon control route. The AT display monitors incoming pressure in either route.

Utility translates NEON hardware; it is not a general MIDI-through for another keyboard. Route an ordinary keyboard or already-translated sequencer notes after Utility.

Save Your Setup

Save the host project to retain banks, channels, controller assignments, roles, layouts and maps. Utility stores no samples; the instrument handles its own audio and sound settings. Use Copy List to transfer a note map to another instance or project.

Troubleshooting

What you notice	What to check
No notes in the monitor	Correct Input and View unit, track processing/monitoring, and primary SAMPLE on the hardware. Editing pages do not emit performance notes.
Every hit records at maximum volume	Enable hardware velocity with Shift + Sampler. Check VEL for changing strike values; enable Pad Velocity in Sample Neon for dynamic loudness.
Different samples play instead of pitches	Choose Keyboard in Utility and pin its output channel to a Chromatic pad in Sample Neon. Match Tracker's recording lane channel too.
Changing keyboard range moves the software bank	Use the current Utility and Sample Neon together; confirm that unit's role is Keyboard and its hardware page is primary SAMPLE. Check for a duplicate raw-controller route.
Two controllers act as one	Use separate USB connections and USB Two Neons, not a merged Host MIDI input or the Smart Link cable.
LEDs disagree or buttons act on their own	Enable only one Sample Neon LED owner. Remove MIDI hardware returns and duplicate input routes. Notes Only does not synchronize Neon LEDs.
A note stays on	Try Release Held. A One Shot or Toggle sound may need Stop Pad or Kill in Sample Neon.