Impulse Novation Getting Started Manual
1
GETTING STARTED GUIDE
CONTENTS
Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 1
Impulse Features ........................................................................................................................ 2
Box Contents ................................................................................................................................ 2
About this Guide ......................................................................................................................... 2
Minimum System Requirements ..................................................................................... 2
Connecting the Impulse ......................................................................................................... 3
Impulse Basic Operation ....................................................................................................... 3
Top Panel ........................................................................................................................... 3-4
Back Panel ............................................................................................................................ 5
Installation and Setup .............................................................................................................. 6
Using Impulse with your Music Software .................................................................... 7
Ableton Live Lite .......................................................................................................................... 8
Registration and Support ...................................................................................................... 8
Introduction
Welcome to the Novation Impulse Professional USB-MIDI Keyboard!
Impulse is a MIDI keyboard with a powerful DAW and plug-in control surface. It has a precision semiweighted keyboard with aftertouch as well as pitch and modulation wheels. Fader/s, encoders and buttons
provide full mixer and plug-in control over all major DAWs, including clip and scene launch in Ableton Live.
The 8 drum pads can be used to trigger notes, perform beat rolls, change the rhythm of arpeggios (in
realtime!) and launch clips. Transport control buttons allow you to navigate your music software. Impulse
comes with a brand new version of Novation’s Automap control software which gives you instant control of
your plug-in effects and instruments in most music software.
We suggest you take the time to work through the steps in this guide for a simple trouble-free setup.
2
Impulse Features
• 25, 49 or 61 note high quality piano-style semi-weighted keyboards
• 8 rotary encoders
• 9 faders (49/61 note versions)
• 8 large tri-colour backlit trigger pads
• Custom LCD with direct feedback from DAW
• Transport controls
• Arpeggiator with pad-based rhythm editor
• Brand new Automap software (v4.0) - far easier to install and use - seamless Plug-in and Mixer control
• Buttons with QWERTY support via Automap (49/61 note versions)
• Clip Launch mode in Ableton Live
• Roll mode on drum pads
• Brand new look and feel
Box Contents
Novation Impulse USB Cable Getting Started Guide Impulse Installer DVD-ROM
Bass Station Ableton Live Lite
Registration Card Registration Card
About this Guide
This guide is designed to help you through the basic steps in setting up your Impulse for the fi rst time and
getting started with basic music software control.
Minimum System Requirements
Impulse and Automap are designed to work with Mac OS X and Windows. At the time of writing the
supported operating systems are:
MAC - OS X 10.7 Lion and 10.6 Snow Leopard (32 and 64 bit)
WINDOWS - Windows 7 (64 & 32 bit), Windows Vista (32 bit only), or Windows XP SP3 (32bit only)
USB class compliant (no driver necessary for basic use). Automap installation includes a driver for
advanced functionality
3
Connecting the Impulse
Plug the square end of the supplied USB cable into the port on the back of your
Impulse. Plug the fl at end of the USB cable into a free port on your computer.
We recommend you plug the Impulse into the computer directly rather than via
a USB hub.
MAC - On Mac OS X the keyboard will simply connect.
WINDOWS - On Windows you may be prompted that new hardware
has been found.
On XP, Windows will display the ‘Found New Hardware’ Wizard. For each
prompt answer ‘NO’ to connecting to Windows Update and ‘YES’ to install
software automatically. This may occur more than once.
Ignore any Windows hardware failure messages as the Automap installer will correct this.
Impulse Basic Operation
Top Panel
Faders
Pitch and
Mod Wheels
Precision key-bed;
semi-weighted with aftertouch
Full transport
controls
Arpeggiator and
Beat Roll
Encoders
Drum Pads
LCD
Screen
XP WIN7
Loading...