OVERVIEW

AUDIO IMPERIA

EPIC SOUNDS FOR EPIC COMPOSERS

AUDIO IMPERIA is a boutique sample library developer, crafting instruments

designed to instantly inspire. Continuously renewing its creativity and inventiveness,
Audio Imperia is supported by a team of producers that have years of experience
in the world of cinematic music and who understand how to breathe life into the
heart of a sample.

Thank you for purchasing CERBERUS. With an incredibly punchy sound, this beast
was designed to satisfy all of your epic drum needs.

Recorded on the same recording stage as our flagship orchestral library Jaeger,
CERBERUS delivers an easy way to build larger-than-life drum ensembles with a
brand new stacking script. You can transform the hard-hitting drummer trio we
used during the sessions (which gives the library its name) into an army of players,
ready to crush anything standing in their way.

To make the library even more flexible, we recorded an individual drum kit with
cymbals as well as a thundering Gran Cassa ensemble. CERBERUS features our
signature multi-samples engine, which has now been expanded with a new
percussion mapping script. This makes things as easy as possible so that you can
focus on what's most important: making music.

“Cerberus is impressively punchy, easily customizable, instantly playable and

immensely fun to work with. The sound is phenomenal and one can get the right
results in the blink of an eye. I think I just found my new go-to trailer drums
library!"

Michał Cielecki - Composer for Video Games such as Bulletstorm, Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2, Shadow
Warrior, Witcher 2 and Two Steps from Hell's "Orion" album.
 DOWNLOAD & INSTALATION:
CERBERUS uses the Continuata Connect download tool that offers a fast and
reliable product delivery.

Simply enter the download code that you received via email into the Connect
download tool, choose the location for the library, and begin the download.

NOTE: While Continuata Connect allows you to “Pause” an installation and then
continue the download at a later time, please do not close the application before
pressing the “Pause” button first.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
CERBERUS requires the full retail version of Kontakt 5.5.2.880 or higher. It will not work
past the “demo” period in the free Kontakt Player.

For both PC & MAC systems, we highly recommend a quad-core CPU, at least 4GB
of RAM and Solid State Drives for optimal playback of the samples.

DISK REQUIREMENTS:
13.3 GB.
 1. MULTI-SAMPLES ENGINE: MAIN PAGE
The main page of is divided into four panels: Mixer, Instruments/Articulations,
Controllers and Options.

Each panel can be individually shown/hidden by clicking the arrow buttons:

COLLAPSED:

EXPANDED:
 1.1 MIXER PANEL
In regular patches, Cerberus includes seven
microphone positions:
 Top Condenser (TC)
 Top Dynamic (TD)
 Bottom Condenser (BC)
 Mid/Side (MS)
1
 Decca (D)
 Wide (W)
 Far (F)
2
3

In processed patches, Cerberus also includes

three mixes, which can be mixed with each
other:
 Close Mix (C)
 Far Mix (F)
 Reverb Mix (R)

Controllers:
1. The volume faders, mute/solo buttons, and
pan knobs allow you to mix the sounds to your
liking.

2. The power button under each mic position

can be used to load or purge that mic position from memory.

3. The routing selectors (arrows) at the bottom of each fader can be used to route
each mic position to an individual Kontakt output.

Note: All mic-related controls, including the purge buttons can be automated via
CC, which allows for easy simultaneous control of multiple Cerberus patches.
 1.2 INSTRUMENTS / ARTICULATIONS PANEL

1 3
2 2

The Instruments / Articulations panel displays all the instruments and articulations
that are present in the patch.

1. Clicking an instrument name reveals the available articulations for that

instrument.

2. Entire instruments can be purged or loaded by using the power button next
to the instrument name. Articulations can also be individually purged or
loaded by using the power button next to the articulation name.

3. Each articulation can be mapped to a maximum of two keys, click the (+)
button to enable two-key mapping. To go back to one-key mapping, click
the (-) button.

You can map an articulation to a key by dragging up or down on the key

name, or by using MIDI learn. To trigger MIDI learn, click the small MIDI icon
and press any key to map the articulation to that key.

The key color can also be changed by dragging up or down on the color
icon.

4. The Select by MIDI function allows you to visualize the instruments that are
currently being triggered by MIDI.
 1.3 CONTROLLERS PANEL
1. Dynamics. The Dynamics slider
crossfades between the recorded
dynamic levels on long articulations like
rolls.

2. Dyn. Range. The Dynamic Range slider

applies volume scaling to all
articulations. With the Dynamic Range
slider set at 0, samples will play back as they were recorded. As you increase
the Dynamic Range, all but the loudest dynamic layer scale down, allowing
the library to play quieter on the lowest dynamics than originally recorded.
With Dynamic Range slider at maximum, modwheel (for long articulations)
or velocity (for short articulations) value of zero will play niente.

3. Expression: As usual in sampled instruments, Expression is an extra layer of

volume control, and can be useful for fading the instrument to mute without
using the Dynamics and Dynamic Range sliders together.

4. Sample Start: A global sample start for all articulations. All samples in
Cerberus are edited with the same amount of pre-padding before each
sample (-125 ms), which results in very natural attacks and in-time
performances. Notice that it can also make the instrument feel “sluggish”
when played live. We suggest leaving this slider at 0 when playing with your
MIDI keyboard, and after recording, setting a higher value to bring back the
natural attack of the samples. It’s very important that you set a negative MIDI
offset in your DAW, which should be exactly the same to the value that is
displayed when moving the Sample Start slider.
 1.4 OPTIONS PANEL
The options panel has 3 different options which can be accessed from the main
drop down menu (1). Enable or disable options using the power button on the left
side of the menu (2). An asterisk will appear next to the name of any enabled
options.

1
Velocity Curve: This option allows you to
change how the library reacts to velocity.
2 We’ve provided three curves: linear, shelf and
fixed, which can be further customized by
clicking and dragging up or down on the
velocity curve display.

Stack: This options allows to increase the

ensemble sizes by stacking samples. Stacking
is applied globally, but the number of layer is
applied per-instrument. The randomize (3) and
stereoize (4) controls add timing and stereo
variation, respectively. Stacking can be very
CPU intensive, so we’ve provided alternate
“Stacked” patches that use pre-baked samples,
as well as a Low CPU mode.
3 4
Low CPU: Enabling this option will restrict the
voice count per-articulation by fading out old
voices on repeated playing. This keeps the
voice count lower, and is enabled by default.

Note: Low CPU does not have any parameters,

it can be only turned on or off.
 2. SOUND DESIGN ENGINE: MAIN PAGE
There are 3 different variations of the Sound Design Engine, these vary on how
the pitch of the samples is controlled.

1. By Pitch Knob: This is the first variation, which is intended to be used with
atonal samples (where root key is not defined). Samples are mapped to
individual keys (1) (for layering sounds), and pitch is controlled by the Pitch
Knob (2).

1
2. By Keyswitches: This is the second variation, which is intended to be used
with tonal samples (where root key is defined). Samples are mapped to
individual keys (1) (for layering sounds) and pitch is controlled by
Keyswitches (2).

Note: On these patches, Pitch Knob and Semitone Lock Button are not
present.

2 1
 3. By Tonal Mapping: This is the third variation, which is intended to be used
with tonal samples (where root key is defined). Samples are mapped to key
ranges (1) (for playing chords) and pitch is controlled by the Pitch Knob (2).

Note: On these patches, you can select the sounds either by using the drop
down menu (3), or by using the left and right arrows (4)

4 3 4

1
 CONTROLLERS

1 3

2 4

10 5
6
7

7 8 9

Main Controllers: Filters + EQ:

1. Volume & Pan 7. Low Pass Filter
2. Pitch & Semitone Lock 8. 3-Band EQ
3. Attack & Release 9. High Pass Filter
4. Stereo Spread
5. Sample Start
6. Reverse

10. Global button:

The Global button allows you to apply the previously described parameters either
to all sounds globally (On) or to each sound individually (Off), it’s behavior will vary
depending on how you select the sounds, either by a key (Pitch Knob and
Keyswitches engine), or by the drop down menu and left/right arrows (Tonal
Mapping engine)

Note: Both Global Key On, and Global Key Off states retain their own settings, so
in that way you can change them without losing your work.
 3. BIG KNOB
The Big Knob system is common to all Audio Imperia libraries, and expands the
capabilities of a library by allowing the user to link effects and their parameters to
a single knob. Big Knob can also serve as an additional Insert FX page if no linking
is done.

To access the big knob configuration page, click on the cog icon located in the
main page ( )

HOW TO USE IT:

First select an effect (1), and enable it using the toggle (2). The parameters of an
effect can be set manually (3), or can be linked to the Big Knob. To manually set
an effect parameter, simply change its value using the appropriate knob. To link a
parameter to the Big Knob. select the desired parameter (4) and enable it using the
toggle (5). The From and To values (6) control how the position of the Big Knob
maps to the value of the parameter.
 4. FX PAGE
4.1 STEP MODULATOR
The Step Modulator is a complex sequencing system that allows you to draw curves
in modulation tables for controlling up to 10 independent effects: 4 Volume effects,
4 Pan effects, 1 Low Pass Filter effect and 1 High Pass Filter effect. Volume and Pan
are designed in a way, so that you can activate more than one step modulator at
a time without any conflicting.

An effect can be enabled by using either the momentary (non-latching)

keyswitches, or by clicking the LED above the effect name (1). The settings for each
effect are displayed when clicking an effect’s name (2). The keyswitches can be
moved by using the remap control (3).

The frequency setting (4) controls the frequency at which the Step Mod moves to
the next step, and can use either a fixed ms value, or a DAW-synced tempo value.
Click the lock next to the Frequency knob to toggle between the two. The Intensity
knob (5) controls the intensity of the modulated effect. The number of steps in the
table can be set using the Steps control (6). The Retrigger toggle (7) forces the
sequencer to always play from the start of the table when an effect is enabled. The
save and open buttons (8) can be used to save and open presets.
 4.2 INSERTS / SENDS
Inserts / Sends are set of effects that can be applied to the output audio signal.

An effect can be enabled by using either the momentary (non-latching)

keyswitches, or by clicking the LED above the effect name (1). The settings for each
effect are displayed when clicking an effect’s name (2). The keyswitches can be
moved by using the remap control (3). The save and open buttons (4) can be used
to save and open presets.
 THANKS

A huge round of thanks goes to:

Jan & Tomás, the producer team.

Martin, for the post-processing work.
Bryan, for all of the extra sound design.
Natali and Yaroslava, for the killer interface work.
Walid, for his wonderful cover artwork.
Simon, for helping with the editing and manual.

The alpha/beta team:

Cedric Baravaglio, Jean-Gabriel Raynaud, Paul Ortiz, Joshua Crispin, Fran Soto,
Florian Wunsch, Elliot Middleton, Ciaran Birch, Michael Lee aka Pixelee, Walid
Feghali, and Michal Cielecki.
 Audio Imperia LLC
www.audioimperia.com