Temecula DSP · Sampler instrument
NIBBI
Record a sound, play it across the keys, and build a tape loop. Downloads and the complete guide to using NIBBI in your DAW.
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NIBBI / Desktop sampler
Nibbi: the illustrated guide.
From your first sound to a tape full of ideas. Explore the controls, follow the drawings, and make it your own.
NIBBI combines a seven-voice sampler, sound-shaping controls, stereo effects, and a tape-style looper. You can play a single recording at different pitches or build a bank of one-shot sounds.
Open NIBBI in your DAW
- Install the plugin for your platform, then let your DAW scan its plugins.
- Create an instrument or software-instrument track and load NIBBI by Temecula DSP. In Logic, use the track’s Instrument slot.
- Enable the track’s MIDI input and monitoring as required by your DAW. Click NIBBI’s on-screen keys or play a connected MIDI keyboard.
- Click the Legends tag icon in the toolbar to show the control names used throughout this guide.
Factory samples are included. You can start playing immediately without connecting an audio input or locating a separate sample library. Use your usual DAW sample rate; NIBBI handles conversion to and from its internal 48 kHz audio.
Your first sound and loop
- Drag a short audio file onto the panel. Wait for Ready in the status line, then play the keys.
- Turn SAMPLE SPEED, SAMPLE START, and SAMPLE END to find a useful sound. Turn SPACE to add delay and reverb.
- Click the mauve RECORD / DUB button and play a phrase. Click it again at the end of the phrase to set the loop length and begin overdubbing.
- Click Record once more to hear the loop without adding material. The green Play button pauses or resumes playback.
- Save your DAW session to keep your samples, loop, and instrument settings.
The figures show the current NIBBI plugin editor. Numbered markers identify controls; each close-up has its own key. Click Enlarge to inspect the original image.
Turning, clicking, and Shift
The knobs are endless encoders. Drag vertically or use your scroll wheel to turn one. Click the knob or its light to change its control page. Its label changes to show the active function; hovering or adjusting it shows a value readout.
Hold Shift on your computer keyboard while turning or clicking a control for its alternate function. The switch beside the sample button offers another way: up is SAMPLE, down is SHIFT. With the switch down, hold the sample button to access Shift controls. Keyboard Shift works in either switch position.
The small light above the sample button selects hold or latch recording. The two small lights above the tape wheel show transport information; they are indicators, not extra knobs.
The Shift menu
Hold Shift and click the raised keys for these functions. Count raised keys from left to right; their positions are separate from the numbered lower keys. Hover a raised key to see its function.
Back to contents ↑Record an external sound
- Route the desired audio into NIBBI’s input in your DAW. For a microphone, connect it through your audio interface and enable the required host input routing.
- Hold Shift and select the Microphone or Aux input raised key for the input path you are using.
- Click the rightmost knob to reach INPUT, then adjust the recording gain.
- Release keyboard Shift, then put the small switch beside the sample button in its upper SAMPLE position.
- Hold the sample button while the sound plays. Release it to finish. The recording is selected for chromatic playback.
For hands-free recording, click the light above the sample button to change H (hold) to L (latch). Click the sample button once to start recording and again to stop. Click the light again to return to hold mode.
In the desktop app, choose your microphone and outputs in Options → Audio/MIDI Settings, allow microphone access if requested, and select the Microphone source on the panel. In a plugin, your DAW supplies the audio devices and available input buses.
Import an audio file
Drop a file onto the panel and wait for the Ready message. NIBBI converts the file for playback, selects the shared temporary sample, and resets its pitch, trim, and envelope settings. The factory slots remain available. Drag-and-drop imports must fit the approximately 165-second live buffer. The sample bank has a 256 MB decoded-audio budget.
Resample the instrument
Hold Shift and click the fifth raised key, Resample. With the switch in SAMPLE, record with the sample button while playing the keyboard or tape. This captures NIBBI’s own sound, including its processing, for another round of playing and shaping.
The temporary sample: lower key 15
New recordings and imports replace the shared live buffer, accessed with lower key 15. It is one temporary sample shared between modes and banks. Save it to a preset slot before recording another sound if you want both. Live sampling and tape recording each have approximately 165 seconds of capacity.
The periwinkle sample button records a sample. The mauve Record button records the tape. Starting a sample recording ends active tape recording or overdubbing; an existing loop can keep playing for resampling.
Record audio from your DAW
Before sampling, hold Shift and click the fourth raised key, Aux input, to select Nibbi’s line-input source. Release Shift and put the small switch in SAMPLE. Use the periwinkle sample button on the left to capture audio.
Logic Pro — record a track or live input
- Create a software-instrument track and load Nibbi from AU Instruments → Temecula DSP in its Instrument slot.
- Open Nibbi’s window. In Logic’s header above the Nibbi interface, open Side Chain. Choose the audio or software-instrument track you want to sample. For a microphone, guitar, or hardware synth, choose its audio-interface input instead.
- Play the source track or perform into the selected input. For a software instrument, play its MIDI region or make sure your controller is playing that source instrument.
- Hold Nibbi’s sample button while the sound plays; release to finish. Play Nibbi’s keys to hear the captured sample. Logic’s main Record button is not needed to capture a sample inside Nibbi.
Source not listed? Add a send from the source track to an unused bus, raise the send to 0 dB, and select that bus in Nibbi’s Side Chain menu. If the header is hidden, expand it using the control at the top-right of Logic’s plug-in window.
Ableton Live — route audio into Nibbi
- Load Nibbi VST3 onto a MIDI track. Show the mixer’s In/Out routing controls.
- On the track containing your audio clip or source instrument, set Audio To to the track hosting Nibbi. In the lower destination chooser, select the Nibbi plug-in’s audio input. If input names are shown, choose Recording input. Choose the plug-in input rather than Track In.
- For a live microphone or hardware instrument, use an audio track with Audio From → Ext. In, select your interface channel, and set Monitor → In. Route this track to Nibbi as above. For an existing audio clip, use Monitor → Off so the clip supplies the audio.
- Start the source clip or play your instrument. Hold Nibbi’s sample button, then release it to finish. Play Nibbi’s keys or send it MIDI to hear the result. Live’s Arrangement Record button is not needed for this capture.
This changes the source track’s output destination. To keep its original output, use a separate audio track: select the source track under Audio From, set Monitor → In, and route that track’s Audio To to Nibbi.
Need both hands to play? Click the light above the sample button until it shows L for latch mode. Click the sample button once to start and again to stop. The mauve Record button on the right controls the tape looper, not sample capture.
MELO: chromatic playback
Hold Shift and click the first raised key to choose MELO mode. Hold Shift and click a numbered lower key to select a stored sample, then release Shift and play. Both raised and lower keys play that sample at different pitches, with up to seven voices. MIDI note 60 plays an imported sample at its original pitch when sample speed is 1×.
HITKIT: one-shot playback
Hold Shift and click the second raised key to choose HITKIT mode. Release Shift and play the lower keys: each triggers its own sample. This is useful for drum kits, short phrases, and individual sound effects. The 15 lower keys correspond to MIDI notes 48–72 using the white notes only.
Five banks per mode
While holding Shift, press the currently selected mode key again to cycle through its five banks. The active mode key’s color identifies the bank: A is purple, B orange, C teal, D dark orange, and E yellow-green. The other mode key stays dark.
Each mode has 14 stored slots in each bank, plus the shared live buffer on key 15. Banks A–C include 42 MELO and 42 HITKIT factory recordings in total; D and E start empty. Before your first recording or import, the live buffer contains a synthesized startup tone.
Sample speed and level
The first small knob after the sample button starts on SAMPLE SPEED. Turn it to change pitch and playback speed together, including reverse playback. Hold Shift while turning for steps in fifths and octaves. Shift-click the knob to return to forward playback at the original speed.
Click the knob without Shift to switch to SAMPLE LEVEL. Turn it to change the sample’s volume; Shift-turn adjusts stereo pan. Shift-click on this page resets sample level and pan. These are sample controls; the far-right VOLUME knob sets your overall listening level.
Start and end points
The next two knobs set SAMPLE START and SAMPLE END. Use them to remove silence or isolate a small part of a recording. Hold Shift while turning either knob to move the whole playback window, keeping start and end together.
Attack and release
Click the start knob to reach ATTACK, the sample’s fade-in time. Click the end knob to reach RELEASE, its fade-out time. Short settings suit percussive sounds; longer settings soften the beginning or let the sound fade. Hold Shift while turning either envelope knob to adjust attack and release together.
Looping and sustain
Shift-click the start/attack knob to toggle sample looping: playback repeats when it reaches the sample end. Shift-click the end/release knob to toggle envelope sustain: the envelope can hold while a note is held instead of simply running through its shape. These switches are available on either page of their respective knob.
Sample looping repeats the selected sound inside a voice. The tape looper records your performance as a separate loop.
The wand knob has three pages. Click the knob or its light to cycle through SPACE, SATURATION, and FILTER. Each page has a second parameter accessed by holding Shift.
Space: stereo delay and reverb
Turn SPACE up to increase the combined delay and reverb effect. Hold Shift and turn to adjust delay time, from tighter repeats to more widely spaced echoes. Return the amount to its dry end to remove the effect.
Saturation: drive and tape movement
Turn SATURATION up for increasing drive, from mild coloration to heavy distortion. Shift-turn adds tape warble: the pitch movement associated with wow and flutter. The drive amount and warble amount are separate settings.
Filter: tone and resonance
Turn FILTER toward the low-pass side to remove high frequencies, or toward the high-pass side to remove low frequencies. The middle is neutral. Shift-turn raises resonance, emphasizing the cutoff frequency.
Reset effects
Shift-click the wand knob on any page to reset all its effects parameters, including time, warble, and resonance.
Choose where the effects sit
Hold Shift and press the sixth raised key for FX before looper. The tape records the effected sound, so changes can be different on each overdub. Use the seventh raised key for FX after looper to process the combined tape playback. Its lit key shows the current selection.
Back to contents ↑Record, overdub, and play
- With empty tape, press the mauve RECORD / DUB to begin the first recording.
- Press Record again to set the loop length. The tape repeats and overdubbing begins: new sound is added to the existing loop.
- Press Record again to leave overdub and play the loop. Further presses switch between playback and overdub.
- Use the green PLAY / PAUSE to stop and resume. Pressing Play during the first recording closes the loop directly into playback, without overdubbing.
Start recording on the first note
On empty tape, click the target-shaped Arm tape icon, or hold Shift and press the mauve Record button. The display reads ARMED. Play an on-screen or MIDI note to start recording. Incoming audio alone does not trigger it. Click the Arm tape icon again, or repeat Shift + Record, to cancel.
You can also hold Play, press and release Record, then release Play to arm empty tape. Use the Arm tape toolbar icon when operating with a mouse. Erase an existing loop before arming a new one.
Speed, direction, and scrub
Turn the large blue wheel while the tape is playing to change speed and direction. Pitch changes with speed. Hold Shift while turning for steps in fifths and octaves. Click the wheel to return to the original forward speed.
When paused, turning the wheel scrubs the tape position by hand. Hold the green Play button while paused to rewind. The transport lights indicate the loop’s movement and playback position.
Let older layers fade
On an existing loop, hold Shift while clicking and releasing Play to lower overdub feedback by 20 percentage points. Shift + Record raises it by the same amount, up to full retention. Each button applies 10 points when pressed and another 10 when released. Old layers fade as new material is overdubbed. On empty tape, Shift + Record is the arm command instead.
Erase or turn the loop into a sample
Click the Erase loop eraser icon to clear the tape. The two-button gesture—hold Play and Record together for about two seconds—also clears it. Save a project first if you want to keep that loop.
To sample the playing loop, select Resample in the Shift menu, set the sample button’s switch to SAMPLE, and record with the sample button. You can then play the resulting sound across the keyboard or save it into a preset slot.
Listening level, input level, and compression
The far-right knob starts on VOLUME, which sets the overall listening level. Click it to reach INPUT, the gain for the selected recording source. Hold Shift and turn on either page to adjust final compression.
Changing VOLUME does not replace setting the recording gain. Use INPUT to set the signal going into your sample, then VOLUME and your DAW’s track fader to set playback loudness.
Three routing positions
Shift-click the volume/input knob to cycle through the following routes. Input-source selection and effects position remain separate controls.
- Dry monitor: with the switch up in SAMPLE, the selected input feeds sampling and the Headphones monitor path. The main output carries the instrument without the dry input monitor.
- Wet monitor: the input goes through the processing and tape path and is available at both outputs. Use this to process live incoming audio.
- External send/return: the main output acts as an effects send, the Aux input acts as its return, and the Headphones output becomes the listening output.
The plugin exposes optional Aux return and Headphones buses when supported by the host. Enable and route them in your DAW for the separate monitor or external-effects paths. A host exposing only the main stereo output cannot provide the separate Headphones path. In AAX, Aux return uses a mono sidechain; NIBBI sends that input to both channels internally.
For a straightforward first recording, use a routed input or import a file. For live processing, choose wet monitoring. Keep speaker playback out of an open microphone’s recording path to avoid feedback.
Preset slots keep individual sounds and their settings inside your NIBBI session. Saving a sound into a slot organizes the current instrument. Save your DAW project as well to keep the entire session for next time.
Save the temporary sample to a slot
- Record or import the sound and adjust it as desired.
- Hold keyboard Shift and press the tenth raised key, Save buffer.
- Select the destination mode and bank if needed, then click a lower key numbered 1–14.
- Still holding keyboard Shift, press the sample button to confirm. The status line guides the operation.
- Save the DAW session to keep this change for another session.
Copy a sound or loop
Hold Shift and choose the ninth raised key, Copy preset. Click the source slot, choose a destination mode/bank and slot, then press the sample button to confirm. Key 15 represents the live buffer. The transport buttons represent the tape in the copy menu: select either as a source to copy an existing loop to a slot, or as a destination to copy a sample onto tape.
Erase a stored sound
Hold Shift and choose the eighth raised key, Erase preset. Select the stored sound on a lower key numbered 1–14, then press the sample button to confirm. Use ERASE LOOP for tape; the preset erase command does not erase the shared buffer.
To cancel a pending save, copy, or erase before confirmation, press its raised menu key again. Watch the status line and destination lights before confirming: saving or copying into an occupied slot replaces that sound.
Save in your DAW
Save your DAW project normally. NIBBI stores its controls, selection, imported and recorded samples, and tape loop with the plugin state. Factory sounds reference the included library; user recordings are embedded, so you do not have to gather loose sample files for that session.
Recall restores the saved instrument content, but does not resume held notes or the previous playback position. Stop and restart your performance as needed.
Keep your work between sessions
NIBBI uses your DAW’s project and plugin-state saving. Use your host’s Save command to keep recordings, imported sounds, the sample bank, and the tape together. The toolbar is for appearance and tape utilities; project saving belongs to your host.
The development desktop app starts fresh when reopened. It retains audio-device and skin preferences, but does not automatically restore the previous performance. Use the plugin in a saved DAW project for work you want to continue later.
Factory reset
Click the circular-arrow icon in the toolbar to open Reset to factory?. Choose Reset to restore the factory library and defaults and clear recordings, tape, held notes, and effect tails. Choose Cancel to keep the instrument as it is. Save your DAW project before resetting. Your selected skin is retained.
Updating the plugin
Save your sessions and close your DAW before running a newer NIBBI installer. Reopen the DAW and rescan plugins if needed. The factory library is bundled with the plugin; there is no memory card to format or firmware file to copy.
Back to contents ↑Route MIDI from your controller or a MIDI clip into NIBBI’s instrument track. The default input and output channel is 1. The current note-input range is MIDI 24–72; use note numbers when your DAW’s octave names differ. The on-screen keyboard spans 48–72.
The host’s parameter list exposes the input/output MIDI channels and the instrument parameters for automation. The on-screen keyboard and controls can also send MIDI when the host supports plugin MIDI output.
Encoder CCs use absolute values from 0–127, address the current control page, and are ignored while the Shift menu is active. For the transport buttons, send 127 for press and 0 for release. Tape recording is controlled by NIBBI’s own transport: set loop boundaries with its buttons rather than assuming the DAW’s Record button starts NIBBI’s tape.
Back to contents ↑Click a small knob or its light to change pages. “Turn” means drag or scroll. Hold keyboard Shift for the alternate actions.
- Record a sample: switch up, hold the sample button; release to finish. In latch mode, click the sample button to start/stop.
- Choose a sample: Shift + lower key in MELO mode. Key 15 is the shared buffer.
- Change banks: Shift + the already-selected first or second raised key.
- Record tape: press Record to start, again to set the loop length and overdub, and once more to play without adding material.
- Arm empty tape: Arm tape icon or Shift + Record; play a note to begin.
- Fade overdubs: Shift + Play lowers feedback; Shift + Record raises it on an existing loop.
- Rewind: hold Play while paused. Erase tape: ERASE LOOP.
- Save everything: save your DAW session.
I cannot hear a sample
Release Shift before playing. Check the instrument track’s MIDI channel, monitoring, and output routing, and bring VOLUME above zero. Select a populated slot in bank A, B, or C. For an imported file, wait for Ready. Reset sample speed with Shift-click on SAMPLE SPEED if it has been slowed down or reversed.
I cannot hear or record my microphone
Confirm that audio reaches NIBBI’s input and the correct source is selected in the Shift menu. Check INPUT gain. A plugin uses the DAW’s device permissions and routing; the desktop app has its own Audio/MIDI Settings. Dry input monitoring uses the Headphones path, so use an appropriately routed monitor bus or wet monitoring if you need to hear it on the main output.
The sample button does not record
Release keyboard Shift, cancel any pending preset operation, and put the small switch up in SAMPLE. Check H/L above the button: H records while held; L needs a second click to stop.
The armed tape does not start with incoming audio
Arming waits for a played note. Play the on-screen or MIDI keyboard, or cancel arming and press Record to start a recording manually.
My last recording disappeared
Each new sample replaces the shared buffer on key 15. Save sounds into slots before recording another, then save your DAW session. The desktop app does not automatically reopen the previous instrument state.
A Shift command or keyboard shortcut is not reaching NIBBI
Click inside the editor so your DAW can pass keyboard input to it. You can also put the sample button’s switch down and hold the sample button for Shift functions. Use your DAW’s own Save command for project saving.
For help with NIBBI, contact Temecula DSP. Include your operating system, DAW and version, plugin format, and the steps that led to the problem.