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A Two-Synths Ensemble And Sequencing

Let's try some multitimbrality. First we have to rearrange things a bit. Switch to the ensemble window. Press Ctrl->I (or select Edit->Instrument Settings from the menu bar). Set the ensemble MIDI channel to none. Now the ensemble no longer responds to the incoming MIDI (try it).

Right-click the PartBox module in the ensemble structure and select Outputs. Create two outputs: L and R. (You could as well have created only one output, since we do not exploit stereo features here, but that's just for some practice). Connect PartBox's L output to the L input of the WaveOut, connect R output to the R input.

Cut (Ctrl->X) the MySynth macro from the ensemble structure. Press Ctrl->P (or right-click the PartBox and select Parts...). The Parts dialog appears.

Make sure Part 1 is selected in the leftmost listbox. Right-click the first string in the list of instruments. Select Create. Enter 'Synth1' as the instrument name.

Click Show Selection button (or right-click the instrument again and select it from the menu). You are now taken to the instruments structure. Press Ctrl->V to paste your MySynth macro here. Connect Out of MySynth to L and R ins of Outs module.

Press Ctrl->P again, select part 2 and create an instrument 'Synth2' in this part. Paste MySynth macro to this instrument and connect it the same way you did with Synth1.

Now you have two parts: 1 and 2. Part 1 responds to MIDI channel 1 and part 2 responds to MIDI channel 2. And the ensemble structure (if there were any) does not respond to MIDI since we have set it's control channel to none. Switch to the parts' panels (either by right-clicking the part's structure background and choosing Show Panel or from part's dialog by selecting part and instrument and clicking Selection Panel) and make some different settings, so that you can tell between the sound of the two parts.

Make sure that for each of the parts 1 and 2 instrument 1 is set as current instrument. You can tell this by the '=>' sign next to the instrument in the parts dialog. The current instrument can be changed by double-clicking the required instrument. You can actually have as much as 128 instruments assigned to a part (do you need that many?) and choose between them by sending a MIDI Program change message.

Now if your keyboard can send MIDI messages on different channels you can try playing each of the instruments. If your keyboard supports MIDI channel layering you can play both instruments at once. Consult your keyboard manual for detail.

However usually multitimbrality is used in sequencing rather than in playing live. Under Windows, before you use your favourite sequencing software with the SynC Modular you need to make sure that you have either SynC Pipe (coming with the SynC Modular) or some other MIDI loopback driver (e.g. Hubi's loopback device which is widely found over the WWW) installed. Under BeOS it's OK.

Now select the MIDI input from Sound->MIDI Setup, that is under Windows, if you are going to use the SynC Pipe select SynC Modular MIDI In, if you are using other device select the corresponding MIDI input. For BeOS select External Connection as your MIDI input. Run your sequencing software. Set the sequencer's MIDI output to SynC Modular (for SynC Pipe under Windows) or to the required output for other device. Consult your sequencer's manual/help for detail.

Create a couple of melody lines in the sequencer, one playing on channel 1, the other on channel 2. Set your sequencer to Play mode. Make sure the SynC Modular is in Play mode ( is depressed). Hear both lines playing.

You can read more info on how to use multitimbrality on the multitimbrality tips page.