SOUND MODE
At the bottom left corner of every part box, there is an icon that will open up the Sound Mode Menu, giving you access to important controls for control and creative use of the sound!
Clicking this icon will open the drop down menu, revealing these controls…
Default: All the sounds in the part are mapped across the keyboard in their regular position. Simple, right?
One Note Stretch: This maps a single note/key across the entire keyboard range, altering the pitch and length of the sound based on how high or low you play. When you click this, a key selector box will appear to the right, allowing you to type a key or press a key on your MIDI keyboard to select which note is being stretched (note: if pressing a key is not changing the note, click the small keyboard icon and make sure it is highlighted orange).
One Note Same: This maps a single note/key across the entire keyboard range, without altering the pitch or length. Controls for selecting the note are the same for one note stretch and same.
Reverse: This will reverse all notes in the part, and set the offset to the end of the sample. This will change the corresponding controls in the Offset Rack Module; you can move the offset control more to the left to have the sound reverse from a different point in the sample (for instance, if the sound has a long tail that you would like to truncate).
Note: Selecting any of these first 4 options will change the sound mode menu icon to match the control. This can help you identify which parts are affected at a glance.
Key Range: Any notes outside this range will not play. For example, if the range is set from C4 to G9, playing any notes below middle C will not trigger any sound from this part. Each part has a discrete key range, so you can use this to create programs with different kinds of sounds that play on different key ranges. You can change the range by typing notes, or by clicking the keyboard icon on the right and then playing 2 notes on your MIDI keyboard. Clicking the small x on the right will reset the range to the full keyboard.
Velo Zoom: This newer feature will zoom in and expand a dynamic range. For example, if you set the range from 1 to 10, the very softest dynamics will be expanded to a full 127 velocities: playing at velocity 127 will have the same dynamic as 10 does by default, and the other 125 velocities move fluidly in that range. This can be great for adding finesse to soft or loud instruments! You can type velocities, or use the keyboard icon to play them in.
Pan: This controls the stereo left/right balance for the individual part. You can control the pan for the whole program from the controls in the top right corner or the Master Rack Module.
Note: Some music software will number notes differently. The 127 MIDI notes are the same, but some start at C-1 (with C4 being middle C) and some start at C-2 (with C3 as middle C). Soundpaint starts at C-1, and you can see the octave numbers on the on-screen keyboard.
Attack, Release, Foot Pedal, Sustain, & Legato: These switches enable or disable different components of the sound. If a switch is greyed out, the part does not contain that component. Some parts will only have one of these (parts from the attack and release lists typically only have attack and release, respectively), while some will have multiple (many sustain parts include sustain and release).
Legato parts often include sustain and legato - where legato is the transition between notes and sustain is the note itself. In this case, turning legato off will essentially make the part a regular sustain part.
Also, the foot pedal switch does not control whether the sustain pedal is enabled for the part. Rather, it is used in parts that contain pedal noise.
Dynamic Sustain: This switch allows you to control dynamics with a MIDI CC rather than velocity. It is on by default for most legatos, but you can turn it on for anything that has a sustaining sound (if you disable the sustain switch above, this switch will also be greyed out). By default, dynamic sustains maps to CC1 (modwheel), but you can change this with the pencil icon on the right, or from the Matrix.