Velocity Switching
You can use how hard you strike the key to switch between zones. This is usually most effective if you have programs that have samples of the same instrument at different velocity levels. The PC88 doesn’t have programs which are like this, so you would most likely use this technique when controlling an external module. But the following example demonstrates the technique with internal PC88 sounds.
1. Create a Setup with two zones, following the Record 13805 from this database. Assign Program #44 Marimba to zone 1 and #60 Metal marimba to zone 2.
2. Press the Velocity button. If you are not on zone 1, press the Zone 1 button. Press the >> button 3 times. The minimum velocity for this zone is 1. Press the >> button again. Change the maximum velocity to 80. Press the Solo button so you hear only zone 1. Play the keyboard with varying degrees of force. The marimba gets louder as you strike harder until you reach a velocity of 80, then it does not play at all.
3. Press the Zone 2 button. The maximum velocity is set to 127. Press the << button to go back to the Vel Min parameter. Set it to 81. Play the keyboard with varying degrees of force. Notice you hear no sound until you reach a velocity of 81, then zone 2 continues to get louder as you play up to 127. Press the Solo button again to hear both zones. Play the keyboard to hear the switching between the two zones. Another useful application is to add a zone with velocity. You could create a 2 zone layered Setup. For one zone, you leave it to play through all velocities. But for the second zone, you change the MinVel parameter so that zone only kicks in above a certain velocity. Now when you play the keyboard, you hear one zone or two, depending on how hard you strike the keys. This is great for adding a little extra kick to a sound, if you add some type of short percussive program for the second zone. You may also want to set the volume for that zone lower than the first zone (as described in tutorial #4) so that the effect of adding the second zone is more subtle.
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