Download The Dark Side Virtual Instrument Manual

THE DARK SIDE VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT
Keyswitch Instruments
C2
MELODY
C1
Fuzz Bass, Short
Fuzz Bass, Sustain
Destroyer Bass
C0
KEYSWITCHES
Sometimes one instrument needs to play
the sounds of different distortions within
a single phrase. For example, some of the
notes might sound best with the Destroyer
Bass and others with the Fuzz Bass. While
it’s possible to put all the Destroyer Bass
notes in one MIDI track, all the Fuzz Bass
notes in another track, and then assign
those separate instruments to the separate
tracks, there are many reasons that’s awkward. Keyswitch instruments can often—
though not always—simplify the work.
If you look at The Dark Side Bass Keyswitch, you’ll see these notes among the switches:
• C#0 assigned to Destroyer Bass
• D#0 assigned to Fuzz Bass, Sustain
• E0 assigned to Fuzz Bass, Short
Then you can set up your tracks to look like the diagram above. This drawing above is of
a Piano Roll, a view available in most sequencers.
The short notes at the bottom are the keyswitches. They sit below the range of the instrument, so they do not make any sound. Notice that these notes are slightly before the note
they are intended to affect. The first note in the melody (an A) is preceded by the note
that specifies Fuzz Bass, Sustain; that’s the very short D#0 near the beginning. Then,
before the B-flat plays in the melody, there’s a C#0 near the bottom that means: Play the
next note(s) with Destroyer Bass. That’s followed in the melody by two notes to be played
with Fuzz Bass, Short, as indicated by the short E0 keyswitch note.
The second C#0 near the bottom causes not only the G above it to play with the Destroyer
Bass, but also the first 4 D’s in a row. A keyswitch remains in effect until another keyswitch is set; in this case, the final D#0 stops the Destroyer Bass, and causes the last D
and G to play with Fuzz Bass, Sustain.
The exact position in time and the duration of the keyswitches are not important. And
their note-off events are ignored. Just make sure the start of the keyswitch is before
the first note it is supposed to affect, but after the start of the last note of the previous
articulation (if any).
Try to work with these collections when you can, but sometimes you have to break a musical line across two separate MIDI channels, and assign a different instrument to each
track.
Chapter 5: Usng PLAY's Features
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