Playing and Performance

This page covers the controls that affect how Kiwisynth responds as you play: the master output, how notes are allocated, and the performance controls a keyboard sends.

Master output

Master Volume. The final output level of the instrument, found on the bar along the bottom of the window. It sets how loud Kiwisynth is as a whole.

Beside it is a small meter. It shows how hard the instrument is working and how many notes are sounding at once.

Master Tune

A global pitch offset for the whole instrument, shared by every oscillator and the sub. At its default of zero, every note plays at concert pitch. Move it up or down and every voice shifts by the same amount, up to a full octave in either direction.

There is no knob for Master Tune on the front panel. Reach it from the host's parameter list, route a modulation source to it on the Modulation tab, or write to it from a script. The most common use is from a script: the built-in pitch wheel is linear, but you can target Master Tune with a curve of your own and shape how the wheel feels under your hand.

Mod wheel

The bar also has a mod wheel you can move with the mouse. A mod wheel is a standard performance control: many sounds use it to bring in vibrato, open the tone, or add movement as you play. If your keyboard has a mod wheel, it moves this one too.

Poly and Mono

The Voice control, on the Oscillators tab, decides how many notes can sound at once.

Poly, short for polyphonic, lets many notes sound together, so you can play chords. This is the normal choice for pads, keys and chords.

Mono, short for monophonic, allows only one note at a time; a new note takes over from the last. This is the usual choice for basses and solo lines, where overlapping notes would muddy the sound.

Glide

Glide, also called portamento, makes the pitch slide from one note to the next instead of jumping. The Glide control is on the Oscillators tab. With it raised, hold one note, play another, and the pitch slides between them. Glide is most natural in Mono.

Macros

Macros are two general-purpose knobs you can connect to anything. A macro does nothing on its own; you assign it on the Modulation tab. The point of a macro is to gather several changes under one knob, so a single move can reshape a sound. Macros are also a tidy thing to control from your music software.

Expressive keyboards (MPE)

Most keyboards send one pressure and one pitch bend for the whole instrument. An MPE keyboard sends them for each note separately, so you can press into, slide and bend one note in a chord without affecting the others.

Kiwisynth supports MPE in full. Per-note pressure, slide and glide are available as movement sources on the Modulation tab, the same as an LFO or an envelope. If you do not have an MPE keyboard, nothing here needs your attention.

Sustain pedal

Kiwisynth responds to a sustain pedal. While the pedal is held, notes you release keep sounding, and they fade only when you lift the pedal. This is the usual behaviour for keyboard parts.