Play Parameters

This section deals with two things: Parameters that are affected by how you play, and modulation that can be applied manually with standard MIDI keyboard controls.

These are:

•	Velocity Control

•	Pitch Bend and Modulation Wheel

•

Legato

•	Portamento

•

Polyphony

•	Voice Spread

•	External Controllers

Velocity Control

Velocity is used to control various parameters according to how hard or soft you play notes on your keyboard. A common application of velocity is to make sounds brighter and louder if you strike the key harder. By using the knobs in this section, you can control how much the various parameters will be affected by velocity. The velocity sensitivity amount can be set to either positive or negative values, with the center position representing no velocity control.

The following parameters can be velocity controlled:

| Destination	| Description
Amp	This let’s you velocity control the overall volume of the sound. If a positive value is set, the volume will increase the harder you strike a key. A negative value inverts this relationship, so that the volume decreases if you play harder, and increases if you play softer. If set to zero, the sound will play at a constant volume, regardless of how hard or soft you play.
F. Env	This sets velocity control for the Filter Envelope Amount parameter. A positive value will increase the envelope amount the harder you play. Negative values invert this relationship.
F. Dec	This sets velocity control for the Filter Envelope Decay parameter. A positive value will increase the Decay time the harder you play. Negative values invert this relationship.
S.Start	This sets velocity control for the Sample Start parameter. A positive value will increase the Start Time amount the harder you play. Negative values invert this relationship.
A. Attack	This sets velocity control for the Amp Envelope Attack parameter. A positive value will increase the Attack time the harder you play. Negative values invert this relationship.

Pitch Bend and Modulation Wheels

The Pitch Bend wheel is used for “bending” notes, like bending the strings on a guitar. The Modulation wheel can be used to apply various modulation while you are playing. Virtually all MIDI keyboards have Pitch Bend and Modulation controls. NN-19 also has two functional wheels that could be used to apply real time modulation and pitch bend should you not have these controllers on your keyboard, or if you aren’t using a keyboard at all. The wheels mirror the movements of the MIDI keyboard controllers.

Pitch Bend Range

The Range parameter sets the amount of pitch bend when the wheel is turned fully up or down. The maximum range is “24” (=up/down 2 Octaves).

Modulation Wheel

The Modulation wheel can be set to simultaneously control a number of parameters. You can set positive or negative values, just like in the Velocity Control section. The following parameters can be affected by the modulation wheel:

| Destination	| Description
F. Freq	This sets modulation wheel control of the Filter Frequency parameter. A positive value will increase the frequency if the wheel is pushed forward. Negative values invert this relationship.
F. Res	This sets modulation wheel control of the Filter Resonance parameter. A positive value will increase the resonance if the wheel is pushed forward. Negative values invert this relationship.
F. Dec	This sets modulation wheel control for the Filter Envelope Decay parameter. A positive value will increase the decay if the wheel is pushed forward. Negative values invert this relationship.
LFO	This sets modulation wheel control of the LFO Amount parameter. A positive value will increase the Amount if the wheel is pushed forward. Negative values invert this relationship.
Amp	This sets modulation wheel control for the Amp level parameter. A positive value will increase the level if the wheel is pushed forward. Negative values invert this relationship.

Legato

Legato works best with monophonic sounds. Set Polyphony (see “Setting Number of Voices - Polyphony”) to 1 and try the following:

Hold down a key and then press another key without releasing the previous.

Notice that the pitch changes, but the envelopes do not start over. That is, there will be no new “attack”.

If polyphony is set to more voices than 1, Legato will only be applied when all the assigned voices are “used up”.

For example, if you had a polyphony setting of “4” and you held down a 4 note chord, the next note you played would be Legato. Note, however, that this Legato voice will “steal” one of the voices in the 4 note chord, as all the assigned voices were already used up!

Retrig

This is the “normal” setting for playing polyphonic patches. That is, when you press a key without releasing the previous, the envelopes are retriggered, like when you release all keys and then press a new one. In monophonic mode, Retrig has an additional function; if you press a key, hold it, press a new key and then release that, the first note is also retriggered.

Portamento (Time)

Portamento is when the pitch “glides” between the notes you play, instead of instantly changing the pitch. The Portamento knob is used to set how long it takes for the pitch to glide from one pitch to the next. If you don’t want any Portamento at all, set this knob to zero.

Setting Number of Voices - Polyphony

This determines the polyphony, i.e. the number of voices a patch can play simultaneously. This can be used to make a patch monophonic (=a setting of “1”), or to extend the number of voices available for a patch. The maximum number of voices you can set a patch to use is 99.

Note that the Polyphony setting does not “hog” voices. For example, if you have a patch that has a polyphony setting of ten voices, but the part the patch plays only uses four voices, this won’t mean that you are “wasting” six voices. In other words, the polyphony setting is not something you need to consider if you want to conserve CPU power - it is only the number of voices actually used that counts.

Voice Spread

This parameter can be used to control the stereo (pan) position of voices. The Spread knob determines the intensity of the panning. If this is set to “0”, no panning will take place. The following pan modes can be selected:

| Mode	| Description
Key	This will shift the pan position gradually from left to right the higher up on the keyboard you play.
Key 2	This will shift the pan position from left to right in 8 steps (1/2 octave) for each consecutive higher note you play, and then repeat the cycle.
Jump	This will alternate the pan position from left to right for each note played.

Low Bandwidth

This will remove some high frequency content from the sound, but often this is not noticeable (this is especially true if you have “filtered down” samples). Activating this mode will save you some extra computer power, if needed.

Controller Section

NN-19 can receive common MIDI controller messages, and route these to various parameters. The following MIDI messages can be received:

•	Aftertouch (Channel Pressure)

•	Expression Pedal

•	Breath Control

If your MIDI keyboard is capable of sending Aftertouch messages, or if you have access to an Expression Pedal or a Breath controller, you can use these to modulate NN-19 parameters. The “Source” selector switch determines which of these message-types should be received.

These messages can then be assigned to control the following parameters:

F. Freq	This sets external modulation control of the filter frequency parameter. A positive value will increase the frequency with higher external modulation values. Negative values invert this relationship.
LFO 1	This sets external modulation control of the LFO Amount parameter. A positive value will increase the LFO amount with higher external modulation values. Negative values invert this relationship.
Amp	This let’s you control the overall volume of the sound with external modulation. If a positive value is set, the volume will increase with higher external modulation values. A negative value inverts this relationship.