Each of the Sounds in the ID8 have two preset parameters assigned to the Parameter 1 and 2 knobs. The parameter names are shown in the small displays to the right of the corresponding knobs, and are different depending on the selected Sound.
To the left on the ID8 front panel are the standard Pitch Bend and Mod Wheel. The Pitch Bend range is +/- 2 semitones and is the same for all sounds. The Mod Wheel is assigned a little differently depending on the selected Sound, but usually controls vibrato. In the Drums Category, however, the Mod Wheel has no effect, except on the Electronic Drums where it controls the cutoff frequency of a lowpass filter.
The sounds in the ID8 also respond to the standard Performance controllers “Sustain Pedal”, “Aftertouch”, “Expression” and “Breath Control”. The parameter assignments can be a little different depending on selected sound. However, “Sustain Pedal” always controls sustain and “Expression” always controls volume.
A lot of the sounds in the ID8 are multi-sampled. They also have several velocity layers to faithfully reproduce the original instruments. Some of the sounds also use different types of samples for the highest velocity layer. This means that instead of just sounding louder, they will also sound different. For example, the Jazz Semi Guitar as well as the Finger, Pick and Upright basses have glissando or sliding notes in the highest velocity layer. The Arco Strings have pizzicato (picked) notes in the top velocity layer.
Since the ID8 is designed as a “preset” sound module, there is no dedicated function for saving edited Sounds. However, any edits you have made of the parameters in a Sound are automatically stored with the song (document) when you save the song.