ALESIS QS7 - Manual (Page 76)

Chapter 6: Editing Programs
all keys being pressed. This affects any keys that are held down. The harder you
press on the keys, the greater the degree of modulation.
• Polyphonic Pressure This is similar to aftertouch, but each key can respond to
individual pressure messages. Although the QS keyboard does not generate poly
pressure, the sound generators can respond to poly pressure signals entering via
the MIDI In. Example: Assign poly pressure to the sound’s amplitude in a string
ensemble patch. You can then increase the level of selected notes of a held
chord to “pull” some notes out of the chord.
• Modulation Wheel The rightmost wheel, Modulation, is traditionally assigned to
LFO amount (level) so that rotating the wheel away from you introduces vibrato.
However it is also well-suited to controlling timbre, vibrato speed, and many other
parameters.
• Pitch Wheel The two wheels to the left of the keyboard are modulation sources
(see below). The leftmost wheel, Pitch, always controls the oscillator pitch but
can be tied to other parameters as well.
• MIDI Volume MIDI can produce a variety of controller messages (see the MIDI
supplement in the back of this manual). Of these, controller #7, which controls
channel volume, is one of the most frequently used. Example: Assign the filter
cutoff as the destination, and you can have the signal become less bright as it
becomes lower in volume.
• Sustain Pedal The sustain switch plugged into the sustain pedal jack provides
this modulation signal.
• Pedal 1 The pedal plugged into the Pedal 1 jack provides this modulation signal.
The default setting assigns Pedal 1 to MIDI Controller 7 to act as a volume pedal.
• Pedal 2 The pedal plugged into the Pedal 2 jack provides this modulation signal.
Pedal 2 can be assigned to any MIDI controller from Global Edit Mode, page 12.
• Pitch LFO This is the same modulation signal provided by the Pitch LFO. The
Frequency LFO and Amplitude LFO can also be selected as modulation
sources.
• Pitch Envelope This is the same modulation signal provided by the Pitch
Envelope. The Frequency Envelope and Amplitude Envelope can also be
selected as modulation sources.
• Random This provides a different modulation value every time you hit a key.
Example: With vintage analog synth patches, use pitch as the destination and
apply a very slight amount of random modulation. Each note will have a slightly
different pitch, which simulates the natural tuning instability of analog circuits.
• Trigrate This is a Trigger Rate Follower, which monitors how fast notes are
being played on the keyboard. For example, if routed to the Effect send of a
Program, you could automatically have more effect when playing slowly, and less
effect when playing quickly.
74 QS7/QS8 Reference Manual