Chris Hein - OCTA

Manual

Main Page

Here you can adjust some global parameters and a lot of individual settings for all channels.

„Chord“ adds an interval or a chord, based on the notes you play.

„Transpose“ up to 36 semitones

up or down.

„Tune“ fine tunes the sound.

„Scale“ is a global parameter for all channels and lets you limit the notes to a specific major or minor scale.

„Key“ sets the root key for this scale.

Hint: Hold the shift key while dragging the fader for more precise adjustments.

Command click resets each function to zero.

„Output“ assigns the channel to a specific audio output, depending on your audio interface.

„Type“ lets you design the way a channels sound will be triggered/heard

„Layer“leaves the channel open for reqular playing

„Blend In“ blends in the sound by using CC11

„Blend Out“ reduces the volume when increasing CC11.

The CC number for the blending control can be changed in the Settings page.

With the combination of „Blend in“ and „Blend out“,

you can morph between the sounds of two or more channels.

„Pad Center“ and „Pad A-H“ route the channel to the OCTA-Pad,

„Release“ plays the sound when releasing a key.

The „OCTA-Pad“ lets you morph between all channels

via the mouse on the XY-axis or with two MIDI controllers.

By default that’s CC2 and CC3, but you can change the MIDI CCs on the settings page.

The Movement of the XY-PAD can be animated in the sequencer or on the settings page.

When using the OCTA-pad channel level indication is displayed in blue in the mixer


„Keyrange“ defines the playable keyboard range of each channel with smooth crossfading between them.

Select the upper and lower key limit with the black line and the fade in/out range with the orange line.

This way you can create intriguing playable blends between instruments across the keyboard.

„Envelope“ provides a classic envelope.

„Curve“ - sets the velocity curve for the Attack time

„Attack“ - sets the time it takes for the sound to reach full volume.

„Decay“ - the time it takes to fade to its sustained volume.

„Sustain“- how loud the sound is after reaching secondary volume.

„Release“- how long it takes to completely fade out.

„Velocity“ Tailor the velocity response to suit your playing style or perhaps make quick adjustments to how a sound responds to pre recoded midi notes.

Set minimum/maximum velocity values and choose from 5 curve modes:

Linear, Shelf, Compressed/Expanded, Fixed or Range.

An extremely simple yet powerful section well worth experimenting with!

Setting different velocity curves to different channels can produce interesting sonic changes, depending on the keyboard velocity you play.

You can even switch between channels by assigning a specific velocity range to each of them.

E.g. assign a channel to play loud on lower velocities, and another channel to play loud on higher velocities.


* A personal word on velocity here:

Some keyboard players I see playing the Instruments in CH-OCTA play with high energy on loud velocities.

Keep in mind, that many of the instruments have up to 24 dynamic layers.

The jewels of OCTA are often found in the very low velocities.

Some MIDI keyboards struggle to reach the lowest velocities.

With this in mind raise the volume or use a compressor to try out the lower dynamics.

„Keyswitches “ are a nifty feature on the Main page to activate specific channels on the fly. Activate key switches, and assign any channel to any keyswitch.

Up to 8 key switches can be programmed each individually positionable on the keyboard. Keyswitches are displayed in Red on the Kontakt Keyboard.

The orange key is the „Repetition Key“ which triggers the last note or chord you have played. Great for fast repetitions of percussive instrument. Easily play a realistic tremolo e.g. on a Marimba.

You can assign the position of the repetition key on the settings page

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