User Guide

412 Chapter 25 EXS24 mkII
Crossfade (Xfade) parameters
If you are familiar with the concept of layering sample zones by Velocity Range, the
Xfade parameters allow you to crossfade between layered sample zones with adjacent
Velocity Range settings. If you are not familiar with this idea, here’s a short explanation:
When assigning a sample to a zone, you can set the lowest and highest velocity that
will trigger that zone. The range in between these values is the zone’s Velocity Range.
You can layer your zones by having different zones triggered by the same key, but
different velocities.
For example, if you have a sample of a snare drum hit lightly and a little off center
assigned to Zone #1, and a sample of a snare drum hit hard in the center of the drum
heading Zone #2. If Zone #1 has a Velocity Range of 24 to 90, and Zone #2 has a
Velocity Range of 91 to 127, if both zones are assigned to the MIDI note A#2, the zones
can be said to be layered on A#2.
In the example above, the high Velocity Range parameter of Zone #1 and the low
Velocity Range parameter of Zone #2 are adjacent, and at this point, there will be a
rather abrupt change from the audio sample used in Zone #1 to the audio sample used
in Zone #2. To make this less abrupt, the crossfade parameters lets you smoothly fade
between both samples. When you have distinctly different audio samples in adjacent
zones, you will find crossfading very helpful in creating realistic sampler instruments.
Crossfades are controlled by two parameters: Amount and Type.
Amount refers to the range of velocity values in which the crossfade takes place. In
other words, the crossfade is applied symmetrically around each layered zone, with the
crossfade amount determining the overlap of the two zones. The Velocity Range
setting of all zones will be expanded by this value, with the crossfade taking place in
the expanded area. When the Amount parameter is set to 0, the EXS24 mkII will not
fade smoothly between zones but simply switch from one zone to another.
Also, as you will read in the “Modulation Matrix” section later, you can set other
modulation sources, for example the modulation wheel of your MIDI controller, to
modulate the Amount parameter. In this case, the Amount parameter still functions the
same way, but the crossfade will not be triggered by velocity, but by the chosen
modulator.