User Guide

PC2 Made Easy

4. As long as we are programming the controllers, we will set something else that we will

use later. Hold the Controllers button, strike any key and press down. The display will

change to show Zone:1 Mpressure, Ctrl Num: Pressure. The MPressure (Mono Pressure)

controller is also referred to as aftertouch. After you strike a key, as you press down on

the key, a pressure strip senses how hard you are pressing and generates controller data.

Aftertouch is similar to the pitch wheel, in that it functions like a spring - it returns to 0

as you let go of the key. Like the sliders, wheels, and continuous control pedals, you can

assign any MIDI controller number to aftertouch. However typically, aftertouch is

assigned to Pressure, which is a separate MIDI message. If for some reason, this

parameter is not set to Pressure, press 132, then Enter to assign Pressure to the

MPressure controller.

One final thing to understand: There are actually two different types of aftertouch -

Mono Pressure and Poly Pressure. Mono Pressure has a single strip running across the

keyboard, so pressing down on any note will generate controller info that will affect

ALL the notes played on that MIDI channel. Poly Pressure has a separate sensor for

each key so pressing down on a key only affects that key. The PC2 uses Mono Pressure.

5. Press the Arpeggiator button, then press the >> button once to get to the Key Range

display and >> once more so that the cursor is on the High Note parameter. Hold Enter

and strike Middle C to set the High Note to C4. Now play a chord in the bass and a

melody in the treble. Notice that any notes up to C4 are arpeggiated but all notes above

that are played as normal. The Key Range parameter lets you set a range of notes that

will be affected by the arpeggiator while others can be played regularly.

Hold Enter and strike the top note on the PC2 to put the arpeggiator back to playing

across the keyboard.

6. Press the >> button. You are now on the Zone Enable parameter. This allows you to

have some zones in your Setup that are arpeggiated while other zones play normally.

Several of the preset Setups utilize this parameter. For example, Setup 23 Rhythmic

Chase has arpeggiated percussion layered with the Piano and the Neptune programs,

which do not arpeggiate. Or Setup 20 Ambients, which has an arpeggiated bass split

with some melodic programs.

7. Press the >> button. The next parameter is Latch Mode, which we will cover in

tutorial #20.

8. Press the >> button. The Play Order parameter lets you determine how the notes are

arpeggiated. The current setting should be Played, which is the default. As we noticed

before, the notes arpeggiate in the order in which you hold them down. Try changing this

parameter to each of its possible values and play chords on the keyboard to hear the

difference. It should be obvious how most of the possibilities work, but for definitions of

the various values, see pages 5-20 & 5-21 of the manual.

9. Press the >> button. You can set the beat subdivision for the arpeggiated notes. This

is based on Tempo, which is measured in Beats Per Minute. So if your clock is set to 120

BPM and you set the Beats to 8th notes, you will hear the equivalent of 240 arpeggiated

notes in one minute.

10. Press the >> Button. You can set the Tempo for the arpeggiation here. However,

more control is possible. Hold the Controllers Button and move Slider D. Press 133, then

Enter to assign Tempo for the slider. (You might want to check the Scale, Offset, and