Stacking instruments is a fun start to creating exciting and rich sounds.  For this lab, we will go beyond stacking, to more complex keyboard mapping, such that you have a rich and varied collection of pitched instruments at the tips of your fingers.

Challenges:

Fixed multi-instrument (20-30 minutes):

Create an instrument rack, where every two octaves or so is a different instrument. Lay out the instrument rack such that the bass instruments are in the lower sections, mid-range instruments are in the middle octaves and treble/lead instruments are in the top-octaves.

You may find that you need to add the midi effect called [pitch] to your instrument rack to re-transpose some instruments.  The reason for this will become obvious as you are building your instruments.

Dynamic multi-instrument Pitch (20-30 minutes)

Create and instrument rack such that different instruments can be played together or by them selves based on the position of the chain selector.  Assign the chain selector to one of the macro knobs so that you will have MIDI control of this in the future.

Dynamic multi-instrument Velocity (~25 minutes)

For this instrument you will need a midi keyboard, or something that lets you change velocity.   Building a synth with velocity sensitivity means you can have different sound triggered by different velocities.   If building a natural sounding instrument, this means the difference between playing the same sample at higher and lower amplitudes, verses, the different sounds an instrument makes when played harder (forte) or softer (pianissimo).

Create a short demo piece with the instruments (in 15 minutes or less).  Think of just a basic drum loop and then play these instruments showing off their musical features.

Post your demo online and submit the link along with answers to questions on this google form.