Controlling string energy
I really should have chosen a better name than "strings" for these things, but I honestly couldn't think of a better name. I apologise again.
Every string carries energy, and a note lasts as long as its string has some.
- Playing a string gives it energy. How much depends on how hard you played it. A flick fills it up, a graze barely wakes it.
- Energy drains on its own. A ringing string fades the way a real string fades, and when the energy has gone the note ends.
- Low strings hold energy longer. A bass note outlasts a high one from the same strum, so a rung-out chord dies from the top down.
- Playing a ringing string tops it up. Re-strike before it fades and it swells instead of restarting cold.
How long strings ring on their own, and how much your playing speed counts for, are the String sustain, Energy bias and Dynamics controls - and String sustain runs all the way up to ∞, where nothing fades until you end it. See Changing the character.
Softening and muting
The left trigger L2 is a palm resting on the strings, and how far you pull is how much weight it puts down.
- A light pull softens. The ringing chord sits quieter and darker under the palm, and the strings underneath keep ringing at full length. Flutter the trigger and the chord breathes with it.
- Easing off gives it back. Whatever the palm was holding down returns as you lift. Ease off slowly and you get back exactly what was there; let go quickly and the strings come back with a little extra life.
- The very end of the pull is the mute. A full pull chokes everything to silence.
With String sustain at ∞ the strings never fade on their own, so the trigger becomes how notes end: play with it open, close your hand to finish the phrase.
Shaping by touch
A finger moving along the strings is a strum. A finger moving across them plucks nothing; it shapes the ringing chord.
Riding the level
While a shaping finger is resting on the pad, its position across the strings sets how loudly the whole ringing chord sits. Slide towards one edge and the chord swells, slide to the far edge and it fades all the way down to silence, slide back and it comes up again.
Lift your finger and the chord goes back to fading on its own, from wherever you left it.
Colouring the strike
Where your finger lands also colours what it plays. A strum or a pluck placed towards one edge of the pad speaks brighter, towards the other it speaks plainer, and a finger resting on a string keeps holding its colour there. Brightness goes out as CC74 - see MIDI and MPE.
Shake and tilt
Shake the controller and whatever is ringing keeps ringing. Strum a chord, and as it starts to fade move the pad - the fade holds off for as long as the movement lasts, and the ringing strings swell along with it.
- It never starts a note. Shaking a silent instrument does nothing. The shake only feeds strings that are already ringing.
- It never touches pitch. No vibrato, no bends. The chord stays exactly where you played it.
- It doesn't need to be violent. A gentle rock of the pad is plenty.
Shake response
Shake response, in the main window, sets how much a shake feeds the ringing strings. At zero the shake does nothing, which is how you switch it off.
Octave tilt
Roll the pad onto its ear and the whole instrument shifts an octave. Right is up, left is down. Come back level and the octave comes back with you.
Like the stretch, it only reaches the notes you play next.
Octave tilt is off by default. Turn it on in Settings → Instruments → Chords, where Tilt engage sets how far you've got to roll before it takes.
Both motion gestures need a pad with motion sensors. The PlayStation and Switch Pro controllers have them and Xbox controllers don't.