Strumming
That rectangle in the middle of the pad isn't just for show.
On Playstation controllers the touchpad Touchpad holds the six strings. They run vertically, low string at the bottom, like a lap steel guitar. Swipe up to strum low to high, and down to strum high to low.
The armed chord is laid across the six strings like a barre chord, root at the bottom. The Voicing setting changes the shape, see Changing the character.
Swipes and taps
- A swipe strums. Every string your finger crosses plays.
- A tap plucks. Tap one string to play only that string.
- A faster swipe is a higher velocity, so more energy. The Dynamics setting sets how much a slow swipe adds.
Block chords on the buttons
The four face buttons hit a set of strings at once. Each press adds energy to any of its strings that are already ringing and starts the ones that aren't. The Dynamics setting affects them the same way it affects taps on the touchpad.
Out of the box they play:
| Button | Plays |
|---|---|
| Cross | All six strings |
| Square | The bottom half |
| Circle | The top half |
| Triangle | The bottom and top strings |
You can change which strings each button plays under Face buttons on the Play tab of the Chords panel. Click a string to add it to a button or take it off.
Moving a finger across the strings holds the ringing chord and sets its timbre.
Playing from the stick
The right stick Right stick plays the strings on every controller. Push it out to its edge and it strikes a group of strings together. Each of the eight directions strikes a different group: down and left for the low strings, up and right for the high ones. Down-left is the bottom string on its own and up-right is the top three.
I am deliberately not documenting which directions do what because it's much more fun to figure it out on your own. Just wiggle the stick around and you'll get a feel for it. It's designed to slam it back and forth in flicking motions for call-and-response, don't try to be too subtle with it.
- A faster push is a higher velocity, as on the touchpad.
- Holding the stick at the edge holds those strings, the way a finger on the touchpad does.
- A push stops the other strings on its side of the chord, so the previous group doesn't keep ringing under the new one.
- To play the same direction twice, bring the stick back towards the middle first. Moving straight to another direction strikes it right away.
Hold R3 with the stick at the edge and roll it round to pluck the strings one at a time. Rolling towards up-right climbs the strings and rolling away from it goes back down.