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How Key Track works: Keys and Slopes
The keyboard tracking works by creating four ramps, or
slopes, between five keys on the keyboard. The bottom and
top keys are fixed at the bottom and top of the MIDI range,
respectively. You can set the other three keys–named Low,
Mid, and High–to be anywhere in between.
The four Slope values control the rate of change between
each pair of keys. For instance, if the Low-Mid Slope is set
to 0, the value will stay the same between the Low Key and
the Mid Key.
You can think of the resulting shape as being like two
folding doors attached to a hinge in the center. At the Mid
Key (the main hinge), the keyboard tracking has no effect.
The two folding doors swing out from this center point to
create changes in the higher and lower ranges of the
keyboard.
Slope
Positive slope values mean that the keyboard tracking output increases as you play farther from the Mid Key; negative
slope values mean that it decreases. Because of this, the meaning of positive and negative slopes changes depending on
whether the slope is to the left or right of the Mid Key.
Low and Low-Mid: negative slopes make the output go down as you play lower on the keyboard, and positive slopes
make the output go up.
Mid-High and High: negative slopes make the output go down as you play higher on the keyboard, and positive slopes
make the output go up.
The table below shows how the slopes affect the modulation output:
The final effect of Key Track is a combination of the Key Track shape and the modulation intensity. With greater Slope
values, the Key Track shape can max out fairly quickly. Because of this, if you want a more intense effect, it’s best to
increase the modulation intensity first, rather than increasing the Slope.
+Inf and –Inf slopes
+Inf and –Inf are special settings which create abrupt changes for split-like effects. When a slope is set to +Inf or –Inf,
the keyboard tracking will go to its extreme highest or lowest value over the span of a single key.
Note: if you set the Mid-High Slope to +Inf or –Inf, the High Slope will have no effect. Similarly, if you set the Low-
Mid Slope to +Inf or –Inf, the Low Slope will have no effect.
Low Slope
[–Inf, –12.00…+12.00, +Inf]
This sets the slope between the bottom of the MIDI note range and the Low key. For normal key track, use negative
values. -1.00 is the default.
Slope value Modulation change
–Inf 0 to minimum in 1 half-step
-10.00 0 to minimum in 6 semitones
–5.00 0 to minimum in 1 octave
–1.00 0 to minimum in 5 octaves
0 no change
+1.00 0 to maximum in 5 octaves
+5.00 0 to maximum in 1 octave
+10.00 0 to maximum in 6 semitones
+Inf 0 to maximum in 1 half-step
Low Key Mid Key High Key
+12.00
+1.00
00.00
–1.00
–12.00
Slope:
0
Slope= –1.00
Slope= +1.00
Slope= +1.00
Slope= –0.50
Slope= –Inf
Slope= +Inf
At the Center Key, the modulation amount is always 0.
Mod AmountMod Amount
Max
Min