Avid Technology Xpand!, Manual

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Chapter 3: Operate Xpand! 5
chapter 3
Operate Xpand!
Xpand! is a virtual music workstation featuring
a broad range of sound generation possibilities
including multi-sampled instruments as well as
FM, wavetable, and virtual analogue synthesis.
Getting started with Xpand! is very easy and
self-explanatory, especially if you are already fa-
miliar with virtual instruments or hardware
workstations.
Note that Xpand! is not multi-timbral—one in-
stance is assigned to one MIDI channel and pro-
vides four synthesizer slots, each with individ-
ual Mix, MIDI, Arpeggiator, Modulation and
Effects settings. A slot can hold one of 500 syn-
thesizer presets, called
Parts .
The settings of all four slots and their respective
Parts can be saved as a single
Patch . Xpand!
comes with a set of over 1000 Patches, created
by renowned sound designers. It’s worth brows-
ing through these Patches to get an impression
of the versatility of Xpand!.
Editing Parameters
Using a Mouse
You can adjust Xpand! plug-in controls by click-
ing and dragging the control’s slider or knob, or
by moving over it and scrolling up or down with
the scroll wheel.
Adjust rotary controls by clicking and dragging
horizontally or vertically. Parameter values in-
crease as you drag upward or to the right, and
decrease as you drag downward or to the left.
Keyboard Shortcuts
◆
For finer adjustments, hold down Control
(Windows) or Command (Macintosh) while
moving the control.
◆
To return a control to its default value, Alt-
click (Windows) or Option-click (Macintosh)
the control.
Patch is another name for the plug-in set-
tings. Refer to the
DigiRack Plug-Ins Guide
for information on working with RTAS
plug-ins.
Dragging a control