Viscount Maestro – Grande - Sinfonia
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2. THE TIMBRE SECTION
2.1. DESCRIPTION
The instrument allows you to play up to three different parts, named 1ST, 2ND
and MANUAL BASS; they can be associated to the keyboard extension in several ways,
as shown in Chapter 3. Each part has a related timbre, that means the sound of a given
instrument.
If we consider timbres, the instrument is two machines in one. First of all, you can
choose among a set of 25 VISCOUNT timbres, 22 for 1ST and 2ND parts, and 3 for
MANUAL BASS. VISCOUNT timbres have been created with the IS
2
proprietary
technology, well known and appreciated all over the world market of musical
instruments; to VISCOUNT timbres we add the very wide timbre set (nearly 500)
provided by YAMAHA XG
©
synthesis board, which is hosted inside the instrument and
represents a qualitative standard in the field of WaveTable synthesis.
2.2. HOW TO SELECT AND SET THE TIMBRES
The timbre selection for 1ST and 2ND parts is performed using the buttons on
the front panel zone called TONE PRESETS, displayed in the figure below.
As already said, the 1ST and 2ND parts are able to play one of the 22 timbres,
each one associated to a button, or a YAMAHA XG timbre, which you can activate with
XG1 or XG2 buttons. The button LED will light up showing which is the selected timbre.
The 2ND button allows to toggle between the 1ST and 2ND part selection; in the
second case, the button LED will be on.
You have to press and hold one of the two related keys (XG1 or XG2) to select
an XG timbre, among the 480 available in the instrument; as a consequence, you can
see a
pop-up window selection screen, with the available timbres divided into families,
according to the classification found in Appendix A of this book. When you have
selected the family on the left list, you can activate the desired timbre by looking over
the list on the right.
The XG timbres selection has been doubled in order to have always two different
timbres on line, thus having the possibility of passing from one to another just pressing
the related button, XG1 or XG2.
When a timbre is selected for one of the parts, you can disable the part pressing
the associated key again: if the keyboard is in the split mode and no timbre is selected,
the keyboard zone associated to that part won't make any sound; in the same way, if
