Physis Piano K4 User Manual page 13

Having a Zone in inactive mode (red Led) is useful when the notes of a certain Zone are needed only at a certain stage of
the performance, and not before. Instead, a disabled Zone is completely unavailable in the current Scene. This helps avoid
undesired or accidental activation of that Zone during the performance. If you want a Zone send MIDI messages assigned
to the controls but it is never activated from the panel in order to avoid this Zone sounds on the keyboard (used, for
example, to configure an external device), the Zone must be set as a control zone. The disabled state (LED off) determines
the absolute absence of that part within the current Scene. and prevents it from accidentally turning on and the
transmission of MIDI messages which may be allocated to the controls.
To activate a disabled Zone, access the edit mode (EDIT MODE menu), described at chap. 6.
VIRTUAL INSTRUMENTS
As mentioned before, each Zone can be assigned an output MIDI port, through which MIDI data is sent to external
devices. In K4 / K5 these ports are MIDI OUT, USB [DEVICE], [HOST 1-2] and [HOST 3-4] connectors.
When programming a Zone, when selecting a MIDI output, the display shows the name of the connector, though not that of
the instrument, since it cannot be known.
To overcome this problem, K4 / K5 has a set of tables, called Virtual Instruments, that associate each MIDI connector to an
external device. Thanks to these tables, when programming a Zone it is not necessary to remember the MIDI connector,
but only the device. Furthermore, the names of available sounds, programs and controls for a certain device can be
defined by the user. This means that the user does not need to use the code of a Program Change, or the type and code of
MIDI message assigned to a control or parameter.
When selecting a Virtual Instrument, K4 / K5 activates the connector assigned to that instrument, and the sound selection
screen shows the names of the available sounds for that external instrument; in the same way, when setting the controls,
the name of the external controls and/or parameters for that external device will be shown. Therefore, when using K4 / K5
with other MIDI devices, it is important to program the Virtual Instrument tables as soon as possible. Thanks to the tables,
programming Performances is much easier and faster, since the names of the devices and their sounds and parameters
are shown on display. A maximum of 10 Virtual Instrument tables are available and can be programmed. Each table has 8
sound banks, a Control Change table and an NRPN table. Virtual Instruments can be saved to the internal memory, or to a
USB pen, allowing an unlimited library.
CONTROL BANK
The control bank contains settings for knobs, sliders and buttons on the left side of the front panel, called CONTROLLERS
section.
Knobs can be rotated up to 360° degrees, without end, so as to allow continuous control of the assigned parameter. The
function mode of each knob can be selected: the value controlo can be relative or absolute. In relative mode, the value
increases/decreases starting from the value saved to the Control Bank. In absolute mode, the value set by the knob
remains even when changing Scene or Performance.
Slider cursors also allow continuous control of a parameter. Having a fixed extention, they are precise and quick. They
have an inverse mode, simulating, for example, electromagentic organ drawbars. Control parameters can be set to imitate
such effect.
Buttons are equipped with Leds and have three different function modes:
•
Normal: by standard, the value is at minimum and the Led light is off. While pressed, the value is at its maximum and
the Led light is blue;
•
Toggle: each time the button is pressed, the value is toggled between maximum (blue Led) and minimum (Led light
off);
•
Step: each time the button is pressed, the value is increased or decreased by one unit (Led light red).
Each of these control can send a maximum of 8 different messages at the same time, one for each Zone. Therefore, it is not
necessary to define the output and MIDI channel for the control: the message acquires the channel and output from each
Zone.
Each of these 8 messages can also be assigned a minimum and maximum value. This way, each message can have its
own value range, while keeping the same proportion. This is why the control value is expressed by percentage.
It is also possible to use the controls in inverted mode, by setting the minimum value higher than the maximum.
NB
The value of K4 / K5 controls is always shown on the display as a percentage, from 0% to 100%. This is to ensure that
the value transmitted by different MIDI messages (one for each Zone, for a maximum of 8 values) assigned to a
control. This means that parameters for different Zones can be managed together through the same controller; values
will be calculated and sent out to different Zones in a balanced way, that is, keeping the same percentage for each
Zone although the actual value might vary. For example, let us assume that a controller is assigned the MIDI message
"volume" (Control Change 7), but that the range for the first Zone is 0-127 and the range for the second zone is 50-
100. When the controller is positioned at half range (50%), the value is 63 for one Zone and 75 for the other. The
volume variation by percent, however, is the same for both Zones.
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User Manual –K4 / K5 structure