The Multi Pad Creator lets you record your own Multi Pads. The Chord Match parameter determines if the Multi Pad follows the chord being played with the left hand or not. There is a simple toggle in the Multi Pad Creator to turn Chord Match on or off. A closer look into Multi Pads shows that there is more behind this parameter.
The Chord Match MIDI Text Event
Multi Pads are MIDI Files of type 1, so you may view/edit these files using a decent DAW or MIDI Editor. The following table shows the Meta Events of a typical Yamaha preset Multi Pad:
The second event is a Text event that contains “CMxxxx”. Each “x” is replaced by a digit that specifies the Chord Match parameter for each of the four Pads respectively. Obviously there are more options than a simple 0 or 1 to turn Chord Match of or on.
The Chord Match Parameter Values
When Chord Match ist set to [On] the question is, how are the source notes in the Multi Pad mapped depending on the target chord being played. In a Style there are quite a few parameters that allow thorough control on how this process happens:
- Source Root/Chord: determine the original key of the Source Pattern (i.e., the key used when recording the pattern to
the channel). - Note Transposition Rule (NTR): determines how the notes in the Source Pattern are transposed according to the Chord Root change.
- Note Transposition Table (NTT): determines how the notes in the Source Pattern are transposed according to the Chord Type change.
- High Key: sets the highest key (upper octave limit) of the note transposition for the chord root change.
- Note Limit Low/High: sets the note range (highest and lowest notes) for voices recorded to the style channels.
- Retrigger Rule (RTR): determine whether notes stop sounding or not and how they change pitch in response to chord changes.
The Reference Manual of your arranger keyboard gives some basic information about these parameters and how to use them. In a Multi Pad the situation is simplified:
- The Source Root/Chord is always Cmaj7.
- The Chord Match parameter determines which NTR and NTT values are in effect. There are lot of possible combinations in a Style, valid choices for a Multi Pad are given in the table below.
- There are no High Key, Note Limit or RTR parameters in a Multi Pad.
| Chord Match | NTR | NTT | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | root fixed | bypass | Chord Match = [Off] |
| 1 | root transpose | chord | Parallel transposition to target chord |
| 2 | root fixed | chord | Non-parallel transposition to target chord |
| 3 | root transpose | bypass | Parallel transposition, no chord change |
| 4 | root transpose | melodic minor | Parallel transposition to major/minor chord (melodic scale) |
| 5 | root transpose | harmonic minor | Parallel transposition to major/minor chord (harmonic scale) |
| 6 | guitar | stroke ? | Suitable for strumming sounds of the guitar (Tyros 2 and higher) |
| 7 | root fixed | ? | Variation of [2] ? (Tyros 3 and higher) |
| 8 | guitar | arpeggio ? | Suitable for arpeggio-played sound of the guitar (Tyros 4 and higher) |
More detailed explanation of these Chord Match parameter choices are given in the next section.